Islam and the Future of
Human Civilization
Osman Bakar, PhD
Chair Professor and Director
Sultan Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Centre for Islamic Studies (SOASCIS)
Universiti Brunei Darussalam
A public lecture in conjunction with the launching of the author’s book “Islamic
Civilization and the Modern World: Thematic Essays” at IAIS Malaysia on 20th
December 2014
What is Islam?

Islam the objective truth and reality that is mentioned in the last
verse of the Quran to have been revealed (5:3)

Islam as described by God Himself in the Quran; not bounded
by space and time; not exhausted by all of its interpretations
that have been made throughout its history; it outlasts and
survives us; it is greater than all of us;

Islam that serves as our ideals; it guides but also judges us; it is
the criterion of truth and falsehood, of good and evil;

Islam that will be a religion of the future: a corollary of Islam
as the last divinely revealed religion;

Islam the revealed religion as subjectively realized, either
individually or collectively

Islam as understood and practiced by Muslims;

Subjective realizations of the same truths can be many and
diverse without they necessarily contradicting each other;

Interpretations may come and go; schools of thought may come
and go;

The best understanding and the best practice of the objective
Islam is that of the Prophet;

The gulf between the ideal and objective Islam and the humanly
realized Islam

The Prophet is the walking Qur’an;

The Prophet is the perfect role model (uswah hasanah) for
believers for all times;

The Prophet is the perfect embodiment of the ummah: he
defines the ummatic identity; the best of his ummah is of his
generation;

In the life and thought of the Prophet the objective Islam and
the realized Islam coincide;

In the lives and thoughts of other individuals the gulf between
the objective Islam and the realized Islam varies;

Spiritually and morally speaking, the gulf between the ummah
of the Prophet’s generation and the ummah of subsequent
generations appears to be progressively widening;

The role and duty of the ummah of each generation is to live as
close as possible to the ummatic ideals as exemplified by the
ummah of the Prophet’s generation;

REMINDER: No individual or group can claim the exclusive
right to be the representative, the spokesperson, or the defender
of Islam; only the whole ummah can;

URGENT CALL: Whether as parts of or as the whole ummah
let us undertake a self-appraisal in the light of the Prophet’s
ummatic ideals so that we can hope to shape the future of
human civilization; as believers in God’s last message to
humanity Muslims have more rights than anybody else – and
also more responsibilities – to play the role of the main shapers
of future human civilization;
Why talk about human civilization
and not Islamic civilization?

The two concepts are equivalent if we understand them;

The word ‘Islamic’ has both universal and particular meanings;
the universal meaning implies that the ummah built a
civilization not just for itself but rather for the whole of
mankind;

Classical Islamic civilization was witness to a societal
partnership among Muslims, Jews and Christians in the
construction of a common civilization, albeit under the
intellectual and political leadership of Islam; the role of Islamic
universalism, not Islamic particularism;

To emphasize the point that the Muslim mind could be as
universal as realities or situations demand it to be;

The Muslim mind ought to understand that the future of
Islamic civilization is closely intertwined with the future of the
rest of human civilizations;

The Muslim mind ought to be concerned with contemporary
human civilizations in the light of the civilizational teachings
of Islam;

To emphasize the point that the messages contained in the
objective Islam are meant for the whole of humanity;

Three main groups of recipients of the Quranic messages:
believers; people of the book; the human family as a whole;

Inviting humanity to the message of the Quran: implications;
difficulties and challenges;
Why talk about Islam and the future
of human civilization?

To impress upon the contemporary world that Islam in the past
made many significant contributions to the creation of a lasting
universal human civilization;

To impress upon both Muslims and non-Muslims that Islam can
play an important role in the construction of a common human
civilization in the future;
The future of human civilization:
the main challenging issues and Islam’s
responses

The future of planet Earth as man’s only planetary home;

The fall of man: where is the limit?: the meaning of human;

The future challenge of diversity and pluralism: how to live
together in a pluralistic world;

The future challenge of science and technology: the place and role
of spirituality and ethics;

The challenge of societal disequilibrium: the place and role of the
divine Shari’ah;
Conclusion
The need for tajdid and ijtihad:
their universal meanings and
significance for the future of
human civilization
THANK YOU !