In his masterpiece, “Meditations in Sufism and Religious Dialogue,” Giuseppe Scattolin depicted the marking features of the current historical moment of globalization. These features, which are global marketing, cultural massification, moral-religious fragmentation, and the resurgence of neo-tribalisms, highlight humanity’s dire need for dialogue between religions to face challenges that threaten not just the existence of the human race but life on earth in toto. Scattolin considers his “Meditations” a call for the reading public to delve into ‘our humanity’s contemporary problems and an invitation to be strongly committed to the participation in a religious dialogue for the good of all mankind.
Though belatedly, this article is a modest answer from the other side to Scattolin’s kind and sincere call and invitation to enter into a dialogue by digging out – from underneath the rubble of history and politics – the foundations of dialogue between civilizations from an Islamic perspective. However, I will start this article with this disclaimer; the view presented here does not represent Islam, but is within the category of Islam, hence the use of an indefinite article in the title. Having said this, in order to present an Islamic view of dialogue between civilizations, I will resort to a conceptual triangle that relates three main concepts: Islam, civilization, and dialogue.
TAWHEED AS THE CORE OF ISLAM
Islam regards itself as the exemplification of tawheed (pure monotheism), which is recognition of only one God who rises above everything else in existence because this God is the foundation of existence. Furthermore, Islam envisions a direct and inseparable relationship between the human being and God, without any intermediaries.
Nevertheless, the closeness of this relationship between God and the human being excludes any crossing of ontological boundaries from both sides. Furthermore, the relationship with God reflects itself on human existence by creating a universal unity between the human being and all other beings, whether in terms of their origin (creation), their destiny (resurrection), or their path (Shariah). It is in this sense that the Unity of Being, as a derivation of Unity of God, can be understood. By this token, Islam conceives itself as a return to the Abrahamic monotheistic tradition long forgotten by humanity due to the proliferation of Jewish and Christian sects. In fact, Islam perceives itself as the last phase of revealed religion that started with Adam and ended with the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ISLAM AND CIVILIZATION
The linguistic root of the Arabic word for civilization (Hadara) is the verb Hadar (to be present or to exist), whose employment in the standard Arabic language brings it very close to another verb, Shahada (to bear witness, testify, or confess). Based on this semantic affinity, Hadara (civilization) came to mean Shahada (bearing witness). As such, the Quran presents us with a multileveled structure for Shahada that grants the concept of civilization its full meaning. For Shahada signifies: 1) admitting the unity of God and the subordination of human existence to God through committing oneself to the obligations of the divine path; 2) guarding the truth and following the path of justice; 3) self-sacrifice for the sake of the faith and in defense of human liberty in not submitting to any entity other than God; 4) pushing the global liberating role of the Muslim community in establishing justice, protecting the rights of the downtrodden, and confronting the powers of aggression. From this perspective, these elements of Shahada constitute the foundations of civilization in Islam.
There are three foundational values, derived from the notion of pure monotheism and utilized by Islam to anchor its notion of civilization. These are Istikhlaf (vicegerency), Umran (development), and Adl (justice), which represent the yardstick and aspiration of civilization in Islam.
Istikhlaf represents the peak of God’s elevation of the human being by making him a trustee for all creatures in the universe, himself included, in order to establish justice. The notion of Istikhlaf takes into consideration human agency and freedom, since by comparison to other creatures that involuntarily follow divine laws of existence, the human being executes, by his own will, these laws on himself and on the rest of God’s creatures. Mankind is accountable to God in the Day of Judgment for failure or success in performing such existential task.
Umran constitutes the essence of mankind’s civilizational role, which is the preservation and promotion of life, whether human or non-human, in the various domains of life, moral as well as material. In this sense, moral and material elevation of existence is the task assigned to the human being by the basis of existence. It goes without saying that human fate in this world, and in the other, is decided by his performance of such duty.
Adl is the supreme value of Islam, which controls and directs other values that come next in order to justice, like freedom, equality, happiness, etc…In the collective imaginary, the Muslim civilization pictures itself via the balance-image. This sheds light on the elevated place of justice in the Islamic value-system that embraces the various levels and fields of human being’s relations with other human beings, as well as with other beings, by and large. Justice, in the Islamic sense, means giving every person what he/she deserves.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ISLAM AND DIALOGUE
Hiwar, the Arabic word for dialogue, originally means turning to something or turning away from something, and also connotes answer, response, and interaction. Not unlike the word dialogue, whose Greek origins carry it back to the notion of logos, hiwar also stands for reason. From a linguistic perspective, hiwar refers to the deliberate interaction between two sides in order to reach a positive result by virtue of mutual responses. Also, hiwar, as an act, is characterized by positivity, rationality, purposefulness, continuity, and respect of boundaries. Yet, the Quran differentiates between hiwar (dialogue) and mujadala (dispute or arguing), which is another form of language interaction akin to hiwar yet characterized by adverseness, stubbornness, and rebelliousness. ‘Do not argue with the People of the Scripture except in a way that is best, except those who commit injustice among them’ (Holy Quran, 29:46).
Hiwar is an integral part of the Quranic fabric, for the Holy Book is dialogical in its structure; in the Quran, the one God addresses directly the Prophet of Islam; yet, in the same vein, the divine discourse is directed to mankind, believers, non-believers, people of the Scripture, women, etc.. Within this grand dialogical frame, the Quran, more often than not, depicts dialogue situations that directly convey its teachings to the readers, who are instantly turned into an audience of such Quranic episodes. Among these are:
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ialogue of creation between God and the angels, in which the advent of the new creature is announced amidst the objection of the angels and, in return, the affirmation of divine wisdom and knowledge. The scene ends with the submission of the angels to the divine decision and their prostration before Adam.
Dialogue of rebellion between God and Satan, in which the evil one disputes the vicegerency of mankind and refuses to prostrate before Adam based on his claim of superiority and of the inferiority of the human creature. The scene ends with God’s reprieving of Satan until the day of Resurrection.
Dialogue of revelation between God and the Prophet, out of which revelation itself is born and which also marks the start of revelation. The scene starts with one man’s tendency to worship and contemplate in the seclusion of a cave and ends up with the divine answer to the repeated calls for revelation. Such an answer took the form of an order to ‘read in the name of your Lord who created; created the human being from a clinging substance. Read and your Lord is the most generous, Who taught by the pen, taught the human being what he knew not’ (Quran, 96:1-5).
THE NOTION OF CIVILIZED DIALOGUE IN ISLAM
Accordingly, the civilized dialogue in Islam is a deliberately positive interaction between two sides abiding to the civilizational values of Istikhlaf, Umran, and Adl in order to fulfill the interests of mankind – the pivot of civilization – in this life and the other life. In this sense, the civilized dialogue is closely connected to human destiny or salvation, hence its significance and seriousness.
The Quranic verse ‘O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may be acquainted with one another. Indeed, ‘the most noble of you in the sight of God is the most righteous of you’ (49:13) represents the frame of principles ruling the civilized dialogue. These principles consist of: the unity of mankind in human genesis and divine origin the existence – within the universal unity of mankind – of diversity and plurality on different bases (religious, ethnic, linguistic, social, and national); the plurality of mankind has the purpose of acquainting the different human formations with each other in order to institute the unity of mankind; righteousness, as reflected in acts towards oneself, other humans, as well as other fellow-creatures, is the benchmark for gauging the nobility of members of the human race. The civilized dialogue is to be carried out on various levels that constitute the pillars of human existence. On the level of human being – God relationship, it takes the form of prayers and contemplation or dialogue with God. On the level of human being – creatures relationship, it takes the form of science and art or dialogue with the universe. On the level of human being – ideas relationship, it takes the form of philosophy or dialogue with ideas. On the level of human being – human being relationship, it takes the form of civilization or dialogue between cultures, religions, and peoples.
Let me end this brief article on another note about the quasi-utopian nature of this view. It is not the task of religion to conciliate or make compromises and concessions in order to adapt its values and practices to the interests and inclinations of worldly powers. Rather, the mission of religion in this world is not to leave these powers unrestrained but to bridle them with noble values and guide them on the right path. For if left to their whims, these worldly powers, originating in the human soul, have the tendency not only to destroy the city of God, but even the city of man or human existence itself as well.
