Islamset - The Sources of Strength of the Arab Culture

The sources of strength of the Arab culture

Within this broad and comprehensive perspective, we may say, based on the preceding background, that the Arab-Islamic culture is a culture of strength and might, not weakness and impotence. Strength leads to order, harmony and concord whereas weakness Can result in disorder, conflict and clash. Therefore, the Arab-Islamic culture is the culture of dialogue, mutual understanding and communication. Never did it keep aloof from mutual enrichment, intermixing and interacting with other cultures, while all cultures of ancient nations and peoples tended to lean towards isolation and detachment, racism and bigotry. On the whole, they were not open cultures, willing to give and take.

Culture is an effective force in the civilizational building in its comprehensive, philosophical, literary, political, social, economic, and developmental import. It is a creative energy in many fields of human activity. Moreover, a constructive, purposeful, and effective culture must be in the service of policies that seek to enhance the human's feeling, purge his soul, refine his talents, and utilize his energies and faculties in constructing and innovating so as to achieve progress, advancement, and prosperity(21 ) .

Culture cannot acquire strength and immunity, and shoulder its responsibilities in the most desirable manner unless it has fulfilled three

conditions. These are considered not only as sources of strength in the Arab-Islamic culture and as basic elements of its functions, but also as the basis of cultural renaissance. The conditions are:

First, culture must have solid foundations and must rest on sound principles. It should not grow roots; nor should it be with no specific identity or distinctive characteristics.

Second, culture must have a wide range of vision and a comprehensive outlook, with a disposition to interact with other cultures and a latent readiness in its origins to interact with human cultures from these bases.

Third, culture must have a human approach with which it can transcend local and regional spheres towards international horizons, without affecting its own particularity or nature. In this way, culture would be one of human communication and discussion, of understanding that would lead to coexistence among nations, and of cooperation that would achieve solidarity among peoples(22).

When it has fulfilled these conditions, the Arab-Islamic culture not only acquires strength and immunity, it also achieves the potential for glory and progress; for a strong culture, capable of building, is the one that can elevate the human to the loftiest station. As President Alija Izetbegovic says: "The bearer of culture is a man as an individual, and the bearer of civilization is society. Culture means gaining power to rule oneself whereas civilization is power over nature through degree of satisfying these needs in check. In so doing, culture widens the Scope of the human's inner freedom(23)." This is the kind of spiritual, Psychological and intellectual strength that enables the human to perform his functions in life in a way that satisfies his Creator first, and him second.

In our view, stressing these traits and characteristics, unique to the Arab-Islamic culture, is crucial in any talk about the Arab culture and other cultures, whether for the purpose of comparison which seeks to draw similarities, to bring out correspondences, and to bring to light points of convergence and discrepancies, or which draws the limits of the relationship that is supposed to hold between the Arab-Islamic culture and other cultures.
In both cases, the bases for a search for the source of strength of the Arab-Islamic culture, for its characteristics, functions, message and objectives, and for its aspects, rest on three fundamentals:

Fundamental One: The Arab-Islamic culture, through its principles, foundations, concepts, and symbols, expresses the essence of the tolerant message of Islam. This makes it a human culture, in the real sense, as it opens up to the cultures of nations and peoples with which it is impregnated, assimilated, and infused. Unique in human cultural history, this characteristic is the source of the wealth, strength and immunity of the Arab-Islamic culture.

Malik Ibn Nabi has defined four pillars of the Arab-Islamic culture. They are:
I. Moral constitution
2. Aesthetic taste
3. Scientific logic
4. Craft (technique)(24)

The culture which Westerners generally call Man's Philosophy Malik Ibn Nabi defines as "a set of moral characteristics and social values which the individual acquires since his birth as an initial capital within the milieu in which he was born," that is to say, the environment in which the individual's character and personality are shaped. On this basis, culture is more of a theory on behavior than a theory on knowledge. The difference between culture and science lies in this definition; culture is behavior whereas science is knowledge. In this sense, culture is closely related to history and education. A nation that has no culture has no history, and a people that have lost their culture inevitably lose their history; for culture is the milieu in which a society's historical characteristics take shape: genius, customs, tastes, and feelings. Also, culture, with its educational content is "a code required by public life with all its modes of thought and social diversity(25)."

This unique characteristic contains the elements of strength in the Arab-Islamic cultures, the sources of vitality and energy, and what we may call self-powers which make of it a strong culture deeply-seated in the environment and in the milieu, effective and affecting both the individual and society.

Fundamental Two: In its essence, the Arab-Islamic culture is a culture of struggle, not of conflict. Struggle is one of the norms of life whereas conflict, or fighting, is a concept that belongs to Greek, Roman and Hellenic heritage whose mythology is replete with conflicts between the gods, and which does not express human nature and innate character. Struggle is another source of strength and vitality, and of then ability to be present in the cultural arena. Cultural struggle is a source of strength whereas conflict, or cultural conflict, is a source of weakness. It weakens the self, bears upon capabilities and faculties, and runs against the noble human aims.

Its being averse to conflict does not mean that the Arab-Islamic culture suffers from a weakness in its constitution or a defect in its fundamental components. It is a civilized way of life and a sign of maturity, awareness, and health. The trait of leaning towards struggle instead of conflict has most certainly enabled the Arab-Islamic culture to withstand cultural, intellectual and sectarian whirlwinds which it confronted throughout the ages.

Fundamental Three: At its current levels and in its present state, many of the aspects of the Arab-Islamic culture do not unfortunately express the identity of the Arab-Islamic society, the reason being that these aspects are weak and that there is an apparent discrepancy between the sources and the novelties. By this we mean that the basis of these aspects is not wholly derived from the original sources, and that this phenomenon is the source of the general weakness from which the Arab-Islamic culture suffers today.

The Arab-Islamic culture is a culture of continuous diligence and creation within the framework of the legitimate norms and moral values that distinguish the civilization of Islam and assert the identity of the Umma. Therefore, this Umma's contribution is regenerated according to situations and to the diversity of issues and acts.

We should not be deceived into believing that culture is first and foremost a creation and an innovation; that creative power springs from an intellectual creative mind and from its imagination and feelings; and that no relationship holds between all this and the values and components. This is one of the illusions that prevail in our intellectual lives and in our cultural spheres. The Arab-Islamic culture cannot face the dangers that threaten it and the challenges that confront it unless it draws its strength from its origins and sources and from the Umma's values and components. In this there is no prohibitory rule against creativity or ban on thought and expression.