A discourse on Islamic civilization’s philosophy of coexistence

• Main Authors: Abdul Razak, Mohd Abbas, Machouche, Salah
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: BP1 Islam; BP170.8 Universality of Islam; BP171 Relation of Islam to other religions; BP173.5 Islam and world politics; BP173.63 Islam and civil society
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/106272/1/106272_A%20discourse%20on%20Islamic.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/106272/

Humanity as a whole has come a long way to reach the threshold of the 21st century by embracing a lifestyle mainly driven by modern science and technology. Generally, people in the modern age, demonstrate civilized behaviours outwardly, inwardly to a certain extent they are fractured with some xenophobic and other psychopathological feelings towards others who are not of their kind. As a result of this, violence, brutality, injustice, ethnic cleansing, terrorism, war, etc. happen in the world. War that by right should have ended after World War II and with the formation of the United Nations in 1945, is somehow an ongoing tragedy in many parts of the world, especially in Asia and Africa. In contrast to what we witness around the world today, the advent of Islam and the message of the Qur’an are a blessing and mercy for the whole of mankind. As a civilizational force, Islam promotes coexistence, a concept that stands in direct contradiction to Samuel Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations” and the newly emerging concept of “Fusion of Civilizations”. The former promotes dominance and the latter causes a community to lose its salient features altogether in the fusion process. Islamic civilization is very far from being a “Predatory Civilization” that destroys other civilizations. Though the Qur’an approves war to a limited extent for the purpose of self-defence, it largely emphasizes peace and coexistence. In light of the present world condition, this research is a discourse on coexistence from the Islam perspective. The crux of this research will discuss in what ways Islamic ideas differ from other ideas on coexistence. As a qualitative research, the researchers will use all relevant materials available in print and online. The textual analysis method will be employed in analyzing the pertinent data of the research.