The Ministry of Culture organized, this evening, a symposium entitled "Islam and modernity" At Qatar University, as part of the seminar season organized by the Ministry in its second edition, in cooperation with Qatar University, the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, and Qatar National Library, from 4 to 19 March.
Dr. Abdul Rahman Helli, Associate Professor of Qur’anic Studies at Qatar University, and Dr. Joseph Lombard, Associate Professor of Qur’anic Studies at the College of Islamic Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, spoke during the symposium. In the beginning, the two speakers dealt with the concept of modernity and the difference between it and modernization, then the concept of post-modernity, and what are the conditions for achieving a contemporary Islamic modernity, and continuing with the knowledge, civilizational, intellectual and cultural accumulation accomplished by the innovators of the discourse of modernity within the Islamic horizon that is open to acculturation, communication, and diligence.
Dr. Abd al-Rahman Helli said: The Islamic civilization has its own specificity that stems from the universality of the Islamic call, and its openness to the world in the Almighty’s saying: "We did not send you except as a mercy to the worlds"Pointing out that there is a difference between modernity, which is a philosophical doctrine and construction, and modernization, which depends on the means of development and technology in our material life.
He explained that the teachings of Islam excel in giving and interaction, citing the Almighty’s saying: "O people, indeed We created you from male and female and made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another."Muslims, in the light of the Islamic vision, took, gave, and interacted with others.
He added: We have to know the difference between modernity as a historical movement and modernity as a doctrine as imported by Arab modernists, pointing to the importance of the debate in this regard stemming from an epistemological perspective, and that we have the desire for change, whether on the theoretical and intellectual level or on the practical level.
Dr. Halli called for the necessity of overcoming the Arab debate between modernists and Islamists because it is a sterile debate, and Dr. Halli gave an example of Imam Al-Ghazali when he criticized philosophy in his book "Philosophers flocked" After he was able to study it in depth, stressing at the same time the necessity of disengaging, which claims the existence of a problem between religion and modernity.
For his part, Dr. Joseph Lombard stressed the need to express ourselves without getting drawn into polemics with different cultures, and to contribute to creating our reality that is in harmony with our culture and our Islamic religion, which commands us to surrender our command to God Almighty, bearing in mind that modernity is different in its concept. West on Islam.
He said that the responsibility of Muslims today is to deliver the first message of Islam, which is mercy, and to make it closely related to contemporary, in our lives, stressing the need to invest resources in our Islamic world for the benefit of advancement and application of the teachings of Islam for the benefit of humanity, stressing that what Islamic thought has accomplished for the benefit of the world is many. "But we need the spirit of religion, which means looking at our responsibility while building the future".
He added that the concept of postmodernism has more than one definition, as modernity developed in Europe and took different forms according to its social, political and religious circumstances. The difference of that modernity, and in this context he stressed the need for our modernity to stem from our religious concepts, which required it to stem from our religion and through our thinkers.
It is worth noting that the seminar season includes 5 seminars, and is considered a live platform and a spacious space to highlight the national culture and enrich it by interacting with international cultures, in addition to its primary role in promoting dialogue between intellectuals and generations of intellectuals on pivotal issues of interest to large sectors of society. The following seminar will be held under the title / Architecture in our culture / the evening after tomorrow Tuesday at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.
