One major difference between Islam and western civilization is that we have a specific, clear reference point.
A perfected ideal.
We know what we are heading towards.
And our progress is not based on time but of character, values, behavior.
The ideal is on being the best human we can be.
Western civilization moves through time in search of an elusive enlightened man.
It builds, create material, develop wealth and point to these developments as the fruit of progress.
Man is debased from his higher, noble virtues for primal, unrestrained materiality.
That is not our world. We do not reject material development.
But that is not the measure of our progress.
Islam has a clear ideal.
We know what we are heading to.
We do not assume time or matter to be a yardstick.
Man today is not necessarily better than we were 100 years ago.
The criteria is not technological advancement or material.
Our reference point is not an uncertain future.
The noblest, the one with the most excellent virtues…
Whose values and character we emulate lived 1,400 years ago.
That is our reference point.
We progress by becoming more and more like him.
Source: Zulfikar Shariff
