The activities of the Ministry of Culture’s Seminar Series 2023 continued Sunday at Qatar University (QU) with Qur’anic Studies professors Dr Abdulrahman Hallali (QU) and Dr Joseph Lombard (College of Islamic Studies, Hamad Bin Khalifa University) talking about Islam and modernity.
Dr Hallali stressed that Islam has never been in conflict with modernity except in certain cases that may undermine religion. Muslim philosophers and thinkers have constantly addressed it. There are many aspects of modernity present in the Western and Islamic worlds in varying degrees.
“Modernity, from the perspective of theorists, is to create your own modernity without affecting the modernity of others. But this modernity should not be used in a wrong place, whether in experience or in theoretical vision.
“Some see postmodernism as a breach that produced alternative theories and carried within them a denial of the facts that the eras of modernity ended with. That success necessitates reaching the best by having the will and the ability to change, which has been achieved theoretically, but is still missing on the practical level.”
Dr Hallali saw there are obstacles in acquiring the necessary knowledge regarding modernity and postmodernity, bearing in mind that the context in the perspective of the West is not the modernity that people in the Arab world are talking about, and therefore should be defined properly.
Dr Lombard said: “We must focus on making our reality in harmony with our culture and our Islamic religion. Modernity is different in the West from Islam, as it became related to science. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was sent as a mercy to the world. Therefore, our officials as Muslims should deliver mercy, and make it closely related to modernity, and present an Islamic model to the world.
“There is a need to invest resources in our Islamic world for the benefit of advancement by applying the teachings of Islam for the benefit of humanity. Abu Hamid al-Ghazali realised the incoherence of philosophers who were governed by a liberal human model. But the spirit of religion means looking at our responsibility and at the same time to build the future.
“The spirit of modernity makes us look only at the future and then we make excuses for failure. Postmodernism is a concept that has more than one definition. However, the developments of modernity in Europe have taken different forms according to their different social, political and religious circumstances. There should be Islamic definitions that are not only related to the past but are also compatible with the present, contemporary people,” he concluded.
The session was moderated by journalist Iman al-Kaabi, director of the Qatar Media Centre, the Ministry of Culture.
Some of the participants in the Seminar Series.
