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☰ Contents 59 of 160

Westernization and Human Welfare · Maryam Jameelah

whw 0043

Printed pages 58

In this chapter (4 sections)

58

divine revolution absolute. A society whose members regulate all aspects of their lives according to a divinely-revealed law equally valid for all times and all places inevitably results in cultural stagnation and backwardness for once the Truth is known, it cannot be changed and without “change” no “progress” is poSsible.

Contemporary thought assumes· that religion began with animism, succeeded by polytheism and then evolved into ethical monotheism and finally naw, all previous religious beliefs

have

been superseded by fCscientific” materialism which regards the endeavour to improve man’s worldly happiness and physical wellbeing as the only valid purpose of life. It is obvious to anyone that this materialistic view of’ life is deadly poison. to all religious beliefs without exception. Naturally, with the prevalence of these ideas everywhere, all religions find themselves on the defensive ~nd their influence over their adherents’ daily lives in rapid retreat. Because for the majority of people, the religious view has been replaced by a purely worldly emphasis, theological arguments against the fallacy of evolutionary progress would take no effect and nobody would listen. ;rhus we are compelled by necessity to argue on theit own tennsand restrict our view to worldly considerations. The question the non-Western world, in its craze to adopt wholesale withol1t discrimination, all things Western as synonymous with “progress”, should stop and ponder: Is Western civilization the route to human welfare?

Cite this chapter

Jameelah, Maryam. “whw 0043.” In Westernization and Human Welfare (1976). p. 58. Scan: archive.org, https://archive.org/download/al-islam-maryam-jameelah/English_WESTERNIZATION_AND_HUMAN_WELFARE.pdf. Online text: Islamic Internet Archives, https://islamicarchives.org/works/mj-westernization-and-human-welfare/whw-0043/

© Mohammad Yusuf Khan (publisher); free scan at Internet Archive