BASIC ELEMENTS OF ISLAMIC

CIVILIZATION
 • INTRODUCTION
• MORAL TRADITIONS
• LEARNING AND
CIVILIZATION
CONTENTS • ECONOMICAL RESOURCES
• SCIENCE AND ARTS
• POLITICAL SYSTEM
• CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION
• “Civilization
is a social system which helps man
to increase his cultural output.”

• Civilization according to Fernand (1995) is

the Latin word civilis, which means civil. Other
Latin words are civis, meaning citizen, and
meaning city. Over the years it has been used to
various meanings
• Oxford Dictionary of Current English (1992) defines
civilization as:
The opposite of barbarism and chaos. Civilization is
advanced stage of human society, where people live
a reasonable degree of organization and comfort and
think about things like art and education.
• According to Cambridge dictionary of English (1998):
Civilization is human society with its well-developed
organizations, or the culture and way of life of a
country at a particular period in time.
 MORAL
TRADITIONS
• Development and progress of a civilization requires
many factors such as geographical and economic
factors, and psychological factors

• Destructive factors include moral and intellectual

decadence, lawlessness and breakdown of social
systems, the spread of oppression and poverty, the
spread of pessimism and apathy and the lack of
competent and sincere leaders.
• Islam formed a unique bridge
between the civilizations of
the East and the West.
• Islam made clear that people
should enjoy earth’s bounties
within moral and ethical
boundaries, and also sought
to delegitimize social
distinctions between classes
and races
• The position of women
improved in its communities.
Learning and Civilization
• Under first category,
civilization is not based on
any religious or spiritual
concept
• Goal of civilization is social
or communal superiority
• Contains (Political
Domination)
(Capitalism/colonialism)
(Imperialism)
 In Quran, word knowledge is
used for about 750 times.

Importance Quran clearly distinguish man

of learning from other creation by his
to think.
in Islam
The Quran language is repeated
through attentive recitation
heard throughout a muslim’s
Islamic Civilization

ISLAM, the leading civilization.

Arabic was leading language.
The nascent civilization borrowed ideas from Islamic
civilization.
Provided foundation for the next civilization, The
Achieved unity among divergent people.
Position of women improved in its community.
Economical Resources
• Central element of Muslim
trade : Agriculture
• Expanded agriculture
products i.e: Alfalfa
• Made innovations like higher
yielding crops, upgraded
irrigation system.
• Introduced three vegetables
i.e spinach, eggplant,
artichoke.
• Extended rice consumption
• Development of cotton
industry
SCIENCE AND ARTS
Trigonometry, Sine, Tangent,
Co-Tangent
Ibn Moosaa's work Hisaab-Al
Wal Muqaabala (The Calculation
Calculation of Integration and
Equation)
Algebra and Geometry
Muhammad bin Moosa Al-
Khawaarzmi
Physics and Chemistry
Kamaal ud deen
Haaroon Ar-Rasheed
Science of Mechanics
Moosaa bin Shaakir
Science of Mechanics
Moosaa bin Shaakir
Camera Obscura
Ibn Haytham
Theory of Relativity
Qaadhi Abu Bakr and later
Einstein
Geography
During the Caliphate of
Ma’moon.
SCIENTIFIC “Have those who disbelieved not
FACTS IN considered that the heavens and
the earth were a joined entity, and
HOLY We separated them and made
QURAN from water every living thing?
Then will they not believe? “
(chapter 21, verse 30)
“And, [O Muhammad], you are
not [engaged] in any matter or
recite any of the Qur'an and
you [people] do not do any
deed except that We are
witness over you when you are
involved in it. And not absent
from your Lord is any [part] of
an atom's weight within the
earth or within the heaven or
[anything] smaller than that or
“He creates you in the
wombs of your mothers,
creation after creation, within
three darknesses”
(chapter 39, verse 6).
Yes, We are Able to put
together in perfect order
the tips of his fingers.
(chapter 75, verse 4)
PROPHET’S
MOSQUE:
ARCHITECTU
RE
Prototype of all
Islamic
buildings of
worship.
Dome and
minaret.
The Great Mosque of Cordoba and Alhambra:
CALLIGRAPHY
POLITICAL SYSTEM
• Origins of Islam as a political movement are to be found
in the life and times of Islam's prophet Muhammad and
his successors.
• Today, we witness rapid changes in society, politics and
the economy as a result of technological innovations,
urbanization and the increased growth in access to
education, as well as to media, as an overall trend.
• Islam indeed desacralizes politics, but not to the extent
they mean, for Islam itself is based on Divine Authority
and on the sacred authority of the Holy Prophet (may
God bless and give him Peace!), which is no less than the
reflection of God's Authority, and on the authority of
those who emulate his example.
CONCLUSION
• When there was no scientific activity in the world,
Muslims picked up the threads of ancient science and
technology, where and whenever, available in to a
definite pattern of progress.
• They salvaged the science of the classic world and
developed it for centuries.
• They enlarged the boundaries of all the technologies
then known.But they were more than mere
encyclopedists.
• They made practical application of this knowledge to the
needs of the times. It was no accident that Muslims
attained such widespread prosperity and felicity.
In pursuit of these progressive goals the Muslim scientists
attained an experimental objectivity that the Greeks had
disdained.
But still; The Oxford History of Technology says:
“There are few major technological innovations between
between 500 A.D. and 1500 that do not show some traces
of the Islamic culture.”
THANKYOU