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A‫ ذخائر‬New Meaning of Culture, for a Safe World Future A Reading in Khalid Hajji’s Book: From Restrictions of Modernism to the Arabo-Islamic Open Space of Creativity Jaouad RADOUANI 151

Abstract: made clear in its introduc- own point of view, the book This essay is a reading in tion, is to help lay the foun- is an undertaking that pushes Khalid Hajji’s Book: ‫ من مضايق‬dations of a sane and safe the door wide open in front ‫ الحداثة إلى فضاء الإبداع العربي الإسلامي‬world cultural future. All the of the emergence of a new [From Restrictions of Mod- way throughout, the idea of culturally peaceful world, ernism to the Arabo-Islam- cultural sanity and safety is and in which the concept of ic Open Space of Creativi- extensively discussed. There- “culture” is introduced from ty.] The book’s main aim, as fore, as seen/read from our a moderate Islamic angle of 152

a seemingly cultural East/West crisis roots and its exaggerated certainty in In a multicultural and swiftly growing orders…and it remains to remember world, nations are in need of cultural ‫ ذخائر‬along history. Hence, given the current that we may succeed or not because heritage and are obliged to preserve, that’s something unknown1. promote, and produce new possible world situation, we thought a synopsis and different cultural spaces in order to of what the book is about, put in a differ- In the few lines above, Hajji warns that resist identity loss and all the calamities ent language too (English), would help the world is heading towards a deadly and clashes that may result out of that appease and mitigate the rough mood state in which man will cross its border severely complicated situation. For such some fundamentalist social movements lines as a being that is required to live reason, Khalid Hajji, at the very begin- have prompted and forced lately. within reasonable natural limits that ning of the book, asks a major question have been pre-destined. Wary of the fact which summarises to some extent what Keywords: Culture, Civilisation, Islam, that world economy, politics, and indus- will later on be developed into chapters Peace, the World. try are leading the world the wrong way, that make the whole idea of the book. he cautions against any kind of rejection He writes: Being by its nature a treatise about or dis-acknowledgement of human laws culture and future cultural challenges, in nature. He suggests that ‘we’ the Mus- In spite of the seeming differences the book qualifies as a cultural attempt lims are a people of a mission; a people between the chapters of this book, they to restore to Muslims part of their lost who are required to wake up from our are in essence close and trying to answer cultural dignity that is being shattered by long night of sleep, overcome our par- the major question: How can we decon- Muslims’ internal problems such as igno- alysing problems, and guide ourselves struct the Western imposed hegemony rance, mis-interpretation of religious as well as other neighbours, through on us, emancipate ourselves, and restore texts, mis-consideration of the modern dialogue, toward peace, dialogue, and our creative abilities and thus be able to world situation, clash with other civilisa- a better cultural state of being. Muslims reconstruct a world based on our own tions, use and misuse of power, and wide are to draw the attention of humanity to culture and thought.3 ideological and theological schisms that the fact that economy is not a solution completely fraction the Muslim nation and that, at the same time, development The question asked here is mainly made into thousands of uncomplimentary fac- and perpetual search for another imagi- of three parts. The first section address- tions. In attempt to re-define the mean- native world is not itself an explanation es the question, “How can we decon- ing of Islamic culture and the Muslim as a that may help overcome the stretching struct unlawful hegemony?” The second cultural being, Khalid Hajji explains who cultural crisis. He writes this: section of the question deals with “How are Muslims and what are they required can we emancipate ourselves from cap- to do at the beginning of the book as If we only know how much the world italist and imperialist shackles?” While follows: is in need of a wise idea which emanci- the third is concerned with the question: pates knowledge from its suicidal log- “How can we restore our lost ability to We are a people who believe that what ics that are based on the idea of speed- create?” Despite their different yet com- man can do is to move and act, and ing up human motion and total neglect plimentary concern, the three questions the question of success is an unknown of contemplation. Arabs and Muslims pour into one envelope. They call for a matter…and upon this belief which too are much required to strength and courageous will to re-construct a safe is engraved in our minds, in our body self-confidence so as to contribute with and sane cultural world based on free parts and in our heritage, we should be their Islamic heritage and their scientific and moderate Islamic cultural values aware of our mission as a people who approaches to the construction of the with a purely safe vision of life. In a sense, are to wake the world from its cultural cultural world, and thus deconstruct the this is a big and promising cultural chal- coma and free economy from the logic of basis of monstrous globalisation.2 lenge if seriously considered. “prosperity through things” and suggest the logic of “needlessness to things,” and also emancipate science from its utopian ‫من مضايق الحداثة إلى فضاء الإبداع الع ربي الإسلام ي‬,Khalid Hajji - 1 From Restrictions of Modernism to the Arabo-Islamic Open Space of Creativity] (Casablanca & Beirut: Arab Cultural Centre, 2005), p. 96.[ .The book is written in Arabic and all references to it are henceforth to this edition and translated by the author of the essay 2-Ibid., p. 97 3-Ibid., p. 5 153

The supposition which Khalid Hajji utopic worlds and perfection, through clarified. Yet, according to the author, defends is of course challenged by oth- time and perpetual propaganda, has fal- and within the moderate Islamic cultural er ideologies. A cultural world based on sified truth and disguised inescapable sphere, the urgent need of a homogenis- Islamic cultural thought sounds, espe- destructive results of the whimsical ing culture that brings all the people of cially nowadays, like an essentialist idea wish. Hajji writes: the world into one equally interwoven which calls for more clash of civilisations whole is a must. It is a culture, apart and more cultural misinterpretation. If it’s that necessary that man should from its possible undergrounds and their However, Hajji, from his own point of move the wheel of life so as to make a seeming limits that may re-map the cul- view as a Muslim scholar, is well aware of living and guarantee his natural rights tural state of the world and redistribute such difficulties which may confront and such as food and dress, it is very nec- roles and relations on a democratic basis thwart the call. Henceforth, he provides essary too that this same human being that neglects no one the right to be and some conceivable answers to questions who is hovering after material things to at the same time gives everybody the that may arise in such case. Basically, the develop a certain sense of being, a sense right to exist. The forsaken culture is a advances made by the author seem to be of how to enjoy life and feel like dwelling uniting globe in which humanism and the based on the fact that no human ideol- in the world and being present in it. The human dimension of man is supreme. ogy could universally solve the Human ideology of evolution and development problem but one that is not human. He – as it is being imposed by globalisation The suggested criteria related to the focuses on the fact that Islam, as a way – is a utopian ideology. It promises new construction of a new meaning of cul- of life, which is not human (a Revealed dreams by the end of history and shuts ture provide answers to many questions message), could be taken for a legisla- out many of its nightmares, because it as stated in the book. Part of what it tive power that would guide Humanity believes in the human mind as the final answers, is the question of the modern toward peace and prosperity. At the tool it could rely on in its search for sub- misuse of human knowledge and human same time, Hajji’s perception and inter- mission and control of the world, which power in vain and the blinded strife after pretation challenges material powers deceives people by making them believe economic prosperity: misleading humanity toward a para- that the way the world is handled now- lyzed and suicidal state. He reprimands adays by scientists and economists is The hoped for technical and techno- neglect and continuous renouncing of leading to a perfect state and that we logical progress does not only promise metaphysics as an influential dimension are promisingly moving beyond the fog- prosperity and massive ‘monumentalis- of life. gy state the world is in.4 ing,’ it also promises death and destruc- tion. Besides, the question of bounding Throughout the book, Hajji recurrently There are cut and clear denunciations of human future to robotic technology goes on explaining that the one-sided modernity’s tools and methods and their explains how much the cultural dimen- materialistic way of life has, for a long effect on human life. That would certain- sion is being ‘absented,’ add to it the time, put away the question of morality ly make the reader think of essentialism. fearful run of humanity after estranging and humanism and that it replaced them But, as highlighted before, the idea may itself more and more from the natural with idolatry modern economic forms seem so only if seen from what we may world and its unconscious embracement such as money making, surplus, benefit, call a limited ‘modern’ and a ‘modern- of an artificial industrial one.5 machine control, institutionalisation of ist’’ angle of vision. Advances made in life, etc. The materialised mode of being the book, would be categorised as being The subject is of great importance if we has abandoned the essential criteria essentially biased, dislocating, and ten- only know its value. The need of it at for life. It, in its unrestricted pursuit of sion-raising only if the idea is de-con- the present time and the cultural value profit, has masked reality and given it a textualised and not followed from its it represents for us is at stake. The theme distorted and misleading definition. Its embryonic stage in which the needs and of culture is a crucial one. It is the only unrestrained running after impossible conditions that forced it into being are possible means of change. Besides, 4-Ibid., p. 55 5-Ibid., p. 68 154

Hajji, in his attempt to diagnose the cul- a different road is feasibly promising. future. Most of Muslim thinkers walks Locking one’s self within two limited and against the stream and speak extremist ‫ ذخائر‬tural body, does not focus only on the inoperative worlds is the biggest aber- language of exclusion. This psychotic sit- ration the Arabs/Muslims blindly shut uation needs immediate treatment, and West as much as he focuses on the Ara- themselves inside. the solution lies in re-consideration of bo-Muslim internal schisms and misun- one’s place in time and geography, and derstandings. He criticises the Muslim The new meaning of culture, which the one’s culture as a people, given the fact intelligentsia for being divided into two author suggests, and the way he, as an Islam, as a potential source of inspira- fractions that are guided by and hovering Eastern thinker, sees the cultural future tion, is not by any means, and has nev- after false courses of time and mind. He of the East in light of its relation with the er been, something naturally tied to the states that: West and other parts of the world is of Arab or the Arab Muslim. For, according paramount importance. It is a new per- to Islam itself as a religion, culture, By the time the colonial machine quit spective which refuses total immersion and way of life, is a book of teachings the Muslim and Arab world and freedom and idolism of the past and rejects the addressing humanity in its whole and and independence were restored, there present in its undesirable state. He sug- does not make a difference between any came to the surface new challenges and gests a new way out. His advances begin ethnic or linguistic groups. big questions which had a lot to do with with a call to a total reconciliation with the relationship between society and the the self and other based on fundamen- At a time when other theories of emanci- state, religion and modernity, Men and tal self-criticism. The current situation pation, which emerged after the colonial Women, the Self and the Other, etc. At in the Muslim and Arab world seems, era, exactly those considered postcolo- this historical moment, Muslim and Arab in Hajji’s view, helpless and in need of nial, Hajji’s angle of vision, provides a intellectuals, in their trying to answer urgent re-consideration. He states that: challenging key to the present situation some of these questions and submit of the Muslim and Arab world. Besides, it some of the faced challenges, they divid- If we take a close look at the actual situ- should be noted that writings such as The ed among themselves to two parties. The ation of thought in the Arab and Islamic End of History and Clash of Civilisations, conservatives chose the way of linking world in the post colonial era, those who and of course many others, which are the past to the present so as to modern- glorify the self and those who glorify the considered neo-colonial theories that ize society, the others, the progressives, Other will clearly realise that thought fulfil dreams of the old imperialistic proj- chose to link the nation’s present to the projects have reached a paralysed state ect, are getting much ground around the Western advanced technological, eco- in which they have no real objective and world. Henceforth, Hajji’s Arab/Muslim nomic and political situation.6 only walk against the stream and speak cultural challenges sound like a view that a language of exclusion.8 somehow balances the scene and softens The Muslim and Arab intellectuals who the debate that has for a long time been opted for the past’s heritage and those The Muslim thinker, in general, being monopolised by so called ‘effeminate’ who chose modernity as a modal, both problematically divided among himself, cultures. Hajji writes: of them are, in Hajji’s view, wrong. He seems to have no place in the present sees that the first party estranged itself world. He is torn between retired past, a In an attempt to show the miserable sit- in its attempt to stick to the past and perplexing present, and an unidentified uation of complete division, which the blindly imitate it, and that the second future. In fact he does not exist at all, Muslim and the Arab nations live, I have party estranged itself from the present and if we friendly give him the right to be used the word “cultural unconscious- in its utopian pursuit of a fake modern considered, we will realise that he is not ness”, claiming that we are in such a cul- material world.7 The double estrange- here among us in the present world, he is tural state as a result of tying ourselves ment of the Arab and Muslim self made totally absent, either tracking down the to the West… and I try to show how the it impossible for the Arab/Muslim mind past or lost in dreams about an unknown modern West is escaping ahead, towards to think of any other worlds out of the existing ones, while the idea of taking 6-Ibid., p. 3 7-Ibid., p. 5 8-Ibid., p. 6 155

the future, with the same quantity we the North and the South all get part of of a different but universal culture, and also find escape back to the past; and I the cultural unconsciousness, under assert their right to exist equally among try to explain how we both do not live in the pressure of an abstract civilisation other cultures. In this context, Hajji sees the present and do not enjoy our pres- which claims universality, I found it easy that the first thing to be done while in ence, as humans, in the world.9 to design the role of the intellectual not battle against underdevelopment is to only as an agent responsible of urging his re-consider the question of language. The fact that in the postcolonial world people to stand up against the Other’s He writes: a number of attempts aimed at solving wrongdoings and facing it, but to draw the problem of the ex-colonised Man and the world’s attention to its sleepiness The Muslim and Arab intellectual could nations, means that there is an ongoing and wake them up from their cultural never have the ability to play a major role will and endeavour to assert the culture coma in an attempt to secure the world in guiding the world and Western suicid- of democracy, the rule of law, and the from hands of those who saw seeds of al civilisation only if he has the ability right of all nations and every people to crisis and lead civilisation to suicide, and to “Taàthil.” As it is most noticeable in lead a dignified life, prosper, develop also get the human being well aware of Taha Abderahman’s works, “Taàthil” is their own cultural paradigms, and con- its value and the value of his being pres- the ability to abstract concepts of their tribute to the making of a safe and differ- ent both in space and time.10 universal and cosmological nature so as entiated world. As a result, the post-co- to give the mind the required space of lonial era has been marked by growing Third world intellectuals, in their fight freedom and its right to differ, hence give voices which call for rights and a sane use for post-colonial freedom, addressed it the possibility to create relying on its of human and natural resources both in issues that go along with the will of the linguistic abilities and wise linguistic use the East and the West, and Hajji’s voice is international community of the post-sec- of language and develop the faculty of one of them. His contribution to drawing ond World War era to restore peace and naming, categorising and subtracting…11 the world’s attention to the weight of the guarantee rights of nations. They played, crisis which is at doors is mainly directed and still do, the role of the messianic fig- Hajji suggests a way out. He blames to everybody anywhere. ure that preserves the culture of his com- Western culture for having embedded munity and raises the consciousness of Man’s creative abilities within a very Voices of intellectuals from ex-colonised both his people and others toward the restricted frame and limited the abil- nations seized the withdrawal of the fact that there is a local culture which ities of the human brain. He sees that colonial powers from native territories has been for long subdued and denied such a decision, which has long been to launch a call for freedom and the right the right to be. Third world intellectu- imposed on the Western logos, led to a to re-establish one’s own lost cultures. als, through literature and other means, type of dying civilisation he calls: “suicid- Hajji’s call to the necessity to widen fought for liberty of their cultures and al civilisation,” since it, according to him, the scope of culture, which comes after people. More conveniently, the post-co- definitely leads to a static state of mind about half a century after the elimination lonial elite held the torch of freedom and and culture that is one-sided and does of colonialism, comes both as a reaction followed the path of liberty that was not take opportunity of all possibilities against an inner cultural inertia and a traced by ancestors who started resis- offered by LIFE as a wide term and unlim- growing sub-diffusion of material cul- tance during a time when they were ited scope of Being. He argues that the ture. The attempt tries to change human under total colonial seizure of power and Western man, as an example, in search view toward the world, sows the seeds of total inhuman seize of human rights and for a way out of his unacceptable –unac- hope, and helps humanity look out of the individual liberties of the colonised. By cepted by him – natural state, has fallen bow for other possible cultural worlds. defending his culture and exposing it as in the trap of superficiality and thus con- Hajji argues: a substitute to what he calls “suicidal” structed an apparent limited world that cultures, Hajji marks the power of local confined human abilities in their total to Once I realised that the East, the West, cultures to give, contribute to the making a senseless act of perfection of what is 9-Ibid., p. 6 10-Ibid., p. 6 11-Ibid., pp. 6-7 156

‫ذخائر‬ falsely considered a perfect world that and does not deny the fact that they are in the Islamic culture. The argument goes is free of natural drawbacks. constantly seeking ways out too. Being this way: the current hegemony of the imposed through the wave of globalisa- materialised culture is not to be chal- From another angle of vision, and actu- tion hitting the world, the material cul- lenged with traditional ideological and ally, true liberty and autonomous rule ture is getting more and more ground at technological tools. Inversely to what require cultural independence. Hence- the expense of some of the most spiritual most thinkers opt for, Hajji insists that forth, for Muslim nations, the way toward cultures. Hajji argues that: “once we recognize that the right to dif- total freedom requires cultural, military, fer is a right, only then we would be able political and economic independence Revolution against time is the outcome get rid of the senseless and long-lived first, according to Hajji. That is indeed of a mind which refuses the natural world clash between the ‘I’ and the ‘Other.’”14 what partially happened. Intellectuals of and which sees that the real world – Cos- the ex-colonised nations, where a colour mos or Mundus – will be realised only in Hajji’s main argument is the following: of neo-colonialism is still persistent, in the future. The outcome of such mad- in order to have the ability to save our collaboration with the army and the civil ness about a “real waited for world” human cultural heritage and our right society, drove the coloniser out.12 After led to the emergence of the idea of the to be free and different, and in order to that, third world elite who seized power Utopian World. Therefore, there spread emancipate ourselves of chaining ideol- seats and rule once the coloniser was the kind of thought which is basically ogies that are deeply sawn in our modes driven out, claimed they would try to industrial and does not use industry as of being, we should face the materialised give re-birth to indigenous, neglected, a means so as to live in and enjoy the culture with an ideology that is antithet- and half-dead cultures, and help prom- world, but it seeks to transform the ical but not clashing. At the same time, ised they would lead their communi- world through industry. Thus, indus- this will not be done only for the sake of a ties out of the miserable post-indepen- try became a tool to which Man sticks small portion of people; it will be primar- dence states they found themselves in. strongly and through which Man thinks ily done for Humanity’s sake and for the But, that thing never happened and the he could build his industrial and artifi- sake of the dying cultures societies. With propagated idea had ever been seriously cial hoped for world where coincidence a strong belief in the right to diversity considered. The ruling elite split among does not exist and has no meaning at all, and equality, and being a Muslim post- themselves in their indecent running and where man gets rid of nature and all colonial intellectual and author, Hajji after power. natural contingencies.13 focuses on how could we, as humans not only as Muslims, promote and develop Conscious of the fact that cultural leg- The awareness that culture is a corner- new cultural modes through which we acy and pride of a nation lie in its own stone in the way toward freedom and can face the hegemony of materialised developed modes of being, not in import- development inhabited every commit- cultures without falling in the trap of ed ways of life, which most of the time ted intellectual. As a result, most studies radicalism, unrestricted modernism, or do not apply to the society in which and researches, in fact, treat the issue anarchism. Hajji tells us this: they are shamefully implanted, Hajji of culture, identity, and development. suggests: reconciliation with the self, As a case, the book being dealt with is The question of refusal of the unknown with the past, and the will to seek the no exception. Fundamentally, it’s an and reliance on linear time became practical and functional way out. At the attempt to present a new vision over major basics to the revolutionary mind. same time, he warns against adoption the issue of cultural emancipation. It, In fact, refusal of the unknown and of emancipating strategies that uncon- slightly different from other such works the metaphysic is a revolution against sciously destroy rather than build. He that approached the question of culture what modernity itself promises. If we explains that current Western modes from an ideological perspective, the text only take a look at the mental princi- have up till now failed in finding the we are dealing with here argues that the ples which guided thought and scienc- right path to lead toward a safe future, solution humanity is looking for may lie es in Western history at least since the 12-The idea is negotiable 13-Ibid., p. 73 14-Ibid., p. 7 157

beginning of the modern era, we will find that would contribute to the estab- a total cultural experience, which if well that it worships revolution.15 lishment of a safe and sane world. He understood and implemented, it would strongly believes that the Islamic tradi- prove its ability to cope with some of the Hajji considers the two stances, radical- tion (view to the world) is the paradigm most immune cultural complexities of ism and modernism, as being defective within which many of the solutions lie. the century. He states that: by nature because they ‘essentialise,’ He bases his argument on the failure of ‘dislocate,’ ‘radicalise,’ ‘produce more all previous attempts that were based Once the mind gets involved in the act racism and clash,’ ‘polarise,’ ‘bring about on materialised ideologies to free the of construction, both at the level of tension,’ and hinder real progress. Hajji’s concept of culture from hegemonic uni- mind and fact, without any pre-des- cultural approach does not implement versal traces. He believes that there is an tined goals and limits, this mind will end totalitarian ideologies to advent a uto- inherent still-not-discovered power in up to a series of endless forms of con- pian claim, he implements Islamic cul- the Islamic cultural modal. He criticises structions. Man will become a machine ture and Islam as a way of life to think the centrality of materialised culture and which targets nothing but construction of and suggest a peaceful culture uniting the inefficiency of its counterpart, the and monumental enlargement, and this humanity but not neglecting any individ- peripheral world’s culture, which blindly human-machine will keep moving from ual or society its right to be and stand as borrowed and applied certain counter- one constructive order to another and different. This is his view of a safe ‘cul- productive ideologies. He believes that from one system to a new one, aimlessly tural’ and ‘civilised’ future of the world: “the Western logos resort to enlarge- trying to impose reason over reality, and ment is due to the logical reason which aimlessly imposing manufacture over As much as the Ego avoids clash, as much lies in the fact that the door of worship nature. Such mind is guided by a “trans- as the door of worship opens in front of and culture has come to an end point.”17 formational philosophy,” a philosophy it, and thus the door of culture. Worship which is not satisfied with world as it is, purifies the soul from the destructive will Hajji rejects the universalism of the first a destructive philosophy whose primary to suppress Others, and saves it nega- party (the West), and the weak adoption objective is to re-formulate the world tive results of such ideology that brings of alien ideologies of the second one (the and transform it from its natural condi- about only fall and bankruptcy. Worship, East). The cultural battle against ruth- tion into an artificial ordered world. Such in one of its most pure meanings, is what less hegemony of materialised culture philosophy claims that it tries to change makes the human being feel pessimistic around the world, according to him, shall the world for the better and it seeks to and slows down his will to subject the be initiated with a will to join efforts and pick it out of the state of coincidence, Other and make of it a copy of the I, which put into practice a general strategy seek- chaos, mist, and ugliness and place it in is no more than a subjected object that ing to overcome previous defects. For the assured state of manufacture, expec- follows and imitates. Culture, too, helps Hajji, the Islamic culture must have a tation, order, and beauty.18 people not get lost in thought and place. share in the construction of the future Culture in its most meaningful sense is culture of the world. But, to avoid fall- By criticising such a mode of being and the limits of human action; limits which ing in essentialism, Hajji raises and high- such a way of life and thought, he pushes if crossed by Man he may suffer loss and lights the idea that Islam, as a culture forward a substitutive solution, which, in thus all his actions may become sense- and a way of life, is nobody’s ideology his view, provides the key cure to the sui- less and without a rational motive. Cul- in essence. He makes clear that Islam- cidal civilisation the world is led by and ture guides human will to enlargement, ic Culture is a general approach on how the cultural wave of unconsciousness the and it also gives sense to human exis- to lead human life that deduced from a world is living under. He blames human- tence in time and place and solidifies religious book (The Koran) and argues ity on their pure reliance on the self and peoples’ powers and skills.16 that this culture is by no means subjec- human mind in their attempt to impose tive, essentialist, egocentric, dislocating, order over nature that up till now ended Hajji thinks that Islam, as a culture and central, or hegemonic. He insists that it with a disordering of nature. Why should a way of life, provides the modal culture is a totally different type of culture and the human being seek transformation 15-Ibid., p. 72 16-Ibid., p. 7 17-Ibid., p. 7-8 18-Ibid., p. 8 158

‫ ذخائر‬of his world? Why is there dissatisfac- Hopefully, may our poets and philoso- its ability to have positive and different phers make of wisdom their lost truth? 20 cultural effects through the vision it puts tion with the existing world as it is? More forward. Being, fundamentally, an Islam- obviously, why can not the Human Being Conclusion ic culture, the suggested approach pro- see that dreaming beyond the actual vides answers to questions the world has given world is in itself an estrangement The book Khalid Hajji enriched the for long been, and is still, grappling with. and disenchantment of our world, from library with exposes a new dimension It comes up with ‘ways out,’ which are in which, by the end of the day, humanity of how to cope with the world, under facts paths it considers worthy of being has nowhere to go. Hajji suggests this: assumption that the human being is, on given a chance and implemented if the earth, to complete a mission. In other world is ever truly seeking solutions. It, Instead of a transformational philoso- words, Man is on earth to live and die not theoretically, cautions that Man should phy, we suggest a “habitation philoso- to look for eternity. Man is to be respon- avoid the present loss in the material phy,” which seeks ways through which sible of himself, his soul, his body, his bare world, which resulted in the loss we can live in the world and inhabit it, mind, his actions, his environment, his of any spiritual and rational belief that not ways trough which we can trans- and his human fellows’ security. Man is could explain the world as a peaceful, form it. The philosophy of in-habitation, on earth so as to live a restricted life that safe, and sane place to live in for the when it asks the question: “how could goes along with the conditions of life on human being. According to the Islamic we and how shall we inhabit our world?” earth, not to seek to transform nature cultural vision, a serious cultural upheav- provides a possibility of discarding all into a utopian place in chase for pleasure al is something immediately necessary if that which may hinder human being’s and plain comfort. Man’s dreams have to the world is ever truly willing to establish enjoyment of life in nature. It works as have limits. Man should know that only some order to the current messy situa- a substitute to the “transformational wise use of his mental and physical abil- tion East and West. philosophy,” which seeks control over ities could guarantee him a true sense of nature and suggests ways how to get being present on earth and enjoying life. Khalid Hajji argues that the go back to nature itself out of the natural order More conveniently, Man has to rethink the roots is necessary. Big questions which it calls a “chaotic state.” At the modes of being, to re-establish himself should be re-asked, and big inventions same time, the mind remains, accord- as a being in his world. Man is not to play should be re-questioned. Any misuse of ing to the philosophy of dwelling in the God on earth, for that will ultimately lead Man’s capacities as a being, any misuse world and being present in it, related to to his destruction. of nature and natural resources, is ulti- metaphoric and poetic language when mately a soft exterminating act that will philosophising and producing orders of Islamic culture, according to Hajji, is lead to slow deterioration and ultimate thought, and also keeps being related to totally a new experience worth being loss. The modern civilised world seems the senses even when moving towards given the chance to participate in mak- to be on the wrong path. In other words, abstraction, and with a clear vision when ing the world’s cultural scene. It is, no development is good but it should not theorising.19 matter what its principles and prospect- destroy life. For, a true development ed results might be, a renovated and is one which enriches life and simpli- The following translated quote sums up conformist perspective that primari- fies it, not one that goes against it and everything and it philosophically puts ly seeks to re-establish some order to destroys it. Only few are wary of the fact great minds in grips with the question a completely balkanised world where that the train of modernisation and false about Humanity, the World, Destiny (the humanity is approximately loosing sense development are leading humanity to a future). He writes: of life in daily high rates. Being a new state of moribund civilisation. So, the suggested experience of its kind, the pro- idea of culture is of paramount impor- Today, our world is not in need to mental posed Islamic cultural approach claims tance, because only a sane culture could and technical skills, and its not either in help live the world in peace and with no need to piercing intelligence, as much as clashes of civilisations that are primarily it is in need to wisdom so as to guaran- clashes of cultures. tee a joyful present and a better future. 19-Ibid., pp. 8-9 20-Ibid., p. 152 159