The Islamic civilization dealt with its Creator in a perfect way; putting the relationship between the Creator and His creation in the right place. Whereas other human civilizations failed to do so, as they disbelieved in Allah and associated His creation with Him in belief and worship, and ascribed to Him what does not befit His majesty and dignity.
The true Muslim does not mix between civilization and urbanization. He adopts a moderate approach in determining the way of dealing with ideas and sciences and distinguishing between:
. The element of civilization: which is represented in doctrinal, logical, and intellectual aspects, and in behavioral and moral values.
. The element of urbanization: which is represented in scientific achievements, material discoveries, and industrial inventions.
A true Muslim takes from such sciences and inventions according to his faith and behavioral concepts.
The Greek civilization believed in the existence of Allah, yet it denied His Oneness and negated His ability to bring benefit or ward off harm.
The Roman civilization turned away from the Creator at the beginning. Then, after embracing Christianity, they associated partners with Him, as their beliefs were smeared with pagan practices like worshiping idols and the powers of nature.
The pre-Islamic Persian civilization, disbelieved in Allah, worshiped the sun instead, and prostrated to the fire and deemed it sacred.
The Hindu civilization abandoned worshiping the Creator and worshiped a created god instead, represented in the Trimurti that consists of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer.
The Buddhist civilization turned away from God, the Creator, and took Buddha as their god.
As for the Sabian civilization, they were from the People of the Book but they denied the existence of their Lord and worshiped the planets and stars instead, with the exception of some of the monotheists' sects that were mentioned in the Noble Qur’an.
As for the Pharaonic civilization, despite the fact of its achieving monotheism to a great extent and its exaltation of God during the era of Akhenaten; yet it continued to believe in God's incarnation and His resemblance to some of His creatures like the sun and others, which became for them a symbol of God. Moreover, disbelief reached its utmost when the Pharaoh claimed divinity and deemed himself the prime legislator during Moses' era.
The Arab civilization abandoned worshiping the Creator and worshiped the idols instead.
The Christian civilization denied Allah's absolute oneness and associated with Him Jesus Christ and his mother Mary. They adopted the Trinity doctrine which is based on the belief in one God embodied in three hypostases (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit).
The Jewish civilization turned away from its Creator and chose its own god and considered him a national god. They worshiped the calf and attributed to God in their Books human qualities that do not befit Him.
The past civilizations have perished, while both the Christian and Jewish civilizations have turned into non-religious civilizations, which are capitalism and communism. Owing to the methods used by these two civilizations in dealing with Allah as well as life in terms of creed and intellect, they are deemed backward and not advanced, and are characterized with brutality and immorality despite reaching the highest peak in cultural, scientific, and industrial progress, which do not count in evaluating the progress of civilizations.
The sound criterion of the civilizational progress depends on the logical evidence as well as the sound concept about Allah, man, the universe, and life. Furthermore, the sound and sublime civilization is that which leads one to the true concepts about Allah and His relation with His creation, to know the source of his existence and his destiny, and put this relationship in the right place. In conclusion, the Islamic civilization is the only advanced civilization among all these civilizations simply because it has fulfilled the required balance. [179] "Isā’at ar-Ra’smāliyyah wa ash-Shuyū‘iyyah ila Allāh" by Dr. Ghāzi ‘Ināyah.
Islam calls for good morals and prohibits evil deeds. Thus, the reason behind bad conduct of some Muslims is their cultural customs or their ignorance of their religion and their distance from the sound religion.
In this case there is no contradiction. If the driver of a splendid car, for instance, had a terrible accident because of his ignorance of the sound rules of driving, would this contradict the splendidness of the car?