Spiritual Motivation Behind Renaissance as Defined by Malek Bennabi

"Spiritual motivation was among the most important renaissance factors which Malek Bennabi, being the pioneer in this field, focused on. Bennabi interpreted the inception of the Islamic civilization as based on spiritual factors, noting that whenever such a factor starts to languish, civilization, in turn, starts to become feeble as well, even if reason prevails. If spiritual motivation starts to break down, civilization starts to decline. This principle has applied to the Islamic civilization since its inception, weakness, and decline. By spiritual motivation, we mean the life objectives that are commonly adopted. Such objectives drive believers to collectively mobilize, proceed towards a specific goal, and perform the tasks that bring them nearer to such a goal in compliance with the concepts they believe in. Such tasks accumulate and form an urban scene with a physical and spiritual structure that finally constitutes a type of civilizational views. If the motivating spirit faints, the civilization drive ceases even if the concepts remain valid in people’s minds—they may lose the driving force towards action. This is the theme which the paper is attempting to demonstrate about Malek Bennabi’s common cultural principle in particular."