The Western Civilization in Malek Bennabi’s Thought

Malek Bennabi enjoyed his universal Islamic vision of humanity. He was a pioneer thinker and a creative philosopher, and had a special theory of modern civilization. His ideas were characterized by concentrated power on the central and fundamental issues and challenges facing the Islamic world in a precise, therapeutic, and diagnostic way. The intellectual writings of Bennabi discuss the critique of Western civilization in terms of positive and negative features, explaining the right way to rejuvenate contemporary Islamic civilization by taking advantage of the positive aspects of Western civilization, focusing on its original civilization, and interacting with contemporary facts and progress. From the critical perspective of Malek Bennabi, studying, understanding, and dissecting the virtues and shortcomings of the Western world civilization is an important step in understanding the causes of contemporary human problems in general, and understanding the current Islamic civilizational problem in particular. The ideas of Bennabi provided great hope and optimism, explaining that no matter how the Muslim world suffered from the scourge of underdevelopment and cultural, intellectual, political, economic, social, and colonialist disadvantages, it could be cured if it adhered to the Qur’anic rule that calls for transformation, change, and renewal from the human soul at home to changing the world abroad. The Muslim world would have to adhere to the conditions of renewal and cultural renaissance, of building the creative man and investing in the place, and taking interest in the treasure of time.