Thursday, June 18, 2009

Organ Donation.... how Islam deals With it?

Organ Donation Problems

by Ibrahim B. Syed, Ph. D.
President
Islamic Research Foundation International, Inc.
7102 W. Shefford Lane
Louisville, KY 40242-6462, U.S.A.
E-mail: IRFI@INAME.COM
Website: http://WWW.IRFI.ORG


Organ donation is the charitable act or gift of an organ to help someone who needs a transplant. Americans are not donating their organs to be used after they die, and hence there are over 78,000 men, women, and children waiting for organ transplants in America, and 14 of these people die every day while waiting to receive an organ transplant. There are more than five people waiting for every organ made available by donation. An estimated two in three Americans have not indicated their wishes about donation. The United Network for Organ Sharing found slow growth in the number of organs from deceased donors. Kidneys from living donors are more likely to survive than those from deceased donors. In 1999, there were a total of 21,715 transplants performed in the United States, up 44 percent from 1990.

Some people have religious or cultural objections to donate organs. Living donors--those who volunteer a kidney or parts of their liver or lungs--are understandably reluctant: they must undergo potentially life-threatening surgery and put their own future health at risk.

More and more people with HIV and/or hepatitis B and/or hepatitis C are going to need organ transplants, particularly liver transplants. Europe and Singapore have what is called a Presumed Consent organ collection system. That means that when an accident occurs to a person who has not opted out, and brain death is declared, his or her organs can be taken immediately without the time.

First transplants
Thousands of people have their sight restored by donated corneas. A cornea was first transplanted in 1905. In 1918 Blood transfusion became established and the first successful kidney transplant took place in 1954. Christian Barnard in Cape Town, South Africa performed the first heart transplant in 1967.

Deaths on Waiting List
The number of deaths on the waiting list has also more than tripled—from 1,958 in 1990 to 6,125 in 1999. In 2001 more than 6,000 people in the U.S. died while waiting for an organ transplant. The dire shortfall of organs compared with patient demand is growing as the population ages and more people experience organ failure. New
Immunosuppressive drugs have helped bridge the gap by allowing surgeons to transplant an organ that is a less than perfect match; even then, there just aren't enough organs available.

There were 5,849 cadaveric, or dead, donors in 1999 an increase of 30 percent from 1990. Each donor can give 3 to 4 organs. Among cadaveric donors, 85 percent died due to head trauma or stroke. There were 4,712 living donors in 1999, more than twice the number in 1990. Of living donors, 35 percent were siblings, 18 percent were parents and 20 percent came from people who were not related.
Survival Rates
89 percent of kidneys taken from a cadaver and 95 percent of the patients who received them survived at least one year after transplant. Among those who got kidneys from living donors, 95 percent of kidneys and 98 percent of patients were alive a year later. 81 percent of livers and 88 percent of liver transplant patients survived at least a year. 85 percent of hearts and 86 percent of heart transplant patients survived at least a year.

What organs are transplanted?
Kidneys, heart, liver, lungs, pancreas, small bowel, corneas, heart valves and bone can all be transplanted. Skin can be used to treat patients with severe burns. Techniques are improving all the time and it may soon be practical to transplant other parts of the body. An individual can donate heart, lungs, kidneys, pancreas, liver and small bowel.

Tissue that can be donated includes corneas, skin, bone and heart valves. Corneas can be transplanted to restore the sight of a person who has a severe eye disease or injury. Bone and tendons are used for reconstruction after an injury or during joint replacement surgery. A bone transplant can prevent limb amputation in patients suffering from bone cancer.

Heart valves are used to help children born with heart defects and adults with diseased or damaged valves. Skin grafts are used as protective dressings to help save the lives of people with severe burns.
Most people can donate tissue. Unlike organs, tissue can be donated up to 24 hours after a person has died and can be stored for longer periods.
Reproductive organs and tissue are not taken from dead donors.

Who can be a donor?
A person under sixteen can donate an organ provided the parents or guardian agree to donation. Older people can donate in the case of cornea and some other tissue, age does not matter. For other organs it is the person's physical condition, not age, which is the deciding factor. Doctors decide in each case which organs/tissue are suitable. Organs from people in their seventies and eighties are transplanted successfully.

Color of the Skin
Color of the skin of the donor does not matter. However, organs are matched by blood group and tissue type and the better the match, the greater the chance of a successful result. Patients from the same ethnic group are more likely to be a close match. It is important that people from all ethnic backgrounds to donate organs. Successful transplants are carried out between people from different ethnic groups wherever the matching criteria are met.

The organ shortage has led various policymakers to propose radical steps. U.S. policy makers are proposing to provide financial incentives to living donors or to the families of deceased donors. One approach, which has been instituted in Pennsylvania and is supported by the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, offers families who donate a loved one's organs $300 in food and lodging expenses. Medical journals are advocating the program assert that the amount of money is intentionally small to "express appreciation" for the donation but not to serve as a payment. It is similar to the token coffee mug or umbrella one receives after donating to public radio or television. More important, some are agonized that these programs would mark the first step in encouraging an inhumane and delicately coercive market for spare body parts. In Islam, buying and selling of human organs for transplantation is prohibited. It should be done only as Sadaqah.

Although the outright purchase of organs is illegal in nearly every country in the world, a number have black markets for living-donor organs, and the results have been frightening. A study of 305 living kidney donors in Madras (Chennai), India, found that 96 percent sold a kidney to pay off debts, receiving Rs.50, 000 or US $1,070 a piece. But 75 percent of the respondents soon faced debt and destitution once again, and 79 percent would not recommend organ selling to others. Permitting trade in organs has already led to the exploitation of the poor.

A multitude of bills now in Congress would create a "medal of honor" for donors, offer medical leave for living donors. Living donors will have life and disability insurance in case they experienced unconstructive side effects. There is a need for an expanded public education campaign that would explain the need for organ donation and throw light on the process. Physicians and hospital personnel also require more training in encouraging organ donation
It was shown that more than 95 percent of families would consent to organ donation if they knew it was the wish of their loved one. The unusual tactic of appealing to people's better natures may not be the only way to raise the number of organs available for transplantation, but it is the best method to start.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

The Fact of Quranic embryology & Anatomy..... True or Not ?

Scientists' Comments On The Qur'anic Theory of Embryology & Anatomy (Science and Revelation)

Extracts from the video This is the Truth by Sheikh Abdul-Majeed A. al-Zindani



Keith L. Moore
Professor Emeritus, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Toronto. Distinguished embryologist and the author of several medical textbooks, including Clinically Oriented Anatomy (3rd Edition) and The Developing Human (5th Edition, with T.V.N. Persaud).

Investigations in to the 'alaqa or leech-like stage.



Dr. Moore was a former President of the Canadian Association of Anatomists, and of the American Association of Clinical Anatomists. He was honoured by the Canadian Association of Anatomists with the prestigious J.C.B. Grant Award and in 1994 he received the Honoured Member Award of the American Association of Clinical Anatomists "for outstanding contributions to the field of clinical anatomy."

"For the past three years, I have worked with the Embryology Committee of King cAbdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, helping them to interpret the many statements in the Qur'an and Sunnah referring to human reproduction and prenatal development. At first I was astonished by the accuracy of the statements that were recorded in the 7th century AD, before the science of embryology was established. Although I was aware of the glorious history of Muslim scientists in the 10th century AD, and some of their contributions to Medicine, I knew nothing about the religious facts and beliefs contained in the Qur'an and Sunnah."[2]

At a conference in Cairo he presented a research paper and stated:

"It has been a great pleasure for me to help clarify statements in the Qur'an about human development. It is clear to me that these statements must have come to Muhammad from God, or Allah, because most of this knowledge was not discovered until many centuries later. This proves to me that Muhammad must have been a messenger of God, or Allah." [1]

Professor Moore also stated that:

"...Because the staging of human embryos is complex, owing to the continuous process of change during development, it is proposed that a new system of classification could be developed using the terms mentioned in the Qur'an and Sunnah. The proposed system is simple, comprehensive, and conforms with present embryological knowledge.

"The intensive studies of the Qur'an and Hadith in the last four years have revealed a system of classifying human embryos that is amazing since it was recorded in the seventh century A.D... the descriptions in the Qur'an cannot be based on scientific knowledge in the seventh century..."[1]
________________________________________

E. Marshall Johnson
Professor and Chairman of the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, and Director of the Daniel Baugh Institute, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.



Author of over 200 publications. Former President of the Teratology Society among other accomplishments. Professor Johnson began to take an interest in the scientific signs in the Qur'an at the 7th Saudi Medical Conference (1982), when a special committee was formed to investigate scientific signs in the Qur'an and Hadith. At first, Professor Johnson refused to accept the existence of such verses in the Qur'an and Hadith. But after a dicussuion with Sheikh Zindani he took an interest and concentrated his research on the internal as well as external development of the fetus.

"...in summary, the Qur'an describes not only the development of external form, but emphasises also the internal stages, the stages inside the embryo, of its creation and development, emphasising major events recognised by contemporary science."

"As a scientist, I can only deal with things which I can specifically see. I can understand embryology and developmental biology. I can understand the words that are translated to me from the Qur'an. As I gave the example before, if I were to transpose myself into that era, knowing what I do today and describing things, I could not describe the things that were described...

I see no evidence to refute the concept that this individual Muhammad had to be developing this information from some place... so I see nothing here in conflict with the concept that divine intervention was involved in what he was able to write..." [1]
________________________________________

T.V.N. Persaud
Professor of Anatomy, and Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.



Author and editor of over 20 books, and has published over 181 scientific papers. Co-author of The Developing Human (5th Edition, with Keith L. Moore). He received the J.C.B. Grant Award in 1991. Professor Peraud presented several research papers.

"It seems to me that Muhammad was a very ordinary man, he couldn't read, didn't know how to write, in fact he was an illiterate...

We're talking about 1400 years ago, you have some illiterate person making profound statements that are amazingly accurate, of a scientific nature...

I personally can't see how this could be mere chance, there are too many accuracies and like Dr. Moore, I have no difficulty in my mind reconciling that this is a divine inspiration or revelation which lead him to these statements." [1]
________________________________________

Joe Leigh Simpson

Professor and Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.

He is the President of the American Fertility Society. He has received many awards, including the Association of Professors of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Public Recognition Award in 1992. Like many others, Professor Simpson was taken by surprise when he discovered that the Qur'an and Hadith contain verses related to his specialised field of study. When he met with Sheikh Abdul-Majeed A.Zindani, he insisted on verifying the text presented to him from the Qur'an and Hadith.

"... these Hadiths (sayings of Muhammad) could not have been obtained on the basis of the scientific knowledge that was available at the time of the 'writer'... It follows that not only is there no conflict between genetics and religion (Islam) but in fact religion (Islam) may guide science by adding revelation to some of the traditional scientific approaches... There exist statements in the Qur'an shown centuries later to be valid which support knowledge in the Qur'an having been derived from God." [1]
________________________________________

Gerald C. Goeringer
Professor and Co-ordinator of Medical Embryology in the Department of Cell Biology, School of Medicine, Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA.

Sheikh cAbdul-Majeed A.Zindani met with Professor Goeringer and asked him whether in the history of embryology was there any mention of the different stages of embryonic development, or whether there existed any embryological texts at the time of the Prophet. Sheikh Zindani also asked his opinion regarding the terms the Qur'an uses to describe the different phases of fetal development. After several long discussions, he presented a study at the 8th Saudi Medical Conference:

"...In a relatively few ayahs (Qur'anic verses) is contained a rather comprehensive description of human development from the time of commingling of the gametes through organogenesis. No such distinct and complete record of human development such as classification, terminology, and description existed previously. In most, if not all instances, this description antedates by many centuries the recording of the various stages of human embryonic and fetal development recorded in the traditional scientific literature." [1]
________________________________________

Alfred Kroner
Professor of the Department of Geosciences, University of Mainz, Germany.

Professor Kroner is one of the world's most famous geologists, becoming well known among his colleague scientists for his criticisms against the theories of some of the major scientists in his field. Sheikh cAbdul-Majeed A. Zindani met with him and presented several Qur'anic verses and Hadith which he studied and commented upon.

"Thinking where Muhammad came from... I think it is almost impossible that he could have known about things like the common origin of the universe, because scientists have only found out within the last few years with very complicated and advanced technological methods that this is the case."
"Somebody who did not know something about nuclear physics 1400 years ago could not, I think, be in a position to find out from his own mind for instance that the earth and the heavens had the same origin, or many others of the questions that we have discussed here...
If you combine all these and you combine all these statements that are being made in the Qur'an in terms that relate to the earth and the formation of the earth and science in general, you can basically say that statements made there in many ways are true, they can now be confirmed by scientific methods, and in a way, you can say that the Qur'an is a simple science text book for the simple man. And that many of the statements made in there at that time could not be proven, but that modern scientific methods are now in a position to prove what Muhammad said 1400 years ago." [1]
________________________________________

Yushidi Kusan
Director of the Tokyo Observatory, Tokyo, Japan.

Sheikh Abdul-Majeed A. Zindani presented a number of Qur'anic verses describing the beginnings of the universe and of the heavens, and the relationship of the earth to the heavens. He expressed his astonishment, saying that the Qur'an describes the universe as seen from the highest observation point, everything is distinct and clear.

"I say, I am very much impressed by finding true astronomical facts in Qur'an, and for us modern astronomers have been studying very small piece of the universe. We have concentrated our efforts for understanding of very small part. Because by using telescopes, we can see only very few parts of the sky without thinking about the whole universe. So by reading Qur'an and by answering to the questions, I think I can find my future way for investigation of the universe." [1]
________________________________________

Professor Armstrong
Professor Armstrong works for NASA and is also Professor of Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA.

Prof. Armstrong was asked a number of questions about Qur'anic verses dealing with his field of specialisation. He was eventually asked, "You have seen and discovered for yourself the true nature of modern Astronomy by means of modern equipment, rockets, and satellites developed by man. You have also seen how the same facts were mentioned by the Qur'an fourteen centuries ago. So what is your opinion?"
"That is a difficult question which I have been thinking about since our discussion here. I am impressed at how remarkably some of the ancient writings seem to correspond to modern and recent Astronomy. I am not a sufficient scholar of human history to project myself completely and reliably into the circumstances that 1400 years ago would have prevailed.
Certainly, I would like to leave it at that, that what we have seen is remarkable, it may or may not admit of scientific explanation, there may well have to be something beyond what we understand as ordinary human experience to account for the writings that we have seen." [1]

William Hay
Professor of Oceanogprahy, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA.

Professor Hay is one of the best known marine scientist in the USA. Sheikh cAbdul-Majeed A. Zindani met with him and asked him many questions about the marine surface, the divider between upper and lower sea, and about the ocean floor and marine geology.

"I find it very interesting that this sort of information is in the ancient scriptures of the Holy Qur'an, and I have no way of knowing where they would have come from. But I think it is extremely interesting that they are there and this work is going on to discover it, the meaning of some of the passages."
And when he was asked about the source of the Qur'an, he replied, "Well, I would think it must be the divine being." [1]
________________________________________

Durja Rao
Professor of Marine Geology teaching at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Sheikh Zindani presented to Prof. Rao many verses dealing with his area of specialisation, and asked: "What do you think of the existence of the scientific information in the Qur'an? How could Prophet Muhammad have known about these facts fourteen centuries ago?"

"It is difficult to imagine that this type of knowledge was existing at that time, around 1400 years back. May be some of the things they have simple idea about, but to describe those things in great detail is very difficult. So this is definitely not simple human knowledge. A normal human being cannot explain this phenomenon in that much detail. So, I thought the information must have come from a supernatural source." [1]
________________________________________

Professor Siaveda
Professor of Marine Geology, Japan.

Sheikh Zindani asked him a number of questions in his area of specialisation, and then informed him of the Qur'anic verses and Hadith which mention the same phenomena he spoke of. One of the questions was concerning mountains. Sheikh Zindani asked him about the shape of mountains; and whether they were firmly rooted in the earth. "What is your opinion of what you have seen in the Qur'an and the Sunnah with regard to the secrets of the Universe, which scientists only discovered now?"

"I think it seems to me very, very mysterious, almost unbelievable. I really think if what you have said is true, the book is really a very remarkable book, I agree." [1]
________________________________________

Tejatat Tejasen
Chairman of the Department of Anatomy and is the former Dean of the faculty of Medicine, University of Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Professor Tejasen studied various articles concerning the Qur'an and modern embryology. He spent four days with several scholars, Muslims and non-Muslims, discussing this phenomenon in the Qur'an and Hadith. During the 8th Saudi Medical Conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia he stood up and said:

"In the last three years, I became interested in the Qur'an... From my studies and what I have learned throughout this conference, I believe that everything that has been recorded in the Qur'an fourteen hundred years ago must be the truth, that can be proved by the scientific means.

Since the Prophet Muhammad could neither read nor write, Muhammad must be a messenger who relayed this truth which was revealed to him as an enlightenment by the one who is eligible creator. This creator must be God, or Allah.

I think this is the time to say La ilaha illa Allah, there is no god to worship except Allah (God), Muhammad rasoolu Allah, Muhammad is Messenger of Allah...
The most precious thing I have gained from coming to this conference is La ilaha illa Allah, and to have become Muslim." [1]
________________________________________

Dr. Maurice Bucaille
Born in 1920, former chief of the Surgical Clinic, University of Paris, has for a long time deeply interested in the correspondences between the teachings of the Holy Scriptures and modern secular knowledge.



He is the author of a best-seller, "The Bible, The Qur'an and Science" (1976). His classical studies of the scriptural languages, including Arabic, in association with his knowledge of hieroglyphics, have allowed him to hold a multidisciplinary inquiry, in which his personal contribution as a medical doctor has produced conclusive arguments. His work, "Mummies of the Pharaohs - Modern Medical Investigations" (St. Martins Press, 1990), won a History Prize from the Académie Française and another prize from the French National Academy of Medicine.

His other works include: "What is the Origin of Man" (Seghers, 1988), "Moses and Pharaoh, the Hebrews in Egypt", (NTT Mediascope Inc, 1994); and "Réflexions sur le Coran" (Mohamed Talbi & Maurice Bucaille, Seghers, 1989)


After a study which lasted ten years, Dr. Maurice Bucaille addressed the French Academy of Medicine in 1976 concerning the existence in the Qur'an of certain statements concerning physiology and reproduction. His reason for doing that was that :

"...our knowledge of these disciplines is such, that it is impossible to explain how a text produced at the time of the Qur'an could have contained ideas that have only been discovered in modern times."

"The above observation makes the hypothesis advanced by those who see Muhammad as the author of the Qur'an untenable. How could a man, from being illiterate, become the most important author, in terms of literary merits, in the whole of Arabic literature?

How could he then pronounce truths of a scientific nature that no other human-being could possibly have developed at that time, and all this without once making the slightest error in his pronouncement on the subject?"
________________________________________

Bibliography
[1] al-Zindani, Abdul-Majeed A, This is the Truth (video tape). Scientific Signs of the Qur'an and Sunnah containing interviews with various scientists. Available in Arabic, English, French, Urdu and Turkish. A full English transcript of this video with illustrations is also available: Al-Rehaili, Abdullah M., This is the Truth, Muslim World League, Makkah al-Mukarrammah, 1995. Also available on the web at: This Is The Truth!
[2] Moore, Keith L. and al-Zindani, Abdul-Majeed A., The Developing Human with Islamic Additions, Third Edition, W.B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia, 1982, with Dar Al-Qiblah for Islamic Literature, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 1983, page viiic. Limited Edition.
[3] Moore, Keith L., al-Zindani, Abdul-Majeed A., Ahmed Mustafa A, The Qur'an and Modern Science - Correlation Studies, Islamic Academy for Scientific Research, Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Reprinted by World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), USA., 1990, ISBN 0-9627236-0-6. Collection of papers presented at a symposium sponsored by the Muslim Students Association, University of Illinois, May 1990.
[4] Moore, Keith L.; Johnson, E. Marshall; Persaud, T.V.N.; Goeringer, Gerald C.; Zindani, Abdul-Majeed A.; and Ahmed Mustafa A, Human Development as Described in the Qur'an and Sunnah, Commission on Scientific Signs of the Qur'an and Sunnah, Muslim World League, Makkah Al-Mukarramah, Saudi Arabia, 1992, ISBN 0-9627236-1-4. Collection of papers that were originally presented in the First International Conference on Scientific Signs of the Qur'an and Sunnah, held in Islamabad, Pakistan, 1987, and after some modifications and development, presented in their present form in Dakar, Sengal in July 1991.

Extracts from the video This is the Truth by Sheikh Abdul-Majeed A. al-Zindani, Director, Project of Scientific Miracles in the Qur'an and Hadith, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Elias Karim


Source : http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Science/scientists.html

Brief Analysis on Bennabi's Theory of Civilization

A Summary of Malek Bennabi's Thought on Civilization

by Hasbullah Mohamad

As a Muslim thinker, Bennabi believes that the decline of Muslims is due to the problem of inner self of Muslim. He asserts that problem of Muslim world is a problem of its civilization (al-Haddarah). Therefore, he seriously looked for the proper solution of such problems. Thus, this study will attempt to analyze Bennabi’s theory of civilization including meaning, the process of civilization, and his proposal for reform of such project.

He was inspired with the spirit of islÉÍ (reformism) since he was youth. Thus, his experience had equipped him to make a great contribution towards Islamic civilization as he famously called as al-ÍaÌÉrah (al-haddarah).

In dealing with al-ÍaÌÉrah, Bennabi brilliantly attempts to give proper definition of civilization. For that, he defines it on the basis that the concept of civilization can be understood in different times from different angles. For him, it is rather the product of dynamic, integrated and concrete elements which consist of man, soil and time. As a whole, Bennabi looks at the ÍaÌÉrah as a complex phenomenon. First, he defines it as being in essence a culture (thaqÉfah) which is based on a set of cultural values. Second, the ÍaÌÉrah is a product of the world of ideas, which means that it is the living idea in a given society that produces the ÍaÌÉrah, leading this society, then, into history. Third, Civilization is defined as a function which available in twofold: first, the ÍaÌÉrah functions within a particular society. Second it also has a function within human history, for the movement of human civilization as a whole is but the movement of history (al-tÉrÊkh) to a particular point.

Bennabi describes that the civilization can be built and divided into three important elements, namely the man, soil and time. He then, divides man into two identities. First, man as natural identity which is unchangeable and second, man as social agent who is equipped with mental and psychological features which is changeable and enable to response to his surroundings. Therefore man is required to fulfill the effectiveness and its values which permit him to build the ÍaÌÉrah. Thus, Bennabi sees that tawjÊh (orientation) is a key to move towards civilization with a strong foundation and a unity of goal.

He believes that man must be generated into three principles namely tawjÊh al- ThaqÉfah (guidance of culture), tawjÊh al-‘Amal (guidance of Action) and tawjih ra’s al-MÉl (guidance of Capital). For him, al- ThaqÉfah (culture) is the environment that frames the individual’s personality and its characteristics. Giving an analogy, he identifies culture with the blood in the body of the society, for culture nourishes the society’s civilization, carries the ‘elite’ ideas as well as the ‘common’ ones. In this part, Bennabi stresses the role of religion in such culture as a prerequisite to the rise of any civilization.

Meanwhile al-‘Amal, is a guidance of the efforts of the whole social grouping to one direction. For him it is the action itself that traces the fate of things in the social framework. Ra’s al-MÉl (Capital), is judged by its quality and not by its quantity; the main thing is to make sure that every piece of money is moving along while creating a dynamic action. For the task is not to accumulate wealth but to socially activate the fund, balancing the interest of both the individual and the society.

Regarding the soil, Bennabi does not talk about nature and the particularities of the soil but he gives attention on its social value. In terms of time, it does not refer to the age of the individual but it has a social importance by contributing in the build-up of the active thoughts. He comments that the Muslim world lacks the true understanding of time, namely the valuable use of time in constructing active thoughts, meanings and things.

Since the elements of civilization consist of man, soil, and time, he explicitly points out to the necessity to adopt the same procedure as that of laboratory analysis by taking not the whole matter to the laboratory but simply a sample of it. It is essential to take attention that Bennabi puts religion (Islam) as the foundation of these three elements.

Bennabi contends that historical events are simply a reaction to the interaction of the three realms; (1) realm of ideas, (2) realm of persons, (3) realm of objects or things. The interaction of these three realms is what leads to historical movement. A society is defined as being developed when a healthy relationship is established between these three realms. However, when this relationship is shaken, the ties relating these realms become loose and they all fail to fulfill the collective work in an effective way. As a result, it leads to failure.

Bennabi divides societies into two kinds: the natural society and the historical society. The natural society is a static society like that of ants, bees, the African society before colonialism and the Arab society before the rise of Islam. The historical society (al-MujtamaÑ al-TÉrÊkhÊ), however, is the one that appears in some particular initial situation but later it starts to develop its initial characteristics toward advancement. In its development, this society undergoes three stages that are: (1) a stage before development, (2) a stage of development, (3) a stage after development. Bennabi identifies these three stages to those of the human being. For him, a civilization undergoes three stages similar to those of a child.

In a nutshell, Bennabi has greatly contributed towards the human capital development (al-ÍaÌÉrah). Bennabi’s message, in sum, is that if the Muslim ummah to make history and play its universal role it is entitled to play. It must engage all its intellectual capacity in a fundamental reexamination of its culture in proper manner for the sake of Islam and its civilization.

* this article actually taken from the conclusion of my brief assignment of "Malek Bennabi's thought on civilization".