Principles of Modern Civilisation

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

Ustadz Sa’id Ukur Nursi (r.a.) wrote, “The principles of present-day civilisation are almost wholly negative.  Its foundations and its values rest on five main principles, and its machinery runs on these.  They are as follows.  Firstly, its central point of reference and support is force instead of right, and the mark of force is aggression and hostility, and their result is treachery.  Secondly, its goal is self-interest instead of virtue, and the mark of self-interest is rivalry and dispute, and their result is criminality.  Thirdly, its guiding law of life is conflict instead of cooperation, and the mark of conflict is contention and mutual repulsion, and their result is poverty.  Fourthly, its principle for social interrelationships is racialism, which flourishes through harming others and is nourished through devouring others.  The mark of racialism and nationalism is the existence of endless clashes and disastrous collisions, and their result is annihilation.  Fifthly, its aim is to excite the lusts and appetites of the lower soul, and to facilitate the gratification of whims and desires, all resulting in vice.  The mark of lust and passion is always vice, which changes man into a beast, changing his character, deforming him and perverting his humanity.  If most of the so-called ‘civilised’ people in the world were turned inside out, you would see their characters in the form of apes and foxes, snakes and dogs, bears and swine.”