Views on Western civilization
In his book ''Medeniyet-i Şer'iyye ve Terakkiyat-ı Diniyye'' (The Civilization of theMaterially and spiritually, the Western civilization has two aspects, one of which is useful and one of which is harmful to humanity. Thehadiths Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...of our Prophet clearly allow and encourage the adoption of useful innovations of Western civilization by Muslims: "If one person invents something beautiful and this invention becomes useful to the people, this inventor would be blessed by God until theDay of Judgment The Last Judgment is a concept found across the Abrahamic religions and the '' Frashokereti'' of Zoroastrianism. Christianity considers the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to entail the final judgment by God of all people who have ever lived, res ...," and, "You (people) know better the worldly matters.“ These hadiths clearly show that theIslamic religion Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number 2 billion worldwide and are the world's second-largest religious populatio ...does not forbid good and utilitarian inventions that will benefit theMuslim community ' (; ) is an Arabic word meaning Muslim identity, nation, religious community, or the concept of a Commonwealth of the Muslim Believers ( '). It is a synonym for ' (, lit. 'the Islamic nation'); it is commonly used to mean the collective comm ...and ensure its progress. The use of all tools and skills – from the sewing needle to railroads, artillery, iron-clad warships and dreadnoughts, airplanes, and instruments of communication, land and sea trade, various arts and crafts, factories, agricultural tools and any other useful invention – is condoned and recommended in Islam. To prepare the ground for these inventions, Islam in fact orders the education of every individual, male and female. As understood from the works of European sociologistGustave Le Bon Charles-Marie Gustave Le Bon (7 May 1841 – 13 December 1931) was a leading French polymath whose areas of interest included anthropology, psychology, sociology, medicine, invention, and physics. He is best known for his 1895 work '' The Crowd: ..., industry, like other aspects of civilization, was first instituted six or seven thousand years ago inAsia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...by theAssyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...ns, later moving toEgypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe .... The development of early Greek art is due to the influence of the civilizations of theTigris The Tigris ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the eastern of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian Desert, Syrian and Arabia ...and theNile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy .... Thanks to this favorable attitude towards science and scholarship, Muslims adopted the scientific discoveries of the earlier civilizations ofEgypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...andGreece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ..., and later surpassed these civilizations by excelling in the arts and sciences. As a consequence ofcrusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...to Muslim countries, uropeanCrusaders brought Islamic arts to Europe. This prepared the ground for the rise and blossoming of European art. Europeans marvelled at the radiant splendor of the Andalusian civilization inIberia The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, compri ...pain and Portugal In these ages nowiki/>early Middle Ages">early_Middle_Ages.html" ;"title="nowiki/>early Middle Ages">nowiki/>early Middle Ages western Europeans had languished in a miserable condition, living in savagery, ignorance, and darkness. The origins of Western civilization are, therefore, found in Eastern civilization. Despite this, Islam inaugurated a new era for the development of the useful aspects of progress and created a wonderful civilization. One could wonder why today's Muslims are deprived of these high values. We believe that the most obvious answer is because they neglected one of the important requirements of the Muslim religion: to work in order to earn. Muslims could benefit from their religion only by living their life, conducting their business and acting according to the high principles of Islam and applying them faithfully. If Muslims keep these principles only in books and other documents and do not actually apply them to their daily life, they cannot benefit from them. The Prophet Muhammad said: "some knowledge is like ignorance.“ Knowledge that is not put into practice is no different from the lack of knowledge. The learned person who does not use this knowledge cannot distance himself from the common people. It is clear that the Islamic religion allows and encourages the good and beneficial aspects of Western civilization, and forbids the decadent, immoral, vice-prone and ugly side of it (such as unbelief [atheism">Atheism">unbelief [atheism oppression, prostitution, gambling, drinking alcohol, or dancing). Islam prohibits the immoral aspects of Western civilization, such as bars, theatres, brothels and gambling dens. Therefore, it is strictly forbidden in Islam to imitate the Western lifestyle and live like non-Muslims. In fact, Western civilization is far from being a model civilization for humanity to adopt, since it does not take an interest in the moral aspects and spiritual happiness of humanity, but focuses only on material gains and encourages mankind's animal instincts.
Memorial and film
There is a small memorial in İskilip and in 1993 a film about him, İskilipli Atıf Hoca / Kelebekler Sonsuza Uçar (Turkish), was released.References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Iskilipli Mehmed Atif 1875 births 1926 deaths People from İskilip Turkish Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam Turkish Islamists Executed Turkish people People executed by Turkey by hanging People executed for treason against Turkey 20th-century executions by Turkey