The Crisis of Civilization and the Problem of Knowledge

There is a unique collection of philosophical, logical, and critical arguments about the imperative for Muslims to revert to Al-Qur'ān to find solutions to economic problems. The analytic perspectives about the cycle of civilization and the problem of knowledge are provided by eminent philosophers and social critics in the past century and half, including Muhammad Iqbal’s treatise about economic science, Malek Bennabi’s seminal work on the conditions of the renaissance, Sa’eed Nursi’s magnum opus Letters of Light, and As-Shaheed Muhammad Baqir as-Sadr’s comprehensive insights about Islamic economy. Further insights are provided by Sayyid Hossein Nasr and Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas on the problem of knowledge and the notion that Al-Qur'ān is the fountainhead of ideas for every generation to conceive and implement its vision for future societies. The consistent insights reinforce the notion that it is impossible to graft Islamic and secular worldviews one onto the other and that in the greater scheme of an Islamic worldview, the current Islamic economic thought is not sustainable.