MODERN MAN

Till the beginning of the present century, it had been generally understood in the civilized world that the secret of progress was simply to lead man from the traditional to the modern. But, having reached his destination, man has again fallen prey to frustration. His feeling now is that to achieve real progress, man needs to have a more profound philosophical base from which to launch himself Various articles on this issue have recently been published under such headings as ‘Shallow are the Roots,’ etc.

Now, writers in the western world are taking up this issue. One of the more prominent is William E. Connolly, who authored Political Theory and Modernity.

Professor Connolly writes:

The whole project of modernity, despite its stunning success, is highly problematic. This is because all attempts to fill the place which God was forced to vacate at the start of the project—with reason, with the general will, the dialectic of history—have been of no avail, and each has ended up in one kind of nihilism or another.

Before the advent of Islam, the world was in the grip of polytheism. Men’s minds were ruled by polytheistic thoughts. The creature had taken the place of the Creator. Man worshipped innumerable gods. As a result, his whole way of thinking had gone awry, and the door to all progress remained locked.

Then Islam came to the world. Its main objective was to put an end to polytheism and to give monotheism the place of predominance. After great sacrifice on the part of the Prophet and his companions, polytheism was indeed displaced forever, giving monotheism the ascendancy. The effect of this revolution was so far-reaching, that monotheism remained in full force for almost a thousand years. Then came the emergence of modern industrial civilization. This civilization initially came into being in Western Europe under the influence of the Islamic revolution. Its influence later spread all over the world. The negative aspect of this civilization is its emphasis on materialism to the exclusion of all else. Its positive aspect is its continuation of the effect of the Islamic revolution in emancipating human thought.