Seminar discusses means of knowledge, impact on shaping awareness | Metaglossia: The Translation World | Scoop.it
A seminar was organised by the Ministry of Endowment (Awqaf) and Islamic Affairs on the sidelines of the Ramadan Book Fair and titled 'Means of knowledge and their impact on shaping awareness', at Al Jasra Theatre in Souq Waqif.
April 10 2022 10:58 PM
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Moderated by journalist Abdullah al-Buainain, the event featured Dr Abdulaziz Chahbar, an expert in the Department of Islamic Affairs, Professor of Eastern Religions and Civilisations at Abdelmalek al-Saadi University in Tetouan, Morocco.

By Tawfik Lamari/Staff Reporter

 

A seminar was organised by the Ministry of Endowment (Awqaf) and Islamic Affairs on the sidelines of the Ramadan Book Fair and titled 'Means of knowledge and their impact on shaping awareness', at Al Jasra Theatre in Souq Waqif.
Moderated by journalist Abdullah al-Buainain, the event featured Dr Abdulaziz Chahbar, an expert in the Department of Islamic Affairs, Professor of Eastern Religions and Civilisations at Abdelmalek al-Saadi University in Tetouan, Morocco.
Dr Chahbar initially spoke about the impact of the mission of the Prophet (PBUH), and the revelation in shaping awareness among the early Muslims. He stressed that this event was a transformation in shaping awareness, as it was evident in the clarity of logic and the strength of perseverance among the early Muslims. He cited the hadith of Jaafar bin Abi Taleb in the presence of the Negus when Amr Ibn Al-Aas went to ask the Muslims to return from Abyssinia.
The expert pointed out that the early Muslims in this period established a new society that applies the teachings of revelation and in the way that the Messenger (PBUH) was explaining. So discipline was established in society with this shift, which was not limited to the people of the Arabian Peninsula alone.
"At that time we find that it changed peoples and tribes from Tashkent to Tangier to the borders of sub-Saharan Africa, in a short time, into bonded cultures from the materialistic creed imposed upon them. Then the Arab, Persian, Sindhi, Chinese, Malawian, Indian, African, Amazigh, Gothic and Roman became fused into a single awareness pattern with different languages and mechanisms of thought. Hence, upon the guidance of the revelation they built an effective civilisation that presented mankind with scientific conquests."
Dr Chahbar talked about the impact of the Islamic civilisation on other civilisations, and explained that the means of knowledge are obtained through the mind, heart and senses. The beholder achieves what he contemplates with the mind and what he believes with the heart.
"This approach made Muslim scholars excel in different languages through translation and then creativity based on this approach calls for knowledge. Consequently, excellence in various sciences and arts such as medicine, engineering, pharmacy, mathematics, chemistry and others."
He said that Muslims today need to recall the spirit of the shift that occurred during the era of the Messenger of Allah, in order for progress and improvement to occur in accordance with the context and mechanisms of the Revelation, and according to the ideas that have settled in the hearts of the people of the (Muslim) nation over fifteen centuries, along with every useful human thought.
Dr Chahbar continued: "The day we comprehend the revelation, our awareness will be renewed. The day we realise that our comprehensive cultural security is possible to achieve and to be achieved, we must produce our food, sew our clothes, manufacture our medicine, preserve our borders, make the right choice for the investment of our capabilities, educate all our peoples, and provide a favourable environment to be an incubator for our creative and innovative minds to invent sciences for humanity, in a similar way to what happened in our past history. We must make good use of modern technologies, so we acquire them instead of allowing them to capture us, and we apply them to produce content and useful knowledge, and we harness them according to the laws of what Allah has made for us.”
The first ever Ramadan Book Fair is organised by the Ministry of Culture's Qatar Centre for Cultural and Heritage Events. It will continue until April 16 in the western square of Souq Waqif, with the participation of 35 publishers from Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon , Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, India, and Australia.