The Ummah and its Cultural and Civilizational Capabilities

The title is a research paper by Amirmohsen Erfan and Ali Bayat published in “The History of Islamic Culture and Civilization: Quarterly Journal of Research”, Volume 5, Issue 15 (Summer 2014). The following is an excerpt from its abstract.

The Islamic Ummah

The subject of “Ummah” and “Islamic Ummah” has mostly been taken into account within a social science approach and is less focused on from a cultural and civilizational perspective.

Objective and Method of the article

With an analytic-descriptive approach and referring to the Ummah’s components, this study intends to explicate the concept and role of the Ummah in the process of Islamic civilization construction and also to represent that what capabilities and capacities this theory has in cultural enrichment and civilization construction. It is obvious that “Madinat ul-Nabi” and the period of growth and prosperity of the Islamic civilization are its historical form and also the foundation of its analysis.

Findings

Deep social coordination and integrity, idealization for social changes and identity-developing functions are among the findings of this study which are included in the cultural and civilizational capabilities and capacities of these teachings.

Conclusion

For this paper, it is known that “creating common ideas”, congruency in wills and thoughts of nations”, “dropping the public rituals”, “negating the tribal, social, racial and ethnic limitations” and “simultaneous homogenizing and discriminating” are among the identity-developing functions and capabilities of the teachings of the Islamic Ummah.