THE TIMELESSNESS OF PROPHET MUHAMMAD AND THE NATURE OF THE VIRTUOUS CIVILISATION
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Abstract
This essay seeks to re-emphasise the ontological status and trans-historical nature of Prophet Muḥammad as a timeless figure as well as central feature of Islamic civilisation as understood and venerated by Muslims. It presents critique on the misrepresentation of the Holy Prophet’s noble character resulting from some modernist interpretations influenced by modern scientific method that deviates from sound reasoning from Islām’s perspective on certain aspects of the Holy Prophet’s nature. A special emphasis is placed on the moral leadership as well as great ethical quality of the Holy Prophet that raised people who brought forth the Islamic civilisation into fruition. Re-defining the Age of the Holy Prophet to be the Golden Age of Islām, this essay proposes the nature of Islamic Civilisation as a Virtuous Civilisation, the culmination of the Holy Prophet’s virtuous character. Finally, comparing modern characterisation of Western civilisation as industrial-technological civilisation and recent effort by China to become an ecological civilisation, it concludes that Virtuous Civilisation is the current imperative for Muslims today alongside re-Islamising Muslim thought in a collectively intelligent and progressive manner with the Holy Prophet’s age and its moral and ethical quality of social perfection as the reference point.
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