The Religious Justifications for the Preservation of Cultural Heritages

Each cultural heritage was at a time considered to be a significant phenomenon causing it to last to the present time. Accordingly, letters, old contracts, tablets, sculptures, roles, signs, buildings, and the like can be referred to as "objective history" or lasting ones, against "scientific history." Objective or ever-lasting history is a bridge between the past to the future. This study, by using descriptive and historical methods via documentary and library resources, sets out to investigate the Islamic foundations and underpinnings of the necessity for the preservation of objective history; namely, historical monuments. Various Quran verses as well as religious narrations and sayings are interpreted as highly recommending for the preservation of both objective and scientific history. There are ten foundational and pivotal theoretical basis for the preservation of cultural heritages including the tradition of writing and narration, the status of tourism and scientific tour in Islam, the right path of conservation of the historical heritages left from the past kings and emperors, reflection over the story of saving the body of Pharaoh from the sea, the need for drawing on prophetic traditions, the practical approach of religious scholars toward statutes and carved figures belonging to pre-Islamic history, the right path of endowment in Islam (vaqf), and fundamental status of mosques and temples in Islamic school of thought. It seems that on this basis, the Prophet and his chosen followers and past jurisprudents had not ordered the destruction of any historical works other than idols. Additionally, at the beginning of Islam, the currency in circulation among Moslems in Mecca and Medina, Iraq, and Syria were the Roman and Persian coins for over a decade. In sum, if the need for preserving the ancient heritage is taken as an acceptable notion of ‘progress’, this study intends to display a link between Islamic traditions and the concepts of development and progress.