Criteria of Civilization (in Customary and Divine Approaches)

Criteria of civilization can be listed and applied in evaluating civilization from two perspectives; the modern western perspective which is inclined towards the secular civilization formed in the West; the divine perspective which is inclined towards the Islamic civilization and its related sources (especially the Holy Quran) in the East. What is mentioned in the present article using inductive method is an instance of the new criteria regarding civilization in today’s secular discourse of the West. After reviewing the customary and worldly criteria of the western civilization, some of the civilizational criteria taken from the Quran (ethical criteria of civilization, doctrinal criteria of civilization, and social criteria of civilization) are taken into consideration to clarify that in addition to the modern criteria which are worthy of consideration and of course can be criticized in human experience, different criteria of civilization can be studied and human civilizations can be analyzed and evaluated using a different approach. Emphasis on such religious and Quranic criteria is essential and highly important in formulating a different process of the Islamic civilization and determining its distinctive nature and boundaries from the western civilization.