Doha: The Department of Islamic Research and Studies at the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs has launched the second season of the series of the cultural project: Ummah Symposia Series: values are foundation of civilisation, the absent alternative.
The event was held at the hall of Sheikh Abdulla Bin Zaid Al Mahmoud Islamic Cultural Centre in the presence of Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs H E Ghanem bin Shaheen bin Ghanem Al Ghanim, with the attendance of a contingent of researchers and academics, namely Prof. Abdulaziz bin Suleiman from College of Sharia and Islamic Studies Qatar University, assistant dean for Academic Affairs at the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies at Qatar University, Dr. Muhammad bin Abu Bakr Al Musleh and assistant professor at the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies Qatar University, Dr. Muhammad Abdullah Al Saei.
The symposium touched on a range of critical themes, such as the religious dimension of values, civilization as a religious value, advancement as a value-based behaviour, contemporary civilizations need for values, invoking the alternative and achieving civilisational witnesses.
In his inaugural remarks before the symposium, Director of the Department of Research and Islamic Studies at the Ministry of Endowments (Awqaf) and Islamic Affairs, Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Mohammed Ghanem Al Thani, welcomed the guests and said the first Ummah symposium will look for the absent alternative and highlight the religious and spiritual dimension for Islamic values, establishment of Islamic civilization on values of revelation, and the search for elements of advancement, in an attempt to achieve civilisational witnesses by invoking the absent alternative.
Muhammad Abdullah Al Saei talked about the religious dimension for values, outlining that talks about values and morals can be attributed to a myriad of factors, as these tenets have special spaces in the revelation texts, in addition to the special status given to these values in the Shariah.
These tenets have a remarkable impact on building the renaissance and civilisation of all nations whether in ancient or contemporary times as demonstrated in the historic studies of these civilizations, Al Saei added, stressing the importance of realising the fact that the increasing social problems over the time are largely connected with existential flaws in values and these challenges are mounting globally.
He highlighted that weak nations are obviously the weaker ones to defend themselves and they are close to keep up with these tenets when requested, that is why the topic of values poses a concern for these nations, because they want to survive in a world in which they no longer want to be the most powerful.
For his part, Dr. Muhammad bin Abu Bakr Al Musleh highlighted the most significant components to readvance the values of communities, stressing that contemporary civilisations need these values, pointing out that values represent a system of societal normative concepts governing human thoughts and behaviours, in terms of goodness and ugliness or acceptance and response.
