The greatness of any civilization is centered in its historical destiny, just as the historical importance of an individual is reflected in his/her personal destiny. The historical individuality of a human being and civilization is its synthesis capable of giving new impulses to various levels and areas of intellectual interpretation. In this sense, historical individuality comprises one of the basic sources of a deepening cultural (national and universal) self-consciousness.

Historical individuality comprises not only the originality of a civilization, but also the continuity of its existence. Continuity is the constant interpretation of the theoretical and practical achievements of a culture—interpretation being the continuity of a history of effective vision in each generation. From a historical point of view, civilization is a "fossilized" heritage, while its individuality is its way of transformation or self-reproduction. The individuality of a civilization depends on its "cultural spirit."

A civilization which remains in ruins and memory, can intertwine by dissolution into the updated elements of knowledge and action. The following civilizations or global civilizations provide examples: the Shumerian, Babylonian and Egyptian civilizations. They dissolved into elements that formed the Persian, Greek, and Roman civilizations. Their models and images permeated state structures and the organization of public life, natural sciences, art, and law. Equally these civilizations absorbed the earlier achievements in cosmology, metaphysics, ethical norms, and "holy commandments," and the songs and legends of the Old Testament. The historical destiny of this type of civilization shows that their greatness lies in what they wanted to achieve, instead of what they wanted to say.

Subsequent civilizations were a reincarnation of Greek and Roman civilizations by creatively mastering their material and spiritual ideals and, hence, becoming a source of inspiration for the rise of the Renaissance, Enlightenment, and industrial epochs of European civilization in science, art and politics, as well as in their way of life and the form of statehood. However, with time the ontological types of these civilizations disappeared and their shape, language, and history remain embodied in films, theatrical productions and the magnificent decorations in elite salons. The historical destiny of this type of civilization shows that their greatness lies in what they wanted to say, instead of what they wanted to achieve. This conditions its predisposition to freedom, instead of justice. From this comes the Europeanization of Greek culture, desspite its close relationship with Minor Asia, and also its Islamization, despite its pagan roots.

The example of a civilization capable of reproducing itself is found in Islamic civilization and its unity of knowledge and action as construed in its outlook as a monotheistic credo of universal order and justice. From this derives the complexity of its "modernization" according to the criteria of modern pragmatism. It is difficult to imagine the commercialization of the Hajj (pilgrimage), despite the "opportunity" of huge profits comparable to that of the Olympic Games. It is no less difficult to transform Muslim prayer into profitable decoration, despite the formal opportunity of the synchronous movement and strict organization of the huge masses of people. Any efforts or intentions to that end are doomed to failure.

Muslim culture, remaining within the framework of its own cultural spirit as a source of interpretation and inspiration, has left a deep trace in world history. Its civilized nature is an impulse of its constant creativity. From this comes the value that Muslim culture called al-Qayb (Secret Sacrament) in being and metaphysics. "Secret Sacrament" for culture does not derive from history, but is the source of its own permanent interpretation. At the same time, Muslim culture found the sense of beginnings and disappearances, giving thus metaphysical, ontological, and moral character to everything it speaks about and does.

The basic theoretical sciences of Islam such as jurisprudence (Fiqh), theology (Kalam) and mysticism (Sufism) examined being in its quality as a "written book. . Hence, Muslim civilization has reached a level where it considers itself and all available within it as words written on the "testimonies of being," being as a historical embodiment of the "Divine Testimonies." That is, Islam perceives its own development as a chapter in the book of world history. This perception follows from the cultural spirit dominant in Muslim civilization, the sole civilization whose name is not connected to space, time, nationality, or person. The worship (Islam) of the Absolute, the single transcendental God, became its historical name. It identified its vision with the Absolute, that is, Islam has transformed its feelings, reason, and intuition as part of the whole, and through it undertook diligence in all areas of life. Muslim culture saw in all that speaks and acts an active search for truth. Transformation of its opinion into rational diligence has not led it to sophistry, just as doubting its evaluations has not run it into an abyss, for its monotheistic credo expresses a just order.

The essential importance of order and justice in Muslim culture represents a unity of the logical and the historical in the monotheistic outlook of Islam. Consequently, the unity of justice and order is nothing other than the concrete form of a real correlation of the physical and metaphysical, a balance of the material and spiritual in the existence of an individual, nation and civilization.

From its inception, Muslim culture proceeded from the fact that the source of all being is a one, and just God. Accordingly, the whole variety of being is a blessing, be it alive or lifeless, nature or man. From this follows the idea about the need for the existence of different peoples and languages, while at the same time, Truth is One, and the True is One. Islam perceived this idea on the practical plane and has been absorbed as a true representation of the monotheistic outlook. The conclusions of Islam about the equality of all prophets of Monotheism are based on this, for it saw in them the representatives of the Truth and the True (God).

The representation of Truth and the True in Muslim culture is constituted of a unity of history and authenticity. This is conditioned by the formation of Muslim culture and the further transformation of Muslim civilization into an Empire of culture in which the leading place was occupied by the history of Truth, instead of religious, ethnic, or national components. Being a history of Truth and the True, the history is infinite and has neither beginning nor end. Muslim culture did not see Christ a Christian, just as it did not see Moses a Jew, but portrayed them as true representatives of God, the One. All Muslims are "faithful to the Truth" and only withdrawal from Truth results in their dissociation. The prophets call not for different religions, but to God, the One. God is One and God is just; history is not a theater, but a book, whose reading is also its writing.

This conclusion has determined the civilizational openness and cultural authenticity of Islam, and has defined its general position in the assiduous pursuit of all things (irrespective of direct results). If the quest is successful, the researcher is remunerated twice, if not—only once, for "above everyone who knows there is the All-Knowing." In other words, the achievements of people or culture have relative value because they reflect the experience of concrete knowledge and actions. From this follows the idea of the culture of the "first and last sciences." "First or ancient sciences" have included everything that preceded Islam, manifesting diligence in the pursuit of truth, for they were the forerunners of all the sciences. In this sense, these sciences are diligence, containing the true and false, the correct and the erroneous.

Taking into account the experience of other peoples and cultures, Muslim culture processed this into its own criteria of evaluation and action. This is reflected in the Hadith: "Wisdom is the desired purpose of the faithful." Wisdom is true creativity and the truth in any creativity. From this follows the wisdom of China, India, Persia, Greece, Rome, and other cultures into the art, literature, theology, philosophy, and politics of the Muslim world, not as fragments or as worldly wisdom, but as reasonable and acceptable elements of consciousness. Therefore, the book Kalila and Dimna is not only a graceful sample of literature, but also a practical manual of ethics and aesthetics. The same can be said of the Greek philosophers, whose ideas deeply enriched Muslim creativity. Aristotle becomes not simply a philosopher, but the First Teacher, al-Farabi— the second is Ibn-Rushd (Averroes) - the first Commentator.

In other words, Muslim culture proceeding from its criteria of the cultural spirit transformed the experience of previous cultures into its own and included their wise men into the pantheon of its own wise men and teachers. We find a similar approach concerning the natural sciences. When Ibn Abi Usaibia (d. 668 AH) wrote his book Source of Knowledge, he recognized that "everything to which we aspire is divided either into kindness or pleasure, both of which are possible only in the presence of health." This led him to the conclusion that "in spite of the fact that the time of many wise-healers has long passed, all the knowledge of medicine assembled by them and which has been written down in books does not lose its utility, as the work of a teacher before his students does not lose virtue." This position is characteristic of Muslim culture in relation to all kinds of ancient experience. Accordingly, the inclusion of the cumulative achievement of previous civilizations into Muslim culture was not a mechanical act, or one of layers—however "thick"—but a cultural absorption into the basic paradigm of the Islamic monotheistic world outlook.

Proceeding from the general Islamic world outlook, Muslim law (Fiqh) could not abstract itself from state and public affairs for the Qur’an and Sunna were the sources of legal proceedings. Intellectual diligence in the areas of public and spiritual life not subject to the state becomes an impulse promoting the rational resolution of different vital problems. A consequence of this is bifurcation and diversity in the delicate aspects of public life while preserving the unity of the material and moral approach. Al-Tabari (d. 310 AH), for example, enumerates 27 various legal approaches to problems of guarantees in which real and probable versions of bargains and decisions are touched upon. Something similar can be found in relation to hundreds and thousands of problems and aspects of public life. This is natural to any jurisprudence, however, the specific features of Islam are determined by the paradigm of order and justice with their inherent ontological and metaphysical parameters. This defines Fiqh’s status as the science of changing needs and necessities in the system of justice. Fiqh, thus, is science which not only simply realizes and proves the values of justice according to changing needs and necessities, but also asserts right and order. Freedom as diligence in the pursuit of real needs is submission to order and justice. This implies the dominance of such concepts as best, most useful, permissible, desirable, ought, and obligatory.

Muslim culture developed, in the main, as collective instead of state’s rights, covering relations of man to man and individual to community. Al-Ghazali (d. 505 AH) in collecting all that he called "the rights of a Muslim" included an obligatory greeting at meeting [somebody], an indispensable response to a request, visiting the sick family member or and neighbor, and participation in funerals. These rights, in essence, are moral and practical forms of the internal relations of a community from cradle to grave. In their permanence the Islamic moral vision is reflected. This is stated laconically in the Hadiths: "The faithful in their mutual love and mutual mercy are a single body. If one organ suffers, the whole body answers by sweating and sleeplessness" and "the devout answers for the devout as the stones of one building each supporting the another." A truly devout person should cause damage to another devout person either by words or by deeds. This determines such moral requirements as "modesty, forgiveness, obligation of kind deeds, interdiction of long deliberate separations, censure of punishment and revenge, observance of tact and delicacy, respect for grown-ups, mercy to the younger, a dignified attitude to people, interdiction on profiting from the needs of the faithful, interdiction on spying and squealing, protection of the honor, dignity, life, and property of a Muslim from encroachment by others, support, help, etc." Al-Ghazali supplemented the "rights of a neighborhood" irrespective of his creed; not only not to damage him (even by insults), but also to suffer from him inconvenience, to show mercy to him, to share with him pleasures and grieving, and to forgive him his mistakes. Further there follows the "rights of relatives" and, first of all, those of parents which stipulates a kind attitude toward them throughout their whole life, a request for pardon after their passing, fulfillment of their promises and precepts, respect for their friends, as well as a soft and intimate attitude toward children whose careful upbringing is the right and duty of their parents. Thus, the rights of a person are not determining their interests according to the criteria of religious and secular life, but also their realization in the context of the whole surrounding world—from the general (the devout Muslims), to the particular (neighbors), and to oneself and one’s relatives. This is the moral chain that supplements the legal rules and laws developed by different schools of Fiqh that regulate social, economic and political relations.

We can observe this tendency also in relation to society. The basic criterion of this relation in Muslim culture is the priority of community and the spirit of collectivity inherent in it. Society represents a dynamic unity of the community or the collective (Umma—Jama’a; nation and collective). The correlation of community and collective corresponds to the correlation of form and content. The condition of community depends on the spirit of collectivity, which, in turn, is a reasonable and moderate proportion of the basic material and spiritual problems of its existence worked out in the process of decision-making by the community. The correlation of community—collective and their proportion define the dimensions of freedom determined by justice. This is the basis for the effectiveness of "rules" in all areas and on all levels of life from a world outlook to the intimate behavior of human beings.

In terms of world outlook the "basics of dogmatics" were developed in the many schools speculative theology (Kalam). Mutazilites, for example, proved their doctrine by five principles: justice, monotheism, recompense after Resurrection, intermediate condition, necessity of kind deeds, and resistance to evil deeds. On the basis of these principles, they developed different variants of the ideal bases of dogma called to unite the community, and to fix in it the spirit of collectivity. "The people of the Hadiths and Sunna" worked out different variants "of the fundamentals of dogma" in which they collected in detail their coordinated views on various problems—from religious metaphysics to the concrete burning problems of the socio-political history of the Caliphate. Asharities more than anybody else systematized the variants "of the fundamentals of dogma". In such a way, al-Juweyni (d. 478 AH) wrote his book Gleams of the Fundamentals of Dogma, where in a popular form he elaborated the basic principles of his theological philosophy: The world is everything existing besides God; it is divided into created substances and accidents; God is the Creator, Eternal, One, Knowing, Powerful, Alive, with eternal will; all occurring, whether useful or harmful, is desirable for God; all things are created by God; man is not forced in his deeds for he possess will-power, which is given to him; it is impossible to speak of God as if He is obliged or owes; He sends to the world prophets as preachers and messengers; miracles are not appropriate to the natural state of affairs; the proof of Muhammad’s prophecy is the Qur’an; there were only four rightly guided Caliphs; the Caliphate existed only 30years, and after it a kingdom came into being; the Imam (master of the community) should have certain qualities, that is, he should be from the Kureish clan, free in his pursuit of capable of passing a binding legal rule, courageous, full-fledged, free (not a slave) and pious in faith.

Al-Ghazali has widely contributed to the development of the fundamentals of dogma. He singled out four basic principles, each of which contains ten basic rules. The first principle relates to various aspects of the divine substance, the second to the attributes of God, the third to God’s deeds, and the fourth to various problems of the Sunna (tradition). As to other trends of Islam (such as Shi’ites, Kharijites) and various socio-political groups (such as the "Brethren of Purity"), despite their disagreements and contradictions, they support the development of the general tendency of free search. They promoted the formation of general concerns and strengthened the unity of the community and its collective spirit.

This spirit was revealed in the creation of a whole genre called edification, which is not the arrogance of a mentor or scornfulness, but a rational-emotional cultural experience. It comprises a set of reason and emotions and, their use in the upbringing of individuals and society, with the help of general sublime values. This explains the existence of theological, philosophical, mystical, literary and behavioral types, each of which has its own vision, formulations, concrete tasks, and purposes of the given edification.

In the Qur’anic verse: "call to your Lord with the help of wisdom and kind council" Muslim culture has found the ideal prototype of edification, which is reflected in the idea: "Advice is a warrior from the warriors of God. He is similar to clay on a wall—if hardened, it will strengthen the wall, if not—it will leave but a trace." Muslim culture developed different criteria and rules for edification, such as: "Edification of people is preferably by deeds rather than by words;" "one who has in his soul an instructor has God as his keeper;" "edification is difficult as an old man’s path up a mountain." Edification becomes an attractive occupation to all layers of society: Caliphs, scientists, politicians, men and women, old and young. This fascinating occupation has its source in the way culture has presented the value of word, its meaning and its consequence for the social and moral spirit of communities. Thus, the practical wisdom: "One who consults will not be disappointed;" "advice is a key to good fortune;" "self-conceit is a way of error." A similar place and role for advice and edification is reflected in the eulogy of one writer to a Vizier: "His face has one thousand eyes, in his mouth one thousand tongues, in his breast one thousand hearts." In other words, these thousands provide a variety of vision, sensations, and intuitions, and in their unity is wisdom and kindness.

Muslim culture lifted the importance of advice and edification up to a level of prophetic Sunna. As a consequence a Hadith says: "Belief is an edification in the name of God, in the name of Scripture, in the name of the Prophet, for the governors of community and for the public." (a) Edification in the name of God is a description of His inherent qualities, and submission to Him internally and externally. (b) Edification in the name of Scripture is reading and understanding it, protecting it from the attacks of opponents, and training all to grasp its true meaning. (c) Edification in the name of the Prophet is the fulfillment of his Sunna by practical deeds and moral acts. (d) Edification for governors is to help them in performing their duties, and warn them about those who damage the interests of a community. (e) Edification for the public are the favorable attitudes of respect for grown-ups, mercy for the young, and help for the needy.

Concretization of this general approach to edification has found its reflection in specialized versions of culture. Specialization reflects, on the one hand, the characteristics of different disciplines and directions, and on the other hand, the general tendency of cultures to ennoble the meaning and value of the ultimate goals of edification, as an emotional fabric for the reason of a culture. From this derives its value for rules of moral and emotional education, and of good manners. It comprises education about belonging to a culture and what it considers reasonable acts. It pervades different kinds of knowledge and action since it personifies the unity of reason and emotions which is one of the major paradigms of Muslim culture. Therefore, it is based in the Qur’an and Hadiths, and frequently was used by the Caliphs, mutakallims, faqihs, philosophers, judges, politicians, writers, poets, and historians.

Muslim edification expresses the culture’s soul and body in their attempts to define the value of its lofty principles. It includes a unity of physics and metaphysics in the "eternal formula" of history and nature, as well as the eternal in the intuition, spirit and metaphysics of the culture itself. Hence, edification is personified in the Imam (Shi’ism) and Sheikh (Sufism). They are called upon to assert and reproduce a conscious and emotional adherence of the followers and adepts to their spiritual support. Shi’ism, for example, has taken from edification the principle of the continuity of Imams as an embodiments "of eternal wisdom," while edification itself is an embodied choice of wisdom: the true Imam as well as Sheik is the embodiment of a choice of eternal wisdom or divine light. The extremist Shi’ite sect, Khattabists, for example, saw in the Imam an edification of God. As an embodiment of the Muslim Absolute in which some Shi’ite extremists saw the measure of truth, kindness and beauty, whereas in opponents they saw an embodiment of error, evil and ugliness (such as Kharisites). When the Kisanites (a Shi’ite extremist sect) say that they have no Imam, and are waiting only the dead, they mean by it the expectation of "rescuers." Actually, their future rescuers are those who do not die in time and do not live in space. This paradox has given Shi’ism an opportunity to unite the obvious and hidden, the speaking and silent (in the case of Karmats), absence and returning (in the case of Numeirits). The Imam personifies a live embodiment of the eternal edification of order and justice in their diversity as "the proof of time" and "the sovereign of time." This conditions the limitation of the number of Imams in all Shi’ite sects, and the opportunities of their "return." Shi’ism embodies in itself an invisible wisdom that all begins with one and "comes back" to infinity. Ismai’ilism and Imamism, as the largest Shi’ite trends, are the examples of that.

Of the seventh Imam it is said: "I am the Saturday of Saturdays, sun of times and light of months". This means that he embodies an infinite cycle of permanence and change. The cycle of Imamites "comes to an end" in the 12th Imam. Being the last, he is the expected one, the last, he is constantly existing as he embodies an infinite opportunity of divine edification through personification of edification itself a sublime authority (transcendental paradigm). This is reflected in the names of Imams that imitate the Muslim 99 perfect names of God.

Sufism has come to the same result by an embodiment of edification into a Path, as a unity of the constant and variable, Stage and Condition (makam - hal), Truth and Path (haqiqat-tarikat), Sheikh and Murid (teacher and disciple). Sufis can be divided, accordingly, in the way the teachers develop and specify the universal Sufi systems of edification for their disciples. Every Sheik has his own edification for disciples in terms of knowledge and action. It is possible to say that Sufism per se is edification. Ibn-Arabi (d. 638 AH), for example, saw in edification "an eternal Divine Judgement." Without edification, people would live as if blind, thanks to it people, states, and civilizations thrive. Such comprehension of the value of edification has found its reflection in the 109 edifications of "Mecca revelations," which cover all aspects of life and the aspirations to the perfection of human beings.

A similar form of rules of behavior was developed by Muslim civilization for performing religious rites and etiquette. It worked out in detail the most delicate movements of body and soul, not only in relation to such duties as prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, and Zakat, but also in relation to diet, sleep, body-cleansing, conversation, etc. Various trends and disciplines skillfully perfected these rules, giving them new directions and meanings. All this in aggregate has resulted in the formation of a certain system—conservative, but susceptible to change and capable of self-reproduction. This ability is a consequence of Muslim culture with its typical unity of principles material and spiritual, sensual and rational, beneficial and moral.

On the basis of these rules for behavior in both religious and secular life, Islamic culture has developed variants of social ethics. It covers all external and internal aspects of the behavior of man, for the sake of ordering the components of human life according to Islamic understanding. This Islamic culture has not bypassed any part of the human body, or any movement of the human soul, but has replaced the flesh and blood of the Muslim with its own (cultural) flesh and blood. It presents man with variants of the real and the obligatory, the obvious and the hidden, the popular (mass) and the elite on all planes of existence. Culture has defined the parameters of a person’s belonging to Islam as a Muslim and as a "believer (devout)." Each of these categories has external and internal, general and specific characteristics. A Muslim, in general and externally, represents the necessary minimum of belonging to the community (Umma). Something similar can be encountered in all that concerns body and soul, in all branches of dogmatics, ethics, politics, etc., owing to the need for real of order in terms of culture.

Muslim culture is a culture of proper order. Everything that enters it should be dissolved and renewed in terms of Muslim criteria and evaluation. Its order is based on a proportional unity of the reasonable (rational) and the transmitted (faith), which have accumulated in the experience of the Muslim community. From this there follows the impossibility of its division. During its development, Muslim culture has worked out a balance of the basic necessary components of its existence. The result of this balance was an overcoming of the "spirit of discrepancy" between religious and secular life, science and faith, individual and community, man and God, state and society. It has transformed the ideal prototype of these binaries into both the source and the criteria of its own pursuit. The culmination of the ordering of the spirit became the end result of the formation of its cultural unity.

The Muslim cultural unity does not mean a standardization of culture, but rather the reasonable proportion of its basic components, because the spirit of order is what is most essential in Muslim culture. Order is moderation determined by a priority of justice. This makes justice the prism in which the socio-political and ethical values of community are refracted. The social, political, and military collisions of the first century of Hijra—a century of turbulent formation of the Caliphate—were related basically to the struggle around the ideas of justice. The early Kharijites and Shi’ites were the first people tested through the prism of the Islamic understanding of justice. These trends were formed originally in response to the perception of the deviation of authorities from the initial principles of Islamic justice, especially during the reign of the third Caliph Osman Ibn-Afan (d. 35 AH), in constant protest against the excesses and luxurious lives of the rulers. One of the famous disciples of the prophet Abu-Thar al-Gifari (d. 22 AH) proclaimed as his slogan the verse in the Qur’an that says: "One who accumulates gold and silver and does not spend them in the name of God, is awaited by a terrible punishment." Osman Ibn-Afan was assassinated by a rebellious community, which realized in practice the Islamic principle that declares: "There is no obedience to God." Obedience in this case is synonymous to justice. It is well known that all those who support and criticize the actions of the masses at the early stages of state formation, as a rule take the form of sharp disagreement, condemnation, and disobedience, reflecting the feeling of withdrawal from truth and justice. Therefore, the wide discussion of socio-political and ethical problems such as faithfulness and blasphemy, good and evil, sin and repentance, freedom of will and predetermination, etc., is not accidental. Accusations of blasphemy were closely connected to the question of "mortal sins" whose criterion was withdrawal from truth and justice. The Kharijites, for example, in the beginning of their activity considered it possible to name any person blasphemous when they commit the slightest evil. Later, they considered blasphemous any person who committed one of the mortal sins. Ibadites-Kharijites considered such a person an apostate (from blessings). The Kharijites were against the deliberate and cowardly separation of word and deed, belief and action. Azrakites condemned those who do not fight against the tyrants who were the real teachers of blasphemy. They deeply felt the value of the state and the function of supreme authority within it, which led the Baikhasites-Kharijites to the conclusion: "If the supreme ruler is blasphemous, then all the members of the community both present and absent are part of this act." Ibadites considered those Muslims who disagree with such rulers to be believers, whereas the governors were criminals. Nadjites, in general, supposed possibility a community without an Imam (governor), if its members observe practically the Qur’anic instructions. All this shows that the basic motive of the socio-political and ethical thought and actions of the Kharijites was justice.

We find a similar motive in Shi’ism, as an embodiment of the emotional aspect of justice and truth in the personification of the Imam, who appears as a sublime image of the Muslim self or identity. This conditions the transformation of the problem of the Imamate and Imam into a problem of fundamental beliefs (based on a creed), instead of a particular political issue. Shi’ism underscores that the Imam is an embodiment of Truth and the True, that is, the substantial value that glues together the order of our life.

Alongside Kharajites and Shi’ites, there appeared trends, such as Jahmites, Murji’ites, and others, each of which tried in its own way to substantiate ideas of justice as moderation and moderation as justice. The highest form of comprehension and realization of this idea among schools of Kalam was developed by the Mutazilites. For the first time in the Caliphate history, they created a comprehensive ideological system about justice, having transformed it theoretically and practically into a universal principle of their metaphysics, ontology, and ethics.

In building their doctrine, the Mutazilites proceeded from the principle of justice and ended with the principle of monotheism. From this followed their name: the "people of justice and monotheism." This name reflects their deep and all-round understanding of the essence of Islam. Mutazilites aspired to unite the physical and historical sense of Islam by identifying monotheism with justice and vice versa. In this light it is some kind of rational-ethical synthesis, which, in the general development of Islamic civilization, has promoted a deepening affirmation of the cultural spirit of Islam.

If God created injustice, He would be unfair; if He created justice then He is fair. According to all Mutazilite schools, God performs only what is good and perfect, because, according to wisdom, it is necessary to encourage and to protect all that is good and beneficial to people. All this is accessible to reason, for it is reasonable, and what is reasonable should be real: supreme reason is justice. The Mutazilte al-Nazzam (d. 231 AH) said in this regard that God is not capable of doing to people anything that contradicts what is virtuous for them. Al-Iskafi (d. 240 AH) asserted that God cannot do injustice to reasonable beings (people); hence, our world is the best of worlds and is accessible to rational comprehension. Man is capable of realizing justice in this world, for the existence of the world assumes the presence of justice, both from the point of view of its divine origin as a principle, and from the point of view of its reasonable continuation in human activity.

This conclusion, as a whole, was shared by the major representatives of Caliphate intellectual schools, including the Hanbalite. Ibn-Taymiyya (d. 728 AH), for example, focused attention on problems of justice, considering it as basic to his approach to state and society. His general conclusion states: Justice is the source of the material and moral immunity of the state and person from evil.

As to philosophers, they shared the view about the value of universal justice for all beings. Islamic philosophy, in general, put justice as the basis of its rational and moral understanding of the world, and on this developed its understanding of such problems as God and man, state and society, life and death, goodness and evil, perfect and ugly. Proceeding from this, al-Kindi (d. 252 AH) elaborated his notion of reason and justice; al-Farabi (d. 339 AH) the notion of the ideal city and happiness; Ibn-Sina (d. 428 AH) the system of being and knowledge; Ibn-Rushd (d. 595 AH) the synthesis of traditions and truth in their various forms and aspects. The cumulative achievement of Islamic philosophy facilitated the assertion of a vision of justice as the core of what is reasonable and proper for human existence as a whole.

The Sufis asserted a proportion between justice as an actuality and as something that is due or ought to be. According to the Sufis, God is absolute harmony, unity of contrasts, and live proportion that indefatigably pervades the universe. This is reflected in their name: "the people of Truth." Truth here means perfect proportion in all. This is defined as a living immanent proportion of ontology, metaphysics, and morals, expressed in the unity of the Way (Tariqat), Law (shari’a) and Truth (Haqiqah). This means that truth has its law and Way. Sufis embodied truth through the laws (Shari’a) of its culture (Muslim) and its Way, showing that the great truths are those of culture. The originality of these truths is inherent in them, for they represent the spirit and pursuit of justice and order. One finds ideal methods for this pursuit in the great systems of al-Ghazali and Ibn-Arabi.

The priority of the ideas of justice and order in all the theoretical and practical sciences of Muslim civilization reflects, first of all, a comprehension of the cultural value of proportion. The point is that justice and order are, first of all, proportions. But proportion is not simply a necessary and existing quantity of things, but also a way for interaction and mutual influences. In this sense it arises and develops in proportion to how the correlation of the physical and metaphysical in culture is resolved.

From its very inception Muslim tried to assimilate the Qur’anic ideal of "just ways". This is the middle of moderation, justice and truth as the ideal order. In other words, comprehension of moderation as the necessary and reasonable proportion of the existence of the community and commonwealth penetrates its attitude to itself (physical level) and to God (metaphysical level). It lays out for itself a way with its rites (soul) and customs (body).

By uniting soul and body, Muslim culture developed for itself ideal methods and proportionate forms of exterior and interior prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, and Zakat. Prayer is the movement of the body, tongue, and heart (three-multiple or five-multiple) in the direction of God (or in spatial terms to the Ka’aba). Fasting is the movement of the body (stomach) in time (Ramadan) for the sake of God. Pilgrimage is movement of the whole body in time (once in a lifetime, or once yearly as far as possible) for the sake of God. Zakat is the movement of the whole body (material, money) in time (once a year) for the purification of the soul. This means that Islam attaches the individual and public body to an harmonious fraternal movement of tongue, heart, stomach, and soul (for taxes in Islam are, first of all, to purify souls, and then only to solve economic problems of the community). Islam unites in movement of body and soul, space and time by tying them into a single whole on behalf of a uniformity of God, community, body and soul, i.e., all that creates unity in community and diversity in individuals. The same mechanism works in customs. For example, Fiqh represents the typical embodiment of the unity of reason and morals concerning the social, economic, and legal life of the community. It has incorporated a reasonable proportion of interests (benefit, advantage) and preferences (morals). Fiqh unites the basis (Qur’an and Sunna) with the intellectual diligence of the various trends of Shafi’sm, Malikism, Hanafism, Hanbalism, Jafarism, Zahirism, Batinism, etc.

The great diversity in the forms of Islamic culture within its overall unity expresses, first of all, the pursuit of reasonable proportion in and of an ideal order. The result of this pursuit was the creation of its universal paradigms and the predominance of the spirit of proportion and order, due to which the basic binaries have a footing which facilitates the building "mechanisms" of moderation (justice) and organization (order). In the methodology of knowledge, Muslim culture has created binary relations of the reasonable and transmittable; in the image of life—a binaries of the religious and the secular; in relation to the Qur’an—binaries of explanation and interpretation, esoterism and exoterism, in Fiqh—binaries of the fundamental source and free pursuit of Faqihs, free diligence and common consent by recognized Faqihs. These and many other binaries promoted the creation of a unique system of knowledge and action as the Muslim cultural spirit.

The transformation of the basic binaries of Muslim culture into substantial elements of creativity of the cultural spirit represents a specific resolution by Islam of the correlation between the physical and the metaphysical in the socio-historical life of the individual, society and state. Not every binary and paradigm, or system of binaries and paradigms, is capable of creating a pure cultural spirit capable of constantly overcoming the ethnic "principle" by binding them into a system of the lofty principles of a consistent world outlook.

The basic binaries of the Muslim spirit were historically formed as components of a monotheistic system, which in turn has resulted in the creation of an Islamic cultural monolith. Working through the system of basic binaries the Muslim cultural monolith constantly corrected the spirit of moderation in dogmatic knowledge and action. This has resulted in a dynamics of unity and diversity. By virtue of its inherent synchronous binary action diversity (including disagreement and antagonism) has promoted the substantiation of an ideal proportion of the best possible order.

Comprehension of the cultural reality of proportion in an ideal order can lead to a unity of means and purpose in knowledge and action both within and without. This unity is reflected in the diversity of the creative efforts of Islamic civilization according to the criteria of its own culture. The formation of the unity and diversity of the creative spirit of Muslim culture underwent the direct and indirect influence of the basic binaries of culture. Consequently, there were diverse trends of Kalam. There were diverse schools of every trend, and the creative diversity within each school and scholars, while retaining a unity in protecting the basic principles of the Muslim world outlook. Al-Jahiz (d. 225 AH), al-Bakillani (d. 403 AH), Ibn-Khazm (d. 456 AH) and Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 AH) are typical examples of this trend. Al-Jahiz is a classical representative of Mutazilism and, at the same time, the founder of an independent school. This is also characteristic of Ibn-Khazm within the framework of Zahirism (an exoteric trend), of al-Bakillani—within Asharism, and of Ibn al-Jawzi—within Hanbalism.

This type of diversity, which conventionally can be called horizontal or quantitative, has its continuation in the so-called vertical or qualitative dimension, and in the creative unity of both. Al-Jahiz, for example, is not only a representative of Mutazilism, but also of its encyclopedic type. He is not only the founder of Arab rhetoric and eloquence, but also a consistent defender of the Islamic cultural spirit. On the one hand, he glorified the role of the Arabic language in Islamic civilization, trying to identify as characteristic of Arabs, their eloquence. On the other hand, he helped prevent the attacks on those peoples who joined the Islamic world. Thus, he wrote a series of books about the dignity of Turks, the superiority of blacks in comparison to whites, and much more in order to prove the presence of certain merits in other peoples. Every people is reputable; it is necessary to avoid hubris and arrogance in relation to others. Al-Jahiz expressed this conclusion in a series of short stories about invalids, the blind, cross-eyed persons and the otherwise handicapped to prove that body defects are nothing in comparison with the aspiration to free will; for, in the last analysis, man is will, and the rest is only its clothing. He transformed this conclusion into one of his basic philosophical principles proclaiming that all free actions of man are deeds of his will; indeed in childhood one has nothing else. He exposed this idea in tens of books and treatises, thereby creating an anthropological encyclopedia of his epoch. Simultaneously he wrote a well-known study, Book About Animals, an encyclopedia of extensive knowledge about everything.

Another example is al-Bakillani who personifies the Asharite model of the theological substantiation of belief. For this purpose, he develops "rules of discussion," clearly stating them in his treatises at-Tamhid, al-Ibana, etc. Al-Bakillani consistently carried out the Asharite line using the rational method of "reasons of belief" in disputes with opponents. He has written on such diverse subjects as the history of religion, metaphysics, politics, history, jurisprudence, and philology. He engaged also in politics, yet without falling under its spell.

Ibn-Khazm represented an ideal sample of the esoteric school of Muslim culture. This is manifest in his encyclopedia on the history of religion, theology, and philosophy Kitab al-Fasl, where he passes judgement on the correctness or inconsistency of the viewpoints of different religious, theological and philosophical schools. In this as in his other studies including his grandiose study on Fiqh; Al-Muhalla, he defines, in a strict and categorical manner his position on the questions under discussion. His personal life was an embodiment of his moral rigor and ideological severity; and at the same time he authored delicate love poems assembled in his famous book, Dayq al-Hamama (Necklace of a Dove).

Something similar can be seen in the person and studies of Ibn al-Jawzi, though Hanbalites are usually quite strict and sober. Among the brightest figures of the Hanbalites, alongside Ibn-Taymiyya, is Ibn al-Jawzi authored traditional treatises on theology and religious dogmatics and a large historiographic volume, Al-Muntazi, where he expounds the history of the Caliphate and the outstanding figures of Muslim culture. But in his famous treatise, Narration about Silly and the Stupid he relates ridiculous histories and jokes about the most improbable aspects of secular and religious life. At the same time, he shows the need for an exposition of the value of reason and vigilance, as well as for protection for the heart from illnesses with the help of ridiculous jokes and irony, for irony and mockery are characteristic of reasonable (wise) persons.

This unity that lies behind the diversity of creativity in the various trends and disciplines follows from the established system of moderate proportions in Muslim culture itself. In other words, in its movement culture processes elements of rebellion and organization, freedom and constraint, revolution and conservatism as natural and necessary proportions of creativity—in poetry, music, fine arts, and architecture. In poetry, we find typical samples of secular life with all its elements in Abu Nuwas, piety and asceticism in Abu al-Atahiyy; chivalry and heroism in al-Mutanabi; wisdom and skepticism in al-Mua’ri; and combinations of all these element in Omar Khayam.

In fairy tales, such as One Thousand and One Nights, we find a unity of opposite manifestations of life in its Islamic-cultural dimension. Here one thousand is not simply a quantity of nights, but also the first letter of the Arabic alphabet. As the last night is the first night after the thousand it symbolizes an infinite echo in hearing and in time, a beauty that al-Mu’ari has described in his famous treatise Risalat al-Gufran (Treatise on Pardon). Here pardon is identical with cultural indulgence in which light he reconsidered the real and ideal history of the creative spirit. Al-Mu’ari analyzes the cultural creativity of the spiritual history of the "I" freed from the chains of the conventionalities of social and religious interests. The hero of the treatise, walking in paradise, evaluates aggregates of cultural achievements, and its individual representatives, as if infinite echo of Islamic time. In this he represents in his conclusions and argumentation the achievements of culture’s theoretical and practical reason in which context an echo is similar to music, which is not similar to anything else except itself. In culture the proportions are dissolved, for it is the finest and absolute embodiment of proportion.

The fine arts reflect the same model of a quest for an ideal identity of the physical and the metaphysical. It is especially and clearly visible in the roles played by a point, line or letter. A point and line both represent a beginning and an end, final and infinite, from which follows the domination of abstraction in Muslim painting. The Muslim God (Allah) is obvious in the hidden, and hidden in the obvious: external in the internal, and internal in the external. He is a perfect manifestations of proportion and a perfect unity of antipodes. The line is a constant movement of infinity. Each point in the Muslim ornament is both a beginning and an end of movement and form. The line represents this lofty correlation of the material and the spiritual. With the help of a line, it is possible to represent the Word of God (Allah) or any Qur’anic verse as a tree, bird, or in the form of stiffened movement; what is indefinable, imperceptible to the eyes can be represented in a form causing pleasure and confusion, for it is not finally definite except for its obvious-hidden self-identity. Muslim architecture in buildings, mosques, streets and squares also embodies the unity of the obvious and hidden, external and internal in displays of proportion that are both material and spiritual, finite and infinite.

From this it follows that interpretation of basic Muslim paradigms has resulted in the formation of a cultural whole characterized by a freedom of diversity in creative pursuits. Regulation of its external and internal being shows the presence of certain proportions corresponding to the basic cultural paradigms inherent in this being. This has led to the formation of creative cultural spirit, which has created a similar community. Muslim community is "a community of the middle," manifested in its aspiration to moderation. Externally, "the middle community" is represented in the attempt at overcoming extremes in the struggle of Judaism and Christianity. In essence, it overcomes all types of extremes in relation to itself and to God, that is, to the physical and metaphysical, in an individual and community.

The Muslim vision of community was called upon to unite all in the name of a sublime principle. The contrast of Judaism and Christianity was considered a withdrawal from Truth and the True. From the point of view of Islam, God is God. His envoys are His envoys instead of being Jews and Christians, no matter to which faith they belong. Hence, no one is superior to the other, just as there is no superiority between men and women. There can be no superiority of one to the other on account of belonging to a religion or a community, but only according to the degree of one’s piety. This is the principle that Islam has placed into its practical monotheism—religious and social. The point is that Islam considers experiences of prophets as manifestations of the Divine will to ennoble man, to lead him to the way of Truth (Straight Path). All prophets follow one and the same monotheistic path of goodness and justice.

Islam is not a proper name, but an act of belonging to the one God. The prophets and wise men of the past are His prophets and wise men, and the goodness and justice of all times and peoples are His goodness and justice. Islam is capable of perceiving the virtues of any people and time and intertwining them into its own system. This is the opportunity for partnership of everyone who works in its framework and under its consolidating spirit; its achievement becomes the gain to all its followers. Hence, the absence among its followers of the spirit of national despotic superiority (Istikbar). The partnership of the peoples of Islam in constructing a united spirit among cultures was voluntary, that is, not under the dictatorship of anyone outside of—or above—the community, state,or religious structures and organizations. This explains the transformation of outstanding figures of Muslim culture into universally recognized figures for the nations and peoples of Islam. By its principles and system of basic paradigms Islam has destroyed the despotic spirit of superiority in itself and its relations to others, and in others in relation to itself. There are neither national, ethnic, nor regional nuclei in Islam. Rather, diversity in Islam means free diligence in pursuit of justice and order. Islam neither belittles nor denies the national existence of peoples. It accepts them, but subordinates them to its monotheistic outlook. By virtue of this, it is impossible for any nationalist, chauvinist, fascist or racial tendencies or ideologies to emerge from its core.

All this led to an openness of Muslim culture both internally and externally, which explains its deep religious tolerance and cultural openness according to its system of paradigms. The Muslim community interpreted its "middle position" among other communities (religious and nonreligious) according to its religious and secular monotheistic criteria. Hence, in relation to religious communities (in particular, Judaism and Christianity) it proceeds from three basic principles formulated in the Qur’an: first, recognition that true monotheistic history, namely, Islam, is the culmination of monotheism; second, that one can claim to represent Truth in the last instance; and third, that Islam is an embodiment of true monotheism. Islam is, first of all, monotheism, that is, sincere fidelity to God, the One.

These three principles fixed in the Qur’an formed the basis of initial Islam. As a whole, this can be reduced to five basic positions: first, the demand that among the believers a Muslim must distinguish the believer from the faithless; second that disputes with them should be carried out not by words, but by deeds; third, opposition fanaticism and extremism; fourth, the error of withdrawal of "men of belief" from the true admonition of the prophets (Straight Path, One God); and fifth the obligation on Muslims to struggle with such apostates, including the military, so that they behave in accordance with truth and justice.

The formation of these positions has taken place in the course of the realization of the three basic principles proclaimed by Islam in relation to religious communities. These positions have a concrete historical, rather than an absolute character and are essential to Islam. The realization of these principles means an embodiment of their meaning in the Muslim community, rather than in merely private positions. The point is that the would-be Muslim community represents a realization of the true and just (golden) mean. This explains why later Judaic and Christian communities became part of extensive religious and nonreligious communities. Differences with them became a part of religious, theological, and philosophical disputes within the Muslim community itself, thereby becoming objects of research by the various sciences. Muslim culture developed in this area four basic directions: first, objective, in which the essence of other religions are stated without comment or criticism (this line is personified by al-Naybakhti (d. approx. in 320 AH) in his study, Ideas and Religions); second, critical-analytical as in Ibn-Khasm in his treatise al-Fasl; third, analytical-debatable as in al-Bakillani in at-Tamhid; fourth, comparative-analytical as in al-Shahrastani (d. 548 AH) in his study, Book About Religious Sects and Philosophical Schools. Alongside these basic trends there are many other tendencies in terms of methodology and personal evaluations, but as a whole they promoted a deepening of the cultural vision of religious communities, and also the development of ideas about religious unity (in particular by Sufi scholars).

Muslim culture by and through its religious world-outlook approach towards community leads to a comprehension and substantiation in the spiritual unity of religious communities. The most complete embodiment of this approach can be found in Ibn-Arabi and Abd-al-Karim al-Jili (d. 832 AH). The comprehension of the cultural value of the spiritual unity of a community reflects, first of all, its internal openness reflecting the monotheistic system of Islam. Since the non-religious community became an object of research, Muslim culture pursued in it what is reasonable from the point of view of its own criteria of reason and morals. When al-Biruni (d. 440 AH) summarized his observations about the life and knowledge of Indian culture in all its fields. He searched for what is acceptable or unacceptable for reason. This study is reflected in the title of his study, The Certification of Indian Ideas both Acceptable, and Unacceptable for Reason. He presented the achievements of Indian civilization in philosophy, religion, and natural sciences as being the greatest achievement of humankind. Yet, he criticized what is unacceptable to reason as the highest criterion of evaluation, and which for Biruni is undoubtedly Muslim cultural reason. The point is that cultural reason is not purely logical reason, but an aggregate of the theoretical and practical experience of the culture itself. Hence, any openness to the experience of other cultures presupposes a cultural evaluation of their achievements. Certainly, this deliberate approach was developed over many centuries of the development of Muslim self-consciousness.

Muslim culture developed, in this context, five basic approaches in evaluating nations and peoples: (1) geographical; (2) characterizes features of creativity; (3) defines the type of mentality; (4) world-outlook; and (5) scientific-philosophical.

1. Two types are included in the first: one is based on the division of the world into seven regions, in which the geographical factor influences the formation of various national characters, national souls, and their reflection on skin color and language; the other is based on the division of the world into four parts: East, West, North, and South according to which nations are divided in terms of their character and way of life.

3.The basic approach, based on differences of mentality, recognizes two types. One is characterized by definition of the properties of things, judgement by criteria of truth, and the use of spiritual values. To this type belong the Arabs and Indians. The second type is characterized by definition of the nature of things, judgement by criteria of quality and quantity and the use of material values; these are the Persians and Romans.

4. The approach according to world-outlook, as in Shahrastani, is based on the fact that each community solves in its own way metaphysical, social and moral life questions. Hence, there are religious and nonreligious communities.

5. The scientific-philosophical approach has its classical reflection in Ibn-Said al-Andalusi’s (d. in 462 AH) study, Categories of Peoples. He recognized that although nations on the human plane are uniform, all of them differ among themselves in three ways, namely, morals, shape and language. According to al-Andalusi, the most important peoples in history were the Persians and Chaldeans (among whom were Syrians, Babylonians, Jews and Arabs); Greeks (Romans, Franks, Russians, Bulgarians and others); Copts (ancient Egyptians, Sudanese, Ethiopians and Nubians); Turks (Kimaki and Khazars); Indians and Chinese. All these peoples differed from each other by their degree of mastery of the sciences and, in particular, of philosophy. According to al-Andalusi, eight of them were nations of science: Indians, Persians, Chaldeans, Jews, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and Arabs. Other nations are not scientifically oriented, for they did not take great interest in philosophy. The Chinese, for example, are skilled in crafts God are masters of perfect art and industrial crafts. Turks also, representing a huge people distributed over all Asia, are characterized by their physical shape and military art. They and their like cannot be ranked as peoples of science, because, in the opinion of al-Andalusi, they do not use their intellectual ability for the sake of wisdom and do not burden themselves with the study of philosophy. Al-Andalusi developed his general conclusion as to whether a given people is scientifically oriented (cultural) or not, according to three requirements: first, comprehension of a level of discourse (theoretical reason); second, asceticism and control of the temper of the soul; and third, the essential place of philosophy and natural sciences in self-education and training.

The above shows that the general course of development of an historical representation of a people (community) progressively approaches and in the end is identified with cultural elements of world understanding that adequately answer the basic principles of Islamic monotheism. The point is that Islamic monotheism, in an historical and social sense, means, as well, the unity of humankind as an example of the One (God). As the truth, He is uniform in essence but diverse in embodiment. Hence, variety is a blessing provided it be subordinated to goodness and general blessing. This idea follows from the general principle expressed in the Qur’an, which says: "O mankind! We created you from a single pair, male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes that you may know each other. Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is he who is the most righteous of you." In other words, diversity has both a natural and an historical logic both as a given fact and its lofty supernatural and ideal logic as what is due. The interlacing of these two types of logic in Muslim monotheistic outlook (that is, in the system of cultural paradigm of Islam) has led to developing an adequate approach to understanding the religious and secular communities.

This humanitarian spirit of Muslim culture has defined its openness and recognition of diversity as a blessing. When Muslim culture identifies one nation with any quality, as for example, Greeks with wisdom; Persians with politics; Chinese with crafts; Turks with bravery; Indians with reason and witchcraft; and Arabs with eloquence, it tried to evaluate them on their true merits. In other words, it tried to show the diversity of their true dignity, thereby, substantiating the value of diversity for human history. Al-Tawhidi’s conclusion that each nation has virtues and vices, beauties and ugliness, perfection and defects is natural. This conclusion reflects also the ability of Muslim culture to admit a diversity of peoples within it, and the diversity of their qualities and dignity. In other words, the openness of Muslim culture is equivalent to the comprehension of the value of the dignity and virtues of peoples. Thus, the culture has developed a recognition of diversity of cultures as a blessing and the equality of cultures in a general dignity.

In recognizing diversity within itself, Muslim culture supposed diversity outside of itself. Hence, Islam presupposes the possibility of a universal civilization with different cultures. A true culture is one that is capable of viewing others according to criteria of reason and morals, dominated, as al-Andalusi wrote many centuries ago, by virtues of theoretical and practical reason, instead of by forces of anger in the animal soul. Though, like ants, the latter can build their own "political cities and systems," these are not the civilizations of moral reason, which constitutes the essence of humankind as such.

1. The practical value of this approach is that it exempts rights being used in political games and transient narrow interests. It destroys the very possibility of using lofty values in favor of egoistically-oriented authorities and statesmen. The universality of this Muslim approach to the problem of the rights of man is that it does not impose its vision and decisions on others; yet neither doest it encourage arbitrariness of authorities, since the general right for all Muslims (citizens of the Muslim state) is dominant.