Understanding the Terms

What is Civilization?
Meaning
 Developed society
 a human society with its
own social organization
and culture
 refinement of thought,
manners, or taste
 a situation of urban
comfort
Relation and Origin

 The word ‘civil’ means ‘of or relating to

citizens’; ‘civilized’ (polite, courteous); ‘civic’
means ‘of or relating to a citizen, a city,
citizenship, or community affairs’.
 From Latin ‘civis’, means ‘citizen’,
‘townsman’.
 The Latin ‘civitas’, means ‘city’.
definition
 human society with its well developed social
organizations, or the culture and way of life of a
society or country at a particular period in time.
 a highly developed culture, including its social
organization, government, laws, and arts, or the
culture of a social group or country at a particular time.
 the state of having an advanced level of social
organization and a comfortable way of life.
 an advanced stage (as in art, science, and government)
in the development of society
Can you mention the antonym of
Civilization?
The Opposites
 decline
 decrease
 retreat
 retrogression
 stoppage
 destruction
 ignorance
 rudeness
 barbarism
 primitiveness
The irony of modern
civilization
Tribal Tattoo
Modern Tattoo
Traditional Piercing
Modern Piercing
Savagery
Modern Savagery
Nakedness

 Sorry, no picture to show.

Other words
Hadarah - ‫حضارة‬
 Ḥaḍārah – civilization, culture,
settledness, sedentariness.
 Ḥaḍar – a civilized region with
town and villages and a settled
population.
 Ḥaḍarī – settled, sedentary,
resident, not nomadic, non-
Bedouin, like urbanites,
civilized, urban, town dweller.
Badāwah - ‫بداوة‬

 Badawī means Bedouin, rural, and nomadic (Wehr,

1966:47).
 The person is called Bedouins, whose behavior and ways of
life different from the people of the city and is generally
considered at odds with what is contained in the term
civilization.
 Ibn Mandzur (1966: 235) in Lisan al-'Arab defines this word
as khilaf al-ḥaḍar or something that is contrary to city or
urban life. The word is also related to the desert. The words
bādiyah and badāwah each means desert and desert life.
Badawah to Hadarah
 Ibn Khaldun (2005: 92-93) considers that the Bedouin way of life is
an earlier phase than the sedentary life.
 This is an early form of civilization.
 Their life tends to be nomadic, unpretentious and only meet basic
needs, but naturally longing for urban life and economy that go
beyond the subsistence level.
 Badawī is the basis or the beginning of hadharī, and vice versa
hadharī is a destination or the next stage of badāwa’s life, so is
generally described by Ibn Khaldun in his Muqaddimah.
 Although the life of the Bedouin is usually contrasted with urban
culture, in the era of Ibn Khaldun a way of life had become more
complex, so was the Bedouin’s life.
 Some of them were living in large tribal communities and lived in a
town with relatively large population.
Ahl al-Wabar wa-l-Madar

 Ahl al-Wabar in Arabic

approximately refers to the
same entity, i.e. Bedouin,
whose life is nomadic and
its meaning is opposed to
ahl al-madar, namely
people who live sedentarily
(see Wehr, 1966: 33 and
1045).
Task

 Work in group
and explain how
society changed
from nomadic to
sedentary life.
Different Features

Nomadic Sedentary
Different Features

Nomadic Sedentary
- Few in numbers - Larger group
- Food gatherer - Food grower (cultivation, cattle
breeding)
- Had to move to find better place to get - No need to move
food
- Cannot stock the food - Can stock the food
- When the group grew in number, it tend - When the population grew, they could
to split into separate groups stay and developed bigger society
- The new group retain the nomadic - Working division, development of
features economy, trade exchange
- Need of government
- Better economic situation led to more
opportunity to develop art, language,
science.
- A civilization was born and developed
‘Umran
 ‫اِ ْس ِت ْع َمار‬-
‫ ُع ْمر‬-life colonialis
span m

ِ
‫ع َم َارة‬- ‫ع َم َر‬-to
َ
building inhabit

‫ ُع ْم َران‬-
civilization
‫َع َم َر‬

 It is applied to land, earth, or the like.

 It means to inhabit or to become inhabited,
colonized, cultivated, in a flourishing state, in a
state contrary to waste (kharab-‫) خرب‬.
 It has both a demographic and economic
content.
 It is related to the principle of population as well
as to the principle of the restoration and the
establishment of ownership of land in Islam.
The application of ‘Amara

Become abundant or
●

‫مال‬- plentiful.
Intimately related to
●

prope the process of

rty accumulation and
growth.

●
Making that house
stocked with
hou people and
se property, in a
flourishing state.

To keep same in good repair,

●

adorned with religious teachers and

mos pious believers, with lamps and
carpets, not desecrated by any non-

que religious immoral activity.

Of a socio-economic import with
●

emphasis on religious life.

Meaning of ‘Umran
It emerges as a place (land, house, mosque,
market, etc.) that is stocked with people and
property and is in a flourishing state, and
supporting human activities lawfully appropriate to
their nature, the opposite of desolate, waste, or
ruins (kharab).

A land well cultivated

A house or building in a state of good repair.

Meaning of ‘Umran

 The conventional meaning of ‘umran is purely or

predominantly economic in character.
 Ibn Khaldun adopted the dynamic term of ‘umran,
and gave it a new life that carries his own brand.
 Its scope has been greatly enlarged and made to
include all aspects of social life.
 On top of the basic economic structure, he
superimposed the ideological, religious, and
political superstructure.
 Type of ‘Umran according to Ibn
Khaldun
●
In the outlying regions and
●
Living in towns,
mountains
‘Umran
● ‘Umran
Invillages,
camps near Hadari
cities,
pasture and
●
Inurban
the wilderness ( qifar)
settlements
●
In the (urban)
Badawi fringes of (rural)
sandy
(madar)
deserts
Practical purposes for social
organization (Ibn Khaldun)

People need each other’s company

To procure the means of life (satisfaction of human needs)

For protection and defense

Let’s stop for a while
 We have learned about the term
‘civilization’, ‘hadarah’, ‘badawah’.
 All is about human and society,
their interaction with the soil/
nature and its sources, their
development and enhancement of
life.
 But where is God/ religion in these
explanation?
Tamaddun

 We have the word

tamaddun which
also means
‘civilization’.
 It derives from the
word dīn.
 Dīn.
tamaddun-
civilization

madīna dāna-being
h-city indebted

dayyan-
dayn-
judge/ ruler/
governor obligation
 Task

 Make connection between

those derivative meanings
and make general
description of them.
From Dīn to Tamaddun

 The term dīn can be reduced to four meanings:

1. Indebtedness (dāna-being indebted; dā’in-
debtor/creditor).
2. Submissiveness (dayn-obligation; idānah-
conviction; daynūnah-judgement).
3. Judicious power (dayyan-judge/ruler/governor;
madīnah-city; maddana-to build/found cities, to
civilize, to refine, to humanize; tamaddun-
civilization, refinement in social culture).
4. Natural inclination or tendency.
Resume
 Thus we derive from the primary signification of being in a state of debt other
correlated significations, such as: to abase oneself to serve (a master), to become
enslaved; and from another such signification of judge, ruler and governor is
derived meanings which denote the becoming mighty, powerful and strong, a
master, one elevated in rank, and glorious; and yet further, the meanings:
judgment, requital or reckoning (at some appointed time). Now the very notion of
law and order and justice and authority and social cultural refinement inherent in all
these significations derived from the concept din must surely presuppose the
existence of a mode or manner of acting consistent with what is reflected in the law,
the order, the justice, the authority and social cultural refinement — a mode or
manner of acting, or a state of being considered as normal in relation to them; so
that this state of being is a state that is customary or habitual. From here, then, we
can see the logic behind the derivation of the other primary signification of the
concept din as custom, habit, disposition or natural tendency. At this juncture it
becomes increasingly clear that the concept din in its most basic form indeed
reflects in true testimony the natural tendency of man to form societies and
obey laws and seek just government (al-Attas, 54).
 Madinah

 Al-Attas, Islam and Secularism, 52

Peradaban
 Come from the word ‘adab’.
 The original sense of the word was simply “norm of
conduct,” or “custom,” derived in ancient Arabia from
ancestors revered as models. As such practice was deemed
praiseworthy in the medieval Muslim world, adab acquired a
further connotation of good breeding, courtesy, and
urbanity.
 Parallel to and growing out of this expanded social meaning
of adab there appeared an intellectual aspect. Adab became
the knowledge of poetry, oratory, ancient Arab tribal
history, rhetoric, grammar, philology … (Britanica).
 Adab hence includes all that is good; every noble
characteristic, habit, or trait that is included
within the scope of adab.
 Adab is natural, it isn’t really taught, or learnt, but
it is naturally developed. Children acquire adab
from their parents, students from their teachers,
the young from the elders. We may have much
knowledge but lack adab and we may have much
adab but lack knowledge; but it is adab that
holds the greater value and importance.