نشریه قرآن و علم
پیاپی 15 (پاییز و زمستان 1393)

One of the important issues of advancement is its objectives, which in fact is considered as the roadmap of this concept. Different research theorists have defined and specified objectives based on their thoughts and theoretical foundations. Then, the question arises that considering the essential differences of the Islamic and Quranic view of advancement and those of other schools of thought, what is the objective of advancement in the view of the Qurān? The current study concludes that the objective of the Qurānic ideal advancement is far beyond science, power and wealth, and rather includes issues such as seeking proximity to God, achieving human dignity, establishment of the ideal society, expansion of spirituality, winning a worthy life in this world and an excellent one in the Hereafter, realizing glory, justice, all-encompassing independence, and national and international authority.

Islam appeared in a land which accommodated one of the most underdeveloped human communities of the era. However, after their conversion to Islam, the very people prospered in such a way that soon surpassed the two great civilizations. In order to identify the factors underlying this major shift, this study analyzed four key fields in this regard. It was found that through the Qurānic doctrines, the prophet Muhammad (PBUH and his progeny) engineered the infrastructures of these four fields and so, sowed the seeds of Muslims’ advancement. The Prophet liberated their intellectual vision from superstitious beliefs and misunderstandings. In the field of culture, the prophet consolidated their religious identity through reforming the educational and ruling systems. Regarding politics, he institutionalized principles such as negation of foreign dominance over Muslims, rejection of despotism and corruption of the rulers, and citizen's cooperation. With respect to economy, the Prophet upraised their economic infrastructures through equitable distribution of resources, reforming the working culture and public activeness, and optimizing the consumption, all accompanied with spiritual factors. The prophet Muhammad (PBUH and his progeny), taking all these astounding steps, led the Muslim caravan of advancement that continued its progressive move till the 5th century (A.H.).

Due to their innate disposition and essence, the human beings set particular goals for themselves and move towards them. The Holy Qurān, being a pure book of guidance, depicts the worldly and other-worldly goals of human life and addresses the means of achieving these goals. One of the main prerequisites of attaining goals is a thorough identification of barriers, one which encompasses the knowledge of the respective solutions. In various verses, the Holy Qurān emphasizes the necessity of understanding these obstacles and explains the ways of overcoming them. According to the Qurānic point of view, the most important barriers of advancement are dogmatism and prejudice, individualism and despotism, sliding to either of the extremes, shallow understandings of the religious texts and superstitious beliefs. This heavenly book refers to the key role of the spiritual factors in advancement and reminds the role of non-physical barriers such as sin, being ungrateful for the divine blessings and discarding the remembrance of Allah. In the Holy Qurān, Allah enumerates some inevitable difficulties of the advancement process and refers to the negative role of inter-group conflicts, the enemie's invasion, and contradiction between the words and actions of the administrators. The Holy Qurān criticizes the negative models, warns about their destructive effects on the advancement, and recommends self-confidence and optimisms in the face of severe problems and failures.

The Holy Qurān pays a special attention to science and exhorts the human to seek to learn all kinds of sciences including empirical, traditional, rational and intuitive ones. Moreover, it highlights the three stages of knowledge (cognitive certainty, visual certainty, and absolute truth) and so, leads the human to the highest levels of knowledge and protects him from magic, fortune telling, etc. One can infer the characteristics of advanced sciences from the Holy Qurān. In Quranic view, advanced sciences are comprehensive, rightly-guiding, bringing about awe of Allah, purifying, pragmatic and fruitful. Therefore, according to the Qurān, the ideal science not only pays attention to material advancement but also enjoys many other characteristics which open up the human perspective, lead to his bliss, and prevent the harmful consequences of materialist sciences.

The Muslim and western scholars have different definitions of perfect man or what the author calls ‘advanced man’. Considering the definitions proffered by Muslim scholars such as Ibn Arabi, Sayyed Haidar Amuli, Mulla Sadra, Imam Khomeini, Allamah Tabatabai and Mutahhari the Martyr, it can be inferred that an advanced man is he who makes use of his all material and spiritual abilities and capabilities in a comprehensive and harmonious way. But the advanced man in the western schools of thought is he who actualizes his material and physical potentials only. However, the Quran considers the advanced man as he who follows the objectives such as servitude of God, attainment of the Divine Merci, living the goodly life, and seeking God's satisfaction. Moreover, he has doctrinal characteristics such as monotheism and keeping faith in Allah, ethical values (e.g. purification of soul, piety, patience and gratefulness), cultural and intellectual traits (e.g. meditation, paying heed to acquire knowledge, and being hardworking, ambitious, and motivated). He tries his best to reach the peak of perfection in this world and in the Hereafter.

The key concern of the present article is to answer the question that what does the Holy Qurān mean by advancement and through which – mainly – qualitative and structural indexes – apt for social analyses – one can understand and explain it. Accordingly, the author has tried to infer the meaning and indexes of advancement based on the revelation order of the Qurān. Considering the awe-inspiring and successful reformative movement that was created by the Qurān during its revelation in Mecca and Medina, he attempts to have a logical study of the verses related to the general atmosphere of revelation and put forth the samples and historical-interpretive evidences. In addition to the statement of the key concepts and methodology of the subject, he addresses public knowledge, social solidarity and security as three major social indexes that can be used to specify the general structure advancement in the Quran's view. All in all, this study has successfully provided a general picture of advancement plan in the three aforementioned indexes.

Citizenship is a legal status that bestows a person certain duties and responsibilities. Observing the rights of citizenship is counted as an index of advancement by western societies. Islam, too, talks about the Islamic citizenship rights as well as factors that bring about the advancement of Islamic society in the light of the Qurānic foundations and objectives, and puts it forward as the universal Islamic citizenship under the theme of the divine caliph on the earth. Based on the dignity he has received from Allah, such a citizen tries to establish a monotheist society through preserving the divine-human values. Therefore, it is necessary to study the essential constituents of the Islamic and non-Islamic rights of citizenship and their relation with the human rights. Moreover, the paper covers the Qurānic account of the world and its relationship with the Hereafter, as well as the centrality and significance of monotheism and Unity in worship in considering the Islamic societies as advanced. The responsibility of the rulers and states for the observance, maintenance, and stable development of the Islamic citizenship rights in social, political, socioeconomic, cultural and legal fields as well as the responsibility of all human community about these rights are among the discussions that have been raised in the present paper.

Lifestyle is one of the most significant factors of human advancement in all individual, familial, national, international and environmental spheres of life and in all devotional, reflective, cultural, scientific, economic, political, social, hygienic, health, recreational, nutritional, clothing and housing aspects. The religions, sects, schools of thought, ideologies, etc. offer different plans and lifestyles for the advancement of human's life. These are either faulty or are limited to one particular aspect of life. On the contrary, the Qurān offers human an advanced lifestyle in the form of Islam that contains a harmonious and comprehensive plan which regards all aspects and spheres of life. In this plan, both the material and spiritual aspects have been taken into account so as to bring about the human prosperity both in this world, the Isthmus world, and in the Hereafter. In the Islamic lifestyle, family has a vital role in all, or at least most of the, dimensions and spheres, and thus, it has received a lot of emphasis on the establishment, protection and development of family life. The advanced family, according to the Qurānic description, possesses the characteristics of religiosity, sanctity, the legality of sexual access and clothing, abiding the rights and providing mutual respect, the sanctity and legitimacy of begetting and raising children, cooperation, unification, kindness, proportionality and observing justice in the rights of man and woman. The Qurānic lifestyle for family is compatible with the present-day usage of global technologies and there seems no overall contradiction between the two.