The "model" plays a pivotal role in defining "the example and the role model," which serves as the compass guiding human orientation in various fields of life. In the family, there is "the model of the father," in the nation there is "the model of the hero," in history "models of victories," in international and regional relations "the model of the homeland," and in beliefs and ideologies "the model of religion," along with many other models that captivate the human being towards a particular direction and path at crossroads, amidst multiple options.
At the moment a "model" is chosen, there occurs an expression and declaration of the belonging of the "self," distinguishing it from the "other," which has been dismissed as a model in this particular field of choice.
The cultural field is not merely one of these areas where a person selects one model over another; rather, the "cultural model" becomes, after being chosen, associated with and loyal to, the criterion that determines and favors the "models" that a person selects in many fields. The culture that has shaped a person's identity is the guiding force for their choices of role models, methodologies, ideals, and landmarks that lead them to support one cause and oppose another, to be active for this purpose while turning away from others, and to sacrifice for this path without paying attention to anything else. The "cultural model" is what defines the "future model" that a person aims to create and realize in the social reality they live in.
The Self and the Other... Culturally
If God, Exalted be He, created all people from one soul, His wisdom necessitated that to prevent people from monopolizing the earth through colonial ways, competing to obtain benefits, and striving for both material and moral goods, He willed that humanity be distributed into a multiplicity of nations, tribes, peoples, tongues, colors, methodologies, and laws, and consequently into nationalities and cultures.
If "the self" is defined by the stable characteristics that distinguish it from "the other," not by the commonalities that unite it with this "other," and since the reality of our Arab Islamic nation, both recent and contemporary, is a reality of cultural and civilizational interaction and clash specifically with the Western model, without any "other" besides it, then the discussion about "the self" and "the other," culturally, must lead to determining the distinctive features of the Islamic cultural model compared to the Western model, without implying the denial of areas of common humanality in many fields of sciences and knowledge, the facts and laws of which, and the fruits of their knowledge and experiences, do not constitute "the distinguishing feature of the cultural self," but rather fit into "the common ground" in which "cultural selves" of all humanity interact and share.
Islam as the Constituent of Our Cultural Identity
Islam is the constituent of our cultural identity and defines the features of our cultural model. Our distinction from the "Western other" exists only where there is difference and divergence, which positions the relationship between our cultural model - the cultural self - and the other as a relationship of "distinction and interaction." This relationship finds a balanced middle ground between two extremes: the extreme of excess that views this relationship as one of "rupture and opposition," and the extreme of neglect, which sees it as one of "similarity and imitation." Just as a human's "fingerprint" distinguishes them from their peers while sharing the human race, so does the cultural self of a nation distinguish itself from other cultural selves by the unique characteristics and distinguishing features that set one cultural model apart from another, without denying or overlooking the areas of human commonality in many truths and laws of numerous experiences, sciences, and arts.
Everyone takes what applies to them. The Muslims opened up to Indian civilization, but they only adopted astronomy and mathematics from the Indians, without embracing their philosophies and cultures. Similarly, they engaged with the Persians by taking their administrative arrangements while rejecting their philosophical doctrines and religious beliefs. From the Byzantine Romans, they adopted the recording of administrative offices but did not take their legal system. The same goes for their engagement with Greek heritage; Muslims adopted neutral applied experimental sciences while neglecting to study Greek theology, and they also overlooked Greek literature due to its pagan myths and the spirit of paganism embodied in that heritage.
The same law can be seen in the context of the European Renaissance's engagement with our Islamic heritage. They adopted the experimental sciences developed by Muslims and inherited the creative methodologies of our ancestors in experimental observation and induction, which helped Muslims break free from Aristotelian measurement. However, the Europeans did not adopt our Islamic cultural model; instead, they revived the Greek model while drawing from our heritage the natural sciences and the experimental method, emerging as a developed extension of the Greeks and Romans, without imitating our Islamic cultural model.
The model of Ibn Rushd
The European Renaissance's interaction with our philosopher Abu Walid Ibn Rushd (the grandson) (520-595 AH/ 1126-1198 AD) exemplifies the application of this law that governs the healthy and natural relationship between the distinct cultural models of different nations. They took "Ibn Rushd: the commentator on Aristotle" —as this was their own— while rejecting and even issuing decrees prohibiting "Ibn Rushd: the reconciler of human wisdom and Islamic law," and "the theologian who established religious doctrine on rational beliefs," as well as "the jurist who adjudicated between people according to Islamic law and its jurisprudence." This Islamic cultural model, or "Islamic rationalism," was different from the "Latin rationalism," which replaced theology with secularism and deified reason, when the phrase "there is no authority over reason except reason" became the slogan of the Enlightenment philosophy!
Furthermore, the beginnings of our modern renaissance, especially the experience of Egypt in the first half of the 19th century under the rule of Muhammad Ali Pasha (1184-1265 AH/ 1770-1849 AD), manifested the application of this law in the relationship between cultural self and its model and the other culture and its model. Rifa'ah Rafi' al-Tahtawi (1216-1290 AH/ 1801-1873 AD) advocated for learning from Europe in "practical philosophical sciences and civil human knowledge that contributes to national progress, because although they may seem foreign now, they are Islamic sciences that foreigners translated into their languages from Arabic books. Their books remain in the treasures of Islamic kings as resources.” Rifa'ah al-Tahtawi called for active engagement with the knowledge and truths of these sciences while reviving the Islamic cultural model, "by spreading the noble sunna and raising the banners of the glorious sharia." Moreover, al-Tahtawi emphasized the distinction of the Islamic cultural model from the European model when he said that they (the Europeans) have in "philosophy fallacious ideas that contradict all divine books, and they belong to sects that judge goodness and badness solely by reason and natural laws... Whereas we Muslims do not rely on what reason affirms or denies unless the law supports its affirmation or denial; thus, the improvement of natural laws is only considered valid if sanctioned by the law."
"When the relationship is healthy, based on free choice and equality between civilizations, the cultural model assumes the role of the standard that defines the scope of 'interaction and inspiration,' and the limits of 'distinction and uniqueness.' Thus, a healthy and natural relationship exists between the 'self' and the 'other' in the cultural field.
Due to this clarity, in the distinction of the Islamic cultural model from the European model, as highlighted by Al-Tahṭāwī, and in the experience of Egypt during the era of Muhammad Ali, we see that Al-Tahṭāwī, after his return from Paris in 1831, presented to the printing house two projects for lists of books: a project to revive the foundational texts of Islamic heritage, and a project for translating the sciences of modern European civilization. We also found that all the envoys sent by the state to Europe during the reigns of Muhammad Ali, Abbas, and Said went to specialize in the natural sciences that alter reality, and not a single envoy went to study theology, literature, arts, or humanities that shape human sentiment and formulate the construction of the human soul, because this task is the exclusive domain of the Islamic cultural model and no other!
When the experience regressed and colonialism prevailed, the situation reversed, and we were deprived of the European knowledge we needed, and were bombarded with various forms of the 'other' cultural model instead of the model of the 'self'!"
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(1) See: "The Complete Works of Rifa'a al-Tahtawi," Vol. 1, pp. 335, 435, 441, 511, and Vol. 2, pp. 951, 97, study and verification by Dr. Muhammad Amara, Beirut edition, 1973.
(2) See: Omar Tousson, "Scientific Missions during the Reigns of Muhammad Ali, Abbas, and Saeed," pp. 23, 24, 219, 11, 162, 163, Cairo edition, 1934.
