BIIT Intellectual Discourse Series-II

An Islamic Perspective on the Nature of Man in

Western Secular Humanism

Bangladesh Institute of Islamic Thought (BIIT) in collaboration with The International

Institute for Muslim Unity (IIMU), IIUM organized the Intellectual Discourse Series-II,
2014 titled An Islamic Perspective on the Nature of Man in Western Secular
Humanism on 19th September 2014 (Friday) at ADM LT 2, IIUM. BIIT Intellectual
Discourse is a series of lectures (followed by Q&A session) on various topics related to Islam
and contemporary issues.
The lecture of the Intellectual Discourse Series-II was delivered by the most prominent
scholar Prof. Dr. Malik Badri, Former Dean (2004), International Institute of Islamic Thought
and Civilization (ISTAC), IIUM. Dato' Wira Dr. Jamil Osman, Regional Representative,
International Institute of Islamic Thought - East Asia presided over the program. Mr. M.
Abdul Aziz, Executive Director, BIIT delivered the welcoming remarks. About 50 (mainly
Bangladeshi PhD researchers in IIUM and teachers) participated in the program.
In the lecture, the keynote speaker emphasized on the understanding of the worldview (the
way one sees the world). Besides, the image of the nature of a man and the whole
environment should be looked at with that conception. The worldview is like colored glasses
by which you see the whole world according to the hue of the glasses but the frame of the
glass is the human nature.
Now, the question is how do people develop a human nature or how do people develop a
worldview? To answer these, we need to answer some other basic questions like from where
we come to this world? Where will we go after this? Is there any life after this or not? In
answering the questions, human beings develop their own nature and the worldview. Every
child is born with its fitrah (nature) but it is the experience that changes the individual fitrah
(nature) for example, it is parents who make the children Christian, Buddhist or Jew. Islam is

the fitrah and it is the potential to know Allah SWT. It is the potential to feel that the person
is the slave to Allah or the God. He also discussed the nature of man. He said that the
psychologists define man as an animal but better animal because they have the developed
brain. Many Western philosophers are driven with the theory of evolution and that becomes a
religion to them too but till now it has no evidence at all. He gave a reference to an American
psychologist named Watson who said that man is nothing but an animal physically but there
is something else also. This something else is the cause of our troubles. In this something
else, there is belief in God, belief in hereafter, love for country, children etc. The main
difference between a Muslim and others is in that something else. For that something else
we are even ready to die. Another important thing is that man has no nature at all as John
Locke said; man is born like a blank sheet of paper. It is the experience or environment that
changes it. The speaker said that man has dimensional nature like man is god in a way that it
is only God who with His revelation gives people the ethical laws by which to live but it is
man who decides how to live. In the Western world, man decides their own laws of how they
will live considering the majority against any system of life e.g. homosexuality, live together
without marriage etc. But the Muslims are different in their views of life. The speaker focuses
on the idea of developing our view of life coming out from all the extreme ideas of the world
and understating the true Islamic concept to overcome all the barriers of heart.
So, we have to develop our consciousness of God, and we have to think of the importance of
our living on this earth.