It should be noted firstly that Bediuzzaman frequently pointed out that just as modern civilization was not the product or property of Christianity, neither was decline and retrogression in keeping with Islam: "To consider civilization to be the property of Christianity, which it is not, and to show decline, which is the enemy of Islam, to be its friend, is to suggest that the firmament is revolving in the opposite direction." [^317] As we have already seen, Islam enjoins progress and comprises all the necessities of civilization: "I declare with all my strength that there is nothing which is in reality good in civilization that is itself, or what is better than it, not guaranteed either explicitly or implicitly by Islam." [^318] And in another work he wrote: "The things known as the virtues of civilization are each a transformed matter of the Shari'a." [^319] Further to this, Bediuzzaman pointed out that Islam had played a fundamental and significant role in the development of modern civilization:

[^317]:Ibid., 60-61; Nursi, Mektûbat, 445 (Eng. tr. Letters, 534).

[^318]:Nursi, "Bediüzzaman Kürdi'nin Fihriste-i Makasıdı," Volkan, Nos. 83-84, in Asar-ı Bedi'iyye, 373.

[^319]:Nursi, Muhâkemat, 39.

"I cannot deny this: there are numerous virtues in [modern] civilization, but they are neither the property of Christianity, nor the creation of Europe, nor the work of this century; they are everyone's property. They arise from the combined thought of mankind, the laws of the revealed religions, innate need, and in particular from the Islamic revolution brought about by the Shari'a of Muhammad (PBUH)." [^320] And in another work he put it in even stronger terms: "The good things and great industrial progress to be seen in Western civilization are entirely reflected and derived from Islamic civilization, the guidance of the Qur'an, and the [other] revealed religions." [^321]

[^320]:Nursi, Sözler, 666-7 (Eng. tr.; Words, 748).

[^321]:Nursi, "Hubab," in Mesnevi-i Nuriye, 81.

However, in the West, the evils of civilization had come to preponderate over its beneficial aspects. Bediuzzaman gave two reasons for this. The first was the permissive attitude of Western civilization towards "dissipation" and "the appetites of the flesh", which arose from "not making religion and virtue the principles of civilization." The second was "the appalling inequality in the means of livelihood", which also ultimately resulted from lack of religion. These would eventually lead to its destruction. [^322]

[^322]:Nursi, Muhâkemat, 37-38.

Thus, Bediuzzaman predicted that because Western civilization had become distant from true Christianity and was based not on the principles of revealed religion, but on those of Greek and, primarily, Roman philoso-