by their human labour and effort being unequal to vice and dissipation. There are two reasons for this:
The First: Permissiveness and leniency towards the lusts of the soul, which result from failing to make religion and virtue the bases of civilisation.
The Second: The appalling inequality in livelihoods, which arises from a lack of compassion, which in turn results from pandering to the appetites and impiety. Yes, impiety has become interlarded with the inner face of European civilisation to such an extent that it has given birth to numbers of revolutionary and seditious groups. If recourse is not had to the firm rope of Islam and the truth of the Illustrious Shari'a, which resembles the barrier of Dhu'l- Qarnayn, those forces of corruption will overturn the world of their civilisation, just as they are now threating to do so.
If zakat, the purification tax, which is only one of the thousands of matters of the reality of Islam (hakikat-i İslâmiye), were to be taken as a basic principle of civilisation, for its assistance, would it not be the healing remedy for the calamity and snakes' lair of this appalling inequality in incomes? It would indeed the most effective and incorruptible cure.
If it is asked: Why shouldn't whatever made Europe dominant up to the present continue to ensure its dominance?
The Answer: Study the introduction to this book, then study the following attentively: the causes of their progress were the cold climates of their countries, which make people slow to act and be unprecipitant and constant; the smallness of those lands; the idea of education and desire for crafts and industry, arising from their numerous inhabitants; and the co-operation and mutual assistance allowed by the seas, mines, and other means of development. But now just as with the development of means of transport the world has become like a single town; so with such means of communication as the press and telegraph, the world's people have become like the members of a council. In short: because their loads are heavy and ours are light, we shall catch up with them and overtake them if we are accompanied by divine assistance. [^15]
[^15]:NOTE: Fellow Nur students! The Party of the Qur'an that our beloved Master was addressing at that time has emerged today as the Risale-i Nur students. Take careful note, for these pages address us. You must make science and civilisation serve Islam and proclaim Islamic civilisation to the world. M[ustafa]. S[ungur].