The International Workshop on the Future of Islamic Civilization, organized in Mardin Artuklu University between October 04-06, kicked off with the support of Mardin Governorate and Turkish Airlines [THY] in collaboration with Mardin Artuklu University and the Center for Civilization Studies [MEDAR.

Many experts from Turkiye and abroad in the field of philosophy, history, sociology and theology sciences participated in the International Workshop hosted by Mardin Artuklu University.

"Islamic civilization is a civilization that exists on the basis of all civilizations"

The workshop kicked off with the Qur'an recitation reading by Yasin Özdemir, a student of Artuklu University Faculty of Islamic Sciences. After the opening speech of the workshop, Artuklu University Rector Ahmet Ağırakça saluted all the participants and said:

"The Islamic civilization already exists, but we are trying to talk for years how it will come again. The Islamic civilization is a divine origin based on the teachings of the Prophet and shaped with the mind of the human. A civilization that emerged in the city center of Medina shaped with revelation and structured according to the principles of the Qur'an. It is a civilization that exists on the basis of all civilization. It is a civilization imposed by the teachings of revelation and the source of knowledge of revelation. We must say that there it is a pioneering civilization with tafsir, hadith, fiqh, kalam, thought, philosophy, astronomy, physics, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, music, architecture, and aesthetics."

"Talking about the future is necessary on each of us"

Former Director of Religious Affairs Mehmet Görmez, one of the speakers of the first session, thanked the Rector of Mardin Artuklu University Ahmet Ağırakça for bringing them together under such an important title and continued as follows:

"As the Ummah; we are the children of a civilization that its exile was extended. As the ummah, the longer we fall, the more we take a hold of the grandeur of the past. We don't like to talk too much on the future. Yet, talking about the future is necessary on each of us. I'm not talking about the assumptions and predictions when I say future. I am talking about the predestined future. Sunnatullallah is the set of rules that teach us about the future. Yet, today is the future of the past, also is the past of the future. The future is not our indetermination. However, as the Ummah, sometimes we have determined our future by wrong methods. There are two methods that we resorted to in order to determine the future of Islamic civilization. I would like to discuss this in the session. As a brother who gave his life to the science of hadith. First is the literature of the end of the world and second is also in the literature of fitnah [unrest], commonly seen in the Shiite rumor culture but also infected with us." (Mehmet Aslan - ILKHA)