Re-learning from Islam the oneness of the world
“It is a sad fact, I believe, that in so many
ways the external world we have created in the last few hundred years has come
to reflect our own divided and confused inner state. Western civilisation has
become increasingly acquisitive and exploitative in defiance of our
environmental responsibilities. This crucial sense of oneness and trusteeship
of the vital sacramental and spiritual character of the world about us is
surely something important we can re-learn from Islam. I am quite sure some
will instantly accuse me, as they usually do, of living in the past, of
refusing to come to terms with reality and modern life. On the contrary, ladies
and gentlemen, what I am appealing for is a wider, deeper, more careful
understanding of our world; for a metaphysical as well as a material dimension
to our lives, in order to recover the balance we have abandoned, the absence of
which, I believe, will prove disastrous in the long term.
"... somehow we have to learn to understand each
other, and to educate our children - a new generation, whose attitudes and cultural
outlook may be different from ours - so that they understand too. We have to
show trust, mutual respect and tolerance, if we are to find the common ground
between us and work together to find solutions."
Prince Charles, Islam and the West
A Visit to the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies
The Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, October 27, 1993
© Copyright St James's Palace and the Press Association Ltd 1998.