The Preservation of Culture

The Preservation of Culture The Modern world places utmost importance to the historical monuments, regardless of the countries to which they belong. From the local point of view these historical monuments are known as the cultural heritage of a nation. The Islamic tradition, no less than other traditions and disciplines attaches great importance to cultural heritage or, historical monuments. The preservation of cultural heritage, in fact, is related to the general matters of humanity, where there is no difference between the secular and the Islamic point of view. According to Islam, historical monuments are indeed worthy of being preserved, as being indispensable records of the past. If these records were not to be maintained, future generations would lose authentic sources of knowledge. It would be an irremediable loss. Islam is a religion of Nature. Everything which is in accordance with nature and reason is regarded as important in Islam. One important and accepted principle of the Islamic Shariah holds that ‘all things, in essence, are lawful, when not forbidden.’ Looked at in the light of this Shariah principle, the preserving of a cultural heritage is certainly lawful in Islam: nowhere in the Quran or Sunnah, are we commanded not to preserve our cultural heritage. Since we are not forbidden to do so, such action becomes lawful per se. No other proof is required for this. Moreover, when we study the Quran, we find references regarding the importance of cultural inheritance. We reproduce below certain relevant passages from the Quran and Hadith, the sacred texts of Islam, which validate the argument for its preservation.