KARACHI, Dec 25: Saying that though tamaddun (culture), based on temporal foundations, can be divided, renowned Islamic scholar Ayatollah Syed Aqueel al-Gharavi was of the opinion that tehzeeb (civilisation) could not be bifurcated as it was based on universal human values.

The New Delhi-based scholar said this while delivering the Allama Rasheed Turabi Centenary Memorial Lecture on the topic of ‘Irfani Tehzeeb ki Awaaz’ at the Bhojani Hall here on Thursday. The year 2008 marks the hundredth birth anniversary of Allama Turabi, the eminent religious scholar and orator who passed away in 1973.

“Culture is never free from the bonds of makan (space). However, irfani tehzeeb is everlasting,” said Allama Gharavi, combining elements of literature, theology, philosophy, metaphysics and history to make his point, speaking in Urdu profusely adorned with Arabic and Persian phrases, adding touches of Ghalib and Hafiz Sheerazi for good measure.He said civilisation had been divided along the lines of geography, time and space, language and ethnicity, giving the examples of the ancient Greek, Roman, Indus Valley and Egyptian civilisations, which were all based on the geographic units which contained them. “These civilisations rose and fell because they were temporal,” said the Ayatollah, who visits Pakistan annually to address majalis during Muharram. Allama Gharavi said our sensory perceptions were zamani, or time-bound, and thus would disappear with us. He added that acts of worship were also temporal unless they led the worshipper to the jauhar, or essence, which is everlasting. He said the concept of Paradise was free of zaman-o-makan.

“My speech today will not remain, but its effects on people’s minds will. This is what Tehzeeb-i-Irfani seeks to do … to transform the temporal into the eternal. What remains etched in people’s memories is of real importance.”

Talking about how tehzeeb is created, Allama Gharavi said an ideology creates a system, while a system is established through laws. When the enforcement of laws fails, tamaddun crumbles. However, when a system is absorbed by the self, it transforms into values, and when these internal values are able to stand up to external pressures, one achieves the goal of reaching Tehzeeb-i-Irfani.

Entering the realm of religion, Allama Gharavi said Tauheed was an ideology while wilaya was its system.

Of the various signs of Tehzeeb-i-Irfani, he said the mimbar, or pulpit, was one of these: however, the person occupying the mimbar gave the pulpit its true value.

Ayatollah Aqueel al-Gharavi described Allama Rasheed Turabi as an “arif” and an interpreter of Irfani Tehzeeb. The scholar also read out various couplets of the late Allama.

Rasheed Turabi’s son Naseer Turabi, himself a poet, conducted the proceedings.