Investigating the Reasons for the Weakness and Fall of Human Civilizations throughout History
To understand the reasons for the weakness and fall of human civilizations, we must first know what civilization means. Civilization is defined as a set of beliefs, rules, ethics, customs, and any other habit or capability that exists in a society and human beings acquire. The set of laws, sciences, and arts that organize the social life of a society and shape its economy, culture, ethics, and religion are called the civilization of that society. Civilization is a harmonious formation of beliefs and structures in which the personality and identity of individuals take shape. In every civilized society, individuals collectively strive and cooperate for their material and spiritual growth. The civilization of each nation presents the type of thinking and intellectual and cultural growth of its people.
When examining different civilizations, we come across the question of whether every civilization can be successful and sustainable and bring bliss to individuals.
The human is the greatest being in the world with complicated and challenging spiritual dimensions. If a civilization cannot properly understand the human being and does not define its principles, goals, and criteria based on the most essential needs of our soul, even if it is a modern civilization with the greatest welfare and comfort, it will not be able to nurture happy, peaceful, and kind human beings.
One of the most serious reasons for the weakness and fall of human civilizations is that these civilizations have not accurately known humans and have not based their laws and ideals on the most important dimension of human existence, which is the heart or the divine dimension of the human soul. This crisis has led them to spend most of their time and energy on the growth and progress of various sciences, but neglect the most essential type of knowledge, which is humanology. This is while the noblest goal of a civilization is nothing but nurturing the human being.
One of the reasons for the weakness and fall of human civilizations is that different civilizations have considered power, progress, and literacy as criteria for success and reasons for sustainability. They have buried the truth of the human being and his bliss under their inadequate laws and goals to promote physical well-being and fleeting aspirations, neglecting the divine truth of the human being. This issue has led to the strongest civilizations gradually disappearing throughout history, and the human being still has not established a civilization which can provide him with everlasting happiness, peace, and kindness.
If we want to realize which civilization has been able to do cultural activity properly, we should look for three signs in it. Kindness, peace, and happiness are the three criteria that indicate a civilization is thriving and well-developed. If a civilization can create kind, happy, and peaceful people, it has done its job well and can be considered a strong civilization for restoring human principles. These are the three criteria that all humans have sought to meet from the past to the present, and they measure their success in life with these three. As we have witnessed, many wealthy people, scientists, artists, athletes, and individuals from different walks of life have ended their lives due to a lack of happiness, peace, and love.
To understand what makes a civilization successful and stable, it is helpful to examine a real-life example. One such example is the Arbaeen walk in Iraq, where we can see a vibrant display of a thriving and joyful civilization. It is a two-week journey that takes place annually on Earth. It is a time when people exhibit their happiest, most peaceful, and kindest self.
The Reason Why in Most Civilizations People Do Not Feel Good
One of the most important points that most civilizations have overlooked is that civilization is like a home for humans, a place for upbringing, security, and shaping our personalities. To better understand the reasons for the weakness and fall of human civilizations, let us think about the influence and importance of home in our lives. Home is a place to shape various beliefs in us and instil different feelings and energies into our minds and hearts.
Now that we know civilization is the home which shapes the destiny of humans, we must understand if human needs are not properly identified and understood in this home, he will not feel good, happy, and peaceful and will not attain bliss.
For instance, human beings need sufficient and nourishing food to continue living. But what would happen if the members of the house only provide fancy clothes, luxurious stuff, and different types of drinks? No matter how nice and appealing these facilities and gifts are, they still do not fulfil the need for food and the essential vitamins necessary for the body. As a result, the person feels tired and low on energy, and may not even survive for long.
Now imagine parents providing their child with the most advanced welfare facilities, the most expensive entertainment, and excellent educational conditions, not paying attention to emotional and spiritual needs of their child and leave him to his own devices. How will this child feel? What will happen to him?
One of the most important reasons for the weakness and fall of human civilizations is also neglecting the most essential needs of humans. The human is the most valuable being, and everything on earth and in the sky has been created for him. He is a complicated being with five levels or dimensions. In fact, he is a condensed version of all beings in the universe and has all the privileges of other ones. What makes humans superior to all beings in the world is a special and unique existential dimension called the spiritual or divine part, or the heart.
Reviewing the reasons for the weakness and fall of human civilizations shows that if a civilization, in which humans are growing and being nurtured, does not prioritize the essential needs of our soul and does not focus on the core aspects of human existence, that is, the heart and spiritual dimension, then despite any material success, individuals will not feel good. They might feel temporarily content but will easily falter at the slightest challenge.
What Is Missing in the Creation of Civilizations?
We stated that the root cause of the weakness and fall of human civilizations throughout history lies in the fact that the principles of these civilizations were not based on the divine essence of the human being, and most of their goals were focused on providing material and worldly comfort and well-being. Of course, not all the blame can be placed on the founders of these civilizations, as they were individuals who were similar to others in terms of their skills and abilities and did not have sufficient knowledge about the truth of human existence. They did not know how important it was to have this knowledge, and they formulated the principles of those civilizations based on their own aspirations. Therefore, they thought that they should devote all their efforts to the worldly progress and prosperity of humankind. And it did not matter if others were hurt in this process. Therefore, they made every effort, carried out many research, made discoveries, and contributed to scientific advancements, welfare, and medical and technological progress of their societies.
But as long as humans do not recognize the core principle of science, no matter how much it progresses, it becomes more terrifying and dreadful, and its product will be nothing but viruses, bombs, and constant wars. Therefore, for the success and bliss of a civilization, we must recognize the core truths of human existence, so that we can manage other sciences based on our knowledge about these core principles in a way that helps us attain greater bliss and enable our souls to grow up to infinity.
Today, even though science has reached its highest levels, humans are living in their worst condition. This indicates that science can provide comfort and speed for humans, but it does not bring inner peace to them. As comfort levels increase, inner peace might decrease.
While doing research about the reasons for the weakness and fall of human civilizations, we realized that no civilization can thrive and become blissful without knowing humanology. Since knowledge has advanced aimlessly, it has failed to help humanity and bring them bliss.
The flawed system that exists in most civilizations, especially the modern ones, is that they use human intelligence at any cost to achieve more wealth and prosperity. As a result, even though an individual becomes a good scientist, engineer, or doctor, s/he does not turn into a kind and committed spouse, parent, or child and is not calm, happy, and kind because s/he has developed only one dimension of his/her being.
Unfortunately, current civilizations have paid too much attention to one dimension of human existence and ignored other dimensions, failing to address the main dimension of existence. The human being is a set; he is an organized, precise, and engineered set that goes through various stages to attain bliss and progresses from before birth to birth and reaches infinity. So a civilization that plans for human bliss must consider all the stages of his creation and all the dimensions of his existence and make plans for and educate him accordingly to ensure his bliss and its own sustainability.
No civilization can bring humans bliss and help them attain the praiseworthy status of the perfect human without placing humanology at its center and making people understand the importance of self-knowledge.
