Say: Travel in the land, then see what was the end of the guilty!

Say: Travel in the land, then see what was the end of the guilty!." Holy Qur'an (27:68-69) "And Allah sets forth a parable: A town safe and secure, to which its means of subsistence came in abundance from every quarter; but it disbelieved in Allah's favours, so Allah made it taste a pall of hunger and fear because of what they wrought." Holy Qur'an (16:112) In these Qur'anic texts, the Noble Qur'an draws man's attention to the progression of history, the growth and development of cultures; then, it describes their downfall shrinkage, and decay, explaining the reasons for their extinction.

It calls on us to look for their traces, and examine their histories; to put our fingers on the points of weakness and the areas where diseases have struck, It is in our own interests to avoid the wrongs of past nations, and fully grasp the lessons of history.

When the Qur'an relates the story of a nation's rise and fall, it aims at developing our sense of awareness with regard to man's past experience, and enables us to make the best use of the lessons of history drawn from the stories of numerous nations and various cultures.

The Qur'an focuses on the key reasons behind cultural downfall and summarizes the plagues of the human community by the following: Spiritual Imbalance: The disruption of man's relationship with Allah which is represented by his repudiation of the Creator of the universe and life, as well as his abandonment of Allah's Shari'ah. "Have they not travelled in the land and seen what was the end of those before them ? Allah destroyed them.

And for the infidels is the like thereof." Holy Qur'an (47:10) Disbelief, in the logic of the Qur'an, means denial of the right, and the split between man and the natural laws set for him. As a result disbelief leads eventually to ruin for it is actually the process of abolishing the laws governing man's existence, and falsifying the course of history. In other words, the disbeliever moves against the goals of life. These two phenomena surface as a direct outcome of the deeper cause of disbelief.

When man abandons the natural laws which govern him, human civilization weakens and decays, and fades away. In this case cultural collapse is inescapable, because life moves in the wrong direction. Man, left alone, can never define his own goals in this life, the goals that lead him to his Great Creator.