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All the peoples of Europe, notwithstanding their vaunted civilization, sink and drown in this terrifying sea of passion and desire, and this is why all the phenomena of their culture come to nothing. Let no one wonder at this statement or deplore it. The primary purpose, the basic objective, in laying down powerful laws and setting up great principles and institutions dealing with every aspect of civilization, is human happiness; and human happiness consists only in drawing closer to the Threshold of Almighty God, and in securing the peace and well-being of every individual member, high and low alike, of the human race; and the supreme agencies for accomplishing these two objectives are the excellent qualities with which humanity has been endowed. (60:1) A superficial culture, unsupported by a cultivated morality, is as "a confused medley of dreams,"[1] and external lustre without inner perfection is "like a vapor in the desert which the thirsty dreameth to be water."[2] For results which would win the good pleasure of God and secure the peace and well-being of man, could never be fully achieved in a merely external civilization.[1=Qur'an 12:44; 21:5, 2=Qur'an 24:39]
(60:2)
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