Society

The Qur'an teaches us to look at the civilizations that came before us, consider their rise and fall, and take lessons from that so we make the best decisions in our own lives and societies. We should also look at previous civilizations to be humble: we should not assume that just because our society is at an apex, it must last forever. If our society is prosperous, we should thank Allah for that and not assume it is all under our control, since those people who started to attribute blessings to themselves instead of Allah soon fell. 

The Qur'an and hadith give a sense that there are some metaphysical laws underpinning civilizations. Positive spiritual and ethical practices of societies lead them to flourish, whereas negative spiritual and ethical practices lead them to decay or destruction. This is part and parcel of natural law and is often connected to natural causes but is also part of divine justice. 

Some Muslims see the process of history as a gradual unfolding and en route to an ultimate victory of tawhid - that is, a meaningful process of history - although others may not agree with that. 

The main criticisms in the Qur'an of pre-Islamic societies are of idolatry, superstition, tribalism, and depotism. In some cases, flagrant violations led Allah to rain down destruction on some places, as in the Old Testament. In other cases, they just led to the decline of the civilization.

Pre-Islamic Abrahamic monotheists are also sometimes criticized for deviation, self-glorification, and so forth. 

Individual people in ancient societies are presented in accordance with their acts. For instance, the husband of Zulaykha in Egypt is presented as neutral, whereas Firawn is presented as evil. The Queen of Sheba is overall presented as a good ruler but as starting out with an incorrect theology due to worshipping the sun. There are also some specific criticisms of specific places/times such as the people of Lut. 

Mesopotamia was a large region with many peoples and dynasties, so one cannot give a single view for the whole civilizational phenomenon. Similarly, ancient Egypt had a long reign of dominance and so one cannot make sweeping views about everything. This is apart from the obvious fact that both Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt contributed to the the development of later civilizations and so we retain some of their legacies, such as some ideas or technologies.

Babylon gets a bit of a bad rap in the Qur'an due to the Harut and Marut situation, and also the story of Ibrahim (A). Ancient Egypt is also associated with magic. But neither place is discussed extensively. This is different from the Biblical tradition, in which Babylon is personified and condemned. 

On the other hand, Shi'i hadith speak of the sanctity of Karbala from ancient times, and Karbala is in Mesopotamia. There are also Shi'i hadith speaking of Adam being created from the clay of the Euphrates. So there is a sense of a portrayal of this region as part of the cradle of civilization. 

Muslims have had various views about the ancient heritages. Some Muslims found benefit in reading ancient philosophical texts like those from Greece or in wisdom from things such as the Code of Hammurabi or traditional Chinese medicine. Other Muslims opposed ancient things because they belong to pre-Islamic times and civilizations.

Insofar as the hadith says to seek knowledge even from China, and China obviously was not a Muslim-majority or Abrahamic civilization, one can assume that Islam does not have an objection to seeking beneficial knowledge from ancient civilizations. 

Today, some Muslims are very focused making a full break from the ancient past and fear anything from the ancient times as bid'ah or shirk. So they reject anything ancient, on the grounds that it is pre-Islamic, although ancient things - like modern things - can sometimes have wisdom and sometimes have error. Other Muslims have an interest in studying the past, such as literature or archeology, or preserve some ancient holidays and customs. 

Conversely, some modern secular nation-states in the Middle East where the government felt threatened by Islam or Islamic movements have tried to build a national identity based on the pre-Islamic heritage or promote a sense of national arrogance based on a pre-Islamic heritage. It is nice to respect and appreciate and know about the good things from the past. However, it is wrong to deploy pre-Islamic identity as a tool to whip up nationalism, strengthen dictators, suppress Islam, and inflame wars with other nation-states. So this is an example of wrong usage of pre-Islamic heritages in the modern era. They do not relate to the ancient civilizations but rather wrong things that occur in our own time. 

So there isn't a unilateral view on these civilizations or the ancient world in general, but these are some aspects of how history has been understood in an Islamic context. 

Social institutions have changed, but human nature and the soul have not changed. The basic challenges that human beings face have not changed since ancient times. Then and now, people have dealt with inequity, tribalism, injustice, social harmony and disharmony, family challenges, and so forth. The fundamental principles of ethics also have not changed. This is why one can find wisdom and inspiration in literature from a long time ago.

In our era, there are some new "social technologies" to try to grapple with age-old problems - for instance, democracy and the nation-state system - but our challenges as human beings remain the same. Furthermore, all human beings must grapple with mortality, consider what happens after death, and find meaning and purpose in our lives and in the universe. People also often want to know how to improve themselves ethically and spiritually and how to transcend the baser aspects of their existence or avoid being controlled by their lower desires. 

Science, technology, access to knowledge, and mass institutionalized education have benefits. However, they do not always make people into kinder or better people. You meet some people who live very simple lives and very little formal education but who have a very good family life and who are generous and treat others well. And, of course, vice versa. In fact, one can say that places which have had the most technological advances and where there is a strong consumerist culture also have more isolation and alienation. So the advances that the modern era has brought to the world are not all things that relate to some of the fundamentals of human existence such as how to coexist with others. Rather, they operate in other areas of life; for instance, curing physical diseases. 

So, the challenges of being a human being, and of having a society, are areas where religion provides guidance. Islam, being rather comprehensive, provides a rather lot of guidance on both spiritual and social matters.

As for Islam itself, it is both flexible and inflexible. It is inflexible on some points; for instance, some requirements specified in the Qur'an. At the same time, it has an inherent adaptability to different cultures and situations. Otherwise, it would not have spread to so many different cultures and flourished. We can see in our era that there are various ways Muslims have looked to Islam to solve new problems, whether they be individual or communal. So there is a scope of adaptability that does not confine it to 7th century Arabia and which has allowed it to flourish today, even in places where other organized religions have lost ground.

As for whether society is not as barbaric as it used to be without Islam... looking at the events of the past couple hundred years, such as the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the world wars, crippling economic sanctions, and the deployment of chemical and nuclear weapons... I would not agree with that. There may be more focus in public discourse on individual freedoms, human rights, and the value of a human life, but at the same time there are large masses of people who are dispossessed and suffering due to the current global power structures, and there is more institutionalized inequity than at any other time in the past. Not all lives are treated as having the same worth, as we see in attention given to current conflicts. We also have the capability to do much more horrible things to each other than at any time.  So there are some ways that the jahiliyyah Arabian society was barbaric, and there are some ways that the world is barbaric now. In any case, the question of which era is better or worse than another cannot really be answered; just pointing out another side of the question. 

So here are a few thoughts. I am sure others will have some excellent insights!