Malek Bennabi

He later criticised the Muslim society for frequently falling into an apologetic state. Muslims tended to dig up past treasures instead of seeking to progress with new ones. He said that Muslims today were in a state of disarray. Muslim countries and societies were largely imperialized by the West. This was truly not a failure of Islam, but because Muslims and those in governance abandoned the true understanding of what Islamic values connoted. In this, Bennabi again pointed out, "after Egypt's humiliation in the Six-days war in June 1967, it is the ummah's (global Muslim community) understanding and worldview, its stock of ideas rather than of arms and ammunition's, that needs to be renewed. Although looking back to what had been achieved in the Golden Age of Islam is still relevant, what is more important is to be able to appreciate the political values and culture of models and systems implemented by past prophets, re-interpret and apply these to our contemporary society. Enriching the society is part of dynamism in Islam. Colonisation of minds has driven Muslims towards a state of moral and psychological decay. He believed that moral paralysis resulted in intellectual paralysis.

From one of his works, Les Conditions de la Renaissance (1948), he defined culture as the mode of being and becoming of a people. This included aesthetic, ethical, pragmatic, and technical values. When these contents had been clearly defined, only then could various formulations of ideas be born. The birth of new ideas led to a dynamic society furthering the movement of vibrancy of a new civilization. In another book, The Question of Culture (1954), he said, the organisation of society, its life and movement, indeed, its deterioration and stagnation, all possessed a functional relation with the system of ideas found in that society. If that system were to change in one way or another, all other social characteristics would follow suit and adapt in the same direction. Ideas, as a whole, form an important part of the means of development in a given society. The various stages of development in such a society are indeed different forms of its intellectual developments. If one of those stages corresponds to what is called "renaissance", it will mean that society at that stage is enjoying a wonderful system of ideas; a system that can provide a suitable solution to each of the vital problems in that particular society. He added that ideas influence the life of a given society in two different ways; either they are factors of growth of social life, or on the contrary, the role of factors of contagion, thus rendering social growth rather difficult or even impossible.

In a book announced by the Parisian publisher Erick Bonnier in October 2019, Dr. Zidane Meriboute (a former researcher-teacher at the University of London, SOAS) " has conducted his own investigation to establish the truth about the activities of Bennabi's 'spouses' during the Second World War "; his book is based essentially on the archives of the DST and the French Court of Justice (Chartres and Paris Archives), hitherto kept in absolute secrecy. Extensive extracts from DST files and recitals of the Court of Justice of Chartres are included for the first time in this book, which was published in March 2020 . The recitals of the Chartres Court of Justice's ruling of 6 April 1946 cleared Mr and Mrs Bennabi of all suspicion, the judge having concluded that "the accused were detained for many months on fanciful charges - nothing of which could be retained".

Malek Bennabi wrote more than 25 books, all his works were written between 1946 (The Quranic Phenomenon) and 1973. Yet, due to Mr.X whom he calls the imperialist enemies, many of his works are ceased from being published, some were lost or censored.

Some groups which are hostile to Malek Bennabi have denigrated him and called him a Nazi collaborator, but without providing any proof of his collaboration with the Germans during the Second World War. His wife, Paulette Bennabi, was also accused by the French secret services (DST) of acting for the account of the Gestapo of Dreux (France), under the alias "Madame Mille ". The Bennabi couple has been the subject of several investigations by the DST and was imprisoned at the Pithiviers camp for 18 months, between 1944 and 1946.

Malek Bennabi (1 January 1905 – 31 October 1973) (Arabic: مالك بن نبي) was an Algerian writer and philosopher, who wrote about human society, particularly Muslim society with a focus on the reasons behind the fall of Muslim civilization. According to Malek Bennabi, the lack of new ideas in Islamic thought emerged what he coined civilizational bankruptcy. He argued that in order to recover its former magnificence, Islamic society had to become an environment in which individuals felt empowered. In order to satisfy his spiritual and material needs, a Muslim needed to feel that his industry and creativity would find reward.

Bennabi was born in Constantine, Algeria in 1905. Educated in Paris and Algiers in engineering, he later based himself in Cairo, where he spent much of his time working extensively in the fields of history, philosophy and sociology. In 1963, after returning to Algeria, he witnessed modern scientific inventions and technological creations unfold before his eyes. This spurred him to reflect on the question of culture in the early nineteenth century. His approach was simple, not parroting what had been discovered before his time, but rather, searching for what constitutes the essence of culture and the birth of civilization.