This research paper aims to shed light on a highly significant issue, namely the vision of the Algerian thinker Malek Bennabi regarding the problem of civilizational backwardness resulting from the manifestations of underdevelopment that characterized Muslim society. Among the most prominent of these manifestations are the absence of the world of ideas, the disintegration of the network of social relations, social deprivation, and colonial susceptibility. Collectively, these problems constituted direct causes of the stagnation of the civilizational project in the Islamic world. The main conclusion drawn from this study is that the issues addressed by Malek Bennabi represent some of the most significant factors behind the underdevelopment and civilizational decline of Muslim societies, particularly in relation to building their civilizational and developmental project. Therefore, if Islamic societies genuinely aspire to establish a strong and sustainable civilization, they should give greater attention to Bennabi's ideas while avoiding the problems he identified as major obstacles to civilizational progress.