The
Western way of life is not compatible with some of the components of Islamic
faith, therefore, a Muslim who adopt the attitude and behaviour of Western life
will inevitably compromise his or her religious faith. This essay explains the
Islamic faith and provides an analysis to break down it into its
constituent parts and examines to what extent the acceptance of the Western way
of life contradicts with the Islamic faith.
 |
| Photo from The Guardian |
There is
a long history of arguing between religious scholars about the Islamic faith.
According to the Quran, Islamic faith is “believeth in Allah and the
Last Day and the angels and the Scripture and the prophets”[1].Although
in the Quran, as the supreme source of Islamic tradition, the same definition
of faith is repeated in several verses, the interpretations and explanations of
faith are varied. Throughout the 9th to 13th century
CE, some conflicting interpretations about Islamic faith appeared among
scholars, which has led the faith to be one of the most controversial issues
among Muslims until the contemporary era. Following the Quran, Hadith is the
second source of religious law and moral guidance in Islam. Sahih Muslim,
which is a hadith book describes the Islamic faith based on the criteria that “one
amongst you believes (truly) till one likes for his brother or for his
neighbour that which he loves for himself”[2]. Therefore,
the Islamic faith must manifest itself through love and kindness towards other
people including Muslims and those non-Muslims. This Hadith shows faith as
having sincerity in the heart, and rather than elucidating Quranic verses in
relation to the different components of faith, it merely suggests all Muslims
have compassion towards the others. On the contrary, Ibn Taymiyyah a reformer
theologian of the 13th century CE, provides an interpretation
which requires Muslims to take further actions based on their faith. According
to Ibn Taymiyyah faith is “the sayings of the heart and the tongue, and the
actions of the heart, tongue, and limbs”[3].
Since the 13th century, Muslims followed one or the other interpretation.
These different interpretations have had a pivotal role in shaping Muslims’
religious attitude and behaviour, therefore, in the contemporary time,
there are dissimilar positions in Muslims' faith in relation to accepting the
Western way of life.
While a
Muslim who is religiously convinced to love others may easily accept the Western
way of life, other Muslims who are religiously motivated to act entirely on the
basis of Islamic faith cannot. For
the reason that in the West, instead of religious faith or a belief system the
overall laws which affect the ways people live are designed by man and
validated based upon human rights. If the Muslims lifestyle and all their
relationships with the surrounding world bounded to their faith, it is almost
inconceivable to accept a Western way of life unless they compromise their
faith to some extent. In Western society, the ruling law which affects the
relationship between an individual and another and the relationship between an
individual and the whole community is excluded from religion and religious
considerations including faith in Islam.
In other words, the judicial system that judges people's behaviour and
social issues are secularised, which means legislations are not based on the
faith in divine revelation. In Western society, religious faith no longer
plays a major role in everyday lives, whereas a Muslim life influenced by the
Islamic faith in various ways.
To
believe in Allah and Mohammad is the very first and second important pillars of
faith in Islam. For instance, the Quranic says, “O ye who believe! Believe in
Allah and His Messenger,” (Al-Nesaa:136). Every Muslim need to pray five times
a day and each time reaffirms a testimony, which encompasses the first two parts
of faith, and it is called ‘Shahada’. It cites that “There is no god but God;
Muhammad is the Messenger of God”[4].
This is the motto of Islam, which covers the whole course of a Muslim's life
through its recitation in the ears of a newborn baby and on the dead body
inside the grave during burial. To believe in Allah has helped Muslims to
determine the reason behind the whole universe, define the origin of being, and
benefit from the favourable certainty. Nevertheless, in many cases
for a Muslim, in relation to the acceptance of the Western way of life, the
effects of Shahada are extremely deterrent and widely problematic.
First of
all, given that some Islamic theologians such as Ibn Taymiyyah, who do not
merely suggest Muslim followers confess the Shahada but urge them to do
something about it, such a pragmatic approach in faith begs a whole series of
questions. The main query is that despite being religiously motivated, how does
a Muslim believe that all other gods are invalid except Allah, and yet stay
thinking respectfully about them and saying nothing against them. In fact, the Islamic faith is not only
spiritual contemplation but also an ideology which shapes the entire individual
and social relationships because it dictates how to see the other’s beliefs. Therefore,
the acceptance of the Western way of life would undermine a Muslim's faith
because the diversity of beliefs is a respectable value in Western society,
which is rejected in the very first pillar of the Islamic faith.
Secondly,
Western culture is founded on rationalism. In Western culture, the social
interactions and the individual behaviours are examined through
rationality and not by a belief system. Furthermore, the Western social norms
including ethical values and moral guidance are derived from Western culture,
which is predominantly but not exclusively non-religious. Unlike the Western
culture, Islamic faith includes the belief in non-rational phenomena such as
the acceptance of angels' existence and the confession to the resurrection day.
Therefore, the acceptance of rationalism in the Western way of life opposes
these two pillars of the Islamic faith.
In
conclusion on the basis of the Quran, the Islamic faith is not compatible with the
principles of the Western way of life. However, given the fact that there are
dissimilar interpretations about the Islamic faith, between compassion for others
and following edicts, Muslims can choose each one.
Bibliographies:
Holy
Qur’an.
Retrieved April 19, 2019 from: https://www.sahih-bukhari.com/Pages/Quran/Quran_english_arabic_transliteration.php?id=2
Muslim, Ibn al-Hajjaj. “Sahih
Muslim.” Translated by Abd-al-Hamid Siddiqui. Islam House. Book
001, Number 0072. (2009): 82. Retrieved
April 20, 2019 from: https://d1.islamhouse.com/data/en/ih_books/single/en_Sahih_Muslim.pdf
Taymiyyah, Ibn. “Al-Aqidah
al-Wasitiyyah” Translated by Abu Amina
Elias. Faith in Allah. 34. Accessed April 19 ,2019. https://abuaminaelias.com/al-aqeedah-al-wasitiyyah-by-ibn-taymiyyah/
William E. Shepard. Introducing Islam. London:
Taylor & Francis Group, 2014. Accessed April 19, 2019. ProQuest Ebook
Central.
No comments:
Post a Comment