As-salam-o-alikum brother,
I assume you know about Dr. Zakir Naik. If not, you must see his lectures, he's always busy quoting Quran and hadith and trying to give logical answers. (Sheik Yusuf Estes' site)
www.tubeislam.com
Brother, I learned from Dr. Israr Ahmed that the learned groups of our ummah (students of Islam) have been wasting too much time and energy just debating fiqh with each other. Materialism and Agnosticism is running rampant in the world. What good is refining shariah studies if the fitnah of rejection of hadith is growing in the ummah?
From
Synthesis of Iman and
Islamic Renaissance:
Among the most prominent factors leading to the continuing decline of the Muslim ummah is the shift of emphasis among the Muslims from metaphysical pursuits to material concerns. The modern Muslim intellectuals – spellbound by the material progress and dazzling exterior of the western civilization and dismayed by the inability, indeed the sheer refusal, of the `ulama to counter the western philosophical onslaught – sought to uplift the Muslims from their woeful predicament and prescribed the medicine of modernization. The process of modernization is rooted in scientism – the belief that the Ultimate Reality can only be arrived at via the scientific method of investigation. The scientific method is limited to the sensorial, material realm and denies, or at least is skeptical of, the spiritual, metaphysical dimension of life.
[...]
God has imbued man with many capacities and mental faculties to exploit to his benefit any field or domain, provided these faculties are properly applied. Every earnest research worker can explore a new world in the domain of his selected field of inquiry. Compared with the vastness and grandeur of the universe, the shining sun itself is nothing more than a tiny speck, while a tiny particle of dust may open up for a scientist realms hardly less in complexity and fascination than the shining sun. Similarly, the universe, matter, and terrestrial existence may look extremely trivial in contrast to God, the soul, and the life Hereafter, but if these mundane concerns are made the subject of study and research, they may lead to boundless vistas of knowledge.
This actually happened in Europe. When the universe and matter were brought under scientific investigation, man gradually discovered to his utter astonishment a clue to power and energy in apparently dead and inert material phenomena. And this led to a new revolution in the realm of knowledge and technology.
[...]
Over the past hundred and fifty or two hundred years, European philosophers developed a number of schools of thought about the nature of man and human life, but one central attitude that persisted all through these variegated philosophical theories, and went on gaining momentum was the disregard for ideational and transcendental concepts. Concrete fact and physical phenomena became the core and object of human inquiry and philosophical quest. God, soul, and the Hereafter gradually disappeared from the spectrum of thought, yielding place respectively to discussions about the nature of the physical universe, matter, and human terrestrial existence. Though at the academic level it was said that we neither affirm nor reject the doctrines about God, soul, and life-after-death, yet this avowedly agnostic position quite understandably led to the gradual elimination of these ideas from philosophical inquiry and discussion.
The Idea of an “Islamic Way of Life” and the Twentieth Century Islamic Movements
[...]
One may think that the real cause of the failure of these revivalist movements lies in the impatience of their leaders. That is to say, they perhaps hastily, without first changing the minds of a considerable number of the country’s intelligentsia, took part in active politics, which resulted in premature clash with the national leadership and the so-called ‘progressive’ elements. But in truth their failure is a direct result of their misconceived notion of faith and the error in their view of Islam.
The Error of their Interpretation of Islam
These movements’ understanding and view of Islam are based on the same Western standpoint, preferring material existence and worldly pursuits to spirit and the life Hereafter. Though the metaphysical beliefs of Islam, which collectively constitute Islamic faith, are affirmed in their studies of Islam, they have not been properly stressed. Their gaze has been exclusively fixed on the teachings and precepts which Islam has laid down for the multifarious practical aspects of life and to which they have given the name of
Islami Nizam-e-Hayat (Islamic System for Life). Their interpretation of Islam affirms all the religious beliefs but it lacks the inner state of deep faith in God (
Iman Billah) which alone makes us know Him as the only absolutely powerful agent and the ultimate cause within us and in the cosmos. The belief in the Hereafter is asserted but it is practically devoid of the living faith, which was described by the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) when he commanded:
Live in this world like a stranger or wayfarer.
[...]
It is an outcome of this very standpoint that the practice of the Islamic faith has come to be regarded as synonymous with the State, and worship (
Ibadah) simply equivalent to obedience (
Ita‘ah). The Prophet’s statement that prayer (
Salat) is the spiritual ascension of the believer is completely disregarded. The attachment of the human soul to prayer to the degree that it becomes the only source of inner happiness and peace is nowhere to be seen. Contrary to this, the more progressive elements have identified the canonical prayer with the social order of the community. Some others assign importance to it only in so far as it is a comprehensive method for the organization of the Muslim community.
[...]
One should keep in mind that the vast majority of mankind does not comprise of people who utilize their intellect and reasoning faculty. It would not be too far fetched to term such people as “two legged animals”. They follow their society’s conventional trends and simply mimic the behavior of those around them. They swim in the direction of the social current and tide of their time and only change their direction as the current changes. They never question as to who they are, where have they come from or where they are going?
Contrary to such a character, there always exists, in each society, a minority group who is never satisfied with the practices and beliefs prevalent in their society. They demand rational arguments and logical proofs for the validity of all beliefs and practices. They want to discover for themselves the realities of life via their own intellect and reasoning. This group comprises a society’s intelligentsia (the intellectual elite or the brain trust). These are the people whom the Qur’an calls qaumun
ya`qiloon or
ulul albaab. When these people study the universal, natural phenomena, they find them laden with the signs of the Creator-Lord (SWT) – His Creativity, Wisdom and Power. Hence, the universal, natural phenomena lead them to the gnosis of Allah (SWT).
http://www.tanzeem.org/online/ebooks...0of%20Iman.pdf
http://www.tanzeem.org/online/ebooks...enaissance.pdf
:sl: