We know, and the heralded leaders of our people know, that we as young women and men are different and live in a far different circumstance of life. Yet we are branded as inexperienced, incapable, irresponsible, and blind when we refuse to conform to mysticism, when we are told not to think and speak out. As a woman, I find myself weak and feeling around in the dark for quicksilver reasons to be the loyalist so many expect. I’d rather realize the logic behind an atom. How else can one integrate both knowledge and life together as Islam teaches?
We as Muslims come from an ancient tradition of intellectualism. But our parents forgot. They forgot long ago to instill our true purpose. The Muslims of the past were the keepers of books, keepers of logic, and keepers of life. For us, as both youth and thinkers, our hands were chained to the ground by the fear of comfortable ancients and the thick minded culture of those far too attached to their homes. Our keepers failed to encourage the fact that we are everything. They failed to tell us that in time, in our truest of forms, we are part of all that is around us and, even so, belong to nothing. They failed to let us know and know well that we are, just as those around us, the guardians of mankind. We, in belonging to nothing, are universal adapters to any type of human being. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream to free all men. A man went to the moon because the reaches of human ability were still hidden behind the clouds. Charles Dickens and Rumi wrote because the world could be painted with words. And Muslims preserved Latin scrolls when Greek libraries burned to keep the knowledge safe for the world. It is our place to stand with these people. To help and change the world as they did. It is our place to integrate and balance our lives with all people. It is our place, moreover, to contribute even if there is no return.
But where have you heard this tale before? You've heard it in the static of your brain. Its the noise that permeates your thought processes as you walk from class to class or work to home. You, as I often have and do, have listened to silent cries within your mind amidst your troubles and worries, trying to understand what it is your mind and your instinct is trying to tell you. You hear it telling you to stop and say no for a moment. You listen to it telling you that our religion is not about the long beards, body strapped bombs, and mystic stories of those who have culture blasted the logical words of God. It is not about the amount of prayers you perform. It is not about how many woman you marry or the man you love. It is about balance and being the one to connect the links that bind religion, natural life, progress and solid conviction together.
Here man created the Hadith and with time and culture warped our books of pristine history and scholarship into the glorified documents they are today. We can know what is wrong with our nation. We can know that this is our time to cure the cancer of our people. It is our time to capture the core of our pain and return our people to their intellectual heights. It is our time to put our foot down and demand the restructuring of our minds, our time to demand the re-teaching of our faith, the real understanding of our rules and the acceptance that our generation has a right to rule and actually give to our world.
When you start experiencing your own thoughts, you start understanding why certain rules exist. Why it is you are asked to be careful, to be nice, to be loving, to be integrated. You cannot really be Muslim unless you truly start to understand how our gears and pulleys work. Without understanding how logic enables us to spend our money, boost and run our economies, judge our world’s crimes, protect women’s rights, our racial rights and hold our families together. Why should we think? How should we think? We should think like engineers and doctors, like scientists and archaeologists, and like linguists and historians. All of whom show you your surroundings for what they are and let you understand the significance of our past, present, and future without the bias of skin, belief, or pride.
Our religion teaches us to be different but what is different when you share it with no one?
Can someone please help me understand how can one balance life, knowledge, and logic the way Islam teaches?
Mash'allah I was born Muslim, but family and I never really practiced Islam. Yes we would fast, but we would only step foot in the Masjid on Eid or Layla tul-Qadar. It was about only few years ago when I finally alhamdulilah surrendered my heart and summited myself to Allah (Swt). I am a very logical person. I don't fully believe in anything until sense the logic in it.
first of all great post - i was thinking a similar thing - Its true Islam has an incredible history its a pity its now been reduced down to a shodow of its former self. I think everybody is on the path of balancing life (material) and the deen. The modern world is very materialistic and less religious then ever so its always a struggle. Life is a struggle at the end of the day.
I personally think logic and Islam go hand in hand - Islam is a religion that tell us to go out a get knowlegde of the deen and the world. Although ultimatley its the belief and worship of God that always is more importnat to the believer.
Its a struggle and i think we have to search for it in ourselves, history and life of other great people and how they did it although i dont realy have an answer to how to balance both things at the moment - we're on the same road like most Muslims.
first of all great post - i was thinking a similar thing - Its true Islam has an incredible history its a pity its now been reduced down to a shodow of its former self. I think everybody is on the path of balancing life (material) and the deen. The modern world is very materialistic and less religious then ever so its always a struggle. Life is a struggle at the end of the day.
I personally think logic and Islam go hand in hand - Islam is a religion that tell us to go out a get knowlegde of the deen and the world. Although ultimatley its the belief and worship of God that always is more importnat to the believer.
Its a struggle and i think we have to search for it in ourselves, history and life of other great people and how they did it although i dont realy have an answer to how to balance both things at the moment - we're on the same road like most Muslims.
peace
I think Muslims must go back to their great thinkers.
I mean I don't mean to be offensive and it may not be my place to say this but when I compare the writtings of so many contemporary Muslim apologists to the works of Al-Ghazali I can hardly believe they are in the same faith tradition. It seems like modern Muslims get to bogged down in commenting on the oppinions of a ulema who wrote an oppinion two hundred years ago which was really just a commentary on a scholar who wrote a fatwa five hundred years earlier who was basing his oppinion on et cetera.
I mean I understand the need for a stable body of oppinion but it seems like the early thinkers possessed a dynamism, nuance, and fearlessness that modern Muslim thought (for the most part) lacks. I don;t mean that to be offensive or rude, that's just sort of an outside oppinion for whatever it is worth. It just seems like you all need another Al-Ghazali.
amazing post Shukri really really enjoyed reading that.
and i agree with the responses.
Can someone please help me understand how can one balance life, knowledge, and logic the way Islam teaches?
The starting point i feel is purifying the religion from the centuries of grit that man has polluted it with, and drawing from it ,its true and ultimate essence, as the classical thinkers attempted, as Allah intended it to be for us and as a divine guide and not a burden, distorted by a few and imposed on the masses.
Once we have that essence of the religion, that is all that is needed to guide us in balancing life, knowledge and logic, to reach our full potential as human being, Khalifahs of the earth, and as slaves of Allah.
My heart, so precious,
I won't trade for a hundred thousand souls.
Your one smile takes it for free.Rumi
I am a very logical person. I don't fully believe in anything until sense the logic in it.
Good post.
"Men are apt to mistake the strength of their feeling for the strength of their argument. The heated mind resents the chill touch and relentless scrutiny of logic". William E. Gladstone 1809-1888, British Liberal Prime Minister, Statesman
As I said in an other thread . . . . . If you never investigate the possibility that what you believe could be false, how can you know it is true?
Last edited by Thinker; 03-29-2009 at 12:32 PM.
Reason: Quote added
We know that Prophet Muhammad (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa-sallam) told us that seeking knowledge is an obligation on every Muslim. We know that it is partly due to this that Muslims made so many important contributions to the world in terms of science, arts, economics, law, technology and indeed philosophy and logic. We see then that Muslims made such progress partly because they realised that seeking knowledge is nothing less than a requirement of our faith. As Shukri18 said; we forgot.
It is only now that the Western world is starting to uncover the truth about the intellectual contributions made by the Muslim world to the rest of humanity but what remains is to educate the Muslims themselves about their amazing heritage. We need to:
1) Educate ourselves and other Muslims about our historical legacy
2) Rediscover the obligation on every Muslim (notice the gender-neutrality!) to seek knowledge and use that obligation to revive the Ummah to be what it once was.
to all
I'm new here, Muslim by the grace of God, and want to know the basics of Islam we've given up today, this is why I joined this forum.
The best line in this post is "You cannot really be Muslim unless you truly start to understand how our gears and pulleys work."
Islam is innate, it's within us not something bestowed from outside.
My question is in an attempt to Find the balance in Islam, what is the "basic thought", we being Muslims should develop in our heart n mind?
thanks for reading my post
I think Muslims must go back to their great thinkers.
I mean I don't mean to be offensive and it may not be my place to say this but when I compare the writtings of so many contemporary Muslim apologists to the works of Al-Ghazali I can hardly believe they are in the same faith tradition. It seems like modern Muslims get to bogged down in commenting on the oppinions of a ulema who wrote an oppinion two hundred years ago which was really just a commentary on a scholar who wrote a fatwa five hundred years earlier who was basing his oppinion on et cetera.
I mean I understand the need for a stable body of oppinion but it seems like the early thinkers possessed a dynamism, nuance, and fearlessness that modern Muslim thought (for the most part) lacks. I don;t mean that to be offensive or rude, that's just sort of an outside oppinion for whatever it is worth. It just seems like you all need another Al-Ghazali.
Salaam
I agree with you I think Muslims realy do have to look at the plural history Of Islam and people like Al Ghazali and other mainstream muslim scholars in Islamic history. Islam is broad tradition IMO and we have to go back to dynamic teachings of the religion as preached before by great scholars.
Salaam,
Thank you all for your replies.
"I think Muslims must go back to their great thinkers.
I mean I don't mean to be offensive"
No offensive whatsoever taken, wallahi I agree with you. The Muslims today are nothing like the Muslims hundred of generations ago. We live in a generation where we put power, money, and pride before religion.
Jihad, before I thought it was western world and none Muslims who would use Jihad in the wrong context, but now I see my fellow Muslims describing it as war to kill infidels, when really Jihad can only be defined as "The holy struggle". Everyday Muslim or not we face our own jihad, wither its the struggle with family, school, co-workers...etc.
I personally find the generation I'm living in useless and disappointing, unless some great change occurs.
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really really enjoyed reading that.
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