Download influence of western ideas and values on the practice of islam

INFLUENCE OF WESTERN IDEAS AND VALUES ON THE PRACTICE OF ISLAM
DR. TAOFEEQ ABDUL-AZEEZ
The topic you asked me to address is profound theoretical rather than practical but to me, when I
was been flagged up, the topic has been probably brought to a manageable proportion. We want
to talk about small matters not big matters, such as shaking hands with opposite sex, fixing your
meetings in Salat times, may be by extension fixing your weddings on Saturdays, cutting cakes
and wearing Suits etc. I want to say that there are certain matters that we take with undue tenacity
but are simple as Allah mentioned in Qur’an22: 78. Man tends to make things difficult for
themselves.
“Strive in the Way of Allah as you ought to strive with
sincerity and discipline; He has chosen you and has
not laid upon you any hardship in the observance of
your faith - the faith of your father Ibrahim (Abraham).
What I intend to do is to present a theoretical basis for the Western Values and Ideologies on
Islam, then on Muslims. If we say on the practice of Islam, it is because Muslims have to practice
Islam.
Basis of Western Values & Ideologies
The Basis of western Values and Ideologies are usually misconceived misunderstood and
misinterpreted as Christians. Christianity does not and cannot and could not have influenced
Western values and Ideologies except when you say Christianity and you mean Pauline doctrines
and Western practices on what has become known as Christianity today. Christianity is
essentially Pauline. Paul introduced Christianity and the first people to be addressed as Christians
were addressed so several years after the death of Jesus. When Jesus (AS) was leaving, he left
peace with his followers and the peace is Islam. Islam is the religion brought and practices by
Jesus. Thus, any value and ideologies influenced by teachings of Christianity as preached by
Christ couldn’t have been other than Islamic because when we tag Christianity according to
Christ, it means Islam. Based on that, I reject the argument that western value & ideologies are
Christian. They are rather based on Greek mythologies, philosophy and atheistic beliefs.
Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, believed that when God finished creating the world, he forgot
about it. According to him, the world is like a wristwatch having been manufactured, it is left to
function on its own. That was the source of the opinion that god created the heavens and the earth
for six days and then rest on the seventh day and forgot about it. Islam said “NO” Allah, unlike
man needs no rest.
“We created the heavens and the earth and
all that lies between them in six periods, and
no fatigue touched Us.
Q50: 38
Likewise the Christianity as preached by Christ couldn’t have said “yes”. But why do they go to
all these beliefs. It was Paul, who was an enemy of Jesus, that introduced all these anti-Christ
teachings as an enemy of Jesus camouflaging as a “Born again disciple of Christ. He claimed to
have repented and met with Jesus but nobody saw him when he was conversing with Jesus. But
deceit has always affected people either negatively or positively. From that moment, spiritual
matters became subjective, personal and private that cannot be generalized. The claimant can
only experience it alone. Paul claimed to have received commandments from the divine voice he
received calling him to evangelism though Allah addressed the Devil in the Qur’an in Q17: 64
saying:
You may try to allure whomsoever you can
with your seductive voice… the promises of Shaitan
are nothing but deception
As Paul was a brilliant lawyer, he introduced heresies to Christianity. The first thing he did was
that he removed the Shariah from the Old Testament knowing well fully that he would be the first
victim of its dictates of the Shariah. He annulled the laws that Jesus had come to perfect and
replaced them with two major heresies and atheism namely
i-The Comforter promised by Jesus was not human being but in form of Holy Spirit.
ii-He replaced God with man and made Jesus the third person in Godhead (De facto God)
So, Since God has been removed from the religion, people who were practicing it till the time of
renascence when people began to attack the Church could not have said to be practicing
Christianity. Any Idea that emanated from such source could not have said to be from Christianity
but rather developed from what Paul taught or to Greek Philosophy. In other words, Modern
Christianity plus Atheism give birth to Secularism, which is the basis of our problem. In political
theme, it is Democracy. In political and administrative arena, it is specialization and division of
labour. In Academics it is empiricism, that everything should be judge by human standard and
perception. Whatever be your claim should be proved. God cannot be seen probably, thus, he
does not exist. The paradise and the hell are not visible, then, may be they do not exist. Our faith,
practices and ideologies have been badly influenced by Secularism.
I want to emphasize that Islam is not a religion, but religion is part of Islam. Islam is a total way
of life. Islam is a system and not just worship. Iman (Faith) is the foundation of worship and it is
more than mere witness to the unity of Allah and prophethood and messengership of Prophet
Muhammad. But it has to reflect on everything Muslims do.
However, western values in terms of secularism, which divided human activities to the secular,
the mundane and the spiritual. It grouped everything that is religious into the spiritual. It banished
the Church and now the Mosque into spiritual arena. They must not have anything to say about
politics and administration. Let the religious people continue to preach salvation and acts of
worship in their Mosques and Churches. Let them continue to condemn the administrators and the
politicians and banish then to hell fire. Muslims have been badly influenced by this western
ideology even in education.
We have been brought up with this doctrine that has forced us to one of the two extremes. We
either condemn everything we don’t seem to understand or we try to justify them. For instance, A
non-fanatical secularist may say shaking hand with opposite sex does not matter after all intention
matters. He might like to confirm his imagination by shaking the hand again. He would go ahead
under the banner of intention to look at the face that carries the hand, talk to her, dining with her
until he would commit adultery with her after all there is Islamic courtship, Islamic Interaction
etc. On the other hand, a fanatical secularist will condemn shaking hands with opposite sex as
pure “Kufr” disbelief. Both of the two extremists are badly influenced by Western ideologies and
values.
Pristine Islam neither encourages laxity nor fanaticism but preached moderation. Allah says in
Qur’an2: 143
We have made you a moderate Ummah (nation) so
that you may testify against mankind and that your
own Rasool may testify against you…”
You cannot afford to afford to condemn everything condemnable or condemn everything you
don’t understand. Life is neither a straight-jacketed spiritual nor straight-jacketed social. Islam
encompasses both secularism and spiritual. Islam is a continuum.
Secularism has affected our faith such that we approach a God who knows only to answer prayer.
Ninety- nine % of Muslims has been influenced by this value. Because Islam to some people is an
alternative to Christianity whereby everybody is willing to get something from that god that has
everything at his disposal. If the Christians are doing night vigil, let us also do “Tahajjud” (night
prayer). If they hold their prayer meetings in hotels, let us also do our programme in hotels after
all we are more sophisticated than them. If they float a football team, let us also float our own
football team. To make the matter worse, somebody argued vehemently in one of the Asian
Countries that why can we Muslims organize our prostitutes so that we can fight for their rights,
in order words, he wanted to set up Islamic prostitution. Knowingly or unknowingly, we continue
to legalize all the forbidden by mere giving the adjective “Islamic”. These tendencies have the
propensities to be Islamic and to be unIslamic provided we manage them properly. So secularism
affect our faith in that we do not want to extend Islam from the Mosque to Business Arena, Social
Strata and intellectualism whether because we are afraid or incapable. We have reduced Islam to
“Deen’ without a state or Shariah without a state; whereas, if it is Islam, it must have Shariah.
Allah has commanded the Muslims to enter into Islam fully.
Effects of secularism on Our Politics
A secularist Politician will go into politics thinking that he/ she must play it the way it should be
done. One has to be a politician per se (De facto politician). If it involves buying alcohol or
getting girls for his supporters, he must do it. He has been made to believe that it is those people
that can give him the post he is vying for. He has forgotten that it is Allah who gives power to
whom he wishes and withdraws power from whom he wishes. See Q 3:26
“ Say: "O Allah! Master of all the Kingship, You give the
kingdom to whom You please and take away the
kingdom from whomsoever You please; You give
honor to whom You please and disgrace to whom
You please; all the good is in Your hand; surely You
have power over everything.
His counterpart i.e.-fanatical secularist will sit on the fence condemning the entire Muslim
politicians saying that they are all “Kufar”. Because Allah had said that whoever does not judge
with what Allah has revealed is wrong doer, and disbeliever. He will not take the cognizance that
perhaps some of the politicians need the advice of those who claim to know. The Muffasirun
even differ on the meaning of “Kafir” in that verse. There is “Kufr” that connotes mere
ingratitude and the other one means disbelief. The fact is that both extremists are badly influenced
with western values and ideologies.
In politics one is either be a Muslim democrat or a secular democrat. But there is no adjectified
Muslim. If you a Muslim, you can go to any field as a Muslim. Whatever you cannot defeat
today, you cannot defeat it tomorrow by condemning it only today. You have to seek a way of
understanding it, map out strategies to interact with it with a view to demolish it. Moses is the
model for Islamic revolution. Moses was brought up in the palace of the worse enemy of Allah
whom he was later sent to preach to. Allah narrated different aspects of Moses life in more than
65 chapters out of 114 chapters of the noble Qur’an in order to serve as a guide for us.
To get the message very well, let us get this analogy. A Muslim has a key to a safe kept inside a
room. The key to the room is not with him. If he manipulates the key with him to open the room,
it would not open the inner safe, which is the target. All he can do is to maneuver the holder of
the key, get the key to open the room and bar the door against him. Islam is the treasure kept in a
safe inside the room, which is this world. The material qualification to succeed is with the Devil.
Any attempt to force the door open shall attract the annoyance of the Devil. Man cannot afford to
fight with him because the devil is by all standards stronger, older, wiser and more
knowledgeable than he is. He had worshipped Allah more than anybody before and he had won
his fore father, Adam, before. That is why Allah asked Muslims to seek refuge against him every
moment.
That is what Allah asked his prophet to do. He did not make him to succumb to materialism at the
beginning but he made him stood out and interacted with it. The prophet used to observe his Salat
in the Kaaba amidst more than 300 Idols. He did not destroy them like Ibrahim did because the
idols can be easily replaced while the Kufr is still in their minds. For the first 13 years, he was
engaged in a process of fighting the thinking that brought about the Idols.
Lastly, let me quickly mention “Nationalism” which is another form of western influence on us.
Nationalism is an extreme form of selfishness. At the personal level, one think about himself
alone, that is referred to as selfishness. But at the state level, one thinks about his nation alone.
Islamic nationality is boundless. As a citizen of Islam, you are a Muslim anywhere in the world.
You are a Muslim in Nigeria and not a Nigerian Muslim. There is no preference for the Arab
above a non-Arab except in faith. Though nationalism is a Kufr, but one can not afford not to be
nationalistic to succeed. That is why Allah encouraged the Prophet to stay on in Mecca despite
the persecution for so long. Allah even swear with the City in Suratul Balad:
I swear by this city (of Makkah)
you (O Muhammad) have
been made lawful in this city,
Q90:1-2
In the light of this, and the manner at which the Prophet was reluctant to leave the City and how
he was longing to return, one will realize the importance of developing a love for one’s country.
The stand of Islam is that nationality should not be propagated but your country should be
assisted. It is not Kufr to be nationalistic, but it is Kufr to propagate nationalism.
Finally, We Muslims have been so secularized and badly influenced to the extent that we are
afraid of having a unified and united Authority. There is no single Imam but Imams in Mecca and
Madinah, the fountains of Islamic Culture, not to talk of Nigeria. Whereas, their suppose to be a
single leader who can appoint those who will work for him. Leadership in Islam is individual and
not collective. But we are at a cross road, where can we find an individual who will qualify to
occupy the post of life Amir with all what it takes spiritually, politically, Administratively and
intellectually. He would definitely be lacking in one or more because of our secularized
upbringing.
However, we cannot afford to condemn ourselves in this type of situation nor can we fold our
arms without making any move. The only solution remains learning and learning. Let us keep on
asking questions. Human understanding of the Qur’an should not intimidate or mislead us. Allah
did not leave any stone unturned in the Book (Q6:38). We should get to know more about Islam
in the Hadith, which is to complement the Qur’an and not to contradict. All other books are men’s
opinion and are not infallible. Lastly, do not ever become an extremist.