I had to stop at "-Islam and its intellectual tradition-" and think. What we call Islam (uppercase) is in fact an intellectual tradition. The whole thing is a man-made discourse around the Quran, the cumulative intellectual efforts of the followers of the prophet and their followers until today. Quran (the only thing that is not man-made) paints another image of islam (lowercase). All prophets are muslims, all new-borns are muslims, the whole universe is muslim. To be islamic is to simply follow Allah's Sunna in this life. Man already has this fitra in him; to follow Allah's creed. Being the chosen one, his given responsibility (intellect, freedom .. whatever) makes him vulnerable to going astray. islam then simply becomes acknowledging Truth (inward) and acting accordingly (outward). What Allah does is to remind Man of this at certain points in space-time history, along with some extra guidance/demands curated for him at those points. Quran being the latest in this chain of messages is no different. Salvation in that sense is then simply coming back home after a long non-forgetful day at work with a sound heart. what makes something islamic vs Islamic is another interesting question to me..
BarakAllah u feek !
This gave me so much direction.
Thank you
JazākAllāh u khair. This felt like a breath of fresh, unadulterated air; rejuvenating and re-“invigorating” 🙂
Thank you
I had to stop at "-Islam and its intellectual tradition-" and think. What we call Islam (uppercase) is in fact an intellectual tradition. The whole thing is a man-made discourse around the Quran, the cumulative intellectual efforts of the followers of the prophet and their followers until today. Quran (the only thing that is not man-made) paints another image of islam (lowercase). All prophets are muslims, all new-borns are muslims, the whole universe is muslim. To be islamic is to simply follow Allah's Sunna in this life. Man already has this fitra in him; to follow Allah's creed. Being the chosen one, his given responsibility (intellect, freedom .. whatever) makes him vulnerable to going astray. islam then simply becomes acknowledging Truth (inward) and acting accordingly (outward). What Allah does is to remind Man of this at certain points in space-time history, along with some extra guidance/demands curated for him at those points. Quran being the latest in this chain of messages is no different. Salvation in that sense is then simply coming back home after a long non-forgetful day at work with a sound heart. what makes something islamic vs Islamic is another interesting question to me..
By your definition is there anything out there (field or otherwise) that is "Islamic?"
Yes. The islamic intellectual tradition was very much Islamic. But as a process, not a set of answers