Islamicate
the world inhabited by Muslims, but it may not be informed by the spirit and norms that
radiate from the Qur'an & the Sunnah.
Civilization
Ali Allawi, Islamic Civilization in Peril; posted February 15, 2010.
In the past, the Shariah connected Muslims’ outer world with their inner realities. The eclipse of the Shariah by secular civil, commercial, and criminal law severed that connection. Some people see a desacralized world as a fertile ground for nurturing the private faith of the individual. Other religious traditions, especially those that form the basis of Western civilization, long ago withdrew from the public arena, effectively putting their seal of approval on the separation of church and state. But Islam cannot easily coexist with a political order that takes no heed of its inner dimensions. The integrity of Islam requires a delicate balance between the individual’s spirituality and the demands of the community as a whole.
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Politics
M. Shahid Alam, Pakistan: A Political Murder or War? Jan 12, 2011
Muslims might do well to recall God's promise. ‘There is an appointed term,’ the Qur’an avows, ‘for every people: they cannot hasten it, nor, when their time comes, can they delay it for a single moment (Al-A’raf, 34).’ Remember this promise: be patient. Do not act out of panic: do not violate Qur’anic norms in seeking to hasten the movement of history. The men and women who tyrannize over you are neither giants, nor are they immortal. What prevails is God's will. A Muslim’s duty is to align his will and purpose to God's: he does not, perversely, seek to bend his Creator to his paltry ends.
Click here to read the rest of the essay.Ihsaan:
William Chittick, Mysticism in Islam, 2003
What then is Sufism? There is no simple answer. It is
certainly not a sect within
Islam. It has nothing to do with the two major
denominations, Sunnism and
Shi'ism, since it has been found in both from
earliest times. Both men and
women and women engage in Sufi practice, and it is
common for some
members of a single family to be Sufis, and for others not to
be. A husband
may be a Sufi, while his wife may not, or vice versa. Certainly,
not every Muslim
is a Sufi, but Sufism has been present wherever there have
been sizable
Muslim populations. This is especially obvious from about the
thirteenth century,
when clearly defined institutions associated with the word
came to be established
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Modernity:
Martin Lings, The Qur'an and Evolution
Man is made for religion; he
cannot live without belief; and if he loses his faith in true
religion, he will
give his soul to another object of faith, which he will endow with all those
rights and privileges which belong to religion alone. The majority of Western
scientists
have made a religion of evolutionism and of "progressism" which is
inseparable from it.
