Beloved friends,
One of my friend, Inquisitor made a beautiful, well thought comment on the blog. It has deep message in it and needs better realization. I'm afraid i'm short of that deeper understanding required here. So pls help me move this discussion. This is what the original comment is,
In brief, i believe that Hinduism, excluding its brahminical and self-aggrandising exclusivity, contributed the idea of 'good' and 'evil' along with the idea of the Brahman or the all-encompassing and incomprehensible, in its entirety, God'. Buddhism focused on divorcing oneself from temptations and appreciating the intrinsic value of things in themselves. Christianity emphasised selfless love. Islam completed the story by realising these ideals in society via the marriage of state and mosque as the politicisation of religion is the only way to its realisation since humanity, due to his societal condition, is necessarily a political being. Religion is supposed to moralise. The state is supposed to practically realise. I view this as a formula handed down and which has to be practiced in the stated order which coincides with its appearance in human history. Whilst Islam contains many other elements, the marriage of state and mosque is that which makes it distinct from the 'other' faiths.Now we have to attempt implementation. That is the difficult and most interesting part.
But we have yet to understand and appreciate the significance of the messages in these faiths and this has to be done dynamically with our attempt to realise God's kingdom on earth. I have yet to achieve the wisdom necessary to suggest how this may be effected and doubt i ever will. It has to be a concerted effort.
Click on the comment below to add your comments. Thanks in advance. God bless !
My comments may not be an appropriate "on point" answer, but here are a couple of things that triggered in me.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I sometimes hear from some followers of Islam is that Islam is the completion of other religions. I think it might be more accurate to say it is taking another step in the direction of completion.
With respect to this post, I suggest a point to consider: Islam, in its marriage of church and state, is a form of sanctioning the expression of spirituality in everyday life. It is saying, "Let's recognize that we are spiritual beings, and allow the recognition of that to be expressed in the unification of church and state." So, from that perspective, it is a step in the direction of losing our separateness, a step in the direction of a unified field.
Thank you Mark. You have very succintly expressed that which i found difficult to express due to the complexity of the issue...'complex' to myself that is.
ReplyDeleteJust to clarify.
I do not mean that Islam is the 'completion' of other religions in a sense that it makes other faiths redundant. Rather, Islam, in line with what i had discussed, fullfills other faiths just as other faiths fullfills it. They are all necessary components that make up a whole. (a world that appreciates the idea of the 'copyright' will inevitably fail to appreciate this point.) Islam 'completes' the picture by stressing the final part of the formula to realise some semblance of 'Heaven on earth' - that of the need to unite the State with the Mosque. The State(hand) effects the will of the Church(mind). The separation of Mosque and State is one of the biggest fallacies of our 'modern' times. All that has been achieved is the displacement of one idea of morality with another. Capitalist Secularity is as much a 'religion' as any other.
Additionally, the Nationalist Project severely compromises this as it has, through the replacement of Christian Morality with Secular Morality, evicted Christ from the Cross and shrouded it with the national flag. For the Mosque to be successfully united with the state, the state itself has to come under scrutiny to determine its ability to be the Protector of the Faith rather than one using it for its own purposes. Thus the purification and all-inclusivity of the 'State' has to precede and then dynamically be pursued along with the incorporation of the Faith.
Finally, i'd like to thank Sadiq for giving this issue prominence in the front page. It certainly requires critical input because if i can be certain of anything, it can only be in the certainty of my fallibility
Beloved Mark,
ReplyDeletethanks for ur post. You have always been a big inspiration for me. i was wondering for in myself for a few days how to further comment on this. And then ur comment came as a spark.
Yes, true.. we should see in that way. Islam is like coming in a full circle.
Saying regular prayer and meditation is one of the example how islam encourage one to be conscious of God each and every day. And by abolishing priesthood it also upgraded the Law of the Scripture. Thus it is a modern religion (including many other modern concept on spirituality).
About Church and State, Islam emphasize that state should be responsible not only for money but also for morality and happiness of mind for the people of the society along with other responsibilities like economic etc. In order to establish a just society, which is referred as Kingdom of GOD by Jesus in New Testament, state should be the leader. It is the state when it holds the Laws of God, only then Kingdom of Heaven is established where no one is oppressed or biased.