Islam and Muslims are often at the centre of public debates. Both are painted with sweeping over-generalisations and stereotypes.
Despite the information explosion in printed and digitised form, simplistic and incorrect understanding of Islam is glaringly obvious. Not many people would make the effort to know Islam on their own. In this article, I wish to present it in a few hundred words.
Islam is a manifestation of God's love and mercy to human beings and other species. Its teachings are driven by the divine will to ensure order and peace in this world and human salvation and felicity in the life hereafter.
This paramount goal can be achieved only if humans adhere to a set of moral principles and ethical standards in actions and behaviours in all aspects of life. No sensible person can contest the need for such a code of life. However, differences arise on the question of who has the right and eligibility to promulgate it for all humans.
In this regard, Islam promotes the idea of divine inerrancy and the infallibility of the Quran and authentic sunnah (Prophetic traditions).
The Quran (49:16) states: "Say: What! Will you instruct God about your way of life (religion)? But God knows all that is in the heavens and on earth: He has full knowledge of all things."
Absolute knowledge of all celestial and terrestrial objects and phenomena is indispensable to ordain — in a comprehensive form — a complete, true way of life.
Therefore, only God qualifies to be the sole source of guidance for our individual and collective wellbeing. It is nothing but arrogance for humans to think that they can compete with God in framing an acceptable system of life for all.
The knowledge humans have is very limited (Quran 17:85) and in most cases tainted by bias and conflicts of interest.
In short, in their quest for peace and prosperity, human beings are required to willingly submit to the commands of God and His Prophet. They defy them only at their own peril.
Meanwhile, justice is at the core of all Islamic teachings. The Quran (7:29, 10:47, and 57:25) states that God sent prophets to different places and at different times solely for the purpose of establishing justice.
All Islamic practices, including rituals and rulings, are geared to help establish an egalitarian system under which rights of humans and non-humans are protected.
The Islamic concept of justice (even to the enemy) and equation between justice and righteousness (Quran 5:8) suggests that the absence of justice in a society contradicts its Islamic identity even if it is vibrant with ostensible Islamic rites and ceremonies.
The 21st-century world is marked by mass migration, diasporic displacement, and multicultural/multifaith coexistence. Understanding the nature of this phenomenon is crucial for the correct application of Islamic teachings.
Therefore, it is important to consider the circumstantial factors in determining Islam's remedy for contemporary problems. I have discussed this issue in "Space-Time Correlation in Inferring Islamic Rulings" (2020).
Lastly, Islam offers the panacea for the ills of the contemporary world that is wracked by prejudices and injustices and gripped by uncertainties and upheavals. However, information about the religion among both Muslims and non-Muslims is mired in ambiguity and inaccuracy.
Educated Muslims — who are primarily responsible to spread the correct understanding of Islam — are deficient in combining what the late Taha Jabir al-Alwani calls the knowledge of revelation and the real-existential.
Therefore, addressing this crisis of knowledge and how it affects perceptions of Islam is imperative for appreciating and practising the religion in the 21st century.
The writer is a faculty member at International Islamic University Malaysia and the Editor-in-Chief of Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times