RELIGION, A DIVINE NOT A SOCIAL PHENOMENON
Differentiate between Islam and Muslims
IF nuclear energy is understood as a means to manufacture lethal weapons which destroy life, one is bound to be opposed to it. But if nuclear energy is considered on its own merit, it will not matter how it is being misused by some people to make atomic bomb. In spite of being opposed to the atomic bomb, one will continue to support nuclear energy.
No one makes the mistake of thinking of nuclear energy itself being harmful. The harmfulness or benefits of a concept or phenomenon relates to its user. But there are many who make this mistake in the study of religion. Religion is essentially divine truth. But anthropology usually treats it as a social phenomenon. For this reason, people have formed a mistaken concept of religion. Worst of all, this method of study prevents the student from being able to distinguish between theory and practice. Many people think of the practice of Muslims and Muslim nations, for instance, as the true Islam. It is this method of study which has led people to write books like The Dagger of Islam and Militant Islam in recent years. The authors of these books saw that Muslims are habitually “daggers drawn” and militant in their demands. So, according to their concept of religion, they came to the conclusion that these were defining features of Islam itself.
Look at Islam in the light of Quran and Hadith instead of in the light of the practice of Muslims.
But if one thinks of religion as a truth revealed by God and preserved in the text of Quran and Hadith, then Islam ceases to be a social phenomenon and becomes an ideology. One now begins to look at Islam in the light of the Quran and the Hadith instead of in the light of the practice of Muslims.
If one wishes to understand Islam, one must look at it apart from the Muslims. One must think of it as a divine belief, rather than as a social phenomenon. Only then can an accurate and fair picture of Islam be formed.