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Your Questions Answered
The remedy for ignorance is asking questions. (Prophet Muhammad) The spirit of enquiry is the hallmark of an open society and the above saying of the Prophet aptly illustrates this principle. A culture of curiosity and open-mindedness will foster development in any society by motivating its members to learn enthusiastically and enrich their knowledge. This is because awareness of one’s ignorance is half of knowledge, as it becomes a stepping-stone to seeking and finding answers. A questioning mind is like a flowing river that is replenished with fresh thoughts and ideas and continues on its journey.
Is Religion necessary in today’s world?
Religion undoubtedly is more than a necessity for this world. The strife in this world is because people have become materialists. The aim of religion is to make people spiritual instead of being materialists. If the world has to have peace, religion should become more widespread. How do we know if by following religion we have become hardliners? Hardliners are not products of religion, but products of erroneous interpretation of religion. When you only define religion in terms of form, it makes you a hardliner. If you define it in terms of spirit, you will not become a hardliner.
Would the world be more peaceful, without religion and borders, and with common culture and one language?
It is a mistake to believe that the world would be a more peaceful place if there were just one culture or one language, without religions and without borders. This will never happen because difference is part of nature.
There are two key aspects of human knowledge: humanities and physical sciences. Physical science does not have any differences, for instance, water shall always be H2O, and every scientist will always end up with the same conclusion through different experiments. In the subject of humanities, however, there will always be differences, as we learn from many scholars. For instance, Dr. Alexis Carrel has written a 312-page book, wherein he has failed to find the reality of human life. That is why he titled the book, Man, the Unknown.
Psychological studies show that each one of us is different from others. It can be seen that even in a family living together in the same house, following the same culture and speaking the same language, there can still be differences. Such differences are not a problem. Any difference causes discussion and it further leads to brainstorming.
Why do most Muslims have a tendency to try to convert people to their religion?
Islam does not subscribe to the concept of conversion. It believes that religion is a matter of individual choice. The search for the truth should be every person’s individual effort and the decisions one then takes in the matter of religion is completely personal.
The concept of religious conversion is alien to the Quran. It has no basis in the Quran. The Quran speaks of ma'rifah which means Godrealization or the discovery of God. So, the truth is your own discovery, your own realization. It is a personal choice. If you want to know what the purpose of life is, what life and death are about, you have to study, reflect and discuss with learned people. And after that you may reach some conclusion. And that is your religion. So, your religion is your own discovery.
In religious ‘conversion’ there are two parties, the converter and the converted. But this is not the concept of Islam. In Islam, there is only one party—and that is you. If you want to find the truth, you have to reflect and study on your own. And when you discover something as the truth, you opt for it.
What sort of reforms do you suggest in Islam to adapt to the today’s world? Can we adopt a thousand years’ old religious model?
Islam does not need reform; it needs revival. The authentic text of the Quran is available and needs no alteration or correction. The only need is to re-interpret Quranic teachings in the modern idiom.
Some Muslim scholars consider Islam to be a complete socio-political system, which is the root cause of many problems. Islam is a religion of individual following and not of forceful implementation of a particular system or state in society.