Islam Explained
salim e-a ebrahim
Islam is NOT a political ideology, a political theology, a political system, a political venture, or a political empire. It is concerned only with the way Muslims practice their particular communal politics just as it is concerned with the way every Muslim practices his own particular politics in her own personal life.
Islam is a religion, a way of pursuing one’s personal life, continuously asserting while simultaneously acquiring deeper insights into ethics, principles, standards, morals, values, and qualities to attain in life.
A Muslim is one who witnesses the Shahadah, the assertion that God is One and Mohammad is His Prophet. After that he need not do anything more to remain in the fold of Islam. Whatever else he does or does not do is between him and God.
Shariah and Tariqah mean the same in Arabic i.e. "the way". The word Shariah has now come to denote Islamic Law but because Islam is meant for the Muslim for all time THEREFORE there is no fixed law in Islam. And THEREFORE, the Shariah changes not only with time and place but also with culture, knowledge, circumstance, belief, and intellect. And, THEREFORE the Shariah of one Muslim is NOT the Shariah of another Muslim. Pluralism is a cardinal ethic of Islam so that all people are free to choose their own ways,their own Shariah under Islam. THEREFORE, as the Tariqah (the Belief) so the Shariah (the Law).
However, the word Tariqah has come to denote the beliefs and traditions of the non-orthodox sects, the so-called heretic sects, in Islam. Well then know that I am a heretic, a non-believer in the so-called "Shariah-Islam" of the Muslim ulama, the so-called Muslim scholars, born and bred over a thousand years of medieval ignorance.
Islam is indeterminate and no Muslim should be so arrogant and intolerant as to uphold his own particular Islam as the only Islam that must be followed by all Muslims leave alone all people everywhere. Indeed, there are ethics to be upheld in Islam but these are broad, general issues and their specificity is determined by the Muslim community concerned in time, place, culture, knowledge, circumstance, belief, and intellect.
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