Islam - Preserving Lifestyles and Practices

Islam - Preserving Practices and Lifestyles

Thesis

This final paper will explore, as a whole, if Islam will continue to focus on maintaining traditional understandings, practices, and lifestyles. If so, why? The research will provide that Islam will be able to preserve practices and lifestyles by 1) reminding Muslims of the rich history; 2) re-explaining the concepts based on dimensions and pillars; 3) education of Muslims youths in schools, mosque, and home; 4) financial, social, medical needs of their community are met to make them strong, healthy, and socially happy; 5) positive representation of Islam; and 6) co-existence with themselves and others.

Arguments

A Rich History

Islam is a dynamic religion. It spreaded like wildfire from Arabia in every direction and changed the shape of the world and people. Islam is a religion of order for people. For six hundred years, Islamic culture and science were the dominant factors in much of the civilized world (Athar, n.d.). Islam has a long and deep rooted history that dates back before time that contributed to every country in the world in some fashion with inventions, algebra, chemistry, art, and medicine, just to name a few.

Muslims have always exhibited interest in the past. Understanding the Qur'an and the Sunna - the twin foundation of the religion - demands that the present traces of past events have a critical importance for human life (Murata & Chittick, 1994, p. 324). Some Muslim scholars made it their profession to record past events, whether they had any direct relevance to the Qur'an and the Prophet. The Qur'an repeatedly admonishes people to learn the lessons of the past. Muslims are always missing the significance of history and they always have to be reminded even though they exhibit an interest in the past (Murata & Chittick, 1994, p. 324).

Re-explaining the Concepts

Islam does not need redefinition. But for sure, the application of its concepts in a changing world needs to be re-explained in the language of time for better understanding which will pose as a challenge in preserving practices and lifestyles. So how do you re-explain the concepts of the Islam? It requires going back to the basic principles. It will require re-explaining the three dimensions of the religion such as Islam (submission), Iman (faith), and Ihsan (doing what is beautiful) (Murata & Chittick, 1994, p. xxxii). In conjunction with the three dimensions of Islam, it is important to embody the five fundamental practices known as the pillars of Islam which are the Shahadah (first pillar),