Fellow Muslims?

Question

as you all know, islam is facing a problem in the world but especially in the middle east.. i like to call that problem "CULTURE",,, how do we get rid of some of the culture, which is not accepted by islamic law... in other words, how do we integrate our different cultures in islam where we modify THE CULTURE to fit islam not try to integrate islam into culture by modifying islam... as people do now

this question is very open ended and the answer is not simple, let alone the application of the perfect solution

muslims have to embrace islam as their culture, as their way of life, just like the first tribes of arabia that entered islam... they left behind their grudges and their habits (ie. killing new born girls). islam became the new way of life. what i see is a reverse shift now. people's culture is becoming more important that islamic culture.

what i am saying is that culture should be an additive to islam and it should not conflict it's laws?
THOUGHTS/ POSSIBLE SOLUTIONs?

as for the non-muslims who are answering a question not intented for them, please dont spread hate... if you want to answer, sure, go ahead,,, but actually ANSWER the question or dont say anything.. thanks...

as for th Sunni-Shia fight, YES, it is a historic dispute motivated by the cuturally energized thing called dignity/face/etc.. whatever you want to call it....

sorry if i was not clear to some, but that is what i meant.. people in arabia before islam used to kill little born baby girls,, islam stopped that..

for some of you that dont understand some of the middle eastern culture, you can't really understand my point...

"RANA_ranoush" is the first who shows she understands... thanks... still looking for a possible theoratical solution

thanks you "*blank*"

i meant to say "thank you" or "thanks to you".. i am not sure... but .. lol.. you get my intention

Answer 1

The problem isn't with muslims having to "...embrace islam as their culture...". The problem is with muslims trying to cram islam down everybody's throat. Islam, like most cults, subjugates woman and treats anyone that is not a member of the cult as a lesser form of life.

Go ahead and worship as you see fit, but why do you care what I or anyone else does? Is your faith so fragile and weak that just observing someone that doesn't follow your cult cause you to question your faith? Even better, wake up and GET OUT OF THAT CULT! Your prophet was a child molester and just like the christian cult guide book, your cult guide book is simply a conglomeration of plagiarized text from earlier works. It was NOT divinely inspired. It is NOT the words of GAWD. For that matter, just wake up and realize that "god" is nothing more than a nonsense word made up to explain away the things we can't yet understand.

Answer 2

I wish I had a solution. I think it's funny how people in the MidEast will say that those of us in the west are adding culture to our Islam and those of us here will say that they have been mixing culture with Islam. We are constantly against each other in this point it seems. Anyway, I think there is a bit of both going on however I have met more 'western muslims' who can admit this than Middle Eastern Muslims that can admit this. They always tell me that Islam IS their culture --but that is not 100% true.

I asked my husband a few months back how he sees things differently now that he has immigrated from a Muslim majority country to a Muslim minority country and he said he thinks in a lot of ways he is better for it because he can see more the things that he did that was more a part of culture than a part of Islam and vice-versa. I thought that was interesting. Sometimes one needs to step out of their comfort zone to truly see things.

I also read once about a convert and when she got married to an Arab Muslim they decided that they would have Islam be the culture that leads their household EVERYTHING gets dictated by Islam -- even the food they eat--if it wasn't haram they would eat hamburgers instead of an Arab meal--no problem. I have met too many converts that just automatically take over the 'native-Muslim' spouse's culture because they thought THAT was Islam and it helped them fit in more. Anyway, I thought that her idea was great! I think we all need to start at home and then it can slowly go from there and go on and on....

I hope I made sense.

Answer 3

Allah is our objective/ the messenger is our leader/ the Q’uran is our law/ if we stuck to this there would be fewer problems.

Cultural interpretations in Islam will never disappear because when we read anything, we interpret it from the perspective of our own life experiences, our class, our education, race, gender, age and culture, this natural cognitive thinking. Yet we need to be taught reflection and deep contemplation to know what we have chosen to interpret.

The only thing to do is to allow for itijihad where necessary and for the confidence of 'lay' Muslims to be increased, that they too have the ability to understand the Q’uran in any language.

No one cultural group should dominate the understandings of Islam and it should not be left up to a group of aged men to show how the rest of the ummah, understand Islam, an Imam from a city in the East will understand and practice Islam different to a Women from a city in the West.

With the ability for people to travel more easily these days in order to seek education, the situation will improve. People will travel to different places and see how others practice and live Islam and they will carry that with them.

To achieve this Muslims must be able to stand up for themselves and others in tackling oppressions and therefore showing that they benefit from the light of the Q'uran.

Muslims must challenge cultural issues in their own households and women must be given the opportunities to learn what is cultural and what is not.

Women after all are a very powerful force for educating their own families and then after the community.

Muslims also need to understand that no battle has ever been won alone and only by Muslims, it is therefore important that Muslims work, live and learn from each other with all faiths and all communities, which is happening if you look at the numbers of Muslim population growth in non Muslim’ countries.

Muslims need to be more political, more educated, wealthier, more active, more integrated into every society and this is happening in the West. Already in the ‘western country where I live, Muhammad is the second most popular name for a new born and by 2012 the Muslims will statistically be leaders the workforce. Middle Eastern countries are buying up more assets in western countries so they are reinvesting oil and gas wealth; they have got over the 70’s issue of throwing away wealth.

Muslims will be more willing to lead by and accept the examples of the first communities of Muslims. Whose essence and sincerity of practice is timeless, inclusive and applicable to any society.

At the moment a lot of the youth in the Middle East and North Africa see most things that are coming from outside as good and best and right, when the youth get to understand that Islam is practised in the west albeit slightly differently they will gain a better understanding of what is cultural and vis a vis for the western youth that learn about the cultural practices of Islam in other cultures.

Islam is the middle way a timeless faith for all of humanity so things will settle down.

Answer 4

Khalid E, if you are calling the muslims, why dont you start w Assalamu'alaykum wr wb.
Or say it in English w the same meaning, but that is for a start, calling us. Sorry, it's a custom in Islam to greet each other , which I dont want to ignore.

Well, in the Qur'an, we see that we all have to THINK.
As long as it does not get to bid'ah, culture is OK, it enrich the teaching and not only that, people can easily adopt it and very important : in peace.

Remember, our prophet s.a.w. never fight unless he was fought first. He was full w tolerance, at least that is what I read in the hadeeth, and Qur'an.

Basic law and the core of Islam is the Tawheed which is monotheism. and that is our most important Imaan being a muslim, so we can live as an Ichsaan.
So, in my opinion, that is our deed, to work hard within ourself to achieve a predicate as Ichsaan .

What Iam saying is that with the RIGHT IMAN, whatever you're saying above will by itself come to surface.

Our Jihad, as the Prophet s.a.w. said, is within ourself to become a person who is clearly and very "clean" in our believe that we are only worship ALLAH SWT.

Believe me, we should start with the Right Imaan, and our life will be so peacefull, we dont need to fight and we all going to live like what is written in Surah No. 109, Al Kaafiruun.

Seems you're still very young, you still have the eager of changing others. I went through that 45 years ago, but as I learn the content in Qur'an, in surah Yasiin (36) it's pointless to convert others.
To be a good muslim is not easy, and a good muslim live in peace.
We dont modify the core believe and dont change the halal.
And please, you are right about culture is an additive, that's why I take the teaching but I do not adopt Arab's culture, whether it's their chlothing,the manner they eat, or their music.

I dress respectfully, I eat with manner, and I like classical music.

I dont like the misleading from Islam teaching to Arab's culture. The difference is quite significant.

Wassalmu'alaykum wr wb.

Answer 5

Culture is definitely a part of humanity, but obviously some basic and fundamental is common to all Muslims regardless of where they come from.

This is where the diffrent mazhabs come into play, as the past and current scholars know inside out the Shariah, the viewpoints of other scholars, and the community they are live in which the law is to operate. Hence for Sunnis we don't just look at the Quran and Sunnah of Muhammad pbuh, but we have Ijma' or the concensus of the scholars' opinion, and Qiyas, ie making inferences where specific and direct answers from past examples are not available.

And by this I mean scholars who don't only fear God, but knows Him and His rules and the loving example of Muhammad pbuh thoroughly.

That's why in all the past ages, Islam is able to win reverts from as far north as the Caucasus to the southern part of the globe in Indonesian archipelago. Islam embraced these culture while doing away with those that were totally against Islam a little at a time, using the four yardsticks of Quran, Sunnah, Ijma' and Qiyas.

Differences at the branch (furu') is tolerated as long as the usul remains the same. And mind you, the majority of Muslims are Sunnis.

Nowadays, Muslims interpret the Qran and Sunnah at their own whims and fancy, without taking note of the numerous viewpoints and opinions of the thousands of ulama's or scholars as points of reference and clarifications. To make matters worst, these people try to force down their incomplete or worse perverted points of view on others.

Westerners and non-Asian peoples are entering Islam by the droves nowadays thanks to the works of Sufi missionaries. This phenomenon has already been prophesised by the Holy Messenger.

The internal and external problems of Islam and Muslims will only end with the advent of the next Caliph, Al-Imam Muhammad Mahdi on him be peace, prior to Christ's 2nd Coming.

Answer 6

asaalamoalaikum

yes i understand where you are coming from but i thoink there is no other possible solutuion than educating fellow muslims. you see generations from the past have had rituals etc etc, some against islam, growing up i noticed that we often confuse religion with culture and the best thing is educate ourselves of isalm, there needs to be a line clearly drawn between the two.
i think that we are now today increasingly realising what islam and what culture is, and how we should be infuenced by our faith more than our culture.
of cours ethere is no perfect solution but we as individuals must try to spread this message to others and act upon it our selves

peace and blessings

Answer 7

I totally agree with you. I am a Westerner, and what I have read about Islam and seen on the news, are two totally different things. Culture has A LOT to do with what we see, like men going ape on woman, in Islam, woman are treated as equals. Culture has a lot to do with violence.

But then, when you look at all the senseless beatings of woman in the US, that seems to be "no big deal". People, what you see in the news of "Muslims" beating their wives, is the same thing that happens in our backyard, it may not be in the news, but it is happening.....

If people would really read about Islam, you will definitely see a difference....

Answer 8

You know me a bit, so you'll know I'm not a Muslim. But I understand where you're coming from, and I see the same thing happening in Christianity, not to mention Judaism.

Our faiths present themselves to us, not as the product of theological debate, but as divine revelation. Thus, were are receivers, not originators; we are not the owners of our belief. Only secondarily, once assent of the heart and mind to faith is taken as our mode of life, do we begin to "reason" so-to-speak, about it.

This runs contrary to the so-called "enlightened" mindset that developed after the fall of the great scholastic metaphysicians--the philosophers who boldly asserted that the essence of reality is knowable.

You may wonder why I think philosophy is so pertinent to this question. Well, really if you think about it, pluralism--or a culture which accepts all faiths as being equally valid--is basically an outgrowth of abandoning philosophy. People in general don't see how it could matter so much what you *think*. This happened when people started demanding freedom of speech. Think about it.

In a world in which ideas are considered so important that some are considered so dangerous as to censor, people cherish their ideas--they will fight for them; they will die for them. They will, to put it pithily, try to build their government around them. In a world where ideas are considered so unimportant that it cannot matter what someone says--and thus we should have no laws to protect the innocently unprepared masses from bad ideas--people tend to act like water: they find the path of least resistance, to use the cliche.

I would like to recommend a book called "Orthodoxy" to you, by G.K. Chesterton. It's not, as one might would think from the title, a treatise on the Christian faith--it is really a hearty defense of having a standard of Orthodoxy in government. I have an e-text that I'll send to you if you e-mail me for it.

Answer 9

Proper religious awareness, education according to the Quran and Sunnah and not what our forefathers followed.

Elimination of extreme brainwashing.

I agree with you... culture is messing up a lot of things for Muslims.

Answer 10

salam alikom brother...

i totally agree with you...but it will be hard,possible but hard....
like the latest issue we solved is circumcising for girls....ppl for years was sure that's an Islamic ruling when it's an African tradition..but alhamdulelah the mofty issued that it is haram haram...after a girl died from this operation and it made a big fuss in the media...

if we take everything step by step and call for scholars to teach ppl to separate between false culture and Islam...coz Islam has a pure culture of its own...we need to embrace it and learn about it...

Answer 11

In most cases culture seems to be tangled up with our faith and people forget the true essence of Islam.

There is no need to alter anything in Islam, as long as one tries their upmost to follow thier faith.

Religion comes before culture and culture can adapt around it.