Can Islam ever return to Muhammad's original vision for individual commitment/contribution to humanity?

Question

The Islamic Golden Age (mid 8th to 13th C.) was influenced by such Quranic injunctions and hadith as "the ink of scientists is equal to the blood of martyr's" stressing the value of ADVANCING knowledge and individual contribution to Allah (the whole). The resulting outpouring of knowledge from scholars in the fields of science, the arts, literature, philosophy, and engineering technology - both through preserving the world's past body of knowledge and new, unique innovations - CAUSED the European Renaissance & its ideal- individual creativity as a RESPONSIBILITY which still infuses western society today.

In Islam -as in Judaism- there is no higher level of achievement than 'prophet' - WHATEVER unique gifts one receives from God/Allah, they should contribute to the whole through the process of unselfing/internal jihad/altruism. In light of CURRENT tribalism/jihadism, can Muhammad's original vision - uniting warring tribes into a movement for the greater good, EVER be reestablished?

Pakpun, there are many in U.S. who feel your same pain and frustration. I've posted Christian question later.

Yuri. Without the copying and preservation of the ancient texts you refer to - by Islamic scribes and scholars in Baghdad, the Renaissance could NOT have happened.

Thanks Mamoud r - the dajjal references our ego - like the anti-christ. The learned/adulterated little identity. At the potential 'end of time(his world), the jihad/internal battle is at its peak. This is a psychological (spiritual battle) we all go through,

Answer 1

As salaamu 'alaikym, my learned friend.

Insha'Allah, I sincerely hope that such will come to pass.

Insha'Allah, with the new converts who are very studious and, who it seems, with sincere hearts, seek just such as you have described, it may be the movement of Islam into the future.

Further, with the social injunctions against the practice of usury as well as fair and honest business dealings, as the capitalism of the western nations begin to crumble due to the very same factors that led to its initial success, more and more persons as well as nations will hopefully see the wisdom of Islam in these areas, insha'Allah.

However, another component of this equation will be how the current nations which claim to be Islamic will respond to such a movement from the west. Will they begin to follow the teaching of the Holy Qur'an and the lived example of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be uopn him) or will they continue to attempt to maintain their current position where thier past cultural misunderstandings have clouded and defamed the beauty and wisdom of Islam?

If the western nations were truly interested in resolving many of the worlds current issues and problems, perhaps they could help to establish school, educational programs and the like so as to allow everyone to be able to read which will provide the opportunity for all to learn from the wisom available. This might lead to open and honest dialoge between peoples, cultures and nations.

Sadly, we seem more willing to promote further violence rather than tolerance, peace and understanding.

Insha'Allah, I pray and work for such a day. Alhumdulillah! It is heart warming to see that others have the same or similar thoughts.

Jazak'Allah khair for your post.

Ma'a salaam.

Answer 2

Your name is Fahmy , a man's name ...Why do you pretend to be a woman with a goddess user name .. can you explain that. If you are a Muslim you sound very shallow , unless you are a Copt pretending to be a Muslim which explains things ... I don't see what is the point of you accusing mosques of hate speech , and then eluding to terrorism, unless you are trying to accuse people who attend mosque of being terrorists which is absolutely a ludicrous analogy. If you want to listen to hate speech tune to Hayat channel (the christian one) which is full of lies and insults about Muslims , and was largely responsible for incitement of the trouble in Egypt. And seriously, you want us to believe a website called "sandmonkey" which is a racial slur against Arabs, with obvious "Anti-Jihadi" list ... does this sound like a credible website to any one. Why don't you read the real news from Egyptian newspapers , and reference those for a change. All your country's newspapers say the man who was the culprit behind the violence was Christian member of Hosni Mubarak party , he's been arrested and will be put on trial. The Church burning is tragic but it was not intentionally carried out and did not come out of the blue. You know in your country there are a lot of uneducated ignorant people who will respond to incitement regardless of religion from both sides. And this is what took place as these things have been building up steam and did not start yesterday. Two weeks ago some Egyptian Christians attacked and killed a Muslim family (Mother, Father, & child) because the women named Salwa converted to Islam 8 years ago and married this Muslim man, and they had a child together. Yet I don't see any one talking about that , it is a horrific crime isn't it. The western media only reports it when Christians are the victims , but when Muslims are the victims they don't care

Answer 3

Every culture, be it inspired by religion or not, had its Golden Age. In the case of the European Renaissance ("born again") the Europeans got back to their Greaco-Roman roots. The Greek for instance had cities/great cultures in what today is the Arab World (long before Islam, in times of the Pharaohs).
The scholars of the Renaissance used ancient, pre-Islamic texts, mostly Latin and ancient Greek. So, without denying the great (sometimes pre-Islamic) Arab contributions to this world, the Europeans referred to their own cultural past.
Also: the scholars in the Renaissance had a humanistic view of the world and not a religious one.

Answer 4

I applaud your courageous attempt to look for a redeeming value in the midst of all this madness and I am truly sorry to sound pessimistic, but instead of dragging this out, I'll go as far as saying that [in my humble opinion] as long as religious fanaticism is around (i.e. as long as religion is around) there will be little hope for a peaceful human future. ... And that statement, my friend, can be easily supported/backed by the Historical Performance of the Human Animal to this very day. Yes, as you can tell, I am fond of Technical Analysis measures when it comes to predicting the future, BUT don't allow wishful thinking send you down the fools path - The Fundamental Basis for Faith are NOT (now and have NEVER been) there either. ...When it comes to religious-perpetuated ignorance humanity holds the lifelong exclusive copyright (with a periodic time-delay feature already built into the overall disastrous recipe).

Answer 5

Well Islam says that the Dajjal will come when religious ignorance is at its peak, so we can assume that this means that its going to get worst before it gets any better.

Answer 6

At one time it would have been a posibility. But now the religon has been so tarnished that it is thought of as the sucide bomber and the slaughter of innocent people.
Terror attacks and hate will from now on be associated with that religion and I don't think that will ever change until one day that religion will be against the law and done away with.
They wanted people to fear that religion well now they do.
Just remember with fear comes retialation.
We go hunt the shark that attacks people. until we make sure he is dead.

Answer 7

Your so called golden age is a period where Muhammad had already died for about 200 years. Why not revert to the advent of the islamic period and all you see then is killing, looting, raping and murdering.

Answer 8

Islam has far exceeded what muhammad ever emagined... muhammad was only interested in grabbing as much control of as many as he could for his own ego and pocketbook needs. He borrowed as much as he could from the Jews and the Christians and then tried to join up with both of them.. Both the jews and the Christians turned him down... so he went to war with them. He came up with a very good scam and inforced it at the point of the sword... then others took over and expanded it... also at the point of the sword... untill it became what it is today... the greatest threat to the expansion of freedom the world has ever faced... including hitler and stalin and mao

Answer 9

Can Christianity ever return to its original version---oh wait it its a made up religion by `1000's of phony people...never mind...its fundamental basis makes NO SENSE.....!!!!! trinity is the dumbest most illogical BS i have ever heard...

Just because .001% RIGHTFULLY hate America, doesnt mean we lost our religion, I still contribute to humanity, I cannot live in peace if I know American aholes are in Iraq creating a civil war and bombed and killed 500K + people disgusting...Im Pakistani and I still care for them..Americans should shut their mouth up, we dont live in burqas but you are all fat

Answer 10

I think that Muhammad made Allah to accept all kind of his shady dealings.

I have met many people that are more honorable than their prophet.