Consciously or unconsciously, all Muslims are trying to find the true path to Allah within Islam, as our clerics along with us, have made a morass of what Islam is. Everyone is trying to use the best tools and/or discard the obstructions. I have been on this same journey for a long time and just like others, have been applying different tools and trying to remove any obstacles, but deep down felt something doesn’t add up.
About a decade ago, thanks to the guidance of the Qur’an, I realised that every one of us has overlooked one crucial issue; it is not which text/teaching is bad or good that we need to determine at first, but it is, in what perspective should we look at these texts! So, before we even decide if Islam is comprised of Qur’an and Hadith or just the Qur’an, we have to debug our perspectives on how we observe these sources; it is here where it is compromised, and we are not even cognizant of it. Every group is making the same mistake of observing the texts from a religious perspective instead of analysing everything under naturalistic precepts and worldviews.
First Principles
We all have been making the classic mistake of reasoning within a framework that is itself left unquestioned, all the while thinking we are making unrestricted reasoning. Humans easily bamboozle themselves by thinking they are rationalising a legitimacy of a framework whilst they have only reasoned within the parameters of the framework; but the framework itself actually remains unexplored.
Hence, the path of true enlightenment will begin from zero, absolute independence; if you begin from one or more, it will be a path of restricted rationale and/or the path of predisposition; a religious framework is a predisposition. Therefore, absolute truth can only come from a perspective free from any such predisposition.
If we read the Qur’an closely, we will realise that the Qur’an was and is a challenge to constitutional religions and dogmas; as the primary scenario in which the Qur’an was revealed was to challenge, undermine and evoke questions of the status quo, targeting social inequality, human right abuses and inadequate economic practices; part of achieving this was to constantly push man towards a reason-centric worldview, which naturally opposed and angered the religious institutions and sentiments of the time.
Editor’s note: Examining the framework and approaching the Qur’an afresh the Quran Study channel on youtube came to very much the same conclusion — that it is a challenge to constitutional religions and dogma.
10 common denominators,(or can we call it Sunnatullah),without which lives cannot exist.
1. LAND. Land is the surface of the earth, that we call countries, where we develop civilisations.
2. AIR. Air is for our breathing.
3. LIGHT. Light is for our eyes to see the world.
4. HEAT. Heat is the energy that we use to keep us warm, and cook our foods.
5. SOUND. Sound enable us to develop our spoken languages and communicate with one another.
6. SMELL. Nice smells invigorate our lives and bad smells serve as warnings.
7. WATER. Water provide us our drinkings,food preparations, washing and cleaning.
8. FOOD. Foods prevent us from hunger and starvation.
9. CLOTHINGS. Clothings are for covering our bodies
and upkeep our honour and health.
10. SHELTERS (HOMES). A place for resting, keeping our belongings, protecting us from various kind of dangers.
Those 10 life essentials factors are also our sources of knowledges,incomes and employments
Without land we don’t have countries,cannot build our houses, develop agricultures, industries and commerces.
Without air, quick death.
Without light,the world is a dark place.
Without heat, the world is a cold place.
Without sound the world is a quiet place.
Without smell foods are not delicious at all.
Without water, foods, clothings and shelter we know the answers.
How to connect all these factors with Islam. Not easy and maybe not possible, but if we connect them with Allah it becomes very simple.
This approach is important as the Quran’s guidance has utility to everyday life and this can be applied practically. this also distinguishes Islam from religion.