Spirit of Islam & Culture

 If we talk about religion we’ll come to know that religion is about the beliefs, worship of superhuman controlling power, rituals and some social customs. But Islam is not only religion (Madhab).For Islam the word “Deen” is used in Noble Quran means ‘The Entire System’ including religion and also economic, political and social system and according to this political, economic and social system there are laws like criminal law, civil law,  laws of witnesses and law of inheritance etc.

Another most important ingredient of Islam is intention of that human being who is doing any act in this world. According to a Sahih Hadith Narrated 'Umar bin Al-Khattab:

I heard Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) saying, "The reward of deeds depends upon the intentions and every person will get the reward according to what he has intended. So whoever emigrated for worldly benefits or for a woman to marry, his emigration was for what he emigrated for." In other words, the spirit of Islam is intention.

When anyone worship, that has a form, everything has a form, but the spirit behind the form is heart of worship. It means whenever you do something like delivering a speech, talking, offering ‘Namaz’, paying ‘Zakat’ or even if you are living in world with a good character , if you do good to your fellow or any kind of assistance , intension should be for sake of God(Allah) only. Just like it is said in Quran "We feed you only for the countenance of Allah. We wish not from you reward or gratitude’’ 76:09

                 Today if you will talk to a person for long, he will talk about issues facing Muslims, Muslims history but he never discussed God (Allah). We are far away from things like love of God, fear of God which is the actual and heart of Islam. We are offering hundred of prayers but most of us even don’t know the meaning of prayer ‘Salah’. Reason behind this unawareness is written by a scholar that “Religion begins as an ideology but after some generation it reduced to a culture”. Today’s Islam is mostly cultural Islam. It is no longer the Islam that companions of Prophet (ﷺ) practiced. Every small act in Islam has its spirit and a effective result but Muslims are unaware of spirit and they are following Islam like a culture.

 

To see vastly we’ll have an overview of culture so it would be easy for us to understand the difference and relationship between Religion and Culture.

Basically culture is about ideas, customs and social behavior of particular people or a society. A religion also develops a culture in society when people practice their religion consistently. Companions of Prophet (ﷺ) practice Islam and discover truth and their own selves which bring revolution in their lives so they start their journey with discovery. After that a supreme Islamic society appeared in world with eternal customs and social behaviors which were developed only because of religion Islam. So now we’ve two terms, first are ‘Cultural Islam’ which we can see today and second is ‘Culture by Islam’ which was result of practicing Islam by heart.

 As first we’ve talked about ‘Deen’ which means ‘The Entire System’ according to laws of Islam and religion (Madhab) is about beliefs and worships which demands pure intensions so the problem is we Muslims are facing lack of both things. I think it would not be wrong if I use the title of “So called Muslims” for most of Muslims today.

 

What has happened is, till Khilafat’e Rashida Islam was completely established as a ‘Deen’. As soon as Khilafat was removed, Monarchy came and political and social system was almost gone. It no more had ‘Sharia’ and a clan had power now. Nevertheless there were mutinies against it but all were squashed. The people thought that now we’ve to live under this roof (system). Therefore religious people either started scholarly work or Khanqahi work for the spiritual purity of people. Although there was Monarchy but the law was Islamic.

 

Before the advent of Islam in sub-continent there were Brahmin and Hindus. When Islam arrived in sub continent and gradually spread out, millions of Hindus embrace Islam but because of absence of proper guidance the majority of the Muslims who accepted Islam didn’t get the spirit of Islam and they continued with their previous customs. Moreover, there were Hindu movements who always tried to merge Islam with their religion and mocked Muslims but Islam was the only religion which always segregated its teachings, values, customs and laws.

 

Actually this was the one of the aspects to get another free land for Muslims named Pakistan, where Muslims would practice the teachings of Islam willingly and freely. But till today majority of us following the Hindu customs and values even if we observe our selves deeply we’ll realize that still we worship many of worldly gods like Hindu religion. So, culture of Islam would develop when spirit of Islam would awaken. As Our national poet, philosopher and

Sufi, Sir Allama Mohammad Iqbal RA said:
                                                                       

Which means “It brings no gain if wit says ‘No God but He’. It’s nothing if not affirmed by heart and brain”.