RELIGIOUS WORLDVIEW

Religious Worldview

• It is a world-view that relies on religious belief as a source of knowledge and guidance.

It’s teaching is based on religious scripture. It encompasses both the world of seen and unseen. It is more stable than scientific and philosophical

world-views as it has some unchangeable values and systems of belief and ethics.

Religious worldviews include; Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Taoism, Sikhism and Islamic worldview.

Cont…• Religious-worldview allows transcendental

conceptions of the general order of existence that are not present in. The conception of religious worldview includes the following cognitive notions:

a. There is a universal spirit, god, deity or divine entity.

b. This divinity has established an eternal moral order that, in part at least, can be known to human beings.

c. People have the duty to follow eternal moral dictates.

d. This human conduct has long-term (beyond individual death) significance.

THE ISLAMIC WORLDVIEW-DEFINITION

-CHARACTERISTICS

Definition • Islamic worldview is the vision of the reality and

truth that appears before our mind’s eyes that reveals what the existence is all about.

• It is the metaphysical survey (idrak) of the visible as well as the invisible worlds including life history and the being as a whole. (alam al-ghayb wa al-shahadah).

• From the perspective of Islam, a “worldview” is not merely the mind’s view of the physical world and of man’s historical, social, political, and cultural involvement in it.

Cont…• The worldview of Islam is not based upon

philosophical speculation formulated mainly from observation of the data sensible experience, of what is visible to the eye.

• Nor it is restricted to the world of sensible experience, the world of created things.

• Islam does not concede to the dichotomy of the sacred and the profane; the worldview of Islam encompasses both al-dunya and al-akhirah, in which the dunya-aspect must be related in profound and inseparable way to the akhirah-aspect, in which the akhirah-aspect has the ultimate and final significance.

Cont…

• The Islamic worldview is not that worldview which is formed merely by gathering together of various cultural objects, values, and phenomena into artificial coherence.

• Nor is it one that is formed gradually through a historical and development process a philosophical speculation and scientific discovery, which must of necessity be left vague and open-ended for future change and alteration in line with paradigms that change in correspondence with changing circumstances.

Cont…• Nor have there been in Islam, historical

periods that can be characterized as “classical”, then “medieval”, then “modern”; and now purportedly shifting again to “post-modern”; nor critical events between the medieval and the modern experienced as a “renaissance” and an “enlightenment”.

True meaningof change,

progress and development

The nature of Happiness(sa’adah)

The natureof ethics(akhlaq)

The nature of knowledge

(Ilm)

The nature of man(insan)

The nature of the world(dunya)

The nature of

Revealed Religion-Islam

The Nature of Revelation- The Qur'an

The Nature of God-Allah

The contentsof the Islamic

Worldview

Nature of life

• It is the general view of reality, truth, world, space, time, human history, origin, development, and destiny of man and universe.

This worldview emanates from the fundamental belief that life and existence came into being as a result of the will, desire and design of the Almighty, Allah.

Cont… Islamic worldview is a comprehensive conception of the universe and man’s relation to it from Islamic perspective, thereby serving as a basic for one’s philosophy and outlook of life. This worldview is essentially a theistic and ethical worldview, which contrast sharply with the secularist and atheistic alternatives.

Nature of God• The nature of god in Islam is different from various

religious tradition, Greek and Hellenic philosophical tradition, Western philosophical or scientific tradition, occidental and oriental mystical traditions.

• According to Qur’an, the existence of God is His essence whether in the imagination, in actuality, or in supposition is possible. He is not the locus of qualities, or a thing portioned and divisible into parts, nor is he a thing compounded of constituent elements.

• He does not impair and is far too exalted for the Platonic and Aristotelian dualism of form and matter to be applied to his creative activity.

Nature of religion • Islam is not form of culture and its system of

thought projects its vision of reality and truth. • The system of value derived from it is not merely

derived from cultural and philosophical elements, but its original source is revelation, confirmed by religion, affirmed by intellectual and intuitive principles.

Cont…• Islam itself is truly revealed religion, perfected from

the very beginning, requiring no historical explanation and evaluation in terms of the place it occupied and the role it played within a process of development.

• All the essentials of the religion – the name, the faith and practice, the rituals, the creed and system of belief – were given by Revelation and interpreted and demonstrated by the Prophet in his words and model actions, not from cultural tradition which necessarily

Nature of revelation • Revelation in Islam is comprehensible, without

confusing it with the prophet’s own subjectivity and cognitive imagination.

• This revelation is final and it not only confirms the truth of preceding revelations in their original forms, but also includes their substances, separating the truth from cultural creations and ethic inventions.

• Islam affirms Qur’an to be the speech of God revealed in a new form of Arabic; the description of His nature therein is therefore the description of Himself by Himself which describes reality and truth.

Nature of ethics • Ethics is the process of acquisition knowledge that

includes moral purpose that activates in the one who acquires.

• Ethics refers to right action that spring from self-discipline founded upon knowledge whose source is wisdom.

• Islam has never accepted, nor has ever been affected by, ethical and epistemological relativism that made man the measure of all things.

Realistic and

Simplicity(Al-Waqi’iyyah)

Balance(Al-Tawazun)

Unchangeable and

Flexibility

Divine nature(Al-Rabaniyyah)

Universality(Al-Alamiyyah)

Comprehensive(Al-Shumuliyyah)

Characteristic of the Islamic

Worldview

Contents of the

Islamic Worldview

Islam Iman Ihsan Taqwa

Relation between act and

understanding reflected in your beautiful deeds

Peace or the primordial nature

of man

security, or faith

that generates

hope and

confidence

In the individual

Taqwa or piety denotes to be

ethically sound, and mindful of God

Cont..

• The foundations of the Islamic worldview• Islam and Iman: Literally Islam means peace

and submission, and conceptually it is the religion of Allah which was given to the Prophets throughout the ages of human history from Adam to Prophet Mohamad (s.a.w).

• Iman or believe: literally means security, and conceptually means the state of security and the safety that a person enjoys when he is attached to his Creator.

Cont…

• Ihasan or benevolent: Relation between act and understanding reflected in your beautiful deeds or relation with God, man and other creations. It is the condition in which the person is mindful of his or her deeds with ethical responsibility.

• Taqwa or pious: which means to be ethically clean, and maintain the moral piety. This means to be loyal and close to Allah (s.w), kind to the entire creations of Allah.

Cont…

• Tawhid or unity of Allah: includes three necessary and interrelated aspects of monotheism which are acknowledgement (ma’rifah), assertion (tasdiq) of the Oneness and worship (ibadah) of the One and the Same Lord Allah (s.w.t).

• Allah is the only creator of everything. • Allah is the only authority and the legislator of

the mankind.• Allah is one for his names attributes. Tawhid

means God is one in all aspects.

Tawhid or

unity of Allah

acknowledgement (ma’rifah)

assertion (tasdiq) of the

Oneness

worship (ibadah)

of the One and the

Same Lord

Between Tawhid and monotheism

• Both monotheism and tawhid hold the belief in one God, however;

• In monotheism one might believe in one God and might worship many, while in towhid, one believes in, and worships one God.

• Monotheism accepts ethnocentrism monoletery, while tawhid accepts only universalism.

• In monotheism a person worships one God, but the conception of God might include, two, three or many substances in one, but in tawhid God is one in all substances.

VARIOUS CONCEPTIONS OF MONOTHEISM

• Sumerian, Acadian and Babylonian Perception • Various deities.

• Multiple substances and divine beings.

• Universal

Monotheism i.e., Council of godsEnlil, Anu, marduk, etc.

Cont…Zoroastrian perception • Dualistic substance • Universal deity• Composed divinity

Dualistic

Monotheism

Cont…

Hinduism Perception1. Multiple deities

2. Functional divisions

3. Universal divinity

Unity with Trinity (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva)

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Cont…

Jewish Monotheism-Ethnocentric. (Ethnic based Religion, not universal).

-Henotheistic (we have our God and others have their own).

1.Horizontal Monotheism2. Unity but other gods exist

Cont…

Christian Monotheism -Trinitarian

-Multiplicity of the Substance

-Universal

Trinitarian Monotheism(Father, Jesus and the Holy Ghost)

Cont…Pantheism -The universe, or nature, and God are equivalent.

-No hirerchy between God and the creations.

-The Number of the divine deity is not limited.

-The distinctive attributes of God are not limited.

God is All and All is God.

Cont…a. All such notions are opposite to the conception of

tawhid, and therefore, all are rejected by Islam.b. They categorically lead to shirk and compromise

with the true belief in God.

The opponents of the tawhidic worldview

• Shirk or polytheism. It signifies the act of associating other divinities besides God, for this shirk is committed through adoption, veneration, invocation of equal entities, whatsoever it may be, besides the al-Mighty Allah. Shirk includes:

– Polytheism in the level of Lordship– Polytheism in the level worship/legislation – Polytheism in the level of names and attributes

The opponents of the tawhidic worldview

• Kufr or denial: Kafir means the condition of being revolt against the Almighty Allah, or the denial of His existence and revelations. The Qur’an distinguished various kinds of disbelief and infidelity;

• kufr al-inkar or or denial; is neither recognizing nor acknowledging Allah.

The opponents of the tawhidic worldview

• kufr al-juhud or disbelieve; is recognizing God but without acknowledging and invoking Him with words.

• kufr an-Nifaq; is outwardly acknowledging, but at heart not recognizing God and thus remaining an unbeliever, that is being an hypocrite.

• Munafiq or hypocrisy: is the condition of living in a contradictory status of internal believes and outward life.