“Man’s relationship with the world we live in is like a ship sailing in the sea. A ship needs deep water to navigate smoothly towards its destination. But if, for any reason, water starts flowing inside the ship, the very water that facilitates its journey would cause it to sink”.
Extremism in worship is also anathema to Islamic teachings. Three companions of the Prophet (pbuh) came to him with three noble but extreme intensions about worship. One of them said he would fast everyday forever; the second revealed he would pray the whole night throughout his life, and the third expressed his resolve to never get married in order to have full freedom for worship. The Prophet (pbuh) warned them against transgressing limits drawn by him through personal example in private and public affairs.
The most dangerous aspect of extremism is the failure to understand Islam in totality and/or quote verses of the Quran and Hadith out of context. During the Ummayed rule, two different camps of scholars emerged with one camp – the rationalists – trying to interpret the Word of God through pure reason. They were impressed by Greek philosophy so much so that they often denied or rationalised many commonly held beliefs.
The other camp – the literalists – relied mostly on tradition to make sense of the Quran. They rejected Greek philosophy as nothing more than mere conjecture and intellectual perversion. This polarisation in thinking still pervades the Muslim world.
The so-called modernists/secularists try to look for verses and Hadith which in some way give legitimacy to all Western ideologies and theories. The conservatives, on the other hand, regard Islam as a static religion with few rituals to perform on selected occasions.
The Muslim Ummah can play a pivotal role in the comity of nations if it rediscovers itself in the light of the Holy Quran which says, “Thus, have We made of you an Ummah (Community) justly balanced (wasatan), that ye might be witnesses over the nations, and the Messenger a witness over yourselves”.
The writer teaches at FAST-NU, Peshawar.
Email: zeb.khannu.edu.pk