Components of Culture

Islamic culture has no impurity in itself and is unchanged since its origin. The main question is about the definition of culture. Usually culture includes literature, arts, folks, life style and political thought of a nation.
In fact culture tells us about the concepts of a nation about five questions, which helps in understanding the point of view towards life. These questions are:
a. What is the concept of that culture about universe?
b. What is the aim of life?
c.What are the beliefs of that culture?
d.What are the ethical values of that culture?
e.What is the social structure offered by that culture?
Above explanation of “culture” shows that a it has five basic components and by these it is differentiated by other cultures. These are;
1. Concept of life
2. Aims of life.
3. Basic believes and values.
4. Formation of individuals.
5. Social systems.

Chapter Four

Compulsion and freedom

The other important question raised by mediation is that is man free in his selection of doings or he is bound to follow decided path. There are two major groups of philosophers in this regard; one who believe that man is forced and helpless, while the others say that man is free in his doing. Phesagoras is in pool of first group and say this universe is like a machine and man is its part, so he has to work as machine does. But when we mediate in the universe we come to know that man is actually the center of this world not its part. So it will be wrong to resemble man with a machine. On the other hand man can not be considered to be bound with physical laws of the universe because it possess something called soul. In the same way Zenos’ theory is of cause and effect can not be accepted because there are many things, which a man do by his will.
Christen philosopher, Saint Augustine can not be said right due to many reason. Firstly, his theory is based on half- truth. He has presented the sin of Adam, but has ignored the penitence. Secondly he has imposed the sin of Adam on all human being thus support the cruelty. Thirdly he has deviated from Juses sayings on this concept. In abased period many muslim scholars also have tried to answer same question. They can be divided in two major groups. One who believe in absolute freedom of man, they are called Mua’tazila and others who believe that the man is forced and helpless against Allah’s will.
However, the holy Qur'an has presented different view from all above theories. According to it man is free, but this freedom is not absolute. He is free in selection of right and wrong. It says that man cannot do any thing against Allah’s will, but he will be rewarded of his efforts. So we can say that only the holy Qur'an can present satisfactory solutions of our problems.

Chapter Two

Position of Man In Universe


Other important question in front of man is his own existence, his position in this universe and his relation to this universe. Actually this is Socrates who raised this question. He states that humans should recognize themselves first rather then exploring matter. His slogan was “Actualize yourself”. Actually answer to this question direct us towards the formation of our behavior to this universe.
Different philosophers has tried differently to answer this question and to find the place and relation of human to this universe. Ancient philosophers says that man is reflective image of this universe and by acquiring harmony by this universe he can get pleasure. According to modern philosophers, this universe is actually a machine and human is part of it. In modern era only the Cont is a philosopher, who says that the internal values of human are also important. According to this point view, internal values of human are very important as well, who pursues him for virtue, which is obvious proof of presence of God.
We can say that philosophers are divided in three groups: first group says man is like insects and both of them have same ends. Second group says man is part of a machine and third group says that the real object and main center of universe is man. By the intellect the right and wrong of these all opinions can be judged. First group has actually humiliated the man by equalizing him with insects. The entity who is discovering many things how it can be related to insects. The second group has said is a part of machine and has subordinated him to something happening automatically, having no individual identity. Third group, however, has reasonably explained the man as center of this universe
The three celestial religions also have their own clear and solid point of view about the man’s existence and his relation to this universe. For example, according to Jews man is placed at high place and is little lower then God. According to Christians the man is criminal. Islam has very different point of view, according to it the man is actually “deputy” of God in this universe. For understanding the Islam’s point of view it necessary to understand the difference of philosophy and religion. The touchstone of philosophy is intellect, but religion only follows the laws made by Allah. These law and orders may not be proved by intellect, but they satisfy us.
Similarly man is granted by all those characteristics, which were necessary for him to perform his duty as Deputy of Allah:
First property is the freedom to act, although this freedom is not absolute and has some limits.
Secondly, the human is made “best of Creatures”.
Thirdly, three-dimensional arrangement is made by intellect, intuition and revelation. By using all these three sources man not only can actualize himself, but also can recognize his position and relation with regard to universe.
Fourthly, the man has granted the ability to subdue the universe and use it for benefits of mankind. With all these favors, he also has some responsibilities. For example; he is accountable to Allah for all of his deeds. He is given the wisdom to live as society and he has some duties to perform in this prospect.
Despite of all this, although all mankind is created by Allah, but only those who will follow his laws, will be placed in the position of “Deputy of Allah”.

Chapter Six

System of Prophethood

This means the system made by God for human guidance through prophets, reveletion and holy books. The question confronted by man is that what was the need to creat this structure while wisdom the wisdom was already given to him . The second confusion is that do the revelation and wisdom support each other or they are opposite entities. The philosopher can be divided into three groups on the basis of their answer to above questions.
First one are those according to whom although the wisdom is good source of solving human problems, but there are many issues where wisdom is failed to present any solution then revelation come forward to solve the problem. Aristotle, Plato and John lock are major supporters of this school of thought. According to second group the revelation and wisdom are two things apart from each other and it is foolish to try to find out any similarity between
them. The Pascal was the leader of this group. The third group possess the opinion that as the revelation can not be seen and can not be experienced so it is not present. They believe only in those things which are present and can be seen and proved by experience.
By critical analysis all opinion of all three groups it clears the later two groups’ opinion is based on incomplete observation and egoism. The first group, however, has adopted a reasonable approach by giving due respect to both revelation and wisdom. But here again a question arises that if both of them are equally important why we they have contradictions between themselves. Ibn-e-Temia a muslim scholar while answering this question in detail presents three reasons of contradictions. According to him both of them are strong supporters of each other and are two faces of a coin, but if we find a difference then the fault lies on our side.
He says that following can be the reason to find a contradiction,
1). The basis of bases may be wrong.
2) Analysis and comparisons of both.
3). Insufficient research on issue.
Qur'an-e-hakeem give may arguments to prove that wisdom alone is unable to solve all problems faced by man and always need some supernatural guidance in form of revelation. The revelation actually purifies the wisdom and protects it from straying by giving it direction.
According to Aristotle, it is a divine spark that complete the wisdom. But again it give rise to a question that if revelation was too much necessary then why its chain was broken and why it was stopped. The Holy Qur'an guide us that because every nation was given a different Sharia but now Islam is the only excepted religion of the universe therefore the revelation was stopped. Secondly, being a universal and eternal sharia it is secured by God himself and there is no need of any more prophets or revelation. This also prohibit the claim of new prophethood now a days.
So we can conclude that the revelation and wisdom both are necessary for human to lead his life according to Allah’s will.

Chapter Five

LIFE HEREAFTER AND THE DOOMS DAY

There is no clear answer about dooms day and life hereafter in Greek and western philosophy. They actually this question was not worth discussion to them because they first want to know what is soul and whether it is present or not, where it goes after death.
There are commonly two schools of thoughts, first one are convinced of trans-migration like Plato. According to them the soul came into this world by chance and was trapped into body, now it is trying to go back. This theory actually diminishes the concept of reward or punishment. The other group is holder of atomists theory according to which the soul is actually like an atom, when all these atoms broke the souls ends into ashes and enter into another body for survival. This is actually scientific explanation of soul, which can not be accepted by religious scholars. The Jews and Christians also presented the concept of dooms day, but this is vague and creat confusion rather than satisfaction.
The other most commonly accepted source of knowledge the Holy Qur'an has also delt with the answer and has presented more satisfying and sufficient answers to all question raised by man. In its subject of man it deals with cause of being, the nature of man and universe and also the ways of life. Its arguments are based on human nature and universal laws and strong enough. For example the main objective or cause of human creation is Allah’s worship. Now when we observe this world we see many people who do not worship Allah, but they are living good lives. So there must be a day when Allah reward the people who worshiped Him and punish those who denied his presence.
On other hand it says that this universe is not made aimlessly so if there is a aim then it generate the idea that man is not free in all aspects but is responsible for his deeds and the day accountability will be dooms day. Similarly it is demand of Allah’s greatness that the there should be a day when all those who could not find reward of there deeds in world are favored. The Qur'an also give argument from human nature by making his attention toward his own self. There is something called conscience in man who stops him from wrong doings that is actually a small judiciary in his inner self, which give evidence of dooms day. Similarly as said earlier that man is the centre of this universe and enjoy the status of “ ashraf-ul-makhloqat” so he is to be accountable to someone somewhere and that is actually life hereafter.
All above discussion indicate that actually man in itself needs and desire to have dooms day and concept of life hereafter so that he can find actual reward or punishment of his deeds.

Chapter One
GOD: PERSONALITY AND CHARACTERISTICS
(OPINION OF DIFFERENT PHILOSOPHERS)


Human being have some basic questions to answer about his creator. These are:
1 What is God and his characteristics and what may the nature of god-creator relation.
2 Can a human recognize God?
3 Do the god possess personality as do the human beings?
Many philosophers have tried to answer all these questions differently. But they have consensus about the existence of God except some secular ones. The real discussion is regarding the characteristics of god, reorganization of god and beginning of religion. Irrespective of all secular opinions of the Greek and western philosophers, holy Qur’an have differently and extensively answered all those questions raised by the philosophers when searching for the reality. For example, some philosophers say that although the god was one, but human were unaware of this.
The holy book says that the human history actually begins with ‘unity’ of god and the polytheism was introduced afterwards. A second important question is that the God does possess personality or he is only a motive force. The answer of Qur’an is that it is humans instinct that he needs ‘someone’ supernatural to him he can pray while in trouble.
The answer of third question that we can recognize God or not is also replied by Qur’an that we could recognize our God by mediating in this universe. The topic of Qur’an is not the existence or personality of god. There are many reasons of this some of which are as follows:
1 The people in that era were aware of the presence of god i.e. Jews, Christians and mushkareens.
2 All the intellectuals and scholars admit that God does exist.
3 The existence of God does not need any argumentation, the universe is main wit of this.
4 The main objective of creation of human is to obey the God not to see the God.
5 By mediation in the universe existence and recognition of god can be achieved.
6 Unity of God is actually is in fact in instinct of human.
7 Human being hate polytheism.
8 The relation of God with human is God-creator relation.
The discussion conclude that one God do exist and we can recognize is him by mediation and we ought to abide by all laws made by him.

Chapter Three

Good and bad

The third important question, the man is confronting is about good and bad. And are the good and bad two different things? Is this concept innate and inborn? Who is the creator of good and bad? Why the people have different criteria of good and bad.
Different philosophers tried to solve this problem differently. According to democrats, every thing that gives pleasure to man is good, while sophists are the followers of the theory that the man in itself possess the criteria of good and bad. Socrates says that the self-
actualization is divine spark in human, which help him to know about good and bad. According to Christian philosopher, Saint Augustine the “God” is only good. In fact it is sin of Adam that is cause of evils in this world.
By analyzing the opinions of all these philosophers it is realized that the cause of their stray for answering these questions is selection of “objects” as standard of good and bad. Also it is baseless to say that “thinking” is standard of god and bad because it is not possible to spare a man for his bad doings by considering this that he is a good or positive thinker. Similarly criteria of pleasure cannot be the standard of good and bad because these vary from person to person. Likewise if we admit that good and bad are two different entities then we have to admit that there are two Gods in this universe, which is against the theory of unity (Toheed).
The Holy Qur’an has presented his own theory, according to which God is divine good of the universe. The all goods and bads are placed in human nature and he is given freedom to choose any path. So the evil is produced by misuse of this freedom. Although, the devil mislead man by creating superstitions, but he is not the creator of evil. The man can meet the standards of good by formation of his wishes and emotions.