As Islam does not involve itself in the dichotomy between the sacred and the profane, it simply cannot set in contrast the theocratic state with the secular state. Such dichotomy between the sacred and the profane leads to the separation between \u2018otherworldliness\u2019 and \u2018secularity\u2019, with the former world deemed higher or holier than the profane, secular one in which we are now living.<\/p>\n
This divisive assumption has little in common with the worldview of Islam, which encompasses both al-dunya <\/em>and al-akhirah<\/em>, in which the dunya<\/em>-aspect must<\/em> be related in a profound and inseparable way to the akhirah<\/em>-aspect. Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas explains that the akhirah<\/em>-aspect has ultimate and final significance; as our final destination beyond this world and this life. The dunya<\/em>-aspect is seen as a preparation for the akhirah<\/em>-aspect: \u201c\u2026and the ever-abiding, the good deeds, are better with your Lord in reward and as a foundation for hopes.\u201d (The Qur\u2019an, al-Kahf<\/em>, 18:46).<\/p>\n Everything in Islam is ultimately focussed on the akhirah<\/em>-aspect without thereby implying any attitude of neglect or being unmindful of the dunya<\/em>-aspect.<\/p>\n Sir Muhammad Iqbal points out that in Islam the so-called \u2018spiritual\u2019 and \u2018temporal\u2019 are not two distinct domains, and the nature of an act, however \u2018secular\u2019 in its import, is determined by the attitude of mind with which the agent does it. It is the invisible mental background of the act which ultimately determines its character.\u00a0 An act is temporal or profane if it is done in a spirit of detachment from the infinite complexity.<\/p>\n Moreover, as pointed out by Martin Lings, the Qur\u2019an insists on the need of the sacrament of consecration is to say \u201cIn the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.\u201d This was the first verse of every surah of the Qur\u2019an, and following the example of the Prophet, Muslims used it to inaugurate every Qur\u2019anic recital, and by extension every other rite, and by further extension every act or initiative. Islam admits of nothing profane in Muslims\u2019 life and outlook.<\/p>\n Another fundamental background of secularisation is the historical division between clericalism and laicism; the former refers to clerical power or influence in government, politics, education, learning, etc., and the latter refers to secular control of political and social institutions in a society. The medieval mind understood the church as having some special inherent claim to social privileges, power and property; then were those centuries when the church organised and unified the civilization of the West.<\/p>\n Harvey Cox summarises thus: early in the Christian centuries people began to use \u201csecular\u201d to designate this world as opposed to the other world. Later, \u201csecular\u201d was used to designate those institutions and activities that fell outside the control of an increasingly powerful church. Still later, even priests who served in the everyday world rather than in religious orders were called secular priests, and still are in many places. That is why when privileges or properties were removed from ecclesiastical control or when schools or hospitals were taken over by the state, the process was described as \u201csecularization\u201d.<\/p>\n In contrast, according to Sir Muhammad Iqbal, in Islam it is the same reality which appears as Religion looked at from one point of view and State from another. There is no equivalent in Islam to the concept secular<\/em>, especially when there is no equivalent to \u2018church\u2019 or \u2018clergy\u2019.<\/p>\n To quote Iqbal, it is not true to say that Religion \u201cand State are two sides or facets of the same thing.\u00a0 Islam is a single unanalysable reality which is one or the other as your point of view varies.\u00a0 The point is extremely far-reaching….Suffice it to say that this ancient mistake arose out of the bifurcation of the unity of man into two distinct and separate realities which somehow have a point of contact, but which are in essence opposed to each other. The truth, however, is that matter is spirit in space-time reference. The unity called man is body when you look at it as acting in regard to what we call the external world; it is mind or soul when you look at it as acting in regard to the ultimate aim and ideal of such acting\u2026.There is no such thing as a profane world.\u00a0 All this immensity of matter constitutes a scope for the self-realization of spirit.\u00a0 All is holy ground. As the Prophet Muhammad so beautifully puts it: \u2018The whole of this earth is a mosque.\u2019 The State, according to Islam, is only an effort to realize the spiritual in a human organization…. It is erroneous to assimilate the idea of the separation of Church and State from the history of European political ideas. Primitive Christianity was founded, not as a political or civil unit, but as a monastic order in a profane world, having nothing to do with civil affairs, and obeying the Roman authority practically in all matters.\u00a0 The result of this was that when the State became Christian, State and Church confronted each other as distinct powers with interminable boundary disputes between them.\u00a0 Such a thing could never happen in Islam; for Islam was from the very beginning a civil society, having received from the Qur\u2019an a set of simple legal principles which carried, as experience subsequently proved, great potentialities of expansion and development by interpretation and elaboration [and specialisation]. It is misleading to suggest a dualism which does not exist in Islam.\u201d<\/p>\n Iqbal\u2019s statement that Islam was from the very beginning a civil society also refers to the Prophet Muhammad\u2019s success during his own life, which has been so tremendous that during his Farewell Pilgrimage in the year 10 Hijrah calendar, he could address to some 140,000 Muslims that had come that year to Mecca, not counting many times so much that had remained at home.<\/p>\n We possess in all about ten thousand reports (eliminating the repetitions) of the traditions on the life of the Prophet Muhammad\u2014which is a living representation and interpretation of the Qur\u2019an.<\/p>\n The teaching of the Prophet concerns all walks of life\u2014a complete code of human life, not only covers faith and belief, but also practices. He prescribes rules for the spiritual practices which possess a material utility, and temporal practices which acquire sacred moral character when they conform to Divine prescriptions. He prescribes individual and collective aspects of life\u2014thus establishing a harmonious equilibrium. Even politics are not excluded from its purview, as Islam aims to build the whole man and not partial, spiritual aspect only, not leaving politics to so-called secular rulers.<\/p>\n The Prophet Muhammad was an organizer; he founded a well-disciplined State out of the existent chaos, administered it himself and gave peace and order in place of the war of everybody against everybody else. He commanded armies for external defence, and defeated enemies often three to fifteen times more numerous than the volunteers he had at his disposal. He was a great and all-round legislator, prescribing rules for all legal questions, leaving a new system of law, which dispensed impartial justice, in which even a head of State was as much a subject to it as any commoner. The Prophet Muhammad did not declare himself to be above the ordinary law which he imposed on others.<\/p>\n Sources of Islam contains directions for the conduct of the head of State, as well as a simple commoner, of the rich as well as the poor, for peace as well as for war, for spiritual culture as for commerce and material well-being. He married, and left a model of family life, which is the smallest unit of society.<\/p>\n The Qur\u2019an, hence, speaks of the best rules relating to social life, commerce, marriage, inheritance, penal law, international law, and so on. In that system, religious tolerance was so great that non-Muslim inhabitants of Muslim countries equally enjoyed complete juridical, judicial and cultural autonomy. In the matter of the revenues of the State, the Qur\u2019an fixed the principles of budgeting, and paid more thought to the poor (Hamidullah 1979).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As Islam does not involve itself in the dichotomy between the sacred and the profane, it simply cannot set in contrast the theocratic state with the secular state. Such dichotomy between the sacred and the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"_wpzoom_pinterest_image_url":"","_wpzoom_pinterest_hidden_image":"0","_wpzoom_pinterest_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[220],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-star","category-220","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}