Rethinking Islam with Sultan Shahin

No obscurantists, please!

The Muslim community is at a crossroads. Has been there for some time, standing confused, not knowing which road to take. Some Muslims, of course, have no such confusion. They think they know what Islam is all about, how their lives are to be ordered, where the world is going and what is their role in it. Actually, they don't think so, they know this and believe in it. These are the people of certainly, unthinking certainty. They have a stock answer to every question: this is what the Prophet did (peace be upon him) 1400 years ago and this is what we should do today. There is no confusion in their minds over whether we even know exactly what the Prophet did, why and under precisely what circumstances. And, of course, there is no confusion in their minds over whether we can even live today in every respect the way Muslims lived 1400 years ago. Nor about whether this is what the Prophet expected of us, whether Islam does actually ordain that we remain stuck in a lifestyle of 6th century AD when the world moves on to the 21st or the 31st.

This is not my constituency. Certainty, unthinking certainty, whether in the mind of a Bush or in the mind of a bin-Laden is dangerous, leads to disastrous consequences. This page is not for the obscurantists, the unthinking dangerous know-all obscurantists, who have brought Islam and Muslims to such disrepute.

I would like to attract some people who are prepared to think afresh, who have unresolved questions in their minds, who may be confused about the direction they should take, who may even be considering changing their names so that they do not sound so authentically Muslim and thus invite trouble, even though they would like to continue to remain Muslim and follow its Spirit. I would like to sit down and brainstorm with Muslims who read news stories of scientific and technological, political and economic developments and wonder what it means to be a Muslim in this day and age. People who wonder what are the practices they can continue to follow and what they can't and whether this would be in accordance with the Spirit of Islam to do so.