Understanding ‘Deen’

THE CONCEPT OF RELIGION highest personal reality of Deen, the greatest attainment of a devout person, which they carry with them to their Lord. Whoever receives this gift of connection with Allah through their Deen has truly found Deen, while anyone who lacks such a relationship remains deprived of Deen, despite all else they may possess. Moreover, political religiosity can only truly develop in someone who has genuine religious devotion. A person lacking real religious devotion will be equally lacking in political religiosity. When we realize that the greatest reality of religion— indeed, its very essence and core—is absent from this so-called “comprehensive” picture of faith, we are compelled to acknowledge that the “incomplete” image of religion cherished by the Ummah for centuries was, in fact, the correct one. This new portrayal of religion, despite its claim to comprehensiveness, is not its true image. In this portrayal of religion, attaining a worldly outcome is treated as the primary objective, whereas attaining a personal outcome, in the sense of individual responsibility, is the true purpose of religion. Here, I am reminded of the words of a respected senior figure, spoken in response to a similar objection of mine. He said that, in our view, what the Muslim Ummah, as a collective, seeks to attain is certainly the establishment of a life in which no other Deen or system of thought