ISLAM AND THE MODERN MAN — Part I

ISLAM AND THE MODERN MAN — Part I Nourishment for the Soul T HE problems that confront man in the present age can all be traced, directly or indirectly, to one underlying cause: the separation of man from God. In this modern age, man has acquired many material comforts, but he has lost his faith in God. Material progress has provided man with plenty of physical nourishment, but it has left his soul to starve. The soul is essential to the life of the body. If it is separated from the body entirely, then the body dies; and if it is deprived of spiritual nourishment, then it starves in the same way as the body does. It is this spiritual nourishment, which the Quran describes as ‘better and more lasting’ (THE QURAN 20: 131). This is what the Prophet Jesus was referring to when he said, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God’ (Matthew, 4: 4). The problems that confront man in the present age can all be traced, directly or indirectly, to one underlying cause: the separation of man from God. The greatest asset that Islam has to offer man today is this belief in God. All religions originally preached the true concept of God, but as time passed, none of them were able to preserve the concept of God in its original form. Some groups turned God into a national fetish. Others took to worshipping a variety of objects in the name of God. In some religions the concept of God was turned into an abstract philosophy. However Islam has preserved the true concept of God in a pure and complete form. It is in Islam that modern man will find the God he so desperately needs (THE QURAN 3: 85). Spiritual Starvation It is thanks to modern civilization that man has been deprived of God and his soul has been left to starve. It is this spiritual starvation that has driven some young people in Japan to say: ‘Our culture is a merchant culture, and a merchant culture does not fully cater to man’s needs.’ The phenomenon of the hippy culture is also an expression of modern man’s hunger for true faith in God.