THE WORD OF GOD

of religion. Truth is the greatest concern of every human being. Every human being is born as a seeker of truth. A person who adopts his ancestral tradition and fails to apply his reason while doing so, leaves his natural spirit of enquiry unaddressed. Due to this failure one ends up living in dissatisfaction and despair because, it is impossible to have a peaceful mind without the self-discovery of truth. Some people who are born into families that call themselves ‘Muslims’ may believe in, or have an emotional connection with, Islam simply because of being born and socialized in a ‘Muslim’ family, and not because of any inner realization, reflection, realization or comparative study. What do you have to say about this khandani mazhabiyat or familybased religiosity of theirs? These kind of emotions are community-related emotions, they are not Islamic emotions. These emotions are manifested only in cultural matters. I call it cultural religiosity. These people have never experienced love of God or fear of God. Their religion is community religion, and not divine religion. What exactly do you mean by cultural religiosity? By cultural religiosity, I mean that religion which is based on the culture of the community. Every religion begins as an ideology but after some generations it gets reduced to a culture, and this is the case of present Muslims. There may be some individual exceptions, but the masses are living on cultural religiosity. How is this against true Islam? True Islam is that which is discovered through the Quran and Sunnah. Cultural religiosity is that which one finds through community traditions. The first is based on intellectual discovery, while the second is based on community culture. Is cultural religiosity adequate for salvation? Not at all. Salvation is not a mysterious word. Salvation is based on tazkiya, that is, purification of one’s soul. It requires a purified soul to achieve salvation. No other thing can make one attain salvation. Can you please share your thoughts on how the cultural religiosity approach makes Muslims confine their love and concerns only to fellow ‘Muslims’, and makes them indifferent, if not hostile, to the rest of humanity? How does this relate to the true teachings of Islam?