Ideals And Realities Of Islam Analysis

Written by Syed Hossein Nasr in January 1965, this book of ‘Ideals and Realities of Islam’ comprises of six main chapters. In general, the gist of this book is to clear things up regarding Islam. During the particular time the book is wrote, many of the Westerners came out with critiques and their own point of view regarding Islam without deeply understanding the religion which then somehow affected the young Muslims to lose their spiritual balance and feel estranged from their own tradition. The author as well tried to answer in many cases, the charges made by Western works against Islam especially as it concerned such fundamental elements of the faith as the Al-Quran and the hadith. In the same time, the author presented the point of view …show more content…
It is known as the central reality in the life of Islam, because matters covered in the Quran comprise both knowledge of world and hereafter. Many of the Westerns claim that the Quran is not really the Word of God and it was the Prophet who creates the work, assuming he was a very good poet but how can one truly believe that as it was known that the Prophet himself was unlettered ! Regarding the issue of the message to be in Arabic, the author firmly states that it is not at all necessary to know Arabic well in order to be a Muslim, but it is necessary as a minimum to know the necessary Quranic verses which play important role in acts of worship like in the prayers. Arab is the sacred language for the Muslims but it is very difficult for the Westerns to understand this matter of fact. The power of Quran doesn’t lie in expressing historical fact or phenomenon but the symbol whose meaning is valid all over the time. It contains the principle of science but that doesn’t mean it explains clearly the numbers of stars in the galaxy or even the periodic table in chemistry. It is just that the logic and the basic are always there for human being to discover more. There are three types of messages for men contained in the Quran which are the doctrine, history and …show more content…
Generally, the sha’riah is the ideal pattern for the individual’s life and the law which binds the Muslim people into a single community. By living according to the shari’ah, man places his whole existence in God’s hands by considering every aspect of human action thus gives a religious significance to daily activities. To fit in the concept, each generation in Muslim should seek to confirm to its teachings and apply it anew to the current conditions. On the surface, it seems to contain laws about how to marry, trade, divide inheritance or conduct the affairs of state. Yet, these actions are still actions whether they are performed according to shari’ah or not. But what differs is the effect those actions leave on the souls of men, either the act is performed according to the man-made law or the shari’ah. Here, the author clarifies that the Muslims should perform acts within shari’ah laws in order to please the sight of God. In fact, the shari’ah gives a religious connotation to all the activities become religiously meaningful. In essence, all of the shari’ah is contained in the Quran and were explained as well as amplified in the phrophetic hadith and sunnah which actually together constitute the second basic source of law. By right, it should be fair enough for all the Muslims to support the implementation of shari’ah in everyday routine as the law will never violate the normal social