Question: Can we speak today of a danger whereby our thoughts and intentions become confined to worldly concerns[1]—that is, a condition in which our minds are shaped not by the fundamental principles of religion but by the norms and tendencies of the age? What are the manifestations and consequences of such a danger?

Answer: The question points to an important problem facing today’s Muslims. Unfortunately, many of us were raised without guides who could direct us to the right path and illuminate the roads we walk. We did not derive the principles and standards of life from a Transcendent Being Who sees and knows all things. As a result, we were unable to view events through a holistic perspective. We could not perceive the relationships between cause and effect. We failed to plan our present in connection with our future, and our future in connection with the days that lie beyond it. Consequently, we could not live our lives within the framework of a broader plan.

In general, concerns centered on merely getting through the present day came to dominate our thinking. We fixed our gaze on today and neglected tomorrow. Our thoughts became confined to worldly concerns, and our horizons narrowed. Indeed, for a person who does not lean on a heavenly source, it is extremely difficult to evaluate events from a comprehensive perspective, to rise beyond the prison of corporeality, and to organize life according to a grander plan.

Human beings are not merely material entities made up of physical bodies. They also possess a heart and a spirit, along with deeper inner faculties such as sirr, khafi, akhfa, and the latifa Rabbaniyya (the subtle divine faculty). Just as the physical structure of the human being consists of many interwoven systems and layers, the spiritual dimension likewise comprises numerous distinct mechanisms and depths.

Whoever created the human being with both inward and outward dimensions is also the One Who knows the human being best. Therefore, a balanced and peaceful life is possible only through recourse to His guidance. If that guidance is ignored, however, and the human being is viewed within a narrow framework and considered only in terms of material existence, then certain aspects of the person become paralyzed.

This resembles intervening in one organ of the human body without taking the entire anatomy into account. No matter how knowledgeable or skilled the specialist performing such an intervention may be, complications are inevitable when the whole is ignored.

Deepening Within the Inner Self

Today, we seek everything in the outer world, whereas within the inner self lies an immense realm waiting to be discovered. The following couplet by Erzurumlu İbrahim Hakkı draws attention to this truth: “God said: ‘I cannot be contained within the earth and the heavens’;
Yet He was known through the mine of the heart.”

Indeed, neither the earth nor the heavens can encompass God; He is transcendent beyond space. Yet His knowledge and love manifest themselves in the human heart. As this couplet indicates, the inner self is profoundly important and deeply instructive. A person may not reach in the outer world the truths that can be attained within one’s own inner depths and spiritual world. Whoever is able to deepen within the self is graced with many inspirations and forms of spiritual knowledge that cannot be seen, read, or heard in the heavens and the earth.

Moreover, one who cannot properly read the inner self may become trapped in the swamp of positivism and naturalism while searching in the outer world. If a person first learns to read the inner self correctly, begins reflection there, and then turns toward the outer world, such a person walks with firmer steps, traverses life’s paths with greater awareness, and reaches important truths concerning the knowledge of God. Yet all of this depends upon benefiting from divine outpourings and from the sweet and abundant source. A person who is not nourished by revelation cannot correctly understand his or her own essential nature, nor reach the inner points of reliance and spiritual support embedded within.

Today, because naturalistic assumptions are predominantly presented to us in the name of knowledge and science, we too reduce the human being to the earth and confine the person within a narrow framework by considering only corporeal existence. Since we have been raised within the materialistic and secular culture of the modern world, and since educational curricula shaped by this culture are implemented in our schools, our minds and ways of thinking are influenced by it, whether we realize it or not. Consequently, our criteria for interpreting the human being, existence, and the universe gradually change.

For the human being is a child of the cultural environment in which he or she is raised. Whatever people repeatedly encounter at home, in the streets, in schools, or in places of worship, they often come to adopt. Today, because people do not hear even a single spiritually uplifting voice or resonance nourishing the heart and soul in the environments through which they move, their emotional and intellectual worlds become impaired, and they begin wandering through very different and unfamiliar valleys.

The Worldly Drift of Religious Interpretation

The culture in which we live leaves its imprint on everything—from our understanding of the Divine Being to our view of angels, from the way we interpret religion to the nature of our spiritual lives. As a result, even matters that are heavenly and transcendent are gradually reduced to earthly terms. We interpret the texts of the Qur’an and the Sunnah through molds presented—and at times imposed—by the surrounding culture. Although everything expressed by the Qur’an and Sunnah is truth, our own interpretations and understandings often distort the color and texture of these matters.

Instead of embracing the meanings we are truly meant to understand, we adopt what appeals to our desires or seems compatible with our interests. Rather than seeking to discern what God desires through His divine speech, we make the Qur’an speak according to the meanings we find expedient. Through our own worldliness, we flatten the profound depths of the Qur’an and reduce it to our own frame of understanding. At the root of certain theological interpretations that cannot be reconciled with the spirit of religion lie precisely such tendencies. In fact, this superficiality and narrowness are often reflected even in the translations and interpretations we give to Qur’anic verses. Nor do we confine only the Qur’an within this shallow framework; we interpret the book of the universe in the same reductive manner.

In a sense, we may have expanded into a broader framework one of the observations made by Said Nursî in his Treatise on Ijtihad. As is well known, he explains there that both religion itself and the legal interpretations that uncover its hidden rulings are heavenly in origin. He then lists a number of reasons why modern interpretations have gradually drifted away from that heavenly character and acquired a worldly nature instead. As one of those reasons, he states:

“The outlook of this age looks first and foremost to worldly happiness and directs rulings toward it. Whereas the outlook of the Shariah looks first and foremost to the happiness of the Hereafter, and only secondarily considers worldly happiness insofar as it serves the Hereafter. This means that the outlook of this age is foreign to the spirit of the Shariah. Therefore, it cannot perform ijtihad in the name of the Shariah.”

It is difficult not to agree with these observations of Bediüzzaman. Indeed, the foremost aim of the early scholars was to understand the divine intent of God Almighty. They constantly reflected: “This is what I understand from this verse, but what is the divine intent behind it?” Their lives revolved around exploring the depths of the Qur’an and Sunnah and uncovering the meanings hidden within them. Their primary goal was to understand the word of God correctly and to attain His pleasure.

Today, however, worldly concerns dominate. The minds of many people are occupied with questions such as, “How can we live a more prosperous life?” People move within worldly pursuits, think within worldly frameworks, and even connect religious matters to worldly anxieties. In other words, as mentioned earlier, we reshape religion according to ourselves and distance it from the divine intent. Everything is interpreted according to personal interests, worldly benefits, ambitions, and future prospects. Efforts are then made to derive religious rulings that support these interests—or at the very least, to force artificial associations onto the sacred texts.

It is even possible to encounter such forced interpretations in sermons and religious advice delivered in mosques.

An Alienation That Goes Unnoticed

Whatever ideas are promoted and circulated within the environments people live in, they gradually come under their influence without even realizing it, and eventually begin aspiring to them. Intentions and goals are then shaped accordingly. Today, one can observe that people devoted to religion and people devoted to worldly life often think about the same things and speak about the same things.

Because Muslims are unable to free themselves from the narrow confines imposed by the culture in which they were raised, they end up living lives tied to ego and worldly concerns. Instead of thinking expansively, keeping their aspirations elevated, and using their brief lives and limited capital of existence in pursuit of Paradise, they squander them within the narrow molds of corporeality, matter, and worldly life. Since they can no longer discover the lofty intentions, goals, and ideals belonging to their own spiritual world, they console and deceive themselves with trivial things. Consequently, they become estranged from noble ideals such as living so that others may live and tying their own salvation to the salvation of others.

The most dangerous aspect of all this, however, is that such alienation often goes unnoticed. If people become aware of the values they have lost, they will at least make some effort to recover them. But if a person is unaware of the condition he or she is in—or worse, is aware of it yet feels no discomfort—then one cannot expect that person to demonstrate the will to seek and rediscover what has been lost.

This situation may be likened to a chick still inside its egg. Suppose you somehow managed to tell it: “Why are you remaining there with your neck compressed between your legs? Outside, there is a vast and spacious world.” If the chick possessed the ability to laugh, it would probably laugh at such words and perhaps even accuse you of foolishness. For to the chick, no place could be better than the one it currently inhabits. In the same way, it is not easy to describe the vast and refreshing horizons of the heart and spirit to modern people who remain trapped within the narrow confines of the material realm.

A serious process of rehabilitation is needed if people are to be rescued from becoming prisoners of such constriction. For example, living models drawn from periods in which Islam was practiced in its true and upright form can be presented before them, enabling these examples to become role models. Ideal examples from the generation of the Companions or from later periods of Islamic history may help modern people emerge from the narrowness in which they are trapped and broaden their horizons. This can also be achieved by discussing matters belonging to our own spiritual world in every gathering we sit and rise in, and by deeply internalizing and digesting the sources that belong to our own tradition.

Indeed, we need to reexamine and reconstruct our intellectual world from the ground up. For it is extremely difficult to reveal our own breadth and depth through the dominant philosophies of our age or through the modern understanding of science. We cannot truly arrive anywhere through Roman genius, Greek modes of thought, ancient Greek philosophy, or perspectives belonging to Christianity; nor is it possible to fully blend our own intellectual world with them. This resembles trying to mix oil and water. No matter how much effort is exerted, they do not truly merge, because their chemical compositions and structures are fundamentally different.

Certainly, there are beneficial insights to be gained from every thought and every culture. Yet what is truly important is to approach the matter from its foundations, establish our own intellectual framework, and reinterpret existence through that perspective.

[1] The origial term “earthbound” here refers to a mode of thought that becomes confined to worldly, material, and temporal concerns rather than being guided by transcendent, spiritual, and eternal principles. It reflects the reduction of human understanding and religious interpretation to the narrow framework of corporeal and worldly life.