Basic Philosophy Essay (1)
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0How does Postmodernism Challenge The IslamicWorldview?UNGS 1301 : Basic Philosophy and Islamic WorldviewSection No. 18LECTURER: Dr. Norbani Binti IsmailPREPARED BY :NAMEMATRIC NO.Muhammad Azim Bin Iskandar2313985
1The main focus of this essay is to explain postmodernism, the islamic worldview, and theunderlying challenges that postmodernism have on the islamic worldview. To explain briefly ofboth, postmodernism was born near the end of world war 2 whereby the horror of war birtheddistrust in the existing system and this worldview expresses its ideology through being skeptic ofeverything, namely our knowledge of applied and natural sciences, art, morality and religion. Onthe contrary, the islamic worldview heavily relies on faith in the absolute truth, truth of God orAt-Tawhid, truth of the unseen, and the certainty of knowledge. As Muslims, we acknowledgeour weaknesses which is the lack of knowledge by accepting and being certain of the knowledgethat has been revealed in the Quran. In the following paragraphs, each worldview will beexplained more thoroughly and discuss their differences and the challenges faced by Muslims inthis postmodern world.Postmodernity as a concept was established at the end of the 20th century when the termwas coined by Jean-Francois Lyotard who was a French philosopher, known for his 1979ThePostmodern Conditionwhich was against the already existing modernism narrative. Modernismin its core was founded on idealism, an idealistic view of a utopia for human existence andsociety with the belief in progress and development (Tate, n.d.). Post world war 1, modernismsought to express experience through individualism and this had an effect on most subjects suchas literature, architecture, philosophy and art. Now the focus became to experiment and abandontraditional and fixed point of views with regards to realism (Lynch, 2015).On the contrary, postmodernism became a more accepted way of thinking post world war2 as the atrocities that were committed such as the holocaust and the dropping of the nuclearbombs on Nagasaki and Hisroshima led to a loss of faith in the idea of progression which wasmainly a modernist way of thinking. Due to this lack of faith, postmodernism was built on the
2characteristics of skepticism, subjectivism, relativism and pluralism, and its suspicion on reason(Duignan, 2023). Hence, postmodernism believes that there is no absolute truth or certainty, anyfindings from the sciences are not absolute and can be questioned and reasoned with as thisfollows the characteristic of subjectivism. Relativism is the doctrine that there is no objectivemorality, morality should be accepted as equally good and is based on the place and culture(Relativism | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, n.d.). Prominent postmodern thinkers wouldbe Jean-Francois Leotard, Michael Foucault, and Robert Venturi.From this, we can see a very clear difference between the islamic worldview and thepostmodern worldview. Note that the characteristics or core principles of the islamic worldviewvary between scholars and school of thoughts. The very first concept that we need to understandis that the islamic worldview has the concept of Al-Tawhid which means the oneness of Allah.Tawhid is the belief that there is no God worthy of worship but Allah which is also called thestatement of tawhid uttered when someone is reverting. “Say O Muhammad, He is Allah, (whois) One. Allah the eternal refuge, He neither begets nor is he begotten, Nor is there anyequivalent to Him” (Al-Ikhlas:1-4), this surah explains the essence of Al-Tawhid and how weshould perceive Allah s.w.t. Another important concept to understand is Wahyu or divinerevelation. Understanding this concept is crucial in order to understand the islamic worldview.As Muslims, divine revelations are both the Quran and the sunnah of the prophet Muhammads.a.w, we conclude that both are equally as important to our islamic worldview as both areneeded to shape how we perceive the world, as an example; gratefulness is thought by Allah inthe Quran (Surah Ibrahim:7) but it is exemplified in the life of the Prophet s.a.w and we nowknow how to be grateful. As we talk about the divine revelation, it is heavily intertwined with theconcept of prophethood. The life of the Prophet s.a.w and the stories of the other prophets should
3be considered as an example on how we should live our life and our perspective of the worldshould revolve around how they lived, how they thought, and they relied on Allah s.w.t. Last butnot least is the concept of al-wasatiyyah or balance. This concept aims to balance the extremeand fanatical acts in a Muslim’s life as it is found in the Quran surah Al-Baqarah verse 143which states; “and thus we have made you a median community that you will be witnesses overthe people and the messenger will be witness over you”. The word wasata or median isinterpreted by scholars as chosen, the best, being fair, humble, moderate, istiqamah, to follow theteachings of Islam and not be extreme in attaining the worldly life or the after life (Hanapi,2014).Now that both worldviews have been thoroughly explained, how does postmodernismchallenge the islamic worldview? Firstly, postmodernism challenges the islamic worldviewthrough its skepticism and questioning of every single matter, according to postmodernism asdiscussed above, absolute truth does not exist and there is no true or false. From an Islamicperspective this is against everything that Muslims believe, as in Islam, there is observable truthlike scientific miracles of the Quran that are proven and certain as it had been revealed, but alsoabsolute truth that requires faith, namely the existence of Allah s.w.t, purpose of human existence(Al-Quran, 51:56) and morality through the divine revelations.Secondly, is relativism and pluralism. According to postmodernism as stated above, thereis individual autonomy in determining one’s value as relativism is a belief that every truth issubjective and context dependant as it shaped by individual experiences, belief, culture andperspective and pluralism is the belief that embraces diversity, multiple narratives and challengesa dominant narrative to explain the human purpose. Contrary to this belief, Islam states that thereis absolute truth in moral standards and values that should be accepted by everyone that is
4derived from the Quran, considered literally as the word of God. Islam provides universal truththat is unchanging and fixed and absolute, therefore what is true for a group of people will betrue for another, just like the message of Tawhid that there is only one God worthy of worshipexcept Allah. Islam rejects pluralism, though not in its entirety as the Quran acknowledgesdiversity as stated in the Quran, “Oh humankind, indeed we have created you from a male and afemale, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you may learn from one another. Indeed, themost noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you, Indeed Allah is the mostknowing and aware.” (Al-Hujurat,49:13). Islam recognizes the importance of diversity butrejects postmodern pluralism as it values diverse narratives compared to Islam which values asingular, divine narrative that is at-tawhid. On that note, Islam recognises the diversity amongcultures but it asserts a universal moral framework that transcends cultural variations, Islampromotes a set of beliefs and practices and as tolerance is encouraged, some things arenon-negotiable like the oneness of Allah s.w.t. and laws as stated in the Quran and Sunnah.As skepticism challenges the certainty of knowledge and relativism asserts that valuesand truth are contextual and vary between individuals, subjectivism from a postmodernperspective is that all knowledge, including moral judgment is subjective and dependent onindividuals and that moral values are dependent on feelings and emotions and nothing more.Most common example that is seen in today’s circumstance is homosexuality and the LGBTQ+movement whereby gender and sexuality is now commonly accepted in the western world andmany other secular countries worldwide and all of these newly accepted conditions were, up to23 years ago was seen as immoral, illegal by most people and to an extreme, it was seen as amental illness as in the United Kingdom, a well known scientist by the name of Alan Turing wasconvicted in 1952 for gross indecency (O’Malley, 2019). In this context of subjectivism, the
5Islamic worldview rejects this idea as it is against the objective morality of the Sunnatullah. Inthis case homosexuality is against the Sunnatullah as it is against the natural order as the peopleof Lut were destroyed due to this indecency (Al-Quran, 26: 160-174). Due to this, the wholenarrative of subjectivism should be rejected as if it is not, such a narrative like the LGBTQ+movement can rise. The objective morality is given in the Quran and Sunnah and it should befollowed by all of the Muslims and Muslims should not rely on subjective morality which ispracticed by postmodernists. Moreover, Islam’s objective morality is based on Allah’s commandand wisdom, the creator knows better than the creation while postmodernists’ subjectivism isbased on their feelings and intuition, there is no source of authority for them other than theirfeelings and emotions. Lastly, why subjectivism should be opposed is due to the fact thatsubjectivism promotes individual autonomy where its concept undermines a predeterminedpurpose. In Islam, the purpose of life is to worship Allah and attain His pleasure which is aMuslim’s predetermined purpose (Al-Quran, 51:56).In conclusion, postmodernism challenges the islamic worldview in its ideology thatopposes the Islamic way of life, sets of belief and values. Postmodernism is rooted in skepticism,subjectivism, relativism and pluralism challenges the islamic worldview of absolute and divinetruth, objective morality and divine purpose. Despite these challenges, the islamic worldview,rooted in the values of Al-Tawhid, the divine revelation of the Quran and Sunnah, the Prophetsand Al-Wasatiyyah, though not limited to only these concepts as it varies from scholars andschool of thought. The islamic worldview stands firm in opposing the doctrine of postmodernismand remains as a source of guidance for Muslims to navigate the current world in the straightpath of Allah s.w.t.
6REFERENCEThe Postmodern condition, A Report on Knowledge in English 1984.Tate. (n.d.).Postmodernism | Tate.https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/postmodernism#:~:text=While%20modernism%20was%20based%20on,are%20universal%20certainties%20or%20truthsLynch, S. (2015, May 5). Out of the wasteland: the first World War and modernism.The IrishTimes.https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/out-of-the-wasteland-the-first-world-war-and-modernism-1.2190829Duignan,B.(2023,November6).Postmodernism|Definition,Doctrines,&Facts.Encyclopedia Britannica.https://www.britannica.com/topic/postmodernism-philosophyRelativism | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (n.d.). https://iep.utm.edu/relativi/Surah Al-Ikhlas Verse 1-4, Al-QuranSurah Al-Baqarah Verse 143, Al-QuranHanapi, M. S. (2014). The Wasatiyyah (Moderation) Concept in Islamic Epistemology: A CaseStudy of its Implementation in Malaysia.International Journal of Humanities and SocialScience,4(9).
7(Al-Quran, Surah Al-Dhariyat: 56)O’Malley, K. (2019). Alan Turing: Why was the codebreaker convicted and pardoned for hissexuality?TheIndependent.https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/alan-turing-new-ps50-banknote-gay-codebreaker-mathematician-sexuality-pardon-a9005086.html(Al-Quran,Surah Al-Syu’ara 160-174)