What is Islamic?
admin on 05 23, 2009
How exactly do we define something as “Islamic”? We see this all the time on the mass media, but do we know exactly what it means?
Is there such a thing called “Islamic” economics, “Islamic” culture? How about “Islamic” Science? Am I seating on an “Islamic” chair? And is the dinner that I”ll be having an “Islamic” meal? How about “Islamic” clothes, “Islamic” television? Even worse, “Islamic” terrorism?
If we are to define something as “Islamic” by the simplistic comparison of an “Islamic” past, then we can also explore the possibility of things that are not considered as “Islamic” before to be “Islamized” by improvising features that would make it “compatible” with the “Islamic” past.
I was amused when I was reading an “Islamic” magazine one day. There was this advertisement promoting “Islamic” slippers, because the design of this “Islamic” slippers bears a claimed resemblance to that of slippers won by the Prophet S.A.W.
So do we define this pair of slippers as “Islamic”?
How about the so-called “Islamic banking”? Does no riba’ means that the financial transactions are “Islamic”?
Picture this. Ali wants to purchase a house. He is presented with 2 choices; he can take a housing loan from the conventional bank, or he can do so from one that is “Islamic”. The house costs 100k. If Ali takes a loan from a conventional bank, he will have to pay the principle amount plus the interest imposed on him which would then raise the final cost of the house to 200k. Alternatively, Ali can take the loan from an “Islamic” bank, which he assumes would give him “barakah” apart from being riba’-free. To avoid riba’, the bank purchases the property he desires on his behalf, and he would be required to pay back his interest-free debt to the bank.
The price? 200k.
Which means that if Ali chose to take a loan from the conventional bank and is able to pay his debts off faster than expected, he would be able to reduce the final cost to a price that is less than 200k. In other words, Ali would not be as financially-burdened if he had taken a loan with the conventional bank. Who knows he may be able to pay back his loans faster than he would expect it to be and reduce the final cost of the house?
Reflecting on this case, would this “Islamic” bank be considered “Islamic”, despite being riba’ free?
So what exactly is “Islamic”?
Food for thought, which may assist us in answering this question:
Islamization is the liberation of man first from magical, mythological, animistic, national-cultural tradition opposed to Islam, and then from secular control over his reason and his language – Syed Naquib Al-Attas
