Can you?

[al-muslimah]

this is a question i've been asked by my prof. the subject was about "islamic culture"..

Can we wipe out Culture through our lives??can we live without it?

what is your personal opinion?

 

[massi]

:salam2:
what's you mean about "islamic culture" because the word "culture" has many mean ....

 

[al-muslimah]

like what comes under culture is(religion,history,CIVILIZATION,ethics,language,human,politics,media)

 

[Khadi_M]

Assalamo aleikom Sister,
In my country people say:if you are born in this culture then religion goes always with the culture;if you reject the religion of your ancestors then you deny your culture.So people often think if you become Muslim you become also Arab and the treat you like outsider who has no right to be treated like on of them...strange uh?I am saying it from my own experience.What do you think?

 

[Ahmed ibn Ibrahim]

Asalaamu Alaikum,

You can't take the Islam out of the culture, but you can take the culture out of our Islam.

In my view, there is no such such as "Islamic culture". There is Islam. There is culture. They are two separate and distinct items, but sadly it seems much of the Ummah has mixed the two and fooled themselves into thinking that somehow what they're saying/doing/thinking is Sunnah - when it's not.

I was speaking with my wife after we went out for our separate Halikats last night, and she was telling me that the sisters said we are so fortunate to both be married to reverts; That this is the ideal situation. I asked her why, and she told me that they said it was because that reverts usually don't bring their own cultural bagage into their Islam; that the process of being born again and reverting cleanses us of our past way of life, striving in earnest to follow the Prophet's (PBUH) example.

Allah knows best.

Asalaamu Alaikum

 

[abu turaab]

Assalam-o-Alaikum!
Culture in my opinion is a combination of varoius practices that we do in routine to implement our idealogy(whatever it be) about the whole living in this world.
so the root is the idealogy about the life on the whole...which dictates or shapes much of the build-up of any culture.Now if this idealogy is based on the universal principles of humanity considering every human to be equal no matter it's balck or white,Arab or non-arab,poor or rich,young or old,man or woman.Principles that don't put any discimination among humans on gounds of hatred,partialism,racism,faschism etc.These principles can't be formed by humans bcz potentialy they possess all the ills mentioned above.
Thus it becomes inevitable for the Divine to intervene and show mercy on the mankind and to give the man a perfect idealogy concerning everything about his life which HE used to do throughout the mans history giving guidences(in forms of books also) through the selected personalities chosen among humans..as we know them Messengers of God.As the humans were not spread throughout the globe as they used to live in descrete areas only.like Palestine,Syria,Iraq etc.and also there communication and interaction were not as much advanced as it's now.so more the population grows consequently the interaction and problems grow bigger and larger.ALLAH(S.W.T) knew all of this before so he descended a complete ideology.a complete way of life till the last day of this world.how it could be a complete and perfect guidence till eternity...bcz ALLAH has said that no messenger's now going to emerge in any part of the world after my last mesenger MUHAMMAD(S.A.W.).
so with all this in view along with the fact that idealogy shapes the culture...now if every muslim living anywhere in this world..from Japan to America,From Australia to Canada,from Indonesia to Turkey, either he is in middle east or in EU...if the muslims follow with sincerity and refined intentions this perfect and complete way of life then ALLAH would supress the superfial factor of the cultures and civilizations
this superficial factor comes from apparent features of a persons life style.like a typical way of talking,wearing,eating,meeting,greeting.expressing emotions etc...all these vary from place to place,continent to continent.so if we have enough Taqwa and not only fear of ALLAH (coz later is a part of the first) we would surely respect each other even with these differences which most of the times seem very big differences just bcz of our lack of understanding and impatience and bcz of our habbit to cling to a decision before observing all aspects of an issue precisely.
So culture is a mere tool to implement the idealogy and it is bound to be shaped by the idealogy.stronger the idealogy more the culture becomes useful otherwise vice versa.

abu turaab.
(i'm sorry if you find my way of expressing to be imature).

 

[Munaqaba23]

You can't take the Islam out of the culture, but you can take the culture out of our Islam.

Thank you brother, you said it exactly right.

Obviously the Finnish culture where I was born and raised, affects my life every day. But, if there is something in my culture, which doesn't belong to Islam, I don't follow that way.
For example the way women dress in Finland. It is against Islam, so I don't do that.
Another example, the Finnish culture teaches us to have a respect of time; especially the time of other people. And this is of course what Islam teaches too, so I try to follow it.

 

[aaminah]

We have freewill, we can chose to live without Islam, but would you? Astaghfirullah! Now that I've found the truth which is ISLAM, (I'm revert Alhamdulillah), it will be very scary living without it.

 

[user expired!]

asalamualaykum,
Aslong as culture doesnt contradict Islam then it is Permissible and in the it is known as Urf in Arabif language.

One Incident if i remember clearly of culture in Islam was when the Prophet SAW didnt want to eat the Lizard but Khalid did I heard one Shaykh say cos it wasnt the culture of the Prophets tribe but i will need to look into that.

I know Imam Malik had sum strong opinions about culture! It will be gud if people wanted to know the stance of Islam on culture by looking into the works of Imam Malik on culture.

 

[aaminah]

ans so i agree with all of you, we can live without culture but not Islam.

 

[massi]

yes because islam is not culture wich will change for time to another
Islam is religion not culture any contry has his culture but the religion is the same.

 

[al-muslimah]

the points that i listed under culture which was in post #3("RELIGION",history,Civiliziation,ethics,language,human,politics,media-traditions also,i forgot that point) so "religion" is not in the right place.culture doesnt contain religion.
although that culture leads to religion (like when the arab culture came first then islam came and corrected it)..am i right? actually i agreed with all your opinions.
another thing i just thought of ,if we wiped out culture how are we going to be able to speak our own langauge??coz "language" is under culture..and their also will be no civiliziation to our social life. so what do you think..i know its kinda confusing bcoz sometines you think that culture is imp and at the same time you think it doesnt.

 

[Khadi_M]

Yes,your question is kind of confusing but on the other hand it is really interesting

 

[huda2]

:salam2:


:mashallah: very interesting thread. I agree with all of u. Islam and culture has nothing to do with each other. Every family has their own culture even the way yr parents raised u or what they taugh u was their own culture coz its different than the way yr next door neighbor raising their kids. But some times people mixed culture and religion so thats when the problem occurs.

In my opinion culture is ok as long as its not put above islam and doesnt contradict it (Islam) any way shape or form. Islam is a complete way of life, but there is a room at accomodate any good of the different muslims around the globe. Culture has little part of our life but Islam is complete way of our lives.

 

[amir_al_shahid]

salam aleykum
islam and culture must not be mixed this is whats the bad with the force weddings honur killings and so this is not from islam only culture.

Some coltures even goes against islam

 

[Ahmed ibn Ibrahim]

WaAlaikum Salaam,

I think you might benefit from understanding what the actual meaning, the precise definition of the word culture:

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
cul·ture / Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[kuhl-cher] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation noun, verb, -tured, -tur·ing.
–noun 1. the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc.
2. that which is excellent in the arts, manners, etc.
3. a particular form or stage of civilization, as that of a certain nation or period: Greek culture.
4. development or improvement of the mind by education or training.
5. the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group: the youth culture; the drug culture.
6. Anthropology. the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another.
7. Biology. a. the cultivation of microorganisms, as bacteria, or of tissues, for scientific study, medicinal use, etc.
b. the product or growth resulting from such cultivation.

8. the act or practice of cultivating the soil; tillage.
9. the raising of plants or animals, esp. with a view to their improvement.
10. the product or growth resulting from such cultivation.
–verb (used with object) 11. to subject to culture; cultivate.
12. Biology. a. to grow (microorganisms, tissues, etc.) in or on a controlled or defined medium.
b. to introduce (living material) into a culture medium.



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[Origin: 1400–50; late ME: tilling, place tilled (< AF) < L cultūra. See cult, -ure]


—Synonyms 4. See education.

Look carefully at what constitutes as "culture" from the technical perspective, and you will see more clearly why I say that culture has nothing to do with Islam, but Islam can have everything to do with "your culture". Really though, Islam goes above and beyond all definitions of the word culture and in the context of today's Ummah, "Islamic culture" is more-often than not a diseased and distorted misunderstanding.

Asalaamu Alaikum

 

[vironchopin]

I think Al-Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun would explain the role of culture. Wallahu alam