Re: Complete Way of Life
Critic :-
One of the most common claims Muslims make about Islam is that it is a complete way of life. This can be disproved.
Assumption 1: If a way of life is complete, then it is divinely inspired.
Comment:-
This is a misunderstanding base on the fact that the critic does not understand religious language. Complete here means perfected. It implies that Islam is a conscious, objective, comprehensive self-consistent way of life.
If a way of life is completely self-consistent so that all elements of it fit together harmoniously without contradictions and conflicts, then it is good way of life. Goodness is an attribute of God. Such a self-consistent way of life can only be constructed by consciousness (Con=together, sciousness=awareness) which is a charactristic of the Spirit. The Spirit of God is in man.
In short Islam is a way of life inspired into those who surrender to God.
Critic:-
This assumption holds that being a complete way of life is a sufficient condition for something to be divinely inspired. Consider the following arguments demonstrating that this assumption is fallacious.
Argument 1: Schizophrenics can have a comprehensive delusional web of beliefs and practices (a way of life), but surely no one would want to claim that a schizophrenic way of life is divinely-inspired. Comprehensiveness or completeness is not synonymous with being divinely-inspired.
Being a complete way of life is not a sufficient condition for being divinely-inspired.
Comment:-
This argument is based on several false assumptions. The most serious one is that schizophrenia is a normal condition which allows a person to adapt to the world. In fact it is a disease which includes hallucinations and delusions. The individual who has this disease could not live in the world unless he was supported by others and had some perception of the real world. Ideas and percepts based on this will conflict with his hallucinations and delusions and cause suffering.
Critic :-
Argument 2: One could out of sheer academic interest look at every aspect of life covered by Islam. Then one could develop alternative forms for each aspect and thereby have a theoretically complete way of life (assuming that Islam is indeed a complete way of life). However, the alternative way of life, although complete, would obviously be a humanly-inspired way of life.
Again, being a complete way of life is not a sufficient condition for being divinely-inspired.
Comment:-
You can simplify this argument even more if you use the word "complete" in the non-conscious and non-objective sense. Certainly all animals and all human beings in all cultures and throughout history have a complete way of life.
If you substitute each aspect of Islam with another one then you would loose self-consistency and objectivity.
Critic:-
Assumption 2: The very concept of divine inspiration includes the concept of being a complete way of life. This assumption holds that the concept of divine inspiration logically entails, or analytically includes, the concept of being a complete way of life. Consider the following argument against this assumption.
Comment:-
The mistake here in supposing that intelligence or reason are the same thing as formal analytical logic. No. Intelligence and reason are much wider concepts and must include the capacity for insight. It also includes the ability to interact with reality in a manner benefiial to oneself. This requires more than intellect. It requires experience through sensation and feeling and consciousness. It requires correct thinking, motivation and action. We are dealing here ith life not just thought and ideas.
Critic:-
Argument 3: If "complete" means "having all the necessary components to function," then one could quite justifiably claim that their car is complete but it is certainly not divinely inspired-despite what auto manufacturers may claim. Only if one really means by complete way of life that it is a perfect way of life (whatever that may mean) would the possibility of divine inspiration arise since one might argue that a perfect entity could arise only from the divine.
Comment:-
A car is not a way of life. But it may be perfect for the function it is designed to perform. This refers to its relationship with other things - the people who use it, the environment in which it operates.
Human beings may be said to be perfect or the function they are designed for in the same way. But they have a degree of autonomy and self-determination.
Critic:-
I encourage Muslims to develop this approach since it might prove more profitable for them than trying to squeeze the mark of divine inspiration out of completeness. The point here, however, is that it is clear that completeness does not logically entail or include divine inspiration by definition.
Comment:-
Muslims are required to obey Allah who is more intelligent and knowledgeable.
I discourage muslims from this kind of inappropriate thinking. Use intellect, feeling, action and consciousness in places where they are most appropriate. It is foolishness to use logical sophistry when appreciation of music poetry or nature is required; or in human interaction when friendship, love, charity and sympathy are more appropriate. When your ship begins to sink it is action that is required and not philosophical arguments. When diseased you must take the medicine. When skills are lacking then training and discipline are required. But action and feeling are not appropriate when intellectual problems need to be solved.
Critic:-
Assumption 3: If a way of life is not complete, then it is not divinely inspired.
This assumption holds that being a complete way of life is not a sufficient condition, but it is a necessary condition, for it to be divinely-inspired. Consider the following argument demonstrating how this assumption too is fallacious.
Comment:-
Here again an assumption is made as what complete means. It is not the meaning understood in Islam.
Critic:-
Argument 4: Assumption 3 holds that the qualities of the divine must be in whatever the divine creates. It holds that since the divine is complete, the way of life established by the divine must be complete. This is absurd! Everything created by the divine is contingent, i.e. dependent and incomplete.
Comment:-
This is an absurd argument.
If everything created by Allah is for a purpose and it serves that purpose then it is complete for that purpose. The fact that all things are dependant on certain external conditions is already taken into consideration - the conditions required for the functioning of the entity have been provided and so have the abilities of the entity to relate with those conditions.
Critic:-
Assuming Allah established Islam as a way of life, then that way of life would of necessity be incomplete. Only the way of life of Allah (as lived or experienced by Allah) would be complete in a divine sense-having the mark of divinity. Surely Muslims wouldn't assert that life in the Islamic state mirrors Allah's life in heaven. This would have shirk be a condition for Tawhid-interesting indeed!
Comment:-
Muslims do not assert that any State on earth is an Islamic State. But if one were to be established then it would be what Jesus also looked forward to namely "The Kingdom of God on earth". It would be a Theocentric State, one in which true Surrender (Islam) was practiced by all.
Critic:-
The bottom line is that completeness is not synonymous with divine inspiration! If Islam is a complete way of life, there is no proof that God had anything to do with it at all!
Comment:-
The bottom line is that if the complete (which means perfected as well as wholly comprehensive and self-consistent) way of life is established on earth it would be because God, the source of perfection, commanded and inspired it.
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