Some Remarks on the Islamic and the Secular Paradigms of Knowledge

Abstract

By the time secularist thought had succeeded, at an intellectual level, in challenging the authority of the Church, its roots had already taken firm hold in western soil. Later, when western political and economic systems began to prevail throughout the world, it was only natural that secularism, as the driving force behind these systems, should gain ascendency worldwide. In time, and with varying degrees of success, the paradigm of positivism gradually displaced traditional and religious modes of thinking, with the result that generations of third world thinkers grew up convinced that the only way to “progress” and reform their societies was the way of the secular West. Moreover, since the experience of the West was that it began to progress politically, economically, and intellectually only after the influence of the Church had been marginalized, people in the colonies believed that they would have to marginalize the influence of their particular religions in order to achieve a similar degree of progress. Under the terms of the new paradigm, turning to religion for solutions to contemporary issues is an absurdity, for religion is viewed as something from humanity’s formative years, from a “dark” age of superstition and myth whose time has now passed. As such, religion has no relevance to the present, and all attempts to revive it are doomed to failure and are a waste of time. Many have supposed that it is possible to accept the western model of a secular paradigm while maintaining religious practices and beliefs. They reason that such an acceptance has no negative impact upon their daily lives so long as it does not destroy their places of worship or curtail their right to religious freedom. Thus, there remains hardly a contemporary community that has not fallen under the sway of this paradigm. Moreover, it is this paradigm that has had the greatest influence on the way different peoples perceive life, the universe, and the role of humanity as well as providing them with an alternative set of beliefs (if needed) and suggesting answers to the ultimate questions ...