Mehmet Özay 06.01.2019
The impact of Islam on the life practices of the Muslim individual and society is a structuring in the direction of direction. To put it in another context, it means reclaiming the original, that is, the purpose of human creation, and making oneself exist in an individual and social structure in accordance with one's nature.
This approach refers to the fact that the Muslim individual and society is in a kind of constant change, which results from the construction of the characteristics of what it means to be human. This change, which in some contexts can also be called renewal, is not linked to a centrifugal character, but to a situation in which an understanding in constant interaction with the center prevails and this keeps the Muslim individual in a state of constant dynamism.
When this happens, when a person falls into error, his rising up and rising up, that is, turning away from his mistakes, turning towards the truth and being in the direction of direction, manifests as a renewal and a resurrection in his contact with his Creator.
This approach, although not ideal, is a valid and meaningful process for every Muslim person who lives within what is called the Islamic society. While this process is valid for the Muslim individual within the Islamic society, the rationale for his/her existence in this process is his/her connection and affiliation with the religious-social structure to which he/she is attached.
This commitment is not only voluntary in itself, but also carries with it a kind of obligation as a requirement of sociality. The roles and functions assumed by both the individual and the social structure in which he or she is embedded within the evolving living conditions, the duties and tasks he or she is expected to fulfill, and his or her place within the structural elements that will make life meaningful all correspond to a chain of regularities.
In a sense, this is linked to the fact that the construction of a continuous structure, whose subject is the Muslim individual, is intrinsic and obligatory. In order to prevent ruptures in this structure, which can also be called a chain of regularities, the emergence of processes called renewal and regeneration over time is also related to the situation in which the Muslim society finds itself.
It is evident that the explanation so far points to a ground in which processes of renewal in an Islamic society are put forward without being subjected to the compulsion of any external context and without the need for the processes required by such an external compulsion.
However, we are in a process of deep ruptures in human-sacred, human-human and human-nature relations caused by the developments centered in Western Europe, which are called modern and which, with some differences and changes, have brought about the period we are currently living in. It is evident from historical data that this situation is not limited to the European societies concerned, but has gradually spread to different societies and civilizations, including some Muslim societies, through developments that can be called deliberate and accidental from time to time.
While scientific developments, discoveries, revolutions, etc. took place within these processes, the influence of the so-called colonialism on different geographies and societies was observed. Contrary to popular belief, this direct and/or indirect influence has been on the agenda of Muslim societies not only in the second half of the nineteenth century and onwards, but also from much earlier periods.
The incompatibility of the dominant religious structure in the West with the existing social systems into which it was born, and its eventual transformation, disintegration and rupture, emerged as a product and necessity of its own internal dynamics.
On the other hand, while the gradual creation of a similar effect on Muslim societies through colonialism was brought to the agenda with a deliberate force and/or the gradualism brought about by being open to interaction, the effects of a similar phenomenon of change that was encouraged and encouraged in Muslim societies have continued to be in effect until today. The intentionality of this effect corresponds to a process that I call colonial morality, which stems from the fact that colonial structures themselves dominate the environment. The impact of the colonial ethos on the other, that is, the Muslim individual and society, is notable in that it prompted this individual and society to transform religion, which is the fulcrum of its existence.
This process now provides a legitimacy for itself within the Islamic society, leading to differences in understanding and interpreting the above-mentioned state of being in the direction of the Islamic society. Looking at the relatively long historical period that has passed, it can be argued that there has been a complete dilemma in Islamic societies, although it cannot be said that there has been a destruction.
Open Civilization, Year 3, Issue 19, November, 2019. (Ibn Haldun University Publication)
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