The Postmodern Religion of Abraham
In the Postmodern era, the rise of Atheism, Liberalism and Secularism is eroding our belief in God. According to the Qur’an, all we have to do to prevent this from happening is to “follow the Creeds of Abraham” (Qur’an 2:135, 3:95, 4:125, 6:161) and the worldview teachings of Tawhid (unity and universality), (Qur’an 2:27, 13:21).
Like Abraham, all Prophets of God were given exactly the same knowledge of the Divine System (Qur’an 42:13, 41:4). They believed in God as the Creator, Sustainer, Protector, etc, of our universe, free of all dogmas and doctrines of Religion, and followed the secular and scientific path of the creation, without being Godless (Qur’an 6:74-79, 45:2-11, 6:38, 2:258).
In view of this “restrictive definition” of secular and religion in the Postmodern Religion of Abraham, we are told in the Qur’an (13:21, 2:27, and 23:52-53) to use the worldview teachings of Tawhid (unity and universality) to establish Universal and Eternal Truth and Reality in all Human Speech and Knowledge.
These teachings include the Unity of God; Unity in the teachings of all the Books and Prophets of God; Unity between the Word of God and the Work of God in Nature and the wider Universe; Unity between the Word of God and the sayings and doings of the Prophets; Unity between the world of God and the world of Caesar; and so on.
The Bible and Qur’an use these teachings of the Abrahamic Faiths to eliminate the dichotomy of the secular and religion to establish one Standard way of life (AdDeeni Haneefan) for all humans, both secular and religious. Likewise, they use the said teachings of Tawhid (unity and universality) to establish one spiritual Brotherhood and Sisterhood of Mankind in the midst of their diverse God-given sights, sounds (Qur’an 49:13), holy rites, ceremonies (Qur’an 22:34, 22:67), “house of God” (Qur’an 22:40, 72:18), Books and Prophets.
And in the same way, they use the teachings of Tawhid (unity and universality) to intersect all true knowledge of science, religion, culture, politics, etc, to solve all the problems of religion, secularism, ethnicity, nationalism, conservatism, liberalism and human rights we face today.
The greater threat to the teachings of Tawhid (unity and universality) is not Atheism and Secularism. It is the division of the Secular and Religion in Religion. Among many things, it makes one’s salaat a “prayer”, not a “pledge”; the ulama “religious teachers”, not “reason and science teachers”, and so on.
The other great threat to the teachings of Tawhid (unity and universality) is the use of Hadith, Talmud and the dogmas and doctrines of the Christian Church. They divide Believers into religious sects, madhabs, silsilas and khanqahs.
Likewise, they obscure many other teachings of Tawhid (unity and universality) in the Bible and the Qur’an. For example, in Postmodern Religion there is no universal sight, sound, holy rites, ceremonies, etc. Therefore, it is wrong to believe that it is Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (s) to keep a beard or that it is an injunction of the Qur’an for a Muslim woman to don the headscarf, hijab, niqab, etc.
Therefore, in the Postmodern Religion of Abraham, there is enough room to integrate and assimilate with all the God-given sights, sounds, holy rites, ceremonies, houses of God, Books and Prophets. Then where is the problem?
