And we have created the world in truth, so that every soul shall earn its
just recompense and that it not be oppressed. (Al-Qur'an)
Throughout history the love for power, material wealth, dynastic rule and
hypocrisy has been justified in the name of religion. And all along the element
which exhorted people towards awareness, freedom and rebellion against these
inhuman systems was also religion. (Ali Shariati)
Progressive Islam is that understanding of Islam and its sources which comes
from and is shaped within a commitment to transform society from an unjust one
where people are mere objects of exploitation by governments, socio-economic
institutions and unequal relationships to a just one where they are the subjects
of history, the shapers of their own destiny in the full awareness that all of
humankind is in a state of returning to God and that the universe was created as
a sign of God's presence.
Progressive Islam affirms:
1. God as the Centre
The Transcendent, Allah, is the eternally Akbar (greater than). While
we acknowledge that the entire creation is a reflection of God's presence and
nature we also believe that God is beyond whatever is ascribed to God, beyond
that community which unavoidably is imprisoned by the confines of language,
class, gender and culture.
2. People as the Family of God
2.1 Each human being is a carrier of the spirit of God.
2.2 Compassion is an essential element in Allah's dealings with us and is
reflective of God's will for humankind.
2.3 While all of us are the family of God, progressive Muslims assert a
preferential option for what the Qur'an describes as "the mustad'afun
fi'l-ard" i.e., those individuals and groups who, for no wilful reason of
their own, find themselves socially and economically pushed to the edges of
society in live in conditions of social, political and economic oppression.
2.4 We, progressive Muslims, affirm the value of diverse religious traditions
and spiritual paths as ways of reaching the Transcendent and seek to make common
cause with progressive tendencies within these traditions to work for a world
wherein it is safe to be human.
2.5 The above notion of humankind and the preferential option of the
marginalized commits us to finding an expression of Islam which places
socio-economic, gender and environmental justice as its core.
2.6 While all of us have universal human rights elaborated – however
inadequately - in international instruments such as the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights and the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women, each one of us also have responsibilities. These include our duties
towards those individuals and communities who support and sustain us, and
through whom we become persons, as well as to the earth, our only home and to
all other living creatures that share this home with us.
3. Praxis1 as a Way to truth
3.1 We believe that Progressive Islam is an intrinsic part of our broader
Islamic tradition, a part that is often subsumed by other tendencies which are
alien to the spirit of early Islam. This broader tradition requires ongoing and
critical re-thinking in the face of new insights into human nature, economic
relationship and social structures in order that its progressive impulses can
acquire a sharper focus rooted in Islam. Furthermore, we believe that we will
find an ever-deepening appreciation of Islam and experience the presence of
Allah in a combination of the following:
* Engaging and challenging all that which dehumanizes people, the family of
God and reduce them to commodities and mere objects
* Careful Qur'anic reflection on that engagement and
* A commitment to spiritual practice for our own sustenance and the glory of
God.
* Abstaining from all those practices which harms our spiritual lives and
inflict wanton hurt on other sentient beings and threaten the future of the
earth.
In other words, our struggle to experience a personally and socially
meaningful Islam is rooted in praxis geared towards creating a more humane
society as part of a sustainable eco-system in the service of the
Transcendent.
3.2 We appreciate that as people committed to transforming our societies and
communities, that we need to take understand where they are in terms of
consciousness and awareness. This means that we shall at all times endeavour to
engage our communities with wisdom and in the ways that are the most suitable
without using this as an excuse for us to remain trapped in fossilized ways of
thinking and acting.
Progressive Islam opposes:
* The projection of an inevitable of Pax Americana and the unfettered
march of globalization in the service of the market. While globalization has the
potential to be harnessed for universal solidarity among the mustad'afun
fi'l-ard, its use as the cornerstone of neo-colonialism and economic
exploitation must be opposed to as part of the vision of a world socio-economic
equality and justice
* The relentless promotion of corporate culture and consumerism which results
in the exploitation of our natural environment, deforestation, the destruction
of local communities and the eco-system and cruelty to animals.
* Racism, sexism, homophobia and all other forms of socio-economic injustices
both within and outside of Muslim societies and communities. These injustices
detracts from the sacredness of all humankind imbued when Allah blew of his own
spirit into the first created person.
* Intolerance and fascist tendencies which insist on and seeks to enforce a
single and absolute appreciation of truth in all religious and cultural
communities including Islam. While we have a special affinity with a particular
expression of Islam which we identify as progressive, we acknowledge that others
may have their own understanding of the Islamic tradition which differs from
ours.
(1) Praxis has been defined as "the action and reflection of people upon
their world in order to transform it" (Friere, 1972) and "the act of
reflectively constructing or reconstructing the social world" (Grundy, 1987).
Arendt (1958) described praxis as being reflective of a relationship between
individuals and their wider community.
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