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Is Islam A Subjective Reality?
AoA
Is Islam a matter of personal subjective interpretation? I mean, is the way we understand Islam, a subjective reality? After considering some questions here and listening to Ghamidi Sahab, I’ve concluded that although even the belief in God’s existence is a deep and appealing reality, it is potentially an uncertain assumption, and not an absolute objective truth. Otherwise, the test of faith would lose its purpose. This leads to the question of how our perspectives and beliefs are shaped by our individual mindsets and the environment we grow up in. It seems that, even though the arguments of the Farahi school of thought may be convincing and strong for some, they may or may not resonate with a larger audience, including many other Muslims. So, is it accurate to say that these beliefs depend on personal preferences and interpretations rather than being objective realities?
What I mean is that we’ve seen that some actions are objectively wrong, like universal morality, such as murder or theft, which everyone agrees are wrong. But the existence of God, connecting it with prophethood, then bringing that lineage all the way to Muhammad (peace be upon him), and having faith that he is the final prophet, are these things not subjective? Because if they were as objective as universal morality or basic facts like 2+2=4, then a large group should accept them, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Excluding a few exceptions, only the next generations born into this belief continue to follow it…
Yes, I understand that the matter of messengers is different, that reality as religion claims it to be becomes an objective reality in their time, because they unveil that reality, their miracles and the law of the “Itmam-E-Hujjat” (completion of the proof) make it an objective reality for the people of their time. But for the generations after them, it becomes a subjective reality, right?
Because even if you give someone the Quran, it depends on whether it appeals to their intellect or not. So, subjectivity comes into play here, and there’s not even 80% accuracy in people accepting its message, in my opinion.
So, is my conclusion correct? That whoever holds whatever belief has the right to follow it, and it’s not wrong from their perspective. I’ll just focus on what’s right for me and share with others what seems more correct to me with the assumption that I could be wrong. So, does my thinking that “there’s a possibility I might not be right” mislead me? Because in other places, this is categorized as doubt in religion.
JazakAllah.
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5 Replies
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Is Islam A Subjective Reality?
updated 6 months, 1 week ago
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We do not live our lives based on absolute objective truths. How many absolute objective truths can you count? Given the data that we have, Islam is a religion that establishes itself beyond a reasonable doubt for anyone who is willing to read the message of God and contemplate upon it. It is not accurate to call it a subjective matter.
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The premise of religion is based on pillars of knowledge i.e. observation and experimentation, perpetual reporting and logical inference. This establishes the need to believe in one creator but that belief may still be reasonable (Zannay Ghalib) and not absolute because of certain limitations of human knowledge, which is also acceptable in the sight of God (Please see: Discussion 48007). However, it is Quran in the next step which makes this belief absolute for a Muslim. The reality of Islam is objective with all the tools available to achieve absolute level of assurance. Failure of an individual in fully exhausting those tools cannot be called subjectivity.
It is highly recommended to go through the video links (three-parts) provided in the response below:
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The reality of Islam is objective with all the tools available to achieve absolute level of assurance
I’ve heard that even Ghamidi sahib says that if someone from a different religion invites me to their faith, I should consider it, as I might have misunderstood my own religion. So, even Ghamidi sahib allows for doubt, meaning there’s a chance he could be wrong. If we assume we’ve conclusively proven something beyond doubt, there’s still a possibility of it being incorrect. In my view, after exhausting all arguments, understanding our faith is often a tentative conclusion, and not much more. When we say “objective” it is relative to the time we live in, the spectrum of knowledge we have and many other factors, so it might still change upside down in future as we’re open to all possibilities. What do you think?
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When I say that reality of Islam is objective, it means that all the tools required to achieve even absolute level of assurance can be presented in an objective way. This is an expression of a fact, not a subjective statement. For example, the preserved nature of Quran word by word, historical reality of Prophet Muhammad (sws) and his Itmam-e-Hujjat, the message of Quran itself, just to name a few. Reaching to absolute level of assurance or reasonable level of assurance is an individual endeavour of course but the objective reality of these tools cannot be denied as oppossed to lets say unreliability of other divine scriptures, just to name one.
We cannot call the concept of Earth Shape as a subjective reality because there are people who still believe in flat earth in a reasonable number. There are tools available which if each flat earther chooses to adopt, they can reach to the right concept regarding the shape of the Earth. No one calls it a subjective reality because a group of people choose not to fully exhaust all the tools or if they do, still they choose to not change their view.
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Please also refer to the videos provided in the following thread:
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