IndexIntroductionIslam and the Western WorldConclusionIntroductionIt is in the nature of things nowadays that we need to discuss the challenges presented to Islam by the West and, indeed, by modern civilization in general . We must begin by using the sword of discrimination and launching ourselves into a sort of "intellectual iconoclasm". Nowadays the modern world prides itself on having developed the critical mind and the power of objective criticism, while in reality it is, in a fundamental sense, the least critical of all known civilizations because it does not possess the objective criteria for judging and criticizing their own civilization. acts. It is an institution that fails at any kind of fundamental reform because it cannot begin by reforming itself. Also there is an old saying that the devil hates sharp edges and points. This saying has a certain relevance that applies directly to the current situation. The devil manifests his influence by attenuating all sharp edges and points accessible to him, so that clear distinctions disappear. The boundaries of clearly defined doctrines undergo a corrosive process, and their sharpness of definition gradually diminishes. Good and evil intermingle, and even rites and doctrines, which are God's most precious gift to man, become unclear and indefinite as a result of this corrosive influence. So this article discusses the relationship between Islam and the Western world and the challenges it presents. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Islam and the Western World Discussing the modern world's challenges to Islam requires a rigorous application of intellectual discernment based solely on the Shahadah, the first letter of which, if written in Arabic, is in fact shaped like a sword. This sword must be used to break the false idols of the new age of ignorance or Jahiliya. It must always be remembered that in the current situation any form of criticism of the modern world based on metaphysical and religious principles is a form of charity and in accordance with the most central virtues of Islam. Furthermore, Muslims should never forget that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) not only possessed adab in its most perfect form, but also stated the truth in the most frank and direct manner. There were periods in the life of the Prophet (PBUH) when he was extremely categorical and never sacrificed the sake of the truth of adab. What is missing in the Islamic world today is a thorough examination and careful criticism of everything that is happening in the Islamic world. modern world. Without such criticism, nothing serious can ever be done in confrontation with the West. All statements of modernized Muslims begin with the statement “The way to harmonize Islam” and end with what follows the “e”, they are destined to end in catastrophe unless what follows is another divinity revealed and inspired worldviews. Furthermore, attempts to harmonize Islam and Western socialism or anything else of the sort have failed from the start because they begin without exposing the system in question to thorough criticism in light of Islamic principles, and also because they regard Islam as a partial vision of things to be integrated with some form of modern ideology rather than with a complete system and perspective in itself, whose very existence excludes the possibility of it becoming a mere adjective to modify some other noun taken almost unconsciously as central in place of Islam. The rapid changes in current fashions, which Islamic socialism has popularized today and liberalism or some other Westernism the next, are proof of the absurdity and superficiality of such an approach.A person who truly understands the structure of Islam in its entirety knows that Islam can never afford to be reduced to the status of a mere modifier, or contingency a system of thought that remains independent of it. The defensive and apologetic attitude adopted by many modern Muslims towards the various fashionable ways of thinking that come from the West almost with the rapidity of seasonal changes is closely linked to their lack of critical sense and spirit of discernment. Mostly obvious inadequacies and what is easy to criticize are criticized, but only a few have enough courage to stand up and criticize the fundamental errors of our time. Nowadays there are only a few people in the Islamic world who can challenge the West and criticize it and, with the sword of intellect and spirit, answer the root of the challenge with which the West faces Islam. Today in the Islamic world there are essentially two main classes of people interested in philosophical, religious and intellectual questions, the Ulma and the modernists. Only recently has a third group begun to emerge, namely a group which, like the Ulma, is traditional, but which also knows the modern world. But the number of this third group is still very inadequate. As for the ulma and other spiritual authorities, they usually do not possess deep knowledge of the modern world, its difficulties and complexities. Regardless, they are the supporters of the Islamic tradition and its protectors, without them the very existence of the tradition would be threatened. The Ulma are criticized by modernists because they do not know Western science and philosophy or the workings of the modern economy. But the criticism, which is again of the superficial kind so easily leveled by modernists, is for the most part misplaced. Those who held political and financial power in the Islamic world during the last century rarely allowed the madrasas to develop in a direction that would allow them to give the ulema class the opportunity to gain a better understanding of the modern world without being corrupted by it. . In the few places where attempts were made to modify the madrasa curriculum, the hidden intention was more often to make inroads with the traditional educational system by deforming it beyond all hope of redemption, rather than to extend its program in any real sense to embrace courses that would acquaint students with the modern world seen in the light of Islamic teachings. Furthermore, few attempts have been made to create institutions that bridge the gap between traditional madrasas and modern educational institutions. Furthermore, in the second of our three classes, we have the product of Western universities or universities in the Islamic world more or less similar to Western ones. Now universities in the Islamic world find themselves in a state of identity crisis, because an educational system is organically linked to the culture in whose atmosphere it functions. For example, you can have a train arrive at the terminal of any country in Asia or Europe, no matter where it is, it will always be identified as part of its country of origin. The same cannot be said of an educational system because an educational system cannot simply be imported, and the fact that modern universities are facing a calamity in the Islamic world of a different nature from that found in the West is in itself proof of this statement. . Crises could not fail to exist, because the original Islamic culture is still alive. Furthermore, this crisis deeply affects those who study in these universities and who are usually called “the intelligentsia”. This expression, like the term intellectual, is one of the most unfortunate as those to whomis applied are often the furthest from the domain of the intellect in its true sense. But by whatever name they are called, most members of this class, who are products of Western-oriented universities, have mostly one characteristic in common, namely, a sympathy for all things Western and a sense of alienation from things Islamic. This inferiority complex is opposed to the Western one among many modernized Muslims, the complex is, furthermore, shared by modernized Buddhists, Hindus and other Orientals: how they are affected by the psychosis of modern forms of idolatry is the greatest challenge that Islam faces. world, and afflicts the very group that would be expected to face the challenge of the West. Islam's encounter with the West cannot therefore be discussed without taking into account the type of mentality that is often the product of modern university education and which, in the last century, has produced most of the apologetic Islamic writings that seek to deal with issues of the encounter between Islam and the West. This kind of modernized and remorseful approach has sought to respond to the West's challenge by bending over backwards in a servile attitude to show in one way or another that this or that element of Islam is precisely what it is fashionable today in the West, while other elements, for which it has not been possible to find a Western equivalence even by the greatest stretch of imagination, have simply been set aside as later unimportant or even extraneous “accretions”. Limitless arguments have been presented in support of the hygienic nature of Islamic rites and the “egalitarian” character of the message of Islam, not because such things are true when viewed in the broader context of the overall Islamic message, but because hygiene and Egalitarianism are the basic ideas currently accepted in the West or at least they were before the “hippy” movement. By claiming these two obvious and easily defensible characteristics, apologetics have sidestepped the entire challenge of the West, which threatens the heart of Islam and which no attempt to appease the enemy can avert. "When surgery is necessary, you need to have a knife with which to remove the infected area." Furthermore, when error threatens religious truth, nothing can replace the sword of criticism and discernment. It is not possible to eliminate the negative effect of the mistake by making peace with it and pretending to be friends with it. The remorseful attitude is even more pathetic when dealing with philosophical and intellectual matters. When people read some of the articles in this category of apologetic literature, which came mostly from Egypt and the subcontinent at the beginning of this era and which tried to emulate all the very stale and defunct debates that were going on between theology and science in England Victorian era and France of the same period, the weakness of such works, which should have responded to the challenge of the West, becomes more evident, and even more so against the backdrop of the decades that have passed. Force, the strong voice of the traditional authorities was then heard, who, based on the immutable principles of Islamic revaluation, try to respond to these challenges on a religious level, even if they were not aware of the more abstruse realities and hidden philosophical and scientific ideas that were involved. But this type of voice progressively diminished, without of course completely ceasing to exist, while the other, that of the modernists, became increasingly audible and invasive. This phenomenon has led today to the rather strange situation in which, among educated people, practically the most ardent defenders of Western civilization in the world are Western Easterners. Also, for Muslims..