Challenges against Religious Lifestyle Serious: Expert
An online session entitled “Challenges of Islamic Lifestyle in the Modern World” was held recently at the International Quran News Agency Headquarters (IQNA) in Tehran with participation of Iranian and foreign experts.
The session was held online with the cooperation of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization and Iran’s cultural center in Tunisia,
Ali Akbar Ziaei, head of academic cooperation at Islamic Culture and Relations Organization, Ayatollah Seyyed Manzar al-Hakim, a university and seminary school lecturer, and Badri al-Madani, expert on Islamic studies from Tunisia addressed the event.
The challenges ahead of religious life are serious and we as an Islamic society and Islamic families are facing new values, Ziaei said.
“We, as an Islamic society, can implement everything that we wish from jurisprudence in our families and religious lives but the thing that Western countries or the United Nations seek is that we should implement human rights and forget what the Sharia has set for us as rules.”
So scholars in the field of society are duty bound to highlight the role of Islam in enhancing human rights, added the researcher.
The most important challenge in today’s world is neglecting, forgetting, or intentionally omitting the most significant basis of an Islamic life i.e. the God Almighty, said Ayatollah Manzar al-Hakim.
Humankind is not just a talking animal. If they are animals, then they inherently have this tendency towards a god; the difference between the man and the animal is attention to god, he said.
Surahs such as Luqman, Al-Hujurat, An-Nisa, Al-Ma'idah, Al-Baqarah, and Al-Furqan discuss the Islamic lifestyle and especially, family life, added the scholar.
Pointing to the importance of family, Badri al-Madani said that marriage and establishing family leads to strengthening the society and cementing ties between groups and people
Muslim societies are currently suffering from social problems which has left them embarrassed in the face of scientific and economic progress of Western civilization, he said, adding that this is while the Western civilization is suffering from social imbalances and its progress is worth nothing.
This imbalance is the West arises from a defect in the value system which is the natural and logical result of implementing the Western beliefs, however, the problems of Islamic societies are caused by external factors; and basically are the results of being influenced by the West, he noted.
The Islamic society can confront these effects with cooperation and reduce their intensity so as to activate its own values and principles and call for adherence to Islam, said the researcher.
