This article is part of a series on the Islamic lifestyle. Islam is a religion that covers all aspects of life. It is a religion that has a plan for all periods of life and in all circumstances. RNA – To find the best kind of lifestyle, it is necessary to consider a model that considers all the cognitive and behavioural components of human beings in the best form and on the other hand, it should not be opposed to incontestable scientific findings and it should see the temporal world and the hereafter together, and it should not neglect any of the material and spiritual dimensions of mankind. It can be argued that this is the Islamic lifestyle.
Islam is a religion that covers all aspects of life. It is a religion that has a plan for all periods of life and in all circumstances. In such a way that in the first step, by presenting a special worldview and ideology, it forms the structure for the formation of the existence of religion and in the next stage, by presenting etiquette, it has special agendas for all aspects of human life.
In fact, it seeks to shape a particular type of the life of a human being. “The moral, legal and jurisprudential guidelines of religion are, in fact, intended to provide a model of a religious and God-pleasing life. The style of dress, food, grooming, family, neighbours, co-workers and co-religionists and those of other religions and inter-religious and inter-denominational interactions in religion are all about building a religious lifestyle.
Since Islam has provided instructions in all areas of human life, if one always considers these instructions in their life and they underpin all aspects of their life, they have acted per the Islamic lifestyle.
In defining the Islamic lifestyle, it should be said that this style, action and behaviour are in accordance with the divine and Islamic teachings. In such a way that the Islamic character is stable in the existence of the individual as a semantic system and is manifested in all aspects of the behaviour and actions of Muslims. The Islamic lifestyle, because it is a lifestyle which deals with behaviour and practices and has no direct relationship with cognition, knowledge and emotions, but because it is Islamic, it cannot be unrelated to emotions and cognitions.
In this method, the depth of one’s beliefs, emotions and attitudes are measured, and one’s behaviour alone is not evaluated. In other words, in lifestyle, from other points of view, attention is only paid to the behaviour and the thought and intention of behaviour is not examined, but the Islamic lifestyle cannot be indifferent to intentions, while its insistence on behaviour is based on people’s intentions, it also pays attention to emotions and knowledge which support behaviour.
In the Islamic lifestyle, behaviours can be compared to numerous beads of a misbahah (rosary) in which the Islamic lifestyle not only pays attention to the beads themselves but it also pays attention to what connects them together, namely, the thread of the rosary. Even behaviour, such as prayer, if it does not support belief in God and resurrection, is not considered Islamic behaviour, as many of the behaviours of ascetics and Sufis are not Islamic.
The Levels of the Islamic lifestyle
The Islamic lifestyle is a concept that can be examined at three levels, these levels are: insight, action and tendencies.
The first level: Insight. Insight means the same knowledge, knowledge, beliefs and intellectual foundations of the person that causes the emergence, behaviour and action in the person.
The second level: Action. Action also includes deeds, behaviours, and speech. In other words, whatever is in the realm of one’s activities is called action and is the result of one’s insight.
The third level: Tendencies. Man tends to do certain acts over time and abandons certain actions over time, and because his actions are the result of his insight, he tends to them in such a way that it is difficult for him to change those actions or it is impossible and causes him dissatisfaction.
Of these three levels, the most important and fundamental is the first stage, insight. In such a way that if we can create insight and belief in a person, he will unconsciously manifest that action and behaviour that results from his insight. That is why many verses in the Holy Quran try to change the wrong views and beliefs into the correct ones.
The Foundations of the Islamic lifestyle
Monotheism is the main foundation of the Islamic lifestyle, in which all other principles, including prophethood, imamate (leadership) and ma’ad (resurrection), have their meaning. When the monotheistic insight overshadows one’s personal life, all aspects of one’s life, from prayer and worship to gaining a livelihood and business, education, entertainment, socializing, health, food, architecture, the art of speaking, production, consumption, one’s outward appearance and beautification and the like, follow this path. It sets and gives all the details of its life a divine dimension.
That is why the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, says that monotheism is not only a philosophical and intellectual theory but also a lifestyle for human beings. God governs over your life and cuts off the hands of various powers. La ilaha ill-Allah [there is no deity but God], which is the main message of the Prophet Muhammad and all the prophets, means that the oppressive and evil powers must not interfere in the life, path and in choosing the lifestyle of the people. If monotheism is realized in the life of human society, the world of mankind will also develop and become prosperous and this world will be in the service of the true evolution and excellence of mankind.
Another foundation of the Islamic lifestyle is the belief in prophethood. It must be said that man cannot find a proper and healthy education without a guide and will go astray. The philosophy of the mission of the divine prophets has been to purify and teach wisdom and to train the people and imamate is in the continuation of this path. For this reason, prophets and their vicegerents have never been absent from human life.
Prophethood was completed with the Holy Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, and the most complete guiding programs in various aspects of life were revealed in Islam. The Prophet Muhammad became the “Seal of the Prophets” and his religion became the last and the seal of the divine religions. Therefore, the Prophet Muhammad is the manifestation of the divine teacher in the human world and he is the divine model of other teachers. Belief in prophethood takes a person out of the stalemates and confusion of life and shows them the way.
The next foundation that can be mentioned in this regard is the belief in imamate (leadership). Imamate is the banner of religion, imamate is both the root and the branch, imamate revives the tree of Islam, grows it and nourishes it. Imamate is very important, such that as it is higher than prayer, fasting, jihad, hajj and all the branches and sub-principles of Islam. It is in the shadow of the imamate that prayer and zakat are completed.
Therefore, in some narrations, it is stated that prayer is not acceptable in any way without imamate. A society that prays, but does not have an Imam, has no connection with imamate and does not move on the line of the Imam, its prayer, fasting, zakat, hajj and jihad are not complete and correct.
All human misery in personal, family, social, governmental, international and global affairs is due to the lack of a divine government and the lack of human guidance by these God-chosen individuals because human dignity and creation are such that individual and collective wisdom without the inspiration from revelatory sources does not deserve this guidance.
The foundation of belief in ma’ad (resurrection) is another foundation of the Islamic lifestyle. It must be said that “faith in resurrection and life after death is one of the issues that existed among all the heavenly religions and is one of their basic foundations.” All of the divine prophets, after theology and monotheism, have taught of the existence of the world after death and have called mankind to faith and attention to life after death.
The religion of Islam, which is the most complete of the heavenly religions, considers the basis of resurrection as one of the foundations of its worldview and considers faith in it as a condition for being a Muslim and one of the pillars of the religion of Islam. In other words, if a person does not believe in life after death and denies the basis of resurrection, he is outside the ranks of the Muslims and is outside the realm of Islam.
Rasa News Agency