Peace of Heart
\r\nAs far as Islam is concerned, Arab and Muslim majority societies are seriously lacking in spirituality. There is not a deficit of "religion" but of spiritual life. It can be encountered among Islamists, as well as among secularists and ordinary citizens. Religion refers to the framework, to the structure of ritual, to the rights and obligations of believers; as such, it lies at the heart of social and political debate. In the classical Islamic tradition, framework, reference, and practices can—like all religions and spiritual traditions—be best seen in the light of their relation to meaning (here, to the Divine), to a conception of life and death, to the life of the heart and mind. Contemporary Islamic discourse, however, has too often lost its substance—of meaning, of understanding ultimate goals and the state of the heart. Increasingly, it has been reduced to reactivity, preoccupied with the moral protection of the faithful, based on the reiteration of norms, rituals, and, above all, prohibitions. But spirituality is not faith without religion; it is the quest for meaning and peace of heart as the essence of religion. Viewed in this light, Muslim majority societies are profoundly bereft of serenity, coherence, and peace. The time has come for a spiritual and religious emancipation.
\r\nBetween the overbearing ritualism of official religious institutions and the obsessive politicization of Islamist leaders, the thirst for meaning, which finds its expression in cultural and religious references, seeks for ways to express itself. Mysticism sometimes provides the solution. But careful thought should be given to the real-life impact of such phenomena as they relate to the crisis of spirituality and therefore of religion. In every case, the teachings propounded do not encourage the autonomy, well-being, and confidence of human beings in their everyday individual and social lives. In their formalism and concentration upon norms, the traditional institutions that represent or teach Islam reproduce a double culture of prohibition and guilt. The religious reference is transformed into a mirror in which the believers must see and judge their own deficiencies. Such rhetoric can generate nothing more than unease. The Islamist approach, which seeks to free society from foreign influence, has in the long run brought forth a culture of reaction, differentiation, and frequently of judgment: Who is a Muslim, what is Islamic legitimacy? It sometimes casts itself as victim, even in the way it asserts itself against opposition. Social and political activism prevails over spiritual considerations; the struggle for power has sometimes eclipsed the quest for meaning.
\r\nBy way of response to this void, the majority of mystical movements and circles have called upon their initiates to direct their attention inward, toward themselves, their hearts, their worship, and their inner peace. Around them have arisen a culture of isolation, social and political passivity, and loss of responsibility, as though spirituality were somehow necessarily opposed to action. Still, a large number of Sufi circles do speak out on social and political issues, and actually encourage their followers to speak out and to become actively involved in society. Between the culture of prohibition and guilt and that of reaction and victimization, between abandonment of responsibility and isolationism, what options remain to the Muslim world to reconcile itself with its cultural, religious, and spiritual heritage? What must be done to propound a culture of well-being, autonomy, and responsibility?
\r\nThis is what it means to rediscover and reclaim the spirituality that permeates Eastern cultures and that lies at the heart of the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions, a consideration that today's social and political uprisings can ill afford to neglect. There can be no viable democracy, no pluralism in any society without the well-being of the individuals, the citizens, and the religious communities that comprise it—with or without God.
\r\nCompiled From:
\r\n "Islam and the Arab Awakening" -Tariq Ramadan, pp. 126-128