Islam and the Cultural Imperative

Abstract

This article addresses the fundamental need for Muslims to consciously establish and renew new, unique cultural identities. To lay down roots and survive, Islam must reflect the good in the world’s diverse races and ethnicities. Historically, Islamic jurists have upheld the Prophet’s legal precedent for respecting non-Arabs’ ethnic and cultural differences as long as they did not contravene his teaching. In this article, many of the different tools of Islamic law are highlighted, and the opportunities that they provide are emphasised, in an effort to show how cultures can be established and renewed. Due to those tools, Islam’s spread and triumphant past reflects this glorious global culture. Like a crystal clear river, Islam and sacred law are pure but colourless, until they reflect the Chinese, African, and other bedrock over which they flow.