Cultural Patterns and the Perception of Change in Islam. A Religious Model for Reality: the Islamic Worldview

Abstract

Cultural diversity in Islam contradicts the political notion of Islam as a monolithic unity and of Muslims as one umma. This notion can be found equally-albeit for different motives and with varying degrees of emphasis-in both Islamophobic writings and in the fundamentalist apologia of the Islamists. In contrast, I maintain: Islamic symbols are contingent upon both time and place, and the form they take varies accordingly. Social behaviour also changes, both directed by these symbols and at the same time affecting them. Nevertheless, we can also speak of an Islamic scriptural canon binding for all Muslims but slightly modified through this real and manifest diversity. In this sense, the diversity is connected to varying perceptions of the canon contingent upon time and place. While acknowledging the cultural diversity in Islam I maintain that there is a specific Islamic view of the world shared by all Muslims. Consistent with my line of argument in Chapter 1, I construe an Islamic canon as a pure system of symbols offering a model for reality. Actual existing symbols were derived from this pure symbolic system, becoming suffused with prevailing reality. It is thus entirely within the scope of question as formulated in this study to outline the ideal model for reality, that is, the pure symbolic system of Islam. The related Islamic worldview 1 is abstracted from Islamic religious diversity (for example, the formation of sects and religious schools) and ignores consideration of the cultural differentiation, 2 that is, the adaptation of Arab Islam to non-Arab cultures, or inter-Arab cultural variations. This is due to the fact, that I, at this level of analysis am more concerned with the model for reality of the religious commandments (ta'alim) as 53 B. Tibi, Islam between Culture and Politics