The Identity Crisis of a Secular Muslim: an Analytical Study

Abstract

The scope and significant arguments of the research in this thesis are as follows. This thesis is centered on exploring the identity crisis and sense of belonging of secular Muslims to Islam. There is a unanimous acceptance that community of every religion is passing through an extremely different stage, one of disintegration and schism, loss of identity, and inability to extent itself from its present state of bewilderment. This is because followers of every religion today is confronted with two sets of ideologies one of their own religion and another secular. Likewise Muslim community in this modern and contemporary period is exposed to two sets as well; the Islamic ideologies and the modern and secular ideologies. The root of this crisis can be traced to the loss of Islamic ideologies and widely spread and widely nourished and sustained secular ideologies. Intellectual conflict between Islamic ideologies and the modern and secular ideologies resulted in the epistemological crisis of great consequences to Muslim life and thought. This thesis presents the established concept of knowledge and identity crisis faced by the ummah. Accordingly, the research questions that guide the thesis are: What is the impact of modernization on the philosophy and psychology of a Muslim? Is the Secular Muslim aware of the Islamic ideologies as much as he is aware of the secular ideologies? How relevant is the knowledge of Deen for a Secular Muslim? These questions are dealt with the use of survey methodology involving quantitative research using formulated questionnaires. The study showed very little awareness in acquiring Islamic knowledge in spite of acquiring valuable secular qualifications, pointing out to the fact that secular education is given larger precedence over Islamic education, eventually leading to very little knowledge on philosophies of the Quran and Sunnah. Study also reflects this fact that there was a lack of awareness of the philosophies of Quran, so also it showed high influence of the modernization on Muslims. Study also showed effects of forms of psychological disorders due to this deficiency in gaining correct philosophies. Correlation between psychology and philosophy especially the Islamic philosophy has also been done which does show that the right form of philosophy is required to exhibit right behavior patterns in order to be psychologically healthy. To help overcome this renewal of Islamic ideologies in the light of contemporary human thought is necessary. Process of change must begin in the thought to pick right set of philosophy. This is because the behavior is governed by beliefs. Sound thinking alone results in sound reconstruction and sound thinking alone can deliver the ummah from the crisis to the path of achievement. Since none can understand the creation better than the Creator, the rules governing the mankind can best be dictated by the Creator alone.