What Is Religion and Why Doesn’t It Matter to Me?

1. Post-Modern Life and Identity

Firstly, the times we are living in: Me, Myself & I

This is the epoch of post-modernity, characterized by being cut off from the divine, the transcendent, or the supernatural, meaning from an absolute, permanent, or eternal truth in its most universal sense. Heedlessness –

– – You may be saying:

How would anyone dare to tell me:
⊏⊐ how to live (better by taking the high road),
⊏⊐ how to think (clearer, correctly, forming intention),
⊏⊐ how to behave (in a more humane way – as truly human beings, encompassing the concept of mercy/ compassion),
⊏⊐ how to be (more) aware of the wholeness of this existence (and what this entails),
⊏⊐ how to reach my potential for good (in this life – and in the greater life of the Hereafter – yes there is!),
⊏⊐ how to be (very) careful of the repercussions/ consequences of my thoughts, intentions, actions, and non-actions?

2. Religion Doesn’t Provide Answers to My Questions

Secondly, why doesn’t religion seem to matter to me?

There could be several reasons for this:
– you could be living a pleasurable life with no existential concerns, at least not for time being.
– you are probably affected by acedia. – Postmodern sin: Acedia
– you may have been exposed to rather repressive or even evil people who claimed to follow a religion, which turned you off.
– you have never been able to understand the idea of a benevolent god with so much evil in the world (and you have not really endeavoured to get an answer to this question).
…

This period in history, which we are in, is the era of Acedia:
It is characterized among other things by:

– absence of interest or habitual disinclination to exertion.
– indifference to the duties and obligations to God.
– lack of any feeling about self or other
– a mind-state that gives rise to boredom, rancour, apathy, and a passive inert or sluggish mentation.
– a failure to do things that one should do.
  (by this definition, evil exists when "good" people fail to act.)
– lack of any feeling for the world, for the people in it, or for the self.
– a negation of joy – that God created us to experience.
– ceasing to utilize the seven gifts of grace given by God
  (pleasure is mistaken for happiness)
– Seven Deadly Sins

3. Other Objections

Thirdly, you may have one of the following objections regarding revealed religion:

⊏⊐ We are told that religions are man-made, and that this life is the only life there is, how can it be otherwise?
⊏⊐ Would there exist any proof for the veracity of a religion such as Islam?
⊏⊐ How can Islam be true, if so much bad is done in its name? (extremism, terrorism, unequal treatment of women…)
⊏⊐ How to seriously consider religion, when I’m convinced of the successes of modern science?
⊏⊐ How can I not be bothered by all those rituals, which take effort and time away from my leisure time?

Answer: There is a price for everything and the price here is nothing less than sincerity and a minimal awareness of the precariousness of the human condition. These are words, and actions are necessary. What kind of actions? What is this life?

These are legitimate questions, and there are clear answers…
Islam is evidence-based.

Ask! It is the first step to knowledge: use the contact page (But pride is the obstacle.)

The Islamic concept about the character of this wordly life is hinted in this quranic verse:

{The life of this world (dunyā) is but comfort of illusion/ enjoyment of delusion.} Sura 3-185
Meaning: Not to be attached to it, so as to forget God and the purpose of this life.

4a. What Is an Authentic Religion?

Fourthly, what we are referring to is an authentic religion, a revealed religion*, not any newfangled ideology with some emotional or psychic appeal, misconstrued as ‘spiritual’ and mostly exploited by charlatans.

• Authentic is what can be proven, not by hearsay or what the enemies of Islam are propagating… The story of Prophet Muhammad, his sayings and actions (scientifically, critically reviewed and filtered ahādith) have come to us in our time.

So what are the essentials of any authentic religion without which it would be invalidated and without any spiritual power / barakah:

⊏⊐ it has to have a doctine ( a teaching – this is the intellectual component),
⊏⊐ it has to have a rite – (the ritual component),
⊏⊐ it has to have a moral, i.e. an ethic, – (the social component).
– René Guénon – Shaykh `Abd Al Wahid Yahya

4b. What Is the Islamic Understanding of Religion?

The Islamic Tradition defines the most essential aspects of the Islamic religion:

”The religion which Allah appreciates most is sincere and tolerant monotheism.”
– ad-dīn, The Unchanging Religion

”What kind of religion does Islam believe in?

The most essential principle in Islam is the ONEness of God.

Allah is the Creator (and Sustainer) of everything in the universe and is unique from His creation.
At the same time Allah is closer to man/ woman than his/ her jugular vein!
Sura 50-16
…
People are encouraged to develop a direct and personal relationship with God without any intermediaries, by following the example laid out by the best of creation, prophet Muhammad, the blessings and peace of Allah upon him.”
– Islam Explained | Facts about the Muslims & the Religion

5. The Metaphysical Argument

⊏⊐ How could metaphysics assist me on my way through life?

Let us call it a universal gift for mankind, especially for those who do a lot of thinking. Not even a child would refused a gift, when it is offered.

Δ For example the statement that human life is limited. No matter which outlook, ideology, or religion someone has, this is an absolute truth, nothing can change it. The next step would be how to integrate this metaphysical truth into one’s life.

”If more than one religion is true, then no religion can be absolute – but the essential rationale for any religion is just this: that it gives access to Absolute Truth.
So here would emerge a problem, and this is why metaphysical knowledge is necessary for people who would be in need of it. When religious relativism, ignorance and atheism have destroyed faith, nothing but metaphysical understanding can restore it,” (if Allah wills so).
– System of the Antichrist, SAC77

”Any intelligent and spiritually sensitive individual, with or without a religious background, must pass through the fires of religious skepticism in today’s world. Simple belief… is no longer possible for many today. This sophisticated ability to see the depth and value in religious traditions other than one’s own will almost inevitably erode one’s faith, at least to begin with.

For such a person that is no way ’back’ to simple religious faith; the only way is ’forward’, to an understanding that there is an Absolute Truth behind all the religions, which, however, can only be reached by following one of the religions all the way to that Truth.
[ □ comment: Clearly religions did not appear at the same time in history, so there is deviation and ranking.fn1] The only remedy for the disease of sophistication is greater sophistication, which finally returns to simplicity. Where religious relativism has destroyed faith, nothing but metaphysical understanding can restore it.”
fn1 On The Common Eternal Principles, And That Islam Reigns

”Only metaphysics can demonstrate both that there is an Absolute Truth common to all true religions (remembering that not everything which calls itself a ’religion’ actually is), but that this Truth cannot be reached by combining them, since the existence of different religious revelations, like that of different races or different individuals is metaphysically necessary. As it says in the Quran {Allah, if He had willed, could have made you one people.}”
– System of the Antichrist, SAC77
more on: Metaphysics

6. Links

– What Is A Religion?
– Postmodernism And Modernity
– Metaphysics