Understanding The Concept of Religion - Assignment Example

Understanding a Religion History reveals human being’s existence on the earth to be rated back to thousands and thousands of years and throughout their subsistence human beings have held on to the belief that there exists an unseen power Who controls the affairs of the universe. For a person of sound mind it would seem extremely illogical to deny the existence of a supreme power with all the wonders of nature evident to him. Be it be sun, moon, day, night, rain, ice, mountains and everything else is a part of the chain that leads to the sole Cherisher and Controller of the Universe, God. What is a religion? A religion is a set of beliefs and practices of a community that holds them in the obedience of codified beliefs, believed to be the orders from God, and rituals. It refers to both the personal practices and the rituals carried out by a group to reflect conformity of beliefs and obedience to the Supreme Controller. Various definitions for religion have evolved and many materialistic individuals have tried to push the religion to a separate sector of life only restricting it to the compulsory acts of worship and rituals but, religion is in no way different from one’s actions outside his/her place of worship. A number of religions and its followers, especially Islam, teach their disciples to spend their entire life whether in Masjid (Muslims place of worship) or outside according to the commands of God and stress on the fact that religion is at the heart of life. Whichever religion a person belongs to is evident from his daily routine, doctrines of a particular religion are revealed by the rituals and the actions one performs in his daily life. A Christian would go to a church every Sunday, a Muslim would visit his Masjid five times a day and similarly a Hindu would visit his Temple at prescribed times. Hence it is important to understand initially that a human being’s religious life pivots on the rituals that ultimately reflect his/her beliefs. Islam has been the most controversial religion in the aftermath of 9/11 attacks on the twin towers, but ironically enough since then it has been the fastest spreading religion throughout the world and especially in the West. Due to this astounding fact Islamic doctrines have been used in the context of the following discussion. Implications of Personal Beliefs in Religion Belief in the religious context is the faith in the existence of something supernatural, unseen and unexplainable for an ordinary mind. Conviction is thus the first step and the most basic requirement of any religion. To strongly believe the truth of the existence of God, the fundamental principles of a religion, the Holy Book and the honesty of the Religious Leader who brought the divine message is the doorway towards successfully understanding a religion. In the absence of a firm belief, religious understanding may not achieved as one would then go on to doubt the reality and rationality of the principles that comprise a doctrine. For e.g. If a person decides to enter the fold of Islam he/she has to proclaim that, “There is no God, but Allah and Muhammad (PBUH) is his servant and messenger”. This is the foremost obligation. Apart from this belief in the existence of Angels as Allah’s Servants, the truth of all previous Messengers including Prophet Moses (PBUH) and Prophet Jesus (PBUH) and the reality of Life after Death is also necessary. A compromise on any of the stated beliefs would render a person Non-Muslim. Similarly for any other religion a grip on the belief which is universal for all its followers is the primary requisite. It is the common fundamental belief that holds a community together and develops shared social, communal and cultural values that ultimately lead to specific actions and rituals that comprise their identity. In order to understand a religion it is extremely important to first recognize the importance of the founding principles on which a religious conviction stands and this is what leads to the experiences that further strengthen the faith. Significance of Experience in Religion ‘The foundation of all human relations is common experience’ (Mitch Thrower) ‘When you are immersed in a living experience with someone, you are destined to develop a more lasting and personal relationship’ (Mitch Thrower) ‘We are all children starving to experience and know the heart of reality’ (Robert Schuler) All the above quotes highlight the significance of experience in human life and similar theories can be applied to recognizing the value of experience towards understanding a faith. Developing a firm universal belief about a religion then leads to experiences that are common to the group with identical belief. Once a person has entered the fold of any religion he then has to start recognizing the beauty of that religion and in order to do this one has to abide by the principles of the particular religion and obey the commandments of the Almighty like a slave obeys his Master. Believing is one thing but to implement the faith in one’s routine life is the most difficult aspect of religious understanding. A successful execution is what develops a long lasting relationship of the person with his Lord and then helps him to recognize the reality of the faith. Evolution of mysticism in the past from almost all religious schools is a fact that highlights the importance of experience. This experience develops personal beliefs that are far stronger and presents proofs of Divine existence from sources an individual failed to recognize during his negligence. All the mystics that can be traced in the books of history gave up worldly pleasures for the love of their Lord and as a result grew profound in the knowledge of their faith and began understanding religion more appropriately than anyone else. An important aspect of experience is that every action performed by the person is concentrated towards the attainment of his Masters pleasure and it is this deep worship that builds an indestructible connection between the Lord and His servant. One of the most important parts of religious experience is the performance of rituals of symbolic value prescribed by the religion. These rituals are of various kinds and cannot be limited to a certain category their sole purpose is obedience to the Creator and His pleasure. Islam operates on the above phenomenon, it is required of the Muslims to work for their Lords pleasure in all aspects of their lives and every virtuous act of a person, though worldly is considered and rewarded as a form of worship, Ibaada’h, as long as it is done out of obedience to Allah’s commands. Role of Religious Activity towards Religious understanding Religious rituals are the set of prescribed actions that are performed by people bounded by the same religious beliefs. These are the religious activities that include prayer, festivals such as Christmas and Muslim Eid, and various other acts that are primarily performed as a submission to the will of Lord. Moreover these rituals help in reinforcing the religious beliefs and serve as a mode of remembrance of the Almighty and of a religious event of importance in the history. Such a remembrance helps in keeping the person aware the roots of the religion and at the same time purifies the conscience and keeps in tact. Concept of rituals is varied in different religions. Some have a few events and times fixed for the particular rituals to be performed like the Diwali and Holi for Hindus, performance of these reaps good deeds and benefits in the hereafter. Whereas some religions have an extremely vast perception of the term and have multitudes of acts that can be performed in the daily life and gives the individual a chance to get closer and closer to his Creator every second. For e.g. Islam requires its disciples to pray five times a day, the beauty of this lies in the fact that it is a ritual, an experience and at the same time an identification of the believer and a source of getting close to Allah. Experience without observing obligatory religious activities is like a body without soul. In fact it is impossible for a person to understand a religion until and unless he experiences the pleasure of his faith through taking part in the external religious actions. Some of these rituals are mandatory and failure to perform them renders a person sinful. Religion is a fight against devil while sin is asking for Lord’s displeasure, it is thus impossible to understand the true face of a faith if one disobeys God. As one great has said it is not possible to get to the straight path with one foot in God’s corner and the other with devil. Hence one has to sink deep within the religious experience through the observance of religious activities to accomplish the task of understanding a religion. What is the best of way gaining an insight of the religion? Slowly and steadily we are exploring into a period that is dominated by materialism, where a vast majority of people irrespective of class, creed, society, or even the religion have left their faiths and conscience in one corner and are determined to win the race of money by hook or by crook. Under these circumstances the definitions of practicing religion have also been transformed along with the adjustments to moral values and principles. But is this the right way of going about the matters of faith? Certainly No! Religion is the name for divine beliefs that have been laid down by the Almighty and it is not within our decree to alter these sacred laws. Even in this era where most of the religious faiths have drowned into the darkness of desire and greed, religions like Islam and its followers have been able to maintain the freshness of their faith even if not by majority. The only way that this has been possible for Muslims is by strict adherence to the principles of the Holy Quran and the path shown to them by the beloved Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), whom they love and respect greater than any worldly object. Islam has not undergone any scrutiny in faith in the last 1500 years and this has been the only reason for the spiritual height of Muslims. Hence it is evident that in order to get the true insight of any religion it is important to accept it in its most pure form without adulteration of any sort. The beauty of the faith becomes apparent only in this manner. Accessibility of Religious Experience to outside Observer Religion and faith are matters of human conscience like clothes cover the visible parts of a person’s body; an individual’s invisible half is protected by his religion. How strong this armour is and what is the dimension of his feelings are beyond the comprehension of an outside observer, until and unless expressed. For a person oblivious to the faith the spiritual zeal is inconceivable and it is for this reason that expression is the key. All major faiths command their followers to propagate the beauty of their religion so as to guide a person to the path of spirituality and to provide him a path to get close to his Sustainer. Someone unaware of the spiritual truth is like a person blindfolded and this holy sight can be given only through religious propagation. Propagation involves identifying the magnificence of your faith to others and this can be done through various ways: Oral Lecture Written Material Individual actions while dealing with certain matters. One-to-one Communication These are the means of religious promulgation that have been utilised by the religious masters for centuries. Most of the religious text belonging to prehistoric times have been preserved and is been published repeatedly and the latest religious literature is also being written for the sole purpose of educating the current followers of faith and at the same time attracting others to the faith. Extensive research revealed that currently the Muslim Community has been concentrating hard on the aspect religious propagation, while the role of Christian Missionaries and other major faiths has been inactive in this regard. Muslim Propagators’ Group or tableeghi Jamat travel from country to country presenting the truth of their faith towards people and inviting them to Islam and this has been the sole reason for the increase in the growth of Muslims throughout the world in the past two or three decades. Role of Political Conflicts on religious Opinion ‘Everything that glitters is not gold’, an extremely old saying and the notion of which can be applied to the case on hand i.e. visibility does not account for the reality of something or truth of the story. We have entered an age where media has grown extremely powerful and Wars are initially fought through it instead of directly jumping into Warfield. I would again refer to the case of Muslims in the aftermath of 9/11, they were held as the black sheep responsible for the tragedy, labelled as terrorists and fundamentalists. At that point in time the grieved western population, thanks to the media and Bush administration’s propaganda, viewed Muslims as terrorists and Islam as the religion supporting crime and innocent bloodshed. But was it the reality? The answer is No. Investigation reports have proved that it was a pre-planned event plotted as an excuse to conquer Muslim lands. Moreover the number of church going Christians has fallen in the past decade and the number of practising Christians has decreased but will this mean that Christianity provides its followers a concession and that Church going is not compulsory, Certainly Not!. Ideally the best way to understand a religion is by way of research into the Holy Scriptures, The Holy Quran and Holy Bible, and the sayings of Religious Leaders and then only the true religion can be understood. Practically considering the situation it is difficult to avoid the influence media and visibility of certain individuals undermining the purity of their faith, in these circumstances the best way out would be to try to view the larger picture i.e. the community as a whole, search into the historical aspects of the religion and with this data on hand one should try to effectively understand and decide on the truth of a religion. Bibliography 1. King, W. 2nd Edition (2005) Encyclopedia of Religion.Vol. 11. Macmillion Detroit: USA. p7692-7701. Read More