Muharram Day 2 Lecture Recap Faith and the Challenge of Modernity By Morteza Bachoo Modernity challenges doctrines, ethics and laws. Modernity is not only challenging the religion but also its sacred institutions. What is modernity? We need to have basirah (profound insight) when looking at modernity. We cannot blindly accept modernity just how we cant blindly accept religion. Said Hussain Nasr discusses how we develop an inferiority complex in face of modernity. In order to avoid this we need to inculcate our children with a sense of intellectual independence. Modernity v. Traditionalism: The modern man rejects taabud (authority). Traditional societies see things as black or white (absolutist). Modern societies have relativism. Traditional societies responsibilities v modern societies civil rights. Spirituality v materialism. It is important to understand these differences. Ethics of our faith are innate to us. Prophets come to remind humans of ethics, not to teach them. The Quran is a reminder. We know this by using our intellect. This aspect of modernity is positive. However it can also be negative because the modern man assumes that he can understand everything and rejects what he cant understand. But man cannot understand everything. We cant judge with certainty which is why God sent us the Quran, prophets, and the Ahlulbayt. The three stages of knowledge are as follows: pride, humbleness and complete humility in the face of infinite knowledge. We need to rely on divine revelation for a lot of knowledge. We need to submit to the authority of the Quran. We can understand some of the wisdom behind some things but we need to have intellectual humility.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Nov 2013 06:50:04 +0000