Human affairs are dominated by two diametrically opposite world views, though there are several variations in between. One, the religious, is based on the belief that the Universe and its contents were created by an intelligent conscious, self-existing Creator for a purpose which all things, including man must serve. The other, Secular, is based on a denial of this, regards the universe as dead and purposeless, and, therefore, assumes that human beings create their own purpose and this should be the maximizing of pleasure. Whereas the latter finds no evidence for the existence of God, the former point to the existence of order and objects that there is no explanation in the atheist stance, why human values and purpose exists, or should be pursued or why any other arbitrary opinion should not be just as valid. As these basic differences affect the perception, attitude, thinking, motivation and actions of people, there is no possibility of understanding between them. Though debates and arguments continue to take place these are futile.

However, in most countries, especially in the West, compromises have occurred for social, economic and political reasons, and the culture so produced allows a diversity of intermediate opinions to flourish that also diluted the religious position. But Secularism does not satisfy the human beings who have an in-built capacity for awareness of the impersonal and universal and an inherent need for objective purposes, meaning and values. Therefore religion constantly renews itself. This inherent impulse in man, and all other things, can be called Islam, the tendency to surrender, harmonize, adjust and reconcile oneself with existence as a whole:-

This tendency in nature to belong, to serve and conform, has not yet been recognized in science. But it is being gradually understood, specially at the Quantum level, that existence is a single system in which all things are inter-connected and each entity is a part which must adjust to the whole or be destroyed. Indeed, this disintegration, transformation and construction are all forms of adjustment or finding equilibrium.

There appears to be a worldwide conflict between Islam and other systems of living. This struggle is not as between two groups or nations where each pursues its own, but essentially similar, interest. But owing to the worldwide spread and domination of the Western system, the conflict reduces to an ideological one between Islam and the West. The question is this:- How does the Islamic World View differ from the Western One?

Though there are a number of different world views in the West, there is a tendency to divide them into the two camps :-

The view that is preferred by the majority, particularly the intelligentsia, is the one that may be called Secular or Modern. Its features are: - materialism, externalism, sensualism, fact-based, rational, determined by causes or chance, empiristic, pluralistic, differentiating, reductionist, accidental, dynamic, emphasizing change, competitive, this-worldly, humanistic, leveling, democratic.

To explain:- The world is regarded as material which lies outside us and is seen through the senses. Everything is reduced to forces acting on particles moving at random and causing constant change. This provides us with separate facts. It is man who puts these together or organizes things to form order through the use of his rational faculty. The world so constructed is an abstraction that is done by all human beings. Objectively, there are only facts and no values, and things are, therefore, settled by agreements or are outcomes of competition, the power struggle and coercion. Man is the highest being and it is he who determines all things and all things can be exploited for his use.

But to many people the world so described seems meaningless and drab. They feel that life requires not just facts but also values and meanings and these must also be accounted for. We have, for instance, inherent self-preservative, reproductive, gregarious and self-extensive tendencies without which there would be no motives to do anything and life could not exist. These motives must derive from the materials, forces and laws of the world that form us and are also the cause of the transformations brought about by living things. They are part of the creative process. The Universe is much greater than man, all things in it interact, are inter-dependent, and are regulated by Laws and powerful forces; and man is not only a dependent but active part of the whole. Man cannot have acquired consciousness unless it is already a feature of the Universe. Indeed, the knowledge of the Universe is itself dependent on consciousness. If the rational mind can understand the Universe then it must be rational. They also note that if man and his knowledge are evolving then there is much more to reality and man than is known, and ultimately existence is an inexplicable mystery. An increasing number of people are, therefore, dissatisfied with Secularism, turn to another worldview, but do not know how to reconcile the two.

This other world is the opposite of the first and may be called the Traditional or Religious World. It is spiritualistic, internalist, inspirational, value-based, conceptualistic, unitarian, ordered, transcendentalist, purposive, cooperative, holistic, emphasizing what is constant behind changes, lawful, other worldly, God-centred, hierarchical, authoritarian.

The secular system harnesses the lower human impulses of greed, lust, vanity, pride, laziness, gluttony, ambition, and aggression in order to stimulate the increase in consumerism as well as production and enterprise. They use advertisement and propaganda for the purpose of increasing wealth, power and prestige, the desires for which are, themselves, produced by the same techniques. Thus we get a vicious circle. These ambitions also create the environmental, social and psychological malfunctions - the pollution, wastage and the disruption of the ecological system, the crimes, immorality and the organic and psychological diseases. It also causes conflicts between classes, races, and nations. Political and Commercial powers and the media of communication which they control use psychological manipulation, selective information and emphasis, lies, deception, intrigue, subversion, all kinds of dishonest and dirty tricks, suppression and distortion of truth, diversion of attention, flattery, stimulation of fantasy, addiction, emotionalism, scandal mongering, exaggeration of the importance of trivia and so on to further their advantages but fall victim to these themselves. The purpose is always to increase the power and control of the few by dividing and weakening the many. One of the main characteristics of the secular system is to create regimentation and mental conditioning, to provide the loud external stimuli (excitement, sensationalism, outrageousness, distractions) which desensitize and an emphasis on speed, all of which prevent meditative thought, and deeper perception, processing, integration and assimilation of experience, but promote superficiality.

It is these same impulses which are regarded as evil by the religions, and methods to counteract them are used. But the result of this is usually that people are made idealistic, prone to fantasy, docile, gullible, dependent, sentimental and exploitable by those who have the power. They can then use and manipulate them with impunity.

Thus, between these opposites, we get the opposition between matter and mind, materialism and idealism, the religious and the secular, values and facts, the intellectual and the manual, the owners and workers, leaders and led, control and freedom, authority and license, individualism and socialism, law and chance and so on. The controversy between the two usually leads to exaggeration and extremism on both sides because each wants to distance itself from the other.

Islam is the Middle or Balanced Way, the Straight Path between the extremes. It combines the two attitudes. There are no dichotomies between the spiritual and the material and between the religious and secular life, between thought and action, values and facts, theory and practice, Ethics and economics, science and art, knowledge and life, the individual and the community. Reality is a single system that ranges from Absolute Unity to maximum plurality through stages in which all things are parts of a higher system which is part of a still higher system. We have a kind of Pyramid. The whole is more than the sum of the parts, an independent entity from which they derive, towards which they have a function and to which the parts must adjust.

There is a range of phenomena from the very subtle, the spirit to the very coarse, through stages where each stage can be regarded as the product of the congealing of the substance of the previous stage. More and more structure is added, and the rigidity or density is progressively increased by the addition of further laws. God works through Will. This notion may be regarded as a synthesis of Deterministic Laws and Chance. The Quran accepts neither, but both are incorporated in the formula "Allah can do as He will". There is Justice, but also a certain amount of flexibility incorporated in the notion of Mercy. There is also evolution, a motion towards a goal which is the reverse to the sequence of creation or involution. Thus Islam sees man as part of a greater system, with respect to which he has a function - ultimately to God. Man is a vicegerent, this worldly life as a stage in a greater life and a preparation for the next stage. The realisation of this and behaviour accordingly is known as Surrender (Islam).

This Unification of a pair of opposites can be seen in the following verse :-

It is probably correct to say that the unification has become possible because Islam also recognizes a third reconciling factor between the pair of opposites. Thus between facts and values we have meanings, and these arise when values are imposed on facts or when we have a conceptual system or framework of reference with respect to which all facts are evaluated. Between thought and action we have emotions or feelings, which provide motivation. Human beings do not deal in facts, but always interpret them in terms of some value system, which may be a religious or scientific one. This ought to be obvious because nothing whatever can be perceived which is not an effect on our consciousness. What we perceive - our experience and knowledge - is, therefore, a product of the interaction of external forces coming from the object, with our consciousness, the observer. The nature of this consciousness must be significant. Experience or Knowledge is a third factor between the Knower and the Known. An examination of the Quran shows that the Knower, the Aware, is Allah. It is by His spirit within us (32:9) that we acquire awareness. But He is also ultimately that which is to be Known, and it is He who surrounds all things with Knowledge and creates them by His Truth. Thus He is all three. Originally before the Universe began (or now at the most fundamental level) there could not have been such a distinction. We are told :-

This underlying Unity becomes manifest again when the universe is wound up, or when the seeker surrenders wholly to Allah :-

The triad, however, is seen in Quran 32:7-9 and other verses. Man is made first physically, then the spirit is breathed into him and this combination of body and spirit creates mind. The mental faculties are also described as three (corresponding to the division of man), namely the hearing, the sight and the hearts. These three faculties are also seen in Quran 17:36 where we are exhorted to follow only that of which we have knowledge through hearing, sight and hearts. The triad, therefore, always refers to a relativity, but Allah is the Absolute beyond it. It is Allah we must seek both in the external world and within. The signs of Allah are to be found in both places :-

Islam does not, therefore, ignore this world :-

Note that the first person simply wants things in this world whether or not they are good, while the second wants only the good both here and in the hereafter. Indeed, man has a function in this world:-

The religious practices may be regarded as techniques for obtaining certain effects:-

Withdrawal from the world is not allowed. The world itself contains everything for the development of man.

The Islamic attitude can be seen further from the following: -

It is not the case, therefore, that Islam wishes to suppress the lower impulses, but it wants to channel them. These impulses were created for a purpose. Sexuality, for instance, meant for reproduction and mutual comfort and pleasure, is not repressed but channeled into constructive directions within the family. It should produce love and unity. It causes a community to become a network in which each marriage is the knot. The case is similarly with the desire for goods and pleasure. Restraint is to be practiced. Channeling is achieved by associating the fulfilment of an impulse with spiritual goals. The reward is with Allah. Pride is replaced with the desire to replace or expand one's ego to include Allah and the Umma. Indeed, all impulses are regarded as arising from a natural inbuilt source and are God given. But it is when they have been channeled wrongly and accidentally by a chaotic purposeless social system that they become evil. This occurs because the mind forms attachments or addictions to them and they imprison and limit the soul - they become gods. It is a form of idolatry.

The fact is that such persons have no control over themselves. It is they who are being controlled by others or the environment through the reigns of their desires. The result is that mankind is to that extent a victim of forces over which they have no control. Though they may themselves have created their political, economic systems and other institutions, these, now continue to function according to their own momentum, and like Frankenstein's monster make their creators into victims.

The dichotomy between mind and matter as found in the West is probably due to the dominance of the organized Christian Church after the Roman Emperor, Constantine made Christianity into the official religion of the Roman Empire. It took upon itself the sole right to speak for God, interpret the Scriptures and control affairs. This power it guarded jealously. All so called heresies were, therefore, suppressed and persecuted. The rise of Islam threatened this power and caused the Church to mount crusades against it. But as all actions have reactions, this clash brought ideological impulses from Islam into Europe where it caused the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the Reformation. The Secular powers, Political, Commercial and Cultural, including those of the newly emerging Sciences became more powerful and clashed with the authority of the weakening Church. A tacit compromise was, therefore, made:- The secular systems were to confine their attention to this world and, therefore, to the material, visible and factual, while the Church would retain its power to deal with the other-worldly, the spiritual and with morality and the value system. Thus a separation of Religion and State was also eventually achieved.

The result of this dichotomy was that all the secular systems, Politics, Business, Commerce and even the Arts and Sciences operate without any morality or consideration of motives, purposes and value systems, while religion tends to ignore facts, knowledge, technology and the environmental, social and psychological consequences of the development of technology, organization and commerce. Since each of these aspects nevertheless affects the other, there is a self-contradiction involved in both.

Another result, within the society and its politics, is the class system, or rather its perpetuation, the division into an upper ruling class and a lower working class. This derives from Roman times and beyond, where political systems were based on slavery. It created the division between intellectual and physical work and a psychological division between the intellectual faculty and the physical one for action. It creates those who think but cannot do, and those who can do but not think. There is a separation between theory and practice. Even the individual is split and can think one thing but do another, and he can feel still something else. This division itself has isolated a third factor that used to be a bridge between them, namely, the emotions and feelings. These being neglected remain undeveloped and play no role in the organized secular world. Therefore, human motivations remain primitive while their knowledge and abilities make progress. This increasingly unbalanced state also continues to create increasing instability and psychological, social and environmental problems. It is artists and entertainers who take up the emotional life of the community but these are often depraved and spread their depravity. Neurosis, psychosis and psychopathy are increasing as well as organic diseases and other malfunctions. Administrators, Managers, Counselors, Social workers, Psychiatrists, and Agony Aunts are required in increasing numbers to deal with these. It is, therefore, not surprising that when the Roman Empire based on slavery and naive ideas of Justice brought cruelty and much suffering that Jesus should have come with the religion of Love as a counterbalance. Unfortunately, the tendency of the human mind to ignore reality and to rationalize and attribute good motives to itself slowed down the spread of this spiritual impulse and produced cruelty of its own. It made people pliable and exploitable by those who wished to dominate, control and exploit and was adopted by the Roman Empire for that reason. It also distorted it into mere sentimentality and, often, hysteria. An emphasis on reality, truth and knowledge was also necessary. A balanced state requires Compassion as well as Justice and Truth - a higher Unity

Islam does not admit any such dichotomy or triads, though they may be conveniences of thought. It presents us with a fully unified, all comprehensive self-consistent system of life. This is achieved by centering it on Allah, the source of all things. The logic behind this is fairly simple. Since nothing that is isolated can have any effects on other things, it cannot be known by them. All existing things must interact to form a single system. To the extent to which things are disintegrated they will come into conflict or contradiction with each other. This destroys them or causes tensions (felt as suffering by beings). There is, therefore, a tendency towards an ideal state of order, a state of equilibrium.

(From the scientific point of view the second law of Thermodynamics requires that disorder, entropy, should always increase. But this is only possible if the universe expands so that energy can flow into the new areas. Evolution, the increase in order, on this planet can only take place because energy is flowing into it from above, from higher systems e.g. the sun and the rest of the Cosmos. If it contracted, say under the influence of gravity, it would have to become more ordered, as it was before the creative event, the Big Bang, occurred. In order to maintain a steady state, expansion and contraction may have to be equalized. Perhaps the expansion itself is driven by a constant entry of new energy into the Cosmos, or by the failure to evolve, i.e. to increase order.)

It will, therefore, not be surprising that the Islamic idea on Politics, Economics, Science and Art are also different from that of the West. It is incompatible with Western systems because it recognizes:- Divine Law as supreme; subordinates all actions and interactions and freedoms to an objective value system which is not based on human whim, expediency or the outcome of power struggles; regards ownership as a trust; bans usury on which Capitalism depends; requires all transactions to be carried out as partnerships or contracts and by mutual and equitable consent. It combines individualism with collectivism, rights with duty, authority with individual freedom in the notion of responsibility. Islam creates inner psychological unity rather than imposed organizational unity by equalizing people and giving them a common goal and increasing understanding. It envisages a fluid, spiritual or organic system rather than a rigid mechanistic or formal one. The purpose of all things including Science, Art, Politics and Economics is to facilitate both human and environmental welfare and development.

It is probably because these facts were realized that those who sought to acquire, retain or increase personal wealth, power and pleasure were always opposed to Islam from the very beginning and often succeeded in getting the upper hand externally in the world. But they were not able to destroy completely the inner faith, where of course lies the loyalty which constitutes the kingdom of God on earth. Nor do these ambitions render them immortal because they die and lose all they have acquired, but realise it not. There is once again a concerted effort, but this time a more powerful world wide one, to discredit and disable Islam. Satan, as predicted, is getting desperate.