Role of Religion in a Global World

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June | 2019

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf Vice President, Forum for Promoting Peace, UAE

Religion in the modern world is facing increased challenges. Its role and relevance is being questioned while at the same time the expectation of it to address global and contemporary issues increases consistently. In light of this, religious communities around the world seek to put the role of religion into perspective amid various challenges that are seemingly new. The conference on “Religious Values in a Plural World” was organised to bring the diverse religious communities together and discuss the positive role of religion with qualities of pro-activeness and being contributive to the rapidly changing context of the modern world. Shaykh Hamza Yusuf delivered the opening speech as a representative for Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies on behalf of its President, Shaykh Abdallah bin Bayyah whom due to health issues could not be present. Shaykh Hamza gave a broad perspective on the issues of multiplicity and religious diversity as he touched on various topics in a structured manner. However so, I feel that the first few parts of the lecture were mentioned briefly and hence didn’t do justice to some important points that I would like to highlight here in my reflections for the speech.

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf spoke in the words of Shaykh Bin Bayyah himself, sending his regards and wishes to the organisers and participants. Shaykh Hamza then began with an analogy of how religion can arguably be seen as a type of nuclear power. A nuclear power is elementally huge and effectively clean but on the other hand it can also produce toxic by-products that needs to be contained. Similarly, religion in the social context can be used for both good and evil depending on whoever is using it.

Religion can arguably be seen as a type of nuclear power. A nuclear power is elementally huge and effectively clean but on the other hand it can also produce toxic by-products that needs to be contained.

There is the need to call for minority Muslims to integrate sensibly into society, promoting peaceful values and contributing to its development while still maintaining their Muslim identity.

This metaphor, applied particularly to the Islamic Tradition, is similarly dependent on how the religious texts are interpreted. Scholars have formulated a certain methodology in interpreting these texts which according to Shaykh Hamza, his teacher Shaykh Bin Bayyah is an inheritor of. This methodology necessitates a balanced approach to both Text and Context as part of the living Islamic Tradition. I find this part of the speech to carry a significant weight. In what seems to be one of the pivotal causes for a lot of problems today, there is apparently less emphasis on the question of methodology. Shaykh Hamza mentioned “inheritor of” which signifies how this methodology in interpreting texts have been cultivated and transmitted through specialists of the field rather than it being a discourse for the general public to regulate, just as how medicine is mainly managed by specialists or doctors in the medical field.

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If one were to read the Analects of Confucius, it would connote some similar values to reading the hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon Him). These shared values with the likes of respecting the elderly, honesty, hard work, can be the mutual points to unite factions of both religious and even secular communities.


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Role of Religion in a Global World by Muis Academy - Issuu