Is Islam a Religion or a Political Ideology?

"Question on: Is Islam a Religion or an Ideology "

ABSTRACT:
Questioning the classical thesis, this paper addresses the use of Islam as a religion or an ideology in human life. The Islamic pioneers say that Islam is a religion but some of the people remain it as an ideology. By this paper it will be disclosed that is Islam a religion or an ideology or both of them.
 

Introduction:
There is a great debate that what is Islam and is it a religion or an ideology. According to Islamic thinkers, Islam is only one religion which is more acceptable to creator in the present era. They also acknowledge that others religion also was true in previous era. But in this era means Mohammad (SM) to present or the yet existing of the world Islam is the best of all. And others religious view is not obeyable in this time. Because of that this religious rules and regulations are not existing here. But some of the people or political thinkers remain that Islam is not a religion but an ideology. And this ideology is created by Mohammad (SM). These kinds of statement make a conflict situation between religion and ideology. So we have to prove that is Islam a religion or ideology or both of them.
 

Religion:
"Religion originates in an attempt to represent and order beliefs, feelings, imaginings and actions that arise in response to direct experience of the sacred and the spiritual. As this attempt expands in its formulation and elaboration, it becomes a process that creates meaning for itself on a sustaining basis, in terms of both its originating experiences and its own continuing responses."

Ideology:
An ideology is a set of conscious and/or unconscious ideas which constitute one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology is a comprehensive normative vision, a way of looking at things, as argued in several philosophical tendencies (see political ideologies), and/or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to all members of this society (a "received consciousness" or product of socialization), as suggested in some Marxist and Critical theory accounts. While the concept of "ideology" describes a set of ideas broad in its normative reach, an ideology is less encompassing than as expressed in concepts such as worldview, imaginaryand ontology.

Ideologies are systems of abstracted meaning applied to public matters, thus making this concept central to politics. Implicitly, in societies that distinguish between public and private life, every political or economic tendency entails an ideology, whether or not it is propounded as an explicit system of thought.
 
What is Islam:
Islam is the religion of truth. It is the embodiment of the code of life, which Allaah, the Creator and Lord of the Universe, has revealed for the guidance of mankind.
 
The Meaning of Islam:
Islam is an Arabic word which denotes submission, surrender and obedience. As a religion, Islam stands for complete submission and obedience to Allaah - that is why it is called Islam. The other literal meaning of the word Islam is "peace" and this signifies that one can achieve real peace of body and mind only through submission and obedience to Allaah. Such a life of obedience brings peace of the heart and establishes real peace in society. As Allaah Says (what means): "Those who believe and whose hearts find rest in the remembrance of Allaah – indeed it is in the remembrance of Allaah alone that the heart of man finds rest –those who believe and act righteously, joy is for them, and a blissful home to return:" [Quran: 13:28-29]

Some Basic Characteristics of Islam:
Islam which was conveyed by The Prophet Muhammad May Peace be Upon him is a perfect religion, I can say this because every aspect in life is ruled by Islam. Islam teaches us what we should do when we are entering the restroom until the way to choose a leader, Islam rules from the smallest things until the biggest ones. Thus as a perfect religion islam has some characteristics which establishes the outstanding of islam and make people need islam as their religion and their way of life.
Here are some characteristics of Islam :
 
1. Islam comes directly from the side of Allah The Most High
It was not created by human. Muhammad May Peace be upon him is the messenger. It is from Allah The Most High, because Allah as the creator know best and knew the need of His slaves.
2. Islam brings to justice.
"And thus We have made you a median [i.e. just] community that you will be witness over the people and the messenger will be witness over you". [Al-Baqarah: 143]
3. Islam explains the beginning creation of human and the end of their life and the purpose why they were created.
Allah says in these ayah :'From it [i.e. the earth] We created you, and into it. We still return you, and from it We will extract you another time". [Taha:55]
4. Islam will never opposite with human the inherent nature of mankind and mind,
" So direct your face [i.e. self] toward the religion, inclining to truth [adhere to] the fitrah of Allah upon which He his created [all] people. No change should be there in the creation of Allah. That is the correct religion, but most of the people do not know". [Ar-ruum;30].
5. Islam is a religion of knowledge.
Knowledge is compulsory for every muslim men and women. Knowledge will raise one's degree who has it to the highest degree. Knowledge and practice like two sides of a coin, There is no practice without knowledge and there is no knowledge without practice. Allah criticises one's who practices without knowledge as one's who goes asthray, and one's who has knowledge but does not practice it as a furied person. 
6. In Islam there are solutions for every problems,
 like life problems, family problems etecera, shariah and its basic lessons cover all the islamic law for every unlimited things.
7. Islam shariah is the most wisdom in conducting all nations,
the most appropriate in giving solution, pays attention to the benefits and to the human rights.
 
8. Islam is flexible.
It is applicable for every nation, in every place, periods,situation and in every kind of condition. The most modern and the most development nation always find new proofs that point to the validity of islam and its high value.
9. Islam is a religion of love, unity, friendship and love amongst mukmin.
" The believers are brothers, so make settlement between your brothers. and fear Allah that you may receive mercy". [Al-hujurat; 10]
10. Islam is far from contradiction.
" Then do they reflect upon quran ? if it had been from[any] ather then Allah, they would have found within much contradiction". [an-nisa;82]



Is Islam a Religion, or a Political Ideology?
It has become commonplace on anti-Muslim blogs, and on the lips of politicians like Allen West who assert that Islam is not a religion, but a political ideology that controls every facet of the lives of its followers. I want to look at this assertion a little more deeply, and try to understand whether it is true or not.
First, the word used by Muslims to describe Islam is din, which is often translated to mean "a way of life." This in itself isn't very remarkable. Virtually all religions claim to be more than just a few beliefs and rituals carried out one day a week. Christians talk about being Christian seven days a week. Jews try to live according to the entire Torah, which is much more than just worship and belief. The Dharma that Buddhists use to guide their lives includes much more than meditation. And of course Hinduism's Laws of Manu embrace every part of human living.
So where we really need to focus our attention isn't on the claim of religion to inform all of human life, all religions do that. The question is how. Explicit in the accusation by West (and Newt Gingrich among others) that Islam is a political ideology and not a religion is the idea that Islam prescribes certain political systems. Is that true?
As is often the case it is a kind of strange half-truth. The first comprehensive Islamic work on politics was written in the 11th century by Mawardi. This was more than 300 years after the time of Muhammad, and after the Muslim community had seen several different political systems come and go. That work, Statutes of Government, sought to describe an authentically Muslim government, primarily in terms of the character of the Muslim ruler. After Mawardi Muslim governments honored his vision very little, and most Muslims continued to be ruled by both borrowed and ad hoc political systems. The last cohesive Muslim empire, the Ottomans, represented the most developed Islamic polity. But they didn't control more than a fraction of the Muslim world at the time. And their empire ended officially in 1924.
This said, in response to colonialism, and the imposition of what Muslims saw as Christian governments on Muslim lands from Morocco to Indonesia, Muslims in the 19th century began to ask if there wasn't an Islamic alternative to Western political systems. The result was a great deal of ferment and discussion, with various answers arising. Three of these are particularly important to our current debate. The first said that Islam was in fact a religious way of life that could be lived under any type of government. Islam was a religion, not a state, according to the early 20th century Muslim writer Ali 'abd al-Raziq. In fact, such scholars argued, modern, European styles of government were both effective and consistent with Islamic values. Those advocating this position were called "modernists."
Another group were traditionalists. They believed that over a period of centuries Muslim rulers and scholars had come up with a truly Islamic way of governing society (summarized in Mawardi's work), and that modern societies simply needed to reproduce these older forms. In the event moving backward in history proved impossible, and not one contemporary Muslim government is based on Mawardi's work.
Finally there were so-called "Reformers." This group believed that old forms of Islamic governance would no longer work in the modern world. But they believed that certain Islamic principles of government should be maintained in truly Muslim societies. So, for example, they believed that Islam should have a Caliph, or commander of the faithful, but that it should also have what were called "consultative councils" or "shura councils" to provide legislation. These would be based on the principle of "consultation" found in early Islamic law and were thus said to be democratic. If you want to see a modern example of an effort to implement this kind of reformed Islamic government you can look at the Constitution of Iran. It isn't like the old Persian Muslim monarchy. It is structured like the U.S. Constitution. But it isn't a modern western style government either. And of course it is a Shi'ite state, which means that it has a whole different basis for political authority than Sunni states.
This debate about how Muslims should govern themselves goes on today, but of course there have been further developments.
By the middle of the 20th century Muslim intellectuals had fully realized that Western governments were not actually Christian governments. Rather, they were driven by a number of different political and economic ideologies that were also forcefully making their way into the Muslim world. These included democracy as an ideology, fascism, Marxism, communism, socialism, capitalism, and secularism.
Moreover Muslims became aware of the concept of "secularism," particularly in France where many Muslim scholars went in exile, or to study. They understood secularism to be the major ideology of the West, and that secularism excluded religion from any role in public life. This seemed to be directly opposed to the idea that religion should inform all of life, including political and economic structures. Two reactions emerged. First, Muslims began to develop Islamic political and economic ideologies to compete with existing Western ideologies. Secondly, some Muslim scholars asserted that Islam itself should be seen as an ideology, and thus a direct competitor to these other ideologies. By the 1980 s this was a matter being debated intensely across the Muslim world. Was Islam an ideology? Was there such a thing as an Islamic form of government beyond the old traditional Muslim monarchies? Was there such a thing as Islamic economic theory?
I emphasize that Islam as an ideology was being debated because many Muslims didn't feel that their religion was an ideology. They just didn't think it played the same role in human society as democracy, or fascism, or Marxism. And let me explain why. All these ideologies were based on the human observation of human behavior and social progress. They had nothing to do with Divine revelation. For many Muslims calling Islam an ideology was demeaning, as it would have been to call Christianity or Judaism ideologies. Religion, in their mind, was supposed to play a higher, more exalted role in human life than just a political and economic ideology.
Still, Muslim debates about Islam as an ideology set the stage for modern accusations that Islam is an ideology and not a religion, because you can certainly find Muslims who assert that it is an ideology, not "just" a religion. It is easy to find books on Islamic government and Islamic economics and Islamic family theory and Islamic human rights theory, Islamic international law theory, and even Islamic theories of knowledge and science! All of these are efforts by some Muslims to assert that in every aspect of modern society their religion is relevant. They want to assert that Muslims don't need to borrow anything from the West.
But are they the true representatives of Islam? Probably not. For over a thousand years Muslims didn't think of Islam as anything other than a religion just like Christianity and Judaism and Hinduism and Buddhism. Yes, it informed all aspects of life – as did every other religion. But it also borrowed a lot. Muslim governments were structured in ways borrowed from Greeks and Persians. Islamic theology, pursued by the falsafa or philosophers, borrowed heavily from Greek philosophical thinking. Indeed Islam preserved and transmitted to the West much of the Greek political and metaphysical philosophy that had been lost. A lot of supposedly Islamic law about government was simply ratifying existing forms of local government and translating Greek and Persian names into Arabic.
What we need to recognize is that modern Muslims do not agree on whether Islam should be considered an ideology, just as they do not agree on what constitutes and Islamic government or even whether there should be Islamic governments! Islam is a complex and multi-faceted religion, and realizing this is the first step to understanding the truth about Islam.
And…It is a religion, not a political ideology
 
The above points prove that Islam is a Religion.

From above discussion we can say that Islam is a religion for Muslim but it is an ideology for others people. Because of that it is obeyed by Muslim as religion and also is God gifted. And the others people follow this as an ideology in their unconscious mind.
 
 
 
Conclusion:
 
It is my understanding that Islam does not distinguish between the religious and political realms. Islam is a total way of life without division or segregation of, say, secular and religious, or education and religious. That is why separation between mosque and state is a nonsensical concept to the devout Muslim.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Total word: 2527.
 
REFERENCES:
 
1. The Islamic Law, p. 118. Sayyid Qutb.
2. Islam and Revolution, pp. 337-38. , Sayyid Qutb .
3. "The Future of Political Islam: The Importance of External Variables," International Affairs 81 (2005), p. 956. Mohammad Ayoob.
4. Bukhari, Imam Bukhari.
5. A Political Ideology of Islam, (Colorado: Westview Press, 1998), p. 91 Alan Richard.
6. The Qur-an
7. The Asian Time
8. The Meaning and End of Religion (New York: Macmillan, 1962 and New American Library, Mentor, 1964), ch. 4.
9. Modern Islamic OPolitical Thought – Hamid Enayat
10. To Be a European Muslim – Tariq Ramadan