About two years ago, I wrote an article which appeared on Imam Zaid Shakir’s website, and which is now currently housed on the Dar al-Islam website islamamerica.org. In the article, I tried to articulate a vision of Islam which all American Muslims would find, at the very least, reasonable. At the same time, I hoped the article would contain within it a recognition of the epistemological difficulty of trying to “essentialize” Islam.
Religious people often need a rather rarified articulation of their tradition in order to strive for piety. Those with a more intellectual bent sometimes find such articulations unsatisfactory, and in response become obsessed with critiquing their weaknesses. While such critique is necessary and healthy for a religious community, it sometimes obscures the fact that at all moments we are in a state of taklif (moral responsibility before God). As such, the rhetorical style of my article was intended to put the onus back on the Muslim, as opposed to on Islam.
I welcome any feedback, positive or negative, and I ask Allah to make us all of those He loves, ameen.
Here is the article: “Reasserting the Core of Islam in America”
