Mohammad N Miraly
Many Muslims today ask: How do we reconcile Islam with our lives in the modern world? Can we uphold women’s rights and be true to our faith? Can we be Muslims in a secular society?
These questions, though simple, become complicated by the larger questions they do not ask. One answer is that the Qur’an taught an ethical system that allowed believers to live anywhere, anytime, and be Muslim.
Ethics
Islam, at its core, is a system of ethics. The Qur’an never advocated any particular political system. It realised that the world is in constant flux, and that humans must continuously change and update their laws in order to keep up with the times. Laws change all the time, but ethics remain eternal. For this reason, Islam can be practiced no matter where or when a believer lives, because to be a Muslim means simply to uphold the ethics of the Qur’an.
The Qur’an’s most overarching ethical concern is social justice. The Qur’an has always advocated equality, justice, pluralism, and human rights. Luckily, we now live in a world in which the majority of people believe in these things also. So, modern Muslims can ask themselves: What are the tools that we have today that will help us achieve the Qur’an’s goal of social justice?
Ismailimail 