The Real Islam
Following on from the post below about literalism I just found a great article (courtesy of Rahul Jindalat Zombie World) that expands the theme that I was wittering on about far better than I ever could. There is also an excellent associated photo-essay.
The article is called The Real Islam and is written by William Dalrymple (who was at my university - things went a different way for both of us!). I recommend this as essential reading to anyone interested in understanding contemporary forms of Islam or extremism and the relationship between the two - at one point Dalrymple asks a literalist believe Amin, about conceptions of the afterlife:
“True Islam leads to jannah ”paradise.” said Amin. “What sort of paradise?” I asked. “It is beyond all human imagination,” said Amin. “But there will be couches to lie on in the shade, and rivers of milk and honey and, cool, clear springwater.”
“What about the Sufi idea that God can also be found in the human heart?” I asked. “Paradise within us?” said Amin, raising his eyebrows. “No, no, this is emotional talk a dream only. There is nothing in the Koran about paradise within the body. It is outside. To get there you must follow the commands of the Almighty. Then when you die, insh’allah, that will be where your journey ends.”
Here, it seemed to me, lay some sort of crux, a clash of civilizations, not between East and West but within Islam itself. Between the strictly regulated ways of the orthodox Tablighis and the customs of the heterodox Sufis lay not just two different understandings of Islam but two entirely different conceptions of how to live, how to die, and how to make the final and most important, and difficult, journey of all - to paradise.
Definitely worth a read.
