Saraji and Indigo Jo have both written about philosophy.

Saraji’s post on universalism sparked this in me:

I’ll define universalism as “the philosophy that there are ethical standards that apply to all situations regardless of the individual, group, or culture”. I’m sure that reading such theories have opened many Muslim to question their faith, such as an individual I am speaking to. It seems attractive to believe that ethics is something universal, and that the success America is experiencing is due to it’s universalistic belief in democracy, etc. Why would one rather choose to live in alternate, more restrictive environment than what we enjoy today?

The universalistic belief has been forced down our Muslim throats. For example, I hear over and over on the news, “What if the ‘Islamists’ take over” or “What if they want an Islamic government?”. As if that is the worst thing that could happen to America in Iraq!

The Iraqi’s are now intellectually and ‘morally’ unable to choose a completely valid option to govern themselves and still be considered a ‘successful’ state. This is due to the West’s preoccupation with the superiority of its universalist ethical values. It seems to me that universalism is simply a way to dictate Western ethical values and pork-barrel Western government and economics to the rest of the world.

I assert that the current ethical values that universalists hold on to are only defined by those currently ‘writing history’. Islam is universalistic as well, those ethics are just defined by the Divine.

Interestingly enough, I’m having an email conversation with someone who may be troubled by such philisophical concerns.

The question has arisen in my email conversation:

How do you arrive at a working understanding of what constitutes an Islamic moral system? Is your own moral point of view informed solely by Islamic texts, or would you say that it’s also informed by other sources as well?

Here are some excerpts (edited) from that conversation:

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I believe, as Islam teaches, that each person has a fairly accurate moral compass. Of course, there are issues where the precision of such a compass is insufficient (for complicated issues such as abortion), or instances where it may be misled by the need for personal gratification. In such cases, we can turn to the Law to determine what is correct and better for us as individuals and mankind.

One’s personal moral faculty may be impaired or simply unable to deal with greater questions which impact all of humanity. When one is under such a case, Islam indicates the individual should trust the Law and the fact that the Law is derived from Divine commandments and Prophetic traditions. The Divine is and has always been aware of the best solution for all problems.

In Islam we believe firmly that the community will never come to complete consensus on error.

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I also think Sheykhs Contention regarding Post-modernism is quite relevant here.