Religion And Wisdom
The five pillars of islam, being hakook Allah, are timeless. they are not subject to our rationale choices or affected by change in time and space until the day of judgement. The 97% of the rest is Hikama that is timeless and never gets outdated. The spirit of the Hikama is “emaan” or faith and morals. Morals are defined in two words “justice” and Excellence” (Adl o ahsan). We are supposed to work towards those moral goals with a God conscious mind. Those moral values are eternal and provides a foundation stone even to the modern human rights charter. The less than 3% of the rest is divine law (kitab) that provided the best ways to deliver human rights to the people of the prophet’s time (SW). We are not supposed to act on any divine commandment until we are sure we understand its spirit and that makes sense to us as the best way to honor and respect human rights in our time and space. What is obligatory on us is to follow the best way and best practices that God has made available to us in present time and space to deliver justice and excellence and not those ancient practices (no matter Divine or man made) that were meant for the people of the prophets (AS) of that time. Bear in mind, no matter our intellect is good enough or not, our accountability is ONLY on whatever level of wisdom we have been given. Without using the rationale over nafs (self centered motives) we can’t succeed in this world or in the hereafter. Here are some example, where you can use rationale over traditional practices: if you can behave your wife by changing wifi password, that is far better than spanking her. If a country can defend itself through strengthening its cyber security, it’s far better than getting their horses ready. If you have medicated tooth paste to clean your teeth, you don’t need a Maswak. If a state can treat sick criminal minds with medication, they don’t have to chop off limbs. if a woman has to visit a ladies toilet at a public place, she doesn’t have to draw a cloak over her body.