Sapient Thoughts #34 The Human Project Part 2 – Does everyone have a worldview?

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh brothers sisters Welcome to another episode of sapient thoughts, where we discuss the philosophical issues where we answer contentions raised against Islam, and where we provide a robust and clear unequivocal case for Islam. In today's episode, which is one part of a multi part series, we are going to be continuing on on the topic of worldview. In the last episode, we discussed the definition of a worldview. And we saw that a worldview is that conceptual framework that a person has by which they interpret the world. And at the end of the last episode, we asked the question, Does everyone have a worldview? Now, the answer is that yes, indeed,

every single person has a worldview. And one can compare it to a language in the sense that a per every single person has a language that they use to either communicate in or think in, or hear and listen acts, etc. So just like a person, that they kind of, they adopt a language, non reflectively, they don't think much about it, and they grow up like this, similarly, a person might adopt a worldview and not really give it much critical thought. Now, whereas when it comes to languages, a person having a particular language, or, you know, speaking, one particular language over another, may not have any sort of deep, you know, consequences when it comes to ethics and morals. And when

it comes to one's, you know, afterlife. And when it comes to understanding, you know, those those deeper existential questions about, you know, why are we here? Where are we going, what happens when we die, etc. But a worldview does have those consequences, and does shape exactly our opinions and our ideas, and so on, and so forth. Now, the thing is, when a person is able to speak more than one language, they have a deeper understanding of the commonalities between languages, and most certainly have a understanding of the differences in languages. So if someone happens to come from a bilingual household, where let's say one person is brought up, and the society around that person

speaks, let's say English, but in the household, they speak another language. And so they're able to have two languages by which they're able to navigate, you know, navigate communication, that person can see that okay, well, there are some similarities, languages. You know, both of these languages have certain commonalities. They both have nouns and verbs, and adjectives, and so on and so forth. But how they're structured, and how they come together, and how they're used to express something, are very different. The ability to compare one language to another empowers a person to be able to really critically look at their language and see the different structures. So for instance, if a

person can speak English, and they can speak Arabic, they can see it Okay, well, both languages have some commonalities. both languages have nouns and verbs, and adjectives, and so on and so forth. But how the sentences are structured would be different. For instance, in Arabic, you can have verbal sentences were and nominal sentences, whereas in English, you have just nominal sentences or sentences that start with a noun. Unless, of course, you're Yoda. Right? So a verbal sentence would be something like a Yoda sentence like going to the market are we? But in Arabic, that's pretty common, you can actually use that. Now seeing these differences, one is able to then look and judge

the particular language and see like, what are some of the benefits? What are some of the, what are some of the strengths of one language, what are some of the weaknesses of another, and so on and so forth. Now, again, adopting one language or another doesn't have any sort of real world consequences when one thinks about ethics and morals, and, you know, basically, one's own, you know, salvation and so on and so forth. But yet, adopting a worldview does have those consequences and has profound implications when one thinks about questions that they may ask. And specifically in the realm of Islam, when someone has a question about Islam, it has profound ramifications. So when we think

about a worldview, we can understand it like a language. Or another way to look at it is that every single human being has a direction. So right now I'm facing you, or rather facing the camera in this case, but every person has a direction in which they face and so

If you think about yourself right now, you're either looking at the screen that this video is playing on or you're looking somewhere else. But the point is, you're looking somewhere everyone has a direction. In the Quran, Allah subhanaw taala highlights this. And he says, When equally which I don't, who are more leha that every, every one has a direction in which they turn. Now this particular verse in the Quran is referring to the fibula, the direction in which the Muslim would turn to pray. Now, the zg it's have some interesting things to say about this particular verse, even though it is referring to a blood, the direction of prayer, but in general, the way the sentence is

structured and what we can take from the sentence that everyone has a direction. So what do some of the exegete say? Well, one of the exegetes writes this is Muhammad Shafi writes in modify Al Quran, he says it is the comment as the commentators point out an observable fact that every traditional community has had a religious orientation of its own, whether appointed by a law or chosen by itself. Everyone has an orientation. Now here, he uses the term religious orientation. And I wanted to just spend a minute here and comment upon this, because what we find is that when we speak about worldviews, we somehow tend to think that you have worldviews which are kind of all encompassing

perhaps, and then you have a part of that which is religion. However, when we bring into our conversation, the Arabic word or the word that's used in the corner on the term Deen, we can say that this concept or this this word Diem, has can be overlapped, or can be used as a means to understand worldviews. What do I mean? Well, many times when the term is translated in the Quran, it's translated as religion. And so hence you have

Muhammad Shafi, who mentions in model Quran that every traditional community has a religious orientation. But what we have to understand is that pre modern societies, when they spoke about religion, it was religion, that delimited and delineated the area of the secular whereas in the modern world, it is the secular that delimits and limits and gives boundaries to the religious from the point of view of the term Deen as it's used in the Quran, what we can see is that includes whichever scenario you're in, as its overarching worldview. Now, of course, there may be some contentious area, other people might translate it as something else, keep it as religion, and so on

and so forth. But that's outside the scope of this particular this particular video. My point is, is that its usage in the Koran and its usage, you know, when when we read it, and we were reading texts that are talking about this term, we can apply to it the idea of a worldview for many reasons, for instance, the term as it's used in suta uses when speaking about the king talks about Dino Moloch. The and now you wouldn't translate that as religion of the king, because in that context is speaking about the the rules and regulations that the king has established for his entire kingdom. So it's not speaking about his religion, per se. Again in the Quran, Allah subhanho wa Taala mentions the I

have one lady Ursula Rasulullah, who bill Hooda, where Dean and Huck youth hit a wall in a coolie that he is the one who sent His messenger will lead the Ocelot of Sula who will Hooda with the with guidance what Dino Huck and the true Dean Leith hit a wall Edina Cooley in order to overcome and manifest over all other Dean's now, here to apply the term religion and limit the term to religion only is not really a correct way of looking at the term itself. Now again, this discussion you know, it's it's outside the scope but the idea when people are speaking about religion, we have to understand the idea of religion from a pre modern worldview or a pre modern vantage point and a

modern vantage point. So that being said, this comment that we get from from waterful Koran, it is the commenters point out observable fact that every traditional community has had a religious orientation of its own. You could read into that a dean orientation or a worldview orientation a view of the world has an orientation when it comes to a framework by which to understand the world. Okay. The very famous exegete even Kathy he mentions a Alfie recorded that Ibn Abbas said, well equally which I don't who are more li ha that for every every day every every everyone, there's a direction that everyone turns. He said this talks about the followers of the various religions here

read worldview or Dean for every nation.

And tribe has its own fibula as its own direction, which they choose, while Allah appointed Qibla is what the believers face. Now he continues on, he mentions a few things, comments and says that Abu Alia mentions that the Jew has a direction which he faces the Christian has to do. The Christian has a direction to what she faces. And Allah has guided you all Muslims, to a fibula, which is the truth nebula. Now he continues on and then he mentioned another verse of the Quran and this is what I wanted to point out here. And that verse is where Allah subhanho wa Taala says, Lee Kuan Lin JAL Nam income Sheraton, huaming, hajah. And to everyone, we have made a law and a method. Now, let's

understand this, or let's let's let's dig a bit deeper. There is a law and a method. When we think about a worldview, and how like our frame of reference for understanding the world around us, what we have in terms of a law, and what we deemed to be legal and illegal, has a source or has is dependent upon one's worldview. And so just like there's a direction that everyone turns, and there's no you can't do without a direction, similarly, that direction is going to determine one's law and one's method for understanding that law, understanding things like morals, and ethics, and so on and so forth. And so, just like everyone has a direction that they turn, you cannot be

direction less. Just like everyone has a language that they are, you know, brought up speaking or they're communicating with, or they're thinking in. Similarly, every single person has a worldview. Now, what are the main components of a worldview? So if we understood we've understood a worldview, and we've understood that everyone has a worldview, then much like someone who's bilingual and wants to analyze one language compared to another, there are certain building blocks or certain components of a worldview, just like there are certain components which all languages share, and then there's differences. So similarly, there are certain components that all worldview share. And then we use

those components to compare and contrast worldviews. So what are those main components in the next episode? That's where we're going to be looking at what are the main components of a worldview. So until next time, this is fod disclaim and these are sapient thoughts.