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H. Bundakji: Society Needs Religion
Written by Haitham Bundakji, Chairman of Public Relations, Islamic Society of Orange County, California, USA
Monday, January 2, 2006
In Islam we can never separate between religion and state according to Islamic laws. All aspects of life are to be dealt with in accordance with the Holy Qur’an and the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed. Islam does not allow any man-made laws or rules to supersede Islamic laws. Islamic laws, derived from the Holy Qur’an and the teachings of Prophet Mohammed, deal with every little detail of human life from A to Z.
The world has witnessed numerous ideologies and philosophies governing our lives, including colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, and communism. All of these systems have failed to bring true harmony among people of all faiths, simply because they were made to do away with religion. Governments isolated religion from society, and people were told to keep their religion inside their place of worship. This produced a secular society without religion to keep standards high. We ended up with two Gods: one is inside the place of worship, and the other god is government.
Religion is a basic factor in raising a family and should be emphasized in a government. Each religion preaches moral values and goodness toward the human race. Since children represent the future, teaching them religion at home is not enough. Religion should be brought into schools and public places. It is human nature to forget things; therefore, by practicing religion both inside and outside the home we will always remind ourselves of our actions and what we have been taught.
In Islam we are asked to pray at five different times during the day. The purpose behind this is to remind us of God the Almighty and his creations; most important, it is to remind us to stay away from bad or evil doing.
Since a good family is the backbone of a good nation, it takes both family and nation to keep it whole and complete. There is a teaching of Mohammed which says: “If part of the body is ailing in sickness the whole body prays for it to recover.”
[Source: Islamic Perspectives on Peace. Tarrytown, NY: Universal Peace Federation, 2006.]