Broken Covenant
\r\nReligious belief — like all systems of ideological conviction — is powerful. And in the case of religion in particular, its power comes from its ability, among other things, to synchronize between the physical and the metaphysical; to integrate between the individual and the collectivity; and to give an individual the sense that it is not only that he or she belongs to the collectivity, but also that the collectivity stands behind the individual. Part of the power of religion is that it defines its own strengths. It promises what appears to be unattainable.
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\r\n At times, that power could disintegrate into a form of careless thinking where the aspirations are not connected to any material or logical or rational premises, but, where it becomes something that yields the power to dream. To dream — it is remarkably powerful — powerful whether it produces love, beauty or any opposites. Furthermore, depending of course on how one handles religious conviction, in many ways, it allows the individual to have a claim to the universal; to make the universal attainable through an individuality. The personal, with all its details, can suddenly become relevant to much more than itself. And ultimately, this power redeems the promise of the comfort of a truth that can give coherence to matters that often are confronted with cynicism, and a sense of hopelessness, or at least a sense of futility. It can render the incoherent coherent in a word.
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\r\n But that power sits in tension and is quite at odds with another aspect of the religious. The religious quite often is not self-referential. Rather, it references something quite bigger than the individuality claimed. In the case of Islam, it is not sufficient that the individual says, "I feel, I want, I dream." In the case of Islam, in many ways, the individual's struggle is the attempt to understand what God wants, what God desires, what God says.
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\r\n Now, naturally, the individual is asked to handle the power that is profound and awesome — a power of divinity. And, without a remarkable dosage of humility, perhaps a constant dosage of humility — daily injections of humility and modesty — what religion promises could turn on itself in very profound ways.
Here we come to another aspect of the Islamic situation. When we often speak about Islam, simply saying "Islam" is grossly insufficient. What we are presented with when we say, "Islam," is various attempts by various human beings acting within a variety of contexts subject to a variety of contingencies and attempting to represent or assert something on behalf of the divine, all along struggling with whether the covenant that balances the relationship — the relationship between the human being and the divine — is being violated in any way. To restate this, there is a covenant in Islamic belief that is between the divine and the human being. The covenant is multi-faceted, but at the core of this covenant is the notion of balance — a balance that never allows a human being to become divine, and never allows the divine to become human; a balance that is intricate. The minute that humans transcend the proper bounds of their place, they are transgressing upon the divine and the covenant is broken.
\r\nCompiled From:
\r\n "Speaking, Killing and Loving in God's Name" - Khaled Abou El Fadl