Attention to Silence
\r\nReformist thinking has as a principle not to change Muslims of today into imitators of Muslims of yesterday. Faithful to the principles, they must find out how to live within their own time. In the same way, Muslims of today must not become imitators of the fashions of the day or be satisfied with the law of least resistance by contenting themselves with "Islamizing" whatever "goes" commercially. When this first stage of adaptation drags on, it is because laziness is overcoming us and we lack imagination. The indicators of this tendency to imitate are legion: in numerous Muslim gatherings, the bands, the varieties of music, and the types of presentation are pure reproductions of what one might see on television or at some young people's parties. The event has been "Islamized," that is to say, made permissible (halal), without any great concern for the implicit messages conveyed by this so-called substitute (badil) culture. For a party (exactly as at other parties where-we-must-not-go), we want bands with loud music, dim lighting, very up-to-the-minute performances, because that is what young people want. What is unconsciously reproduced is a kind of relation with consumerism and a focus on celebrity (the same as there-where-we-must-not-go), a relationship with night, with noise, with entertainment. Behind the entertainment that is being offered to people is a particular psychology of silence and noise, day and night, relation with oneself and with the other, which as a whole translates into a philosophy of existence. The message of Islam makes us attentive to silence, to the quality of what replaces or disturbs it. It also makes us aware that there is another way of facing night, by making way for silence in a sort of recollection. Ultimately, it guides our entertainment toward the exploration of that state in which one forgets the world without forgetting oneself, by remaining human and safeguarding one's dignity. These promptings should make it possible, even in the West, not to neglect the psychology that should underpin art and entertainment in the Islamic philosophy of life, not in order to isolate oneself or to forbid everything but, on the contrary, to commit oneself—to develop a critical mind, to make choices, to contribute, to renew, and always not to imitate either the past or the present. To be Western Muslims is to confront reality with all its challenges and, sustained every day by the "need of Him," to take on all our responsibilities.
\r\nCompiled From:
\r\n "Western Muslims and The Future of Islam" - Tariq Ramadan, pp. 222, 223