There’s a lot I appreciate in the piece: the way it situates Western thought within its own historical trauma and contradictions, the challenge it poses to modernity’s blind faith in progress, and the call to reclaim a different intellectual framework rooted in revelation. I’m with you on the critique of secular liberal modernity and its obsession with the present.
But I have to push back on one central claim that “Islamic content is universal” and somehow outside of historical or social context. That feels like a misreading of both our tradition and how revelation actually functions.
The Qur’an didn’t descend into a vacuum. It was revealed into context, responding to events, crises, and negotiations in real time. The Prophet wasn’t a passive transmitter of some timeless manual. He was an actor in history. Revelation shaped him, but he also navigated complex situations through reasoning, consultation, and strategy. The idea that we can separate “universal content” from the historical conditions that shaped its form feels not only artificial, but counter to how the Qur’an presents itself.
You rightly point out that Western philosophy universalized its own experience and pretended it was neutral. But isn’t it just as risky to pretend that our foundational texts and practices are untouched by history, especially when they clearly evolved through interaction with it?
The idea that the Prophet’s generation was the best doesn’t mean our job is to replicate their external forms. Their excellence came from living the message in their context. Shouldn’t our task be to do the same in ours? Not by rejecting the past, but by engaging with it critically-with love, not nostalgia.
There’s more to unpack, but I’ll stop here for now. Appreciate the provocation.
First off, you dropped this 👑 second, this is a great and timely essay. just a few days ago, I was dunking on French existential lit. and how reading it in teenage and building your personality around it is a waste of time. Posting a related meme for your consideration:
There’s a lot I appreciate in the piece: the way it situates Western thought within its own historical trauma and contradictions, the challenge it poses to modernity’s blind faith in progress, and the call to reclaim a different intellectual framework rooted in revelation. I’m with you on the critique of secular liberal modernity and its obsession with the present.
But I have to push back on one central claim that “Islamic content is universal” and somehow outside of historical or social context. That feels like a misreading of both our tradition and how revelation actually functions.
The Qur’an didn’t descend into a vacuum. It was revealed into context, responding to events, crises, and negotiations in real time. The Prophet wasn’t a passive transmitter of some timeless manual. He was an actor in history. Revelation shaped him, but he also navigated complex situations through reasoning, consultation, and strategy. The idea that we can separate “universal content” from the historical conditions that shaped its form feels not only artificial, but counter to how the Qur’an presents itself.
You rightly point out that Western philosophy universalized its own experience and pretended it was neutral. But isn’t it just as risky to pretend that our foundational texts and practices are untouched by history, especially when they clearly evolved through interaction with it?
The idea that the Prophet’s generation was the best doesn’t mean our job is to replicate their external forms. Their excellence came from living the message in their context. Shouldn’t our task be to do the same in ours? Not by rejecting the past, but by engaging with it critically-with love, not nostalgia.
There’s more to unpack, but I’ll stop here for now. Appreciate the provocation.
First off, you dropped this 👑 second, this is a great and timely essay. just a few days ago, I was dunking on French existential lit. and how reading it in teenage and building your personality around it is a waste of time. Posting a related meme for your consideration:
https://x.com/xedseraph/status/1924216860695740839?t=Svby4mgTdHthXNYn4N2-6Q&s=19