Wake up and smell the coffee.

I am not an atheist. I believe deeply in God. Pray five times a day, encourage and defend woman's right to be veiled and have a greater goal of making Islam more understandable and more human not only to Muslims born into it. But to others looking from the outside

On the same note, I'm not trying to convert anyone, I just want to philosophically discuss some of the matters that have been disturbing me recently. To many they find this going outside the religion. I would counter with saying. Where would we be without Ibn Khaldoun, Al Farabi, and other Muslim philosophers who have totally renovated everyones' visions and understanding of Islam. Of course there are great thinkers on each side. Some push to Sufism, some push towards Salafism each has it's good and bad ideas.

The absolute absence of the Muslim sages in the modern times is to blame to the conditions we're in these days. We have these half educated scholars who are governing our life converting Islam to "listener's choice" deciding to rule us into submission to 17th century Islamic dark ages. Without following the soul of the text or the real gems that exist deep within it's teachings.

I refuse to be a mindless follower. There are billions that would chose to follow. Choosing the easier route of depending on what scholars come up with. Only to be disappointed by achievements that totally contradict these scholars

I view the status of Islam these days exactly at the same situation the Catholic church was during the dark ages. Prosecuting scientists and visionaries and subjecting to inquisition anyone and any idea that has even the remote notion that what these half scholars are calling Islam. The way I see it, this is their version of Islam and not true Islam

It has been very common in recent years to brand something with "The Islamic way" or "Islamic miracle" to totally cripple any voice for reason and mute people who are really trying very hard to prove ideas that may on the outside seem to be contradicting but on closer inspection might prove to be 100% rooted in the teachings. Or can happily live along side.

To start, there is the concept of "Aqidah" which is the the Islamic creed. These overrule everything if anything contradicts with them. These are the core teachings of Islam that are never wrong when taken withing the correct context. Almost everything else driven from them is open for interpretations. The items that are open for interpretations don't include the basic Islamic "Ibadat" or the religious rituals like prayers, fasting and other pillars.

Then there is the concept of "Fiqih" which are the basic rules of Shariaa as in the Islamic law. Fiqih include rules that communicate certain higher values like for example "Pushing away harm is referred to bringing benefit" as in the case of Alcohol and betting in Islam. Or "the benefit of the group outweighs the benefit of the single if they contradicted", or "Necessities overrule prohibition"

One of these rules that is often times misunderstood is "If a contradiction should occur between PROVED scientific finding and the Quran or the Hadith. Then the interpretation is reconsidered". When we talk about interpreting of the Quran, and Hadith there are two major types. "Tafseer" which means literal explanation and for the most part this never changes. And then there is "Ta2weel" which is an explanation that could be reinterpreted again as we make newer discoveries or understand the universe better.

With these powerful tools in place in the core of Islam, I find it astonishing that there has not been any major revamping campaigns in Islam in the past few centuries. There have been some attempts at the beginning of the 20th Century by, Mohammad Abduh and Jamal Eddin Al Afghani and many others. To address the advent of modern science into our everyday lives. But since then all voice of reasons have been put to darkness by fundamentalists and purists vowing to stick BLINDLY to the text. I don't disagree that our fore scholars have done a fantastic job in interpreting Islam in amazing ways. But it's been almost a thousand years since they have departed. And it's time to revamp our whole system again. This is by no means a single person effort it would take the collective effort of institutions like Al Azhar and other Islamic schools to achieve such a renovation. The truth is, Islam in the 1000AD form is not the same Islam that Mohammad came with, and will need alot of modern day work to meet the challenges of the third millennium.

What I just said might be shocking for many, but it's inevitable. If Islam is to stand the change of times and advance in science and not repeat the catastrophe of the Catholic church (which lead to secularism, and huge disbelief in the west)

Islam should once again embrace science and scientists as it has been originally designed by our maker. And have these visionaries lay out our future. Instead of rattling about Using a tooth brush or Miswak before prayers and Oral sex between married couples.

It is time to write a modern, updated version of Tafseer of Quran that takes into considerations the lessons learned over the past 14 centuries. It's time to Look once more into the Hadith and understand it in light of modern times. It's time to clean the whole Shariah from rulings that either don't apply or lost their context now. We need a revolution. Shariah is one of those open for the second type of interpretations that I talked about earlier. We need to understand Islam once more and make sure it is not affected by external factors.

I see the future days containing huge challenges for faith in General and Islam in particular. There will come a time that every belief that we hold dear will be in the balance and without proper understanding it seems that more clashes and heat points will arise to a point where people are going to drift further apart and decide to pick a side.

I call on all Muslim scientists to go back, to Islam and collectively enrich our Shariah with their science. We need our best and brightest to go back to the Quran and Sunnah and apply what they've learned to help Islam face the modern challenges and the challenges to come.

It's a shame really when our best and brightest are continuously pushed away by the ones who take religion as a profession. And continue to push people's minds into darker and darker times. I see this everyday as certain core values are being set aside and replaced with closed mindedness and bigotry. When has Islam become so intolerant? When has it become so backward and against advancements? Is all we need to learn in Islam is how to perform ablution and pray? This is the extreme opposite of the concept that Islam is a religion and life. And we should all stick together in demanding that our scholars revamp and recreate the true spirit of Islam in the face of challenges that are coming it's way now and in the future.

This is a level 400 article, if you have no idea what I just said and decide to just rant about it, then please read it again. And try to understand the deep thoughts in it. If you get from it that I'm against Islam or that I'm calling to drop the core teachings in favor of modernization and globalization then you have totally missed my points.

It's time to wake up.... and not be as Mutannabi eloquently said:
اغاية الدين ان تحفوا شواربكم يا امة ضحكت من جهلها الامم

May god enlighten everyones' path to see the amazing values and truths in Islam