Q608 :Is it correct to say that while Western
society is bad in all respects, the Eastern society is good in every
respect? If a person does in Western style something that is not
prohibited in Islam, will his action constitute a sin?
A608 : It is not right to describe everything in
Western society as bad and everything in Eastern society as good. What
we can properly say is that in a proper Islamic society, things are all
good, as long as they conform to Islamic teachings. That is due to the
fact that Islam is the system designed by Allah for human life and
Allah has included in it all good things. In Eastern societies today,
however, there are many traditions which are either borrowed from other
netmunities or developed in isolation from the Islamic system. These
must be judged objectively. We cannot say that they are all good.
Besides, there are times when an Eastern netmunity loses touch with the
true Islamic system. It begins to drift away, either because of
ignorance or because of different trends of influence. I will give an
example. A century ago, education was totally neglected in many parts
of the Muslim world, to the extent that you could hardly find anyone
who could read and write in a whole village. The situation in cities
was not much better. Could we say that at that time, illiteracy was
good because it was a characteristic of Eastern society? On the other
hand, there are certainly good elements in Western civilization. Let us
take the example of respecting the dignity and the rights of every
individual. In many Western societies, every individual can get his or
her rights without the need to fork out large sums of money in the form
of fees to lawyer. You do not need a lawyer to get what the law assigns
to you. This is certainly a good thing which cannot be denied. The
Prophet was once asked who were the best people. When he established
what his questioners meant by their question, he answered: “The best of
people in pre-Islamic days are the best of them in Islam, provided that
they acquire good knowledge of their faith.” In the Prophet’s reply, we
note that he described some people as good and that these make up the
best of people when they embrace Islam, provided that they get to
understand it well.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )