Historically, religions have passed a tortuous path all around the human societies. Religions were given birth in the heart of superstitions, violence and barbarity, survived perilous ideologies and revived by great messengers. Some fought tooth and nail to get rid of religion calling it “the opium of the people”, whereas some did their best to restrict their bottomless lust and curb their insatiable greed in the frame of religion. Therefore, some selfishly denied obeying religion but some humbly embraced it and found it the only way to salvation.

Once, religion was highly sacrosanct that no one dared letting suspicion in their minds. The popes and priests ruled people unmercifully. Only the priests were privy to religion and it was construed in their support. People used to live in the world of ambiguity accepting each and every order of the religious leaders with their eyes closed. The priests believed that religion was able to cover all the aspects of life no matter whether they are social, political, economic, etc. The cruel acts of the religious leaders planted suspicion in the mind of people which led to an angry outburst. Eventually, a revolution took place which overthrew the religious leaders from the power. This history is no more a mystery for the world. However, it is believed that humbling the religious leaders and restricting their kingdom was the great outcome of the reformation, wasn’t it?

Of course, religion was secularized to a large extent. The people felt free after breaking the chain of the Church from their feet. Religion which was considered to give fruit in the hereafter, could meet their needs in this world. People came to realize that religion was not only a set of dos and don’ts rather they felt the warmth of love and sincerity in it. For the first time, they enjoyed praying to God directly without any middlemen. But there are still some who ask if religion can cover all the aspects of life.

The fact is that a religion will talk about economy or policy minimally. For example, in the current world of modernity, no country will be able to extract their economic or political systems from religion. In other words, no religion is able to meet the political or economic needs of a country in the modern world. Moreover, no religion can theorize about the modern medical treatment or industrial agriculture, banking, business, etc. These are not the main purpose of a religion. Therefore, it will be baseless to claim that the realm of religion is unlimited.

One should not expect irrationally of religion. Religious jurisprudence (Fiqah) is no more than a set of dos and don’ts. However, planning for the modern life depends on science and technology. For instance, planning for keeping forests or traffic regulation or finding solution for greenhouse gas is none of religion’s business. Religion has not come to teach physiology, mathematics, psychology or sociology. Hence, such expectations of religion will be in vain and unreasonable.

Since freedom of expression is common about religion too, let me use this freedom regarding Islamic issues. If we ponder a little more deeply, we will come to know that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) did not bring new words; rather he built a new building with the building blocks which were common in Arab’s culture. The words such as, sin, infidel, faith, apostasy, repentance, pray, worship, right, wrong, virtue, ascetic, jihad, forgiveness, clean, unclean, whim, punishment, wisdom, ignorance, guidance, Satan, angel, morality, loss, profit, etc existed in Arab’s culture and ideology, however, they were revived in Islam and carried fresh and guiding messages. In other words, a new soul was injected in the common words and the “semi-transparent” words were changed into full “transparent” ones.

Commonly, whenever a religion emerged in a particular geographical part of the world, it talked by their terms and tongue and in accordance with their cultures. The same was the case with Holy Quran. Besides being in Arabic, one can see the reflection of Arab’s culture in Holy Quran to a large extent. For instance, at the time of our Holy Prophet, business was common among the Arabs. They traveled across the infertile lands and scorching deserts. They were getting lost and wandering in the dark deserts, navigating through stars, lagged behind by caravans, suffering from thirst, being stuck in tortuous paths, being mugged, etc. They also either got benefit or sustained loss in their business.

The religious issues are portrayed in Holy Quran in the same way: “Those [disbelievers] are the ones who have purchased error [in exchange] for guidance, so their transaction has brought no profit, nor were they guided. Their example is that of one who kindled a fire, but when it illuminated what was around him, Allah took away their light and left them in darkness [so] they could not see. Deaf, dumb and blind - so they will not return [to the right path]. Or [it is] like a rainstorm from the sky within which is darkness, thunder and lightning. They put their fingers in their ears against the thunderclaps in dread of death. But Allah is encompassing of the disbelievers.”

According to Abdul Karim Sorosh, an Islamic intellectual, there are “accidental” and “substantial” issues in Holy Quran. The accidental issues are: Arabic language, culture, theories, historical phenomena, the questions asked by the believers and disbelievers, the potentiality of the audience, etc. Mr. Sorosh says that accidental issues mean that they could be in any other way. For example, Holy Quran could be in any other language rather than Arabic.

Some of the Prophet’s messages are as a soul which could not be formed in any other way and they are called substantial issues such as inviting to worship Allah, offer prayer, keep fast, etc. Since there does not exist a bare soul, it was covered by the culture of Arab. So, the soul was carried in the body of Arab’s culture which was mentioned previously. Moreover, the accidental issues are originated from the environmental issues and social conditions. As Holy Quran was completed gradually through 23 years, it was framed in social, political, local phenomena.

Now, it is a matter of great pleasure to see that religion has been secularized and used to assure one’s prosperity not only in the hereafter but also in this world. Moreover, expressing your opinion about religion is no more a sin.