Islam s response to the challenges of religious pluralism

Description

Introduction We are living at the moment in an age in which access to the different religions of humankind is of unparalleled range and depth. There is of course a considerable variation from individual to individual in terms of how far people delve into the information about the world faiths which now lies so readily to hand. There remain some cultural enclaves which, either through choice or geographical isolation, are still relatively insulated against outside influences, but the main trends of histoiy, the major currents which puLsc through our time and bear us towards the future, arc inexorably pluralist in tendency. They promote a multifaceted awareness rather than securing the unchallenged dominance of any one religious way of seeing things. Moreover, beyond the immediate impulse of religious pluralism upon us, the resources of modern scholarship allow anyone with the time and inclination to do so to become immersed in an enormity of details about the different faiths. Specific exceptions could, obviously, be cited in the face of this push of generalizations. But utterly dwarfing the significance of these exceptions is the fact that our religious landscape has undergone seismic changes in the course of only a few generations. The principal landmark of the contemporary religious scene is the fact of our being informed (at whatever level) about, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Jainism, Sikhism, Taoism and so on, rather than knowing about only one religion. In such a situation, how do we decide which, if any, faith to follow? Which of their teachings speak to our particular situation? Which one offers a lens through which the confusion, complexity and apparent randomness of life might be refracted into some sustainable sense-giving vision, according to which we might live, our lives? It is one thing to be a Muslim a Christian a Buddhist or a Sikh and to be faced with the rich plurality of religions, which flourish around the globe. One will then have,