Post by maruf on Jul 21, 2004 1:36:42 GMT -5
Western psychologists accuse religion of repressing the vital energy of man and rendering his life quite miserable as a result of the sense of guilt which especially obsesses the religious people and makes them imagine that all their actions are sinful and can only be expiated through abstention from enjoying the pleasures of life. Those psychologists add that Europe lived in the darkness of ignorance as long as it adhered to its religion but once it freed itself from the fetters of religion, its emotions were liberated and accordingly it achieved wonders in the field of production.
Such psychologists often say: Do you want us to return to religion? Do you want to fetter the emotions which, we the progressives, have set free? Do you want to embitter the lives of the youth by incessantly reminding them of what is right and wrong?
Let the Europeans say whatever they like about their religion. Whether we believe it or not makes little difference at present because we are not concerned with religion in general: we are discussing Islam.
Before discussing whether or not Islam represses the vital energy we should define the meaning of repression which as been misunderstood and misapplied by both the "cultured" and the half-educated.
Repression is not the result of abstention from performing the instinctive act. It is the result of believing that the instinctive act is dirty, and of refusing to admit to oneself that such a motive may comto one's mind or engage one's thinking. In this sense, repression becomes an unconscious feeling which may not be cured by performing the instinctive act. He who performs the instinctive act but believes that he is committing a degrading and dirty act is a person who suffers from repression, though he may commit such an act twenty times a day. Every time he commits such an act, there shall ensue a conflict within his psyche between what he has done and what he ought to have done. It is this conscious and unconscious conflict which gives birth to complexes and psychological disorders.
This definition of repression is not invented by the writer. It is the definition given by Freud who spent his life in criticizing religion for repressing people's activities. Freud says in his book "Three Contributions to the Sexual Theory" (p.82) that "distinction should be made between the unconscious repression and the abstention from performing the instinctive act- which is a mere suspension of the act".
Now that we have come to understand that repression is synonymous to the feeling that the instinctive act is dirty rather than a temporary suspension of it, let us proceed with our discussion of repression and Islam.
No religion is as frank as Islam in recognizing the natural motives and treating them as clean and healthy. The Holy Qur'an says:
"Fair in the eyes of men is the love of things they covet: women and sons; heaped-up of gold and silver, horses branded (for blood and excellence) and (wealth) cattle and well-tilled lands"(iii : 14).
In this verse, the Qur'an names the earthly desires and recognizes them as a matter of fact and states that they are desirable things in the yes of men, but does not object to these desires as such not does it disapprove of such feelings.
It is true that Islam does not permit people to give way to such desires or to be dominated or enslave by them. If everyone becomes a slave to his passions, life will be running in the wrong direction. Humanity aims at development and improvement; it can never achieve such aims as long as it is dominated by its unruly passions which exhaust all the energy and lead it downwards to animalism.
Islam does not allow people to descend to the level of animalism but there is a great difference between this and the unconscious repression which holds that such passions are dirty in themselves and which drives people to abstain from even entertaining such feelings in the name of purification and elevation.
It its treatment of human soul, Islam recognizes, in principle, all the natural emotions and does not repress them in our unconscious but it permits the practical performance of such instinctive acts to an extent such as may give a reasonable degree of pleasure without causingany harm or injury to the individual or the community.
An individual who is thoroughly absorbed in satisfying his passions brings about an early enervation of his vital energy. Besides, a person who is enslaved by his unruly passions will not be fit for doing anything. All his efforts and thoughts will be devoted to the satisfaction of his desires.
Such psychologists often say: Do you want us to return to religion? Do you want to fetter the emotions which, we the progressives, have set free? Do you want to embitter the lives of the youth by incessantly reminding them of what is right and wrong?
Let the Europeans say whatever they like about their religion. Whether we believe it or not makes little difference at present because we are not concerned with religion in general: we are discussing Islam.
Before discussing whether or not Islam represses the vital energy we should define the meaning of repression which as been misunderstood and misapplied by both the "cultured" and the half-educated.
Repression is not the result of abstention from performing the instinctive act. It is the result of believing that the instinctive act is dirty, and of refusing to admit to oneself that such a motive may comto one's mind or engage one's thinking. In this sense, repression becomes an unconscious feeling which may not be cured by performing the instinctive act. He who performs the instinctive act but believes that he is committing a degrading and dirty act is a person who suffers from repression, though he may commit such an act twenty times a day. Every time he commits such an act, there shall ensue a conflict within his psyche between what he has done and what he ought to have done. It is this conscious and unconscious conflict which gives birth to complexes and psychological disorders.
This definition of repression is not invented by the writer. It is the definition given by Freud who spent his life in criticizing religion for repressing people's activities. Freud says in his book "Three Contributions to the Sexual Theory" (p.82) that "distinction should be made between the unconscious repression and the abstention from performing the instinctive act- which is a mere suspension of the act".
Now that we have come to understand that repression is synonymous to the feeling that the instinctive act is dirty rather than a temporary suspension of it, let us proceed with our discussion of repression and Islam.
No religion is as frank as Islam in recognizing the natural motives and treating them as clean and healthy. The Holy Qur'an says:
"Fair in the eyes of men is the love of things they covet: women and sons; heaped-up of gold and silver, horses branded (for blood and excellence) and (wealth) cattle and well-tilled lands"(iii : 14).
In this verse, the Qur'an names the earthly desires and recognizes them as a matter of fact and states that they are desirable things in the yes of men, but does not object to these desires as such not does it disapprove of such feelings.
It is true that Islam does not permit people to give way to such desires or to be dominated or enslave by them. If everyone becomes a slave to his passions, life will be running in the wrong direction. Humanity aims at development and improvement; it can never achieve such aims as long as it is dominated by its unruly passions which exhaust all the energy and lead it downwards to animalism.
Islam does not allow people to descend to the level of animalism but there is a great difference between this and the unconscious repression which holds that such passions are dirty in themselves and which drives people to abstain from even entertaining such feelings in the name of purification and elevation.
It its treatment of human soul, Islam recognizes, in principle, all the natural emotions and does not repress them in our unconscious but it permits the practical performance of such instinctive acts to an extent such as may give a reasonable degree of pleasure without causingany harm or injury to the individual or the community.
An individual who is thoroughly absorbed in satisfying his passions brings about an early enervation of his vital energy. Besides, a person who is enslaved by his unruly passions will not be fit for doing anything. All his efforts and thoughts will be devoted to the satisfaction of his desires.