Religion Then & Now

Once upon a time, in many societies of the world, it would appear strange and awkward for someone living in those times to be told that religion is only one aspect and activity of the human life. For that person, religion is everything. Religion is society, politics, economics, culture, education, art, and everything that has to do with human living, all at once. Religion, Cosmos or Universe, Nature or Environment, Society and Family, Culture and Ethics, Self and the Body are inseparable from one another. Rather, they are all related as a web or chain of relationship, becoming mirror reflections of one another, and functioning as analogies for thought, feeling, and language. Even today, such as in the Malay language, one finds in the peribahasa, or idiom, that someone is an alim-alim kucing, a ‘pious-looking cat,’ if he is a pretender.

Max Weber, a famous German sociologist, in his study of the relationship between the Protestant ethics and capitalism, tries to show how capitalism is basically a religious behaviour, a behaviour that encourages a person to recycle one’s profit for the benefit of society as a whole, so that this behaviour will be the ‘outward sign of inner grace,’ that is to say, a visible sign of the Protestant believer that he has been elected for eternal bliss and avoid eternal damnation in the next life. This understanding of capitalism is so unlike today’s understanding of it that when one thinks of capitalism today, one thinks of greed and selfishness, rather than austerity and charity.

This goes to show that, as some will argue, modern societies look at religion in ways different from those of their forefathers. If at one time, religion is everything and means everything to a person, today, religion is only something out of many things and is only meaningful in time of need.

Associations with the Past

Religion, for many of us today, is oftentimes associated with the past, and the past is always more primitive and less progressive than the present.

Religion, on its part, has existed from the day our forefathers made their presence in this world. From the time the first human emerged on earth until today, religion has always featured as a crucial dimension of human life, giving us the story of our life - about where we come from, what we are doing in this world, and where we will be going after we die. It is only in modern times like ours that the view of religion, as the need of the oppressed, the assurance of the weak-minded, and the salvation of the hapless, comes about.

Religion is equated with myth, superstition, and things primitive. It is a thing of the past and can never feature in modern life that hails reason and science as liberation from religion. Religion is seen as old things, old ways, and all things outdated and obsolete, and these things, at best, serve only as precious mementos for museum display, reminding us how they have come to shape mankind’s Dark Ages.

When we turn to even a modern thinker such as Emile Durkheim, whom every student of sociology knows, we will be astounded to find that the way Durkheim describes religion is as applicable to modern societies as it is to past or even primitive societies.

For Durkheim, the essence of religion is the ‘sacred’, a quality that holds everything together in a unity so that if this quality is lost, then everything will collapse and become separate entities that do not have a common identity. For primitive people, the sacred appears as the ‘totem’, a name for the sacred as the unifying principle and function of whatever there is in existence. Because the totem cannot be seen or touched, an emblem, which is a visual image, is used to represent the totem. This emblem usually takes the form of an animal. If the emblem is a lion, then the sacred is visualised as a terrifying and brave power. This emblem becomes the emblem of a group or clan, so that all the members in that group or clan visualise the sacred as a lion. Following this, the members of the group or clan also visualise themselves as a lion, and their behaviour and movement imitate that of the lion.

Although modern people no longer think of religion this way, yet, in many ways, their behaviour reflects this characteristic of religion. Take, for example, a football club. The club’s emblem brings together its fans into a unity of the club’s image so that if the emblem is tarnished in any way, the fans would react to the incident, sometimes even to the point of going into a fight. This shows that the emblem is actually a totem and holds a special place in the minds and hearts of the fans, so special that it acquires a ‘sacred’ status to the extent that doing anything harmful to the emblem means also incurring the wrath of the club and its fans.

Common between the past and the present

The past and the present may appear to us as different instances of existence, one considered less and the other more in civilizational achievements, but if looked at in the proper light, there are many things in common between the past and the present that made religion as vibrant and relevant even for those who think the modern has left religion behind in the name of progress and enlightenment.

Religion, if it has been thought of as a thing of the past, can be thought of as a thing of the present, if only we understand how the connection is made, such as between a mosque and a restaurant. The restaurant is a place of worship the same way the mosque is a place of worship, because a place of worship is a place where goodness happens, and eating food that is healthy to the body is an act of goodness. To quote what Clifford Geertz says about what planets and pendulums have in common: ‘Look at them in the proper light, their very differences connect them.’

Many Muslims will find it strange, and obviously very odd, to regard a restaurant as a place where religion happens, the same way religion happens in a mosque. This perception is made more pronounced with the presence of Western fast-food outlets that have swarmed Muslim societies. Young people like to frequent places like Pizza Hut, Burger King, A&W and other such places, and eating pizzas, hot dogs, and burgers have become a local habit these days. But these places carry with them Western names and, historically and culturally, Western things are foreign to the Muslim experience of religion. So what have Pizza Hut and Burger King to do with religion?

Names and Identity

Eating outlets with Western names nonetheless can be places where religion happens, the same way a Muslim restaurant that has a Muslim name. While names are important because they reflect what identity a restaurant carries, as long as the name is not one that touches on the sensitivities of the Muslim faith, they should not be a problem. Muslims in Singapore and Malaysia, for instance, are sensitive to dogs, but they have no problem eating hot dog. But if the restaurant is called ‘Doggy Restaurant’ then the restaurant should not expect Muslim customers.

Apart from names, as long as the food is halal, or permissible from the viewpoint of the Islamic dietary laws, the restaurant can be considered a religious place for Muslims. There is a misunderstanding however regarding what halal is. Halal is not pork-free. Whether it is beef or chicken, halal beef or chicken refers to cows and chickens slaughtered according to the Islamic rituals for slaughtering. The writer chanced to visit Sentosa Island many years ago and was looking for a halal eatery. Incidentally, he saw two eateries adjacent to one another. One had this sign: Non-Halal Food Not Permitted Here. That’s comprehensible enough. The other read: Halal Food Not Permitted Here. Sounds anything?

But for a restaurant to be a religious place, it is not enough for the food to be halal. The food must also be nutritious and of good quality, the place has to be hygienic and comfortable, and the services have to be prompt and appealing. It is these ‘extras’ that made many people, young and old alike, and especially the little ones, to want to come to Western-style restaurants to eat because they have the recipe to attract people to their places. They have quality control.

3 Categories of Daily Living

Muslim scholars, right from the days when Islam blossomed to become a world civilization, have classified Islamic daily living into three broad categories. These are daruriyyat or necessary, hajiyyat or desirable, and tahsiniyyat or premium lifestyle. To be able to savour a piece of chicken so that one could go on living is daruriyyat. But nobody wants to eat just to avoid being hungry. They want to see the chicken properly cooked, tastes juicy, the meat is tender, and, of course, nice to see and wets the appetite. This is hajiyyat. But above all, the appetite becomes a full picture of a culture when one sees what culinary art could do to make the chicken dish something that trains a person to be a cultured personality with the way he sits around the table, how he behaves towards the food before, during, and after meal, and how he keeps his manners when he is eating. This is tahsiniyyat.

Therefore, meals and restaurants could be religious things because they serve out the purpose of religious living, which is to make a person conscientious about his manners and ethics of everyday living which would then mould him into a personality desired by religion, for Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had said, “I have not been sent but to bring into fruition the noble qualities in human character.”

For Muslims, religion is everyday, everywhere, and everything, past and present, traditional and modern. For a Muslim, religion occurs even to a restaurant. The restaurant can connect him to God. Through the restaurant, he is mindful that it is God who gave him his sustenance and therefore becomes careful with what he takes into his body so that the food becomes his source of health and energy, and not a cause of his illness and gluttony. Through the restaurant too, he understands why hygiene and cleanliness are essential to his well-being and comfort, for the Prophet (SAW) had said, “Cleanliness is an aspect of religion.” In sum, the restaurant is something through which we live our religious existence, fulfil our social meaning, and portray our human identity.

When we put all these things of everyday living together, from pen to attire to restaurant and to other objects, we will see that they are linked in such a way as to form a religious matrix connecting these things as religious. Only then, religion appears to us as a total and complete way of life. Mankind has always been religious from day one of their existence. It is they who need to know that they have been religious all along, even in modern times like ours.