Men discovering God – Prologue to a history of Religions (Ad-dîn)

Approaching the work of Mohammad Abdallah Draz* through the equivocal relationship that men have with faith is probably a challenge. Introducing the subject through a journey through time and space can only reinforce this feeling. In the end, we must return to the original title of this essay to find a common thread: A-din. It is said that to translate is to betray, we have probably demonstrated this, without prejudging the intention.

Nevertheless, the eloquence of the statement joins the rigor of the approach to explicitly pose the matter to be explored: seeking the lowest common denominator of religious fact in a form of ecumenism that is first theoretical and then empirical. As such, the author does not avoid systematic doubt or semantic study to define what a religion is. The approach is salutary and highlights submission to an active force, unconstrained, transcendent, and endowed with reason; perceived by the believer as a reality.

Unambiguous, he then turns his gaze towards the sky, when the materialist scholar studies what is at his feet. The image is striking and the parallel is obvious with the dichotomous perspective of Malek Bennabi who brings together for the needs of the cause, two comrades in misfortune, Hay Ibn Yaqdan and Robinson Crusoe (1). This Newage believer has a solid connection with his Creator and is then in a psychological state without restriction in the field of possibilities.

Thus defined, religiosity maintains in the minds of men a relationship of independence or superposition with morality, of opposition or complementarity with philosophy, of denigration or respect with science. The latter thus echoes above all truth, and morality with good, when philosophy attempts to bring them together.

However, only religion allows a communicative and active faith, vertical and transversal, of what is right according to its double meaning, rightness and justice. This results in a primitive and universal religious instinct that the past and present of humanity, as well as even profane observation of the infinitely small and the infinitely large, continue to reinforce. In other words, without religion, whatever it may be, the three questions of the meaning of our existence would remain unanswered: From where? To where? And above all why? Its metaphysical questions par excellence do not evade the role of religion in social harmony in its different aspects: cohesion, solidarity, justice.

Mohammad Abdallah Draz, in his position as a man of plural religions, subsequently directs his syncretic gaze towards the birth of the idea of ​​God in the minds of men. The result is a masterful meta-analytic demonstration specific to an explorer of the underlying, the first causes. A long debate then begins with, among others, Durkheim, Comte, Descartes, Kant, Tylor, and Sabatier, during which the Azhari Sorbonnian strives to convince by the force of argument.

If everyone agrees that the primary belief has a universal character in space and time, everyone will have a specific view on its origin. Jumbled together, nature, our psychological states, our reason or even life in society constitute fertile ground without being the seed. These wanderings will lead to the inclusive idea of ​​faith, revealed to men by their Creator, and which everyone is free to explore from their angle of view, in their quest for meaning. This is how Muslims rich in the Quran as a source and Islam as a vector can then dialogue with everyone in a framework of peace and humility.

*Mohammad Abdallah Draz – Editions Al Bouraq (1999)

1. The problem of ideas in the Muslim world – Malek Bennabi – Editions Tawhid