Majalah Al-Hikmah Edisi 15 2025

A MUSLIM BELIEVER WITH A SECULAR CONSCIOUSNESS ( PART 1 ) Islam and the Worldly Islam embodies a comprehensive way of life governing the entire worldly existence toward the ultimate happiness in the hereafter. Unlike secular worldviews, which are grounded in godlessness and reject the primacy of divinity, the Islamic worldview beholds the presence of God in all things, for all things originate from Him. To negate God in this worldly life is, from an Islamic outlook, an absurdity. While the spiritual aspect is substantial, Islam is never anti-worldly. Instead, a genuine believer must maintain a proper relationship with the world, since God has ordained humanity as His vicegerent on earth. A meaningful relationship with God necessitates recognizing the world’s divine significance. The earthly realm, in the Islamic sense, is not devoid of the divine, it serves as a general revelation, a “large, revealed holy book” to be interpreted and contemplated. Above all, life in this world is a stage, where the soul strives to earn the pleasure of God. Islamic guidance teaches that nothing takes precedence over divine pleasure, which surpasses even paradise. To seek His pleasure is to draw nearer to Him, and closeness to God begins with the feeling of His Omnipresence. Often, such is achieved through remembrance of Him, which demands one to actively think and remember Him, in other words, to have a God-consciousness. Divine revelation warns that unsupervised attachment to worldly matter risks diverting oneself from God, eroding God-consciousness, and ultimately change oneself into a secular worldly-dominated consciousness, which culminates in a godless consciousness. This ‘secular consciousness’ is a mindfulness that minimizes or removes the sense of the divine from the individual’s awareness. This essay, therefore, seeks to explore how secular consciousness can subtly undermine a Muslim’s sense of reality. The Notion of Secular Since our focus is secular consciousness, the concept of secular is integral and should be briefly elucidated. Etymologically, secular stems from the Latin word, saeculum , meaning a generation or lifetime. In essence, secular refers to the worldly or temporal matter with neither religious nor spiritual element. To secularize is to make something free from religious element. Muhammad Fadzil Noor bin Mohd Rozany Fourth Year Student of Akidah and Religion Studies Program Faculty of Leadership and Management, USIM fdxlnrr@gmail.com MAJALAH AL HIKMAH | 40