Majalah Al-Hikmah Edisi ke 16

A MUSLIM BELIEVERWITH A SECULAR CONSCIOUSNESS (PART 2) 3. Secular devotion A secular outlook may shift devotion from the transcendental God to worldly pursuits. While a believer may acknowledge God as Creator, their devotion, unfortunately, is centered mostly on the worldly pursuit. God is reduced to a mere distant being that is acknowledged only for ritual, while the worldly material would become the true object of submission. 4. Broader secular consciousness expression The pervasive sense of division between religion and worldly life in Muslim societies reveals a strong presence of secular consciousness that isolates Islamic values. MA JA L AH A L - H I KMAH 55 Manifestation of Secular Consciousness Secular consciousness impacts fundamental aspects of Muslim’s life, manifesting in several facets of being: 1. Secular language Secular consciousness inevitably alters language, because language serves as the primary medium through which consciousness manifests its expression. Under the dominance of worldly-centered consciousness, daily spoken words and phrases gradually lose reference to the divine. Verbal religious expressions are relegated to a secondary status and excluded from common usage. This situation is evident within secularized public space. 2. Secular time A secularized consciousness experiences time as a mere measurement of physical motion that lacks divine potentiality. Time is reduced to a profane horizontal sequence of past, present, and future, being emptied of its eternal divine significance. Instead of realizing time as a continual renewal of existence sustained by God and imbued with the potential to bring oneself closer to God, time is regarded as a linear progression of passing temporal moment to the next. Muhammad Fadzil Noor bin Mohd Rozany Fourth Year Student of Bachelor of Akidah and Religion Studies (Hons.) fdxlnrr@gmail.com