Nationalism and religion from the point of view of the philosophical heritage of Islam

Abstract

Division of people according to their different national and geographic features is not at all unnatural. However, in such divisions no group whatsoever can be especially prominent in the sense that it must necessarily be granted political power. The community which has sovereignty and political power in the Islamic cognitive tradition is called al-milla. Of course, al-milla here does not mean a nation, but a common path chosen by members of society in the light of intuitive and rational knowledge, which leads to the essences of ontological reality. Conversely, in the modern West, a nation draws on sensitive and emotional knowledge of folk bias and as such becomes a measure of political sovereignty. In fact, the nation is nowadays man's new social me, which in no way manifests sublime ontological realities, but creates reality itself. Therefore, in this paper we insist that nationalism is quite a new ideology of the modernistic era, which has never before in the history of human thought been credible. To show how a nation can be a measure and source of truth, values and rights, in this paper we use analyses of modern rationalist philosophers and German romantics. We will also explain that in the cognitive stage of Islam such an ideology must be clearly disproved. In religious traditions, kinship, financial and other material privileges are considered possible causes of the collapse of society. True privileges are only the nobility and purity of soul. The source of bliss, peace and harmony should be seen exactly in them and not in the national states that are the cause of conflicting identities, interests, territorial aspirations and suffering. Yet, many non-Western societies, including ours, are still in the race over who will be a more extreme supporter of the ideology of nationalism.