With religion to defend them, the rulers could, with impunity,
trample upon the rights of the common man which still remained
undefined. This, in brief, is the Marxist theory of religion. The
Marxists view religion as a cunning device employed by the
bourgeoisie to safeguard their vested interests against the
proletariat. Religion, they aver, is an opiate which makes the people
insensible to their suffering and persuades them to resign to their
unhappy lot. This view of religion needs serious consideration. We
may be permitted to say that the world of religion has not been able
to meet this challenge so far. Only deen can meet it, as we shall discus
later on.
In so far as the view of the scientists is concerned, it may be
pointed out that religion to them represents a distinctive approach
to Reality quite different from the scientific approach. While science
has been developing a truer and clearer view of one aspect of
Reality, religion has been striving to achieve a clearer perception and
a more and more adequate apprehension of Reality as a whole and
its relation to and meaning for man in a realm beyond the reach of
natural science. Professor Heisenberg, the famous physicist, in one
of his recent writings, has observed that as science becomes more
and more perfect, it gets farther and farther away from concrete
reality and enters into the realm of abstraction. As scientific
concepts tend to become more and more abstract, they get more
and more remote from the real world of our daily experience. Each
step that takes science nearer to perfection takes it farther away
from the realities of life. Religion, on the other hand, strives to keep
close to the living reality, and its concepts too, though they may not
take the form of scientific expression, yet are more meaningful and
in closer touch with human life.
The philosophical approach to religion is certainly more
appropriate than that of the scientist. The philosopher’s quest is for
the meaning and he strives to achieve a comprehensive view of
religion and its value to human life. Unfortunately, many
philosophers have been hampered by their preconceptions and
have, therefore, failed in their search. Human reason, moreover, has
serious limitations and it may be doubted if it can lead us by itself to
the core of Reality. Some philosophers, as a result of deep and
intensive reflection, have, no doubt, arrived at a conception of God,
Islam: A Challenge to Religion 44