We have no religion – we do everything as well as possible

Marshall Mcluhan, in The Medium is the Message, quotes the Balinese as saying “We have no art, we do everything as well as possible.” ( Mcluhan, (1964).

The idea in this that art is not a specialism, confined to certain aspects of life and largely carried out by specialists, but a way of life that permeates everything.  Everything the people do is in some sense artistic, because they do everything as well as possible. They do not separate artistic activity from the rest of life. Religious people should ponder this.

In our minds, have we not made religiosity as separate category which is then confined to some parts of our lives? Have we not reified the concept of religion, confining it to rituals and gatherings where we wear certain types of clothing and listen respectfully to wise words from a thousand years ago,  –  flowery words we do not use any more, like “bestowed”, “bounties”, “gnostics,” or “beseech.”  We listen to our scholars telling us that we are nothing and we must weep and have tawakkul and have modesty and fast and pray, and then we go back out into a world filled with distractions that the early Muslims never could imagine.  This world tells us that we only live once, that what is the point denying ourselves, and that we should believe in ourselves, and lighten up, and go for it.  No wonder we feel dissonance and a lack of harmony. 

What is the remedy?  The remedy is an ancient one, and it is to return to the sunan of the early Muslims who remembered Allah at each moment through making intentions and duas before each and every action.   Who tried to act with ihsaan in all things and to treat the things of this world not as disposable and worthless, which we use and then discard carelessly, where they contaminate the land, but as the creation of Allah and deserving of reverence and respect.   In this sense, there is no such thing as being religious and doing religious things, as if it were something we fill our spare time with, like any other optional human pastime, but that religion is something which all of us have because it is an orientation to reality. The word for religion in Arabic is related to the word for debts and for judgement, and this describes our reality before the Real: we are in debt to Him and will be judged by Him.  To the extent that our understanding is in harmony with Reality, that our actions are beautiful and integral and in harmony with Reality, then this is tauheed, (the beautiful, unified reality), then we are practising our religion well by remembering Allah in everything we do.