Get the latest news and updates from Dawn
ONE notion that is as commonly held as it is, arguably, patently untrue is the notion that balancing deen (religion) and dunya (world) is an ideal worth striving for. It is a fallacy repeated even in the most religious of households. For so many, it articulates what it means to live a good life.
Ask a religious man what makes this ideal so ethically authoritative, and he will likely point to the life of the Prophet of Islam (PBUH). After all, he traded, organised a polity, signed treaties and went to war. There is no denying that the Prophet lived in this dunya and pursued what, to us, are worldly pursuits. But when the Prophet’s life is pointed to as the justification of the deen-dunya balance as an ideal, what is really being pointed to is deen itself. For who would say that the Prophet was in any way separable from the religion he lived and perfected? So, to justify a balance between deen and dunya, the Muslim naturally (and rightly) refers back to his deen.
The implication is important: deen and dunya are not equals meant to be balanced. They are not ends of a spectrum which must be harmonised through a golden mean. In fact, as is obvious from the reasoning above, deen enjoys a primacy and a priority over dunya that renders false any ideal inviting us to balance the two.
