Ultimately, it's not so bad

Dr Imtiyaz Yusuf’s articles are always helpful to those of us who are trying to understand Islam. His latest contribution sees materialistic consumerism as a threat to religious culture, and calls for “a theologically or doctrinally rational response to the challenge of materialism”.

In fact, there’s no reason why religion should feel threatened by materialism. Every religion believes in something that is in control of the universe. Concepts of its nature vary from faith to faith, but for convenience we can call it the Ultimate. There is a very simple idea that this Ultimate has given us all these technological marvels to make our lives more enjoyable. It’s like a loving father who gives his children toys to play with. If the children sometimes misuse the toys and turn them to destructive or self-destructive ends, that’s not the fault of the toys, or of the father – that’s the children’s fault, and it means they have to do some serious repair work on themselves. But if they regard the toys as gifts from their father, they might be less likely to misuse them.

This idea spiritualises material goods by making them gifts from the Ultimate. It enriches religion by making people grateful to the Ultimate for the gifts it’s given them. Whether or not it is “theologically or doctrinally rational” is something I’m not qualified to judge. It’s not likely to get much traction in our increasingly secular world, but for anybody who wants it, there it is.

William Page

Samut Prakan