Orthodox Islam

A PERSON IN QUORA SAID:

I see Orthodox Islam as a pure, uninfluenced, uncultural Islam, free of any influence from other cultures which it has today. That doesn’t necessarily mean hardline, conservative, fundamentalist, or extreme.

Orthodox Islam is when we treat Islam for what it is, a religion, the way we worship the Almighty. Not as a social statement, not as a platform to promote social activism, or anything else that directs our attention away from God and the teachings of the Prophets.

As a writer I greatly admire would put it, our grand and august faith of Islam is constantly being degraded, in my eyes, as something cultural, societal, and worst of all, something we pay lip service to but don’t devote ourselves to it entirely.

We shouldn’t try to modernize our traditions or neglect key aspects of our faith to fit into what people would like us to be like. Now I’m not saying we should go back to battle-axes and abandon technology, it’s not about going backwards, it’s about going forward while keeping tradition and God in mind.

I am firm in my belief that true Orthodox Islam is Sunni Islam. It’s hard to deny that Shiite beliefs can be seen as a deviation. Ali is not mentioned in the Quran or any other holy book, I see him as an important political and historical figure, but I simply cannot see where his religious significance could be found. Therefore, while I see Shias as part of mainstream (to an extent) Islam, I do not see them as Orthodox. Sufis I might count as Orthodox in my own judgement, though I wouldn’t extend that to the more obscure sects like Ahmadiyya, Ismailis, Wahhabis, etc.