Towards Sacred Activism

Towards Sacred Activism is an attempt at providing concise, general guidance to Muslims in the West regarding engagement in social justice activism from an Islamic perspective. I do not profess that the brief contents within are the sole authority on this issue, nor do I believe that this work should go un-critiqued. It is but an attempt to present some general parameters and reminders based upon fundamental aspects of Islam drawn from our rich tradition which focus on building and supporting model life for all of Allah s creation, humans being the priority. This work by Imam Dawud Walid, Towards Sacred Activism, is a very valuable addition to the ever growing library of English Islamic literature. The title itself, however, seems to hint at an oxymoron. After all, activism, as usually understood, implies a passionate, engulfing engagement with the world, while the sacred implies that which is of or related to God, who is, in many critical aspects, distinct from the world. This seeming contradiction only exists when we view the world through the dichotomized lens provided us by the modern West. As more and more Muslims adopt that lens as part of their effort to both understand and engage the modern world, the gap between the religious scholar, viewed by many as the principal defender and preserver of the sacred in the world, and the activist, grows wider. - Imam Zaid Shakir, Zaytuna College