The history of the Islamic lifestyle

Lifestyle has various aspects and dimensions such as scientific, religious, medical, social, etc that many studies have done about most of them. Regarding its religious aspect, the emergence of the divine religions can be mentioned. The divine religions themselves induce the revelatory type of lifestyle for human communities. In this regard, the Islamic doctrine by its dynamic and inclusive jurisprudence and according to the interpretation of the wise leader of the revolution “the regulations of managing the people’s lives” presents a new kind of lifestyle to human societies and the Muslims based on the teachings of the prophets.
Accordingly, the books that were written in the early Hijri centuries expressed that kind of lifestyle perfectly and taught the Muslims how to determine their livelihood and resurrection based on the Islamic and revelatory teachings.
Additionally, Fiqh especially Shia Fiqh is very rich and the honorable Shia scholars have presented the kind of lifestyle inspired by the teachings of the prophets and the Infallibles to Shia Muslims since the first Hijri century that this kind of life is very apparent among the Shia Muslims.
Based on this, books that have been written and collected in the fields of beliefs and morality by the Shiite scholars like the book “i’tiqadina” written by the late Saduq teaches this kind of lifestyle to Shiites. In this regard it is enough to refer to the earlier books that are known as the “Four Hundred Original Books” (aI-Usdl aI-arba'u mi ' a). These books explain the way of having a connection with God and Imams, Walī and religious brothers and the condition of economic transactions completely and each of the books has clarified one dimension of the dimensions of life. Although the name of these books does not have the title of lifestyle; all of these primary sources are related to lifestyle.
This subject was expanded gradually based on the need at that time among the Shia scholars and was emphasized more in hadith collections in way that based on the life needs they were collected and codified in a new way in the form of different chapters. Jurisprudential chapters of “Wasā'il al-Shīʿa” or the book “Bihār al-Anwār” themselves are clear examples of showing this topic.
It is said that the late Majlisi had understood the necessity of this subject; therefore he wrote the book “Hilyat al-Muttaqin” and presented a lifestyle accepted by Islam for the individual aspects of the life of the believers.
In addition, the late Abbas Qomi tried to write the style of behavior and actions of the believers during the twelve months of the year about the way of having a connection with the Glorified God in the book Mafatih al-Janan. That many believers refer to this book perfectly shows this fact.
Finally, Allamah Tabataba’i explained the lifestyle of the holy prophet in the book Sunan An-Nabi in a way that nowadays many people refer to it.
As referring the books like Hilyat al-Muttaqin and Mafatih al-Janan shows, their contents are mostly limited individual dimension of man and they don’t deal with other issues. However a chapter in the hadith collections with the title “Kitab al-Ishra” or the books that have been written about the Sirah of the holy prophet and the Infallibles can be a useful source for humans in understanding the lifestyle of those honorable people and following them as a pattern.
At the present time, the authors from the seminary or universities have clarified the different dimensions of this topic by writing about it. The following items can be mentioned among them.
1. The book Mafatih al-hayat written by Ayatollah Javadi Amoli: He has clarified this issue by having a comprehensive understanding of the revelatory sources and by enjoying the knowledge on the holy book and Suunah and also by the discursive wisdom and a special contemplation as the honorable narrator of our time Sheikh Abbas Qomi did it with his definitive and useful work; that is “Mafatih al-Janan” paved the way for the suluk of the servants and connection of man with God through doing religious acts in the tree parts of saying prayers, supplications and pilgrimages and enjoying their good rewards, another book is required that is considered as the second volume for it which completes it and with that kind of approach relates the material affairs of the servants especially the social ones to revelatory teachings so that man can enjoy these divine plans in his life and gain benefit from the effects of them both in this world and in the hereafter; therefore this book was named “Mafatih al-hayat”. The duty of this precious and definitive work is that it gives meaning to human life in different dimensions including moral, cultural, social and political based on the principles and foundations and other peripheral materials that are extracted from revelatory sources.
. “2. Islamic lifestyle and religion”: The case study on the participants in religious meetings, written by Hujjat al-Islam Dr. Mohammad Saeed Mahdavi Kani; This book deals with the role of religion in social and cultural developments in Iran in the contemporary era with a cultural and communicative point of view and in fact it studies the manner of interaction between religion and culture or society.
The author’s point of view on the connection of religion socio-cultural developments in this work is a positive view. The book deals with this question that how religion is recreated in the process of moving from a traditional society to a modern society and how the religious identity of the individuals is formed and remains stable throughout their life with the existence of changes in manners, forms and means of living on one hand and the changes in relationships, institutions and social structures on the other hand?
To sum up, this book is a precious work since it deals with a new topic and can be a very good source for those who are interested in such topics; but since the book deals with the clarification of the relationship of religion with socio-cultural developments, normally like other books in this regard it doesn’t introduce the indicators so that one can evaluate his lifestyle in terms of being Islamic by presenting them to himself.
"3. Islamic lifestyle and its measurement tools" by Hujjat al-Islam Dr. Mohammad Kaviani; in this book the author deals with the topic from a sociological and psychological point of view and in addition to conceptual theorizing, he tries to step in making it quantitative and measuring it which is considered as a new project. The important point in this book is that it isn’t complete in presenting a clear definition of the indicator and the component of lifestyle and somehow has mixed these two concepts.
Many articles have been also published about lifestyle which are not introduced in this book in order not to explain the topic in detail.
But on the jihadi-revolutionary lifestyle which is one of the approaches of lifestyle no comprehensive research has been conducted up to now; therefore in this book the components and indicators of Islamic, jihadi-revolutionary lifestyle.
Foundations
"Foundations" are concepts derived from original sources that without them any mentioned science will not be complete; in other words "foundations” are considered as the basis for any science and principles and objectives are defined according to it.
“Foundations” are the worldview and attitudes that are considered as the basis of Islamic lifestyle; in other words in foundations some “existence” and “non-existence” is studied which is the basis of the principles governing Islamic life style.
In fact, the lifestyle foundations explain the wherefore of lifestyle that is derived from the revelatory teachings and the noble Islamic knowledge based on the Islamic perspective.
The principles
The idiomatic meaning of the principle is dos and don’ts that is considered as the guide for the actions to reach the goals from foundations. Based on this, principles are dos that are originated from foundations, goals, the relationship between them and also by taking the principles governing it into account and they form the behavior; In other words, by the comparison of foundations, goals and considering other mechanisms and influential factors, it is necessary to abstract some "dos" or principles and consider them as a guide so that one can reach the goals. For example, on the ground that the ultimate goal of creation and the type of lifestyle is proximity to Allah and reaching the status of servitude this principle can be concluded: "In Islamic lifestyle one must not follow lust (because it weakens the connection of man with God) and he should strive to strengthen his soul for gaining taqwa''.
Realm (level)
In the foundations of anthropology this topic is mentioned that man is a creature with different dimensions; He has soul and body, he enjoys insight, attitudes and different abilities and has relationship with other creatures of the world. Since lifestyle is a regular set of behaviors which helps man in different aspects of the spirit and body in achieving his goals, it deals with all these dimensions and aspects.
Accordingly, lifestyle aspects are the special area, range or a domain that the set of human behaviors and activities are included in them on the condition that firstly the aforementioned areas should be related to each other and secondly they should have been considered for human beings.
To achieve a fairly comprehensive categorization of these levels and areas, it is required that we consider different types of human relationships. These relationships are directly related to the person or another one; but the thing which is related to another creature is related to other human beings or it is related to the other creatures of nature or supernatural world and above all of them the sublime God.
Thus, the four relationships, define four aspects or levels of lifestyle for man:
1. Divine aspect: it considers the human relationship with the supernatural world and above it the sublime;
2. The individual aspect: It is considered with the relationship of the person with himself; that is all the areas which are directly related to him.
3. The public aspect; the relationship with other human beings and the person is concerned here; this area is divided into the following types by taking into account the issue of relationship:
A) The economic aspect;
B) The political aspect;
C) socio-cultural aspect;
The natural aspect; it considers the human relationship with nature; nature here means all creatures of the world except human and it includes inanimate objects, plants and animals.
Components
This term is attributed to the elements or parts which constitute something that it is not possible to analyze it without them and regarding lifestyle, the components are affairs which are considered as the clear examples of some parts of lifestyle that correspond with dimensions and have the ability to become quantitative; in other words the components are the constituent parts of life.
The indicator
The most important definition which can be presented for this term is that the indicator is a tool or value that can be used to discern a category and in fact it is the indicator and determiner of that category which can be assessed or measured.
Accordingly, the indicator is one of the prominent and key features which are used to discern any kind of component; at first it should indicate something and then its quality and amount or value should indicate the status of that thing.
Reference
Explaining each indicator needs markers that are mentioned as "references''.
Research method
According to the objectives and nature of research, the analytical-descriptive method is used that the principles, components and the indicators of the jihadi-revolutionary Islamic lifestyle are extracted by theoretical studies and library research on religious texts, the sayings of Imam Khomeini and Imam Khamenei and interviews with experienced experts and professionals in this field.