To the traditional Muslim mind, that moment in history is sacred—when the divine light touched human history and produced a magnificent model of individual and collective life. It represents an ideal of justice, equality, engagement, and empowerment for all members of the Community. That moment cannot be reproduced, of course. But it is an ideal that has ever since colored aspirations and moved Muslim women and men to think, to act, and to continuously improve, fullyknowing that perfection cannot be attained. Traditionally aware Muslims have never sought utopia, for the aspirations of a perfect life are only for the eternal afterlife.

Spring-2008 On page 38 Sunday, December 15, 2013 @ 5:18am