
Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam

“Managed” Religion, which somehow needs to create co-dependency (“learned
helplessness”) among its members, preferred to emphasize “original sin” instead.
This has kept us united but disempowered in inferiority instead of empowered and
united by dignity—which is our only real future. The negative result, however, has
been the immense self doubt, guilt
because it did not empower a priesthood as the intermediary between the faithful and their god, Islam did not bind the individual so tightly into an ordered religious community. Its clerical elite, the ulama, were teachers, judges and scholars, not priests. Sufis and pirs, or holy men, exerted spiritual leadership, not religious authority.
John Darwin • After Tamerlane: The Rise and Fall of Global Empires, 1400-2000

Man’s Eternal Quest: Collected Talks and Essays on Realizing God in Daily Life – Volume 1
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