Salaam aleikum to all,

My dear sister Irshad will give an interview on CNN today where she will cover these questions given below. As a challenge, she asked what we would answer, and so after a brainstorm, this is what my mind produced.

* Is the global financial meltdown more of a spiritual crisis than an economic one?
 
During a crisis it is an ancient human tradition to rethink our spirituality, as the human mind is used to the idea of being punished by the Divine, thus we reflected on our relationship with the Divine to see of we can restore the balance. But this approach to a crisis and our relationship with the Divine is an inheritance from our ancestors who lived in times when nature and cause and effect were chaotic looking and thus without a system, and this approach is deeply imbedded in our cultures, religions and subconciousness.

For us in modern times, cause and effect are not mysteries, something that lay outside our range of observation, so we can trace the causes of our fortunes and disasters. And these trails lead us not up to heaven, but to ourselves. It is not the wrath of the Divine, but an imbalance in nature, society, economics, justice and so on, caused directly by our behaviour. The Divine judgement is directly built into the system of cause and effect so we can learn from our mistakes or successes to restore and maintain the balance. So is this crisis a spiritual one? Spirituality is an universal experience whereby an oneness with all of Reality is sought after.

Again it is a pursuit of balance to be part of the Whole. This crisis was caused by an imbalance, humans who desired wealth gained in as short amount of time without caring for the consequences towards the whole. Their non-experience of being part of a whole of humanity, nature and Reality, makes this indeed a spiritual crisis. And all of us are to blame, as although only a minority gave the last push to tip the balance, we as a whole had already caused the imbalance that now has collapsed on us. So a cure, or at least a prevention of a future crisis, is the realization that we as humans, everyone of us, are part of a whole, and we are all responsible for keeping the balance. As the Qur'an says:
 
 17:35 Give full measure when you deal, and weigh with a balance that is straight. That is good and better in the end.
 
55:8-9 Do not transgress in the balance. Observe the weight with equity, and do not fall short in the balance.
 
 42:30 Any misfortune that happens to you is a consequence of what your hands have earned. He overlooks much.
 
* Does God hate materialism?
* Can religion effectively curb human greed?
* What ethical lessons have the past several months taught us — be it about saving or consuming?
 
I believe God "hates" imbalance is a better statement. Within Islam, property and wealth are protected by its laws and are even the rewards for the righteous in this life and in the Hereafter. But people are only truly entitled to it when they share it equally to make sure everybody has the basic needs and the opportunity to create their own wealth (59:7). The Qur'an constantly refers to the equal sharing of resources and that wealth cannot be the reason to oppress or abuse another group. It all comes down to balance and the awareness of the development and of being beneficient to mankind as the main goals of existence, as the Qur'an says "While what is of benefit to mankind, abides on earth." (13:17).

This feeling of responsibility towards other beings can both be gained from evolution and religion, as sharing and creating balance is the only way we as species will be succesfull and progress. Religion makes us aware we are part of a Whole, and nature shows us many examples of how species will only sustain themselves when a balance is created with the whole. It isn't about the YOU, it is about You inside the US (and I don't mean the United States only).