Muslim Culture

Muslims throughout the world share the same essential beliefs, values, and God-centered approach to the world. Furthermore, all Muslims look to the Qur'an and the lifestyle and traditions of Prophet Muhammad for guidance in their daily affairs. In this respect, since Muslims the world over try to implement Qur'anic and Prophetic guidance, it may be said that Muslims share a common Islamic culture, focusing on shared principles and values. As a result, Muslims typically feel at home among their co-religionists anywhere in the world.

At the same time, the ethnic, regional or material cultures of Muslims vary tremendously across the globe. Muslims exhibit different sytles of clothing, different tastes for food and drink, diverse languages, and varying traditions and customs. American Muslims fall within this panorama and are in many ways culturally distinct from Muslims living in other societal contexts. Little League baseball, apple pie, and jazz music are as natual to American Muslims as they are to other Americans. Even so, certain aspects of popular American culture (such as consumption of alcohol and certain styles of dress) do not accord with Islamic principles.

Muslims view the diversity found throughout the ummah (worldwide Muslim community) as a natural part of humanity and believe it contributes to Islam's continued vitality and universal ethos. Consequently, rather than imposing arbitrary cultural uniformity, diverse cultural practices are encouraged and supported. So long as a given cultural practice or tradition does not violate teachings of Islam as found in the Qur'an and traitions of Prophet Muhammad, it is considered legitimate and possibly even beneficial. Using this approach, Muslims throughout history have beena ble to retain in large part their own distinct cultures, discarding only those elements contrary to the basic moral and ethical principles of Islam.