Woman Between Islam and Western Society
1. A Survey
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regarding the conditions of ancient man, his beliefs,
customs, traditions, certain conclusions about
human beings in general were arrived at.
Religion naturally came within this field of study,
necessitating the collection of information on the
religions practised by different tribes and
communities. Thus a list of the customs which went
under the name of religion was produced.
A natural outcome of this method of study was that
religion came to be regarded as a social
phenomenon. That is to say, religion was presented
as something which had evolved out of the
influences of human myths, customs and social
conditions. Religion is essentially a divine truth (a
commandment of God), but thanks to the
anthropologists’ particular method of study, it has
been reduced to a mere artifact of historical
accretion.
The greatest harm done to religion by this method
of study is that in modern times it has been shorn of
its credibility, and reduced to insignificance,
whereas, as the commandment of God’s religion it
had an unassailable authenticity, because it
