Defining the Islamic Worldview

From the perspective of Islam, a 'worldview' is not merely the mind's view of the physical world and of man's historical, social, political and cultural involvement in it. The worldview of Islam is not based upon philosophical speculation formulated mainly from observation of the data of sensible experience, of what is visible to the eye; nor is it restricted to the world of sensible experience, the world of created things. Islam does not concede to the dichotomy of the sacred and profane; the worldview of Islam encompasses both al-dunya and al-akhirah, in which the dunya-aspect must be related in a profound and inseparable way to the akhirah-aspect, in which the akhirah-aspect has the ultimate and final significance. Everything in Islam is ultimately focused on the akhirah-aspect without thereby implying any attitude of neglect or being unmindful of the dunya-aspect. What is meant by 'worldview' according to the perspective of Islam, is then the vision of reality and truth that appears before our mind's eye revealing what existence is all about; for it is the world of existence in its totality that Islam is projecting.
(The text is excerpt from Prolegomena in the Metaphysics of Islam [Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC, 1995], 1, by Prof Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas)