Dr. Firoz Mahboob Kamal               

The ­core issue & the betrayal­­­

THE most important objective of Islam is to connect humans with the core agenda of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la (SWT). It is indeed the most crucial issue in human life and not the professional, the political or the economic successes. Whoever gets connected to his Creator indeed gets the ultimate success –both here and in the hereafter. Whoever misses this connection, gets pulled into the hellfire. The holy Qur’an doesn’t keep any ambiguity on it. Truly, it is the common issue of all religions on earth. Therefore, knowing the core agenda of Allah SWT and how to connect with that Divine agenda remain the two most important issues in life. Therefore, who be more foolish and ignorant than those who stand unaware of these most critical issues of life? Guiding and enlightening humans on these subjects are indeed the core subjects of Islam.

Since humans are not intellectually and morally equipped to discover the right code of life and the just parameter of right and wrong –as evidenced by the disastrous failures in the past, such issues stay exclusively in the realm of Allah SWT. The holy Qur’an illuminates such an exclusive domain of Allah SWT in the following verse: “Guiding people certainly rests on Me” (Sura Al-Lail, verse 10). Hence, adhering to the prescribed guidance must be an integral part of the faith component. In human life, nothing can be more important than this. Mere faith in Allah SWT and His attributes doesn’t make a significant impact on individuals if faith fails to build full compliance with the guidance given by Allah SWT. In fact, full compliance is the most decisive issue. Even an evildoer may possess faith in Allah SWT, but his evil deed tells how badly he is non-compliant with the Divine prescription. Whether a man will reach heaven or hell gets decided on this single factor. For a human, nothing is more important than such connectivity and compliance with the agenda of his or her Supreme Lord. The sole objective of all the prophets and the Divine Books was indeed to build and solidify such connection. In this context, the holy Qur’an –the final revelation from Allah SWT has very special and most pivotal importance. This holy Book has been prescribed as the rope of Allah SWT to build such a direct connection with the Almighty. The rope is indeed the Qur’anic roadmap. It is the greatest blessing of Allah SWT, and it is meant for the whole of humankind. There are numerous ropes in societies to bind people and raise divisive walls in the name of the race, tribe, language and geographical identities, but the Holy Qur’an is the only universal link to dismantle divisions and connect people with Allah SWT.

But the Muslims who claim to be the believer in the Holy Qur’an do otherwise. Their beliefs, behaviour, deeds, politics, warfare, laws, constitutions, education and culture display little connectivity with this holy Book of guidance. Rather, look fixed to their racial, tribal, linguistic and national priorities and have built walls on those divisive lines. What could be the worst betrayal against the agenda of Allah SWT that aims at building a universal brotherhood? Such betrayal illuminates another crucial lesson. If 1.5 billion Muslims had achieved any peace or glory with the current level of betrayal against the agenda of Allah SWT and the Qur’anic roadmap that would have easily nullified the need of Islam for anyone. But that didn’t happen. Such a disconnection presents its own conclusion: more the disconnection and betrayal, more the failure. It indeed proves to be the mother of all ongoing failures of the Muslims.

The symptoms of disconnection are huge. Because of it, the fundamentals of Islam like sharia, hudud, borderless Muslim unity, jihad against crimes and enemy aggression and the rule by mutual consultation -as were practised by the Prophet (peace be upon him) and his rightly guided companions stand almost invisible in the Muslim World. More surprisingly, like the known kuffars, they too vehemently detest those Islamic basics of the golden days. For example, if a group of practicing Muslims make any courageous attempt to resurrect those prophetic traditions, these so-called Muslims make a coalition with the alien kuffars to dismantle that. What could be the worst betrayal against Allah SWT than this? They blame them as deviants. But the question arises: if they are deviant, why they don’t take the mission themselves to resurrect those basics of Islam that were practised by the Prophet (peace be upon him) and his companions. What could be the worst deviation from Islam than living without the practice of sharia, hudud, unity, khilafa, jihad, and forming a coalition with the foreign kuffars in destroying Muslim cities and killing Muslims? Every disconnection has a severe consequence; it is indeed the sure route of steep deviation towards the hellfire. It brings disgrace not only in the worldly life but also in the hereafter –as repeatedly revealed in the Holy Qur’an.

The spiritual death

 The physical life is unsustainable without air. Similarly, the spiritual life can’t sustain without connectivity with Allah SWT. In such a milieu on the global stage, spiritual death takes a pandemic turn. Then the spiritually dead lose the moral compass. It is indeed the most catastrophic problem in the Muslim World. As a result, the Qur’anic Islam that was practised by the early Muslims under the leadership of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) stand alien to the current day’s Muslims. Hence, the non-Muslims need not oppose the practice of Islamic basics like sharia, hudud, khilafa, jihad, and unity in any of the Muslim land, these spiritually dead Muslims come to the forefront to launch a war against that. Because of the spiritual death, the alien kuffars are not alone in their campaign to occupy the Muslim lands and destroy the Muslim cities; they are supported by a huge number of native collaborators. Because of them, in the past, the European imperialists were not alone to dismantle the Caliphate –the traditional political structure of the Muslims. They could recruit millions of so-called Muslims in their rank. For example, the British alone could recruit more than a million Arab Muslims to keep occupying the Muslim lands. The other imperialists, like the French and the Italians, also got similar successes. It is astonishing to note that the Arab Muslims never took part in such a large number to fight any war for Islam in any segment of Muslim history. When the Muslims in Spain faced genocidal cleansing, these Arab Muslims didn’t show any interest in saving their Muslim brothers. –although it was a religious obligation on them. Whereas about half a million of the Arabs gave their lives to protect the British imperialism in the First World War. (Source: Al Jazeera English, the First World War through Arab Eyes). Their spiritual death was so complete that they detested selling their life in exchange for deathless life in paradise. Instead, they sold themselves to the kuffars for a salary of a few hundred pounds per month. Therefore, the Arab contribution in the disintegration of the Arab World and in the creation of their enemy –Israel, is no less than the enemies!

The state of the Indian Muslims hasn’t been different either. Because of the same disconnection with Allah SWT, more than 200 hundred thousand Indian Muslims fought as mercenaries for the British in two World Wars. They helped in the occupation of Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Sudan, and Palestine. All the ruling military elites of Pakistan, like General Iskandar Mirza, General Ayyub Khan, General Yahiya Khan, and many others, worked as the perfect mercenary of the colonial British. Later on, these Trojan Horses of the enemies and ideological cum cultural converts of the West grabbed the highest post of the country as the President. While in power, they could cause a rapid and immense ideological meltdown of Pakistan –a country that was created with a great Islamic civilizational objective by a pan-Islamic coalition of the South Asian Muslims. Because of the same spiritual death, the Bengali Muslims –like a non-Muslim radical nationalist got more connected to the land, language, and ethnicity and got deeply disconnected from pan-Islamic Divine objective. As a result, the success of the Indian infidels in a Muslim land like Bangladesh –former East Pakistan was also huge. They could recruit hundreds of thousands of Bengali Muslims to kill Muslims and destroy Pakistan in 1971. The USA’s huge success in quick occupation and destruction of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria also owes to the same disconnection of the Muslims with Allah SWT. Such disconnection with Allah SWT creates a void only to connect with the Devil. It is indeed a pattern that repeats again and again. Hence, millions of Muslims and their pro-occupation governments in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and many other Muslim countries could support the US-led coalition in its destructive war in the Muslim World. So, rapes, deaths, destruction, and eviction in the Muslim lands get more expanse and a new speed with the collaboration of the native Muslims. 

Al-Qur’an: the Divine rope

A Muslim’s strong commitment to Allah SWT agenda is not utopian. Rather, it generates automatically out of his or her stronger spiritual connection with the Almighty. Such a strong linkage pulls men or women out of the hell-bound satanic march and puts them onto the straight path towards the paradise. Such a reality is very explicit in the Holy Qur’an: “Whoever holds fast to Allah, he is indeed guided onto the straight path.”–(Sura al-Imran, verse 101). So, it is simple. Whoever adheres to the Qur’anic guidance takes the direct route to paradise.

Allah SWT is not visible; but His vision, mission, and agenda became distinctly audible and easily recognizable through the holy Qur’an. One gets properly connected to Allah SWT only through fully aligning with those expressed vision, mission and the objective –as expressed in the Holy Qur’an. In fact, such connectivity is true spirituality. Because the holy Qur’an sets the Divine connectivity, it works as the direct rope of Allah SWT. Hence, whoever wants to connect with Him, must connect with Qur’anic teaching. Only this way, one can enrich his spirituality. Since sufi khanqa, Darwish circles or shrines do not engage in inculcating and disseminating Qur’anic knowledge, spending thousands of hours in these places wouldn’t help people get connected with the objective of Allah SWT. The absence of sharia in the Muslim World wouldn’t cause any pain or discomfort in the heart of these disconnected people. Such disconnection indeed disqualifies the spirituality of these people as fake. Such people can live a pain-free complacent life even while the enemy occupations with the consequent deaths, rapes, and destructions go on wildly in the Muslim lands. Absence of sharia, hudud, jihad, khilafa and the fragmentation of the Muslim Ummah is not an issue for them. Amidst such a disconnection, true Islamic belief can’t survive in their heart. It only grows disbelief and hypocrisy. In fact, such disconnection is the key factor that makes a distinctive difference from the early Muslims.

The Divine connectivity of a Muslim does not mean mere glorification (tasbeeh) of His holy name. It implies a deep commitment to abide by His every Qur’anic decree. In fact, whenever it exists a rule, there exists no room of compromise and invention. Any amount of non-compliance means non-believing. A believer is truly known for his uncompromising attitude to implement His prescribed code of life (deen) in every arena of life. He runs the judiciary only according to sharia and never shows leniency in executing the sanctioned punishment (hudud). Establishing other institutional structures of Muslims’ security like khilafa, unity, and jihad also becomes the core issue of his life. But now the Muslims are now known for non-compliance –as expressed through their culture, politics, judiciary, economics, warfare, and religious beliefs. Kufr laws in the judiciary, riba-based banking, and prostitution in societies, nationalism, racism, tribalism, and despotism in politics. With such non-compliance, how can Muslims deserve success or glory? This way, they can only qualify for the promised punishment. They are already in the midst of such punishment. The enemy occupation, the destruction of Muslim cities, the genocidal massacre and the disgrace in the world stage give testimony to that. However, any amount of their success would have given a different message. They could genuinely claim that even devilish deviation from the Qur’anic roadmap also leads to peace and glory.

The connectivity and the Islamic methodology

Each faith, ideology or religion has its own ways to build the connectivity with the presumed gods or deities. The Hindu faith encourages the followers to retreat to jungles, caves, temples or monasteries for spiritual development. It also asks the Hindus to have baths in some rivers or springs and do contemplation in isolation with specific physical posture and recite some mantra. In the Hindu religion, the policy of exclusion and marginalization works not only in communities but also even in temples. Only a priest enjoys the privilege to worship the deities. The common men and women are allowed to attend temples only as a visitor. The same is true for the Buddhists. The Christian faith tries to connect people by means of some short-lived weekly congregation in churches. Singing songs and reading pages from the bible remains as the practice. All these rituals are human inventions, hence show no universal procedure or structure. Western hedonism, materialism, and liberalism have their own way of connecting the followers, too. Pubs, clubs, casinos, brothel houses, opera houses, theatres, drugs, pornography, and much other stuff do the job to train the people to embrace the new lifestyle.

In Muslim life, connectivity with the Creator is crucial. Without such a connection with the Supreme Creator, a Muslim can’t sustain as a true Muslim, nor can join His army of the believers. A disconnected Muslim can’t stand alone against the strong current of corruptive faiths, lifestyles, and cultural cum political tides. Rather gets quickly pulled away from the straight path and taken to the hellfire. Hence, building a faith-bound community is also crucial. So in Islam, building connectivity -both in the vertical and horizontal direction is critical. But such a connection can’t be built by a mere pronouncement of faith in Allah SWT. Beliefs and practices need to be reinforced with deep understanding. The religious rituals of an ignorant man can’t help build such a connection. Neither does help the mere recitation of the Qur’an without understanding. For a full revolution in character, deeds, and behaviour, it needs a total revolution in the conceptual premise –the birthplace of all revolutions. For that, it is crucial to strongly connect humans’ body, mind, and conscience with the omnipresent and omnipotent Creator -Allah SWT. Islam has its own structured methodology to build such a Divine connection. In fact, Islam is the only religion that can successfully connect people with Allah SWT. It owes solely to the methodology devised only by the All-Wise Almighty Himself. All obligatory religious rituals like five times daily prayer, month-long fasting, charity, and haj are indeed the parts of that methodology.

But the most powerful tool to build this needed connection with Allah SWT is the holy Qur’an. The word “Qur’an” means the act of recitation. Islam didn’t start with five-time prayer, fasting, and haj, but by educating people with the Qur’anic knowledge. Understanding Qur’an itself is a great ibadah. In the initial 13 years of prophethood, there was no obligatory five-time salah (prayer) like today. Standing in the middle of night and recitation of the Holy Qur’an was the recommended ibadah. So, in one of the earliest chapters of the Qur’an it is revealed: “Stand (to pray) all night except a little; for half of it or a little less than that. Or a little more. And recite the Qur’an (aloud) in a slow (pleasant tone and) style. Indeed, We will send down to you heavy words (the obligatory prayers, jihad, and the sharia laws). Verily, the rising by night is the most potent way to govern one’s self and suitable for understanding the Word (of Allah).” –(Sura al-Mujammel, verses 2-6). Through slow and mindful recitation of the Qur’an, the mind gets the much-needed nutrition for his spiritual growth –crucial to survive as a true slave of the Almighty Lord.

An anemic patient needs a transfusion of blood for his survival. For the survival of iman, a believer too needs regular transfusion; and it is the transfusion of Qur’anic knowledge. And it works through the recitation of the Holy Qur’an with the full understanding. The Message, the Vision and the Mission of the Almighty Lord then get direct access to his heart. The knowledge of the unseen World gets a powerful expression through believers’ voice only in His Own vocabularies. While a man or woman recites the holy Qur’an in prayers, indeed, the message of the Almighty Lord gets dipped down into his soul and recharges his iman. Hence in salah, the best part is the qiyam when the Qur’an is recited. The deep understanding of the Holy Qur’an (not mere rote reading), five-time salah in the congregation, month-long fasting in Ramadan, haj, and regular charity in the way of Almighty Lord is the prescribed structural procedures to build and continuously strengthen such connection. In the early days of Islam, this Divine prescription worked with the tremendous success to build the best people on earth. Five-time salah worked as the meeraj of the believer –as described by Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Meeraj is the ascension to the nearness to Allah SWT; it happens through the communication of His wordings deep into the heart of the believer. It generates deep integration with His mission. Such inner change takes place when a believer stands in salah (prayer) and recites the Holy Qur’an with a full understanding of its meaning. In the holy Qur’an, they are described as the people who say “samey’na wa ata’na” meaning “we listened, and we obeyed.” But now such motivation of listening and obeying His message seldom works in the Muslim mind. Therefore, the disconnection with Allah SWT gets deeper. And such disconnection works as a powerful precursor not only for the ongoing debacle but also for the Divine punishment.