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
important 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 ignorant on these most important
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 mankind. 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 to save 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 –the 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 the 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 getting connected with the
objective of Allah SWT. 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 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
Muslims can deserve success or glory? This way, they can only qualify for the
promised punishment. In fact, 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 marginalisation 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 to connect 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 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 5 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 the 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 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 anaemic 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. 29.3.2020