Deviation in Religion

Deviation in Religion

1990 10 October 4-5 Deviation in Religion (676) The time of antiquity was the age of mythology. It was an age in which the concept of incarnation had become a rooted belief, among those nations given over to polytheism. For instance, the Greeks and Romans believed the sun to be a god, and calling it God’s son, they bowed down and worshipped it.

Likewise, the Jews and the Christians in their days of decline held this concept to be central to their beliefs. They felt that to regard Uzayr and Christ as simple messengers of God was to relegate them to a position inferior to that of the Greek and Roman deities. For this reason, they came to call their respective prophets the son of God. The son of God for the Jews was called Uzayr, and the son of God for the Christians was called Jesus Christ. “That is a saying from their mouth (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah’s curse be on them how they are deluded away from the Truth.” (9:30)

Deviation as a result of imitation has gained ground, albeit in a different form, among present day Muslims. That is, they feel they must explain Islam in terms of a system. A surprisingly large number of educated Muslims have been influenced by such thinking. But, by its very nature, this is the same deviation made, by those communities of old who had fallen under the influence of unbelieving nations.

In modern times, social and political concepts such as socialism and democracy have made their mark. Under their influence, modern man has begun to think in terms of “system.” Having seen the physical salvation of man in the revolutionary changes of the social set-up, Muslims have come to think that their traditional concept of Islam is inferior to modern secular systems. In order to bring Islam abreast of the times, they have begun projecting Islam as a political system, and calling it the standard-bearer of social revolution, and so on.

What is called revolutionary thinking in modern times is actually just system-based thinking as opposed to individual based thinking. But the setting up of a system is not the objective of Islamic da’wah. Its target is the individual. According to Islamic thought, launching a movement whose target is a system is just like putting the cart before the horse. The system per se is of no value. In this world it is the individuals who form a system and not the system which forms the individuals.

In modern times, the so-called Islamic movements run on the patterns of systems, have done tremendous harm to the cause of Islam. One of the worst things they have done is take all those verses of the Qur’an which provided spiritual nourishment aimed at raising awareness through inner revolutions of the heart and mind, and associate them – by means of wrong interpretation – with system and external revolutions. Politics, no doubt, are a part of Islam. But those verses which allegedly relate to politics have, in reality, no connection whatsoever with them.

For instance, the Qur’an enjoins the faithful to “magnify your Lord.” (74:3) This means to acknowledge the greatness of God from the depths of one’s heart and mind. But those who are interested in system-based thinking have given a political twist to the words, maintaining that ‘magnify your Lord’ means establishing the political greatness of God throughout the world, and the hoisting of the flag of divine power over the parliaments of all countries. This is only one example. Many other verses have been given similar political interpretations by distorting their meaning.

All such ‘commentaries’ of Quranic verses fall into the category of imitation, (9:30). Their worst feature being that they have made Islam – a religion of humility – into a religion of arrogance, whose proponents have encouraged the development of a destructive mentality in their own community. As a result of such movements, the religion which was sent to cause man to fear God has, on the contrary, bred unconcern and disrespect for the divine will.