The Assigned Divine Role and the Muslims’ Betrayal

Dr Firoz Mahboob Kamal

The betrayal of the objective                              

The early Muslims gained unprecedented successes. Their success were not confined in the war fronts nor in civilisation-building. They achieved successes almost in all fields. They could add record speed to the spread of Islam. They made Muslims the most reckoned World Power within decades. They raised higher values, established rule of law and promoted equality between all races, colours and ethnicities. Today’s Muslims are making history, too. But, awfully, it is the history of decadence, defeats and enemy occupation. Why such an ugly contrast between two brands of the people who claim to be the believers of the same Creator, the same prophet (peace be upon him) and the same Qur’an? The failures of today’s Muslims do not owe to any climate or environmental change or any disaster. It is due to their full blown betrayal of the objective of their own creation. They made the ugliest betrayal of the highest blessing of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la -the holy Qur’an by ignoring its teachings. The path they follow in politics, statecraft, warfare, culture, judiciary, education is deviated far away from the Qur’anic roadmap. That indeed mimics the roadmap of the kuffars. (Note: the term kafir and kuffar are the vocabularies used by Allah Sub’hana Ta’la consistently in the holy Qur’an to describe the deniers and the enemies of Islam, hence these jargons are used in this article to fully align with the Divine narratives). Such betrayal of the objective and such deviation from the straight path (sirataul mustaqeem) are indeed the gravest crimes against the All-Powerful Creator. Other crimes are indeed the offshoots of this seminal crime.

Humans are created not for the sake of creation. They were give a crucial role. The Almighty Lord has His specific agenda in raising this best and the most intelligent creation on earth. All the Divine Books and the prophets are very explicit on it. Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la’s narrative on His objective comes as follows: “And I did not create the jinn and the mankind except that they should do ibadah unto me.”–(Surah adh-Dhariyat, verse 56). It is indeed the most pivotal revelation from Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la. It prefixes the role of every man and woman in every arena on earth. It gives an unequivocal signal to every human that he must set his own agenda only to fulfil the agenda of his Supreme Lord. Such congruence of his own objective with the objective of his Almighty Lord is vital for his success both in this world and in the hereafter. This is the only way to save one’s life from the hellfire. It is so important that thousands of messengers were sent and the Divine Books are revealed to help people understand this most crucial issue in life. Nothing is more important in education, culture, politics or spirituality of people than understanding this revealed agenda of the Almighty Lord. Hence, the greatest crime of the kuffar occupation is not its economic exploitation, subjugation or oppression, but driving people away from the assigned agenda of the survival and forcing on them a project that takes them to the hellfire. This is indeed the greatest crime of a non-Islamic state. The kuffar colonial occupation has ended, but the secularist occupation all over the Muslim World is committing the same crime by continuation of the same colonial legacy.

In the above verse, Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la didn’t assign any religious rituals like five times prayer, month long fasting, haj or charity as the prime agenda of life. It is ibadah; hence the verb “le’yabudun” has been used. The word ibadah isn’t mere worship in the form of some rituals; it has much deeper and wider connotation. At the time of revelation of the holy Qur’an, the terms ibadah, abd or ubudiah were not unknown in the contemporary Arabic language; hence the meanings must be understood how they were used and understood by the contemporary Arabs. The word abd means slave; and ibadah or ubudiah mean slavery. Hence the word ibadah gives a defining role to every man. It is indeed a way of life that gives a sense of complete servitude to the Supreme Master. In those days, ibadah or slavery was not a part-time role of a slave; nor was any duty confined within a certain premise with specific job description. It was indeed an all-time lifelong assignment.

The most catastrophic ignorance of the humans is not the ignorance of science and technology, nor even illiteracy. It is indeed the knowledge of his Creator’s objective vis-a-vis his creation. The greatest wisdom in human life indeed builds up on this knowledge. Ignorance on science or technology will not harm anyone in the hereafter; but ignorance of his Lord’s objective regarding his creation will definitely take him to the hellfire. Because, such ignorance leads him to live a life totally incongruent with his Lord’s objective. How can one make any action plan for his life with such ignorance? A man exhibits his greatest ignorance and commits the greatest sin by committing betrayal of the Divine objective. Such betrayal is indeed the ugliest and the most fundamental crime of every kafir; it breeds numerous other crimes, too. Then, all of his wealth, abilities and talent become tools for doing more crimes on earth and make him fit only for the hellfire. So, Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la says, “It is the kuffar (the disbelievers) who are the zalim (wrongdoers)”–(Surah al-Baqara, verse 254). In the early days of Islam, the Muslims didn’t have any college or university, but could successfully eradicate such ignorance from Muslims’ mind. That worked as a master key to open the door of success both here and the hereafter. Such knowledge prompted them to invest their wealth and ability –even life, in the fulfilment of the Divine objective.

A Muslim’s slavery

A true Muslim is known for his slavery (ubudiah) for Almighty Allah Sub’hana wa T’ala. A kafir is known for his rebellion. Here, the rebellion is against Almighty Allah’s prescribed code of life. Hence, to understand Islam one needs to understand slavery in the context of the contemporary Arabs who practised it while the holy Qur’an was being revealed to them. Since the Arab men and women were familiar with the norm of slavery, they didn’t find any difficulty to understand the implication of the Qur’anic vocabularies like ibadah, a’bed and ubudiah. In those days, a slave didn’t possess any right to have his own wish or agenda; used to be an exclusive tool of his master to execute his agenda. In slavery, slave’s own life and family stay irrelevant, he lives a life only to please his master. He had to take his master’s friend as his own friend and his enemy as his own enemy. He had to fight a war and sacrifice his life only for his master’s cause. The master possessed the right to punish and even kill his slaves without any accountability to anyone.

Islam abolished slavery of a man for another; but established slavery as ibadah exclusively for Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’al. Those who accept such slavery (ubudiah) are called Muslim. In those days, one could buy slaves by paying money only to the slave-owner. The slaves didn’t receive any share in the transaction; and never considered a beneficiary of the deal. Like a commodity, used to be handed over from one owner to another. But, Islam introduced new ethics of universal equality; made all men and women the equal slave of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la. Hence, none was made owner of another. The Almighty Lord makes the direct transaction with His slaves, hence becomes the beneficiary of the deal. For a role as a faithful and humble slave of the Almighty, a Muslim gets a place in the paradise for an infinite life. It is the greatest deal that a man can think of. No one can buy it; and gains only as a reward. The whole earth full of gold can’t match its worth -as revealed in the holy Qur’an: “Surely, those who disbelieve and die while they are unbelievers, the earth full of gold shall not be accepted from one of them, even if he offer to ransom himself with it. –(Sura al-Imran, verse 91).

The Qur’anic text of the ground-breaking transaction between a believer and his Lord comes in surah at-Taubah, in verse 111. As per transaction, a believer needs to perform his role to get the promised reward from Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la. The rule of engagement is made clear and simple. More a believer invests in His way, more he receives as the reward. He receives the highest rank as a martyr if sacrifices his life in His Cause; and the victory comes to such believers as a bye-product. Today, such slavery for Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la seldom exists in Muslims’ life. Rather, they show rebellion against Him. And the old form of slavery has returned in a new form with new masters. They have turned slaves of their own whims. The absence of sharia, hudud, khelafa, shura, the Muslim unity and jihad in Muslim country tells a lot about such rebellion. Instead, they show full alignment with the kuffars. The corruptive state and its institutions, the riba-based banking, the non-sharia laws, the prostitution as legalised trade and the coalition with the kuffar in war against Islam are indeed the markers of such alignment. They recite the Divine law (sharia), but these laws have no place in their daily life. Thus, they stand distinctively different from the early Muslims; and follow a path altogether different from them.

A man needs Divine blessing for his ultimate success. But to qualify for such blessing, one needs to follow the revealed roadmap in every step of his life and avoid every deviation. A Muslim –like the early Muslims, must excel in his compliance. And it needs to be holistic. Hence a Muslim must not limit his religious practices within the religious rituals like five times prayer, month-long fasting in Ramadan, haj and charity. His politics, education, culture, law, judiciary, warfare and all other segments of life too, must fall in line with the Qur’anic guidance. It is indeed the believers’ slavery. But today, the Muslims made history in deviation. Instead of compliance with the holy Qur’an, they show sheer rebellion. They are more focused on worldly gains and stand far away from the Quranic straight path.

A class of neo-donkeys

Today, the Muslims are known for failures in almost all fields. Whereas, they are given the roadmap for sure success. They are also given the largest treasure of unearned wealth on earth that worth hundreds of trillions of dollars. These are the oil, gas, solar energy and other resources. The Muslims didn’t invest even a single day or the slightest effort to produce such huge asset. But today, the Muslims terribly failed to draw any benefit from such enormous Divine gift. They still stand as the most defenceless, the most defeated and the most humiliated people on earth. Their countries are occupied, the cities are bombed to rubbles, millions of Muslim men and women and children are either killed or stay evicted from their homes and now wander as the vagabond refugees in the streets of foreign lands! Their failure can only be compared with that of the people of Israel. The unearned wealth of the Muslims can be compared with manna and sal’wa –the unearned food staff that came down from the sky to feed several hundred thousands of the Israeli people during their 40 years’ stay in the desert of Sinai Peninsula where they had nothing to eat and drink. But such blessing didn’t help the people of Israeli tribes to enhance their servitude or gratitude to Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la; rather increased their deviation, greed and arrogance. Their deviation from the Divine Truth went so far that they started worshipping a self-made statue of a cow –while they were still surviving on manna and salwa from the sky. Today, the failure of the Muslims to use the unearned wealth for moral, educational, spiritual and economic wellbeing of the people is also catastrophic. It is very calamitous that they fail even in using the legal (sharia) and the punitive (hudud) prescription of Almighty Allah –as revealed in the holy Qur’an.

The sharia law and hudud are not the simple gifts of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala. These are indeed the greatest blessings of the Almighty Allah for the mankind. Sharia was given to the great prophet Musa (peace be upon him) in Torah. Another great messenger Prophet Isa (peace be upon him) also came to the world to revive the same sharia that was revealed to Prophet Musa (peace be upon him). But both the Jews and Christians have fully ignored the teachings of these two great prophets; as a result, the sharia law revealed in Torah stay fully abandoned. The sharia and hudud were finally revealed to the last prophet of Islam Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in the holy Qur’an. Such laws are more important than any foods, drinks or any other material endowments. Foods and drinks are given even to the animals. But that do not add any civility and moral highness to the animals.  Many of the kuffars also receive a lot of foods, drinks and material endowments. But that do not help them either.

Law of a country is the most authentic marker of wisdom, sagacity and moral highness of a people; not any tower, pyramid, or scientific achievement. Even the worst people on earth could achieve a lot of wonders in the past. In the court of Almighty Allah, these will have no value. The people who are morally low and indulge in racism, nationalism, colonialism, imperialism, fascism, paganism and other wickedness are exactly known by their immoral laws. All kuffars indeed showed such moral, spiritual and conceptual disabilities in all ages. So, they could convict the greatest people of the history like Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him), Prophet Musa (peace be upon him), Prophet Isa (peace be upon him), Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and many others as criminal; and did everything to kill them. Those old kuffars died; but their legacy still thrives. So, the enmity against Islam’s roadmap still continues. This is why, the self-sacrificing Islamists who fight against the enemy occupation and for implementation of sharia get killed as terrorist. And the enemy occupation get eulogised as liberation -as happened with the US occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Such moral sickness is so global that even the brutal occupation by the imperialists get endorsed by the UN. Therefore, when the British Army occupied Palestine and Iraq in 1917, and the French Army occupied Syria in 1922, such colonial occupations were given the legal mandate by the League of Nations –the fore-runner of the UN. Following the footsteps of the imperialists, the Israeli terrorists, too, used terrorism as a tool for illegal state building. They occupied Palestine, evicted its original people from their homes and established Israel as an apartheid state only for the Jews. Since the UN itself stands under the occupation of the imperialists, such a criminal act of occupation never got condemned in its forum. Rather, Israel was given the quick recognition as a legal state.