The Deceptive Goal & the Earned Failures

Dr Firoz Mahboob Kamal

http://www.drfirozmahboobkamal.com/blog/the-deceptive-goal-the-earned-failures/  

The genesis of failures

A journey without a destination takes nowhere. Similarly, survival for the sake of survival only kills time and adds little worth to survival. In fact, the worth of one’s survival is decided by the purpose of survival. A martyr thus makes a huge difference from a mercenary killer. It is indeed a tremendous loss of life if that greatest gift of Allah Subhana wa Ta’ala (SWT) is wasted only for the sake of survival. People make the most disastrous error not in earning the means of survival but in setting the right goal of survival. Even an excellent driving skill doesn’t help if it is in the wrong direction. Hence, even a Nobel Prize winner may make the same common error and spoil the whole purpose of life. This is why knowing the right philosophy of life is more important than acquiring skills in science and technology. The philosophy of life must help us to know not only the origin of life but also the purpose of life. In fact, most people will enter the hellfire for this fundamental error. However, there is a genuine reason to make such errors. There is a major gap in understanding that life never ends in death, rather it gets a new phase of endless life in the hereafter. For setting the correct goal of life and the right roadmap, one needs to know the whole terrain of the unending journey. Since most parts of life lie in the hereafter and stay out of humans’ understanding, no one can set a true goal. Neither can perceive about a roadmap to reach there. Even as an assembly of all Nobel Prize winners can’t do that either. The matter remains exclusively in the domain of the All-Knowing Allah SWT. Hence, it is revealed in the Holy Qur’an that guiding humans or setting the goal is no one’s job. It belongs only to Him: “Truly! Ours, it is to give guidance”. (Sura Lail, verse12).

So, mankind possess no option but to submit to Allah SWT for guidance. But the problem takes a disastrous turn when humans ignore their own ignorance. And, instead of Allah SWT’s guidance, they adhere to the deceptive goal of their own making. Such arrogance is indeed the mother of all awful failures of the humans. They fail to understand that they can never envisage the right goal and nor can they frame a roadmap of eternal success. In fact, all the forged religions and ideologies still survive as proof of their past failures. Since it is the most important issue for humans, the ultimate goal and the guidance to reach the goal were made clear by Allah SWT on the first day of humans’ habitation on earth. Moreover, thousands of prophets were sent to refresh the original message. It has also been reiterated that they can attain success in this life and in the hereafter only if they pursue the set goal and follow the recommended roadmap.

The goal and the betrayal

As regards to humans’ survival goal, Allah SWT provides the following guidance: “Tell (O Muhammad!), certainly my prayer, my sacrifices, my survival and my death all are for the sake of Allah.”–(Sura Al-An’am, verse 162). Here, Allah SWT prescribes the intended intention (niyah) of survival of a human. Hence, a believer not only makes a niyah for every good deed, but also for his every step in the worldly survival. Therefore, the life and death of a believer stay reserved only for the cause of Allah SWT. It is indeed the fundamental reason for a believer to be here on earth. Therefore, whenever it meets any infliction, a believer proclaims -as recorded by Allah SWT Himself in the Holy Qur’an, “innalillahi wa inna ilahi rajiun (certainly we are only for Allah and we return unto Him)”. Such insight of a true believer provides not only the direction of his or her survival but also the whole philosophical basis for it.

How to live for Allah SWT is indeed the most crucial and the most relevant question in everybody’s life. Living for Allah SWT means working for His agenda; the Holy Qur’an is very explicit on this issue. How to live for the cause of Allah SWT and attain success both here and in the hereafter is indeed the core subject of the Holy Qur’an. Moreover, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) gave the field demonstration of the application of the Qur’anic guidance. Hence ignorance on these two key sources of knowledge is detrimental; it spoils the whole purpose of humans’ creation. It makes it impossible to live for the cause of Allah SWT. Such ignorance helps only the enemies to recruit people to promote their agenda. So, it is a great crime against the agenda of Allah SWT to hide those Qur’anic teachings from the public eyes. Awfully, this has been the most corrupted premise of human history. In the Holy Qur’an, Allah SWT severely condemned the religious scholars of the Bani Israel for hiding His message from the public eyes. For their own vested interest, they also corrupted the teachings of the previous prophets. As a result, the common people could be easily recruited by the evil forces as foot soldiers to promote their evil agenda. In this regard, the ulama of the Muslim World didn’t prove any better either. They built a huge deceptive world of fake religious practices to hide the right path –siratul mustaqeem. Because of them, the Qur’anic Islam survives only in the Holy Book and not in any of the Muslim lands.

The enemies of Islam is not ignorant of Islam’s source of strength. They do not find any problem with the rote recitation and memorization of the Qur’an. But they find existential threat from the dissemination of the Qur’anic knowledge. Therefore, dismantling the mosques and the madrasas is not the key strategy of the enemies. Rather they turn these core institutions non-functional or dysfunctional. This way, they create a social, cultural and political milieu for the Muslims to live without Islam. The outcome is obvious. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)’s Islam with its model of an Islamic state, sharia, hudud, shura, unity, khilafa, jihad no more exists even in predominantly Muslim majority countries.

The assigned role and the neglect

The survival for the cause of Allah SWT has a wider and deeper implication. Such an intention brings moral, political, social and spiritual revolution among the believers. Allah SWT raised the great human creation to work as His khalifa (viceroy) on earth. It is indeed the core reason for humans’ presence on this planet. But for such a Divine assignment, the humans need to equip themselves with the necessary intellectual, spiritual, behavioural, material and military capabilities. Hence needs the higher quality of educational and skill-developmental projects. Even an agent of a state or business needs some specific education and skills. But a Muslim’s role is the highest on earth. He or she has to work as the viceroy of All-Powerful and All-Wise Allah SWT. So, the role of a Muslim is highly important and huge. It amounts to bring an overwhelming revolution in the fields of theologies, ideologies, politics, judiciary, administration, culture, education and warfare. There exists no territorial limit to such a revolution. His or her quality and the role indeed decide the fate in the hereafter. The prize for sacrificing life, wealth and all abilities in such a mission is huge. It brings the never-ending pleasure in paradise; even the whole world full of gold can match its value.  Hence a true believer never stands idle in His cause.

In order to generate the needed competence, the first thing must be done first. Hence, seeking knowledge on Qur’anic revelations is made obligatory on every man and woman much earlier than the obligatory five-time prayer and month-long fasting. Such Qur’anic knowledge plays the most important role in consolidating the faith. It builds the mounting morality and personality of a believer. On the other hand, the lack of Quranic knowledge makes one not only unfit to play any role in the Divine mission but also easy prey for the devil. In fact, such people readily turn mercenary for the devil and qualify for the hellfire. Because of them, the European imperialists could recruit millions of mercenaries in their civil and military establishment to run their colonial exploitation in the Muslim World. For the same reason, ideologies like nationalism, fascism, tribalism, socialism, and capitalism could also run havoc; they got millions of foot soldiers to occupy the Muslim lands and de-Islamise the Muslims.

The evil takeover

Like a plant, corruption too needs a fertile seed. And the seed lies in humans. It is indeed the corruptive and deceptive objective of survival that takes over the intellectual premise of the humans. Then the people with the evil intention set breeding institutions to breed all forms of corruptive ideologies, faiths, cults, and religions to cause massive moral degradation of the people. Of all such institutions, the state and its institutions are the most powerful ones. These are the real barriers against any moral reconstruction and healthy societal change. So the prophet of Islam (peace be upon him) not only taught the right objective of humans’ survival but also dismantled all the corruptive social and state institutions. He formed an Islamic state with 100 percent compliance with sharia and sat on the driving seat himself. Because of his revolutionary role as the head of the state, the most corruptive institution on earth becomes the most corrective institution in the whole human history. Therefore, not only he could stop the breeding of devils, but also he could start the mass-scale production of people with the level of morality that the world never saw before. As a result, the foundation of the finest civilisation on earth in the whole human history could have a robust start. It is indeed the most valuable legacy of Islam that still remains the only solution for the current malice. 

As per the Qur’anic verse mentioned earlier, a Muslim not only lives for the cause of Almighty Allah SWT, is also expected to die for it. If he or she wants to please Allah SWT, there exists no second option. Otherwise, his survival wouldn’t add any real worth to it. Rather, his long life would earn more fuel for the fire for himself in hell. Hence, it is forbidden that any human should invest any part of his or her life, time, intellect, energy or assets in the service of any evil faith, deity, religion, ideology or political power. These are the amanah (entrusted endowment) on behalf of his or her Almighty Lord; hence can’t think of becoming a mercenary of imperialists, monarchists, despots or any enemies of Islam. Such acts are indeed the khiana (betrayal) of the amanah (trust). Such forbidden (haram) acts are indeed the ugliest crime in Islam. It is the greatest betrayal of the whole purpose of his or her being here on earth. Such a betrayal takes ones only into the hellfire –as repeatedly mentioned in the Holy Qur’an.

But, it is a great irony that despite all the Qur’anic warnings, the survival with an inimical agenda against Islam has been the culture of the ruling elites in the Muslim World today. Therefore, the evil coalition of the US-led imperialists could recruit a large army of mercenaries from the Muslims to occupy the Muslim lands. Because of these mercenaries, the invading enemies could easily occupy the Muslim lands. And they could also kill and evict millions of the Muslims and turn hundreds of cities to rubbles.

In a milieu of corruptive ideologies and political culture, some unbelievable things happen. Even the evil people with the inimical agenda against Islam and the Muslims become the leader. More astonishingly, even those who join the foreign kuffars to dismantle any attempt of establishing an Islamic state in any part of the Muslim World also get a label of a Muslim! It is also strange that the corrupt rulers who collaborate even with the established enemies of Islam claim to be the custodian of Islamic holy sites! The early Muslims didn’t face such a big problem of internal enemies; the contemporary Roman and the Persian Empires didn’t have the Trojan horses inside the Ummah. Neither did those enemies have their own cantonments inside the Muslim World -as they have today. In fact, most of the Muslim countries are now ruled by the embedded enemies who vehemently oppose any step to return back to the Prophet (peace be upon him)’s Islam! Moreover, their strong opposition to the Qur’anic prescription of sharia, hudud, shura, Muslim unity and jihad against enemy occupations is not hidden. Still, they sustain as the rulers of the Muslims! Because of these embedded enemies, the Vision of Allah SWT and His prescribed laws and the Qur’anic code of life stay badly defeated even in Islam’s heartlands. And space is seized by the laws, politics, judiciary, culture, and ideologies that are inimical to Islam. As a result, the decline of the Ummah continues. 11/04/2020