Secularism and the crime of secularists

Dr. Firoz Mahboob Kamal

The gravest crime

The most catastrophic defeat of Muslims did not take place on any battlefield. They lost the war on the conceptual premise. The defeat on the geopolitical frontiers came much later. Muslims lost the war of ideas only because of secularisation of their thought. The early Muslims used the Holy Qur’an as the most powerful ideological weapon against the enemies. Because of secularisation of thought, they ignored its importance. Hence they forsake the most powerful Qur’anic weapon. In fact, they became radical seculatist in practice and Muslim only by name. So, the secularist Muslims lost the war ideologically before it was started. They indeed became the part of the enemies before the enemies won the war.

Secularism is defined as a “system of social organization and education where a religion is not allowed to play a part in civil affairs.”–(Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary). Therefore, the prime political objective of secularists is to restrict religions playing any role in the system of social organizations, politics, education, and warfare. The conflict between the secularists and the believers indeed starts on this seminal point. Islam is known for its all-inclusive global vision, mission and objective. Islam aims at resconstruction and purification not only of indivuals but also of families, societies, organisations and states. In such a process of purification cum reconstruction, the Holy Qur’an works as a Divine instrument of change. Hence, without the Holy Qur’an, Islam can’t operate in families, societies, organisations and states. Therefore, secularists commit a grave crime and declare a war against Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala by banning access of Qur’anic knowledge in education, organisations, societies and states. Hence, their every act of politics is a grave war crime.

 The best ibadah and the worst crime

The Holy Qur’an is the greatest blessing of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala for all humans. Establishing peace on the earth and entry into paradise are only possible by following the path shown in the Holy Qur’an -called siratul mustaqeem. Therefore, standing against the Holy Qur’an and putting any prohibition on knowing the Qur’anic path is a great crime. It equals obstructing the way of paradise and taking people to hellfire. Killing millions of people is a huge crime. But putting billions of people in a flame of hellfire for a period of infinity is a million times more horrendous crime. No crime on the earth can match its severity. Such a crime is being committed by the secularists by obstructing teaching of the Holy Qur’an even in Muslim counries. It is indeed a crime against the whole of mankind. But awfully such criminals go unpunished even in Muslim countries!

The Qur’anic path to paradise –siratul mustaqeem runs not only through five-time prayers, month-long fasting in Ramadan, haj, and charity, but also through Islamic education, politics, judiciary, media, administration, and jihad in the way of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala. If any of these parts remains uncovered, it puts an end to the whole journey. Then, he or she can’t reach the desired destination in paradise. Therefore, to access paradise, covering all segments of siratul mustaqeem is crucial. Jihad is the most difficult part; more than 60 percent of the companions lost their lives to cover this bloody segment. Jihad is the ultimate testing ground of iman. But today, most Muslims carefully avoid this difficult part; therefore fail to complete the journey. They do wars for racial, tribal, national and party-related causes; but not for bringing victory to Islam.  

How can one reach the desired destination in paradise while an indispensable part of the siratul mustaqeem stays uncovered? Such an incomplete journey doesn’t give any real fruit and doesn’t help even to be a good Muslim either. There is an important narration from Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) that illuminates the issue. It is mentioned in Sahih Al-Muslim: “Those who haven’t taken part in jihad and didn’t intend to take part in jihad die in a state of hypocrite (munafiq)”. The early Muslims knew that. Hence they didn’t stand aloof from jihad. Since this is the best ibadah, they were more enthusiastic and desperate on completion of this jihad part of siratul mustaqeem. They didn’t bother about difficulties. Hence they fought wars and crossed mountains, rivers, deserts and seas to bring victory of Islam. Since they stood fully aligned with the agenda of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala, they qualified to receive His full patronage and blessings. As a result, they got victories after victories. This has been the golden part of Muslim history.

The best and the worst institution

A Muslim needs to look at all events in the world with an Islamic prism. As per Qur’anic paradigm, all segments of life are indeed the testing fields of iman for every man and woman. The test is unavoidable. In fact, the life from its birth to the death is designed for such a test –as mentioned in surah Mulk, verse 2. Those who pass the test qualify for paradise and those who fail qualify for hellfire. States and the state institutions have enormous responsibility to help citizens pass the test. It is indeed the greatest responsibility of a state, and if the state fails to discharge the duty, its citizens also fail. An Islamic state discharges the duty through Islamic education, cultural engineering, media guidance and wise guidance by its honest leaders and intellectuals. This is why an Islmic state is the best institution on the earth. Such a state becomes a vehicle to take people to paradise.

But a secular state grooms people for an eternal hellfire. It commits the crime by keeping Islam –the saviour of mankind out of the education system, political policies, social policies, cultural policies, judiciary and administration. The implementationof Islamic policies and practice of full Islam is made impossible in such states. Therefore such a state is the most evil and harmful institution on the earth. And working for such a state is indeed the worst crime that one can think of. Those who fight and die for such a state goe to hellfire. It is a crime against humanity that helping people to pass the obligatory tests is not an agenda of a secular state.

Only those who intend to get a place in paradise are worried about passing the test. But such a concern stays out of secularists’ focus. To pass the test, it is crucial to get the Qur’anic knowledge, good deeds and follow the siratul mustaqeem. And those who engage in jihad get the highest marks in the test. In order to help people pass this test, the social, religious, political, cultural, and educational institutions must work together to take the Qur’anic teachings to the doorsteps of the people –as was the case during the golden days of Islam. In addition, doors for practice of full Islam and doing good deeds must be kept open, too. But all these are restricted in a secular state. This is why non-Islamic states are highly inimical to humans’ ultimate success.

The best deed and the worst deed

The best deed on the earth is not to build thousands of mosques or madrasas, but to engage in Islamic state building –as indicated in surah Taubah, verse 19. Mosques and madrasas don’t frame political, cultural and social policies. A distinguished imam of a great mosque or a great teacher of a great madrasa does not sit on the driving seat of the state. Hence they can’t change the course of the state. But an Islamic state works as a vehicle for taking people to paradise. Moreover, highest ibadah does not take place in madrasa or mosque but in the jihad of Islamice state building. It is significant to note that Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala recruits His beloved shaheed not from mosques or madrasas but from the fields of jihad –as mentioned in surah Al-Imran, verse 140. Whoever dies in that jihad, instantly enters into paradise. No other good deed brings such a great reward; not even donation of billions of dollars or construction of millions of mosques.

The early Muslim rightly realised the worth of this greatest task; hence more more than 60 percent of the companions of the Prophet (peace be upon him) became shaheed. As a result of their sacrifices, Muslims could emerge as the most powerful civilizational force on the earth and could raise the finest civilisation in history. In those golden days, they did not need to build monumental mosques. But today, this greatest ibadah gets neglected. It is even blamed as terrorism. Because of the betrayal, although Muslims could build millions of mosques and madrasas –many of them are monumental but couldn’t build a single Islamic state. As a result, Muslims stand powerless, defeated and disgraced all over the world.    

Crimes of the secularists

Nuclear bombs or chemical bombs instantly burn people to death. But these bombs do not take people to hellfire to be burnt there for the infinity. But the crimes of the secularists are worse. They take people to hellfire by putting an obstruction on the heaven-bound Divine roadmap. Moreover, they use the secular educational and cultural systems to immunize students’ minds against any Islamic influence. Thus they raise barriers against the Islamisation of individuals, families, states, and societies. In the geopolitical arena, it raises divisive walls in the name of languages, ethnicity, geography, and culture. Thus, the secularist forces could easily dismantle the unity of the Muslim ummah and could restrict the spread of Islamic influence from one country to another.

Secularists keep the Qur’anic lessons out of the classrooms, reject sharia in the judiciary, and restrict the practice of Islam only within the mosques and private life. Because of such inimical approach against the mission, vision, and objective of Islam, they easily qualify to be the trustworthy friend of the known enemies of Islam all over the world. Hence, these secularists are taken as partners to occupy Muslim lands. So the Americans, the British, the Russians, and the Indians were never alone in their occupational wars in the Muslim lands like Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Kashmir and many other places.