The crimes  of secularism

Dr. Firoz Mahboob Kamal

 Secularism: a vile ideology

Secularism helped the Europeans to get freedom from the occupation of the Church’s corrupt and tyrannical autocracy. But it is incompatible with Islam. Because, secularism stands inimical to the whole project of Islam. It is a vile ideology for Islam and Muslims. Although claim to be Muslim, the secularists in the Muslim World are the real distractors from the Divine vision, mission, and the Qur’anic roadmap. In the golden days of Islam, the Muslims could stand united to promote the Islamic vision and mission only because of the strong pan-Islamic brotherhood. But deep de-Islamisation through secularisation of thought badly eroded such ideological glue. As a result, the body of the Muslim ummah got deeply fractured and became unable to stand unitedly on the feet. Because of the corrosive impact, the secularised Muslim ummah developed extreme incompatibility against the basic tenets of Islam. In the name of the language, tribe, sect, and geographical identity, they returned back to the days of the old jahiliyyah. So the Osmania Caliphate was dismantled. The Arabs were divided into 22 pieces. The united Pakistan project of the South Asian Muslims also collapsed.

Since the secularists took off the adhesive glue of Islam, everwhere the ummah got badly disintegrated and faced bloody infightings. They lost the power of defence; as a result, the enemies got a full reign on Muslims’ land, lives, resources, and dignity. Because of deep detachment from Islam, the secularists prefer to ignore and forger Islam’s golden past and its civilisation aim. They got more concerned to the tribal, racial, linguistic or geographical identities; and started to celebrate the divisions and differences instead of Muslim unity. Like the known external enemies, the secularists, too, perceive the emergence of Islam as a threat to their own political, ideological and cultural survival. So they forge coalition with the enemies of Islam to ensure their own survival. During the colonial rule of the European imperialists, secularism got ideological cum cultural nurture in their secular educational and cultural institutions. As a result of secular upbringing, millions of these ideological converts worked as foot soldiers both at home and abroad to protect colonial rule. The colonial-era has ended; but the imperialists didn’t end their ideological, political, cultural, and business projects in former colonies. In addition, they have formed coalition with the native secularists to protect their interests in the Muslim World. With the recent wave of Islamic resurgence in the Muslim World, the enemies feel threatened. As a result, they get new impetus to develop national and international common ground to foil it. Such a coalition with the imperialists has given the ruling secularists a new opportunity to sustain their own rule and protect their own vested privileges.

To spread the ideological disease, the secularised education system works as the main vehicle. Devil doesn’t need to approach individuals to whisper into their ears; the secularised education system is doing the job. Through education, they alienate people from Islam’s core vision, mission, and objective. The students are taught to use profession, politics, culture, media, and intellectual endeavors only for worldly success. The subjects like Qur’anic education, moral development, and Islamisation of state are kept out of the public domain. As per plan, the issue of attaining success in the endless life in the hereafter is kept out of the focus. Even the Qur’anic concept of worldly life as an exam period for the promotion or the demotion in the hereafter is kept out of the curriculum. Even the faith of Islam has been heavily corrupted. As a result, the religion of Islam -as practiced by the secularist Muslims is altogether different from Islam of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Unlike other religions, Islam is known for its clarity. The Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him) didn’t leave any ambiguity or obscurity vis-à-vis how Islam should be practiced in private or public life, politics or warfare, judiciary or administration, culture or education. He showed the distinct roadmap –as revealed in the Holy Qur’an. All the rightly guided Caliphs followed it. It is obligatory on every Muslim to adhere to the same Qur’anic path.

The secularists deny space for Islam in the statecraft –as the Europeans did with the Christiniaty. But Islam is different from Christianity. Prophet Isa (peace be upon him) didn’t leave any teachings on politics. He never played a political role; hence can’t be a model in politics. But Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is a model also in politics –a Muslim can’t ignore his political teachings. Otherwise he or she becomes a kafir. How can one deny the historical fact that immediately after the migration from Makkah to Medina, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) founded an Islamic state? He was himself the head of the state for 10 years. And every Muslim, Jew, Christian, and the kuffar living in that state recognized that. He also raised a state Army and took part in many war campaigns. He sent ambassadors to the foreign states. He also delivered justice as per sharia law. How can one follow the Prophet (peace be upon him) without following such prophetic practices? 

Believing in Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala is not enough, strict adherence to the Prophet (peace be upon him)’s legacy is also binding on every believer. But the secularists are inimical to such political legacy of the Prophet (peace be upon him); hence they forfeit the right to be a Muslim. Therefore they can’t be leaders of the Muslims. Hence it becomes an obligation on every Muslim man and woman to consider them as enemies of Islam; and a war to remove them from political seats becomes an obligatory duty on every follower of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Those who don’t believe the Prophet’s tradition have no right to occupy the driving seat of the ummah. But it is pity that the driving seats of the Muslim counties have been hijacked by these enemies. And the common Muslims are not only saluting them but also paying taxes to support these enemies of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala and His Prophet (peace be upon him). Can a Muslim please a devil and Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala at the same time? Is it not the deviation from siratul mustaqeem?

Because of the deviation, the Muslims are living without the Qur’anic Islam and the Prophet’s teachings. Those who want to revive the practices of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the rightly guided Caliphs are blamed by the secularists as the followers of political Islam. They are also blamed as extremists! Shockingly, many imam and so-called Muslim scholars have also joined the same chorus.  As if, politics is forbidden in Islam! As if, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) worked as the head of the Islamic state, led the Muslim Army and sent ambassadors to foreign states without political knowledge and having not engaged in politics!    

Secularism: an ancient ignorance

Secularism is not a modern concept. Like idolatry, it is an ancient ignorance. Now it shows its huge resurgence in the Muslim World. In order to promote their selfish worldly agenda, the modern secularists in the Muslim World have brought a mammoth shift in Muslims’ conceptual paradigm. It is indeed a 180-degree shift against the vision of Islam. Such a secular worldview is as old as the origin of humans on earth. Humans had always the temptation of being focused only on immediate worldly successes and ignoring the distant hereafter. The Holy Qur’an is very explicit on such human tendency. Today’s Muslims have fallen into the same trap. The pre-Islamic Arab kuffar also had the same conceptual disease. They believed in Allah. They even named their son Abdallah -meaning a slave of Allah. They believed Kaaba as the house of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala and also believed that it was built by His prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him) and his son Ismail (peace be upon him). But they did not believe in the hereafter. Hence they did not have any fear of accountability for their bad deeds. The concept of the hereafter with its hells and heavens had no place in their life. As a result, their only survival agenda was to enhance their worldly gains. Such an absence of belief in the hereafter, lack of fear of accountability in the Day of Judgement and staying away from siratul mustaqeem are the real expression of crude secularism. This is why they stand against the revival of Islam.

The grave crimes of the secularists

The most catastrophic defeat of the Muslims did not take place on any battlefield. They lost the war on the conceptual premise. The defeats on the geopolitical frontiers came later. The 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. But, because of secularisation of thought, they ignored its importance. Hence they forsake the Qur’anic weapon. They became radical seculatist in practice and remained Muslim only by name. So the secularist Muslims were ideologically defeated before the war started. In fact, they became the part of the enemies before the enemies’ war. They were indeed the internal enemies of Islam -as it is now.

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 the secularists is to restrict religions playing any role in the system of social organizations, politics, education, and warfare. In fact, here starts the conflict between the secularists and the believers. Islam has an altogether opposite view. It 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 and 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 and states. Here, the secularists commit a grave crime against Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala and His religion by banning the access of Qur’anic knowledge in the premise of education, organisations, societies and states. This is why their politics is a criminal war against Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala and His religion. Their every act of politics is a grave war crime. The Holy Qur’an is the greatest blessing of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala for the whole of mankind. Humans can get peace on earth and can access eternal pleasure in paradise only through the path shown in the Holy Qur’an. It is called siratul mustaqeem. So obstructing the implementation of the Qur’anic teaching on the earth is a great crime of putting billions of people in eternal flame of hellfire. The secularists are committing such crimes. Hence, in sharia law, they get capital punishment.

The Qur’anic path must be followed not only in five-time prayers, fasting, haj, and charity, but also in education, politics, judiciary, trade, media, administration, economics, and warfare. All these arenas of life are indeed the testing fields where the merit as well as the destiny of men and women get decided. Those who pass the test qualify for paradise and those who fail get condemned in hellfire. And the state and its institutions have enormous responsibility to help people pass the test. It is through Islamic education, cultural planning, media guidance and statesmanship steering of the leaders. These are the blessings of an Islamic state. The secular states do otherwise. They groom people for eternal hellfire. If Islam is kept out of the fields –as is the workplan of the secularists, how people can be helped to pass the crucial tests? In order to help all men and women, all the social, religious, political, judicial, cultural, and educational institutions must work together to take the Qur’anic blessings of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala to their doorsteps  –as was the case during the golden days of Islam.

Nuclear bombs or chemical bombs instantly burn people to death but do not take people to burn eternally in hellfire. 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 different 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. They keep the Qur’anic lessons out of the classrooms, reject the sharia in the judiciary, and restrict the practice of Islam only within the mosques and private life. Because of such inimical works 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.

Mental cccupation and corruption

Moral, cultural, behavioral, and political changes or revolutions always start in people’s minds. The ideas generated in the mind indeed work as the real engine of any revolution. Hence, the pre-Islamic Arabs did not remain the same Arab after the acceptance of Islam. Prior to Islam, there was no cultural or moral barrier against crimes, rather various moral perversions worked in the name of religion. So they could go to any length in their crimes. But after the acceptance of Islam, the same people developed completely a different attitude towards life. They could rightly perceive the world as a real exam hall designed to try their fitness for paradise. They could also realise that investment of time, talent, energy, wealth and blood for promotion of the good and for eradication of the wrong as means to pass the exam. They became also convinced that only such an investment can buy a place in a paradise for infinity. So they engaged day and night in doing good deeds with all of their physical, financial, and intellectual abilities. The caliph of a huge state would go searching for hungry people at midnight. He would pull the rope of the camel with the servant seated on the camel. Caliph Omar (ra) set such examples. Among the early Muslims, there was always a relentless desperation to increase the score in the hereafter. Because of such a passion for making the highest investment for the ultimate profit in the hereafter, more than 60 percent of the companions of the prophet (peace be upon him) sacrificed their lives. Only such people could qualify to build the finest civilisation in human history. 

But the securalists have been very successful in invading people’s minds and corrupting their intellectual premise. Hence, Muslims now live with an opposite paradigm. Professional, political and other worldly successes get the highest priority in their life; and the issue of getting success in the hereafter is usually ignored. Because of secularisation, the focus of all thoughts and activities shifts from the hereafter to the worldly life. Although they read the same Qur’an and the same narratives of the prophet (peace be upon him) like the early Muslims, that doesn’t generate the same moral revolution. Virulent viruses kill the body’s normal cells. Likewise, secularism kills brains’ normal functioning. This is why taking the Qur’anic message to the people is not the only good deed, dismantling secularist institutions is an excellent good deed, too. It is jihad in Islam.

The crime in the name of education

How to learn and educate is education. And knowledge is the product of all educational endeavors. But what is the benefit of the knowledge if it imparts wrong objectives, wrong roadmap, and wrong priority in life? Even criminals do have skills in reading, writing, and arithmetic. But for success here and in the hereafter, humans need the right vision, the right objective, the right role model, and the right roadmap. More than a hundred thousand prophets were sent by the Almighty Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala not only to show the right path but also to work as the role model. The Muslims have no option but to follow the prophetic model. In the early days of Islam, the Muslims didn’t have any university or college but have the institutions to show the right path and showcase the right role model as per Qur’anic and prophetic teachings. The Islamic state, the mosques, the madrasas, and the families worked jointly to promote the Divine agenda. But the secular education system does the opposite. In the name of education, it hides the Divine path (siratul mustaqeem) and the right role models from the public eyes. Even the prophets –the greatest teachers and reformers in the history of mankind are not mentioned in the classrooms. This is indeed another serious crime of the secularists. Awfully, they are giving this greatest disservice in the name of education.

The most important objective of education is to show the right path to the people and project the right people as the figure of highness to follow. But the secular education system does the opposite. It gives wrong road signals to the people and presents the wrong people as the figure of highness. Even thieves, brutal killers, selfish politicians and autocrats are promoted as heroes. Hence, with the increasing number of colleges and universities in the Muslim World, the deviation from siratul mustaqeem is getting much wider and deeper. As a result, the failures are also getting more dismal. This is why the secular universities –though in hundreds couldn’t add any single glory to Muslim history. In fact, some of the Muslim countries, with a higher number of university graduates earned the highest disgrace by becoming the most corrupt country in the world.

The secular education system is helping the greedy, the corrupt, and the clever predators to gain more skills to do more harm to the societies. Wars, World Wars, colonial occupational wars, ethnic cleansing, dropping nuclear bombs and other genocidal crimes in the past are indeed the works of such secular university graduates. Their knowledge, skills, and efforts get exhausted only to attain worldly aims and nothing is left over to invest for the hereafter. Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala labels these people as the ultimate loser and said, “Say (O Muhammad), “Shall we tell you who the greatest losers in respect of their deeds are? It is they whose labor has been wasted in this world’s life, while they think that they are doing well in deeds. These are the people who deny the signs of their Lord and deny the fact of meeting with Him in the Hereafter. Vain will be their work. Nor shall We, on the day of judgment raise any scale to weigh their deeds.“-(Surah Kahf, verses 103-105).  Because of secular education, the Muslim World is full of such failed people. Awfully, the ever-increasing number of these failed people are adding more failures to the Muslim Ummah.

Failure breeds more failures

Success of a man as well as of a state starts with education. And failure breeds more failures. Hence ensuring Islamic education for children is the most fundamental responsibility of the parents as well of a state. Education decides how children will grow up in the future. If such an Islamic obligation is ignored or delegated to a non-Muslim or a secularist enemy, it brings disaster -both here and in the hereafter. Since the Muslims’ mission of survival is different from that of the non-Muslims, their educational objectives and needs are also altogether different. Service of a non-Muslim can be acceptable in the field of medicine, engineering, agriculture, roadbuilding or other non-ideological arenas, but not in the field of education. It is the duty of the Muslims themselves. A non-Muslims can’t be an imam in prayer. Education is also an ibadah. So a non-Muslim can’t be a teacher in the indeological arenas. This is why the Muslims living in non-Muslim or secular Muslim countries face catastrophic problems. In such countries, the aim of becoming a doctor, accountant, engineer, or scientist can be easily met, but growing up with Islamic education, vision and ideology remains in great danger. A Muslim can never deserve any Islamic education from a non-Muslim.

Education is also the most powerful tool of indoctrination. It has been used as a powerful tool by the secularists in Muslim countries. It has been used by the non-Muslims as well. In the occupied Muslim lands, the Christian missionaries used it as a tool of subversion against the Islamic faith for ages. They opened hundreds of missionary schools not as a part of charity rather as a ploy to increase the speed of cultural and ideological conversion. Failing to make any significant gain in religious conversion, the Christian colonialists found such ideological and cultural conversion as the most successful means to harm Islam and the Muslims. Because of such colonial strategy, all the Muslim countries are now under the occupation of these ideological and cultural converts aligned with their non-Muslim masters. In fact, more damages are done and being done to Islam and the Muslims by these ideological and cultural products of the colonialists. Because of them, the unity of the Muslim countries, the practice of sharia, and reclaiming the lost glory stay almost impossible.     

Crime in the arena of politics

Islamisation needs to be inclusive; no part of the people, society and state should be kept out of it. Secularization of politics caused disastrous harm to the ummah. It means de-Islamisation of state’s policies and institutions. State is the most powerful instution on the earh; if it is de-Islamised then it stands against Islam and Muslims. Such a secular state faces no ideological or moral barrier to become the partner of crimes of the enemies. This is why secular Pakistan gave access to the USA planes to bomb Muslims in Afghanistan. For the same reason, secularist Turkey became the partner of the US occupation Army in Afghanistan. There are many such examples. The collapse of Osmania Khilafah owes to secularisation of politics. The unifying force of the Osmania Khilafah was pan-Islamism. The Turks, the Arabs, the Kurds, the Albanians, the Kosovans, the Moors –all live in the same country for more than five hundred years. But the corrosive hatred against each other reached an explosive proportion while the Turks and the non-Turks were sent to European colleges for education. In those days, the West was the breeding ground of radical nationalism and secularism. They even fought wars of hundred years to show their tribal or national pride. While these Muslims returned back from the European universities, they were already heavily infected with the toxic viruses of secularism and nationalism. As a result, they turned their faces against Islam. As two blades of the same scissors, nationalism, and secularism could easily cut the great Muslim empire into more than twenty-five pieces. The foreign military interventions during World War-I only expedited the process.

The breakdown of Pakistan –the largest Muslim country in the contemporary world in 1971 is another example of catastrophic damage done by secular politics. Pakistan was born out of India to meet the Muslims’ ideological, educational, cultural, and civilizational objectives – as was envisioned by the great philosopher poet Allama Iqbal. The foundation was on pan-Islamism. But the country did not have enough intellectuals and political leaders to understand such a profound Islamic vision. The huge intellectual void was filled with people who have little understanding of Islam’s civilizational goal. In the name of promoting education, the Bengali and non-Bengali academics and the army personnel were given scholarships to the western countries for education and training. The west got the golden opportunity to inculcate them with anti-Islamic venom. As a result, they returned back as ideological and cultural converts of the west. Their mind was so much embedded with the toxic virus of nationalism, secularism and hedonism that they became highly incompatible with Islam and with a pan-Islamic state like Pakistan. The army cantonments and the civil and military officers’ club turned to be the protected islands of the western culture and ideologies. Drinking wine on taxpayers’ money and womanizing has become the pastime of many army and civil officers. Drinking wine in Pakistan Army’s officers’ mess was firstly stopped by Gen. Ziaul Haque in the late seventies. The ideological converts turned the university campuses into fertile breeding grounds for the radical secularists and the nationalists. So, the pan-Islamic glue of unity was eroded quickly and Pakistan became ripe for quick dismemberment from the inside. In 1971, the known enemy like India only played a midwife’s role.

If the colleges and universities of the Muslim World continue to breed the enemies of Islam and the Muslim men and women fail to fulfill their Islamic obligation, many more failures are waiting in the line. Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala never helps those who do not help themselves. How Muslims can help themselves while they are not equipped with the Islamic knowledge and not imbued with the Islamic vision and mission? The first thing must be done first. But awfully, such a first thing has been neglected from the very beginning. 23/05/2012; re-edited 27/11/2019.