The moral disability and the catastrophes

Dr. Firoz Mahboob Kamal

The moral disability and the consequence

The most important cause of Muslims’ downfall is not any natural calamity or economic collapse or an epidemic of a killer disease. It is indeed the moral disability that has brought them to the current quagmire. Such disability also deters any fresh attempt to rise up as a civilizational force. If not treated, the ongoing disability can lead to moral death. A man then survives only as an animal with a human shape and ends up in hellfire. None of the physical disabilities takes humans to such a disgraceful end. In the annals of mankind, moral disabilities caused catastrophic calamities –much worse than any earthquake, epidemic, or tsunamis. Hundreds of earthquakes or epidemics couldn’t kill 75 million people, but only two World Wars could kill more than that. The ugliest crimes on the earth like colonial genocides, imperialist occupations, ethnic cleansings, slave trading, gas chambers, World Wars, and dropping of barrel bombs, chemical bombs, drones, and nuclear bombs are indeed the works of these morally disabled.

Moral disability takes humans to a level much inferior to animals; animals do not show such deviation from their own style of survival. The Qur’anic narratives like “in hum illa ka’al an’am, bal hum adallu sabila (Surah: al-Furqan, verse: 44)” (meaning: they are nothing but cattle, rather deviated farther off from the path) gives testimony to that.  History abundantly displays such terrible ills. Like animals, such people become insensitive to the Divine Truth. Cattles search only for water, grass, and grazing fields; they do not ponder on the Truth. Even miracles make no impact on them. The miracles like a resurrection of the dead, talking while in the cradle, cure of the born-blind, walking across the sea, foods descending down from the sky, water gushing out of a stone -as shown by Prophet Isa (peace be upon him) and Prophet Musa (peace be upon him), failed to impress any cattle. The same is true with the morally disabled ones. They fail to recognize the worst crimes of the criminals. This is why the morally disabled Muslims turn complacent with the horrendous crimes committed by the imperialist aggressors against the innocent Muslim men, women, and children of the occupied lands. So, they take the killers, the occupiers, and the bombers as friends. Even hundreds of thousands of Muslims register in the enmeies’ Army as mercenaries to fight their occupational wars in Muslim lands –as seen in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. More than a million Arabs joined the British, the French and the Italian Armies to fight for them in the First World War. And more than 200,000 Indian Muslims committed the same crime in World War I.

No nation collapsed or disappeared because of physical disabilities. It is the moral collapse or vileness that destroyed many nations in the past –as happened with the tribes of A’ad, Samud, Lot, Madaen, Pharao, and many others. Because of the same moral collapse, the Muslims failed to sustain their civilizational dignity and power. What could be the worst disgrace for the Muslims that many Muslim countries stand top on the list of the most corrupt countries in the world? What is the impact of their Islamic faith and prayers on the acts and character? About 1.5 billion Muslims claim that they believe in Islam; more than a billion take part in five-time daily prayer and month-long fasting, and several million perform hajj and umrah each year, but all those rituals couldn’t help them to come out of the awful moral ills. Whereas those prayer modules were prescribed to make the Muslim morally competent to carry out the Divine mission of bringing the overwhelming victory of Islam over all sorts of falsehood (li’yuzhirahu alad’dini kullihi).

All shifts in the course of life –good or bad indeed owe to the shifts in the conceptual paradigm. The moral downturn of the Muslims indeed owes to a huge shift in paradigm vis-à-vis the agenda of survival. Now it appears that the survival agenda of most Muslims don’t align with the agenda of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala, rather they serve the agenda of their leaders, parties, tribes, or nation-states -which has no concern with Islam. Because of the deviation from the objective of Islam, they do not bother about the Muslims’ defeat and disgrace. They are exclusively engaged to serve their personal interest. Moral purity or excellence only comes from an agenda that aims at pleasing Allah Subhana wa Ta’ala. The agenda to serve any person, party, tribal or other parochial interests divert away from the sole purpose of humans’ creation and adds a corrosive element in morality. In fact, such a perversion in the aim incorporates all forms of immorality and corruption as the expedient means of survival. As a result, “enjoining the right and eradicating the wrong (a’maru bil ma’ruf wa nehi anil munkar)” – the obligatory Qur’anic mission, enjoys little importance. Instead, they get engaged in exactly the opposite mission; so, relish corruption, crimes, and even serving in the enemy armies.

Such an immoral shift in the purpose of survival has generated a new set of self-serving priorities and political culture at all levels. This is why even the worst despots do not face any shortage of mercenaries on the street of Muslim countries. Even those who are known as imams, sheikhs, and religious scholars also rub their shoulders with the criminal despots. “Enjoining the right and eradicating the wrong (a’maru bil ma’ruf wa nehi anil munkar)”is not an issue in their life. And sharia, hudud, khilafa, and jihad have no place in their Islam. Thus, the Muslims themselves display the vilest betrayal of the cause of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala. Such a betrayal tells a lot about the severity of their moral illness. How can such treachery bring any blessing from Him? Awfully, such moral perversion has fully incapacitated them to understand even the dire consequences of the disease. How could Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala select such morally sick people to accomplish His Own vision? So, the Muslims now stand unseated from the position of His khalifa. They indeed show the fitness as well as willingness to work as khalifa of the internal and external enemies of Islam! This is why ideological perversion like secularism, nationalism, tribalism, autocracy get so dominant presence in Muslim countries.

The best deed and the worst crime

The moral disease is the commonest and the most calamitous disease of mankind. Even the most physically fit people are not immune to it. Now, it prevails as a global epidemic. Awfully, the damage has the worst eternal consequence. In fact, it is a trillion times more awful than any vilest cancer. Even the worst cancer causes suffering for a few years. But the moral illness takes to the hellfire not to be ended in trillions of years. The virus of the disease is conceptual. Therefore, the disease runs through thoughts, concepts, beliefs, and ideologies. Since pathology lies in the soul, it can be treated only by curative thoughts, concepts, beliefs, and ideologies –as was the methodology of all Divine prophets. For that, the Holy Qur’an exists as the only final prescription. In the history of mankind, only the Holy Qur’an could prove its full treatment efficacy -as could treat successfully one of the most morally diseased people on the earth 14 hundred years ago. No other prescription has shown similar success in any part of the world at any time. History has been a witness to many revolutions; some were political, some were economical and some were dynastical. But none was a full revolution. In this regard, Islam is the only exception; it was a full revolution. Islam brought a revolution in people’s faith, behavior, character, culture, politics, human rights, dress code, education, spirituality, warfare, and human values. In fact, here lies the greatest and the unique strength of Islam. It possesses the most important and the only curative prescription for all moral ills of mankind. This is why Islam is the only target of all the Shaitanic forces on earth. In the whole length of human history, never worked such a huge global coalition against any faith as it is now against a resurgence of Islam. 

The deprivation of the Qur’anic knowledge is lethal; it leads to the death of the soul. It is indeed the greatest catastrophe not only in individuals’ lives but also for the destiny of the whole of mankind. As a result, men and women survive only as biological beings and stay physically fit to execute their all abilities to commit even the worst form of crimes. Thus, they enhance their potential to add terrible calamities not only to their own lives but also to others. In the past, the world experienced colonialism, imperialism, genocides, ethnic cleansing, slave trading, wars, and World Wars only because of such morally dead people. So, it is the most important as well as the highest deed of piety to remove this deprivation of the Qur’anic knowledge. People can grow cattle, food grains, fruits, and vegetables, but can’t grow food for the soul. It is the exclusive domain of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala. Hence, He sent down the angel with the Divine knowledge to His apostles to address this crucial issue. And the Holy Qur’an survives as the final and the only unadulterated source of such knowledge. So, it is the only lifeline of the moral survival of the whole of mankind. Hence it is the greatest deed to adhere to this Qur’anic knowledge. And it is the sure move towards the hellfire to get delinked from that lifeline of the Qur’anic knowledge. The Prophet (peace be upon him) of Islam said, “Those who learn the Holy Qur’an and teach the Holy Qur’an are the best people on the earth”. Hence, every Muslim has a crucial role to play; it is to follow and disseminate the Qur’anic teachings.

Ancient ignorance is also a religion!

The denial of the moral ill has terrible calamities. Then, it becomes an obsession to live with the disease. Such moral perversions even thrive as a culture. In such a cultural milieu, manufacturing myths and adhering to myths become acts of pride in common people’s lives. Such cultural practice has the potential to consolidate in the name of religion –as happened in the case of the Hindu faith in India. This is why the Hindus claim Hinduism as the common cultural expression of the people of India. Therefore, numerous myths of gods and goddesses, idolatry, cow worshipping, snake worshipping, river worshipping, and other expressions of primitive falsehood could be easily incorporated into those cultural practices. They also believe that the deities had various types of planes to carry them in the air. Whenever such falsehood gets ingrained in the cultural norm, it gains strength to stand against the Divine Truth. This is why Hinduism could effectively protect its falsehood against the Qur’anic Truth during more than six hundred years’ Muslim rule in India. Billions of dollars are being spent in India every year to build temples, statues, seminaries, and other cultural institutions to strengthen such cultural fortification. It has also proven that false propaganda can do miracles. It could promote idols, cows, monkeys, and snakes to the rank of a goddess. In such a jingoistic cultural milieu, slaughtering cows is a grave crime punishable only by death but not massacring the Muslims or demolishing mosques. The people thus take huge pride in becoming the defender of such falsehoods.

The replication of ancient kufr

Since ancient ignorance could survive in India even in modern days with its originality, India works as the perfect model for those who want to sustain their ignorance and to stand against Islam. Now the Indian model of cultural fortification against the resurgence of Islam is being replicated all over the Muslim World. Since idol-worshipping, cow worshipping, or snake worshipping doesn’t work in the Muslim World, the enemies of Islam have deployed other hybrid strategies. The fortification against the resurgence of Islam is being done in the form of a cocktail of nationalism, regionalism, traditionalism, secularism, racism, monarchism, tribalism, folk songs, and other parochial obsessions. Every day, they are inventing new means of di­­­straction from Islamic revival. Billions of dollars are being spent on such projects in Muslim countries.

To replicate such a Hindu strategy, thousands of institutions are built and given sustenance by the anti-Islamic global coalition in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Palestine, Iraq, Syria, and other Muslim countries to run dance, drama, sports, and music classes. As if, these are the causes of Muslims’ downfall and miseries! As a part of the project, the former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif became a great fan of kite flying and Diwali. In Bangladesh, the secularists and the nationalists have become very enthusiastic about the spring festival, the New Year festival, Valentine’s day celebration along with other festivals. Very recently in Bangladesh, they have started with “light worship” in the name of the so-called mangal prodip (the lamp of so-called good fortune). To make it integrated with the ongoing anti-Islamic cultural cum ideological engineering, the hardcore secularists are asking to make it obligatory in the school curriculum. The Afghans and the Kurds are being fuelled with a new sense of pride and festivity on the occasion of Nowruz. In the Arab World, the people are being encouraged to get anchored to their local tribal traditions. The Egyptians are told by the country’s autocratic ruler to celebrate the ancient heritage of Pharaoh and keep distance from the prophetic teachings of the Islamic state, khilafa, shura, sharia, hudud, jihad, and the pan-Islamic brotherhood. This way, the cultural tide of old jaheliya that could keep the people of India and other parts of the world tightly anchored to the ancient belief and practices of falsehood are now showing a resurgence in the Muslim World.  

The consequences of moral death

So the prognosis appears very gloomy. Every day, the Muslims are drifting towards a new low. Physical disabilities may make people frail to do anything good or bad, but that doesn’t kill the moral ability to know the right from the wrong. Nor does it destroy the ability to worship the Almighty Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala. Hence, physically ill people can still pursue the straight path towards paradise. But, the moral disability brings the worst calamity; much worse than the most malignant cancer. It kills the soul and the morality. Thus, it destroys the whole ability of a man or woman to align with the project of Islam. Islam wants every human must live with the Qur’anic Truth. He or she must work as a witness as well as the defender of the Truth. In humans’ life, nothing is more important than getting integrated with the Divine project. For that, he or she is called khalifa of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala, and his job turns into a life-long jihad. And those who die in defending the Truth are called shaheed –the greatest honor that a man can achieve in his life.

A seed can’t grow on a stone; it needs fertile soil and water for that. Likewise, the Qur’anic Truth can’t flourish on a dead soul. This is why recitals and memorization of the Holy Qur’an don’t help those who are morally dead or disable. In fact, the powerful Qur’anic verses are falling on many of these dead souls. Of millions who recite the Holy Qur’an every day, very few could come out as the defender of Truth. Such people make themselves unfit for any Divine guidance. Proclaiming belief in Islam and reciting the Holy Qur’an is not enough, it has other obligations. A believer must live with the assigned mission. Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala reveals His Own disappointment on those who distract from the belief and disengage from the assigned mission. So, He reveals, “How shall Allah guide a people who disbelieved after their belief and has witnessed that the Messenger is true and clear signs had come to them; and Allah does not guide the oppressors?” –(Surah al-Imran, verse 86).

Such distraction from Islamic belief and its mission is the most common disease among Muslims. Such disease makes them morally sick, hypocritical and wrongdoer. Moreover, it makes them morally incompetent to stand for the Divine Truth. Whereas, it is required that a Muslim must show his readiness and competence not only in standing for five-time prayers and other rituals but also for implementing sharia, hudud, shura, khilafa, and other basics of Islam –as was the practice of every companion of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Such readiness and competence are indeed the expression of true iman and work as the benchmark of a true Muslim of all ages. Only this way, a Muslim can pass the obligatory tests in this life and enter paradise. About the inevitable test, Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala reveals, “Do you think that you will enter Paradise while Allah hasn’t yet known those who did jihad among you and those who are steadfast?”–(Surah al-Imran, verse 142).

Incompetence to stand for Islam doesn’t build up alone. Such incompetence makes people directly or indirectly complicit in serious crimes against Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala. People then work as mercenaries in the army of the enemies, as happened in almost every occupational war of the enemies in the Muslim lands –as happening now in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Afghanistan. Because of such blatant complicity of the Muslims in crimes against Islam, the Muslims have lost many wars in vital areas. As a result, sharia, hudud, shura, khilafa, trans-ethnic Muslim ummah, and many other qur’anic basics have become non-existent in the Muslim World. Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala never recruits witnesses (shuhada) or defenders (mujahid) for His deen from these morally dead or disabled people. Nor does He guide these people towards paradise. Hence come the repeatedly pronounced Qur’anic warnings: “la’yahdi’Allahu qaomazzalimeen” (Allah doesn’t guide the oppressors),“la’yahdi’Allahu qaomal ka’firun” (Allah doesn’t guide the disbelievers),,“la’yahdi’Allahu qaomal munafiqun” (Allah doesn’t guide the hypocrites,“la’yahdi’Allahu qaomal fasiqun” (Allah doesn’t guide the rebels cum wrongdoers). And, those who are deprived of His guidance, can only pursue a path towards the eternal hellfire. Therefore, downfall in this world is not the only calamity; the worst calamity for these people awaits in the hereafter.