The biggest lie the West ever created, was convincing the world that its
values were universal and 'neutral'. But unbeknownst to most people,
its values are based upon its own particular worldview, which is quite
distinct and antithetical to most of the world's (original) belief/law
systems. Thus like how the U.S. promotes the dollar, the West printed
out its intellectual currency, and asked everyone to use it as a
universal standard for moral and intellectual transactions. But like how
the dollar is linked to US economy, so Western values are linked to
their beliefs and worldview. And if ones fails, so does the other.
It
is for this reason that, the 'values' of (the Western conception of)
'Human Right's', 'Freedom', 'Democracy', 'Democratic legitimacy' [unless
you vote for an Islamic party], and (the Western concept of) 'Equality'
- are so ubiquitous in global usage. Now anywhere you travel, you can
intone these 'sacred' and 'holy' words, and instantly gain some moral
currency.
After the ravages of colonialism upon the Muslim mind,
many Muslims have taken to dangerously using this currency to explain
Islam and demand justice for themselves.
This is because the
Western worldview [or intellectual bank] highly esteems those words, and
many Muslims have succumbed to the use of them, in order to placate the
demands of Western societies. So we see Muslims use words like
Democracy, Secularism, Feminism, Humanism and Freedom, not only to
demand justice for themselves, but also as descriptions for aspects of
Islam!
Such Muslims obliviously and naively use words impregnated
with foreign and blatantly un-Islamic concepts, with the excuse (they
tell themselves) that if they assign them a different meaning to the
patiently obvious meanings they have, they will somehow be 'ok' to use.
Some
even pre-fix the words with 'Islamic' in order to render them some how
acceptable, like 'Islamic Democracy', or 'Islamic Feminism'. As the
American saying goes, 'You can clean up a pig, put a ribbon on it's
tail, spray it with perfume, but it is still a pig."
The Prophet
Muhammed (saaw) is narrated to have ordered Muslims not to drink using
wine cups, even if Muslims were to drink water by them. This is simply
because of the connotations that wine cups have. Yet some Muslims are
happy to use words that have connotations antithetical to Islam! This
would be the equivalent of not just using wine cups, but drinking wine
along with it - but calling it 'not-wine' [The Prophet Muhammed (saaw)
is narrated to also have prophesied that some Muslims would literally do
that too!].
So we see Muslims saying 'well, when I use the word
democracy, I mean choosing the leaders, not denying God's right to
rule'. This is despite the fact that the term 'demos kratos' means
ultimate sovereignty and law making by the people, not from God. The
simple response is to tell these Muslims that insist upon using the
word, 'ok - but then EQUALLY you should be also happy to call for
'Theocracy 'too, since it means rule by God, which is something you
claim you don't deny'. Only the truly innocent of mind, and sincere of
heart would agree with you.
Muslims say 'Feminism just means
rights for women' - despite the fact that all legal systems have given
rights for women [the disputes are only in what those rights are]. Of
course, Feminism actually [claims to] mean the absolute equality and
identicality of the legal treatment of men and women (negating all
gender roles), the independence of women from all responsibility and
duty by dint of their gender, and gender sectarianism. The simple
response is to tell these Muslims that insist upon using the word, 'ok -
but then EQUALLY you should be also happy to call for 'Masculinism'
too, since it means 'rights for men', which you surely believe in too
right? Only the truly innocent of mind, and sincere of heart would agree
with you.
Some Muslims say that 'Secularism' just means
'politics in the material world like building roads, making taps,
education and schools etc'. They then claim that the historical Islamic
Caliphate was 'secular', and the Prophet (saaw)'s rule was secular!!.
However, Secularism actually means the separation of religious concerns,
beliefs and worldviews from politics. This means the negation of all
laws based upon morality that isn't rooted in physical considerations
like physical harm/benefit. This means, infidelity, publicly insulting
religious beliefs, dealing in interest banking, intimate exploitation of
women, and drinking of alcohol all become legal.
No Secularist
would accept or call for a Secular constitution that says 'if any fall
into dispute, refer it to Allah and his messenger for judgment', yet
this was the constitution of Madinah!
Building roads, taps,
schools etc, are not neutral acts, or non-religious acts, but are based
upon the motivation of the ideology that demands these things to be
built. If a government built a road because it believed it is God's
Will, then THAT IS NOT A SECULAR ACTION.
Besides, no government
builds a road just because it is natural to do so. For thousands and
thousands of years, most governments never built roads [except being
states like the Romans, or the Islamic Caliphate]. A government would
build a road either because they possess a worldview (e.g. like
Communism, Liberalism, or Islam) that demands the state should ensure
people's safety and efficiency of travel that would maximise some value
the ideology reveres. Although a government may build a road, because
everyone else is doing it [i.e. 'its the modern thing to do'], or to
facilitate its own Army to travel quickly [i.e. as the romans did]. The
simple response is to tell these Muslims that insist upon using the
word, 'ok - but then EQUALLY you should be also happy to call for, and
use the phrase, 'Religious government', because according to you,
Religious government would surely call for the same things e.g. roads,
taps, schools, bridges etc wouldn't it? Again, Only the truly innocent
of mind, and sincere of heart would agree with you.
Some Muslims
call for Humanism claiming it means 'only look after the rights of
Humans'. But this too is naive and false. For Humanism refers to a human
centric worldview, where Humans and 'this life' are the primary concern
of thought, and not anything else, including God. That's why virtually
all Humanists today are Atheists. If Atheism is their creed (aqeedah),
then Humanism is the religion (deen) of this creed. The simple response
is to tell these Muslims that insist upon using the word, 'ok - but then
EQUALLY you should be also happy to use the word 'Divine Law' since it
would also call for rights for humans, albeit under a God centred
worldview. Again, Only the truly innocent of mind, and sincere of heart
would agree with you.
Of course, if these Muslims were truly
sincere in their use of these terms, 'as long as they give them an
'acceptable' meaning', then lets see if they would also be happy to use
the following terms, along with their new 'meanings' [i.e. excuses]:
Islamic Polytheism - 'it just means' belief in a God, with many names
'Islamic' Fascism - 'it just means' strength through unity'
'Islamic' Communism - 'It just means' respecting community values
'Islamic' Atheism - 'It just means' negating false idols, not negating the One transcendent God
'Islamic'
Idolatry - 'It just means' honouring Muslim heroes from the present and
past, as role models and celebrity 'idols', but not in the literal
sense
'Islamic' Racism - 'It just means' that we honour the the race of Adam (as)
'Islamic' Satanism - 'It just means' that we believe in a concept of the Devil, and guard against his works'
'Islamic'
Trinitarianism - 'Is just means' that we believe in three aspects of
God, the Tawheed al Rububiyah, Tawheed Uluhiyyah and Asma' wa siffat.
Of
course, all these new terms are absurd, and we'd laugh at anyone who'd
be so foolish as to use them, despite attributing to them seemingly
benign explanations. But this are no different then using 'Islamic
Feminism', 'Islamic Secularism', 'Islamic Democracy' and 'Islamic
Humanism' - which are all equally absurd for a Muslim to use, and
equally derisory.
As Muslims, we must reject the false
intellectual currency we are told to use. We should not use borrowed
words which have a widely understood, and unIslamic meaning, but rather
we should use words which are supplied to us from Islam itself, or at
the very least (for non-Arabic speakers) the best translations of
linguistic equivalents in foreign languages e.g. Deen =
'worldview/Ideology', Aqeedah = 'Creed'. This is because if Muslims use
Western words which are loaded with a particular meaning, these then
become a prelude to believing in Western concepts. This is how the West
spreads its ideology. It is equivalent of teaching Arab Christians to
use the word 'Tawheed' to describe their monotheism. After a generation
or two, none of them would believe in the Trinity was literal anymore!
So
let us give back to the West their intellectual currency, for surely it
bares the stamp of their own worldview upon it, and we should keep for
ourselves our own intellectual currency supplied to us by God in the
Quran and Sunnah. This is the key to keeping our beliefs pure, and
ensuring we derive correct intellectual conceptions from our own
worldview without distortion.
As famously (allegedly) narrated of Jesus in the New Testament (Mark 12:15-17):
'Should
we pay or shouldn't we?" But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. "Why are you
trying to trap me?" he asked. "Bring me a denarius and let me look at
it."They brought the coin, and he asked them, "Whose image is this? And
whose inscription?" "Caesar's," they replied. Then Jesus said to them,
"Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's." And
they were amazed at him'.
-Abdullah Al Andalusi
https://www.facebook.com/abdullah.andalusi/posts/10151887975277517
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