The Truth about Religion
By Sheikh Rashid Ahmad
(Al Quran Trust)
(Translated from Urdu by New Age Islam)
17 April, 2015
The concept of religion is a creation of human mind. The purpose was to lead a luxurious life on the earnings made by others. And this was to be done in a way that these religious bigots would rob them of their wealth and the victims would bless them in ignorance. They would push them away but they would fall on their feet. They would abuse them but they would apologize to them; They would insult them in public but they would not even imagine having any negative feeling for them in solitude; they would consider taking their services without paying them and these victims would consider serving them their most sacred duty; the victims would take their own lives and the lives of their own children and plunge into fire or jump off from the mountain at their slightest hint without asking the reason for all this; they would starve but serve goodies to their servants; they would make their children starve while serving their dogs with meat; they would remain naked but will cover their stones with robes studded with gems; they would live in huts but build skyscrapers of marble on their ashes; Leave aside being afraid of them during their lives, they would be frightened by them even after their death.
In short, they would be possessed by their thought and fear all the time and would not be able to retrieve themselves from the clutches of their fear. These are some of the features of religion which the deceitful mind of the man has created and used them to suck the blood of the weak.
There is no denying that the oppression of the ruling class and the rich was also not less bloody but it is also a fact that this section has to adopt hundreds of methods and means to retain and sustain their power. Even then they are always apprehensive that their prey or victim may free himself from their clutches. But these religious bigots have such a power that if a wise and insightful person marches forward in this path to break the shackles of slavery, these poor slaves of the powerful strangle the wise and insightful person to death. And if accidentally, this chain breaks off, they pick up the pieces and put them around their necks with reverence.
To achieve all their objectives, what this powerful section did was attribute all their actions to God. The secret of all their grip and control lies in this method. For this, they kept people away from thinking and did not allow them to think and ponder. The religionist who speaks nonsense should be declared closer to God.
The technique of the powerful and the religious section is that people should not get knowledge and education. Superstition should be made the basis of faith and belief in miracles should be declared the true path. People should have faith in the beliefs and ideas presented by this section. People should not question the basis of these suggestions. Only basis and logic for people to follow this section should be that their forefathers had been following them. If someone questions the sectarian belief or idea of religion, this powerful section would provoke the people against him saying that he is insulting their forefathers. The large scale bloodshed caused by this powerful section by provoking these people is testified by the pages of history.
The truth is that the bloodshed caused by Chengiz Khan and Halaku Khan pale before the bloodshed caused by this section in the name of religion. This is the weapon with which the religious Thekedars keep their opponents under control. People are so much afraid of them that they do not dare to speak a single word against them. All the business of religion depends on the emotions of the people. For this, the religious section creates opportunities and festivals through which they keep tending their emotions and the fire ignited by them constantly rages.
This is a brief introduction of the religion which has been like the noose round the neck of humanity since day one. It has taken the body and soul of humanity in its grip in such a way that it cannot move without its will. This is the iron grip against which God repeatedly sent down the pure Deen (collective system of life). The messengers of God conveyed the message of God to the people to free them from the yoke of religion and the powerful religious people would stand against with full force and the rich and the powerful people would support these religious mafia. This continues even today because the Deen bestowed by God was a death knell for them. They made every effort to defeat God’s Deen and sustain their religion because in the domination of religion lies the secret of their life. This is the tussle between religion and Deen since day one that continued in every nation, every part of the world in every age. The path of religion is a curse and only invites the wrath of God. God says in the Quran:
“And We did not send before you any messenger or prophet except that when he spoke [or recited], Satan threw into it [some misunderstanding]. But Allah abolishes that which Satan throws in; then Allah makes precise His verses. And Allah is Knowing and Wise. “(22:52)
The prophets would come and deliver the message of God but after his demise, Satan would distort the message. Therefore, God would repeal the message and send his message anew. That is, before the final prophet, there was no prophet whose messages were not distorted. Satan literally means one who divides. Division is the biggest flaw of man and biggest curse for humanity. The fire that rages due to the division is in fact the Hell and the person who ignites this fire is Satan. The result of distortion of the message of God would be that God’s Deen turned into religion. Deen meant the legal imposition of injunction and values of God in the society. On the contrary, religion was a private relationship between God which could be established merely through the fulfillment of some obligations and dogma. All the religions found in the world can be said to have been Deen in the beginning. The Quran says that God sent down messengers and guides in every nation of the world but the section with hidden interests led by religious leaders distorted their fundamental teachings and turned the Deen into religion. These religious leaders are described in the following words:
“So woe to those who write the "scripture" with their own hands, then say, "This is from Allah," in order to exchange it for a small price. Woe to them for what their hands have written and woe to them for what they earn.” (2:79)
This verse talks of religious leaders. These religious leaders would formulate Shariat and say to the people that this was from God. They would do this only to make money because religion was a profession, a trade for them. In other words, the religious scholars formulate Shariat of their choice and then tell the illiterate people that what they have formulated is from God. Therefore, they benefit from this. They do not realize that the Shariat formulated by them and the wealth earned through it will only lead to ruin and destruction.
The Quran brings to light the tussle between Deen and religion. It begins with the tussle during the age of Prophet Nuh’s revolutionary mission through which he told his nation that was shackled by the religion:
“And We had certainly sent Noah to his people, and he said, "O my people, worship Allah; you have no deity other than Him; then will you not fear Him?" (23:23)
Against his voice of freedom, the powerful Sardars and leaders of his nation who led a luxurious life on the earnings of the poor people stood against him. They called the people together and said:
“But the eminent among those who disbelieved from his people said, "This is not but a man like yourselves who wishes to take precedence over you; and if Allah had willed [to send a messenger], He would have sent down angels. We have not heard of this among our forefathers. “(23:24)
“He is not but a man possessed with madness, so wait concerning him for a time." (23:25)
After this the Quran mentions a chain of prophets and says that each of the prophets gave the message that no man had the right to enslave the other. Only God’s book deserves to be obeyed. The messengers delivered this message in every age and the powerful and the rich formed a front against him. They had only one slogan to provoke the people:
” They say, "This is not but a man who wishes to avert you from that which your fathers were worshipping." “(34:43)
“They said, "Kill him or burn him," (29:24)
“They said, "Burn him and support your gods - if you are to act." (21:68)
We learn from the Bible that during the age of Jesus, the power of the religious section was at its peak. The religious leaders of Bani Israil had established a parallel government. They enjoyed all the powers. Only they had to get the approval of the officials of Roman Empire for death sentences. Jesus’ mission was freeing the oppressed humanity from the clutches of the religious authority. The synagogue of Jerusalem was the centre of the religious leaders. Jesus would stand on the steps of this synagogue and would challenge the religious leaders in these words:
“O hypocrite religious scholars and priests, it is regretful that you close the doors of the divine sovereignty on people. You neither enter in this kingdom nor do you allow others to enter it. O hypocrite religious scholars and priests, you travel around on the earth to find one disciple, and when you find one, you make him the resident of the Hell. O, hypocrite religious scholars and priests, it is regretful that you are like the beautiful graves that look attractive from outside but are full of the bones of dead people from inside. Similarly, you appear truthful to the people from outside but from the inside you are full of hypocrisy and atheism. O snakes, how will you escape the punishment of the Hell?”(Bible Mathew: Chapter 23)
Obviously, religious Thekedars who robbed the people and ruled over them did not tolerate his revolutionary message. They considered this message a death knell for their rule and power. Their desperation can be understood from the hue and cry they made in the following words in the words of Barnabas in the Bible:
“Then they consulted the head of the soothsayers and asked what they would do if this man became the king. What will be their fate under a king like him? Definitely we and our children will be ruined. When we will be deprived of our work, we will have to beg for a living. At present our king and the ruler both are unaware of our Shariat and they do not care for our Shariat as we do not care for their Shariat. Because of this, we have the authority to do whatever we like. If we make a mistake we can please our God with animal sacrifice and fasting as our God is merciful but if this man becomes the King he cannot be pleased until he sees the worship of God being observed in the same way as Moses has written. (Bible: Barnabas page 124)
You can see the reason for the opposition of the divine message. There was only one reason that if the divine system of life was enforced, they will be deprived of their position and since they do not have any skills or work, they would have to beg for donations. You can see that what is presented as religion is altogether an economic issue. From this statement in Barnabas you can also see that religious leadership always likes the system of governance which is called secular. That is, the authority to govern should remain in the hands of the government and the Shariat affairs (Personal Laws) should be entrusted with the religious leadership. Neither the religious leadership should interfere with the affairs of the government nor should the government interfere with the affairs of the religious leadership.
Now, let’s come to the final prophet Muhammad (pbuh). The purpose behind the prophethood is said to be:
“And relieves them of their burden and the shackles which were upon them. “ (7:157)
Therefore, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) presented the same message that was delivered right from Noah to Jesus uninterruptedly and all the opponents opposed it in the same way.
“We have not heard of this in the latest religion. This is not but a fabrication.” (38:7)
After that what treatment was meted out to him and his companions is recorded in the pages of history. Here the question arises: what happened to the Deen brought by a messenger that on the arrival of the next prophet, the message of the earlier Prophet would completely go into oblivion? The immediate addressee of the message of God was always the same nation that was associated with the previous messenger of God. Why then would the nation reject the message of the new messenger and why did the nation oppose him tooth and nail? Actually what happened was that after a messenger of God would deliver the message and pass away, some people with personal interests would emerge in the nation and make distortions in the Deen to turn it into a religion. But they would never say to the people that those were their personal views. They would present that religion as the true teachings from God. But why would they do that?
“So woe to those who write the "scripture" with their own hands, then say, "This is from Allah," in order to exchange it for a small price. Woe to them for what their hands have written and woe to them for what they earn. “(2:79)
They would do this to earn money. This way God’s Deen would turn into a religion or collection of dogma. This is what happened to Islam too.
Today every sect of Muslims is a separate religion in terms of its belief system. The follower of any sect is in fact a follower of a sectarian religion. In modern times when a man calls himself a Muslim, he means that he is the follower of one of the four or five sects. But instead of calling himself a follower of any sect, he calls himself a follower of Islam for his own convenience. That’s why Islam was also called a religion.
The person who calls himself a follower of Islam is in fact the follower of Hanfi or Shafi’i, Jafri, Hanbali religions. These sectarian groups are being called Islam for the last one thousand years and the followers of jurisprudential religions are being called Muslims. As the followers of Catholicism, Protestantism have nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus, in the same way, the followers of the present day religion of Islam have nothing to do with the teachings of the holy Prophet (pbuh) and his Deen Islam and its source Quran.
As the Christians use the name of Jesus for their religion, in the same way the Muslims take the name of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) for their sectarian religion. Every jurisprudence formulated under the umbrella of Islam is in fact a continuation of the traditions outlined by Satan. These outdated and worn out traditions were renamed Fiq’h (jurisprudence). Therefore, the narrators enjoy a sacred status and traditions enjoy sanctity. The Islam in vogue is built on these outdated traditions. Even the most important prayers have their source in these traditions. This modern religion of Islam fashioned by Banu Umaiyah and Banu Abbas is based on the sources which in themselves are doubtful. To reject Quran with the help of these traditions, wellsprings of Habits burst out and the rivers of jurisprudence originated and from these jurisprudences, different sects and religions of Deen Islam came into existence and the collective name of these sects and religions was Islam.
Source: Sawtal Haque
9:57 AM
Moderate Islamist here
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