About this blog

In recent times a plethora of misconceptions, misrepresentation and myths have been forged about Islam
and Muslims. Many western influentials from politicians, policymakers to judges have taken it upon
themselves to undermine the Islamic beliefs, values and rules so to make it palatable to their
egotistic minds and the secular liberal thoughts.

This blog is dedicated:-

1. To argue the point for Islam in its belief and systems and to refute the misconceptions.
2. To expose the weakness and contradictions of all forms of secularism.

25 Feb 2010

Islam the only alternative system for mankind

Crime. Poverty. Social deterioration. Political corruption. Racism. Apathy. These words evoke an all too familiar vision that characterizes our homes, our communities, our countries, and the world at large. Philosophers, Sociologists, Politicians, and ordinary citizens have aspired to devise viable solutions to these modern ailments; however, contradictory to the desired outcome of these efforts, the magnitude of the problems is rapidly increasing.

As testimony to this fact stand the volumes of statistics generated weekly by the agencies monitoring the world situation. Every solution implemented by the current world order only breeds more problems, and the existing problems continue to grow with each passing year. The persistent inadequacy of the West in dealing with these issues raises questions as to the source of its failure.

Any viable solution to these problems must consist of both, the correct idea, as well as the mechanism and the resources to implement that idea. Therefore, the failure of the West could either stem from a lack of resources, or be deeply rooted in the ideas upon which Western Civilization is built, Capitalism and Secularism. As demonstrated by the numerous social and economic programs already implemented, which have mobilized an enormous amount of manpower and wealth, one can clearly see that the resources are not in scarcity. Consequently, the problems in the Western societies must emanate from the secular, capitalist mentality upon which the deployment of the resources is based. This failure of Capitalism is well recognized; however, the paradigm of the Capitalist ideology is deeply rooted in the society and has yet to be broken.

Thus, today, the societies of the world find themselves at a crossroads. Humanity can either continue to tread down the road of failure, marching to the tune of Capitalism and Secularism, or it can search for a new path , a new ideology to direct its thinking and its efforts. Surely, the World is in need of a new and correct ideology, and it is with this vision that it must evaluate Islam.

Intellectual leadership of Islam

The Islamic creed (Aqeedah) addresses the very fundamental questions about which every human being inquires. The Islamic System, however, organizes the affairs of the human beings, as individuals as well as communities and societies. The system is a basic element of the Islamic Ideology and can only be adopted from the sources of Islamic law, the Quran and Sunnah. Because the Islamic System addresses the human beings, it is essential to first understand his nature before looking to Islam's approach in dealing with his affairs.

By observing the lives of human beings, and studying their needs, the relationships they form, and the attitudes they possess, it becomes possible for us to understand the fundamental aspects of their nature. We see that they perform certain functions essential to their survival, such as eating and drinking, ridding themselves of waste, breathing, and sleeping. These are the basic biological needs which every human being must satisfy. If they go unsatisfied or are indefinitely suppressed, it will lead to death.

In addition, human beings have instinctive behavior which leads them to build relationships, to improve their condition, and to express their feelings of fear, love, devotion, anger, etc. Amongst the many relationships that we form, one of them is that of devotion and loyalty to a specific object or being. This is characteristic of all human beings, spanning the full spectrum of culture and time, and it serves as an evidence that worshipping is an instinctive behavior of the human being. Thus, whether it is money or a cow, an idol or a sports hero, or the Creator, Allah, every human being comes to be devoted to something, making it the center of his or her life.

The complexity of human life extends far beyond just the relationship with the Creator. Much of our effort goes towards earning wealth, exerting our authority, and protecting our lives and property. These and similar actions are the result of an instinct to survive, for it is through these things that we secure our lives physically. The survival instinct is also the source of our feelings of anger, fear, pride, etc. Regarding our sexual desires, maternal and paternal feelings, and the like, these arise from an instinct to preserve the human race. Emotions such as love, compassion, and mercy are also manifestations of this instinct.

The human being, having been created with these biological needs and instincts, makes an effort to satisfy them completely through his actions. Since human beings organize themselves into societies, it becomes crucial that they establish an order which ensures satisfaction of every individual's needs and instincts while preserving the integrity of the society as a whole. Throughout history, many people have undertaken this task, and their efforts have led to systems such as Capitalism/Democracy and Communism. All of these man-made ideologies have been failures in that they have never been able to provide for every individual, nor have they produced societies which promote justice, compassion, and the welfare of the people.

Islam, being the revelation from Allah, addressed the human being with a sure knowledge of this nature, and therefore, produced a system able to organize man's life in the correct, productive, and progressive manner. It addresses the individual as a human being with biological needs and instincts which require satisfaction. The Islamic system is the mechanism through which these needs and instincts are satisfied optimally, while maintaining a social order that preserves the dignity and honor of all human beings.

The Islamic system can be understood through its method of organizing the different relationships that human beings form. The relationship that Islam establishes between the human being and the Creator provides the means of satisfying the instinct of worship. Also, Islam organizes the human being's personal affairs, such as the clothes he likes to wear, the foods he eats, and how he maintains his health. In addition, Islam has an economic, political, and social system which organize the relationships that human beings establish with each in order to live as a society.

By organizing these relationships in agreement with human nature, Islam does not suppress any of man's needs or instincts, but rather, channels them in the proper direction, ensuring their satisfaction for every individual while protecting the dignity of the society as a whole.

The approach of Islam to man's problems is a preventative one, structuring the society so as to eliminate the possibility of social and moral depravity, economic exploitation, political corruption, and other vices. The Islamic society, however, is not a utopian society where every individual is perfect. Due to the very nature of the human being, it is inevitable that some problems will occur; though they are minimized in their frequency under the Islamic system. In order to deal with this incidents, Islam employs a punishment system which serves both as a hindrance to the development of the problem as well as a means of repentance for the one transgressing the limits set by Allah.

Islam the only alternative system for mankind

The world witnessed two major destructive wars which consumed tens of millions of lives and in between these two major wars, hundreds of wars were created, and only few have been extinguished. Those who manage and control the world order are the ones who create the conflicts and fuel them with weapons, money, and antagonism, for no other reason than to consolidate their interests.

Today, the world needs an alternative to Capitalism, Communism, Socialism, and all of these other man-made ideologies, to resolve the pains and the sufferings of the people oppressed by these systems and by the few elite who maintain it. Only the Islamic ideology provides such an alternative.

The world thrived under the authority of Islam for more than twelve hundred years. The very thought of world wars did not even exist. Presently, the Islamic ideology is again needed to reform the thoughts of the people, their convictions, their attitudes, and their outlook on life. Islam is needed to remove the disease and fallacy of freedom, liberate humanity from the slavery of man-made ideas, and establish the justice that can come only through the submission to the system provided by the Creator, Allah.

The Islamic ideology is needed to address the problems of the world to resolve them, and not to make a business out of them. The Islamic ideology is needed to redefine the economic problem so that the well being of the individual becomes the center of attention, rather than the well being of the elite's and their interests. Islam is needed to provide the people with the wider and more fulfilling meaning of life - not as a time to maximize joy and benefit, but as an entry to yet a longer and more enjoyable life. The return of Islam means the return of an ideology; transcending the visions of social reform, religious revival, or a mere revolution of arms. Islam has at its foundation a clear doctrine, which serves not only as a belief, but also as a source from which springs the solutions for all of humanity's problems.

[Extracted from the book ‘A complete way of life’ by Abu Tariq]
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What they said...

“Islam represented the greatest military power on earth…It was the foremost economic power in the world…It had achieved the highest level so far in human history, in the arts and sciences of civilization...Islam in contrast created a world civilization, poly-ethnic, multiracial, international, one might even say intercontinental.”





[Bernard Lewis, Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Orientalist and Historian, 2001]





"There was once a civilization that was the greatest in the world. It was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean, and from northern climes to tropics and deserts…the civilization I'm talking about was the Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600… Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to this other civilization, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage"





[Carly Fiorina, ex-CEO of Hewlett-Packard, 2001]





"For the first three centuries of its existence (circ. A.D 650-1000) the realm of Islam was the most civilized and progressive portion of the world. Studded with splendid cities, gracious mosques and quiet universities where the wisdom of the ancient world was preserved and appreciated, the Moslem world offered a striking contrast to the Christian West, then sunk in the night of the Dark Ages."





[Lothrop Stoddard, Ph.D (Harvard), American political theorist and historian, 1932]





"Medieval Islam was technologically advanced and open to innovation. It achieved far higher literacy rates than in contemporary Europe;it assimilated the legacy of classical Greek civilization to such a degree that many classical books are now known to us only through Arabic copies. It invented windmills ,trigonometry, lateen sails and made major advances in metallurgy, mechanical and chemical engineering and irrigation methods. In the middle-ages the flow of technology was overwhelmingly from Islam to Europe rather from Europe to Islam. Only after the 1500's did the net direction of flow begin to reverse."





[Jared Diamond, UCLA sociologist and Author, 1997]



"No other society has such a record of success in uniting in an equality of status, of opportunity and endeavour so many and so varied races of mankind. The great Muslim communities of Africa, India and Indonesia, perhaps also the small community in Japan, show that Islam has still the power to reconcile apparently irreconcilable elements of race and tradition. If ever the opposition of the great societies of the East and west is to be replaced by cooperation, the mediation of Islam is an indispensable condition."





[Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb, Professor at Harvard University, 1932]





“The Muhammadan Law which is binding on all -- from the crowned head to the meanest subject is a law interwoven with a system of the wisest, the most learned and the most enlightened jurisprudence that ever existed in the world.”





[Edmund Burke, British Statesman and Philosopher, 1789]





"The Exile here is not like in our homeland. The Turks hold respectable Jews in esteem. Here and in Alexandria, Egypt, Jews are the chief officers and administrators of the customs, and the king’s revenues. No injuries are perpetuated against them in all the empire. Only this year, in consequence of the extraordinary expenditure caused by the war against Shah Tahmsap al-Sufi, were the Jews required to make advances of loans to the princes."





[David dei Rossi, Jewish Traveller 17CE, quoted by Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands]





"The notable religious tolerance towards Christians and Jew under Muslim rule had given way to the uncompromising zealotry of Spanish Inquisition. Jews and Muslims thus fled Spain with large numbers of Jews immigrating to the Ottoman Empire which was known for its tolerance to the Jews."





[Graham Fuller, Author and former CIA, 1995]





“If there is much misunderstanding in the West about the nature of Islam, there is also much ignorance about the debt our own culture and civilization owe to the Islamic world. It is a failure, which stems, I think, from the straightjacket of history, which we have inherited. The medieval Islamic world, from central Asia to the shores of the Atlantic, was a world where scholars and men of learning flourished. But because we have tended to see Islam as the enemy of the West, as an alien culture, society, and systems of beliefs, we have tended to ignore or erase its great relevance to our own history”





[Charles Philip Arthur George, HRH The Prince of Wales, 1993]





"...Not being subject to the Sharia, Jews and Christians were free to go to their own religious authorities for adjudication of disputes; but in many cases they went instead to the [Muslim] Qadi"





[Richard W. Bulliet, Professor of History and Author, 2004]





"Here in the land of the Turks we have nothing to complain of. We possess great fortunes; much gold and silver are in our hands. We are not oppressed by heavy taxes and our commerce is free and unhindered. Rich are the fruits of the earth. Everything is cheap and each one of us lives in freedom. Here a Jew is not compelled to wear a yellow star as a badge of shame as is the case in Germany where even wealth and great fortune is a curse for a Jew because he therewith arouses jealousy among the Christians and they devise all kinds of slander against him to rob him of his gold. Arise my brethren, gird up your loins, collect up your forces and come to us."





[In his book 'Constantinople', Philip Mansel quotes a rabbi in Turkey writing to his brethren in Europe where they were facing increasing persecution after 1453]





"Praise be to the beneficent God for his mercy towards me! Kings of the earth, to whom his [the Caliph’s] magnificence and power are known, bring gifts to him, conciliating his favour by costly presents, such as the king of the Germans, the king of the Gebalim, the king of Constantinople, and others. All their gifts pass through my hands, and I am charged with making gifts in return. (Let my lips express praise to the God in heaven who so far extends his loving kindness towards me without any merit of my own, but in the fullness of his mercies.) I always ask the ambassadors of these monarchs about our brethren the Jews, the remnant of the captivity, whether they have heard anything concerning the deliverance of those who have pined in bondage and had found no rest."





[Hasdai Ibn Shaprut (915-990 CE) Jewish physician, chief minister of Islamic Caliphate in Cordova, 'The Jewish Caravan']





"In Baghdad there are about forty thousand Jews, and they dwell in security, prosperity, and honour under the great Caliph [al-Mustanjid, 1160-70 CE], and amongst them are great sages, the Heads of the Academies engaged in the study of the Law…’"





[Benjamin of Tudela, Rabbi in Baghdad in the year 1168 CE, 'The Jew in the Medieval World']





"Those Eastern thinkers of the ninth century laid down, on the basis of their theology, the principle of the Rights of Man, in those very terms, comprehending the rights of individual liberty, and of inviolability of person and property; described the supreme power in Islam, or Califate, as based on a contract, implying conditions of capacity and performance, and subject to cancellation if the conditions under the contract were not fulfilled; elaborated a Law of War of which the humane, chivalrous prescriptions would have put to the blush certain belligerents in the Great War; expounded a doctrine of toleration of non-Moslem creeds so liberal that our West had to wait a thousand years before seeing equivalent principles adopted.





[Leon Ostorog, French Jurist]





"The debt of our science to that of the Arabs does not consist in startling discoveries or revolutionary theories; science owes a great deal more to Arab culture, it owes its existence"





[Robert Briffault, Novelist and Historian, 1928]





"The only effective link between the old and the new science is afforded by the Arabs. The dark ages come as an utter gap in the scientific history of Europe, and for more than a thousand years there was not a scientific man of note except in Arabia"





[Oliver Joseph Lodge, Writer and Professor of Physics, 1893]





“Thus, when Muslims crossed the straits of Gibraltar from North Africa in 711 and invaded the Iberian Peninsula, Jews welcomed them as liberators from Christian Persecution.”





[Zion Zohar, Jewish scholar at Florida International University, 2005]







“Throughout much of the period in question, Arabic served as the global language of scholarship, and learned men of all stripes could travel widely and hold serious and nuanced discussions in this lingua franca. Medieval Western scholars who wanted access to the latest findings also needed to master the Arabic Tongue or work from translations by those who had done so.”





[Jonathan Lyons, Author, Writer and Lecturer, 2009]