Islam for Non-Muslims

• RELIGIOUS FAITHS VS IRRELIGIOUS IDEAS
• 1 The Present State of the World Religions
• 2 Religious System as a Historical Reality
• 3 The Evidences of God across the Universe
• 4 The Absolute Oneness of God
• 5 The Reality of the Afterlife
• 6 The Growth of Irreligious Ideas
• 7 Worshipping Natural Elements
• 8 Worshipping Imaginary Idols
• 9 Worshipping Human Beings
• 10 Inventing Relationship to God
• 11 Inventing the Idea of Reincarnation
• 12 Inventing the Theory of Evolution (Darwinism)
• 13 Inventing ‘Nature’ as the Creator of the Universe
• 14 Importance of Religion in this Secular World
• ISLAM AS A RELIGION
• 15 Addressing the Criticisms of Islam
• 16 Islam as a Magnet for the Non-Muslims
• 17 The Quran as the Original Divine Book
• 18 The Quranic Reality in Archeological Findings
• 19 Muhammad (pbuh) as the Great Prophet
• 20 Islam as the True Religion
• 21 Islam as the Universal Religion
• 22 Islam as the Eternal Religion
• 23 Islam as a Practicable Religion
• 24 Islam as an Enjoyable Religion
• 25 Islam as the Peaceful & Savior Religion
• 26 Islam as the Progressive & Rational Religion
• 27 Islam in Health & Hygiene
• 28 Islam in Promotion of Science
• 29 Muslims in Practices of Science
• 30 Islam & Other Monotheisms: Similarities & Differences
• 31 Islamic Tolerance for Other Religions
• 32 Islamic Rights for Non-Muslim Citizens
• ISLAM AS A WAY OF LIFE
• 33 Islamic System vs. Human Ideologies
• 34 Moral & Social Impacts of Islamic Rituals
• 35 Moral Discipline in Islam
• 36 Sinning of 3 W’s: Women, Wine and Wealth
• 37 Dignity & Equality of Man in Islam
• 38 Human Rights in Islam
• 39 Social Duties in Islam
• 40 Dignity & Rights of Labor in Islam
• 41 Dignity of Women in Islam
• 42 Rights of Women in Islam
• 43 Marriage & Family Life in Islam
• 44 Political Philosophy in Islam
• 45 Economic Principles in Islam
• 46 Islamic Economy vs. Capitalism & Communism
• 47 Patriotism & Internationalism in Islam
• 48 Understanding Controversial Issues in Islam
• 49 Conversion to Islam: Problems & Prospects
• 50 Conclusive Message to the Non-Muslims

B. IRRELIGIOUS IDEAS

6: THE GROWTH OF IRRELIGIOUS IDEAS

Introduction: The irreligious practices in various forms are as old as religious system itself. This means mankind started going off-track no later than the introduction of religion. God, however, warned people about their obligation to “worship God as you have no other god than Him. Whatever you worship other than Him is simply a falsehood” (7:85; 31:30). Despite this, from time to time people deviated from His monotheism mainly for “lack of knowledge, guidance and without a Book to enlighten them” (31:20).  Now let us talk about the historic factors active behind the growth of irreligious practices since time immemorial.

(1) Wrong Food for Spiritual Hunger: Men in general are born with biological appetite for food as well as spiritual hunger for God. The Quran urges you “to set your face to the Faith steadily, this (faith) being the nature designed by God on which He created the mankind” (30:30). Accordingly, all new born babies are considered to be born in Islam (as innocent with faith in one God). Later in life, however, some of them turn non-believers under adverse influence of parents or/and environment. Then they are reduced to the ones who “have hearts wherewith they cannot understand” God (7:179).  By contrast, well-guided human beings have the mental faculty to understand God and think about their past, present and future in religious light.

Thanks to ‘the God gene’ in the words of American scientist Dean H. Hamer (2005), humans feel a sense of a natural vacuum in their heart with readiness in mind to receive any ideas of religion. In other words, the Faith in God is no accident as that is hardwired in our genes. Accordingly, God is exactly what people need as a filler of the said ‘vacuum’. In complementary roles, God also made His point clear that He is the right One to be worshipped and also shared ideas about how He needs to be worshipped based on His “teachings through His inspiration” (6:106). For various reasons, this pure brand idea of monotheism was either badly reshaped or even replaced by wrong gods. A large section of humanity unfortunately tends to choose wrong gods as ‘poisonous food’ for meeting their spiritual hunger.

(2) Lack of Knowledge: Even if God designed a vast network of prophets to reach out to people with the light of pure religion, they were not well received everywhere. Many people would not believe the prophets, citing their human status. Even if they were shown selective miracles from God, still the arrogant ones continued to reject or “mock” them (43:7).  This means the light of knowledge about religious truths were available through the “Messengers” (10:47) which people had option to accept or reject. In rare cases, there were also some dark corners for some people who might be off limits to prophetic messages due to their remote locations like Brazilian rain forest. This type of people possibly might get exemption from accountability for their faith and actions.

(3) Superstitious & Imaginary Beliefs: Given the poverty of knowledge or just plain arrogance, people not only failed to identify and accept the real God, but they were looking for and choosing from a variety of fake gods under Satanic instigation.  They observed various natural events like dream, lightning, disease, death etc. and interpreted in their own way and acted accordingly. Fearful of invisible forces other than God, they made up web of numerous superstitions. For example, they linked black color, number 13, Tuesdays etc. to their bad fortunes even if there was no backing of any scientific proof or religious document. They also used their powers of imagination to invent gods that ranged from ‘unknown (nature)’ to enormous plurality in polytheism. Their gods seemed to be present everywhere from indoors at home to outdoors in the nature and exist in numerous forms including deities, animals, humans and spirits among others.     

(4) Worship of Spirits (Animism):  By way of imagination, some people believe that the spirits of their dead ancestors as well as natural forces around them (e.g. sun, mountain etc.) have the powers like gods to do good or bad affecting their life. In order to obtain good results instead of bad ones, they want to please these spirits by means of extensive rituals like candle lighting, dancing, “sacrificing on stone” altars (5:3) etc. This type of spirit worship existed in the ancient times as it does today in the name of Animism in parts of Africa and Shintoism in Japan. It, however, remains to be realized that human souls or spirits, after their exit from the body, remain at an unknown location under care of God and they do not have any ability to make any difference to your welfare level.  

(5) Worship of Magical Powers: Some people pretend to have or do really have the sort of magical or extraordinary powers which are not explainable by physical laws. Examples include sorcery, black art, witchcraft, palmistry, astrology, fortunetelling, voodoo, exorcising, medicine men’s treatment etc. These powers appear very amazing to the simple-minded clients who confuse these human magic with the divine miracle and therefore treat their performers as someone like God. They cannot realize that human magics are mastered as “faked” “trick” or manipulative art which “does not thrive” in the face of God’s miracles (20:69). As one glaring example, when Pharaoh’s best magicians put up a fake snake in a contest, Moses presented a snake (as divine miracles) that “swallowed up” the former snake (20:69).  This was astonishing to the magicians who fell down to “prostration” with faith in God (20:70).

Conclusion: The factors described above are less than complete. Whatever lie in the background of irreligious practices, one thing is clear that such practices only pave the way to your total devastation. Such unwanted consequences can be avoided only by returning to the fold of Islam through belief in One God.