Rahimia Magazine ,October 2016
(Following are the quotations of Hazrat-e-Aqdas Shah Saeed Ahmed Raipuri (R.A), referenced from ‘Azm’ Series Multan)
1.The religious schools that were once the training centers for the spiritual refinement of rulers and bureaucracy have strayed away from the original Islamic thought. They neither possess any ideology nor any practical mechanism for the collective rectification and betterment of society. Today’s Mosques and seminaries are crowded with society’s dejected, hopeless and visionless factions having no ideological unity. Hundreds and thousands of people are present in Eid and Friday’s congregational prayers, but in the context of religious interpretation, every individual, mosque and seminary follow their own version of religion.
2.The biggest dilemma of today’s Muslim World is its inability to think and analyze the information propagated through different media sources. Western propaganda terminates their mental ability to insightfully think and analyze the ongoing incidents in the light of collective social intellect. Today, educated segments of our society ignore the teachings of Islam conveyed through mosques and religious institutions but they blindly believe the fabricated media reports without rendering a second thought about the authenticity of such reports. It is a matter of fact that media is a business industry and majority of its policies are for sale. The sole objective of corporate media is to increase their profits and protect their corporate interests.
3.Politics devoid of true spirit of religion inevitably entraps the whole society in the jaws of exploitative forces. Consequently, injustice, chaos, and anarchy will prevail in that society. Religious leaders will fail miserably due to their assistance of these oppressive forces. The struggle for establishment of a practical system based on the comprehensive teachings of religion must be considered as the greatest piety and the only workable solution to our societal problems in the present era. These comprehensive teachings include Shariat (Principles, rules and laws of Islam), Tareeqat (Spiritual, mental and moral grooming that help to follow teachings of Islam) and Siasat (Strategies to implement teachings of Islam in the society).
4 No individual can claim to become a perfectly pious human being in the environment created by an exploitative political and economic system. In order to propagate and sustain humanistic values in the society, it is pertinent to defeat and eliminate the existing oppressive forces and their inhumane and unjust practices in the society. This has always been the core responsibility of Prophets and their followers.
5.Today, the profound Islamic philosophy, which was once considered as the eternal source of guidance for the entire mankind and was advocate of moral values and humanitarianism, neither exists in its practical implication, nor its principles are incorporated in the fundamental social structures of our society. Consequently, collective moral values of entire humanity have deteriorated and our world has turned into a living hell encouraging lies, boosting, misery, greed, hatred and bigotry.
6.What a hypocrite and senseless society we have created! It is allowed to perform religious practices according to everyone’s own beliefs while the whole economic system is based on interest based capitalism. You can say your daily prayers as per your discretion but political system is based upon the policies of Western political thought. Hundreds of thousand Muslim perform Pilgrimage annually without any hindrance provided that the dominant culture and value system in Muslim societies has to be dictated by the West. Electronic media promote western life style along with music, dance and vulgarity and the whole families are bound to see such programs together which are deteriorating the innocent minds of children. Watching immoral media content which displays and promotes various forms of unashamed programs and present the attainment of lavish lifestyles as the sole purpose of life inclines the common minds towards sinful acts. Under such circumstances, the mosque, which was once the central institution in Islamic societies, and religious teachings emanating from this institution are destined to fail.
7.A society turns into a living hell when its leadership is dominated by liars, oppressors, egotists, opportunists, narcissists, hypocrites, and materialistic factions. It is the brutal policies implemented and governed by this barbarous leadership that afflicts the entire nation through oppression, propagation of lies, cheating, deception, and inhuman moral values. Consequently, the entire society suffers from the torment of misery and hardships.
8.The younger generation of any country always adapts the policies devised and implemented by its political and economic system. It will always follow and admire the culture and civilization as promoted by its political system. Unknowingly, its opposition towards Islamic beliefs and Muslim scholars will create and promote hatred between the two, and because of not possessing any political conscience and awareness, it will fail to identify the present exploitative political system to be the root cause of such societal dilemmas. Thus, the present inhumane system governing our country promotes rivalry, hatred and division among different departments in the Muslim society.
9.The prime objective of all the prophets and their followers is to uproot injustice, inhumane values prevalent in the society and promote an atmosphere of humanistic values - this is what the paradise stands for. When humans strive to maintain this world on heavenly characteristics, they automatically qualify to ender paradise in the eternal afterlife. When the brutal system based on inhumane moral values, selfishness, materialism, narcissism, and affluence is prevalent in a society, such society is bound to be a living in a hell of absolute wretchedness and devastation for the Allah’s beloved creation. If people of that society refuse to improve their collective conditions in this world, failure and humiliation of much higher scale will welcome them in the life hereafter.
10.Due to limited mentality and lack of knowledge about authentic history, our educational and social institutions have strayed away from the humanistic teachings and magnificent tradition of Islam that has led to desperation and purposelessness in our youth. Our younger generations consider religion as an obstruction in social growth and progress since they are completely unaware of the remarkable social progress based on religious principles accounts to an era of almost eleven hundred years. Ironically, last three hundred years mark the downfall and absolute misery of Muslims across the globe. Our political and religious leadership has failed miserably to cope with the challenges of the modern world.
11.It is the responsibility of the conscientious religious leadership to ensure the fulfillment of human rights, implement political and economic system based on social justice, resolve economic crisis in the society and safeguard all human beings from any kind of suffering. History itself testifies that the entire nations around the globe were deeply influenced by the humanitarian ideology of Islam. From Muhammad Bin Qasim to Aurangzeb Alamgir, 90% of non-Muslims were inspired by the true teachings of Islam and consequently, Islam was embraced by human societies at large.
12.Nations suffer divine Punishment as a result of dominance of anti-human morals and beliefs in the society. Cheating, injustice, egotism, greediness, violation of human rights, disruption of system pertaining to the fulfillment of human rights, deception in trade dealings, perception of bribery as a common sinful act, and segmentation of society into numerous classes, all bring collective punishment from Allah in the particular society.
13.Don’t forget; Prophets are neither meant to gather crowds, nor organize sit-ins or rallies. Their struggle signifies that they trained the young minds of their respective societies, based upon refinement of social intellect and character, to assemble revolutionary collectivism. They always focused on quality of human resource instead of mere numbers.
14.Europe has no objection on the religious practices of Muslims. However, its prime focus is to strictly main the dominance of western culture, social values, traditions, political and economic system in alignment with the European school of thought.
Translation: Mr. Shahzad Anwar, Karachi
