Human beings are not like machines controlled by a mechanical system, nor are they like animals governed by their instincts. Human beings enjoy freedom. They make decisions about the actions of their own free will. Now the question arises as to how to keep a man on the right course and make him consistently disciplined in his behaviour. History shows the ineffectiveness of all worldly measures in this connection, whether social pressures, enforcement of the law of the land, or reformers’ appeals. To attain disciplined behaviour, one needs to be convinced of the existence of power far superior to himself, a Being Who is aware of man’s activities at every moment, who can reward and punish man, and from whom it is impossible to escape. There can be only one being of this nature: God. Belief in God functions at two levels at the same time. On the one hand, man finds in God a guardian who is aware of all his activities and has unlimited power to chastise him. Man cannot escape God’s chastisement. Belief in God compels man to faithfully adopt a proper attitude in all situations, privately and publicly. Only then can he save himself from the wrath of God.
Introduction
There are several Hadith which predict that in later times, many deceptions shall emerge. Describing how one these would become very trying and in fact one of the greatest, a Hadith states,
Before the Doomsday, there will come an age marred by many deceptions. (Abu Dawud)
This age has been referred to as fitna-e-dohema (fitna means trial and dohema means darkness), that is, the Age of Total Darkness. According to the above Hadith this age would shroud all humanity. Every person without any exception will be affected by it, including Ummah-e-Islamia. This means that the impact of the age of deception will be so great that even those who have found the truth will not be spared of its effect.
According to my understanding, this would be the ‘age of deceiving philosophies’. Although in all ages there have been people who have deceived others, but in the age of fitna-e-dohema, deception will be philosophised to such an extent that man would not be able to analyze it.
Let me cite an example to differentiate between simple deception and philosophized deception. Three thousand and five hundred years ago, when Moses went to the Pharaoh with the message of God, he performed a miracle to prove to the Pharaoh that he was sent by God. On seeing this miracle, the Pharaoh said to Moses,
This is indeed a plot which you have devised in this city in order to drive its people out. (7:123).
By saying so, the Pharaoh created this impression in the minds of his courtiers that Moses wishes to remove them from their land and become its ruler. This was a clear deception because Moses was not saying so but the Pharaoh created a negative impression by giving an incorrect interpretation of Moses’ message. This is an example of how deception was simplistic in earlier times. However, in today’s world of civilizational development, wholesome ideologies are presented to back deception and it therefore becomes very difficult for individuals to analyze it and come out of the prevalent jungle of thoughts and confusion.
What caused Fitna-e-dohema?
My study has brought me to the conclusion that symbolically, the following four personalities (and the consequent four periods) contributed greatly to the coming of the age of complete darkness or fitna-e-dohema. These four personalities are Charles Darwin (d. 1882), Karl Marx (d. 1883), Sigmund Freud (d. 1939) and Abul Ala Maududi (d.1979). Let me present before you the case of each one of them individually.
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
Charles Darwin was an English naturalist who undertook a prolonged research and travelled to several places to study the origin of species. He eventually proposed the theory of biological evolution and wrote several books on the topic. In his two books, The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man,
In his book, The Decent of Man,
Despite being totally ridiculous, this theory overwhelmed minds all over the world. While studying about it, I undertook a visit to the Natural History Museum in
An article on evolution was recently published in The Times of India dated June 15, ’09. The article attributed the vulnerability of the back bone in humans to their evolutionary adaptation. According to this theory, as man developed from four legged animals, such as horse, the entire weight of their body got transferred to the back bone. So the support which was upon four legs prior to his evolution, now entirely rested on the back bone of man. This was a ludicrous explanation. The phenomenon of increase in back problems is a recent one, direct outcome of the push button culture of today. Earlier people did not face such problems. People used to do their own work and hence underwent physical exercise compulsorily. But today’s comfort culture has reduced the physical activity of man to almost nil.
Thus the greatest disadvantage of the theory of evolution was that it broke off man’s relation with God. In
However, the term ‘evolutionary adaptation’ is a mere word play. They are like a dud cheque that has no real value. This was the deception presented by Charles Darwin.
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
Karl Marx, a German philosopher proposed the theory of dialectical materialism which was strongly influenced by the philosophy of Hegel. He wrote the book Das Capital in which he explained that history is a process of continuous strife. Dividing mankind into two groups: exploiter and exploited, Marx argued that in society there will always be a thesis (exploiters) and a corresponding anti-thesis (exploited); it is the clash between the two that leads to the emergence of a synthesis or a better society.
This philosophy made conflict a universal phenomenon. Everywhere men can be seen indulging in conflict in some form or the other way. Marxists divided the world into leftists and rightists who continuously remain at loggerheads with one another. Due to the justification provided by the philosophy of Marx, millions of people where killed in
In the heydays of the Marxist philosophy when
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Sigmund Freud was an Austrian psychoanalyst. According to him, the fulfilment of man’s desires must happen unchecked. Any check or halt in this process of fulfilment of desires would hamper growth of the individual. This meant that man must do anything that he wishes.
This theory destroyed the culture of the society. An example of its effect can be seen in articles with caption, “Virginity on sale.” A woman had let go her virginity and given a description of it to the interviewer. This is debasing morality to the lowest ebb. According to a Hadith,
“If one has no shame he’ll do anything.” (Al-Bukhari)
All this is a result of unrestricted fulfilment of desires. Now no one has shame and therefore people go to any end.
Therefore, Darwin, Marx and Freud gave scholarly explanations of their deceptions. They presented a full-fledged ideology and since the intelligentia reconciled to it, the common man accepted it with ease. This served as a big boost and led to the sharp rise in the age of deception. Let me know move to the description of the works of the fourth personality.
Abul ala Maududi (1903-1979) and Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966)
Syed Qutub and Abul Ala Mawdudi can be held as being directly responsible for the violence (tashaddud) as seen in Muslims today. These two wrongly gave Quran a political interpretation. Let me take an example of how the commentary of the Quran was distorted by them and converted into a political commentary.
A verse in the Quran describes the dialogue between Pharaoh and Moses as the latter presented before him the message of tauhid (Onenss of God),
This is indeed a plot which you have devised in this city in order to drive its people out. (7:123).
Pharaoh had said so only to provoke his people and to make them angry with Moses, though he knew that Moses’ message was not political. However, Saiyyed Qutb failed to realize this and from the same verse he derived that the purpose of Moses was to drive people out from their land. He failed to understand that had this been Prophet Moses’ mission so when Pharaoh was drowned and
It is also important to note that it was highly illogical to extract the message of Moses from what Pharaoh said. That is, if Pharaoh said to his people that Moses sought to drive them out then one cannot start believing that this indeed was Moses’ purpose. What Moses came for has to be understood from what Moses said and not what Pharoah says. In this way Qutb failed to understand the true meaning of Moosa’s message and politicised the entire explanation.
According to another verse in the Quran, God says,
“Be strict in upholding justice.” (4:135)
While interpreting the above verse, Qutb explained it to mean striving to establish justice when actually it was meant in passive (of maintaining) and not in active sense (of establishing). Such an interpretation made Islam a subject of forceful implementation (and flogging) whereas the Islam which Prophet Muhammad brought was a subject of following. Such political thinking led to fundamentalism as people began to think that Islam had to be forcefully established on earth. When this failed to materialise at the level of slogans, Muslims resorted to militancy and when this too failed, they took to suicide bombing.
The following example will explain how Maulana Maududi’s idea of establishing Islam forcefully made it a religion of flogging. In his book Purdah, he says that it is essential for women to wear a veil to cover their face. Women, he continues can take off their veil only when the society is so ‘developed’ that if a man stares at a woman then fifty other men are ready to pull out his eyes!
If Muslims are taught that Islam has to be established then they would become violent and fight those who are in power at present. This is how this erroneous political interpretation of Islam inevitably made Muslims stoop to violence.
Putting an end to Fitna-e-dohema
This the age of fitna-e-dohema, (or intellectual darkness) and it has rendered man absolutely bewildered. Deception at such a large scale was possible only in the age of printing press and media which enabled the spread of these philosophies far and wide.
The mission of CPS standing as it is on God’s succour aims to expose this age of darkness and bring forth the truth to people. A wide range of literature has been developed for this purpose. One does not need be a writer or a speaker; all one needs to do is spread the literature. This was the method of Sahab-e-karam (Companions of Prophet). The Sahabas were called mukri because they used to recite the Quran to people wherever they found them. Today, we have to become distributors of the Quran; wherever we go we should possess dawah literature to distribute it to people. What the Sahabas did as mukri, the same we have to do today as distributors. Predicting the emergence of such people, the Prophet said,
“In the later times some people will emerge who will be my brothers (Ikhwan-e-rasul).”
(Al-Muslim)
Hence in this Ummah two historical groups will emerge. One was that of Companions of the Prophet and the other was that of the Brothers of the Prophet. The former were Prophet’s contemporaries who became mukri and spread the truth so they got the title of Ashab-e-rasul (Companions of the Prophet). Now those who spread or distribute the message or dawah literature in the age of printing press will become Ikhwan-e-rasul. According to a tradition, Hazarat Omar said,
“Those who want to enter this group (ummat) should fulfil its prerequisites.” (Ibn Jareer)
In an attempt to reduce the importance of dawah work, people often say that there was jamiyyat or comprehensiveness in Prophet’s life as it included family, business, community everything so why should one focus solely on dawah?
This is not the right approach. What they fail to realise is that this was a matter of priority. Prophet gave top priority to dawah work. Consider the life of Prophet Muhammad. They used to starve most of the time. According to a tradition in Al-Bukhari, Hazarat Ayesha said, “For nine years we lived in masjid-e-nabvi in darkness, without any light.” The place where they lived was a hut with no light. Then somebody asked as to why was there no oil that was available to light the lamp. Ayesha replied, “Had oil been available, we would have drunk it.”
Who would be willing to run a family in this way? If they say that the Prophet was a family man then they must also be ready to run their family in the way in which he did, otherwise they cannot say that Prophet was a family man. The Prophet got his daughter
Prophet’s wives did not even get food to eat twice a day. Once Prophet’s wives demanded that food should be given to them at least twice a day. At this, the following verse was revealed in the Quran,
“O Prophet! Say to your wives, if you seek the life of this world and all its finery then come, I will make provision for you and release you honourably.”(33:28)
Who is ready today to run such family where people don’t even have food to eat twice a day? Hence, for the Prophet family held no priority, it was only dawah that mattered. All emphasis was on dawah. Thus, the only mission we must undertake is to become candidates to the title of Ikhwan-e-rasul by relentlessly striving to do dawah work.
May God count us among His righteous men!