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Their true nature is described in another verse:
Do not let their wealth and children impress you. Allah merely wants to punish them by them during their life in this world and for them to expire while they are disbelievers. (Surat at-Tawba, 55)
Nobody has the right to regard themselves as so privileged. If a person obeys only Allah, abides by His commandments as much as he can, and seeks forgiveness from Allah for his sins, he may hope for happiness and salvation in the sight of Allah. It is tremendous hypocrisy for people who have knowingly turned their backs on His commandments and taken other deities for themselves to seek to portray themselves as saintly. Indeed, the Qur'an issues the following statement regarding those Jews who made a similar claim:
Say: "You Jews, if you claim to be the friends of Allah to the exclusion of all other people, then wish for death if you are telling the truth." But they will never ever wish for it because of what they have done. Allah knows the wrongdoers. (Surat al-Jumu'a, 6-7)
Religious observance, according to the conception of Islam of the members of Ignorantism, consists of words alone. They frequently refer to being of support to Muslims, living for Allah, praying five times a day and the need to read the Qur'an, but these tasks are not carried out. In any case, the limits of and to what extent one should live by the moral values of the Qur'an have been set out differently in the Religion of the Ignorant to in the Qur'an. Such expressions as: "Religion is fine, but only up to a certain point. Everything has its limits. One must not go to extremes. Too much of anything is not good," can frequently be heard from the mouths of these people.
What they mean by "too much" religion is any sacrifice to be performed in its name. These people are scrupulous with not being known for being alongside Muslims, for not recalling the names of Allah with them, not engaging in any activity for the sake of Allah and for not using their property and assets on His path—or doing so only inasmuch as it does not conflict with their interests. Those who implement only those aspects of the religion that don't conflict with their own interests are described in these terms in the Qur'an:
Among the people there is one who worships Allah right on the edge. If good befalls him, he is content with it, but if a trial befalls him, he reverts to his former ways, losing both this world and the Hereafter. That is indeed sheer loss. (Surat al-Hajj, 11)
The Islam described in the Qur'an, however, holds the approval and love of Allah above all personal interests, whose only expectation is the Hereafter, which requires serious and honest endeavor in His cause.
In Ignorantism, on the other hand, personal interests are usually held far above all kinds of belief, friendship and love. Members of the Religion of the Ignorant therefore fear to support the faithful openly. They do not openly live their beliefs for fear of losing prestige. They do not always defend what they know to be right. For them, the ideas of the society in which they live, their jobs, friends or property, are more important than Allah and His approval. The following provision is issued on this subject in the Qur'an:
Say: "If your fathers or your sons or your brothers or your wives or your tribe, or any wealth you have acquired, or any business you fear may slump, or any house which pleases you, are dearer to you than Allah and His messenger and striving in His way, then wait until Allah brings about His command. Allah does not guide people who are deviators." (Surat at-Tawba, 24)
The verse lists a number of basic value judgments elevated by Ignorantism and describes how esteeming these above the value judgments of Islam is a feature of a society that has rebelled against Allah. The erroneous conception of love in such societies is one such value judgment. In the Religion of the Ignorant love of society and human beings generally comes before love of Allah. The approval of others is regarded more highly than that of Allah. This is described in the Qur'an as shirk, in other words adopting deities other than Allah:
Some people set up equals to Allah, loving them as they should love Allah. But those who believe have greater love for Allah... (Surat al-Baqara, 165)
However, these people imagine that this consists solely of worshipping idols made of wood or plaster, and so regard themselves as being very distant from such behavior and never accept the word as applying to themselves. When told that the system they are a part of ascribes partners to Allah, they are indignant. Nevertheless, no matter how much those who ascribe partners to Allah seek to exonerate themselves, Allah's stipulation is irrefutable. The situation of the idolaters is revealed as follows in the Qur'an:
Allah does not forgive anything being associated with Him but He forgives whoever He wills for anything other than that. Anyone who associates something with Allah has gone very far astray. (Surat an-Nisa', 116)
The book of Ignorantism is the collection of rules consisting of the culture inherited from their forebears and the conditions prevailing at that time. For that reason, the Qur'an is not regarded as a guide. Their place for the Qur'an is wrapped up in a decorative cloth, placed as high up as possible. Nobody can touch it. This is a most important phenomenon, however, which means the Qur'an being kept as far removed as possible from people's lives by a cunning and devilish ruse. Allah elucidates this situation with the words of His messenger, who will complain of such people on the Day of Judgment:
The messenger says, "My Lord, my people treat this Qur'an as something to be ignored." (Surat al-Furqan, 30)
Afterwards, people live by the standards imposed by other false lords, such as principles of society, family traditions, the way they are brought up, second-hand religious knowledge, the words of their elders and the legacy of their ancestors. Yet Allah addresses those who adopt a system incompatible with the Qur'an and who nevertheless still imagine themselves to be Muslims thus:
What is the matter with you? On what basis do you judge? Or do you have a Book which you study, so that you may have anything in it you choose? Or do you have oaths which bind Us, extending to the Day of Resurrection, that you will have whatever you decide? (Surat al-Qalam, 36-39)
Instead of the religion chosen by Allah, members of the Religion of the Ignorant have adopted their own desires and passions, the culture inherited from their society which they take as their guide, and have thus turned away from the true path. They have thus exchanged the true religion, the most perfect and sole hope of salvation, sent down as a mercy from Allah, for the sake of a few and short-lived worldly benefits. The poor nature of this bargain is revealed in the Qur'an:
Those are the people who trade the Hereafter for this world. The punishment will not be lightened for them. They will not be helped. (Surat al-Baqara, 86)
Those are the people who have sold guidance for misguidance. Their trade has brought no profit; they are not guided. (Surat al-Baqara, 16)
Distancing Oneself from False Religion
The fundamental quality of someone who enters the religion of Allah (Islam) is that they adopt Allah as their only Lord. Since they have adopted Him as their Lord, they cannot accept any other entity as a guide. They will regulate their entire lives in the manner revealed by Allah, in other words by His book, the Qur'an which " . . . contains guidance for those who guard against evil" (Surat al-Baqara, 2). That being the case, there can be no question of them adopting any other ethical system.
Someone who has faith, therefore, cannot be bound to a moral system that is the exact opposite of that of the Qur'an. One cannot be both a Muslim and also follow non-religious traditions inherited from one's forebears. One cannot produce one's own philosophy of life. A believer is solely a Muslim, and can bear no other name. Allah gives him or her that name. The Qur'an reveals the following on this subject:
Strive for Allah with the striving due to Him. He has selected you and not placed any constraint upon you in the religion—the religion of your forefather Ibrahim. He named you Muslims before and also in this, so that the messenger could be witness against you and you could be witnesses against all mankind. So perform prayer and give the alms and hold fast to Allah. He is your Protector—the Best Protector, the Best Helper. (Surat al-Hajj, 78)
Various Surahs in the Qur'an refer to believers who have totally divorced themselves from the false religion of the society of which they are a part and who have unreservedly turned to the religion of Allah. One such are the Companions of the Cave, who were faced with death because they refused to accept the superstitious religion of their society and who sheltered in a cave for safety. The situation of the Companions of the Cave is described in these terms in the Qur'an:
Do you consider that the Companions of the Cave and Ar-Raqim were one of the most remarkable of Our signs? (Surat al-Kahf, 9)
We will relate their story to you with truth. They were young men who believed in their Lord and We increased them in guidance. We fortified their hearts when they stood up and said, "Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the Earth and We will not call on any god apart from Him. We would in that case have uttered an abomination. These people of ours have taken gods apart from Him. Why do they not produce a clear authority concerning them? Who could do greater wrong than someone who invents a lie against Allah? When you have separated yourselves from them and everything they worship except Allah, take refuge in the cave and your Lord will unfold His mercy to you and open the way to the best for you in your situation." (Surat al-Kahf, 13-16)
As can be seen from these verses, a believer who surrenders to Allah must fully distance himself and turn away from adherents of false religion. This does not inevitably mean a physical separation. (The Companions of the Cave entered the cave physically because of the attack from their opponents.) Believers must distance themselves from members of the false religion, primarily in mental terms.
The Prophet Yusuf (as) is an instance of this. At a time when he had been thrown into a dungeon because of a slander made against him in Egypt he mentally distanced himself from the unbelievers. This is how he spoke to those who asked him questions in the dungeon:
"... I have left the religion of a people who clearly have no faith in Allah and who refuse to acknowledge the truth of the world to come. I hold fast to the creed of my forebears Ibrahim and Ishaq and Ya'qub. We don't associate anything with Allah. And that is how Allah has favored us and all mankind, but most do not give thanks. My fellow-prisoners, are many lords better, or Allah, the only One, the Conqueror? What you serve apart from Him are only names which you and your forefathers have made up. There is no mandate for them from Allah. Allah alone is qualified to judge. His order is to worship none but Him. That is in truth the straight and upright religion, but most of mankind simply do not know." (Surah Yusuf, 37-40)
In another verse, the example is cited of how the Prophet Ibrahim (as) and those around him distanced themselves from the community that adhered to false religion:
You have an excellent example in Ibrahim and those with him, when they said to their people, "We wash our hands of you and all that you worship apart from Allah, and we reject you. Between us and you there will be enmity and hatred for ever unless and until you believe in Allah alone..." (Surat al-Mumtahana, 4)
Surat al-Kafirun is another expression of the gulf between believers and adherents of false religion:
Say: "Unbelievers! I do not worship what you worship and you do not worship what I worship. Nor will I worship what you worship nor will you worship what I worship. You have your religion and I have my religion." (Surat al-Kafirun, 1-6)
The believer must construct the gulf separating him from members of false religion with the greatest scrupulousness. Not a single aspect of the religion of the unbelievers, no value judgments, ethical rules, models of behavior, or forms of dialogue must be adopted and practiced by believers. The believer is charged with exhibiting the behavior described in the Qur'an, not that in false religion. The gait and even tone of voice most befitting the nobility, moral values and belief of the faithful is described in the Qur'an. Allah proclaims in verses:
Do not avert your face from people out of haughtiness and do not strut about arrogantly on the earth. Allah does not love anyone who is vain or boastful. Be moderate in your tread and lower your voice. The most hateful of voices is the donkey's bray. (Surah Luqman, 18-19)
False religions vary greatly among themselves, and very few, like Marxism, openly state that they deny Allah. On the other hand, according to what we learn from the Qur'an, a great many members of false religions say that they believe in and obey Allah. Yet theirs is an insincere claim and has nothing to do with the truth. The lives they lead and the ethical concepts they adopt are totally incompatible with that claim. An example is given in the Qur'an of such claims made by adherents of false religions:
Indeed is the sincere religion not Allah's alone? People who take protectors besides Him [say], "We only worship them so that they may bring us nearer to Allah." Allah will judge between them regarding the things about which they differed. Allah does not guide anyone who is an ungrateful liar. (Surat az-Zumar, 3)
Other verses reveal that when asked, members of false religions state that they believe in the existence and might of Allah. But they are unable to fully comprehend this truth, which they accept solely in the form of words, and do not actually fear Him:
Say: "Who provides for you out of heaven and Earth? Who controls hearing and sight? Who brings forth the living from the dead and the dead from the living? Who directs the whole affair?" They will say, "Allah." Say, "So will you not guard against evil?" That is Allah, your Lord, the Truth, and what is there after truth except misguidance? So how have you been distracted? In that way the Word of your Lord is realized against those who are deviators, in that they do not believe. (Surah Yunus, 31-33)
If you ask them, "Who created the heavens and the Earth and made the sun and moon subservient?" they will say, "Allah." So how have they been perverted? (Surat al-'Ankabut, 61)
One therefore needs to be careful when identifying false religions. Adherents of these religions may accept only those parts of the Qur'an that do not conflict with their own interests. As stated earlier, however, what they accept is only a part of the Qur'an, and according to Allah's stipulations, believing in one part of the Qur'an while denying another is still denial:
…Do you, then, believe in one part of the Book and reject the other? What repayment will there be for any of you who do that except disgrace in this world? And on the Day of Resurrection, they will be returned to the harshest of punishments. Allah is not unaware of what you do. (Surat al-Baqara, 85)
In another verse Allah addresses believers thus:
…Today those who disbelieve have despaired of overcoming your religion. So do not be afraid of them but be afraid of Me. Today I have perfected your religion for you and completed My blessing upon you and I am pleased with Islam as a religion for you... (Surat al-Ma'ida, 3)
Allah has chosen Islam for us as our religion. That is the only true path, and every other path, every religion, is false. We all have a duty to learn from Allah's religion how to think, how to behave, how to speak and how to live.
It is the duty of every Muslim, therefore, to evaluate the situation confronting him according to the criteria of the Qur'an, and to behave accordingly. If the members of the society of which we are a part have adopted one another or their forebears as their Lord rather than Allah; if they have adopted other sources as their guide rather than His book; then they have forgotten Allah and turned their back on His commandments.
Throughout the course of this book, various significant aspects of the Religion of the Ignorant that appear in our society have been examined. However, Ignorantism does not belong solely to our own time and society. On the contrary, this is the common religion of societies in all times and places that have turned away from the true religion. The only differences lie in terms of external form. Although the customs of society and models of behavior change according to time and place, the basic logic remains the same. Putting on a show, for instance—one of the main features of the Religion of the Ignorant—may take place in different forms in different societies. The expressions and gestures that reflect arrogance and self-love may assume different forms. But at the end of the day, the fundamental logic is still the same.
This logic, as emphasized right from the outset, is the result of the Ignorantists having forgotten Allah. In the words of the Prophet Shu'ayb (as), they "... have made Him into something to cast disdainfully behind [their] backs!" (Surah Hud, 92). Members of this religion are unaware that they have come into this world in order to serve Allah, and that His mercy is their only salvation. Yet it is Allah Who created us, gave us form and appearance in our mothers' wombs, brought us into the world, prepared that world for us, has mercy upon us, causes us to live and will eventually cause us to die. We have no other guardian, Lord, or deity than Him. We came from Him and shall return to Him. We shall not remain long in this world.
Since this is the fundamental essence of our existence, then it is most unwise to engage in petty calculations of interest in this world, where we shall remain for only a brief time, to show off to one another, to thirst after goods and property that are condemned to vanish, and to choose other guides, other aims and other causes than those in the religion of Allah. The world has been created as the vineyard of the Hereafter. We can attain the mercy and Paradise of Allah in the Hereafter and live a peaceful life in this world only by following His path and holding fast to Allah. That is indeed what we are commanded:
…hold fast to Allah. He is your Protector—the Best Protector, the Best Helper. (Surat al-Hajj, 78)
Everything examined throughout this book reveals the distorted thinking, perspective, customs and behavior produced by the Religion of the Ignorant. When its features are compared to the true religion described in the Qur'an, the enormous gulf between the two can clearly be seen. That difference is the difference between faith and denial. To put it another way, it is the difference between the religion of Allah and the false religion produced by satan. Therefore, there can be no question of any similarity between Ignorantism and Islam, or of Muslims adopting any part of the former. For that reason, the believer can immediately be distinguished from the Ignorantist society. Members of that society soon realize that the believer is not one of them. Yet they cannot comprehend how the belivers' character could be so opposite to their own religion. The logic of the believer is the antithesis of theirs. That is in any case why throughout history, adherents of Ignorantism have been unable to understand the believers and have accused them of madness.
However, the system to which they belong has no consistent, logical foundations. The words they speak are generally contradictory. They speak of the need to adhere to Islam, but then place restrictions upon it. They like some provisions of the religion, but are in favor of other provisions not being implemented, saying that there is no need to go to extremes. They say, "We are Muslims," but add that they don't wish to live by Islam.
As can be seen from these contradictory words, the illogical interpretations, ideas and thoughts of any member of the Religion of the Ignorant totally contradict the verses of the Qur'an. Such people are referred to in the Qur'an:
Among people there is one who argues about Allah without knowledge or guidance or any light-giving Book, turning away arrogantly, to misguide people from the way of Allah. He will be disgraced in this world and on the Day of Resurrection, We will make him taste the punishment of the Burning. (Surat al-Hajj, 8-9)
Such clarity of consciousness and reason are required in order to comprehend the true religion that these can be possessed only by believers. In several verses, Allah has revealed that unbelievers and idolaters are people whose minds and perceptions remain closed:
Allah has sealed up their hearts and hearing and over their eyes is a blindfold. They will have a terrible punishment. (Surat al-Baqara, 7)
We created many of the jinn and humanity for Hell. They have hearts they do not understand with. They have eyes they do not see with. They have ears they do not hear with. Such people are like cattle. No, they are even further astray! They are the unaware. (Surat al-A'raf, 179)
... Allah has turned their hearts away because they are people who do not understand. (Surat at-Tawba, 127)
Ignorantism is therefore the religion of the irrational and the unaware. Yet reason and conscience should lead them to live by religious moral values, for the true glory, honor and eternal happiness of mankind lie in Islam.
The choice between the two religions lies with the individual, as is explained in a verse:
There is no compulsion where the religion is concerned. Right guidance has become clearly distinct from error. Anyone who rejects false gods and believes in Allah has grasped the Firmest Handhold, which will never give way. Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing. (Surat al-Baqara, 256)
Darwinism, in other words the theory of evolution, was put forward with the aim of denying the fact of creation, but is in truth nothing but failed, unscientific nonsense. This theory, which claims that life emerged by chance from inanimate matter, was invalidated by the scientific evidence of miraculous order in the universe and in living things. In this way, science confirmed the fact that Allah created the universe and the living things in it. The propaganda carried out today in order to keep the theory of evolution alive is based solely on the distortion of the scientific facts, biased interpretation, and lies and falsehoods disguised as science.
Yet this propaganda cannot conceal the truth. The fact that the theory of evolution is the greatest deception in the history of science has been expressed more and more in the scientific world over the last 20-30 years. Research carried out after the 1980s in particular has revealed that the claims of Darwinism are totally unfounded, something that has been stated by a large number of scientists. In the United States in particular, many scientists from such different fields as biology, biochemistry and paleontology recognize the invalidity of Darwinism and employ the fact of creation to account for the origin of life.
We have examined the collapse of the theory of evolution and the proofs of creation in great scientific detail in many of our works, and are still continuing to do so. Given the enormous importance of this subject, it will be of great benefit to summarize it here.
The Scientific Collapse of Darwinism
Although this doctrine goes back as far as ancient Greece, the theory of evolution was advanced extensively in the nineteenth century. The most important development that made it the top topic of the world of science was Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species, published in 1859. In this book, he denied that Allah created different living species on Earth separately, for he claimed that all living beings had a common ancestor and had diversified over time through small changes. Darwin's theory was not based on any concrete scientific finding; as he also accepted, it was just an "assumption." Moreover, as Darwin confessed in the long chapter of his book titled "Difficulties on Theory," the theory failed in the face of many critical questions.
Darwin invested all of his hopes in new scientific discoveries, which he expected to solve these difficulties. However, contrary to his expectations, scientific findings expanded the dimensions of these difficulties. The defeat of Darwinism in the face of science can be reviewed under three basic topics:
1) The theory cannot explain how life originated on Earth.
2) No scientific finding shows that the "evolutionary mechanisms" proposed by the theory have any evolutionary power at all.
3) The fossil record proves the exact opposite of what the theory suggests.
In this section, we will examine these three basic points in general outlines:
The First Insurmountable Step: The Origin of Life
The theory of evolution posits that all living species evolved from a single living cell that emerged on the primitive Earth 3.8 billion years ago. How a single cell could generate millions of complex living species and, if such an evolution really occurred, why traces of it cannot be observed in the fossil record are some of the questions that the theory cannot answer. However, first and foremost, we need to ask: How did this "first cell" originate?
Since the theory of evolution denies creation and any kind of supernatural intervention, it maintains that the "first cell" originated coincidentally within the laws of nature, without any design, plan or arrangement. According to the theory, inanimate matter must have produced a living cell as a result of coincidences. Such a claim, however, is inconsistent with the most unassailable rules of biology.
"Life Comes From Life"
In his book, Darwin never referred to the origin of life. The primitive understanding of science in his time rested on the assumption that living beings had a very simple structure. Since medieval times, spontaneous generation, which asserts that non-living materials came together to form living organisms, had been widely accepted. It was commonly believed that insects came into being from food leftovers, and mice from wheat. Interesting experiments were conducted to prove this theory. Some wheat was placed on a dirty piece of cloth, and it was believed that mice would originate from it after a while.
Similarly, maggots developing in rotting meat was assumed to be evidence of spontaneous generation. However, it was later understood that worms did not appear on meat spontaneously, but were carried there by flies in the form of larvae, invisible to the naked eye.
Even when Darwin wrote The Origin of Species, the belief that bacteria could come into existence from non-living matter was widely accepted in the world of science.
However, five years after the publication of Darwin's book, Louis Pasteur announced his results after long studies and experiments, that disproved spontaneous generation, a cornerstone of Darwin's theory. In his triumphal lecture at the Sorbonne in 1864, Pasteur said: "Never will the doctrine of spontaneous generation recover from the mortal blow struck by this simple experiment."1
For a long time, advocates of the theory of evolution resisted these findings. However, as the development of science unraveled the complex structure of the cell of a living being, the idea that life could come into being coincidentally faced an even greater impasse.
Inconclusive Efforts of the Twentieth Century
The first evolutionist who took up the subject of the origin of life in the twentieth century was the renowned Russian biologist Alexander Oparin. With various theses he advanced in the 1930s, he tried to prove that a living cell could originate by coincidence. These studies, however, were doomed to failure, and Oparin had to make the following confession:
Unfortunately, however, the problem of the origin of the cell is perhaps the most obscure point in the whole study of the evolution of organisms.2
Evolutionist followers of Oparin tried to carry out experiments to solve this problem. The best known experiment was carried out by the American chemist Stanley Miller in 1953. Combining the gases he alleged to have existed in the primordial Earth's atmosphere in an experiment set-up, and adding energy to the mixture, Miller synthesized several organic molecules (amino acids) present in the structure of proteins.
Barely a few years had passed before it was revealed that this experiment, which was then presented as an important step in the name of evolution, was invalid, for the atmosphere used in the experiment was very different from the real Earth conditions.3
After a long silence, Miller confessed that the atmosphere medium he used was unrealistic.4
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