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The System of Islam and the System of Prostitution
An estimated 1 million women in America earn their main income working as prostitutes. These women are much more likely to suffer from violence and abuse than those who do not work as prostitutes. They are also much more likely to be addicted to drugs than other women. Many are forced into prostitution.
If you took a random sampling of female slaves in Muslims lands at any point in history, and compared their quality of life to a random sample of modern American prostitutes, who do you think would have an overall better quality of life? Who would be happier? Who would be more subject to abuse and emotional, psychological, and physiological health hazards?
Islam is a system, and the Western lifestyle is a system. Slavery is an integral part of the Islamic system, and prostitution is an integral part of the Western system.
As Muslim countries emulate the Western system more and more, the amount of prostitution in these countries increases. This begins with “soft” forms of prostitution. Soft prostitution refers to any activity where a woman’s physical beauty is made available to the public in order to generate additional revenue.Attractive female receptionists and secretaries in offices, female servers in restaurants and cafés, female flight attendants in tight clothing, and women’s bodies used in advertising are all examples of soft prostitution. Dancers and actresses in movies, television, also fit this description, and pornography edges toward “hard” prostitution. All of these are methods of leveraging a woman’s beauty and sexuality for profit, and all of these activities normalize a culture of prostitution.
There are many arbitrary and absurd distinctions in modern, secular morality. For example, the idea that for a man to have a sexual relationship with a girl a few days younger than 18 years old is exploitation of a child, while a week later it’s a consensual, legal activity. The distinction between soft and hard prostitution is similarly problematic; for a woman’s body to be used in almost every imaginable way for the enjoyment and financial gain of strangers is accepted as normal and healthy, while taking the final step into actual prostitution carries a stigma.
Laws are boundaries. In secular law, the boundary between child and adult, or between acceptable work where women are sexualized for profit and prostitution is very nearly meaningless. Like the artificial national borders that cut through families and tribes, the boundaries of secular laws stand out as a paragon of ignorance when compared to the wisdom of Islamic law.
While adultery and prostitution are still less common in Muslim countries than in the West, they are becoming more common all the time. This process, whereby the sexual enjoyment of women becomes the domain of the public, is actually an integral part of the process commonly referred to today as “development,” although it would be more accurate to call it degeneration.
Beyond augmenting revenue by marketing women’s beauty, it’s possible to use women to stimulate desire and increase overall consumption and economic output. Ultimately, the system of prostitution is a system where humans become slaves to their desire. Desire is never completely satisfied— rather, like a fire, the more it is fed, the larger it becomes.أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ “ لَوْ أَنَّ لاِبْنِ آدَمَ وَادِيًا مِنْ ذَهَبٍ أَحَبَّ أَنْ يَكُونَ لَهُ وَادِيَانِ، وَلَنْ يَمْلأَ فَاهُ إِلاَّ التُّرَابُ، وَيَتُوبُ اللَّهُ عَلَى مَنْ تَابَ ”.
The Prophet ﷺ said, “If Adam’s son had a valley full of gold, he would like to have two valleys, for nothing fills his mouth except dust. And Allah forgives him who repents to Him.”
Sahih al-Bukhari 6439In a society ruled by desires, fulfilling sexual desire outside marriage is far preferable to the commitment of marriage. Men are able to enjoy women sexually without any responsibility, and with minimum costs incurred. The disintegration of families that comes with this attitude towards sexuality also prevents the formation of large households, which reduce the amount of consumption per person.
This is a vicious cycle, since the absence of healthy emotional fulfillment in the form of a functional family leads people to seek empty sexual gratification instead to fill the void in their soul. While fulfilling desires in this manner is enjoyable in the short term, There are at least two reasons why the system of prostitution is destined to fail.
First, consider the material dimension. An economy driven by desires rather than needs will outpace the regenerative capacity of the earth, and will soon find itself unable to provide for its needs. This was a major factor in the decline of the Roman empire, which descended into hedonistic decadence. There are many parallels to these events in the West today.Second, the social fabric of the society will unravel. Sexual norms are the basis of family, and family is the basis of mental health. Mental health, in turn, is the key to raising healthy, productive citizens. Societies with high rates of hyper-sexuality and extramarital sex have more broken families, and children from broken families have higher rates of mental illness. Since the definition of mental illness is more fluid than physical illness, the kuffar also change the definitions of mental illness to call their diseases healthy, and to call health a disease, according to whatever suits their desires.
The standard counterargument from secularists is that both harmful prostitution (as if a harmless prostitution exists!) and slavery should be eradicated. But is this really realistic?
The largest and most well funded police forces on earth have failed to stop either slavery or prostitution. You can’t stop people’s reproductive desire anymore than you can stop flowers from blooming in the spring. To suggest that you can change or eliminate this reality is an outright rejection of nature, which itself is a rejection of Allah’s creation.
Why is it that the suggestion of legalizing and regulating prostitution to protect women working as prostitutes sounds reasonable in mainstream discourse, but discussion of legalizing and regulating slavery is absolutely taboo? The answer is at least partly because of the underlying economic model.
The system of prostitution favors high, unsustainable output, while Islam encourages balanced and sustainable production and consumption. Talking about the rights of women is a smokescreen, because an authentic implementation of Islamic slavery would be vastly better for women than either soft or hard prostitution.Secularists try to make it seem as if slavery is worse simply due to the compulsion involved, but a majority of prostitutes are forced into their line of work by economic circumstances. In most cases, they have limited choice about which men they have sex with, and in many cases face abuse by their customers or their pimps, and threats of violence if they try to change their pimp.
Some recoil from the idea of slavery reflexively because it means a woman not being able to choose her partner, but the reality is that in the system of prostitution, women are also frequently compelled into miserable situations not of their choosing. In many cases, their chosen partner cheats on them, abandons them for no reason, or plays with them for years while refusing to commit. After this, they may end up settling for a partner they would not have originally chosen.
This is the situation even for women who are not forced by economic circumstances into prostitution, and the situation for prostitutes is generally much worse. This entire pattern of relations is symptomatic of a society that where everything, including relationships, are treated as disposable. In the system of prostitution, women have little or no choice about being treated in this way, yet somehow they are indoctrinated to believe that this condition is “freedom.”
Slavery does entail compulsion, but Islamic regulations ensure that a woman only has one sexual partner at a time, and if a slave is sold, it is necessary to wait for three months until she can have another sexual partner. This waiting period helps to be certain about the paternity of children, but it also allows for an emotional adjustment period. Her food, housing, clothing, and basic expenses are all paid for, and if she becomes pregnant she can no longer be sold, and the children born of the union have full inheritance rights, just like any of the father’s sons.
If a female slave enters Islam, her owner must give her the right to earn extra income alongside her duties so that she can buy her freedom if she wishes. Historically, female slaves were often freed as charity or expiation and voluntarily married their owners.
In almost every sense— spiritual, emotional, and psychological, Islamic slavery is better for women than prostitution. A prostitute might earn more money initially, but as she grows older her earning power will drop off sharply. If she has children, they will most likely not know their fathers, and the fathers will probably be under no legal obligation to support the children. A slave who has children with her owner, on the other hand, will have assistance in raising his children, and they will eventually inherit from their father.
This means that the children will have better social standing, education, and wealth than the fatherless child of a prostitute by virtue of their clear paternity and rights. This will enable them to provide a social safety net for the mother as she grows old.
The individual trajectories of a slave under Islamic law and a prostitute under secular law reflect the trajectories of the societies that they live in. The female slave in an Islamic society may face some hardship, especially in initial adjustment phases, but she has stability, all of her needs are met, her lifestyle is healthier in every way, and she has good prospects for the future.
By contrast, the prostitute in a secular society earns a much higher income than the Muslim slave, but because of the severe trauma she goes through, in many cases, she will spend her earnings on drugs. Even if she has good financial planning practices, her children are likely to grow up in an unhealthy and unsupportive environment, and will likely not be in a position to support her when her earning power drops. In most cases, prostitutes face bleak future prospects.
Likewise, the system of prostitution yields high earnings in the short term, but is very unhealthy and leaves the society in a much worse position over the long term. The Islamic system, on the other hand, has lower total output, but leads to much healthier outcomes over the long term.
May Allah to wake the Muslims up, and spread the awareness that adopting the system of prostitution on the collective level will eventually lead to prostitution and adultery on the individual level. If women enter workplaces with non-mahram men and allow their sex appeal to be used as a product for sale and a driver of economic growth, it may yield some profits and fun in the short term, but in the long run, it will degrade familial relations and lead to the disintegration of society, and an even worse outcome in the hereafter.
May Allah protect us from selling our religion for a small price. -
Nature: Friend or Foe? Extended Family vs. the Modern State
The Westphalian nation-state in the European tradition, which is currently the basis for all nation-states worldwide, is based partly on the tradition of the medieval Church, in which the Church took over many functions of the family.
Initially, the Church cared for people who did not have adequate family support; such as orphans and the destitute. But the importance of this role eventually came to represent political power, so providing education and social services, beyond being a way to serve God, became a way to expand influence.
In a way, the separation of Church and state was not so much a separation as a transformation. To some extent, the state took over functions of the church, but it’s also fair to say that the Church became the state. There is a clear continuity visible in the institutions of church, in areas like education, health care, and social services, and those now provided by the state.
This model of the state was developed mainly in northern Europe, where the institutional structures of the clergy broke away from the main body of the Church and participated in the process of state building. Later on, this model influenced the development of Southern European states, and eventually the rest of the world. These institutions, which emerged from the church, gain influence and power by engendering dependence and expanding surveillance. The provision of social services is a means to this end.
When it comes to the development of this surveillance, there’s a clear paper trail. The first systematic documenting of individuals in Europe are certificates of baptism and communion; this later gave way to birth certificates and public school graduation certificates. Social connection between individuals has value, and the total amount of social connection one person can have is finite. The more of this value that is invested in the extended family, the less will be invested in the state.
This is a zero sum game.
Nation-states need to absorb individuals in order to survive and thrive. In order to absorb individuals, it is necessary for the state to break the connections that people form with their extended families. This is another part of the rationale for delaying marriage.
There are at least two reasons the European model of the state wants to delay marriage.- For an individual to be an effective cell in the body of the state requires extensive training and preparation, because rather than relying on in-born, biological or genetic wisdom like motherhood, it relies on indoctrination and identification with the state.
- If people marry at a younger age, they will have larger families. Larger families, as units, will generally have stronger mutual support networks, decreasing reliance on the state. Thus, the strongest states tend to be in countries with lower birth rates and smaller families.
Since the nation-state is built upon a foundation of shirk, its expression is a war against nature, and nature can also be understood as the will of Allah. The worldview of secularism rooted in Christendom has failed to maintain the boundary between Allah and His creation, and seeks to confirm its worldview, which sets up rivals with Allah, by becoming as powerful as, or more powerful than, Allah. This echoes Satan’s deception of our ancestors, Adam and Hawa.
فَوَسۡوَسَ لَهُمَا ٱلشَّیۡطَـٰنُ لِیُبۡدِیَ لَهُمَا مَا وُۥرِیَ عَنۡهُمَا مِن سَوۡءَ ٰتِهِمَا وَقَالَ مَا نَهَىٰكُمَا رَبُّكُمَا عَنۡ هَـٰذِهِ ٱلشَّجَرَةِ إِلَّاۤ أَن تَكُونَا مَلَكَیۡنِ أَوۡ تَكُونَا مِنَ ٱلۡخَـٰلِدِینَ
He said, “Your Lord did not forbid you this tree except that you become angels or become of the immortal.
7:20So the nation-state promises protection from disease, death, and poverty, and promises longer life to those who accept to substitute what Allah has created (the extended family) for what human beings have shaped with their own hands (the nation-state).
Encouraging women to participate in the formal labor force exemplifies this war against nature. For a woman to become an ideal cell in the body of the state, she needs a lengthy education. She will probably work in an office with men and women who are not her close relatives, giving much of her time and capacity for social bonding to her colleagues. She will need to be able to navigate this social environment, so in addition to this lengthy education, she will also need a lengthy period of socialization to become fully integrated into this lifestyle.
It is not from women’s nature to be comfortable with the continuous stares of men, to mixing and chatting with them. Growing accustomed to this requires extensive training, where she mixes with men from outside her family and comes to view it as normal. She will need to develop deeply ingrained habits that go against her nature, including tolerating continuous sexual awkwardness with large numbers of men.
She will also suffer as a result of this way of living, and she will need to develop effective coping mechanisms to deal with the emotional and spiritual pain of this way of life. Reaching a high status in this hierarchy will take a long time, and she will have to fight against her biology every step of the way. One of the most common ways to fight against her own body is birth control.
By contrast, as a young mother she will have the power of her instinct and her genes supporting her at all times. She will be in precisely the role for which she was created, and rather than fighting against her fitra, she will be supported by it. She will be allowed to be soft and weak, and may even be honored for it. If she is emotional rather than rational this will be accepted from her, and she will not need to compete with men for recognition or respect.
A natural woman like this is the bane of the state. She does not generate income which can be measured. She does not pay taxes. She doesn’t fill out forms which provide surveillance data. She doesn’t allow her mind to be shaped by the curriculum of state schools, because she is busy learning and growing in the context of the family. And perhaps most threatening of all for the state, she depends on her husband for security, rather than depending on the power of the state. Rather than raising a small, weak family, she is more likely to raise a large, healthy family whose members depend on each other, rather than the state.
When you talk to someone who avows hatred for “child marriage,” you will find that deep down, they don’t even know why they feel so strongly about the issue. They may have a few ideas about why it’s bad, but when you point out the flimsiness of these justifications they won’t let go of their emotional aversion to child marriage. That’s because their feeling was never based on logic; rather, the logic is justification for the emotion. The real source of the emotion is their attachment to the state, which is developed through indoctrination and dependence. They view the state as their lord and protector, and they have been trained to hate what threatens what they believe to be the source of their sustenance and security. -
Keeping Silent About Marital Issues
It’s generally a bad idea to speak about any aspect of your marriage publicly. If you tell others only about the positive aspects of your relationship, you invite envy onto yourself.
عَنِ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ “ الْعَيْنُ حَقٌّ وَلَوْ كَانَ شَىْءٌ سَابَقَ الْقَدَرَ سَبَقَتْهُ الْعَيْنُ وَإِذَا اسْتُغْسِلْتُمْ فَاغْسِلُوا ” .
The Prophet ﷺ said, “The evil eye is real. If anything could precede the divine decree, it would be preceded by the evil eye. When you are asked to perform a ritual bath, then do so.”
Sahih Muslim 2188When we show off and publicly display the good aspects of our lives, it can often frustrate those who are going through a difficult time, and in some cases cause envy, which is related to the evil eye. By talking exclusively about positive aspects of your marriage, you also run the risk of painting an unrealistic picture of married life which can make others feel that there is something wrong with their marriage.
On the other hand, when you complain about your marriage to friends or family, they may try to support you, but they may also end up taking your side or developing a negative view about your spouse. In attempting to support you, they may reinforce a negative view of your spouse in your mind, which can cause a vicious circle leading to divorce.
If the problems are really bad so that counseling is a must, it makes sense to follow the divine guidance to get representatives from both the family of the husband and wife, because that way the different perceptions of the situation will balance each other out and prevent a distorted image from forming. This is from the wisdom of the command:وَإِنۡ خِفۡتُمۡ شِقَاقَ بَیۡنِهِمَا فَٱبۡعَثُوا۟ حَكَمࣰا مِّنۡ أَهۡلِهِۦ وَحَكَمࣰا مِّنۡ أَهۡلِهَاۤ إِن یُرِیدَاۤ إِصۡلَـٰحࣰا یُوَفِّقِ ٱللَّهُ بَیۡنَهُمَاۤۗ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ كَانَ عَلِیمًا خَبِیرࣰا
And if you fear dissension between the two, send an arbitrator from his people and an arbitrator from her people. If they both desire reconciliation, Allah will cause it between them. Indeed, Allah is ever Knowing and Acquainted [with all things.]
4:35Praise Allah who revealed Islam as a mercy to us and from His generosity.
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The Importance of Early Marriage
Marriage is first and foremost an economic contract. This is also expressed by the maxim: “Romance without finance ain’t got a chance.” In a traditional economy, children are an essential form of wealth, and begin to contribute economically at a young age. For most of history, the household was a major center of production— in Greek, “economy” literally means “house management.”
Delaying marriage is a luxury. Since producing children has economic value, every year that marriage is delayed represents lost potential. This is visible in the patterns of legal norms around marriage age among the Romans. The legal marriage age in the Roman empire was 12. When the empire collapsed and the economic situation became more difficult, this age was lowered. Gratius, a medieval Christian legal scholar, set the limit by saying that if a male older than 7 years old cohabited with a prepubescent female under 7 years old, this would be inappropriate.
This was largely a function of the economic times. The decadence of the late Roman empire led to centuries of famine and plagues across Europe as imperial infrastructure disintegrated. This only began to change with colonialism and industrialization. At this time, the factory started to replace the household as the center of production. As production progressively moved out of the household, families and children became increasingly expendable.
The fact that modern lifestyles and norms of production are very unsustainable points to the wisdom of marrying early. Neo-Roman culture, which has now evolved into a world system led by Europe and America, is repeating the pattern of decadence and collapse that led to the fall of the Roman empire. Islam, on the contrary, leads to a system of life that is in balance and harmony with the earth and nature.
Amr ibn al ‘As, radhi Allahu anhu, married at the age of 11. His first son was born when he was 12. And of course it is well known that A’isha, radhi Allahu anha, was married at the age of 7 and began to cohabit with the Prophet ﷺ at the age of 9. There is spiritual benefit to following this example, because it brings us closer to the lifestyle of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and his companions, radhi Allahu anhum, but there are also benefits on many other levels.
Early years are very formative, so if someone marries at a young age, they grow and mature with their partner. Their personality is shaped by the relationship on a fundamental level, which makes the marriage much stronger and more likely to last. Bonding hormones are much stronger in early puberty, which is why boys and girls are prone to fall wildly in love shortly after puberty. Marrying at this age forms a powerful bond which makes for a much stronger marriage. It also takes time for a strong emotional bond to build. In the initial stages of a relationship, attraction is often based on physical beauty.It can take decades for a deep love independent of physical attraction to develop. By being married through the years of peak attractiveness, the marital bond can last for longer on the basis of physical attraction, giving time for this deeper bond to solidify. If someone marries at a late age after having a number of failed relationships, the pain of various breakups will have reduced their overall capacity for bonding, and with each traumatic break up, they will be more hesitant to make themselves vulnerable by bonding again. Furthermore, the physical attraction will be weaker and will fade sooner, allowing less time for an emotional bond to form that can sustain the marriage as beauty declines.
A common line of reasoning used to justify delaying marriage is that young women are not mature enough to be mothers, but the immaturity of modern girls is actually a product of cultural context. In fact, having children is one of the best ways to mature as a person. There is a saying; “Adults do not make children. Children make adults.”
Being a parent teaches you responsibility, and teaches you about yourself. Children are excellent teachers, and raising children is a great way to bond with parents or other community members. If marriage is delayed excessively, the children also have less time to bond with grandparents, and both parents and grandparents have less energy.
If there are so many advantages to marrying early, then why do people delay marriage? What do we gain by delaying marriage, parenthood, and thus lowering overall fertility? In the modern era, delaying marriage and child rearing is necessary for the maintenance of industrial and post-industrial economies. Long periods of education are required to amass enough technical knowledge and expertise to participate in ultra-specialized, sprawling, centralized supply chains.
This method of production leads to massive spiritual, social, psychological and environmental problems. People are trained to rely on technology rather than Allah, and believe technology can be a source of salvation from the problems generated by this same mode of production. Families break apart and massive, centralized factories and institutions take their place. Depression and anxiety proliferate in a perpetual, hectic race to increase productivity and profits. The oceans and water supply are poisoned by the toxic byproducts of this production.
The bulk of the profits from all of this corruption and destruction go towards enriching an ever shrinking elite of ultra-wealthy individuals who spend the profits on grotesque levels of luxury and ostentation. This same elite uses their wealth to propagate social programs that encourage and enforce delaying marriage so that the general public can be integrated into this same mode of production.
Among the narratives that are used to argue against early marriage are studies that suggest early childbearing is somehow unhealthy. Some research about early mothers shows higher rates of low birth weight and complications during delivery compared to women who deliver at an older age. However, none of these studies effectively account for socio-economic factors like the fact that adolescent mothers are more likely to come from low income households, abuse drugs, or be malnourished.
There are many instances of mothers giving birth to healthy babies at very young ages. Lina Medina of Peru was the youngest recorded mother on record. She gave birth to a healthy, full term boy at the age of 5. Mum Zi of Nigeria gave birth at age 8, and became a grandmother at 17. These are exceptional cases, but giving birth below the age 10 is not at all uncommon in traditional societies.
If marriage is delayed for decades after the onset of puberty, human nature does not go away. Delaying marriage leads to a culture where zina and abortion are normalized. It’s still common for 11 and 12 year old girls to get pregnant in Western Europe or the US— they just abort the babies.It’s amazing that the kuffar try to suggest that areas where early marriage is still common are “undeveloped” or somehow inferior. Do they regard these areas as “less developed” because they don’t kill their children? And this killing of children is all justified in order to feed the massive, world spanning industrial economy, and those who do not do so are threatened with poverty.
So we should heed the word of Allah when He, subhanahu wa t’ala, says:
وَلَا تَقۡتُلُوۤا۟ أَوۡلَـٰدَكُمۡ خَشۡیَةَ إِمۡلَـٰقࣲۖ نَّحۡنُ نَرۡزُقُهُمۡ وَإِیَّاكُمۡۚ إِنَّ قَتۡلَهُمۡ كَانَ خِطۡءࣰا كَبِیرࣰا
And do not kill your children for fear of poverty.
17:31 -
Marriage in Islam is not like Dating
Some Muslims, influenced by the kuffar, have put forth the idea that marriage in Islam can be similar to modern concepts of dating. This is a fallacy, because the institution of dating itself is fundamentally wasteful. Using excess resources to play around for years, following your desires, is a sign of a society lost in wastefulness.
Children fill a vital social, psychological, and economic role in a healthy society. They provide entertainment, exercise, and if they are raised right, they are economically productive from a young age. The process of helping with household and community labor is an excellent form of education, and working together in a family setting also builds bonds of kinship and enhances love and appreciation between family members.
Most of the growth of the American economy since the 1970’s has been in services. A large portion of this is comprised of education, day care, social services, entertainment, and mental health treatment. The collective value of these services is in the hundreds of billions of dollars. This is the real value of children in society, because in traditional societies, many of these functions are filled by children. In most cases, this labor is not measured, so according to Western economic thought the societies with the smallest families and the least family integrity are labeled as ‘rich’, while those with the large, healthy families are called ‘poor.’
Shifting the perception of value out of the family and into the formal economy is one of the sources from which fiat currency, which has no commodity value, derives its value. In other words, fiat currency is an illusion whose power is drawn from destroying families. All of this is done in order to maintain a Satanic world order, whereby power can be drained from all of humanity and concentrated in the hands of a sociopathic elite.
These elites are known for their involvement in so-called “secret societies” or initiatic orders, like the Masons or the Bohemian Grove, that are known for their use of magical rituals. Interestingly, the destruction of families is fundamentally linked to sorcery, and this link is described in the Quran, where Allah describes the origin of sorcery in Babylon.وَٱتَّبَعُوا۟ مَا تَتۡلُوا۟ ٱلشَّیَـٰطِینُ عَلَىٰ مُلۡكِ سُلَیۡمَـٰنَۖ وَمَا كَفَرَ سُلَیۡمَـٰنُ وَلَـٰكِنَّ ٱلشَّیَـٰطِینَ كَفَرُوا۟ یُعَلِّمُونَ ٱلنَّاسَ ٱلسِّحۡرَ وَمَاۤ أُنزِلَ عَلَى ٱلۡمَلَكَیۡنِ بِبَابِلَ هَـٰرُوتَ وَمَـٰرُوتَۚ وَمَا یُعَلِّمَانِ مِنۡ أَحَدٍ حَتَّىٰ یَقُولَاۤ إِنَّمَا نَحۡنُ فِتۡنَةࣱ فَلَا تَكۡفُرۡۖ فَیَتَعَلَّمُونَ مِنۡهُمَا مَا یُفَرِّقُونَ بِهِۦ بَیۡنَ ٱلۡمَرۡءِ وَزَوۡجِهِۦۚ وَمَا هُم بِضَاۤرِّینَ بِهِۦ مِنۡ أَحَدٍ إِلَّا بِإِذۡنِ ٱللَّهِۚ وَیَتَعَلَّمُونَ مَا یَضُرُّهُمۡ وَلَا یَنفَعُهُمۡۚ وَلَقَدۡ عَلِمُوا۟ لَمَنِ ٱشۡتَرَىٰهُ مَا لَهُۥ فِی ٱلۡءَاخِرَةِ مِنۡ خَلَـٰقࣲۚ وَلَبِئۡسَ مَا شَرَوۡا۟ بِهِۦۤ أَنفُسَهُمۡۚ لَوۡ كَانُوا۟ یَعۡلَمُونَ
And they followed [instead] what the devils had recitedduring the reign of Solomon. It was not Solomon who disbelieved, but the devils disbelieved, teaching people magic and that which was revealed to the two angels at Babylon, Harut and Marut. But the two angels do not teach anyone unless they say, “We are a trial, so do not disbelieve [by practicing magic].” And [yet] they learn from them that by which they cause separation between a man and his wife. But they do not harm anyone through it except by permission of Allah. And the people learn what harms them and does not benefit them. But the Children of Israel certainly knew that whoever purchased the magic would not have in the Hereafter any share. And wretched is that for which they sold themselves, if they only knew.
2:102Marrying and having children young is not only healthier for couples, it’s also an important responsibility to the community, because children provide value to the entire ummah. Western ‘dating,’ by contrast, is primarily about individualistic personal gratification.
Every year of reproductive potential wasted is a disservice to society, unless there is a higher aim being served, like seeking Islamic knowledge or otherwise benefiting the community. If there is a religious, righteous spouse available, the ideal is for men to marry as soon as they have the means, and women as soon as or slightly before they reach reproductive age. And this is the sunnah and the way of the sahaba, radhi Allahu anhum. Who willingly leaves this path because they believe adopting the educational customs of the kuffar will bring them honor and strength has been deceived by Satan.یَقُولُونَ لَىِٕن رَّجَعۡنَاۤ إِلَى ٱلۡمَدِینَةِ لَیُخۡرِجَنَّ ٱلۡأَعَزُّ مِنۡهَا ٱلۡأَذَلَّۚ وَلِلَّهِ ٱلۡعِزَّةُ وَلِرَسُولِهِۦ وَلِلۡمُؤۡمِنِینَ وَلَـٰكِنَّ ٱلۡمُنَـٰفِقِینَ لَا یَعۡلَمُونَ
And to Allah belongs [all] honor, and to His Messenger, and to the believers, but the hypocrites do not know.
63:8This is one reason it is unwise to leave countries like Somalia, Yemen, and Afghanistan for the filth of England or America. The structure of the lifestyle in these polytheistic societies makes it very difficult to marry early, leading to excessive delays in marriage. As a result, those who stay away from zina suffer, which can make the religion seem like a burden rather than a blessing.
The structure of these societies is such that it distorts, perverts, and inverts natural tendencies, such as the process of conceiving and raising children, rather than giving them wholesome and appropriate outlets. The haram is made easy, and the halal difficult.
This is a recipe for mass apostasy, which is exactly what we see among the Muslims in the West, and in areas heavily affected by the Western lifestyle. May Allah guide and protect all who have a sincere love of the Truth in their hearts. -
The State as an Idol
The development trajectory of European states (on which modern nation-states are modeled) may in fact be based on the Pharaonic influence on Christianity. This influence is visible not only in obvious relics like the obelisk of Ramses in front of the Vatican, but also in the structure of the Roman Catholic priest class.
The Pope was considered infallible, meaning that he was believed to be completely free from error. He was thus elevated to the status of a partner of Allah. This has analogues in the political structure of Pharaonic Egypt. The ruler was considered to be an actual incarnation of a god on earth. Of course, this would mean that his authority should be absolute.
This doctrine was also expressed in the Bible:“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.”
Romans 13:1So all authority is divinely mandated, and must be obeyed. In the European context, the Pope became an object of worship (in obedience) like the Pharaoh. The rise of democracy was the rejection of this divine authority, which in itself was a correct action, but it was simply replaced with a distributed form of the same infallible authority. Instead of an infallible Pope, the will of the people was granted the same status of absolute sovereignty.
If the Pope was elevated to the level of a partner with Allah, the modern world system elevates “the people” to the level of Allah. All of this begins with conceptualizing Allah as a human being. Once a person becomes accustomed to the idea of assigning divine authority to one human being, it becomes much easier to make the leap to assigning it to more human beings.
As the development of the nation-state continued after the Protestant Reformation, the state slowly took over the functions of the Church, but the divine conception of state authority remained. When there is an implicit assumption that state authority is divine, the state will continuously develop in such a way so as to shape itself in the image of God.
Nation-states developed more and more surveillance capacity, documenting the number of their citizens, their age, gender, race, educational performance, address, and other information. As time goes on, the state grows toward becoming all-seeing and all-knowing. The state’s military and police power also increases, as it strives towards the attribute of being all-powerful. Likewise, academia and science advance as the state seeks to become perfectly wise.
The state enters into education, and starts to shape the minds of its citizens as part of its effort to exert total, God-like control over them. Citizens are trained to worship the symbols of the state as a means of extending this control and submission. The state provides medical care, and the citizens begin to believe that the state holds the power of life and death in its hand.
Technology becomes a means of further concentrating and centralizing power, because in order to remain competitive, it is necessary to automate and increase the scale of production, and this requires access to finance. More and more economic functions transfer to corporations, and these corporations gradually agglomerate into larger and largercorporations. The corporations that help the state the most are rewarded with support, and grow bigger.
As power becomes increasingly concentrated, it becomes easier to convince people that those in power are worthy of worship, because they increasingly take on the role of provider and protector, and their subjects become increasingly dependent on them. Contraception and decreasing fertility is key to this process. Large families are more likely to support each other, while those that are socially isolated are more likely to depend on, and thus support, the state. So the state encourages homosexuality and contraception.
On the surface, it appears that the military expresses the will of the people. So citizens hold a small bit of the seemingly divine power, but only if they submit by recognizing the divinity of the abstract “higher power” of the nation, which is in reality the power of a small number of individuals.
It appears that submission to the state is the key to sustenance. Your safety, your food, your freedom, all depend on submitting in small ways, every day. And it appears that the state is forcing you to submit for your own good.
But many times, you find that you are forced to do things and submit to things that don’t make any sense or seem immoral. Since many of the other things you were forced to do seemed beneficial (or you were rewarded for them) you already have the habit of obeying, so you accept. And the habits deepen, such that you are not even aware of them, and you pass them onto your children. -
Heresy and Secularism
Conceptualizing science as a source of truth is at the heart of secularist thought. To replace Christianity as the main ordering principle of the West, it was necessary to have some ideology with a more credible claim to the truth than Christianity. Science could only be viewed as a source of truth once it attained a relatively high level of explanatory power.
Achieving this level of power was necessarily a very resource intensive process. Contemplating natural phenomena, developing observational instruments like telescopes and microscopes, analyzing observations, formalizing observations into theories, and so forth, are all activities that can only be undertaken by individuals who are not busy with the basic needs of day to day survival. This is why scientific revolutions can take place more or less anywhere where there is sufficient surplus wealth.
Although accumulation of capital is possible without injustice, there is no question that a higher degree of capital accumulation is possible with injustice, than without. It’s very clear that the accumulation of wealth in Europe beginning in the colonial era was based upon a large amount of injustice around the world.
In fact, that was part of the incentive for Europe to abandon Christianity in favor of secularism. Religion was holding them back from “progress,” because Christian morality was hampering the concentration of wealth necessary for accelerating technological development. For example, the scientific and industrial revolution in Europe only really began after interest banking was fully legalized and integrated into European law. Secularists among the Muslims today have the same view of Islam as a force holding them back from “progress.”
Political power is necessarily linked to claims of truth. Even traditional nomadic tribes would not accept a leader they did not believe to be favored by their gods. It was understood that victory in battle and the availability of food depended on forces beyond their perception, which they described as gods or spirits. If a leader was not favored by these forces, then it would result in the defeat, starvation, or destruction of the group.
This was also the case under Christianity. This is why Christians were so active about burning heretics. Heresy was not just a difference of opinion. Heresy was a direct threat to the ruler’s claim to power and thereby the stability of society. Denying the legitimacy of the priests meant denying that the ruler was favored by or appointed by God, thus by implication denying the obligation to obey the ruler.
This is why the killing of heretics only stopped with the rise of secularism. Claims to truth were thereafter based in science— but there’s a conundrum here. Political legitimacy is now conferred by the scientific establishment, who have come to take the place of the priest class. Scientists analyze data and devise solutions to problems, and politicians then act upon this research. If a belief is favored by “the science,” it communicates to the masses that the invisible forces governing our world favor those in power.
In this mode of deriving political legitimacy, continuous increases in standard of living are proof that the leaders (or the dominant political system) are worthy of leadership. So this system stands as long as it is growing, because standard of living (life expectancy, income, etc.) is seen to be the measure of right guidance. In fact, this is a system where the people have taken their desires as gods, so the ability to fulfill desires is seen as the equivalent of divine blessings or approval.أَرَءَیۡتَ مَنِ ٱتَّخَذَ إِلَـٰهَهُۥ هَوَىٰهُ أَفَأَنتَ تَكُونُ عَلَیۡهِ وَكِیلًا
Have you seen the one who takes as his god his own desire? Then would you be responsible for him?
25:43If science is unable to deliver continued results, the people will begin to lose faith in the high priests and political leaders. It’s also important to understand that the relationship between the decline in resource availability and the decline in science and technology is not linear. That is to say, a reduction in available resources does not equal a proportional reduction in scientific progress and technological capacity. Rather, the Western scientific-industrial world order is susceptible to systemic collapse.
Since political legitimacy is directly linked to material conditions in this belief system, there is a tremendous pressure to consume resources in order to maintain peace and order in the heartlands of secularism. If executing heretics was the price of maintaining stability in medieval Europe, the destruction of indigenous communities and environmental devastation is the price of maintaining stability under the secular world order.
Technological methods of resource extraction result in a significant “debt” of deferred consequences. For example, heavy use of antibiotics in industrialized meat production not only increases the antibiotic resistance of bacteria, it also makes bacteria more aggressive and virulent. At the same time, antibiotics reduce natural immunity, meaning there is a wave of plague waiting to be unleashed upon humanity in the event that antibiotic production ever shuts down.
Genetically modified crops, engineered pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers result in higher crop yields, but they have also left crops with almost no natural resistance to diseases. Agriculture is now dependent on a far more limited variety of crops than in the past, meaning there is an acute danger of catastrophic crop failures as soon if access to the chemical inputs of industrial agriculture is interrupted.
Likewise, the injustices involved with developing this secular-scientific regime continue to mount. The concentration of wealth necessary for maintaining extensive research and development infrastructure is dependent upon international borders which function as a sort of international apartheid, and which enable extraction of wealth from former colonies and transferring it to the centers of technological development and production.
Wealth inequality is now greater than ever, driven by the total domination of society by riba. Zakat, which has the opposite effect of riba in terms of distributing wealth and preventing excessive concentration of wealth, is no longer enforced by law, but is understood as a personal choice for a few practicing Muslims. Injustice drives social tension, and social tension results in mounting instability. This instability threatens to break out into open conflict, and this conflict is only held back by advanced military, law enforcement and surveillance technology.
All of these factors, along with many others, threaten to erupt in plague, famine, and war. If the production and maintenance of medical technology breaks down, it will lead to the outbreak of epidemics. If the production and maintenance of agricultural technology breaks down, it will lead to famines. If the production and maintenance of military and law enforcement technology breaks down, it will lead to violence and criminality.
Every one of these crises will intensify all of the others by disrupting technological production and maintenance networks. Scientific secularism as a governing paradigm has set itself up to fail spectacularly. And when it does, what will the organizing principle of society be?
I suspect there will be no choice but to return to executing heretics in order to preserve the social order, because this will be preferable to the alternative of total anarchy. In Europe, the rise of Christian ethnic nationalism indicates that this shift is already beginning.
The suspension of the rights of Muslims following the destruction of the towers of New York may also indicate the beginning of this trend. For most of the history of Christendom, being a Muslim in a Christian country was regarded as a heresy punishable by death. As the secular, technological world order disintegrates and alternate methods of maintaining social order continue to gain popularity, it is likely we will see a return to a similar situation.Truly practicing Muslims are already heretics even within the secular order, because we do not accept the idea that scientific truth is the highest ideal. If a Muslim genuinely insists that the Quran and sunnah, rather than Western science, be the basis of the law and political legitimacy, and they actually make moves to establish sharia as the governing principle of society, they are persecuted, imprisoned, or killed, as was the case with Muslims in medieval Europe.
Proponents of the secular-scientific world order try to claim that it is more peaceful than other systems such as Christian feudalism, but this is not the case. There are still public executions of those who refuse to submit to this system, but they are carried out by high technology like drones and guided missiles and broadcast by the international media, rather than being carried out in the public square in front of the church. -
The Concept of the Jama’ah
The concept of the jama’ah is very difficult and understudied, but it has a lot of relevance for our present situation. Part of the reason this concept is neglected in modern Islamic discourse may be due to the depoliticization programs currently affecting Islamic curriculum worldwide. The concept is central to Islamic political thought, however, so deserves close attention.
قَالَ النَّبِيُّ صلى الله عليه وسلم ” وَأَنَا آمُرُكُمْ بِخَمْسٍ اللَّهُ أَمَرَنِي بِهِنَّ السَّمْعُ وَالطَّاعَةُ وَالْجِهَادُ وَالْهِجْرَةُ وَالْجَمَاعَةُ فَإِنَّهُ مَنْ فَارَقَ الْجَمَاعَةَ قِيدَ شِبْرٍ فَقَدْ خَلَعَ رِبْقَةَ الإِسْلاَمِ مِنْ عُنُقِهِ إِلاَّ أَنْ يَرْجِعَ وَمَنِ ادَّعَى دَعْوَى الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ فَإِنَّهُ مِنْ جُثَا جَهَنَّمَ ” . فَقَالَ رَجُلٌ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ وَإِنْ صَلَّى وَصَامَ قَالَ ” وَإِنْ صَلَّى وَصَامَ فَادْعُوا بِدَعْوَى اللَّهِ الَّذِي سَمَّاكُمُ الْمُسْلِمِينَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ عِبَادَ اللَّهِ ” . هَذَا حَدِيثٌ حَسَنٌ صَحِيحٌ غَرِيبٌ . قَالَ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ إِسْمَاعِيلَ الْحَارِثُ الأَشْعَرِيُّ لَهُ صُحْبَةٌ وَلَهُ غَيْرُ هَذَا الْحَدِيثِ .
The Prophet (ﷺ) said: “And I command you with five that Allah commanded me: Listening and obeying, Jihad, Hijrah, and the Jama’ah. For indeed whoever parts from the Jama’ah the measure of a hand-span, then he has cast off the yoke of Islam from his neck, unless he returns. And whoever calls with the call of Jahiliyyah then he is from the coals of Hell.” A man said: “O Messenger of Allah! Even if he performs Salat and fasts?” So he (ﷺ) said: “Even if he performs Salat and fasts. So call with the call that Allah named you with: Muslims, believers, worshipers of Allah.”
Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2863These elements are integral to Islam, as articulated by Umar ibn al
Khattab, radhi Allahu anhu.لا ِإسلام ِإلا بجماعة ولا جماعة ِإلا بِإمارة ولا ِإمارة ِإلا
بسمع وطاعة“There is no Islam without unity (jama’ah), no jama’ah without leadership, and no leadership without obedience.”
Sunan ad-Darami, 251Listening, obeying, hijra, jihad, and the jama’ah are all interconnected. Listening and obeying are formalized by the bay’ah. This is how the first Islamic state was formed, when the Ansar gave bay’ah to Rasulullah ﷺ at al-‘Aqabah. Once the state was formed, it was strengthened by means of hijra and expanded and preserved by means of jihad.
Listening and obeying preserves the unity of the jama’ah, and the unity of the jama’ah is the loyalty and support necessary for success in jihad. Hijra strengthens the jama’ah not only by increasing the numbers of the Muslims, but also by building bonds across tribes, so that the identity of the community remains firmly based in faith rather than tribalism or factionalism.
So the issue of jama’ah is very fundamental, such that Islam itself depends on it. Jama’ah is important enough that Rasulullah ﷺ also gave specific instructions on what to do in its absence.حَدَّثَنَا يَحْيَى بْنُ مُوسَى، حَدَّثَنَا الْوَلِيدُ، قَالَ حَدَّثَنِي ابْنُ جَابِرٍ، قَالَ حَدَّثَنِي بُسْرُ بْنُ عُبَيْدِ اللَّهِ الْحَضْرَمِيُّ، قَالَ حَدَّثَنِي أَبُو إِدْرِيسَ الْخَوْلاَنِيُّ، أَنَّهُ سَمِعَ حُذَيْفَةَ بْنَ الْيَمَانِ، يَقُولُ كَانَ النَّاسُ يَسْأَلُونَ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم عَنِ الْخَيْرِ، وَكُنْتُ أَسْأَلُهُ عَنِ الشَّرِّ مَخَافَةَ أَنْ يُدْرِكَنِي. فَقُلْتُ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ إِنَّا كُنَّا فِي جَاهِلِيَّةٍ وَشَرٍّ، فَجَاءَنَا اللَّهُ بِهَذَا الْخَيْرِ، فَهَلْ بَعْدَ هَذَا الْخَيْرِ مِنْ شَرٍّ قَالَ ” نَعَمْ ”. قُلْتُ وَهَلْ بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ الشَّرِّ مِنْ خَيْرٍ قَالَ ” نَعَمْ، وَفِيهِ دَخَنٌ ”. قُلْتُ وَمَا دَخَنُهُ قَالَ ” قَوْمٌ يَهْدُونَ بِغَيْرِ هَدْيِي تَعْرِفُ مِنْهُمْ وَتُنْكِرُ ”. قُلْتُ فَهَلْ بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ الْخَيْرِ مِنْ شَرٍّ قَالَ ” نَعَمْ دُعَاةٌ إِلَى أَبْوَابِ جَهَنَّمَ، مَنْ أَجَابَهُمْ إِلَيْهَا قَذَفُوهُ فِيهَا ”. قُلْتُ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صِفْهُمْ لَنَا فَقَالَ ” هُمْ مِنْ جِلْدَتِنَا، وَيَتَكَلَّمُونَ بِأَلْسِنَتِنَا ” قُلْتُ فَمَا تَأْمُرُنِي إِنْ أَدْرَكَنِي ذَلِكَ قَالَ ” تَلْزَمُ جَمَاعَةَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ وَإِمَامَهُمْ ”. قُلْتُ فَإِنْ لَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُمْ جَمَاعَةٌ وَلاَ إِمَامٌ قَالَ ” فَاعْتَزِلْ تِلْكَ الْفِرَقَ كُلَّهَا، وَلَوْ أَنْ تَعَضَّ بِأَصْلِ شَجَرَةٍ حَتَّى يُدْرِكَكَ الْمَوْتُ وَأَنْتَ عَلَى ذَلِكَ ”.
The people used to ask Allah’s Messenger ﷺ about good, but I used to ask him about evil for fear that it might overtake me. Once I said, “O Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ)! We were in ignorance and in evil and Allah has bestowed upon us the present good; will there by any evil after this good?” He said, “Yes.” I asked, “Will there be good after that evil?” He said, “Yes, but it would be tained with Dakhan (i.e. Little evil).” I asked, “What will its Dakhan be?” He said, “There will be some people who will lead (people) according to principles other than my tradition. You will see their actions and disapprove of them.” I said, “Will there by any evil after that good?” He said, “Yes, there will be some people who will invite others to the doors of Hell, and whoever accepts their invitation to it will be thrown in it (by them).” I said, “O Allah’s Messenger ﷺ! Describe those people to us.” He said, “They will belong to us and speak our language” I asked, “What do you order me to do if such a thing should take place in my life?” He said, “Adhere to the group of Muslims and their Chief.” I asked, “If there is neither a group (of Muslims) nor a chief (what shall I do)?” He said, “Keep away from all those different sects, even if you had to bite (i.e. eat) the root of a tree, till you meet Allah while you are still in that state.”
Sahih al-Bukhari 3606This leaves the question if there is no imam and no jama’ah, how are they reestablished? There are two approaches here.
The first holds that leadership can only be established with the consent of the majority of the leaders of the Muslims. Since the Muslim lands are currently in a state of occupation, it is not possible to hold assemblies to choose a leader. First, the Muslim lands must be liberated, and the capacity to select leadership must be established.
Another view holds that it is not necessary to consult a majority of the people of authority, but rather it is sufficient to consult those who are present. This view was formulated at a time where khilafa was established as a system, and usually the leader was selected in the same administrative capital where the previous leader had died.
So the logic of this view is that anyone who is able to appoint a khalifa, regardless of their ability to consult with the rest of the ummah, becomes a legitimate leader, as long as they consult with those present in a given area. This view can be justified by the notion that it is from the sunnah for the Muslim community to unite under a single spiritual and political leader, and that it is necessary to return to the sunnah as a precondition to victory.
While there are many conditions for the appointment of a khalifa, it seems that there are very few, if any, for the establishment of a khilafa. However, the political body of the Muslims is only one of the meaning of the jama’ah as understood by the scholars of Islam. It may also refer to the righteous scholars of the ummah, or the main body of the Muslims, whether or not they are united in a single political entity. Furthermore, it can also refer to the first generation of the Muslims.
The hadith of Hudhaifa bin Yaman, radhi Allahu anhu, indicates that the jama’ah, in the context of leadership, refers to a unified polity of the Muslims, because of the possibility of there being no jama’ah. This is also the meaning intended in the statement of Umar, radhi Allahu anhu, about the nature of Islam. This doesn’t mean it’s the only possible meaning of the jama’ah, but it’s certainly a very important meaning which is integral to Islam -
Projecting an Illusion of Moral Superiority
One of the greatest afflictions upon the ummah today is amazement with the technological developments of the past few centuries. The claim to moral superiority of the kuffar depends on belief in the inherent value of their technology. Thus, to maintain a position of political dominance, they must cultivate the idea that improvements in certain metrics like nutrition and the incidence of infectious diseases represent moral advancement.
Individualism is core to this deception. Modern technology was developed with unimaginable quantities of theft, murder, and injustice, but since this was done by their ancestors, we are meant to excuse the tribes and nations that committed these crimes. That is, it was their cruel ancestors that secured wealth and power for them, and now that peace and civility are mandated by law (ensuring no one can take power from them) they accept tribal inheritance while denying tribal debts.
Furthermore, the technology itself causes a lot of ecological and social problems, amassing a large ecological “debt” that has to be paid at some point in the future when synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, antibiotics, and economic inequality finally explode into famine, plague and war. The idea that this inevitable reckoning is avoidable allows them to continue their spreading of corruption for a little bit longer, by offering false promises that there can be an escape from Allah’s judgment.
For example, I once spoke with a practicing Christian in Germany on this topic. He told me that he understands very well that the actions of the West will cause a huge amount of destruction and suffering on the earth in the future. But he told me that he expected that he would die before the problems got really bad, so it wouldn’t be his problem.
They believe that Jesus died for their sins, so they think that everything will be forgiven, and they can destroy the earth for their own enjoyment and escape the consequences for it by dying. This is the doctrine of “salvation by faith alone.” This principle emphasizes belief, while de-emphasizing actions. This is not the logic of every Christian individual, but it is the logic of their civilization.
By contrast, in the Quran, Allah, subhanahu wa t’ala, repeatedly describes those who are rightly guides as “those who believe and work righteousness.” A balance exists between faith and actions, and it is understood that we will be held accountable for all of our actions. It’s horrific to see Muslims trading the religion of Allah for the evil lie that salvation and morality can be found in technology, which is a notion originating from Christian beliefs. It’s sad in particular to see the Gulf Arabs believing that technology can be a source of honor, when in reality they are simply humiliating themselves.
It is humiliation, because they are ridiculed by the entire world for squandering their wealth. It is humiliation because in many cases, Western contractors working in the Gulf deceive the Arabs into overpaying for technology, or to purchase technology they don’t really need. And most of all, it is humiliation because they are not able to independently manufacture, maintain or operate the technology, which forces them into a cycle of ever deeper dependence on Judeo-Christian civilization.عَنْ طَارِقِ بْنِ شِهَابٍ قَالَ عُمَرُ بْنُ الْخَطَّابِ رضي الله عنه إِنَّا كُنَّا أَذَلَّ قَوْمٍ فَأَعَزَّنَا اللَّهُ بِالْإِسْلَامِ فَمَهْمَا نَطْلُبُ الْعِزَّةَ بِغَيْرِ مَا أَعَزَّنَا اللَّهُ بِهِ أَذَلَّنَا اللَّهُ
Tariq ibn Shihab reported that Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “Verily, we were a disgraceful people and Allah honored us with Islam. If we seek honor from anything besides that with which Allah honored us, Allah will disgrace us.”
Al-Mustadrak, 214Anyone from among the Muslims who thinks they can achieve honor from something other than Islam will be bitterly disappointed in this life and the akhira. This is why it is so important to dispel this illusion. There may be some who willfully accept this deception in order to enjoy the dunya for a time, but it seems a large number of sincere Muslims are also duped by this deception, which is why it deserves more attention.
Ya Ummati 