The Da’wah To Islam by Sheikh Ahmad Mahmoud

The West is built on the idea of the separation of the deen from life.

According to this idea or basis, The West banished every effect of the deen from the people’s lives. Its concepts about life began to be judged by this basis. In accordance with this, westerners developed thoughts from this basis, of the same type as this fundamental thought. Thus, the idea of Democracy made man the master over himself instead of making that mastery for Allah 􀀬. Thus, the idea of benefit became the criterion for their actions, and their definition of happiness became to attain the greatest amount of pleasure possible. It was the idea of sanctification of the individual, which led to the idea of sanctification of freedoms. The West established a society based on these thoughts, and at the same time, were opposed to any thought that contradicted it. The result of these thoughts was that the western people experienced misery, instead of the happiness they sought. This is natural, since man is deficient, thus is not able to legislate for himself or for others. The society in which selfishness prevails and freedoms dominate, such a society can only be animalistic, where the law of the jungle reigns supreme.

Then The West gave free reign to the mind. They went to discover and invent things, thus it made huge scientific and technological breakthroughs. It managed to get hold of the means of power that enabled it to dominate the world by the logic of power and not logic of truth. Then it started to impose itself on the world, first materially and then intellectually. In other words, after controlling the country, it used to establish rulers who would serve its interests and impose the systems that suited it. The media and education curricula were established to create propaganda for The West, its thought and its way of life. It tried to convince them that the reason for its power is its viewpoint about life.

Then it divided the world in a manner that suited its interests. So you have states that are industrialised, producers, powerful, dominant and colonialist, which The West describes as progressive and advanced. Other states are poor, consumers, weak and controlled, and The West calls them backward. It worked to concentrate this division, and prevented any change in the circumstances of these states or disagreement with the status quo.

Then it gave free reign to the freedoms in its country and made the people there enjoy political stability. It enabled the people to ensure their basic needs and enjoy some of the luxuries, in a disparate manner. At the same time it prohibited the poor countries from advancing, when it withheld science from them, which would provide them with the material power. It prevented them from establishing primary industries, so they stay in dire need of them. It imporverished such countries and made them a market for its goods. It deprived their people from having political stability and security. That is because the rich industrial nations struggled amongst themselves to colonise the poor nations. This struggle is no longer direct, where wars are declared on each other. Rather the struggle takes place by making the people fight amongst each other, or by initiating revolutions and disturbances in the country that it does not control. Thus the security and stability is disturbed, and hatred flares up between the people. Not to mention inciting racism, tribalism and nationalism amongst the people of a country themselves.

Likewise the western state has provided for its people social security such as medicine, education, unemployment benefit and pensions in old age, while people have been forbidden that in other nations.

It has also established, by way of diversifying its means of colonisation, world bodies such as the International Court of Justice, United Nations Security Council, World Bank and the Amnesty International. It established forces of different nationalities to intervene in stopping struggles taking place between other nations or to protect aid given to poor nations. It established organisations and bodies to intervene in a covert manner in the affairs of poor nations and to buy allegiance, such as Save The Children aid organisation and Medicins Sans Frontiers (doctors without frontiers).

Indeed, the idea of separating the deen from life and the notion of benefit, which arises from it, has led to the idea of colonisation in the west. However, this colonisation does not appear in its primitive image, as it was in the past. Rather, its thoughts, means and styles have developed and have become a hidden colonialism. On the surface it is a mercy, but inside it is torture. In this way, The West began to falsify the facts and appear as if it is the ideal example that the people should aspire to emulate, and it is the qiblah towards which the Muslims should turn their faces. There can be no greater deception and hypocrisy than to claim that the favour they have comes from Democracy and the idea of freedoms. They are the refuge and help to the one who wants to live in the like of their paradise. They, at the same time, concealed the true nature of colonialism; exploiting peoples and usurping their resources, impoverishing them, keeping them backwards technically and economically, and keeping them as a permanent market for its resources and trade, and the reason of its control over the world. The story of The West and its colonialism is long; we just mentioned a brief account of it that benefits our discussion.

Yes, The West has twisted the facts, turned matters upside down and obscured the true perception of people with things that they wanted them to see. So false general thoughts have been established in life, in which the concept of might is right, is prevalent. This slogan is based on the principle: ‘the argument of the strong is strong and the argument of the weak is weak.’ The role of the ideological group or party comes here, to return matters to their original state, correct the viewpoint and stop the deception. If the group is affected by this reality, then it will lose the correct perception and it will propose the solutions its enemies are proposing. However, if it reached the true understanding of the reality and referred to the Shar’eeah in the correct manner in order to find the solution, then it will bring the true solution to the people, and become able to take the people away from the injustice of the western thought to the justice of Islam.

From this introduction, we can see that the reason The West has the sole power is because it gave complete freedom to the intellect in science and technology, whilst at the same time it prevented other peoples from possessing the means of material power. Indeed, the excessive wealth that they have is due to colonialism, spilling the blood of different peoples, and the plundering of their resources; it is not due to Democracy.

As for what Democracy is and what the results of its implementation; that is another story.

The idea of ‘separating religion from life’ came about in The West after the suffering that was caused by the Church’s interference in life’s affairs of people. The interference took place in the name of religion, though their religion was actually innocent of this. This is because in the Christian religion, there is no legislation for worldly matters. The clergy, in the name of religion, were legislating oppressive laws that led to certain reactions; the first reaction was to reject religion altogether. The other reaction was to recognize the religion, but that it had to be separated from life. On the basis of the first idea, thoughts were established that gave rise to regimes known as the Socialist States, which collapsed after some decades had passed and the people had suffered under their implementation. On the basis of the second idea, thoughts were established that gave rise to regimes known as the Capitalist States, which are on the way to ruin. This is indicated by the thought and the reality.

The idea of ‘separating religion from life’ has given man the right to legislate and prevented religion from having that right. Though they recognize the existence of God they turned it into an individual notion that has nothing to do with society and has no effect on it. For them, there is nothing wrong if the deity is Allah, Jesus, Buddha or any other person. There is nothing wrong with having a belief that is not from any religion. But all the time man is the only one who manages the affairs.

For them, this idea is not open to negotiation or interpretation. Man in their view is the one who manages his affairs, administers them and organizes the satisfaction of his instincts. It was owing to this that the idea of Democracy was born, an idea which means, ‘the rule of the people, by the people and for the people.’ ‘The rule of the people’ means the people are their own masters, i.e.

they are the ones who enact laws i.e. they are the ones who legislate.

‘By the people’ means that people are the ones who rule by what they have legislated.

And ‘for the people’ means that it is the people who are ruled by what they have legislated.

This, in their view translates into three authorities.

1 - The legislative authority. It is the authority that legislates laws and canons, amends them, abolishes them and monitors their execution.

2 - The executive authority. It is the body that executes the general law or the general will of the people and the laws legislated by the legislative authority.

3 - The judicial authority. It is the body that judges everything presented before it according to the laws and canons issued by the legislative authority.

These are the fundamental characteristics of Democracy. It is possible to say that every system that distinguishes itself by these basic attributes is a democratic system. Any system that lacks a single attribute from these is not called a democratic system. The most prominent of these characteristics is the concept of the sovereignty of people. It is considered the primary support of the democratic thought and backbone of the democratic systems.

So, is there Democracy in Islam? Is this reality of Democracy present in Islam? If this reality of Democracy is present in Islam, then we can say that ‘Democracy is from Islam’ and ‘the Righteous Khulafah were the first to apply Democracy’ and that ‘Democracy is our lost property, which has been returned to us.’ If this reality is not present, then it is not from Islam at all. Consequently we must know Islam’s opinion regarding Democracy.

Indeed, the idea of Democracy is one that is in harmony with the idea of its basis, which is the separation of religion from life. It is born from it, and it takes the same rule. This is because it is a branch of a rejected basis, and the one who believes in it is considered a kaafir. It is known that the idea of separating religion from life contradicts the fundamental idea of the Muslims, which is ‘Laa ilaaha illallahu muhammadur rasoolullah.’ The idea that emanates from and is in harmony with the ‘Aqeedah of the Muslims is:

“Indeed, the Hukm is only for Allah. He has commanded that you worship none but Him, that is the (true) straight religion, but most men know not.” [TMQ 12:40].

His 􀀬 saying; “…but most men know not.”, means that there is no consideration for the majority’s opinion as regards the decision of the Lord of the Worlds, and that legislation should be only for Allah 􀀬. Thus, in the Islamic system the final word is for Allah 􀀬. The order, prohibition, allowing and forbidding is for the One Who is Most High, Most Great, the All- Knowing, All-Informed and NOT for any creation. No individual or group has the slightest share in legislation beside Allah 􀀬.

Allah is the only One Who gives judgment; “Indeed, the Hukm is only for Allah.” [TMQ 12:40]. No one has the right to put back Allah’s judgment; “And there is none to put back His Judgment.” [TMQ 13:41] So how can the dark night of Democracy be compared with the shining day of Islam? Allah 􀀬 states clearly in his explicit ayaat; “And if you obey most of those on earth, they will mislead you far away from Allah’s Path. They follow nothing but conjectures, and they do nothing but lie.” [TMQ 6:116]. He 􀀬 says; “…and it may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you and that you like a thing which is bad for you. Allah knows but you know not.” [TMQ 2:216].