By Sayed Jamaludeen Al-Afghani (1838-1897)
In this section Afghani studies the causes of the rise and fall of certain nations. According to him there were three beliefs and three qualities which formed the basis of the progress of a nation. The thee beliefs are: man is the noblest among God's creation, his is the noblest nation, and man has been created with the purpose of attaining the highest peaks of perfection. The three qualities are: modesty, trust and sincerity. On the other hand, the decay of the nations was the result of the corruption of these essential beliefs and qualities caused by the teachings of the naturalists.
Greece
Afghani states that by virtue of possessing these beliefs and qualities the Greeks remained unified against the mighty Persian Empire, conquered it and then attacked India. The quality of trust was so deep in their character that they preferred death to treachery. For instance, Themistocles, despite his distinguished services in the conquest of Persia, was expelled from Greece by his own countrymen on charges of high treason, and had to take refuge in Persia. However, when he was ordered by Artaxerxes to command Persian army against Greece, he committed suicide instead of acting as a traitor to his motherland.
The decau of Greece started with the appearance of the naturalist Epicurus and his followers. They rejected belief in God and declared that man is his vanity and pride supposes that the universe is created for his worthless being and that he is the primary cause of the universe and the noblest of all beings. Under the influence of his greed, selfish desires and fancies, man has started believing in the life hereafter, and for this reason, contrary to his own nature, he has bound himself in numerous bonds, taken upon himself many hardships and sufferings and has deprived himself of all natural pleasures and luxuries.
The Epicurean philosphers held that, in fact, man is even inferior to animals. He has learnt all arts and crafts by imitating other animals and insects. For instance, he has learnt weaving from the spider, building houses from the bee, raising mansions from the ant, storing food provisions from the tiny ant and music from nightingale. There is no future life and, therefore, it is pointless to go through sufferings and difficulties. Man should not deprive himself of pleasures by going against nature. The terms "prohibited" or "unprohibited" and "right" or "wrong" are meaningless. Modesty (haya) indicates weakness of soul and should be disposed of. Man should break himself free from all bonds of habits and customs until he can commit without any hesitation actions which are generally regarded by society as base. Men have equal share in property and wealth. Afghani believed that with the popularization of these Epicurean principles among the Greeks, reason and wisdom were gradually replaced by fallacies, sciences and philosophies decayed, morals were corrupted and all virtues gave way to vices. Consequently, the Greeks lost their empire to the Romans and were forced to lead a life of slavery and baseness.
Muslims, do we see any similarity to what happened to the Greeks as a result of atheist and materialistic ideologies and what happened to Muslim countries after the introduction of these atheistic, communism ideology, naturalistic and materialism?
The Persians by practising the six essential beliefs and qualities enjoyed the highest happiness. They had such deep faith in honesty and truth that they did not borrow money, lest, pressed by circumstances, they might be forced to tell lies and whenever any weakness appeared, it was subdued by the force of the essential beliefs and qualities. Such a state of affairs continued till the reign of Kobad, when Mazdak, the naturalist, appeared as the "Remover of Tyranny" and "Controller of Oppression". His teachings, however, resulted in the uprooting of the very foundations of Persia's good fortunes.
Mazdak held that all principles and customs formulated by man are based upon tyranny, oppression and falsehood. The sacred system of natural law is not rejected as impracticable yet; it is still inviolable and persists in the animal world. Nature is nobler than reason and gives men equal rights with regard to food, drinks and women. One should not deprive oneself of sensuous pleasures even with ones own sister, mother or daughter. Since all wealth and goods are common property of human beings, one should not prevent others from drawing pleasure from a woman by taking her into marriage. It is the duty of a man to reject all principles and customs formulated by the deficient human reason. He should, by virtue of the sacred law of nature, claim any chattel or women he desires and force the usurpers to abandon their oppressive activities. Afghani remarks that as a result of the spread of such corrupt teachings, vices of every kind crept into the Persian society. Although Nausherwan had Mazdak and his followers executed, he ws not able to eradicate the influence of their teachings completely. Besides, it was due to this moral degeneration that the Persians could not sustain a single attack of the Arabs, while their neighbours, the Romans, stood up against the Arabs for quite a long time.
Afghani then expresses his views about the naturalists who appeared in Islam and were the cause of its degeneration. He says that it was by virtue of the essential beliefs and qualities that the muslims gained political power and got several thousand non-muslims converted to Islam, but with the appearance of the naturalist thinking in Egypt in the fourth century of Hijra Islam began to show signs of decay.
It was started by the Baatinis who propagated their ideas throughout the muslim world, especially in Persia. Their method was as follows: in the first place they created doubts in people's minds about their beliefs and then made them take a pledge of faith in the Baatini beliefs and, lastly, they carried them to their supreme leader. They believed that anyone who preach their ideology, should always behave hypocritically towards the heads of the islamic state and should be capable of forming his own opinions (that is, without following the religious authorities).
The first principle which was taught to a convert to this school was that the external religious duties (a'mal-i-zahiriya) were meant only for those who had not yet gained access to the truth, or, in other words, acquired true and perfect spiritual leader (see the similarity with Sufism and their tariqa's). Thus, with a true guide, one did not need to observe external duties. In fact, all physical and spiritual duties, beliefs and laws are meant for imperfect and deficient individuals.
Once a man achieves perfection he should free himself from all such bonds and follow ibahat. Similarly, the terms "prohibited" or "unprohibited", trust (amanat) or mistrust (khiyanat), truth (sidq) or untruth (kidhb), virtues (fada'il), or vices (raza'il) have no meaning. The Baatiniya also sought to deny faith in the unity of God and strenghten naturalism by holding that if God exists He should resemble other existent beings. Since God is above all such anthropomorphic expressions, He is neither existent nor non-existent.
Thus, Afghani pointed out that they taught to believe in "the name", while denied "one who is named". For a long time the Baatiniya were busy in their clandestine activities of corrupting the morals of the muslims until at last the Ulama and the political leaders perceived the danger and resisted it. The naturalists, aware of the strength of this resistance, went even to the extent of shedding the blood of thousands of Ulama and of the reformers and political leaders.
One such naturalist declared at Alamout that the Day of Judgement implied the establishment of justice and, since he himself was the incarnation of justice (Qa'im Haq), religious duties were no more to be performed and all were free to act according to their desires. In short, they invited the muslims to all kinds of vices and false beliefs and by preaching anthropomorphic doctrines sought to eradicate faith in God which is the basis of human happiness.
Afghani remarks that as a result of these teachings the muslims degenerated and became weak. It was for this reason that the Tartars, the Turks and the Mongols (also later on the Rafida Shia's, the Crusaders and the Zionist-Crusader Alliance) were able to march into their territories, plunder cities, and massacre thousands of Muslims. However, thanks to the deep-rooted Islamic beliefs and morals which were not completely erased from the minds of the muslims, they succeeded in liberating Syria from the domination of the Tartars, who were themselves converted to Islam later. Yet, the muslims could not completely overcome the weaknesses that had been caused by the teachings of the naturalists in the islamic society and regain their earlier grandeur and power.
Afghani points out that usually the historians describe the Crusades as the starting point of decay of muslim power. He suggests that it would be more correct to trace it back to the propagation of the ideology and thought of the naturalists, which had weakened islam and divided the muslim community into several sects. Afghani states that the Babis who appeared in Iran in his days and had shed the blood of thousands of innocent men, were no other than the followers of the naturalists of Alamout. Their teachinds were similar to those of the Baatiniya.
The French were distinguished for their sciences and culture and no European nation was equal to them except the Greeks. This was also due to their following the above mentioned six essential principles. Their decline, however, started in the 18th century when the naturalists, like Voltaire (1694-1778) and Rousseau (1712-1778) revived Epicureanism. They rejected all laws, supported ibahat and ishtirak, described social customs and manners as useless, condemned religion as the invention of human ignorance, rejected belief in God, and insulted the prophets.
These blasphemies influenced the French mind so deeply that they abondoned their own Christian faith and morality. The influence of the false naturalist teachings of Voltaire and Rousseau was apparant in the French Revolution. They corrupted the morals of the French people and divided them into different sects. Gradually, each group followed its own methods of satisfying personal desires and achieving pleasure and completely ignored common good.
As a result, the French could not exercise any healthy influence on either the East or the West and, although Napoleon I tried to reinstate the Christian faith, the influence of such teachings could not be erased completely nor could the differences of the various schools of thought be bridged up. These were also the causes of the defeat of the French at the hands of the Germans. Moreover, there appeared at this time another group who preached in socialism and their ideology was as harmful to the French as the Gernmans were to them. Had the peoples of good faith and morals not resisted these teachings, the naturalists, in order to achieve their aims, would have almost destroyed France.
The Ottomans
The decline nof the Ottomans was also due to the popularization of the ideas of the naturalists among some of their nobles and leaders. Afghani believed that the soldiers who proved traitors during the last Ottoman was (with Russia in 1872) were also the followers of naturalism and claimed for themselves the nomenclature, "peoples of modern thought" (It is amazing that these kinds of people even in our time in the 21st century call themselves with similar names and titles, like moderates, enlightened people, modernists, liberals).
The Socialists, Communists and Nihilists
Afghani includes the socialists, the communists and the nihilists in the same category of naturalists. They all claimed to to be the friends of the poor and the down-trodden. Although each one of these schools expressed its view in its own peculiar way, yet they shared certain common principles and beliefs: they ignored all human distinctions and, in the manner of the Mazdak, allowed all to share everything; all mundane pleasures and comforts were the gifts of Nature; the greatest hinderance in the propagation of the sacred laws of Nature, namely, ibahat and ishtirak, were religion and state, and hence, these two institutions should be destroyed forthwith.
Finding educational institutions the most effective medium for the propagation of their ideas, some of them adopted the teaching profession in European schools, and converted large numbers of people to their own views and ideologies. They were especially successful in Russia. Afghani warned that if the three schools of thought cited above gained strength, they would prove very dangerous to mankind (it is amazing how he predicted what would happen if these teachings would be implemented at the political level, see what happened in the Soviet Union, Europe and Afghanistan as a result of these teachings!). Among the upholders of naturalism Afghani names Mormons who formed two separate societies for men and women in America and declared that all men had full rights over all women.
Afghani states that the materialists or the naturalists have appeared in different communities in different disguises and under different names. Sometimes they described themselves as philosophers, destroyers of tyranny and oppression, knowers of truth, and peoples of secret knowledge (sufi's and esotheriscs, gnostics), and others claimed that their mission was to remove superstition and to enlighten humanity. Again, like all false prophets of the past they also claimed prophethood for themselves. However, mankind protected its morals and society from corruption by virtue of the essential beliefs and qualities bestowed upon it by religions (but in today's world these same people have come now under the cloak of human rights, democracy, rule of law, equality of the genders, liberation of the women, feminism, secularism, liberalism, free market ideology etc., now we really live in the time of Dajjal, because they have deceived a lot of people in believing those falsehoods and they have implemented man-made laws everywhere and removed religion totally from society and politics, actually most of these people nowadays don't even believe in God).
Criticizing the communist theories of social justice and economic equality, Afghani points out that the needs of human society are dependent upon certain arts and crafts, which are different from each other in their being noble or ignoble and difficult or easy to perform. However, the aim of the materialists is that all human beings, without any distinction whatsoever should have common rights over all pleasures and no individual should enjoy any special rights or prerogatives over another individual and there should be complete equality among human beings. If this principle is accepted, then each individual would refrain from ignoble and hard work (that is, professions) and, consequently, social-life would be ruined and the machinery of mutual transactions and co-operation would come to a standstill. Afghani felt that if this impracticable principle was at all accepted and men succeeded in providing comforts for all, it will result in human society losing all charm, material and spiritual achievements, sciences and industries. For, Afghani argued, the real basis of all human achievements was the love of distinction without which human soul would cease to rise upwards and human intellect would refrain from probing into the realities of life and from solving intricate problems.
Discussing the evils of naturalist teachings Afghani states that since they denied life after death, self-love dominated all activities of the naturalists. Self-love allows to sacrifice universal good for one's own particular good, which means that one can sell one's nation for personal benefits (this is exactly what many communists and false-mujahideen did in Afghanistan). Afghani states that the materialists adopted different methods of propagating their views. In times of peace they did their work openly, while in times of fear and suppression they adopted secret means. They posed as men of letters, friends of the community and well-wishers of the nation (Khalq and Parcham in Afghanistan did exactly this).
On the one hand, they are hand in glove with the thieves, and on the other, they call themselves fellow travellers in the caravan (of Islam). They aim at uprooting the very foundations of the nation and destroy its unity for their own bread (inter-ethnic violence and tribal and language disunity). Afghani holds that besides corrupting the morals of the people, they lead nations towards slavery and misery (now most of the muslims countries have become slaves of the west and their people are among the poorest of all). Again, there are some who, without betraying their beliefs of ibahat and ishtirak, are content with the denial of God and the Day of Judgement.
Undoubtedly these teachings are themselves quite enough to destroy society and culture. Afghani comes to the conclusion that it is impossible to find a naturalist who is cultured and has good conduct. In his concluding remarks, Afghani firmly states that if a religion, howsoever false and the lowest among the religions it may be, is based upon the beliefs of God and of Reward and Punishment (which are commonly held by all religions), it is superior to materialism (naturalism, secularism, atheism, communism) in respect of culture, society, administration and all other human organisations and achievements….
Of all the religions Islam is most capable of ennobling men's souls and leading them to happiness.
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