Ruin and decline are born from the convergence of several factors, some of which we will mention, The first is the absence of criticism that exposes the hidden rot and backwardness, which is perpetuated by some groups that have not yet turned into societies, Some members of society confronted the causes of ruin and decline, Among these, we mention Huda Shaarawi, Nawal El Saadawi, then Taha Hussein, Sadiq Jalal Al-Azm, Farag Foda, Antoun Saadeh, Muhammad Arkoun, Al-Afif Al-Akhdar, and many others, In contrast, there were attempts to kill criticism and critics, especially from the ranks of dictatorships and religious men.
There is no escaping the practice of criticism, which was one of the main reasons for the European Renaissance, Criticism is not limited to religious, political, and social thought in general, but includes the details of religious, political, and social thought, such as polygamy, which we find in 30% of marriages in the Damascus countryside, then circumcision, which we see among 90% of Egyptian women so far, despite the strict penalties on those who practice circumcision, whether they are doctors, midwives, or others, then the tendency towards unification and sanctification, the rejection of difference, the imposition of homogeneity, and many others.
The methods of confronting these and other diseases vary, There are some unserious practices in criticism and analysis, such as intimidating people with the dangers of sedition and calling for avoiding it when trying to implement educational school changes, such as abolishing religious education, and then using the mentality of prohibition to avoid God’s wrath, and so on, Some parties practice a deceptive, veiled acceptance of the causes of religious decline in particular, and what these parties are doing is nothing but anesthetizing attempts, wanting to keep the swamp stagnant, In practice, they perpetuate the decline by keeping the deviance and stagnation as it is!
Serious, objective criticism puts the dots on the letters and practices scientific analysis, then suggests solutions when the critic is able to do so, The possibility of feeling the defect and decline is easier than the possibility of putting solutions to complex problems in a complex world. However, it is possible to practice some positive steps such as enlightenment in the narrow personal and social sphere, for example, in the family sphere, The task of enlightenment is to transcend the forbidden and the prohibited in the culture, and to confront the submission to the mentality of prohibition and taboos and the sanctification of evils and sins, represented by religious and political oppression and mythical, superstitious, and metaphysical illusions dedicated to backwardness and decline.
The prevailing irrationality now locally has led to decline and backwardness, which must be overcome, not perpetuated. The fear of the threat of sedition, with its pre-Islamic origins, which is considered an internal religious concept, invented to describe situations that do not exist in this era, must be overcome, For example, the case of Usman was sedition, Siffin and the Camel were sedition, The individual cannot have a great influence on it, but it is possible for the individual to reject slaughter, revenge, jihad, paradise, wars, and even to refuse to contribute to the activities of the Brotherhood fundamentalism, Solving major economic problems remains relatively difficult for individual action, A person may complain of poverty, but the individual is generally incapable of providing an effective solution to major economic problems.
Among the areas that individuals and parties can influence is the impact of destructive, mythical religious thought on the collective consciousness, past, present, and future. This thought is responsible for the persistent sense of defeat, manifested in superstitious practices in the political, social, and economic spheres, as well as in conspiracy theories and exaggerated claims of superiority, such as the individual’s belief that they belong to the best of nations! It is also possible for individuals to distance themselves from such charlatanry, as was the case with the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which could not transform this nation into the best of nations because its practices were far from virtue and close to vice, Therefore, it was abolished by the Saudi Crown Prince, Furthermore, what is the value of some people’s belief in possessing past glories that surpassed all imagination? Knowing that these people are aware of the forgery that occurred in this context, these are hypocrites who refuse to have what they did to others, such as conquests, done to them, Glory is not a verbal state but an objective one,Verbal glory is nothing but malicious chatter that kills the possibility of achieving real glory.
An individual can confront the political exploitation of religion in his personal sphere, and perhaps partially confront the spread of court preachers and the fear of the concept of the unknown based on ignorance, then the insistence on importing legislation, customs and values from the past and implanting them in the present, and the practice of violence, jihad and terrorism, and the emphasis on the necessity of the presence of God and his angels in every toilet, to ascertain how the believer enters, whether with the right or left foot, then that suspicious preoccupation and interest in the matter of marriage, and the prioritization of marriage for the benefits of Paradise, then the strengthening of religious imagination and other superstitions, which have captivated the minds of the simple and increased their ignorance and simplicity and other obstacles to life, fatalism and submission based on the fact that all decisions are in the hands of the Creator and the creature has no choice but to marry, eat, drink and sleep, so his decision is not in his hands and he has no choice but to obey, submit and surrender.
Freeing the mind from superstition is an individual act that any person, regardless of their circumstances, can accomplish. Any person, regardless of their circumstances, can be open to progress and development,A life of superstition is not obligatory, Whoever distances themselves from superstition saves the most precious thing they possess: their mind, Any individual can refuse to be complacent in many areas, that is, refuse to lag behind, because complacentness is a form of regression, In this era, any individual can eliminate the space of the sacred in their mind, or at least reduce it to a minimum, Allowing the sacred, absolutism, and deadly faith to seize control of one’s mind is mostly a personal choice, Any person can ask themselves: What does faith do to my mind? Does faith align with rationality? And has any nation progressed without rationality and with a great deal of faith?
