No one with a sound mind would doubt the backwardness of the Arab and Islamic world! Therefore, we must search for the causes, There is no doubt about the great role that religion and the application of its teachings play in the lives of these backward peoples, The research has nothing to do with fighting religion or supporting it, but rather with the interest of humanity!
Some peoples are situated between a current that says that adhering to the application of the rulings of religion, especially the Muhammadan one, was the cause of backwardness, and a current that says that distancing oneself from the application of the rulings of religion is the cause of backwardness, So backwardness is linked to turning away from religion and failing to apply its laws and rulings, And whoever does not apply the rulings of religion, God punishes him in a terrible way and takes revenge on him in a barbaric and terrible way, a punishment and revenge that is not practiced by the most hardened criminals!!!
People are torn between the first and second currents, that is, between adhering to religion or distancing themselves from it,Man is attracted by the weight of modern secular human civilization, and on the other hand, he is attracted by the weight of a past barbarism, a conservative heritage preserved in a tightly sealed bottle of mysticism, Man of this region oscillates between the belief that no rule or concept is valid for all times and places, and a current that believes in the absolute validity of all times and places.
There is much strangeness in the thesis of the current that claims to be the true believer, valid for all times and places, What about the peoples who enjoy security but do not practice faith, who enjoy stability without blind imitation, and who rely on reason rather than tradition? These are societies deemed atheistic by the sheikhs, and it is considered disbelief to be associated with them because they are the offspring of Satan and his ilk, How can any rational person explain the phenomenon of Afghanistan and Somalia, and then the caliphate of Abu Bakr with its knives and swords? These rulers were both judge and executioner, and their rule was supposedly in the name of God, who rejects them and punishes them with the poverty that consumes them, the violence that kills them, and the ignorance that destroys them, Was God just, or was He conspiring with the Americans, Italians, Germans, and others who debate, criticize, develop, and respect differing opinions? Because the existence of differing opinions is the essence of creating a new and beneficial worldview, a worldview that does not allow for the birth of tyranny and dictatorship, This is what humankind learned from the Greco-Roman culture that replaced it,In this region there is the culture of the Saqifa of Bani Sa’ida, which has determined the prevailing understanding so far, politically and religiously, among the best of nations.
Comparison with other countries and peoples, such as Malaysia and Singapore, leads to the certainty that religion itself is not a party to the causes of backwardness, nor is it a party to the search for the causes of progress, With religion as the religion of the majority, some countries and peoples have progressed, while others have lagged behind until they were placed at the bottom of the nations, Religion as a practice of a personal relationship with the Creator does not advance the state and its society, nor does it hold it back, The personal relationship means withdrawal from the socio-political space with regard to religious belief, Religion has no relation to social life, that is, it has no relation to political life.
Using religion outside its sphere and outside its responsibilities and tasks, that is, projecting personal religion onto the general social situation, was and still is the essence of the problem that led to falling into the trap of backwardness, fighting, and ruin, which embodied the pre-Muhammadan era and continued with it in the form of devastating wars that began in the first pre-Islamic era before the Wars of Apostasy and did not end with Karbala, Despite that, things did not settle down, but rather became more complicated and catastrophic, so that these peoples today reach a state before complete extinction and a state of marginalization and isolation in the world, and thus exit from history, Whoever wants to remain in history must be a positive influence on its development, especially in fields that have no relation to wars and occupations, These wars, occupations, and invasions were a picture of the dark, negative face of the history of this region.
It is essential to learn from the lessons of history, and the need to learn requires acknowledging weakness, inadequacy, error, or defeat, Calling a defeat a setback does not transform it into a victory; it is merely adopting a pseudonym for something unnamed, The concept of a setback is a deception that diminishes the extent of personal responsibility and thus reduces the need to develop for the better, Adopting names does not indicate that the Arabs of setbacks have learned from history and benefited from its lessons, but rather indicates that ignorance, hypocrisy, and falsehood have occupied their minds!
The people of this region feel that they possess the absolute truth of divine, religious, and faith-based origin, and then rely on divine promises of certain victory, even if delayed, They are certain that God is with them because they believe in the true religion and faith, which is resistant to change, They believe that they are the elite chosen by God to spread His religion, and that God’s religion is Muhammadanism,In return, they must serve God and die for His sake, then obey and submit to Him and have absolute faith in Him and His powers, As a result, they have become prisoners of divine threats and warnings, Albert Einstein wrote, “I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creation, God, in short, is merely a reflection of human weakness and frailty, I cannot believe in the idea that the individual continues to live after the death of his body, although weak and frail souls hold such ideas through fear or foolish pride.”
No one with a sound mind would doubt the backwardness of the Arab and Islamic world! Therefore, we must search for the causes, There is no doubt about the great role that religion and the application of its teachings play in the lives of these backward peoples, The research has nothing to do with fighting religion or supporting it, but rather with the interest of humanity!