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Often when discussing religion, one
hears the statement that none has the right to judge anyone else’s beliefs,
or that religion is a person’s private matter and we can not say that it is
wrong or right. Throughout history,
societies have based their laws and ethics upon “absolute truths” which
they deem to be “right”, and this is either a result of an exterior text
regarded as supreme, or of the trait found in the innate nature of humans
that causes them to see certain things as good and others as evil. Humans, to a limited scale, can see
certain things as good and evil. For
example, all humans, left to their natural state without perversion of the
mind, will see feces and urine as filthy.
Also, certain deeds, like stealing, killing and lying are also known
to be evil, while truth, sincerity, and honor are seen to be lofty. This is a result of a trait that was
created in all humans, but as mentioned above, this sense is limited.
If one says that they do not have
the right to judge other’s beliefs or actions, they are, in fact,
contradicting themselves. If you
were to ask many of these people whether killing infants or suicide is correct
and acceptable, they will naturally answer that it is not. But when we look into certain societies,
such as some religions found in Central America, infanticide was seen to be
a way to draw near to their gods.
Also today, in Hindu religion, it is praiseworthy for a wife to kill
herself after the death of her husband.
If they truly believe that religion is something left to the
individual and that none have the right to interfere or judge them, then
this would necessitate allowing that killing babies is something which is
correct to those who believe it is praiseworthy, and that people have no
right to judge them.
If we were to bring this issue to
an individual level, we would see that each person has their individual
perception of good and evil, whether this perception is based upon
religion, law, culture, or individual contemplation. One might believe that it is perfectly
acceptable to commit adultery while another might think it to be wrong. One might believe that it is permissible
for them to indulge in narcotics since it is their own body, and others
might believe it to be a crime. None
would be able to say that anything is right or wrong, and all people would
be left to their own devices to believe and practice what they perceive as
“correct.”
If we were to implement this belief
in society, we would have a community based upon anarchy, where no laws
could be legislated nor executed, for law is based upon the principle that
certain things are to be good and others are evil. If one were to say that there are certain
truths agreed to by all humans which can be used to legislate laws, this
statement is true to a certain limit, as we stated that all humans do
naturally have a trait to know right from wrong in a limited sense. But as seen, this trait many times
becomes perverted through environmental, psychological, or religious
factors, in that certain acts which were at one time seen as evil and
immoral are later seen as sound and acceptable, and some things which do
not accord to human nature are seen to be the keys to salvation. This can be clearly observed in
democratic societies which base their laws on the majority. We see that many things which were
considered to be outright absurd or immoral are now socially acceptable, to
the extent that if one holds a different opinion in regards to the issue,
they are seen as outcasts.
For this reason, humans cannot be
left to their own accords to legislate what is correct and incorrect. Even in societies of the same religion
which have instituted the separation of religion and state, although they
are in agreement to those things which they maintained from their religion,
they differ greatly in regards to what is deemed correct and incorrect in
their societies. What is considered
as the legal age of consent to sex in France is considered rape in
America. While abortion is legal in
one country, it is a crime in another, and when homosexuality is seen as a
valid way of life in one society, it is seen as a grave sin in another.
So if we now say that the truth is
absolute and one and is not relative to each individual and society, then
the next question is what are the morals which make truth manifest and who
is to decide them? What are the laws
which should be implemented in society?
Should they be decided by lawyers and judges who have reached a
level of “legal enlightenment”, politicians who usually make decisions for
their own benefit or the benefit of their own countries, or philosophers
which have come to know the universal truths through their own
contemplation? As seen earlier,
humans cannot be left to decide these issues, lest there be catastrophic
results, as seen today in many societies ridden with numerous ills. The only One who has the right to
legislate right and wrong is the One who created us and knows what is best
for us, and that is God Almighty. It
is God who created the world and it is God who set the scales of
justice. It is God who is perfect
and it is God who has no faults whatsoever.
Most of our discussion has dealt
with the issues of belief which deal with morality and deeds, but what is
even more important is those beliefs which deal with God, and this will be
discussed in the following article
Those who believe that the truth is
relative and that all beliefs are correct deem that it is not possible to
say that a person’s beliefs are wrong, because religion to them is a purely
individual belief. The falsehood of
this statement is quite apparent and we do not need to delve into great
detail to prove it. If one religion
believes that Jesus was a false prophet, another maintains he is God, and
yet another that he was a human specially chosen to be a prophet, how can
they all be true? Jesus, may the
mercy and blessings of God be upon him, must inevitably be one of the three
things mentioned above, and all three statements cannot be correct. Therefore, as only one of these
statements can be correct, whichever is established as true determines
that the others must then be
considered as false.
This does not, however, mean that a
person does not have the right to believe as they wish, as this is a right
that God has invested to all humans.
But at the same time, it does not mean that one must take the other
extreme and say that they are all correct, and that one does not have the
right to form a judgment about them.
Also, giving a person the right to believe what he wishes does not
necessitate that they have right to openly practice or publicize these
beliefs, for laws implemented in society always look at the effects of
actions at the greater societal level and whether those actions are
advantageous or harmful to the society at large.
From what we have discussed, we can
unequivocally come to the conclusion that all the religions found today in
the world are either all false, or that there exists one among them which
is the comprehensive Truth; for although various religions do contain
similarities, they also have fundamental differences.
If we were to say that no religion
in the world today is correct, then this would entail believing that God is
unjust because He left us to wander about on earth in sin and transgression
without showing us the right way to do things, and this is impossible for a
Just God. Therefore the only logical
conclusion is that there is One True Religion, which contains guidance in
all spheres of life, religious, moral, societal, and individual.
How do we know what this one true
religion is? It is upon each and
every human to investigate this matter.
Humans were created to fulfill a great purpose, not just to eat,
sleep and go about finding their daily sustenance and satiate their
desires. In order to fulfill this
purpose, one must try to find what their purpose is, and this can only be
done by investigation. If one
believes that there is a God, and that God must not have left humans to
wander in misguidance, then they must search for the religion and way of
life which God revealed. Furthermore,
this religion would not be hidden or hard for humans to find or understand,
for that would defeat the purpose of guidance. Also, the religion must contain the same
message throughout time, since we mentioned that everything returns to one
absolute truth. Also, this religion
cannot contain any falsities or contradictions, for falseness or
contradiction in one matter of the religion proves the falsity of the
religion as a whole, since we would then doubt the integrity of its texts.
There is no other religion which
fulfills the conditions mentioned above except for religion of Islam, the
religion which is accordance to human nature, the religion which has been
preached by all prophets since the dawn of man. Other religions found today, such as
Christianity and Judaism, are the remnants of the religion brought by the
prophets in their time, which was Islam. However, over time, they have been
altered and lost, and what is left today of these religions is a mix of
truth and falsehood. The only
religion which has been preserved and preaches the same message brought by
all prophets is the religion of Islam, the one true religion, which rules
all sphere’s of humans’ lives, religious, political, societal, and
individual, and it is upon all humans to investigate this religion, to
ascertain its truth, and to follow it.
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