Liberate Islam from the dominance of tabooed masters

Having cleansed Islam from alien elements and entrusted it to the sole exclusivity of the Quran, we must liberate Islam from the dominance of tabooed masters. Unless this is achieved, we cannot expect a rapprochement between the Sunni, and the Alawi, the Shii and the Hanafi, the Shafi and so on...

33:67 “And they will Say: “Our Lord, we have obeyed our leaders and our learned ones, but they misled us from the path.”

The members of the Sunni branch of Islam must cease to dignify Abu Hanifa, Imam Shafi, Imam Maliki and Imam Hanbali. They must cease believing in such statements, as “Abu Hanifa was a great man; so great in fact that he had seen God in his dream 99 times.” Along with the aforementioned Imams, the traditionalists Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmizi, Abu Davud, etc. must clear the path that leads to the one truth, the truth of the Quran.

The Shiites must cease to declare: “Our Imams are innocent, they never err” and rid themselves from powers assignable to the Prophet and the Quran. They must cease to believe in the existence of a source outside the Quran and of a religious leader other than the Prophet. They should know that to be a descendant of the Prophet does not mean he has holiness.

The swerving from the straight path of Abraham’s father and of Lot’s wife is related in the Quran. Considering that someone related to a given prophet is liable to be doomed even during the lifetime of the prophet in question, ascribing superiority to a distant descendant of a prophet and, in so doing, being oblivious of the Book sent by God as a guide, a divine favor and a mercy is inconceivable.

16:89 “….And We have sent down to you the Scripture as a clarification for all things, and a guide and mercy and good tidings to those who have submitted.  

We must note that there is something that sects excel in: the skill of seeing through the faults of others. For instance, the Sunnis justifiably level criticism at the Shiites’ blind obedience to their imams, while they declare their own imams, Hanafi, Shafi, Hanbali and Maliki, blameless and forget that they live by their instructions rather than by the precepts of the Quran. While they perform a binding duty of the religion according to a given sect, the very act they perform quite often proves to be unlawful according to another sect, and while the religion sent by God is one and unique, the emerging result is a plurality of concepts and practices.

The eye that skillfully detects the idolization of imams happens to be blind at its similar practice; the eye seems to be unable to see itself. While it accuses the other of disagreement, it styles itself as the only accepted denomination. If you follow the sayings of particular individuals, what makes you different from your brother? The person whom we revere happens to be the wisest person, while the others are but separatists. What is the exact criterion according to which these people can be classified? Had you adopted the Quran as the only authority, you would not have sought other guides. Their controversies make them forget this truth.

The Quran, the revelation recited, contains all the messages that our Creator wanted us to know in the name of religion. It is God’s revelation that provides for every eventuality. Changes do occur in life, this is incontestable; but being able to provide for every probability is a miracle inherent in the structure of God’s revelation. This fact prevents the necessity of carrying out reforms.

There are two communities, however, that draw their powers from the prevailing pseudo-religion: the fanatic atheists and the staunch defenders of adulterated practices misnamed religion. While the latter strictly abides by the said adulterated practices, the former makes every effort to swerve the latter from the path of salvation, trying to level criticism at the prevailing practices as false reasoning.

On the other hand, the religious fanatic embraces his false convictions still more tightly, condemning those who remain outside their sphere, whom they style as wood for hell’s fire. Although their practices differ, both systems live on the same capital. These are the two main communities that are reluctant to return to the Quran.

The disbelievers  will go nowhere having been divested from the assets he would have used as means that would have enabled him to launch attacks on religion. The religious fanatic will be infuriated at having been stripped of his conventional trappings and will have recourse to the mechanisms of excommunication and hatred. We should not be surprised at the fact that the excommunicators are university professors; that the sects and orders find huge masses of supporters; and that these ideologies have their so-called intellectual media.

We learn from the Quran that when a new idea crops up, the objection will be raised first by the prominent personalities of the established order. The professors, the staunch defenders of conservative practices, the sheikhs who based their orders on the established system will be in the forefront of those who attack the Islam of the Quran for fear of being divested of their authority and losing their charisma that they have built up throughout long years.

If we remember that those who attempted the life of Jesus Christ were prominent rabbis, we must not be puzzled by the fact that those who argue against the Islam of the Quran are self-styled religious personalities. Religion’s worst enemy is the exploiter of religion. The majority of Muslims can see this illustrated in the inquisition that excommunicated people and in the act of confession. The same eye that sees this, happens to be blind to its own wrongdoing in contriving a new religion that aims to replace the one preached in the Quran. Islam also has been subject to cruel dealings just like during the war waged by the Christian clergy in their attempt to monopolize religion. Just as the miracles performed by saints and clerics have become legendary, so the sheikhs’ and imams’ power of sanctity and their alleged vision of God in their dreams made them necessity of their faiths.

It depends on us to return to the Quran and avoid being corrupted by the personal viewpoints of the Arab-Omayyad sovereignty. In this way, a new link will be established between man and the religion alienated from man. The solution is not reform but rejection of what is foreign to the Quran. Nor is this movement an attempt at the reunification of sects. The reunification of phony ideologies would be absurd anyway.

The religion is unique and all other attributions are irrelevant. The Quran that towers high above sects must be reinstated as the only and unique source. The Omayyads and the Abbasids attempted to bring reforms to Islam by adding adjectives like Hanafi and Shafi to their conceptions of Islam, transforming what was from God into human work. The thing that should be done today is not reform God’s religion but reform the pseudo-religion; in other words a restructuring. This is returning to the essence rather than reforming.