Episode 6 - A man worth a thousand likes!

Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah, dear guests.

The plan within the series was to discuss today how a Muslim deals with non-Muslims to see the perfection of the Sharia in that. However, I saw that we should go back together to a deeper issue. If we understand it, it will solve many of our intellectual problems. That is: the centrality in the life of a Muslim? Is it for the Creator, may He be glorified, or for man?

Concept of Centrality

What does centrality mean? It means that Allah is the one who gives value to things. The value of man is acquired according to his value with Allah. The value of principles is according to their value with Allah. The sacred thing and the sacred principle is what Allah makes sacred.

Human Centrality

Contemporary Jahiliyyah is based on the apparent centrality of man, and in reality, on the whims and desires of man. "Have you seen him who has taken his desire as his god?" This deification of desire has seeped into many Muslims to a great extent, as we will see. The topic concerns you, me, and all of us.

Human centrality means removing sanctity from Allah and giving it to man, so that the value of things is determined according to their position with man. If you invent something that pleases man, you are of value. If you discover a cure for man, you are of great value, regardless of your status with Allah, and your value is not diminished if you disbelieve in Allah. What fulfills man's desires is correct and is his right, and the law protects and legislates it.

When man is the center, it means that any belief derives its value from being an idea believed by some people, and its value increases according to the number of believers in it, no matter how foolish it is in itself. If no one is convinced by it, it has no value, no matter how great it is in itself.

With this criterion, the messengers, peace be upon them, have no distinction in the light of human centrality. If they were among us today, human centrality means that what they have of revelation from the Creator of man does not distinguish them, but that each of them with what he has of divine revelation represents an opinion among opinions that is equal to the opinion of the most ignorant and most numerous people. In human centrality, the Creator Himself is sanctified only if man sanctifies Him.

Centrality of the Creator

While Islam is based on the centrality of the Creator, may He be glorified. This means that a specific act or principle is right if Allah makes it right, and wrong if Allah makes it wrong. People acquire their value from servitude to Allah and lose their value by disbelieving in Allah.

In Islam, if I work for the benefit of man, then that raises my value with the Creator of man, provided that I am a believer in Him, seeking reward from Him, may He be glorified.

The Fundamental Difference Between the Two Centralities

Notice that in human centrality, the sacred loses its value if man disbelieves in it, while in Islam, man loses his value if he disbelieves in the sacred, and this is very clear that it must be so.

Allah, the Exalted, says: "Is not He who created the heavens and the earth able to create the like of them? Yes, [He is] the Knowing Creator." As He is the One who created, it is for Him, may He be glorified, to command and prohibit and judge things as right and wrong, correct and incorrect, of value and of no value. And when I say about myself that I am a Muslim, it means that I submit and acknowledge and affirm that centrality is for the Creator.

Perceive this meaning in His saying, may He be glorified: "Say, 'Indeed, my prayer, my rites of sacrifice, my living and my dying are for Allah, Lord of the worlds.'" Belief in Allah means, in an automatic way, that centrality is for Him, may He be glorified, and that this centrality is ultimately for the benefit of man. "Does not He who created know, and He is the Subtle, the Acquainted?" The Creator of man, may He be glorified, knows best what is good for man and what is evil for him. "And Allah is Knowing and Wise. Indeed, Allah with the people is [full of] kindness and mercy." The verses that explain the names and attributes of Allah clarify the necessity that centrality is for Him, may He be glorified, and that this is in the interest of man.

The Relationship of Centrality to the Series "Be Noble with Your Islam"

So what is the relationship of all this to the series "Be Noble with Your Islam" and to this station of the Muslim's dealing with others? This topic of centrality is related to everything in the life of a Muslim. And its relationship to this topic specifically is that I follow the commands of my Lord in my view of myself and of the people around me and in dealing with them. While if this is not clear to you and you are influenced by human centrality, your standards will be flawed. Therefore, when I bring you the rulings of Allah in your view of faith and disbelief, the believer and the disbeliever, and the relationship between them, you may find yourself rejecting the ruling of Allah because you do not use the rulings of Allah as an absolute standard by which you measure things, but you judge them according to a crooked standard that has become integrated within you, as they say, which is the standard of human centrality. Because you deal with religion as something secondary, like the race, shape, and color of man.

The people of human centrality deal with Allah as an idea in the mind of man, on the margin of man, far be it from Him, may He be glorified. If you are influenced by this view, you will not find any advantage for yourself in believing in Allah, and thus faith loses its value in your perception. And your criterion in dealing with people becomes how the human community and its worldly desires are realized without any consideration for the mission of servitude to Allah, for which they were created, and without any consideration for their fate in the Hereafter.

And whenever I want to convince you of a legal ruling, I have to entice you with its immediate worldly benefits or bring you alternative solutions within human centrality. And even if you acknowledge values, morals, and acts of worship, you acknowledge what achieves the comfort of the human community on earth in your view, not as a means of submitting to the Creator and making centrality for Him, may He be glorified. So even religion, values, and morals acquire their value from you according to human centrality, such as believing in the hijab as a right of man that he chooses, because it is personal freedom, not because it is a divine commandment for Muslims to submit to. And thus, these values and acts of worship become, by this definition, part of the deification of man's desires. That is, man takes from morals and acts of worship what he thinks achieves his happiness and personal choices, not as a means of submitting to Allah, may He be glorified.

The Danger of the Terms: Centrality of the Creator and Human Centrality

So why these terms: centrality of the Creator and human centrality? Just say obedience to Allah and disobedience to Allah and that's it. No, there is something much more dangerous. The Muslim, when he disobeys Allah, knows and acknowledges that he is disobeying, and that he is following desires, or if he is an innovator or even a rebel, he claims that his disobedience is obedience to Allah, so he is, in all this, adhering to the centrality of the Creator. While in human centrality, disobedience may become right and truth from the rights of man, and look, for example, at the defense of some of those who claim to be Muslims of what they call the rights of deviants.

Criticism of Da'wah Discourse Influenced by Human Centrality

There is a great mistake that some da'wah leaders sometimes make when they address people who are affiliated with Islam but influenced by human centrality. They pander to this distorted centrality, bringing them verses, hadiths, and historical events that they like and emphasize the status of humans in Islam, while hiding those that they would reject when judged by this crooked standard, the standard of human centrality.

"Verily, a believing slave is better than a disbeliever, even if he pleases you." He may please you with his wealth, his beauty, his intelligence, his strength, his good treatment, or his partial benefit to people in their worldly life. But what is his problem? Allah completes the verse: "Those invite to the Fire, and Allah invites to Paradise and Forgiveness by His Leave, and He makes clear His verses to the people that they might remember." They remember the correct criterion in evaluating people and everything, the correct centrality, and that their life on this earth is not the end.

So, our duty, brothers, is not to pander to the distorted centrality nor to bring you texts that please you and hide others, but to correct the centrality so that you can see the beauties of the Shariah in every ruling of it.

Human Centrality in the Digital World

Notice how human centrality is entrenched in this digital world through comparisons on social media platforms, for example. So-and-so has a million followers, a certain post received ten thousand likes, a certain video received a million views. As if the value of a human is derived from the number of their followers, and the value of ideas is derived from the number of people who like them, instead of the criterion for accepting or rejecting speech being its conformity to the truth, and instead of the value of a human being according to their closeness to or distance from the truth.

This centrality is not even immune to many of those in positions of guidance and da'wah, such that the evaluation of people for their speech becomes their motivation in choosing topics and what is said in them, turning the caller into a follower in the image of a leader.

Questions for the Next Episode

Here, many questions will arise:

• Does acknowledging that centrality belongs to the Creator mean that we surrender human interests for the sake of Allah?
• Won't emphasizing the centrality of the Creator lead to injustice among humans in the name of religion?
• When everyone says, "I obey the Creator in my dealings with you, and the Creator commands me to do such and such with you," isn't the solution to set aside religion in our interactions?
• Has human centrality succeeded in making centrality for humans a reality? Or what has been the outcome?
• What are the criteria that stem from the centrality of the Creator compared to the criteria that stem from human centrality?
• How has the active discourse attributed to Islamic work sometimes entrenched human centrality without realizing it? Not only pandering to this centrality but also entrenched and increased it in the hearts.

We will answer these questions in the next episode, God willing. Today's episode was to clarify the concept of centrality. We will see you next time, God willing. Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah.