Episode 7 - The illusion of freedom

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

Introduction: The Struggle of Centralities and Questions

In the previous episode, we saw that Islam is based on making the Creator the center, while modern ignorance is based on making man the center. And the topic raised a number of questions for us:

1. If we admit that the centrality is for the Creator, does this mean that man will lose out? That is, the issue may seem like a dichotomy: God or man, as if we want man to give up his interests and dignity for the sake of God, as if the advocates of human centrality are the ones who give man his dignity and achieve his interests by making himself the center. Is that the case?
2. On the other hand, has human centrality succeeded in making centrality for man, or what has been the outcome?
3. What are the criteria that stem from the centrality of the Creator as opposed to the criteria that stem from human centrality?
4. Won't the statement of the centrality of the Creator lead to the oppression of man by man 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, and I am executing the judgment of Allah upon you." Isn't the solution to set aside religion in our dealings then?

Let's answer these questions in today's episode.

Does the Centrality of the Creator Mean the Loss of Man?

First, if we admit that the centrality is for the Creator, does this mean that man will lose out? Never.

Man Benefits from Following the Commands of His Creator

Rather, we are thereby entrusting the determination of man's interest to the One who knows it better than he does. "Does He not know who created, and He is the Most Subtle, the All-Aware?" It is man who benefits from following the commands of his Creator.

• "So whoever follows My guidance will not go astray and will not be miserable."
• "And whoever turns away from My remembrance, he will have a constricted life."
• "Whoever is guided, is only guided for himself. And whoever is led astray, is only led astray against it."
• "Whoever does good, it is for his own soul. And whoever does evil, it is against it."
• "Whoever disbelieves, upon him is his disbelief."
• "And whoever does good, it is for their own souls that they prepare."
• "And whoever purifies himself, he purifies himself only for himself."
• "And whatever you spend of good, it is for yourselves."

On the other hand, "Indeed, Allah is free of need of the worlds." And in the sacred hadith narrated by Muslim: "O My servants, you will not reach Me so as to harm Me, and you will not reach My benefit so as to benefit Me." The benefit is for you, O man.

The First Test in Man's Life

Note that the first test in man's life was based on trusting this principle. Allah commanded Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree; that was the command. And He guaranteed them: "You will not hunger therein nor will you be naked, and you will not thirst therein nor will you suffer." So, from which door did the devil whisper to them? From the door of achieving desires apart from the command of Allah. He said: "O Adam, shall I direct you to the tree of immortality and a kingdom that will not wear away?" You will be immortal in Paradise, you will have a kingdom that will not perish.

What is the result? They disobeyed Allah, and they did not achieve what Allah had guaranteed them if they obeyed Him, nor what the devil had tempted them with. And this is a lesson for man until the Day of Judgment.

The Criteria Stemming from the Centrality of the Creator and Man

Centrality of the Creator: Truth, Justice, and the Hereafter

So, what are the criteria that stem from the centrality of the Creator as opposed to the criteria that stem from human centrality?

The centrality of the Creator brings forth the criteria of truth and justice. "Allah is He who has sent down the Book in truth and the Balance." The truth and the Balance that represents justice. "And with the truth We have sent it down, and with the truth it has descended." "Indeed, We have sent Our messengers with clear evidences and We have sent down with them the Book and the Balance that the people may stand firm with justice," so that their relationships may be ordered and rights and duties may be distributed on the basis of justice.

Centrality of Man: Liberation from Divine Truth and Justice

Followers of human centrality avoid the terms of truth and falsehood; because they inherently require revelation. They do not say, for example: "We legislate permission for fornication and perversion because this is the truth after we saw it as false, and we prohibit polygamy because this is false, we permit marijuana because we are convinced that this is the truth while we saw it as false." And if they claim to strive for justice, it is without a standard from preserved revelation, which makes their justice relative, fluid, variable, without a controller, multiple with the multiplicity of humans, and changing with the change of their opinions.

Centrality of the Creator Entails the Centrality of the Hereafter

The centrality of the Creator and the criteria of truth and justice that stem from it entail the centrality of the Hereafter in contrast to the worldly life so that justice may be realized. "And We place the just balances on the Day of Resurrection, so no soul will be wronged at all." And this addresses the objection related to evil among some, so he will not doubt the justice of Allah when he sees the suffering of the righteous and the oppressed in this world, as long as he believes that a sip in Paradise will make them forget all of that. Also, the centrality of the Hereafter makes the believer understand that he may miss some desires in this world, but his commitment to the centrality of the Creator remains in his favor as long as he is rewarded with eternal, everlasting bliss.

On the other hand, human centrality is liberated from divine truth and justice so that man may be free in what he does. And since the freedoms of individuals conflict, they try to patch them up by calling for equality. Therefore, modern ignorance raises the slogans of freedom and equality as the supreme values that should be present in all the legislations that govern human society.

Has Human Centrality Succeeded in Making Centrality for Man?

And this brings us to the next question: Has human centrality succeeded in making centrality for man?

From Human Centrality to the Centrality of Desires

At first, the matter appeared to be centrality for man, then it was cut off from revelation and its truth and justice, and its motive became desires and passions. Even the values and morals that it takes are not for the sake of submitting to the Creator and acknowledging His centrality, but by selective criteria that make these values and morals subordinate to the system of desires under the title of respecting the opinion of the other no matter what. So, the words of Allah Almighty were applied to man: "Have you seen him who has taken his desire as his god? Then would you be his guardian? Or do you think that most of them hear or understand? They are not but like cattle. Rather, they are more astray in way."

Look at the state of far misguidance that man has reached when he is liberated from the centrality of the Creator, so he falls into the deification of his desires. And the file of sexual chaos is sufficient for that. "Or have you seen him who has taken his desire as his god, and Allah has sent him astray knowingly?" Man has reached the peak of natural sciences in this time, but the bottom of moral degradation, because he has taken his desire as his god.

Man is diverse in his understanding, ideas, references, desires, and passions. If he is liberated from divine truth and justice, things are lost and become relative, and freedoms conflict. How can their conflict be prevented? It cannot be prevented completely, but there must be laws that dominate some over others. The controller of curricula and education.

The Illusion of Freedom and Choice

So, the matter moved from the centrality of man to the centrality of his desires, to the centrality of the majority, to the centrality of the faction chosen by the majority, to the centrality of the faction influential in elections with its media and capital. So, the man who seeks freedom has become a prisoner of those who own the media and capital. And this is a limited group that cares only about its personal interests. And we will put links to articles that talk about the control of a very limited number of companies and individuals over the media, and what is called The Illusion of Choice and Objectivity. They are the illusion of choice and objectivity. That is, the objectivity of the media is just an illusion, and man is given choices that all serve the agendas of the media controllers and do not go beyond their frameworks. So, he imagines that he is choosing while in reality he remains in their box.

The Transition from Relativism to Imposed Absolutes

The matter began with the claim that every human is free in what they do, and that the right to this is relative. It ended with the existence of institutions that define rights and duties, and imposed absolutes that do not recognize relativism. The matter moved from relativism in judging matters and respecting the other opinion to absolutes that are considered a crime to tamper with, and those with deviant inclinations who oppress those who remain on fitrah (natural inclination).

Thus, homosexuals have the legal right to practice their acts, and court officials are punished if they refuse to marry them, and those who criticize homosexuals and expose their deviation are punished. The child whose mind and fitrah are manipulated has the legal right to change his gender, and his father or mother is criminalized if he tries to protect him from this folly. The state has the right to wage war on another nation, destroying it and plundering its wealth, and the soldier who refuses to serve is criminalized. The woman has the legal right to abort her fetus, and to violate his right to life. If the legislative councils in France decide to close mosques or prevent women from wearing the hijab, they have the right, and those who disobey are criminalized.

Compare this to the divine judgment that does not change, alter, or affect the opinion of the majority, whether Muslims or non-Muslims.

The True Centrality of Satan

Therefore, dear guests, the term human centrality is not accurate. Rather, what happens in reality is that centrality becomes for his desires and lusts. Rather, for the lusts and ambitions of a specific group that imposes its agenda on others, so that if you look at the accelerating moral, value, and human decline, you will find that Satan is directing the battle personally in every sense of the word, and he cheers for his allies, the devils of mankind and jinn, inspiring each other.

If you want examples of this, refer to the episode "What Has the World Lost by the Decline of Muslims." We have explained in detail in the series of episodes about women how modern jahiliyyah (ignorance) has ultimately wasted the right, justice, freedom, and equality, meaning the true divine standards and the alleged standards. The end result is that centrality becomes for Satan.

"Did I not enjoin upon you, O children of Adam, not to worship Satan? Indeed, he is to you a clear enemy, and worship Me. This is a straight path. And how many have I led astray from you, a great number, so do you not use reason?" Satan, who said about Adam, "Have you seen this one whom You have honored above me? If You delay me until the Day of Resurrection, I will surely seize a proportion of his descendants, except a few." I will put in his mouth what is put in the mouth of the beast, and I will lead him astray. "And Satan had already wronged them with his suggestion, so they followed him, except a company of believers."

When man transfers centrality to himself, he loses his value in the end, after he used to derive it from servitude to Allah. Man lives on this planet, eats, enjoys, then dies to be fuel for Hell, cursed and humiliated, when he leaves the divine standard of right. What comes after the right except misguidance? It is as if Allah, when He created Satan and destined this doomed fate for his followers, it was from His wisdom in that to show the perfection of His attributes, by seeing the fate of those who abandon the centrality of the Creator whose attributes He is, and He is too proud to worship Him. And He has shown us the enmity of Satan: "O Adam, indeed this is an enemy to you and your wife, so let him not remove you from Paradise to be wretched."

Does the Statement of the Centrality of the Creator Lead to Injustice to Man in the Name of Religion?

This leads us to answer the following question: Does the statement of the centrality of the Creator lead to injustice to man in the name of religion, as each one says that I obey the Creator in my dealings with you and implement the command of the Creator in you, and the Creator commands me to deal with you in such and such a way? Is the solution to set aside religion in our dealings?

Injustice in False Religion or Deviation

We say: Injustice will occur if man follows a false religion that fabricates that Allah commands the oppression of people. And it will occur if the Muslim deviates from the command of the Creator. But it will not occur if the Muslim returns the matter to Allah sincerely. "That is the judgment of Allah; He judges between you." "Is not Allah the best of judges?" "Or do they seek the judgment of ignorance? And who is better than Allah in judgment for a people who are certain?" And our Prophet, peace be upon him, said: "Indeed, Allah has given every rightful one his right."

Religion is a System of Life

But everyone claims that his religion is the truth. The solution in this case is that every claimant must bring proof and evidence of the correctness of his claim, not that the call is to set aside religion. There is nothing called dealing among humans without religion, for secularism is a religion, and humanism is a religion. Religion is a system of life that emanates from your view of the universe and life. And Dr. Sami Ammari has a distinguished book on this entitled "Secularism: The Plague of the Age."

If it is said that we will set aside religion and legislate rulings based on the opinion of the majority, this, as we have seen, ends in the result that it will be a religion that legislates, prohibits, permits, punishes, and criminalizes, but the difference is that what will be behind all of this are the devils of mankind and jinn, as we have seen.

Conclusion and Reflections

Reflect after all this: "And We have not sent you except as a mercy to the worlds." Reflect: "There has come to you a Messenger from among yourselves, to whom whatever is hard for you is hard, and he is concerned for you. To the believers, he is kind and merciful." Reflect on what our Prophet, peace be upon him, taught us to supplicate: "O Living, O Self-Subsisting, by Your mercy I seek help, rectify all my affairs, and do not leave me to myself for the blink of an eye." Meaning, do not make my dependence on myself, O Lord, for I, as a human, am doomed if I make centrality for it.

In the next episode, we will see, with Allah's permission, practical examples of making centrality for man in the positive laws enacted in Muslim countries, in the activist discourse attributed to Islamic work, and in the thinking of Muslims in general.

Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah.