The decline of the Muslim world after September 11, 2001 is traced to corrupt religious leaders rather than to Islam, drawing on Bernard Lewis's article What Went Wrong. A table sets current Islamic practices on women, hijab, music, diet, hadith and intercession against Quranic verses. Readers' letters praising the submission.org website follow.
While the great religion of Islam calls for
peace, tolerance, freedom of belief and mutual understanding, almost the
exact opposite has been happening in the so-called Islamic world. It is
no wonder therefore that many “Muslim” nations of the world
are in constant misery and turmoil through fighting and hostilities with
their neighbors or each other. They are generally the least democratic
and the most tyrannized people plagued with political and civil corruption.
Also, they have relatively no religious tolerance and have little consideration
towards the faith of their own people or the people of other nations.
With the events of September 11, 2001 and
those which followed it, there is more awareness today than ever about
the religion of Islam and the state of Islamic countries. Many recognized
the fact that the terrorists who killed innocent people in the name of
Islam were indeed radical groups that have nothing to do with the main
stream Islam. But more importantly, some people started realizing and
questioning the wisdom and current state of so-called Islamic practices,
and the need for returning to the real roots of Islam, Submission to the
will of God, as practiced by Muhammad and those who truly followed him.
In an article called “What Went Wrong?”
the January 2002 issue of Atlantic Monthly, the author Bernard Lewis has
written the following:
By all standards of the modern world—economic development,
literacy, scientific achievement—Muslim civilization, once a mighty
enterprise, has fallen low. Many in the Middle East blame a variety of
outside forces. But underlying much of the Muslim world's travail may
be a simple lack of freedom.
…In the course of the twentieth century it became
abundantly clear that things had gone badly wrong in the Middle East—
and, indeed, in all the lands of Islam.
Page 2
What have the Muslims done to Islam?
Compared with Christendom, its rival for more than a millennium,
the world of Islam had become poor, weak, and ignorant…
The author continued with a question “Who did this to Muslims?”
This is a frequently raised question in the discussion of the sad
situation facing the people in the Islamic world, and people come
up with several different answers. Some Muslims blame others for
their misfortunes, which is usually the easiest way out. Some others
blame the religion of Islam itself. But the author makes the following
valid points:
If Islam is an obstacle to freedom, to science,
to economic development, how is it that Muslim society in the past
was a pioneer in all three—and this when Muslims were much
closer in time to the sources and inspiration of their faith than
they are now? Some have posed the question in a different form—not
"What has Islam done to the Muslims?" but "What have
the Muslims done to Islam?"—and have answered by laying
the blame on specific teachers and doctrines and groups.
For those known nowadays as Islamists or fundamentalists, the
failures and shortcomings of modern Islamic lands afflict those
lands because they adopted alien notions and practices. They fell
away from authentic Islam and thus lost their former greatness.
Those known as modernists or reformers take the opposite view,
seeing the cause of this loss not in the abandonment but in the
retention of old ways, and especially in the inflexibility and
ubiquity of the Islamic clergy, who, they say, are responsible for
the persistence of beliefs and practices that might have been creative
and progressive a thousand years ago but are neither today. The modernists'
usual tactic is not to denounce religion as such, still less Islam
in particular, but to level their criticism against fanaticism.
It is to fanaticism—and more particularly to fanatical religious
authorities—that they attribute the stifling of the once great
Islamic scientific movement and, more generally, of the freedom
of thought and expression.
It’s the corrupt Muslim religious leaders who have turned
the true religion of Islam into something virtually against what
Prophet Mohammad preached 1400 years ago.
To better understand what the Muslims have done to Islam, let
us list some of the things that “Muslims” practice
against the teachings of God and His messenger, prescribed in the
Quran (Please see the table on page 3).
Therefore, the author’s following assessment of the situation
in the “Muslim” world is indeed valid. Unfortunately,
it is the Muslims themselves who should realize what’s happening
to their great religion and should wake up from their illusions
and false pretense.
During the past few weeks the worldwide exposure given to the
views and actions of Osama bin Laden and his hosts, the Taliban,
has provided a new and vivid insight into the eclipse of what was
once the greatest, most advanced, and most open civilization in
human history.
To a Western observer, schooled in the theory and practice of
Western freedom, it is precisely the lack of freedom—freedom
of the mind from constraint and indoctrination, to question and
inquire and speak; freedom of the economy from corrupt and pervasive
mismanagement; freedom of women from male oppression; freedom of
citizens from tyranny—that underlies so many of the troubles
of the Muslim world…
Abdullah
Page 3
Current
�Islamic� Practice
Instructions
in the Quran
Persecution
or even killing of people who don�t believe as they do
Fabricated
hadiths (attributed to Muhammad) contradict the Quran
Muhammad
followed God�s commandments in the Quran (17:74-75)
The
use of hadith is rampant. Some even believe that hadith
abrogates the Quran
The
Quran is the only source of religious guidance (6:115, 17:46)
Many
religious practices are innovated and have nothing to do with the religion
The
Quran is fully detailed and infallible (6:114, 7:52; 10:37)
Muhammad is believed to have the power to save �Muslims� from Hell as long
as they praised him during their life time
There
is no intercession in the Hereafter unless it coincides with God�s will
(2:48, 2:123, 2:254, 9:80, 20:109, 21:28 �)
Muhammad�s
name is mentioned with God in Shahadah (statement of faith),
and Az�an (call to the prayer)
God
alone is sufficient and there should be no name mentioned or put next
to God (3:18, 39:36, 39:45)
There
is no mosque in the Islamic world where only the names of God is displayed
The
places of worship belong to God and God is the only one worthy of praise
(72:18)
Conclusion:
Corruption in religion gradually got worse over the years since hadith
came along 200 years after Muhammad�s death
Conclusion: Muhammad will say in the Hereafter that his people have deserted the Quran
(25:30)
Page 4
Comments
on
www.submission.org
Asalaamo Alaikum,
It is my first chance to visit your web site. With out
any doubt, it is one of best Islamic web site I ever visited. Though I
brought up in a different school of thought, but it is very hard for me
to reject your arguments.
With out any doubt, most of the stuff I read on your web
site so far, is very logical and enlightening. It shows a beautiful picture
of Islam, a peaceful, practical and natural religion. Unfortunately, most
of the prominent scholars of Islam are presenting Islam in such a horrible
way that not only non-Muslims but even the God fearing Muslims are getting
frustrated. These so called custodian of Islam are openly using the name
of Islam for their own politically and wordily gains. There is hardly
any body who can stop them. May Allah guide us on the right path (Ameen).
Wasalaam, S. R.
Assalam Walaikum
Thank you for your site! Thanks Allah for leading us in
the right path. Your site has taken me out of all my doubts and confusions
and have given me back the freedom that Allah intented us to have and
that in my heart I always knew that the Islam I was thought had lots of
oppression and contradictions to it.
F. S. V.
As Salam Wa Alakioum wa Rahmatulah Wa Barakatu.
Bismillah- My dear brothers and sisters. I feel so overwhelmed
and my heart and Spirit have been set free after 16 yrs of in and out
of ISLAM practice. I have always understood the submission to GOD. What
I could not accept in my life is illogical practice and un-answered question.
"Accept here is the sahih hadith follow it!!". I have been struggling
in my Islam, not at all because I questioned the base, but every other
thing that is crammed in it with out question and thousands of followers
not referring to the HOLY QURAN. I knew that ISLAM was the truth PRAISE
GOD, but the hijab, the no music; these things were not logical and peaceful.
And ALLAH is most peaceful and logical. I thank you so much that you have
this web site and now I can practice without question and concern. Everything
we need is in the Quran.
All complete. Praise GOD. I so want to be involved with
other submitters and brothers and sisters with the true understanding.
I will come with quite a fight here in my community; it is sick and depleting
healthy people who are bound by lies and customs. God willing we will
realize the true freedom there is in ISLAM. I ask that my email ad-dress
be given out for communication. I feel really alone here and I need support.
No one here in this community is in truth only Allah knows for sure their
hearts. So please email me back and let me get involved. Praise GOD, Praise
GOD, Praise GOD. Peace and Blessing of our Creator be with you. Sister
K.
About this work
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Author
International Community of Submitters
Publisher
International Community of Submitters / Masjid Tucson