A Quranic Fact: Without Absolute Religious Freedom, the Earth Goes to Ruin and Corruption
Published in June 16, 2017
Translated by: Ahmed Fathy
Firstly: absolute religious freedom is one of the bases of Islam, while compulsion in religion is the basis of corruption and disbelief:
1- In our previous article titled "Were It Not for God's restraining People by Means of Others" found in English on this link (http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_article.php?main_id=16776), we have explained how God's restraining people by means of others means self-defense fighting for God's sake to impose religious freedom, as we have inferred from the Quranic stories of the Israelites after Moses and Muhammad and early believers in Yathreb who suffered religious persecution in Mecca and were fought by polytheists who attacked Yathreb. We have inferred from many verses how God's restraining people by means of others prevents the spread of ruin on earth and stops demolishing of houses of worship built by human beings; thus, self-defense fighting (i.e., military jihad) in Islam has a higher legislative purpose; i.e., to stop coercion and compulsion in matters of religion and religious persecution.
2- Corruption and ruin on earth are directly linked to religious persecution, and God's restraining people by means of others aims to prevent this ruin on earth and to stop destruction of houses of worship, as we infer when we have compared between these two verses: "...Were it not for God's restraining people by means of others, the earth would have gone to ruin. But God is gracious towards humankind." (2:251); "...Were it not for God's restraining people by means of others, monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques - where the name of God is mentioned much - would have been demolished. God supports whoever supports Him. God is Strong and Mighty." (22:40). Hence, absolute religious freedom should be applied by all people of different denominations equally in a given society so as to prevent ruin on earth; consequently, compulsion in religion and religious persecution lead directly to ruin on earth.
3- We read in the Quran that God prohibits compulsion in religion: "There shall be no compulsion in religion; the right way has become distinct from the wrong way. Whoever renounces evil and believes in God has grasped the most trustworthy handle; which does not break. God is Hearing and Knowing." (2:256). God has said the following to Muhammad: "Had your Lord willed, everyone on earth would have believed. Will you compel people to become believers? No soul can believe except by God's leave; and He lays disgrace upon those who refuse to understand." (10:99-100). Religious persecution and compulsion in religion cause corruption and ruin on earth; God does not like corruption and corruptors and had smitten corrupt ancient nations of disbelievers: "...God does not like corruption." (2:205); "...God does not like the corrupters." (5:64); "...God does not like the seekers of corruption." (28:77); "...So note the consequences for the corrupters." (7:86); "...So consider the end of the corrupters." (7:103).
4- Moses' Pharaoh is described in the Quran as a corrupter: "Pharaoh exalted himself on the earth, and divided its people into factions. He persecuted a group of them, slaughtering their sons, while sparing their daughters. He was truly a corrupter." (28:4); God says the following about his being drowned along with his regime, retinue, and deep state: "...So see how the outcome was for the corrupters." (27:14). This Pharaoh believed in God only when it was too late for him, while drowning, and God told him the following: "Now? When you have disobeyed before and been of the corrupters?" (10:91). As a tyrant, Moses' Pharaoh combined all forms of corruption; he even committed the grave sin of self-deification; see 79:23-24, 28:38-39, and 40:36-37. Moses' Pharaoh persecuted the Israelites because they did not deify him; when the magicians believed in the message of Moses, Pharaoh put to them to violent death. Quranic stories of Moses' Pharaoh are repeated many times because he is the imam/leader of all tyrants in Hell; see 28:41. By the way, disbelieving leaders of the Qorayish tribe are described in the Quran as following the footsteps of Moses' Pharaoh; see 3:11 and 8:52-54. This means Qorayish imitated Moses' Pharaoh's ways of religious persecution and political tyranny.
5- In contrast, Islam is based on absolute religious freedom; (mis)guidance is a personal responsibility and an individual willingness in how one deals with God, our Creator; those who are (mis)guided bear the outcome and responsibility for one's stance and choice as per 10:108, 17:15, 27:92, and 39:41. God is the Only Judge Who will settle differences and disputes in religion on the Day of Judgment; see 39:7, 39:46, and 34:25-26. Hence, each individual must have absolute religious freedom so that she/he will be responsible for choices made; those coerced and intimidated in religious matters may be pardoned by God as per 16:106, as God judges those who sin intentionally; see 33:5. Proselytizing Islam (i.e., preaching the Quran) includes endorsing the right and freedom of deniers of the Quran to adhere to whatever religion they choose (even atheism) and to practice any rituals they like, as all human beings wait for God's Judgment on the Day of Resurrection; see 6:135, 11:93, 11, 121-122, and 39:39-40.
6- Within the application of Quranic sharia in the Yathreb city state led by Muhammad, citizenship was not based on faith within hearts of people of the testimony of (There is no God but Allah); rather, it was based on Islam (literally, peace) in terms of peaceful behavior. Thus, each individual who was peaceful and never raise arms against the Yathreb city-state was a citizen regardless of sex, original tribe, rituals, and faiths. This is why hypocrites who were disbelievers enjoyed the right to show peaceful political and religious opposition with absolute freedom. Religious freedom was also absolute in the Quran-based rule within the Yathreb city-state; some of the early believers adhered to the worship of pagan idols and 'sanctified' mausoleums and they were never prevented from such acts; they were only preached and warned in the Quran, as per 22:30-31. Since many of them went on with such polytheism despite their belief in the Quran overtly, the last Quranic verses were revealed to show they went on with their sins and that the only mission of the prophet was to convey the message of God; see 5:90-92. Hence, no one practiced the bad prohibited habit of compulsion in religion nor forced anyone about any rituals. Even the religious duty of self-defense fighting in Islam is never through coercion, but via voluntary efforts and so is paying alms/zakat (see 9:53-54 and 9:81-83), and this applies to all acts of worship and rituals. This shows clearly that the mission of the State, within Quran-based rule, is NEVER to make citizens enter Paradise in the Hereafter; guidance is a personal responsibility for each individual. The mission of the State is to protect and guarantee rights of citizens, especially regarding security, justice, political freedom, and religious freedom. Security includes military preparations to deter possible aggressors while adhering to peace; see 8:60-61, and also means to exact severe punishments when criminals and armed gangs terrorize citizens inside the State; see 5:33-34. These punishments must be applied to Wahabi terrorists (e.g., ISIS) in our modern age.
7- The responsibility of the Quran-based rule State to protect its citizens is confined to citizens within its borders; this is why this State calls other peaceful people to immigrate to it to enjoy all and full rights without compulsion in religion. The Quran tells all peaceful people (i.e., believers in terms of peaceful demeanor, regardless of different faiths) to ally themselves to one another against any aggressors (i.e., disbelievers/polytheists in terms of violent demeanor, regardless of different faiths) who coerce people in religious matters; otherwise, fitna (i.e., religious persecution) and ruin (corruption on earth) will prevail and dominate as both are linked and lead directly to one another: "Those who believed, and emigrated, and struggled in God's cause with their possessions and their persons, and those who provided shelter and support - these are allies of one another. As for those who believed, but did not emigrate, you owe them no protection, until they have emigrated. But if they ask you for help in religion, you must come to their aid, except against a people with whom you have a treaty. God is Seeing of what you do. As for those who disbelieve, they are allies of one another. Unless you do this, there will be ruin on the earth, and much corruption." (8:72-73).
Secondly: compulsion in religion is the basic practice of the Muhammadans in their caliphate empire:
1- The Qorayish tribe, the aggressive polytheistic tribe that fought Islam and Muhammad for many years, suddenly converted to Islam overtly to preserve its stature and interests; soon enough, once Muhammad died, Qorayish controlled Arabs once more and imposed on Arabs inside Arabia to pay all alms/zakat money to Qorayish; this resulted in the renegades war quelled by Qorayish later on. Soon afterwards, Qorayish united all Arabs especially Bedouins and led them within the grave sin/ heinous crime called the Arab conquests, raising the motto of compulsion and coercion in religion; Arab military troops used to intimidate conquered nations by forcing them to choose one of the three options: conversion, paying tributes, or fighting them till they are exterminated! Qorayish controlled and manipulated the four pre-Umayyad caliphs and through conquests, this tribe confiscated treasures and wealth of Persia, Egypt, Iraq, and the Levant. Such corruption and ruin (i.e., crimes of conquests: massacres, looting, enslavement, sabotage, etc.) resulted in another corruption and ruin the Arab civil wars. Both conquests and civil wars led to the emergence of the devilish earthly man-made religions of the Muhammadans; caliphs and so-called companions of Muhammad have been made into infallible immortal deities who are never to be undermined or criticized nor their corruption and sins/crimes could be discussed.
2- Thus, the Quran-based rule of the Yathreb city-state led by Muhammad was an exceptional case amidst the dominant Middle-Ages culture of tyranny and aggression, when religious and political corruption reigned via the alliance of tyrants with clergy. Such religious and political corruption dominated the known world at the time from China and India to Persia and Byzantium. Qorayish adopted such culture as the basis of the Arab empire (during the Umayyad Era; the Umayyads were a faction of Qorayish) whose borders stretched from borders of china to the Pyrenees mountains, south of France. When the Abbasid dynasty emerged, it had invented and written down the earthly Sunnite religion sharia laws which contradict the Quran, abandoned ever since by Arabs till now. Such earthly religions of the Muhammadans (Sunnite, Shiite, and Sufi ones) had empowered the tyrants' political tyranny and clergy/cronies, whether these tyrants were among Arabs, of Qorayish, or among non-Arab Mameluke sultans or Ottomans. The same culture of political and religious tyranny dominated in Europe at the same eras.
3- Yet, the Europeans liberated themselves and got rid of tyrannical church clergy and political tyranny of cronies/clergy of rulers, after many massacres, revolutions, wars, bloodshed, and bloodbaths. Europe has chosen secularism (laïcité) and imposed a curfew on religion so that it never steps out of church walls; churches now participate in acts of charity. Secular Europeans roamed the earth and discovered the two Americas and Australia, and for a long time, they ruled the world and colonized countries of the Muhammadans. Some reformist thinkers in Egypt and in other countries preached imitating European renaissance minus bloodshed and wars, and Egyptians were leaders in such culture of enlightenment. Yet, secularism was not reached as desired by getting rid of religious clergy, because obscurantist Wahabis emerged in Arabia as the arch-enemy of modernization and secularism, Wahabis/Salafists have preached (in Egypt and then worldwide) the worst man-made sharia ever : the Ibn Hanbal Sunnite extremism of violence, renamed as Wahabism. The first Saudi state in Arabia was ruined and made to collapse using the Egyptian army of the king Muhammad Ali Pacha, and the second Saudi state collapsed because of internecine rivalry and competition leading to wars fomented by Ottoman and Egyptian spies. The third, current Saudi state, the KSA, has been established by king Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud in 1932 after many wars since 1902. Using the petro-dollars of the KSA and the gulf monarchies, Wahabism spread worldwide as if it were Islam, as it has hijacked its name. Wahabism has led to bloodshed, bloodbaths, tyranny, ruin, and corruption worldwide until now, especially in the countries of the Muhammadans. Wahabism has led the Muhammadans to fall into the lowest dismal abyss. The name of Islam, which is hijacked by Wahabis as they raise it as a motto/banner, is now accused of being the cause of all atrocities committed by Wahabis.
Lastly:
1- The Quranists have emerged as a positive reaction, as a trend calling basically for immediate religious reform, because this religious reform destroys the political tyranny. To introduce political reform without a religious one is futile and fruitless; democracy does not fit a nation ridden and controlled by Shiite or Sunnite clergy. Thus, individuals must be freed first from being enslaved to such clergy of all types; individuals must use their minds to reject and refuse what is being preached to them orally by imams/clergy of the earthly religions of the Muhammadans, within the corrupt culture of oral sermons delivered to those who never read at all and suffer cultural illiteracy. Individuals must discuss all religions, notions, and ideas and then to choose, proselytize, and preach whatever they like, provided that no compulsion in religion might occur.
2- Europeans at one point raised this motto: (to hang the last tyrant with the intestines of the last priest). We do not like this motto, as it caused the death of millions of people. We want to introduce a peaceful reform that will never cause bloodshed especially among the weak vast majority of citizens that pay the heavy price for corruption and tyranny. Hence, just by enlightening the minds of individuals, they will certainly mock and ridicule clergy instead of worshipping and sanctifying them. Once clergy are neutralized and rejected, tyrants will never find any further support. Thus, individuals who learn freedom of thought in religion will destroy all holy cows and this will eventually lead them to revolt against tyrants; tyrants will first be ridiculed and then resisted physically and logistically. When minds are liberated, the will of all citizens will be bent on perseverance and getting rid of tyrants, who will readily leave a given country peacefully before being destroyed – if they have still some reason in their minds. This is what we hope for and about which we seek to raise awareness within our peaceful intellectual jihad on our website.
3- Looking at ruin, atrocities, and crimes committed by political and clergy corruption in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya, and anticipating the same ruin to occur soon in Egypt, North Africa, the KSA, and the Gulf monarchies, we, Quranists, declare outspokenly that we are never to reconcile with Middle-Eastern Arab tyrants, as we never trust them at all. Our policy is always to attack them while going ahead with undermining religious and political clergy, as we explain and elucidate the Quranic sharia laws that have remained abandoned and rejected for 14 centuries.
4- With the aid and support of our Lord Almighty God, Quranists are winning and Quranism (real Islam) will prevail eventually, despite of the Muhammadans!