Islam's Reformers .pdf

elieved in as if it were true. They say, “It should be believedthough superficially,” most probably because they see thatEuropeans and Americans are very reverent to their faith.Whatsoever it may be, the enemies of Islam, too, feelcompelled to say that religion is necessary. For, unless a force,which obliges people with its attraction and compels them toarrange their businesses, is made divine and its divinity spread,it remains weak.Others, on the other hand, try to establish morals throughknowledge. Knowledge presents morals as a virtue. But this hasnot reached beyond theory, and is not as effective as thehadîth. “Salvation is in honesty only.” It simply could not besaid, “It is without foundation,” about the religion, which is “sonecessary, so useful.” It simply is not right to pretend to believesomething which is not believed. They are paradoxical, likeholding the truth and the lie equal.How could it ever be admitted that the religion which bringspeople to ecstasy and is so dominant over man’s existence andmorality be without foundation or invented by people? Arepeople to depend on the religion or is the religion to be inventedby people? People’s worshipping the things which theythemselves have fabricated is heretical. Such heresy waswidespread among the people who worshipped idols beforeIslam and it was symptomatic of their being base and stupid.The reformer says:“The golden chain, that is, the idea of nationality, which hasbeen discovered in recent centuries to tie people tightly andsafely to one another, will replace the coarse chain, which willsome day break. If, instead of brotherhood in religion, theconcepts of nationalism and patriotism had been established,the youth would have survived.”If the modernist reformer believed in religion, he would notcompare religion with nationalism or education, nor say “thecoarse chain” about Islamic brotherhood while saying “thegolden chain” about national unity. It is understood from thestatements made by reformers that religion is supposed tocorrect the morality of the common people, who will be made tobelieve not superficially but truely; in order to bind the people tothemselves like a flock of sheep, they will give place to thereligion; the people shall believe in the religion, but they- 13 -