There are discussions among experts on religion and the modern world. Some believe that religion should be eliminated from the life of human being, it is considered obsolete. On the contrary, some argued that no matter the technological advancement achieved by man, religion is very necessary for the salvation of man. Therefore, we shall examine in this article on the necessity of religion towards the salvation of man.
What is Religion?
There is differences of opinion among the scholars on the definition of religion. According to Oxford Dictionaries, religion is defined as the belief in the existence of god or gods, and the activities that are connected with the worship of them.
Sayyid Sa’eed Akhtar Rizvi writes, the Arabic word “Deen” which is translated as “Religion” in English is used for several meanings:
(a) Islam; Belief in the unity of God; Worship; Obedience; All the acts of worship; piety. All these meanings are interrelated and are connected with the belief in the Creator.
(b) Judgment; Reward or Punishment; Account; Order; Law; These meanings are inter-related and point to the belief in the Life-Hereafter.
(c) The third group of its meanings is: “Custom; character; Habit; Religion revealed and traditional both.’”
The idea behind the word “deen” is that man, by his nature, has to have a pattern of life-based upon some spiritual ideals or ideas which we call ‘belief’. It appears that the word “deen” is more comprehensive than the English word ‘’Religion’’ which puts emphasis on only ‘’Human recognition of superhuman controlling power and especially of a personal god or gods entitled to obedience and worship, effects of such recognition or conduct of mental attitude, the particular system of faith and worship.”
Misunderstandings About Religion
Often we hear some patent slogans used against “Religion” that are nowadays widely used by the communists. These include:
(a) Religion is anti-science.
(b) Religion was a drug invented by Capitalists to keep the oppressed classes content with their wretched condition. In other words, it was opium to make people seep.
(c) Religion retards material and intellectual progress.
Let us now examine these allegations. All these statements have been made by the Europeans (from Karl Marx to Bertrand Russell) who had known a particular religion only, i.e. Christianity. They committed the intellectual sin of seeing a particular religion and assuming all religions (including Islam) must be of the same caliber. It was, to say the least, a fallacy, if not a deliberate deception.
To explain the above statement, it is necessary to point out just in general outline what was the attitude of Christianity towards knowledge and progress.
‘’From the sixteenth century A.D., the conflict between the church and science began. This most unfortunate struggle was not started by the scientist but by the protagonists of Christianity, who feared that their religion was in dire danger of losing its hold on the masses. Their house of cards was threatening to fall down. Both Catholics and Protestants, though they were at logger-heads themselves, took the same stand against the impact of the revolutionary scientific theories of Copernicus and Galileo. They did what every tyrant, afraid of his inherent weakness, does. Ruthless persecutions were launched against the brave scientists who defied the church and said what they knew was the truth.
At first, we should take Copernicus (Nicolaus Copernicus) 1473-1543, as he was the man who set the ball rolling. He did not dare to publish his work, “On the revolution of Heavenly Bodies’’, for a long time due to the fear of the church. In the end, he successfully tried to appease the church by dedicating the book to the Pope. In fact, his publisher wrote a preface alleging that the theory of the earth’s motion was only a hypothesis and not an assertion as a positive truth. In the words of Lord Bertrand Russell, ‘For a time, these tactics sufficed, and it was only Galileo’s bolder defiance that brought retrospective condemnation upon Copernicus. (Religion and Science)
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), though once a friend of Pope Urban VIII, was thrown into the prison of Inquisition by the orders of the same pope and threatened with torture if he did not recant. Galileo’s only crime was that he supported the Copernican system because of the observations made with his telescope. These observations were more difficult to cope with for the church than the theoretical of Copernicus.
“Giordano Bruno (1549-1600) was another victim of the cruelty of the ‘tolerant people. He was burnt alive. As Lord Bertrand Russell has written: “Theologians were not slow to point out that the new doctrine would make the incarnation difficult to believe.” (Religion and Science)
“So the Inquisition announced the following as the truth: “The first proposition that the sun is the center and does not revolve about the earth is foolish, absurd, false in theology and heretical; because expressly contrary to the Holy Scriptures. The second proposition that the earth is not center, but revolves about the sun is absurd, false in philosophy, and from a theological point of view at least opposed to the true faith’ (Religion and Science).
“And as it was not enough, the Jesuit Father Melchior Inchofer postulated that ‘the opinion of the earth’s motion is of all heresies the most abominable, the most pernicious, the most scandalous; the immovability of the earth is thrice sacred; arguments against the immortality of the soul, the existence of God, and the Incarnation should be tolerated sooner than an argument to prove that the earth moves’ (Religion and, Science).
Faced with this ruthless oppression, the scientists, in their turn, denounced Christianity as ”anti-intellectual, anti-science, a pack of superstitions and degrading to human progress”. What is not understandable is that they aimed their broad-side to all the religions; certainly, Islam can never be termed unscientific, illogical or anti-progress.
Necessary Qualities of a Religion
The following are the qualities of a religion:
(a) First of all, Religion must satisfy the intelligence and intellect of the Man. Of course, there are many religions whose motto is “First believe, then you can understand.” Frankly speaking, such religions retard the mind and should be termed (and are in fact called) “anti-intellect.” Islam, as explained by the Twelver Shia faith, gives foremost place to intellect and reason. “Intellect” is one of the four basic sources of Islamic laws in the Twelver Shia faith. Not only this. This faith emphasizes that the matter of faith must be understood by the believer by his own reasoning.
(b) Religion must teach and preserve the dignity of man. There are religions that demand that their followers should prostrate before the pictures or statues of some human beings or some animals or other inanimate things. Such religions degrade their followers to the furthest extent and should be condemned as such. Some other religions teach the superiority of one race or caste over others. On the contrary, it was Islam which was and is the pioneer of the equality of mankind and which, for the first time in the history of religions taught and practiced the human brotherhood, equality, and equity, and presented the the dignity of humanity as a fact to the astonished eyes of mankind.
(c) Religion must be a complete guide to develop the human body, mind, and spirit as a whole. There are some religions that put too much emphasis on spiritualism and ignore the body and mind; there are others that have a great deal to say on physical or intellectual advancement. Such religions cannot take their followers very far, because the development taught by them is lop-sided. It is only Islam, as explained by Twelver Shia faith, which develops a person as a whole – body, mind and soul altogether.
(d) Religion must have a complete code of life. Religions just preaching to “love thy neighbor” without showing the way, are useless when faced with practical problems. Islam has a complete code of life that guides a man in his family life, social commitments, financial matters, moral and ethical behavior perfectly.
(e) Religion must be in conformity with human nature. There are religions that tend to ignore the nature of man. For example, some religions teach celibacy. They declare by their behavior (if not in so many words) that the Creator made a mistake in creating sexual urges in human beings. Also, they forget (or pretend to forget) that natural instincts cannot be crushed, and that such impositions tend to lead the person to secret liaisons. And, I wonder what would be the future of humanity if all mankind becomes the practicing followers of such a religion? Surely, mankind would be extinct within a space of 40 or 50 years. Needless to say that such a religion cannot lead mankind to prosperity, because by its nature such religion is against the continuity of humanity.
(f) Religion should not be a tool in the hands of oppressors to suppress the masses. Many religions are rightly accused by the atheists of being just an instrument of the feudal overlords to suppress the oppressed masses and muffle the voice of protest. Such religions, for example, taught the theory of ‘Predestination’. Thus, the masses were lulled to believe that all the evil doings, tyranny, and wickedness of the ruling classes were just a manifestation of the Will of God; therefore, such things should before being born without any protest. Such religions have no place in this enlightened century. It is only Islam, as explained by the Twelver Shia faith, which said that such a belief was a humbug, that every man is responsible for his own actions and that its responsibility should not be shifted upon God.
In conclusion, religion is a light that gives direction to life and it is one of the crucial requisites for salvation in this world and the Hereafter. Thus, religion is necessary for salvation of man in this world and in the Hereafter. It will appear from the above criteria that among the vast multitudes of the world religions, it is only the Islam (Twelver Shia faith) fulfills all the necessary conditions of true and enlightened religion.
Source: www.al-Islam.org
