Friday 15 July 2016

Is "Humanity" becoming the new shirk?

Without wishing to speak ill of the dead or trivialise the numerous achievements of the late Abdul Sattar Edhi, at the same time, I cannot turn a blind eye to this latest trend of influencing Muslims away from Islam and to this new deity people call "humanity". It's reached a point where even Muslim charities veer away from the old language of "give what you can for the sake of Allah" to the current language of "give what you can for the sake of humanity".

There is a deliberate attempt to use distancing language, language that distances the Muslims from Islam and instead places a greater emphasis on moral/ethical/humanitarian achievements as the measure of goodness instead of Islam. This is part of a larger global secular attack on Islam. I am not accusing Edhi of being part of a conspiracy to secularise Muslims as many Muslims (even practising ones) have fallen into this trap inadvertently. I ask that Allah (swt) accepts and rewards Edhi for his many many good deeds and forgives the bad and does not allow the bad to become a source of misguidance for others- ameen.

Whilst I readily admit that compassion for other human beings is consistent with and integral to Islam, I also cannot deny that the statement attributed to the late Edhi "No religion is higher than humanity" is a statement that has no basis in Islam and the implications of that statement come dangerously close to shirk because it can be interpreted as placing another set of values above Islam. I realise many will say "that is not what Edhi meant"- perhaps that is not what he meant, but that is what he said and that is what it is taken to mean by many and that cannot be ignored. Besides, no one is above being corrected no matter how numerous their good deeds are as apart from the Prophets (as), no human being is infallible. Also, doesn't Allah's (swt) statement in Surah Asr "Verily mankind is in loss" use the term "mankind" to refer to what is otherwise known as "humanity"? So on the one hand, we're supposed to accept that no religion is higher than humanity, when in fact Allah (swt) is telling us that humanity are at a loss EXCEPT for those who believe and do good deeds etc. So Allah (swt) is placing belief, good deeds and calling for sabr as the one thing that will save humanity and prevent it from being at a loss whilst there are people who call themselves Muslims out there saying no religion higher than humanity.

Allah (swt) knows best what Edhi's intentions were behind this statement, whether he meant it or whether it was mistranslated or taken out of context by modernists, but what I have witnessed is how many Muslims have taken this statement and are running with it as an endorsement of placing "humanity" above everything else, including deen as the ultimate criteria to ascertain the difference between right and wrong, just like how many naïve, ignorant or secular Muslims take the kufr criteria of human rights because they have not been taught about its inherent contradiction with Islam.