The Denier of Religion

SURAH AL-MĀ‘ŪN: THE STORY OF THOSE WHO CORRUPT RELIGION

THEY ACCEPT RELIGION, YET THEY CORRUPT IT

They practise religion.

They perform Salah.

They uphold religious laws, practices and language.

Yet religion has become so corrupted within them that they not only harm themselves but also use religion to harm others.

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VERSE 1 — RELIGION IN THEIR HANDS, HUMANITY CONSTRAINED

أَرَأَيْتَ الَّذِي يُكَذِّبُ بِالدِّينِ

The denier of religion is not necessarily someone who stands outside religion.

They accept religion but practise and convey it in ways that harm human beings.

Religion is in their hands, yet people become constrained.

Religion is on their tongues, yet people’s minds are locked.

Religion is present in their practices, yet people are excluded.

Religion becomes corrupted when it is conveyed in a harmful way.

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VERSE 2 — MAKING ORPHANS OF THOSE WHO DO NOT FOLLOW THEIR SCHOOL OF THOUGHT

فَذَٰلِكَ الَّذِي يَدُعُّ الْيَتِيمَ

They do not merely rebuke others.

They make orphans of those who do not follow their school of thought.

They isolate certain groups, exclude and belittle them, and suppress anyone who seeks the truth beyond the boundaries they have established.

Anyone who does not follow their prevailing views is treated as an outsider.

Anyone who wishes to think is regarded as a disturbance.

Anyone who seeks the truth outside their framework is considered wrong.

They create groups who are spiritually and intellectually “orphaned”.

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VERSE 3 — FORCING PEOPLE TO REMAIN IMPOVERISHED

وَلَا يَحُضُّ عَلَىٰ طَعَامِ الْمِسْكِينِ

The most severe form of poverty is poverty of understanding.

Those who corrupt religion force people to remain impoverished.

They do not want people to understand.

They want people to remain dependent.

They restrict freedom of thought.

They limit knowledge to what they permit.

They turn the text into a wall rather than a doorway.

They want people to remain impoverished:

impoverished in reason,

impoverished in understanding,

impoverished in the courage to think,

impoverished in conviction.

Then they claim:

ONLY WE ARE RIGHT.

Yet truth does not submit to power, position, institutions, the number of followers or the majority.

Truth remains true even if only one person stands by it.

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VERSE 4 — SALAH AS A BENCHMARK

فَوَيْلٌ لِّلْمُصَلِّينَ

Salah becomes a benchmark.

It shows whether people have understood religion correctly or have gone astray.

If Salah is understood as something to be established — pass.

If Salah is turned into an act of worship directed towards a separate object of worship — fail.

Salah is not merely a practice.

It becomes an indicator of religious understanding.

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VERSE 5 — MISUNDERSTANDING SALAH

الَّذِينَ هُمْ عَن صَلَاتِهِمْ سَاهُونَ

Within this framework:

HEEDLESSNESS = MISUNDERSTANDING SALAH

Salah is meant to be established and manifested.

Yet they turn it into a relationship between two separate parties:

God on one side.

Human beings on the other.

As though:

Allah is the employer.

Human beings are the employees.

As though human beings perform certain acts to receive wages from a distant God.

This is where the misunderstanding becomes profound.

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THEY CONSTRUCT AN IMAGINED GOD

They imagine Allah as an unseen being separate from themselves.

As though Allah is far away.

As though Allah’s attributes have no relationship with human existence.

Yet within human beings are attributes that have been lent to them:

life,

knowledge,

will,

hearing,

sight,

ability.

None of these belongs absolutely to human beings.

They are merely on loan.

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ALLAH AND HUMAN BEINGS ARE NOT A SEPARATE EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYEE

They construct a religious relationship resembling worldly relationships:

employer and employee,

master and servant,

payer and wage earner.

Yet Allah is One.

Human beings do not exist independently of what He has bestowed upon them.

The spirit is lent.

The physical body is lent.

Ability is lent.

Consciousness is lent.

Reason is lent.

Everything human beings use to say “I” does not belong to them absolutely.

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HUMAN BEINGS ARE MERELY MEMORY

Much of what human beings call the “self” depends on memory.

The body changes.

Cells are replaced.

Mental states change.

Emotions change.

Age changes.

Yet human beings still say:

“THIS IS ME.”

What binds all these changes together?

Memory.

Recollection.

A sense of continuity.

Human beings regard memory as the “self”.

Then that “self” is defended.

And from this arises:

THE EGO.

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VERSE 6 — CONSTRUCTING THE “I”

الَّذِينَ هُمْ يُرَاءُونَ

They affirm an “I” that does not actually exist independently.

They receive everything, yet they then say:

I.

The body is not absolutely theirs.

The spirit is not absolutely theirs.

Ability is not absolutely theirs.

Attributes are not absolutely theirs.

Yet human beings continue to claim:

“I EXIST.”

This is where deception occurs.

This is where arrogance begins.

This is where human beings begin to appropriate the rights of the Creator.

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TRUE ARROGANCE IS THE EGO

Arrogance is not merely boasting, showing off, looking down on others or displaying one’s superiority.

Those are only its outward effects.

The root of arrogance is:

THE EGO.

As long as human beings continue to defend the claim:

“I EXIST,”

the root of arrogance remains alive.

From the “I” arise:

I know,

I am right,

I own,

I am capable,

I determine.

Yet all of these rest upon what has been lent.

The most fundamental form of arrogance is constructing an “I” that has no independent existence.

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VERSE 7 — WITHHOLDING AL-MĀ‘ŪN

وَيَمْنَعُونَ الْمَاعُونَ

Within this framework, Al-Mā‘ūn means:

HELP.

They reject the reality that their very existence depends upon help.

They acknowledge:

“We were created.”

Yet they continue to defend the claim:

“I EXIST.”

This is where the contradiction lies.

If one has been created, how could one’s existence be independent?

If the spirit has been lent, how could the “I” be its absolute owner?

If the physical body has been lent, how could the “I” become the centre of all rights?

Verse 6 — constructing the “I”.

Verse 7 — defending the “I”.

The ego becomes increasingly entrenched.

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THE ROOT OF ALL CORRUPTION

Surah Al-Mā‘ūn exposes those who corrupt religion from among religious people themselves.

They accept religion.

They perform Salah.

Yet religion in their hands:

makes orphans of those who do not follow their school of thought,

suppresses seekers of truth,

impoverishes understanding,

restricts freedom of thought,

claims that truth belongs to their group,

constructs an imagined God,

separates Allah from human beings,

misunderstands Salah,

constructs the “I”,

and defends the ego.

Salah becomes the benchmark.

If it is truly established, human beings begin to understand.

If it goes astray and becomes an act of worship directed towards a separate object of worship, the deviation begins to reveal itself.

At the end of all this corruption stands a single root:

I.

TRUE ARROGANCE IS NOT SHOWING OFF.

TRUE ARROGANCE IS THE EGO.

The denier of religion is someone who accepts religion but corrupts it until religion becomes a tool for harming human beings.