Is religion a deception?

By Dr.Waqar Maqsood
Exclusive Article

Religion follows three aspects of mental activity: acquire knowledge on the basis of observation, form an intuitive idea of the laws of universe, consider all the natural laws with the arrangement of their links to be consistent with the idea. So religion shapes the mental frame work according to the ideal situation.

But strangely few individuals don’t follow the course by heart. Some of them take it as a burden on their souls. For many people it remain a dream only to adopt any religion strictly. The reason is that actions are controlled by emotions and mental quotient both. To take religion in the course of life as a standard is only possible when the individuals get guarantee that it will work for three aspects in their life which are deeply embedded wishes of humans: richness or money for livelihood, peace of mind and heart ,power on other individuals. All religions promise for the fulfillment of all of them.

The same things had been promised by some philosophies too.For example according to the theorists who believe in conflict (Karl Marx) assume that all injustices and cruelties are because of the tyranny which rich people exercise on poor. According to their thought families, schools, laws of the society are developed to safeguard the interests of influential individuals. In all these aspects the center of ideal is materialistic gains. According to Karl Marx: “The mode of production of the material-subsistence conditions the social, political and spiritual life processes in general”. Engels, the friend of Marx says “Marx discovered the simple fact that human beings must have food, drink, clothing and shelter first of all before they can interest themselves in politics, science and religion and the like”. As a solution Marxists recommend that if all individuals believe on this fact and make a revolutionary move they will be able to get wealth, inner peace and power on earth.

Another famous philosopher Freud recommended that sexual needs shape the mental frame work of individuals that he explains as conscious and sub-conscious. He focus so much on sexual desires that in one paper he writes: ” A storm of desire is always surging in the unconscious mind which is sexual in nature and which every man and woman wishes to gratify endlessly…but it is under strong pressure from society which prevents it from satisfying its desire..But by repressing them, the individual suffer from mental diseases such as worry, hysteria and insanity. In order that the individuals is protected from these diseases the society has taken certain innovative measures to divert the attention of the individuals from these desires. They are known as religion, morality, philosophy, science, art etc”. His popularity led to the relaxation of restrictions imposed by the society and religion on sex in the West. It is a common observation in Europe and America that satisfaction of sexual desire with freedom is necessary for peace of mind and heart which is necessary to use mental faculty for acquiring other goals of life.

Adler, a new-Freudian who considers that not sex but the desire of self assertiveness on other individuals is the basic desire in the subconsciousness which shape the consciousness of individuals. He considers that Politics, arts, religion, moralities all are result of human desire to assert himself over other individuals. In other words if Freud considers man as a brute dominated by sex, Adler thinks him to be a devil suffering from the incurable disease of asserting himself over others.

Many other philosophers also judged the human life according to their observation which was negation to the dominant religions of their time. But they achieved the status of prophets.

Machiavelli believes that the protection and progress of the state is the greatest aim of man’s life. Therefore religion and morality must be subservient to the glory of the state. His book THE PRINCE is still considered as mod-us operand of the politicians. The existence of the national states in Europe and the methods of the European politicians and their Asiatic followers for its protection and progress in which they treat other nations cruelly in different ways in the name of religion, morality, virtue, civilization, human justice, nobility and freedom are the result of the preachings of this philosopher. Falsehood on the part of politicians is considered as an art which is called by the names of diplomacy, statesmanship etc. It also received considerable support from Hegel’s theory of the state. Hegel thinks that state is a sacred entity which has the right to unlimited expansion and unqualified submission.

The real causes for the success of these philosophies are scientific appeal, material progress and gratification of superficial and ordinary desires of individuals.For example, the theory of Freud removes all restrictions from sexuality, socialism considers the satisfaction of basic economic needs as the primary concern of man and nationalism promotes the idea of love of superiority and dominance.

But failure of Marshall plan, end of socialistic rule in Russia, the discovery of different kinds of diseases by unprotected sex, psychological set backs by following the desire of self assertion and destruction of global peace in relation to nationalistic thoughts in the form of world war I&II had clearly manifested that philosophy is unbelievable and one should seek for the divine truths. Now if someone wants to interject over it that the fall of Islam’s golden era was the failure of Islamic philosophy and the dark ages of Christianity was the failure of Jesus philosophy, I would like to answer him that it was not due to the failures of philosophies but was a result of wrong interpretation of those philosophies according to their own needs of time. If someone feels it as unsatisfactory answer I would like to make him imagine a state where all universal truths are being adopted in the lives of all individuals. Although it would be a dream-land but imagine a part of land where every one has the fear of God in his life, where no one can be involved in secret sexual relations, where law is equal for rich and poor, where rich give part of their wealth to poor as a duty, where every one works not for materialistic gains but as a worship to Allah Almighty, where the king of the land is chosen by the wise people and king works only for the benefits of people as a servant not for his own glory. I think my counter fellow will say that to formulate such type of the state is impossible because of the human nature which endows the equal amount of evil as the goodness. To this I would like to answer him that if even an evil of the person get the right outlet, and by purification of his soul as philosophy promises and history shows an evidence in the form of Muslim state in Medina consisting of more than 20000 people which is a definition of a metropolitan i find him satisfied.

In fact religion gives the concept of glory of God. Quran in sorah Zariyat 51:56 explains that the urge in the human’s subconsciousness which motivate all the actions is nearness to Allah not sex, not to achieve wealth nor to work for the glory of the state but only a deep hearted wish to have nearness of Allah:”I have only created jinns and men, that they may serve Me”.This urge is an unconscious one. When we know this urge properly, we can satisfy it correctly. In surah Ra’d 13:28 Quran claims: “For without doubt in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find satisfaction”. My love to prophet(saw) who guided us about the way to achieve nearness of Allah. On his birth day on 12 Rabi’ ul-Awal, I say my heartily thanks to my master, guide, spiritual father Hazrat Muhammad(saw). May we all know this truth with full confidence and shape our life accordingly.

The article is contributed to pkarticleshub.com