Philosophically thinking, the biggest problem
of the world is forgetting Allah, the creator; to become indifferent
of His existence. Allah subhana wa ta-a-la said, "O Man! what has seduced
thee from thy Lord Most Benificent?" (82:6). At present day it is indeed a
reality that mankind is negligent of their creator. Atheistic beliefs
are predominantin Europe and a major trend in America.
Russia had been a self declared atheist nation for long. Even among the
believers, many are skeptics. Skeptics don't openly claim that there is no
Creator but they are insensitive about the existence of a creator and
do not consider remembrance of Him as an important matter.
This is the condition of all communities,
even those who believe in God are oblivious of Him in their
practical life. In comparison, however, the Muslims are yet less affected by
atheism and skepticism. They are more or less practicing believers. Even the
Muslims, who consider themselves secular, observe the Islamic rituals to
some extent. They too say their prayers, do fasting in the Ramadan,
celebrate the Eids and care about the Halal and Haraam.
Forgetfulness of God has basically created two
problems: materialism and atheism. The above mentioned two are the
fundamental reason of the crisis of the world today. It can be mentioned that
hard-core or extreme secularism produce same kind of behaviour as the
atheists and skeptics.
The forgetfulness of God has also affected the
education system, which is entirely built upon secularism. Present day
science is based on secular perception. European scholars and even the
Muslim scholars today do not begin their books with "the name of Creator or
God". On the contrary, when the Muslims were making development in science,
learning from China and India, they contributed into many branches of
sciences. At that time, Muslim scientists used to start every books of
science in the name of their Lord. They were sincere believers. But the
European scientists, not being believers of God or considering expression of
belief to be a humiliating fact, never mentioned the name of the creator.
Muslim scientists of today can write it. Unfortunately they are also not
doing it these days. Earlier writing the name of God was the custom. Today
avoding it has become the custom.
In books of sciences there is no reference to
the word Allah or God. The word 'Creator' is not used at all. It is an
amazing thing. In some cases, the term 'nature' is used instead of creator,
which is very confusing. What is 'nature' is not clear at all. They never
think how these natural laws came into existence. How come laws could exist
without a lawgiver (creator of the law)? They claim to be the most rational,
but I am finding no rationality at all in this point.
The modern science has numerous benefits and
uses, we agree tothat. But it is driven by a mind that is skeptic on
the question of God. A mind that does not recognize God, does not mention
God, even considers mentioning God an uncivilized matter. These
concepts behind modern scientific thinking are affecting our culture and
promoting skepticism and atheism.
Some social sciences maintains similar
view in this issue. Sociology assumes that religion is a man-made concept.
But they could have promoted the concept that God has created us, and gives
us a tendency to be social by giving a social mind. Inclination to communal
life of human beings is the design andpart of plan of God. That is why we become united and
form society. The anthropologists
are not admitting that God has created human beings. They completely reject
this idea. Anthropology is trying to discover the origin of man by digging
into the earth searching for fossils. From those they are saying that human
being came into existence spontaneously; there is no Creator.
I would like to mention here that poverty is a
big crisis of present day world. A large number of people cannot remain good
and honestbecause of poverty. This crisis is also in the
ultimate analysis a product of atheism, secularism and hedonism. Most
of the peoplehavebecome secularist today. It appears that they
do not feel the importance of working for the poor and eliminating
poverty. Particularly the capitalists of the world don't
seem to want this at all.There is no mention of any real concern
for the poor in the literature ofeconomics of capitalism. It
mentions profit, open market; it talks about non-intervention of the
governmentin financial issues. But it never really solves the problem
of market distortion. Capitalism has become an inhuman economic thought
in the name of Positivism, the other name of discarding moral principles in
the economic field.It never mentions elimination of poverty. Some
capitalist nations do take action against poverty but they are doing
that by going out of the framework of capitalism, not because this is the
demand of capitalist philosophy.
Colonialism and Imperialism are also offshoots
of materialism. The inspiration to seek more and more pleasaure for
oneself and his nation is the root of these concepts. Exploiting the people
for one's own benefit is their purpose. The selfishness and capitalism are
not unrelated. All these concepts together have made man irresponsible and
have made him hedonist and self-seekers. The responsible people are actually
those who fear Allah and do not exploit the world.
Thus, I must say the root of all problems is
forgetfulness of the Creator. This is the reason for which our prophets came
and told us to obey our Creator.
Thus, the solution of the crisis of the world
today is bringing the faith of God back among the people, both
the Muslims andnon-Muslim. I shall say that believing in any
religion is farbetter than atheism. Because every religion has some
ethics. Atheism has no ethics. The atheist thinks himself to be
independentand not responsible to any higher Being.
He thinks his actions will never be
judged, no one will even question about his actions. So, he can do anything
in this world. People like this are dangerous for the society. For this
reason, faith in God should be reestablished among the people. We have to let
people recognize God, as firmly as possible. We have to have moral
basis in education. This is how we can eliminate selfishness from the
humanity and can solve the root-cause of all problems of the world. Of course,
we have to do many other things for peace and progress of
humanity.
(Translated by Taufiq Hasan, a University faculty, Bangladesh from author's Bangla
article.)