Thursday, October 2, 2014

Hajj-e-Akbar and Deen-e-Capitalism

I am not a mufti or a financial expert. I am an ordinary Muslim who is deeply concerned about the combined ideological onslaught of secularism and capitalism on Muslim societies. We are passing through 9th ZilHajj (Arafat Day), but I may be excused for saying that Hajj nowadays has become a sequence of rituals in which you are taken around in packaged tours by commercial companies. Much like if you buy a package from some vacation tour company with all the comforts of life. The spirit is mostly gone. Hajj means effort, please look at the pictures of Arafat below and tell me where the effort is? Does it convey any idea that on the Day of Judgment this place will be the place where all of us will be collected and it will be intense hot on that day ( no Pepsi) ? 

 No wonder that three million Muslims, who are expected to perform Hajj this year, will have almost no effect on their countries of origin when they return back. Look at the picture below and honestly tell your heart which looks more impressive the


clock tower or Kaaba? Can you even make out Kaaba?


Ziauddin Sardar has written a very good piece in NY Times on how this soul killing process is being implemented by government of Saudi Arabia. I particularly like this line of his “Mecca is a microcosm of the Muslim world. What happens to and in the city has a profound effect on Muslims everywhere. The spiritual heart of Islam is an ultramodern, monolithic enclave, where difference is not tolerated, history has no meaning, and consumerism is paramount”. I am well aware of dangers of “shirk” and support efforts to curtail it, but what about the capitalistic “shirk”?
I fully agree with his assertion that “What happens to and in the city has a profound effect on Muslims everywhere”. The blatant display of capitalism’s trapping in Mecca is not limited to architecture only. Take for example Islamic banking, it is not just as an isolated activity, but as another movement of the global capitalism, to penetrate societies which were still out of its mortal stranglehold. The aims and objectives of capitalism are 180 degree opposed to what Islam wants its followers to aim for. The objective of capitalism is accumulation of wealth while Quran tells us that wealth should circulate and not stay in few hands. 
Islam promotes brotherhood and a free spirit, but capitalism wants an atomized individual who is full of desires and at the same time always chained in fear, afraid, afraid of becoming old, afraid of becoming poor, afraid of getting sick, so on and so forth. Capitalism, with the help of secularism, first promotes these desires and fears in a society and then offers solutions from its bag of tricks. If you are afraid as to who will take care of you, when you get old, capitalism offers old people’s homes. If you are afraid of getting sick capitalism offers health insurance. If you are afraid of someone stealing your car, capitalism offers car insurance. If you desire a certain look, capitalism offers plastic surgery. So basically for every desire & fear it promotes, it has setup a shop for us to purchase capitalistic solution. At the end of the day, these shops kill our soul and transfer wealth from us into the pockets of global capitalists. 
The global capitalists have realized that there is a huge untapped market for these shops in the Islamic world. The challenge for capitalists is that even in its down trodden situation, some in the Muslim Ummah, look at haram and hallal aspect of things. So the global capitalists put a “hari chaddar (green sheet)” on all of its shops and declared them to be hallal and Islamic. So now we have halal Islamic banking, halal Islamic insurance, Muslim beauty pageant ( held in Jakarta September 2014) and so on and so forth. 
As I said earlier our ideology is 180 degree opposed to that of capitalism. We are told to fear and trust only Allah and nothing else, like prophet Ibraheem (PBUH) when he sacrificed his son. Until and unless we create a society, in which all aspects of the society are based upon the principle of Tauheed, we are doomed not only in this world but more importantly in the next one also. Creating these green colored capitalists shops gives the illusion that we are moving in some direction, the problem is that this movement is totally in the wrong direction. It will create a society which has an external green body but its soul will be red hot capitalistic. May Allah guide us all on the true path, ameen. Happy Eid to you and your family.


13 comments:

Tayyab said...

Another sole killing process by KSA is that they have made Hajj to be a lot more easy and relaxing that it used to be. A pilgrim does not feel much difference among Hajj and a hiking trip. I believe that the spirit of Hajj is in physical, monitory and psychological struggle by the pilgrim. Hajj is supposed to build the character of a Muslim rather than considering it a leisure trip. When these pilgrims return home, they can not say NO to any sin or to stop someone from committing a crime or even can not speak the truth. Everything being done for the "ease" of pilgrims is not bearing any fruits because all these efforts are done with a capitalistic mind. KSA is making the pilgrims "impotent" so that no Muslim dare to side by the truth and oppose the false.

Unknown said...

Great post! Thanks for sharing. Really very useful and informative post. I am fully agree with his assertion that “What happens to and in the city has a profound effect on Muslims everywhere”. The blatant display of capitalism’s trapping in Mecca is not limited to architecture only. Take for example Islamic banking, it is not just as an isolated activity, but as another movement of the global capitalism, to penetrate societies which were still out of its mortal stranglehold. The aims and objectives of capitalism are 180 degree opposed to what Islam wants its followers to aim for. The objective of capitalism is accumulation of wealth while Quran tells us that wealth should circulate and not stay in few hands.

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Unknown said...

Its easy to criticize a system, but we must appreciate that Gora System or whatever name we suggest to it, has successfully captured 100% of the world's economy. The fact of the matter is that we are unable to produce human resource which is capable enough to challenge this system. I do not know, but looks like we never had and will have bright minds (not on individual level but on a collective-society level). May be due to evolution, or may be due to a strange DNA sequence, which always accepts, but never produces rational thinking, except kids.

Unknown said...

Why the Shuttle-Train in Mecca costs SAR 120.

Muhammed said...

مہترم استاد صاحب، ماشااللھ آپ بہت فکر رکھنے والے آدمی ہیں،

آپ کو چاہیےکہ جہاد بالسیف میں حصہ لیں۔

وقت تیزی کے ساتھ ہاتھ سے نکل رہا ہے۔

اللہ تعالیٰ ہدایت دینے والے ہیں۔وہ کسی کے ساتھ ظلم نہیں کرتا، ہر روح کو خودآزماتا ہےاور اپنی حجت پوری کرتا ہے۔

میں اور آپ لوگوں کو ہدایت نہیں دے سکتے
ہم تو خود ہدایت کے محتاج
ہیں۔

ہمیں تو بس وہ کرنا ھے جو اللہ کے نبی نے ہمیں سکھایا بس اسی میں ہماری کامیابی ہے۔

اور ایسی صورتِ حال میں کہ جب مسلمان عورتیں تک غیر مسلموں کی جیلوں میں قید ہیں توآپ خود بتایں کہ اللہ کے نبی کا کیا عمل ہوتا

صرف دعوت دے رہے ہوتے یا میدانِ جہاد میں ہوتے؟

اگر آپ تیار ہیں یا کسی اور کو تیار کر سکیں تو مجھےای میل کر دیجیےگا۔
راستے اللہ پاک کھولیں گے۔ انشااللہ۔

جزاکم اللہ

Nadeem Ghafoor said...

Dear brother Muhammed, AoA, I respect and appreciate your strong emotional attachment to jihad bissaif (launching war against kuffar to uphold Islam). Yes it is an obligation on Muslim ummah to launch war against the Capitalist West, carry the message of Islam to the world and remove physical barriers that the Capitalist West has constructed to stop propagation of Islam. Removing these physical barriers is jihad bissaif. Jihad bissaif, dawa and propagation of Islam go hand-in-hand.
However who is launching war against the Kafir Capitalist today? Name one group, party, country, government or Muslim army who is consciously fighting this ideological war in all fronts? Jihadi groups are killing Muslims in Libya, Iraq, Syria and Pakistan in the name of Jihad. These groups, who proudly kill Muslims, never attack Capitalist power structures/centers. While Muslims are being slaughtered in the name of Jihad bissaif, capitalist kings enjoy peace.
There are some sincere jihadi leaders like Mulla Ummar, who have clearly stated that their war is only against Kuffar (and not Muslims). However these sincere leaders also can only try to defend their own land. Mulla Umar continues his struggle against the US-lead Western Capitalist occupation of Afghanistan. I strongly support Mulla Umar's armed struggle against American occupation of Afghanistan. However, based upon my limited knowledge, even Mulla Umar has no plans and is completely incapable of attacking the heart of the capitalistic beast.
The fact of the matter is that a very sophisticated intellectual war is being waged in the Muslim countries. This war is worse than the physical war, because you can clearly see the destruction of physical war, whereas the results of this war are devastated souls inside healthy bodies. These souls are being conquered in our educational institutions where Deen-e-capitalism is being taught. At least 11 universities in Pakistan are offering master level degree programs in so called “Islamic Banking” with many more courses on topics like “Takaful” etc at undergrad and grad level. As I mentioned in my article, these are all intellectual weapons of global capitalists to subvert Islam from inside. This way they don’t need to fight us on the battle field. Once we accept these ideas then why would they fight us? We would be their ideological brothers in this Deen-e-capitalism.

Unknown said...

Sir,
Amazingly written. I wish Muslims around the world realize this one day.
Jazak Allah for your efforts.
Regards,
Bilal K Qazi

Muhammed said...

جزاک اللہ میرےمیسج کے جواب کے لیے ۔

Rabeet said...

A very well written and deep interest you have Sir! your articles are very helping to educate peoples.

RAHEELA said...

read your piece today, its thought provoking,
agree to your ideas about the ills of capitalist banking system,cultural invasion, making money our new God, bit the question remains the same "how to counter it?

Desmund Tutu said
'nature never leaves a vaccum, when right ppl do not come forward it is filled by the wrong ones "

my understanding of the issue states that the greatest of all jihad, now a days is to be done by the ppl holding the pens , ppl who can impress and conquer the minds , as the published word has become the greatest of all weapons and at the same time turns ourselves and preach to shun exhibitionism and lead a simple life as the one who is satisfied with one roti and one pair of clothes does not seek the bidders os his soul so easily
why saudis have to turn the Allah 's house a shop, and have to arrange maidane arafat like a picnic spot as the new hajis are unable to tolerate hunger , thirst, sun and heat and from the very beginning serving hajis with the best of resources is considered an esteemed act

RAHEELA said...
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Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

AoA sir with due rspact. There is one hadees mafhoom (deeds depend upon intentions ) can any body go for hajj on camel ? It's Ramadan it means we have to sit under the sun while having fast just to feel intensity of thirst ? So my point is that we need to know what our prophet (PBUH) said about the this era and next to it and we have to do planning accordingly .
There will b a war against India called gazwaye hind(it is hadees) we have to prepared for it.
Other than debating on huge topics like capitalism. It's not an issue. The world is going towords disaster .these are temporary issues now. Main point is qayamat is near the second largest population of jews r sitting in Iran and Hindus padri declare that under study of stars war is near to start but ham all are ready bas ham pakistanioun ko he ni pata...
Sir log story short kidly resarch on these real Islamic issues. Banking system automatically disperse when world close to an end. W/S