The Islamic Thinking Method is the Path Out from Darkness into Light

The month of Ramadan is the month of contemplation, reflection, worship, submission and servitude, leading to freedom, superiority and victory. Victory of Allah (swt) belongs only to those who possess the true consciousness of servitude, who strictly submit to nothing else than the guidance of their Lord with sincerity, and who embrace nothing else as criteria for themselves than the commands and limits of their Lord. Servitude for the Believer is the strive to shape life according the pleasure of Allah (swt). Hence, Allah (swt) granted the Muslim Ummah the greatest victories and progress during this month. Muslims have been witnesses over humankind and the just Ummah in political, scientific, social, economic and every field of life, providing justice and development for more than 1300 years. The criteria and method that Islam provided for the human being's ability of thinking constitutes the greatest revolution of humankind. On the one hand, this method elevated the human being from the status of a primitive creature consisting of merely instincts and organic needs, and on the other hand, it raised societies whose individuals treated each other with mercy, affection, solidarity, peace and justice. This method made these societies the centre of world history and the cornerstone of civilisations.

It's a fact that Allah's Revelation has not changed. This Revelation is still an energetic, lively and revolutionary book. This book is the source of life for everything. Qur'an is unchanged, but the perception of the Qur’an, the view and the attitude towards it have changed. This is surely the outcome of more than 100 years of colonialist cultural domination upon the Muslims. Today; it is due to the rulers and intellectuals of the Muslims who have lost this Islamic thinking method that the Muslim Ummah is far away from Islam's promised peace and prosperity, unable to escape the darkness of tribulations, suffering, torture, invasions, wars, poverty, misery and helplessness! Without doubt, intellectuals who are kneaded with the culture of kufr and who admire the life-style of kufr, and rulers, who implement non-Islamic ruling systems and policies, thus aiding the kufr, will never be able to lead neither the Ummah of Muhammed nor humankind from darkness into light. Thus, although reciting the Qur'an in this holy month of Ramadan will be a means to achieve forgiveness for our individual sins and elevate our status in Jannah, it will not be enough to return us to our status of a just Ummah and witnesses over humankind. On the contrary, liberation will only come through distinguished Islamic personalities as leaders, rulers and shields of the Ummah, who embrace Qur'an and Sunnah as the only source of their thinking, and servitude to Allah as the only method of their thinking.

Any Western dictated positivist and rationalist approach towards Qur'an, Sunnah and the implementation of the Islamic laws in life deprives us from the benefits of the Qur'anic guidance. These only cause the secularisation of Muslims, and doom them to helplessness in face of the kufr systems and their attacks. Searching for solutions for the problems of the Ummah and mankind within the present realities that surround us means to put Qur'an and Sunnah out of action and to incarcerate the Ummah in that reality. Likewise, implementing Qur'an in one aspect of life, while organizing others according to human mind, contradicts the purpose of the Qur'an, which is to be guidance (Hidayah) and "The Criterion" (Furqan). For example, accepting Qur'an and Sunnah as a norm in matters of worship, religious marriage, eating and clothing but defining justice or injustice in the regulation of society upon gender-equality, or taking Western legal systems as the basis in the fight against crime, embracing democracy and secularism as the pillars of politics, making friends and foes according the dictates of Western powers, appealing to Western states, organisations and institutions to rescue the Muslims from oppression and assenting to their agreements are not and will never be an Islamic thinking method! All of this is by-passing and being selective towards the message of the Noble Qur'an, the Word of Allah the Almighty and the call of Rasulallah (saw). Such an attitude is not only a deficiency in the service to Allah but also the abandoning of the Ummah and mankind into the claws of oppression. Also, regarding empty, fallacious and delusive terms produced from Western kufr minds, like liberty, equality, freedom, human rights, social justice, peace, as a measure to re-interpret and reform Quranic verses, and to call to these is blurring Islamic concepts and values and disconnecting Iman (Islamic faith) from deeds (a’mal). Regarding the laws of the Qur'an related to the woman as void, or labelling the Sunnah of Rasulallah (saw), the view and devotion of the Sahaba, the Tabi'un and Tabi' al-Tabi'in and the great Islamic scholars as "patriarchal", "male-oriented" and "misogynist" is feeding the woman to the desires of hungry wolves. Calling for the modernisation of any of Islam's laws, including its social laws, is betraying Allah's justice and provisions. During times, when Islamic scholars and jurisprudents taught these laws to the people, and when Islamic rulers ruled by these, the woman's honor was protected and the mother was held in high esteem, while Muslim men obeyed the command of the Qur'an in lowering their gaze and protecting their chastity in order to avoid fornication. During times, when the Islamic Jihad was implemented, Muslim men did not occupy themselves with useless activities but they rushed for the rescue of Muslims and non-Muslims from one end of the world to the other by the command of the Khalifah. Led by rulers who embraced the slogan (إِنِ الْحُكْمُ إِلاَّ لِلّهِ) “Legislation is not but for Allah”, the Muslim civilisation became the liberator of humankind and the guarantor of prosperity and justice. So then, in order to get rid of these systems, which prevent us from understanding and implementing these and more Islamic laws, and in order to be honored with Allah's victory, we must comprehend Qur'an and Sunnah with the Islamic thinking method, and we must gird ourselves with the Islamic thinking method once again.

If we want to end a dark era and open the era of light like the Ashab al-Qiram, then we must submit unconditionally to the Qur'an as they did. The world today is once again in need of the Quranic revolution. Allah (swt) wishes to realize this revolution through our hands. The revolutionary Muslim with the Islamic personality will surely face difficulties in his dawah. But we have the prophets and messengers, in particular our beloved Prophet Muhammed Mustafa (saw), his Companions, and thousands of Believing men and women, who serve us as torchlight. They are our role models and motivation in patience, steadfastness and perseverance in face of the torture, persecution, and deportation policies against their Noble Dawah. They strengthened their soles with worship and their hands with brotherhood. In return for their servitude, Allah (swt) bestowed them with the State of the Qur'an that implements the laws of Qur'an.

Therefore, during this Ramadan, let us strive to purify our bodies through fasting, our soles through praying and our ideas through the Qur'an al-Kareem, so that we shell become witnesses over mankind and a just Ummah again. Our aim is high; our success is close and certain.

(إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَا إِلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ بِالْحَقِّ لِتَحْكُمَ بَيْنَ النَّاسِ بِمَا أَرَاكَ اللّهُ)

“Indeed, We have revealed to you, [O Muhammad], the Book in truth so you may judge between the people by that which Allah has shown you.” [An-Nisa 105]

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Zehra Malik