"No religion, religion isn't needed.
True.
"If anything is needed, it's solutions — not mere concepts, characters, and the beliefs and exploitations they bring."
That's also true.
"If there is a God, that God has no religion, needs no religion, will have no religion.
"If there is a God, that God does not demand belief; what's needed is for that God to provide solutions."
Right.
"In short: for this life full of uncertainties (even if you call them tests, even within those tests) what's needed is the possibility of solutions, a clear goal, a path, guidance, and hope."
This is what a friend said.
A friend who can't simply be called "a friend" and left at that.
Said by a friend who is like a window to a closed room, like a branch to a root, like sky to earth — a plain, down-to-earth human friend who brings light and air. A friend who comes to simply sit with you, for no reason at all.
A friend who doesn't believe in any particular religion.
A friend who is currently, in social terms only, entirely without religion — merely "non-Muslim."
The above lines are what this great friend, among all the friends there have ever been, happened to say in the course of conversations.
Having said that, as if not content to stop there, as if offering further explanation or interpretation, the friend continued:
"If there is a God, then that God's system must exist here, must exist, must have existed. No doubt about it.
"True.
"I am not anyone to say that such a divine (natural?) system doesn't exist and shouldn't exist — I don't have the knowledge for that, and truly, no one does, no one ever will. Nothing beyond a little partial, surface-level knowledge trapped within the dimension we're confined to.
"I don't have the knowledge, depth, insight, strength, authority to decide, or authority to control needed to say that such a divine system doesn't exist and shouldn't exist — and perhaps no human being does.
"Every human being, like every other thing and creature, is a prisoner of the dimension into which they were born, and of only as much ability as that dimension grants.
"I don't have that kind of strength or decision-making power even over my own body that makes me who I am — not over my blood circulation, not even over the determination of my cells.
"Because I became this way, I am this way — but I had no foundation, decision, or control in becoming this way.
"Therefore, only the system of the God that exists, if one exists, can exist, may exist, must exist.
"That system is not a religion that merely demands belief-custom-rituals; it cannot be such a religion, must not be.
"Criticizing God and the divine system, being forced to say it doesn't exist, happens when we encounter priestly, treasure-chest religions that offer no solution at all, that stand as an obstacle to every solution, that exploit and deceive people while saying things that amount to nothing.
"It happens when such priestly, treasure-chest religions claim inheritance and copyright over God and the divine system.
"That system, which could be called divine or natural, will exist only as pure fact and reality. Not as a religion. As a path of submission and surrender. That's all."
He went on like that.
This humble one decided to also listen to his explanations.
"And yet, if humanity insists that there must be a religion, as is spoken of here, then the only possibility fit for that is Islam alone.
"The only religion fit for that is Islam alone.
"All religions other than Islam are mere religions in costume — chaff without grain. Cats that don't catch mice. Mere religions that have only made exploitation into religion. Not organic ones.
"That's precisely why they remain mere belief-custom-ritual religions.
"And Islam is not a mere belief-custom-ritual religion because..."
Question: Why Islam?
"Because Islam is not the kind of religion generally understood.
"Because Islam is a religion that is not a religion.
"Because Islam is not a religion at all.
"Because Islam is a way of life and a life-system that touches every domain completely.
"That is precisely why Islam becomes a problem, a challenge, an enemy equally to worldly powers, political movements, imperialist forces, and fascist forces around the globe.
"Because there is nothing in Islam that reduces it to a mere religion, mere beliefs and belief-custom-rituals."
Question: How and why is Islam alone a religion that is not a religion?
"The reason people say religion isn't needed is that religion is exploitative, isn't it — that religion doesn't provide solutions?
"This is where Islam differs from other religions.
"Islam is not exploitative; it provides solutions.
"If Islam is to be set aside, it should only be in favor of something better — something less exploitative, more solution-giving, more comprehensive. Shouldn't it?
"No such thing exists.
"There exists, today, on this earth, no other way of life, ideology, or non-religion-religion that is better, less exploitative, more solution-giving, and more comprehensive than Islam.
"Because Islam made God the same for everyone.
"Because there is nothing in Islam that turns God or belief into a means of exploitation."
How can this be said?
"Islam has no idols.
"Islam has no priests or clergy.
"Islam has no arrangement that makes believers hand over wealth on God's behalf.
"Islam has no costly worship rituals, offerings, or ceremonies.
"Even in Mecca and Medina there is no priest or temple-keeper. Everything is done individually. Everyone, alone. Whoever stands in front during prayer is the imam.
"There's no need to investigate the knowledge or intention of the imam standing in front when following him in prayer.
"That is how equally everyone stands before God. Everyone is equally a saint, a priest — not just some one person.
"In Islam, anyone, from anywhere on earth, can pray in the same way, call upon God, and reach God.
"Islam made the whole earth — every point in the universe alike — a fitting place (masjid) to pray, to call upon God, to reach and bow before God."
Question: Does that alone make Islam a religion that is not a religion?
"That is not the only reason Islam becomes a religion that is not a religion.
"Rather, it's also because, instead of merely asking people to believe and perform some rituals, it guides them with directions in every sphere of life without abandoning life and living people to the wayside.
"Whether anyone feels this guidance and these directions given by Islam are necessary or unnecessary, this remains a precise fact, a reality, a distinguishing feature of Islam."
Question: How does this alone make Islam the only possible religion, if a religion must exist?
"Because Islam is also a way of life and an ideology that determines a solution for every human problem.
"As if communism, capitalism, democracy, socialism, and secularism all merge within Islam.
"As if all of them merge and only their good qualities are absorbed into this one thing called Islam.
"Islam means that just as every phenomenon in the universe is subject to a law, humans too must be subject to, must submit to, that same law alone.
"It is not a mere belief-custom-ritual-priestly-exploitative religion.
"It is only in that sense that the word 'Islam' comes to mean submission.
"Also because Islam is a belief-system that frees people from every kind of exploitation.
"One God alone, one humanity alone, one completely exploitation-free law, one system. That is all Islam is.
"Islam is simply giving the backing of belief in a God who is purely natural to a system that is purely humanitarian.
"Because Islam alone is such a religion and ideology.
"Because Islam is communism that actually works, backed by faith in God — a complete, comprehensive life-system that is practical even beyond communism."
Question: Why and how can it be said that Islam alone is free of exploitation, that it eliminates the possibility of exploitation?
"It's not for any other reason.
"Not merely because Islam eliminated idols and priests for God.
"Not merely because Islam is a worldview that fixed the same distance and closeness to God for every single person."
Then what?
"It's because of the state and manner of the religions generally seen and practiced here that the general perception arises that religion exploits believers — and that same perception is then turned into a verdict and imposed even on Islam, which is not a mere religion at all.
"Examine this honestly yourself, doing justice to your own conscience: which instruction or command given by Islam, which mode of worship or obedience, amounts to exploiting believers through priests or other intermediaries?
1. Is it the prohibition of interest (riba)?
"By prohibiting interest (setting aside how practical, correct, and where this prohibition can be implemented), where, how, and by whom is anyone exploited?
"Where, how, and by whom is a believer's faith exploited through the prohibition of interest?
"Isn't it obvious to anyone who looks at it that Islam intended and implemented enormous social justice and social welfare through the prohibition of interest?
2. Or the prohibition of alcohol and other intoxicants?
"What kind of exploitation of believers does Islam achieve by prohibiting alcohol?
"None at all.
"Instead, Islam freed human beings to the point where they no longer need certain habits and intoxicants.
"Islam turned belief — which ought to be firm conviction — into a source of comfort.
"It made believers, in terms of conviction, as steadfast as possible.
"It made individual, family, and social life all the more secure.
"This — and more — is what one must understand, using ordinary reason, from seeing the prohibition of alcohol and other intoxicants.
"The very term 'believers' with connotations of blind faith doesn't really apply in Islam.
"What Islam has and gives is only firm conviction and the fearlessness of exploitation-free hope.
"Seeing only the One God, relying only on the One God, undeceived and unexploited by anything else, freed from every kind of relative power and the fears arising from them — that is what the surrender called Islam is, that is what the fearlessness called Iman is.
"Iman means fearlessness. Mu'min means the fearless one, the one who grants fearlessness."
3. By prohibiting adultery — what kind of injustice does Islam impose on believers?
"What kind of exploitation can anyone achieve by prohibiting adultery?
"What else should Islam, which ensures a secure individual life and social structure founded on family life alone, do but prohibit adultery?"
4. By prohibiting pork, blood, and carrion (setting aside debate on the rightness or logic of it) — what exploitation, what gain for any priest or religious leadership, could Islam possibly intend or achieve?
"No kind of exploitation is achievable by anyone through such prohibitions.
"No priest or religious leadership gains anything from such prohibitions.
"Ordinary reason alone is enough to understand that no exploitation or profiteering arises from such prohibitions.
"At most, there are certain benefits, well-wishing, and health considerations that don't directly align with the logic-scale we've set for ourselves."
5. Meat is permitted only after slaughtering the animal properly and draining the blood, with specific exceptions and conditions clearly pointed out.
"Notice how minutely things are examined, carried out, and instructed here.
"What exploitation occurs because Islam requires slaughtering and draining blood?
"None.
"What is there in such instructions and commands that would allow anyone to exploit anyone else, or that would benefit the institution of religion along that path? (In that sense, Islam has no priestly-clergy leadership that determines religion as an institution, no pyramid-like structure from bottom to top. Islam has none of that.)"
6. "Is there any possibility of exploitation anywhere in the rites of prayer, fasting, and Hajj?
No.
"Beyond reinforcing the remembrance of God, keeping humans away from unnecessary matters — from evil and the repugnant — and instilling discipline, mindfulness, and readiness for sacrifice in a person, prayer, fasting, and Hajj cause no exploitation of any kind.
"In performing prayer, fasting, and Hajj, there are nowhere any financial transactions structured to exploit, no priests, no temple-keepers or clergy."
7. "Zakat was made obligatory; at the same time, on the other side, interest was prohibited.
"Both are instructions oriented purely toward humanity, aimed solely at human good.
"Zakat means purification, refinement.
"Notice: what a profound level it is, that spending one's wealth for the poor is itself self-purification.
"Zakat is not merely some percentage in certain circumstances — sometimes giving everything is obligatory.
"'They ask you what they should spend [for the poor]. Say: whatever is surplus.' (Qur'an)
"Moreover, the Qur'an precisely enumerated the eight categories of people entitled to receive zakat.
"Nowhere in it is there an instruction that zakat is only for Muslims.
"It established that zakat should be given to everyone, without communal division.
"There is no priest or temple-keeper involved in giving zakat. No expense for religious rites. Islam has no priest, no clergy, no expense for religious ceremonies.
"Given all this, beyond ensuring social justice and welfare, what possibility of exploitation does the specific rite of zakat open up?
"None."
8. "Beyond ordaining zakat and prohibiting interest, Islam declares that 'those denied opportunity and those who come asking [the destitute] have a right in the wealth of everyone' — what this communicates.
"To say this, Islam is purely an ideology intended to ensure social welfare and justice.
"In such a declaration of Islam, what possibility of exploitation is there other than social welfare and a sense of justice?"
9. "Marriage, divorce, and polygamy:
"There can be many differences of opinion. But Islam addresses marriage, divorce, and polygamy. For Islam, the subject is not merely handling acts of worship and rituals.
"Islam doesn't simply permit marriage, divorce, and polygamy just like that.
"Everything is conditional. With clear guidance. Not however anyone feels like.
"As you know, no Muslim lives for this worldly life; they live for success in the hereafter. So they don't do whatever they feel like, however they feel like. They have clearly determined notions of right and wrong. There is good and evil.
"Marriage, divorce, and polygamy are primarily oriented toward women's security, toward advancing family life. In a form that places obligations and responsibilities on the man.
"That is why Islam eliminated the entire concept and possibility of dowry, and instead instructed that wealth she herself can demand — mahr — must be given to the woman.
"How revolutionary the matter of mahr still is, when thought of impartially even today.
"No religion or ideology other than Islam has ever instructed that wealth be given to the woman in this direction.
"Where, in instructing that mahr be given, is there religious exploitation of believers?
"Also, remember: Islam gave both men and women equal rights to divorce.
"The practical solution Islam gives, that those who cannot get along at all after marrying need not be forced to remain trapped together — Islam was the first to give this.
"Anyone's failure to use a given solution properly, and instead misusing it, is not the fault of the solution.
"Even after placing a waste bin, the fault lies with those who don't put waste in the bin, with those who litter in public spaces and public roads — it shouldn't lead us to decide that waste bins are unnecessary.
"Instead, what's needed is to devise follow-up regulatory methods that punish those who don't properly follow the solutions given. What's needed is to nurture the seed of the solution-instruction into a tree.
"Permission was given to men for polygamy — with the condition of maintaining justice among orphans. With the condition of maintaining justice among wives. With the strict stipulation that if justice cannot be maintained, then only one.
"Permission was given to men for polygamy in certain specific circumstances such as war, where many men are killed, women become widows, and children become orphans.
"Whether such laws and instructions are right or wrong, whether they are being misused today — such discussion is valid in itself.
"The question will arise: why wasn't polyandry permitted for women?
"Firstly: because determining paternity would become a problem.
"Secondly: because, unlike men, women are naturally subject to menstruation,
"Thirdly: unlike men, who have no limitation of only one egg being produced per month,
"Fourthly: unlike men, who have no limitation of only one pregnancy possible per year at most,
"Fifthly: because it is man's natural disposition that pertains to the distribution of seed.
"Even so, remember: in all these permissions, laws, and instructions regarding polygamy, where is there any possibility of exploitation by religion, religious institutions, or religious clergy?
"None."
10 . "Women's property rights / inheritance rights in Islam:
"The most correct matter, yet the one most subjected to discussion after being surrounded by the most misconceptions.
"Islam was the first to give women inheritance rights.
"Islam did not give women inheritance rights in just one category alone.
"In several categories. At least four.
"Not only from parents' property does a woman have inheritance rights.
"Islam was the first to give women inheritance rights even from a husband's property, and even from children's property.
"Even while giving inheritance rights, Islam placed no obligation on the woman to necessarily spend it on family matters or anything else.
"Islam confined the obligation to necessarily spend on family matters or her own matters to the man alone.
"Meaning: everything a woman receives is simply hers to keep — unless she decides otherwise. She may keep, guard, and use it entirely according to her own wish, purely for her own personal needs.
"With the clear stipulation that the husband must never, under any circumstance, desire or take the woman's property and wealth.
"Except that if the wife, on her own decision, gives her husband zakat or sadaqah from her wealth, he may accept it.
"However wealthy the woman may be, meeting all the personal needs of the woman and children was made the husband's obligation.
"This means Islam also gave the woman the right to claim from her husband all the money needed for her and the children's needs.
"It is against this background that one must view the giving of half to the woman and double — the woman's share — to the man from the parents' property. Against the background of the firm instruction that the obligation and responsibility to spend rests with the man alone.
"Also in light of the following:
a) "Islam does not view matters based on a woman living alone, without a husband and family.
b) "Islam views and stipulates matters based on a woman living married, as part of a family.
c) "For a woman living married, as part of a family, if she receives half of what a man receives from the parents' property, there is no problem, in two senses.
One: "She has no expenses, no obligation to spend — unless she herself decides otherwise.
"In any case, the obligation to spend on everything needed to protect the woman and children rests with the man.
"'Men are the ones responsible for women, because Allah has made some of them excel the others, and because they spend out of their wealth.' (Qur'an)
"Two: while she, as a woman, receives half of what a man receives from the parents' property, on the other side, her own husband, as a man, would have received double what his sister received from his own parents' property. In effect, it balances out."
11. "Islam gives guidance in every sphere of life — where to bathe, where to eat, where to sleep, where to walk, where to sit, where to trade, and so on. Where in this is any exploitation happening?
"How can it be exploitation that Islam fully embraces the human being, walks alongside the human being, and takes up and handles every single human problem?"
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