Everyone in Bahrain hopes that the world will soon witness the rise of authentic Islam, the Islam of the Quran, the Islam that is the epitome of everything that is beautiful, good, kind and generous. To a GDN reader not familiar with Islam, and particularly to those who are inundated with massive anti-Islamic propaganda in the Western media, this statement might come off sounding a little perplexing. Nonetheless, it is true that Islam can provide the only solution to those looking for a way out of the darkness that is called materialism.
How? Billions of people throughout the history of the world have fallen prey to materialistic desires, the insatiable greed to have more, achieve more, enjoy more; all too frequently at the expense of others. But this selfish inclination has never brought any real happiness to anyone. So many young people have wasted their lives, their energies and their best years in a ceaseless and fruitless struggle for more and more.
It doesn’t have to be like this: Happiness is not difficult to achieve. The good news is the world is increasingly realising that materialism – and its cousin, consumerism – is not the answer to their quest for happiness and are becoming more and more spiritual now.
This means that they will no longer fight against their nature. It is because we are created by God to love him and to give thanks to him. Think about yourself. Decades ago, there was not even a sign of you in this world. Yet God created you from that nothingness and turned you into a perfect human being from a single cell. He gave you a soul, a character, a face, a perfectly functioning body, with incredibly complex systems you are not even aware of. Only when something slightly goes wrong do you realise their existence and how incredibly they have been working perfectly fine all along and that you have taken this fact for granted.
God says in a Quranic verse that we humans are given so many blessings that it would be well-nigh impossible to categorise them all, even if we wanted to. But it is a part of our nature to give thanks and to want to appreciate the beautiful gifts we are given. Materialism takes that part of us away and makes people fight their very own nature. It blinds people to the fact that there is an incredible creation in each and every one of us, in everything we see, in everything we know.
But the tide has begun to turn and materialism is on the decline. People have tried it and they’ve seen the deadly consequences of it. Now in droves, they are turning to God, more than ever.
Since Islam offers true love, true happiness, true comfort, true freedom and peace, its unstoppable rise continues despite massive propaganda against it. We are undoubtedly aware of the atrocities perpetrated in the name of Islam, mostly stemming from centuries-old tribal superstitions and false hadiths; that being said, radicalism most definitely has no place in Islam and such actions are a direct and blatant violation of the Quran.
The radicals, wittingly or unwittingly, have done perhaps the greatest damage to Islam in its 1,400-year long history, but even the problem of radicalism can only be solved through Islam.
With a massive educational and intellectual campaign seeking to replace radical notions and ideas with authentic and peaceful nature of the Quran, the people who have been miseducated with radical ideas will be saved.
When radicalism is banished for good with the light of the Quran and people are saved from the stultifying effects of materialism, our world will become a heavenly place for all.
Adnan Oktar's piece in Gulf Daily News:
http://www.gdnonline.com/Details/96416
