Unbelievers Mock Religion

The purpose of human life on earth is for all people to be a servant only to Allah, live by the morality that pleases Allah and to follow the true path that is revealed in the Qur'an. Allah tells us: "I only created jinn and humanity to worship Me" (Surat adh-Dhariyat, 56).

However, as we stated earlier, because of their internal "superiority complex," most people do not submit themselves to Allah and avoid worshipping Him. However, they know perfectly well what Allah requires of them. In the Qur'an, Allah refers to such people, whose consciences understand the message but who, nevertheless, will not practice what is right because of their internal arrogance, as revealed in the Surat an-Naml:

When Our signs came to them in all their clarity, they said: "This is downright magic." And they repudiated them wrongly and haughtily, in spite of their own certainty about them. See the final fate of the corrupters. (Surat an-Naml, 13-14)

Given that they are troubled in their consciences, knowing and seeing His existence and hearing about the true faith, these people experience serious internal discomfort. They would like Allah and His religion never to be mentioned and for everybody else to be like them, because they believe that only then can they be at ease. Everything to do with His existence and religious morality reminds them of their own corrupted morality and bad manners.

In addition, it is almost impossible for such people, caught up as they are by their undying desire for superiority, to accept the fact of Allah's possession of boundless wisdom and power, as well as all of Creation's submission to Him, and to realize just how powerless they are in His eyes. Therefore, they cannot stand to be reminded of Allah or hear His greatness praised. They believe that they can comfort themselves by groundlessly rejecting clearly obvious truths , denying the evidence for Creation, and ignoring the wonders that clearly indicate His power. Mocking religion is one of the ways people who have fallen into a great error try to protect themselves against the discomfort of their consciences. In one Qur'anic verse Allah describes their behavior when they are faced with the evidence of Creation:

No wonder you are surprised as they laugh with scorn! When they are reminded, they do not pay heed. When they see a sign, they only laugh with scorn. (Surat as-Saffat, 12-14)

As Allah reveals in these verses, these people mock all of the miraculous truths around them. This is such a great immorality that even such apparent proofs do not cause them to have faith. They think that they will delude the people around them and acquire individuality and superiority by rejecting Allah and the Qur'an due to their inferior mentality. In fact, since the people around them are extremely impotent creatures who will be called to account in the hereafter, gaining or loosing status in their eyes is utterly meaningless. Above all, it is the characteristics bestowed upon these people by Allah that make them proud. Everything they possess has come from Allah, and yet they repay this not with gratitude, but with mockery.

Using examples from the Qur'an, we will now analyze how unbelievers approach religion. In addition, we will point out that their mockery causes them great harm and that they will receive their just "reward" in the hereafter.

Inability to Understand Allah's Verses

Each time a surah is sent down, some among them ask: "Which of you has this increased in faith?" As for those who believe, it increases them in faith and they rejoice at it. (Surat at-Tawba, 124)

As stated in the above verse, only people with sincere faith in their hearts can understand Allah's verses and see the Divine wisdom therein. Unbelievers, who cannot understand verses of the Qur'an, resort to mockery by asking: "Which of you has this increased in faith?" But for the believers, these unbelieving individuals have only deprived themselves of the good news, which is one of Allah's blessings for the believers.

In another verse Allah tells about the unbelievers' incomprehension and their twisted approach to His verses:

Allah is not ashamed to make an example of a mosquito or of an even smaller thing. As for those who believe, they know it is the truth from their Lord. But as for those who do not believe, they ask: "What does Allah mean by this example?" He misguides many by it, and also guides many by it. But He only misguides the deviators. (Surat al-Baqara, 26)

As in the above verse Allah tells us, the unbelievers could not understand His Divine wisdom in speaking of a mosquito. Thus, they decided to mock it by asking: "What is Allah telling us by means of this example?" But today science has revealed that the humble mosquito, which people despise, has a number of miraculous characteristics. (For detailed information, see Harun Yahya, The Miracle in the Mosquito, Global Publishing, June 2005) Allah pointed out its extraordinary characteristics more than 1,400 years ago, and the unbelievers of that time who did not have this information are now demeaned by their own words of mockery.

The unbelievers' arrogant approaches to Allah and His religion become especially apparent when Allah's verses are read to them or when they are given advice based upon them. Allah's prophets and pious Muslims warned their people about the falsity of the superstitious systems that ran their lives. While explaining that the only true path was the religion sent down by Allah, they recited His verses and explained their Divine wisdom, which was so wonderful that even the unbelievers noticed its extraordinary nature. But in spite of their recognition of its superiority, they rejected what they were told and resisted the call to embrace His religion. Even worse, consumed by their arrogance, they went so far as to mock Allah's verses:

[W]ho hears the signs of Allah recited to him and then persists in his arrogance just as if he had never heard them. Give him the news of a painful punishment. When he does learn something of Our signs, he mocks them. Such people will have a humiliating punishment. (Surat al-Jathiyya, 8-9)

In addition to revealing the unbelievers' mocking behavior, Allah also tells us how the believers should react when confronted with such behavior:

When you see people engrossed in mocking Our signs, turn from them until they start to talk of other things. (Surat al-An‘am, 68)

Mocking Worship

Mocking the forms of worship ordered by Allah and their wisdom, especially the daily prayers and fasting, is widespread among the unbelievers. Allah tells us of this unintelligent behavior:

When you call to prayer they mock it and make a game of it, because they are people who do not use their intellect. (Surat al-Ma'ida, 58)

Such mockery of worship is frequently met with in everyday life. For example, when the believers remind them to pray five times a day and fast, the unbelievers immediately adopt a mocking tone. Their way of speaking and chosen words, gestures and movements, and facial expressions become wholly governed by a spirit of mockery. Add to all of this a mocking sneer, and they present a very ugly picture.

The basic reason for such behavior is their desire to reduce the respect that other people feel for religion and religious values. In this way, they seek to block the advice due to their own mentality that the believers give to others. Their mockery becomes most apparent when they see a young person who is devoted to the religious values, for this makes them feel even more guilty. Thus, they try to transfer their guilt to this young person through mockery so that he/she will abandon the true path.

They try to make the other person feel small by saying things like: "You can worship later when you're no longer young" or "You've cut yourself off from the world at a young age." They also try to divert young people with such false promises as: "Break your fast. I'll bear the burden" or "What need is there to pray? You are still young; you can pray when you get old." But in the hereafter people will be asked whether or not they performed their religious obligations. For example, there is a religious obligation to pray five times a day, punctiliously, on time and never missing, and with great fervor and enthusiasm. Our Prophet (saas) notes the importance of prayer in many of the hadith. In one hadith narrated by Abu Hurayra, Rasulullah (saas) said:

Abu Huraira reported: Verily the Messenger of Allah (saas) said: Five (daily) prayers and from one Friday prayer to the (next) Friday prayer, and from Ramadhan to Ramadhan are expiatious for the (sins) committed in between (their intervals) provided one shuns the major sins. (Sahih Muslim, Book 2, Number 450)

No matter what the unbelievers who attempt to mock the religious practices do, they cannot harm the believers or make them feel small. On the contrary, when the believers encounter this type of behavior, they feel encouraged and continue their worship with even greater joy.

The unbelievers think that they can hurt the believers by mocking them. However, they do not succeed in this, for they only cause the believers to be more exalted in the hereafter. We can even say that, in a sense, they do the believers a service. But because they are incapable of understanding this, they once again reveal their lack of intelligence.

Their Rejection of the Resurrection

The unbelievers also mock and violently and irrationally reject the resurrection, because if they accept this belief they will come face to face with the necessity of living according to the Qur'an's morality. In addition, the resurrection means that all people will be called to account for what they have done in this world. On that day, only those who have lived in accordance with Allah's injunctions, as contained in the Qur'an, will find salvation. After the Day of Judgment, Allah's eternal justice will punish the sinful and reward those who did not transgress the limits that He laid down for humanity and who obeyed Him. This is a very obvious truth, and on the Day of Judgment it will become clear to the unbelievers that they have made a serious error. However, the unbelievers forget Allah and the Day of Judgment by refusing to accept any responsibility for their behavior in this life. As a result, they do their best to pretend that death is still far in the future and take pleasure due to their inferior mentality in making light of the subject by means of mocking words and jokes. They tell those around them that death is far off and that there is no need to think about it. But no matter how much they try to forget it, death is a certainty. It is revealed in the Qur'an as follows:

Say: "Death, from which you are fleeing, will certainly catch up with you. Then you will be returned to the Knower of the Unseen and the Visible, and He will inform you about what you did." (Surat al-Jumu‘a, 8)

Despite this, they still choose to resist and reject the fact that the Day of Judgment will eventually arrive. Of course, their unintelligent denial cannot prevent that day from reaching them, but they nevertheless continue to believe that they can protect themselves by ignoring the matter. They go even further by actually laughing at it to prove to those around them that they do not believe that they will be resurrected in the hereafter and that it is of no importance to them. In the Qur'an Allah gives us examples of such mocking behavior:

But what of him who says to his parents: "Fie on you! Do you promise me that I will be resurrected when generations before me have passed away?" They both call on Allah for help: "Woe to you! Believe! Allah's promise is true." But he replies: "This is nothing but the myths of previous peoples." (Surat al-Ahqaf, 17)

In the Qur'an Allah also reveals the best way to answer the heedless and illogical questions of unbelievers, who admire their own senseless minds and are confident of their own perverted intelligence:

Doesn't man see that We created him from a drop yet there he is, an open antagonist! He makes likenesses of Us and forgets his own Creation, asking: "Who will give life to bones when they are decayed?" Say: "He Who made them in the first place will bring them back to life. He has total knowledge of each created thing." (Surah Ya Sin, 77-79)

Allah created all human beings, as well as all living and non-living things in existence. People are responsible for living by the morality that He has revealed to them through His messengers and prophets. Given this, there is no way that they can absolve themselves of not fulfilling this responsibility. If they choose to reject it, however, they will definitely be punished on the Day of Judgment. We have to add here that mocking Allah's signs and His religion is a grave sin, and that there is no doubt that the punishment for it will be very serious:

Abandon those who have turned their religion into a game and a diversion, and who have been deluded by the life of this world. Remind by it [the Qur'an], lest a person be delivered up to destruction for what he has earned with no protector or intercessor besides Allah. Were he to offer every kind of compensation, it would not be accepted. Such people are delivered up to destruction for what they have earned. They will have scalding water to drink and a painful punishment, because they did not believe. (Surat al-An‘am, 70)

Just as in every age, some people today ignore the torment that they will face in the hereafter. Such people do not hesitate to mock religious values and sacred concepts at every opportunity. In addition to making up jokes and funny stories with anti-religious content, they also mock religion in cartoons with their distorted minds. In this day and age, not to mention throughout all of history, the unbelievers' ugly behavior always has the same goal: to annoy the believers and turn other people's subconscious religious feelings in the wrong direction. However, remember that the believers consider such treatment to be an honor, because Allah promises them that although they might face such behavior, He will compensate them in the best way possible. In addition, Allah describes the situation of the mockers and tells the believers to stay away from them:

O you who believe! Do not take as friends any of those who mock and make a game out of your religion among the ones who were given the Book before you or the unbelievers. Fear [and respect] Allah if you are believers. (Surat al-Ma'ida, 57)