Ignorantism That Opposes the True Religion
Asked "What is religion?" our Prophet (saas) replied, "It is the path you are on." His reply wisely summarizes the matter. Religion (deen) encapsulates all of a person's values, ethical rules and lifestyle—and thus, those of entire societies. For example, the word deen is employed in this sense in Surah Yusuf 76:
He started with their bags before his brother's and then produced it from his brother's bag. In that way We devised a cunning scheme for Joseph. He could not have held his brother according to the deen of the King—only because Allah had willed it so. We raise the rank of anyone We will. Over everyone with knowledge is a Knower. (Surah Yusuf, 76)
Various verses of the Qur'an also revealed that deniers also share a religion: Pharaoh, for example, told his people the following about the Prophet Moses (as):
Pharaoh said, "Let me kill Moses and let him call upon his Lord! I am afraid that he may change your deen and bring about corruption in the land." (Surah Ghafir, 26)
Other verses describe how pagans remained loyal to their own false religions in the face of the Divine religion brought by the prophet:
They are surprised that a warner should come to them from among themselves. The unbelievers say, "This is a lying magician. Has he turned all the deities into One God? That is truly astonishing!" Their leaders went off saying, "Carry on as you are! Hold fast to your deities. This is clearly something planned. We have not heard of this in the old religion. This is merely something contrived." (Surah Sâd, 4-7)
As pointed out so far, every human being has a religion. Those who not adhere to the religion of Allah, and even those who describe themselves as atheists, are not totally devoid of religion, but merely adhere to superstitious ones. Some of these "religions" may not presently be described as such, though that is exactly what they all are—as is revealed in the Qur'an. Marxism, for instance, is in one sense a false religion, because that ideology is the "path" down which millions of people have gone. Marxists adopt the intellectual system developed by Karl Marx and Frederich Engels and accept their way of thinking. They analyze the world by means of the standards that they set out. They account for their own existence and the meaning of death based on the unscientific logic of Marx and Engels. In short, as believers in Marxism, they shape their lives and evaluate events accordingly.
Besides Marxism, there are hundreds of other different religions, philosophies, and intellectual systems. All these are superstitious religions, basically produced in order to turn people away from the path of Allah.
The point that really needs to be emphasized is that whatever their ideology, philosophy or world view, those who have turned their backs on the true religion still share one common false belief system: That is the "religion of the ignorant" that gives this book its name and whose outlines we have briefly sketched. It is also one of the most cunning and effective weapons wielded by satan in his endeavors to turn humans from the true path.
