In Search Of Truth

The quest of Man.

 Man emerged strutting and slouching from the wilderness of ignorance and superstition.  It has been a long and  labyrinthine  of thousands of years’ trail.  And yet how short a time it is when  compared  it to the earth’s history and the ages eons of time before man began to creep on this planet!  It is evident that for us it more interesting to hear the episode of man than all the manifestations of nature surrounding us.  Man’s story is also more captivating because  he in his evolutionary process brought with him a novel  thing which the others do not seem to have had.  This was mind –passion of curiosity—the appetite to learn and find more.  So from the earliest days began man’s travel in search of truth.  Observe a little boy, how it looks at the new and wonderful world about it; how it begins to recognize things and people; how it learns, ask so many questions about a range of things.  So, in the dawn of history when man was young and the world was new and wonderful, rather awful to him, he must have looked and stared all around him, and asked questions :            

Questions about the meaning of life have been expressed in a broad variety of ways, including the following.

What is the meaning of life?   

What are we here for?

What is the origin of life?

What is the purpose of ?

Who was he to ask except himself? There was no one else to answer.  But he has a wonderful thing ---mind—and with the help of this, slowly but painfully, he went on gleaning and amassing his variegated experiences and learning from them a lot.  Hence from the earliest times until today man’s quest has gone on, and he has found out many things, but many still remain, and as he advances on his trail, he discovers vast new horizons and avenues of knowledge.  Vast and new tracts stretching out  before him, show him how far he is still from the end of his destination ------if there is such an end.

What has been this quest of man, and whither does he journey? For thousands of years men have tried to answer these questions.  Religions and philosophy and science have all considered them, and given many answers.  As I am not a philosopher , scientist or a religious leader, I am not in a position to trouble you with the answers of these questions. Of course, in the main, religion has attempted to give a complete and dogmatic answer, and has often cared little for the mind, but has sought to enforce obedience to its decisions in various ways.  Science gives a doubting and hesitating reply, for it is of the nature of science not to dogmatize, but to put to experiment and reason for to obtain veracity. I do not feel reluctant that my preferences are all for scientific attitude.

Certainly we are not able to answer these questions about man’s hunt with any assurance, but we can see that the inquisitiveness itself has taken two lines.  Man has looked outside himself as well as well as inside; he has tried to understand Nature, and he has also tried to understand himself.  The quest is really one and the same, for man is a part of Nature. The best knowledge is of yourself has been asserted by the Greek and Indian philosophers.  The other knowledge of Nature has been the special province of science and technology, and our modern world is witness to the great progress made in these domains. Science, indeed, is spreading out it wings even farther now, and taking charge of both line of the quest and co-coordinating them.  It is looking up with confidence to the most distant stars, and it tells us also of wonderful little things in continuous motion--- the electrons and protons--- of which all matter consists.

The intellect of man has carried him a long way in the voyage of discovery.  As he has learnt to comprehend Nature more he has utilized it and harnessed it to his service, and therefore he has won more power.

Let us try to find answers from the different avenues of knowledge:-    

Science.

According to the scientific research and the knowledge of anthropology the conversion of animal to human beings took place about 30 hundred thousand years through evolutionary process. These questions occurred in the mind of primitive man.  And when he could not find any satisfactory answers, he created gods, and goddesses to gratify his passion of curiosity.  It is very interesting that in Neolithic Period of his evolution he had more interest with Mother Earth because it provided him with the necessities of life.

These questions have resulted in a wide range of competing answers and arguments, from scientific theories, to philosophical, theological, and spiritual explanations.

The  creation of life and its purpose.( Scientific views).

It must be remembered that there is no such thing as finality in philosophical thinking.  As knowledge advances and fresh avenues of thought are opened, other views, and probably sounder views than those prevent at present are most likely will surface. Hence the significance of Spenser’s views cannot be ignored.

“ All organic matter originates in a unified state and that individual characteristics gradually develop through evolution.  The evolutionary progression from simple to more complex and  diverse states is the natural process of evolution.  Therefore the thing which does not fall in the domain of human’s comprehension at present will certainly become understandable through the process of evolution.”

Iqbal’s point of view.

Allama Iqbal has very beautifully described the phenomenon of man’s evolutionary process : “  The conception of a primitive state in which man is practically unrelated to his environment and consequently does not feel the sting of human wants the birth of which alone marks the beginning of human culture.  

These questions have resulted in a wide range of competing answers and arguments, from scientific theories, to philosophical, theological, and spiritual explanations.

Rumi point of view.

Maulana Rumi view about life also substantiates the truth of Spenser’s observation about the nature of life.

 “ First man appeared in the class of inorganic things,

   Next years he passed therefrom into that of plants,

   For years he lived as one of the plants,

   Remembering nought his inorganic state so different;

   And when he passed from the vegetive to the animate state,

   He had no remembrance of his state as a plant,

   Except the inclination on he felt to the world of plants,

   Especially at the time of spring and sweet flowers:

   Like the inclination of infants towards their mothers,

   Which know not the cause of their inclination to the breast.

   And the great Creator, as you know,

   Draw man out of the animal into the human state,

   Thus man passed from one order of nature to another,

   Till he became wise and knowing and strong as he is now:

    Of his first soul he has now no remembrance,

    And he will be changed from his present soul”

{ Rumi – translated by Iqbal}.

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Origin and nature of biological life

The exact mechanisms of a biogenesis are unknown: notable hypotheses include the RNA world hypothesis and the iron-sulfur world theory (metabolism without genetics). The process by which different life forms have developed throughout history via genetic mutation and natural selection is explained by evolution.  At the end of the 20th century, based upon insight gleaned from the gene-centered view of evolution, biologists George C. Williams, Richard Dawkins, David Haig, among others, concluded that if there is a primary function to life, it is the replication of DNA and the survival of one's genes.

Though scientists have intensively studied life on Earth, defining life in unequivocal terms is still a challenge. Physically, one may say that life "feeds on negative entropy"  which refers to the process by which living entities decrease their internal entropy at the expense of some form of energy taken in from the environment.  Biologists generally agree that life forms are self-organizing systems regulating the internal environment as to maintain this organized state, metabolism serves to provide energy, and reproduction causes life to continue over a span of multiple generations. Typically, organisms are responsive to stimuli and genetic information changes from generation to generation, resulting in adaptation through evolution; this optimizes the chances of survival for the individual organism and its descendants respectively.

Non-cellular replicating agents, notably viruses, are generally not considered to be organisms because they are incapable of independent reproduction or metabolism. This classification is problematic, though, since some parasites and endosymbionts are also incapable of independent life. Astrobiology studies the possibility of different forms of life on other worlds, including replicating structures made from materials other than DNA.

Psychological significance and value in life

Science may or may not be able to tell us what is of essential value in life (and various materialist philosophies such as dialectical materialism challenge the very idea of an absolute value or meaning of life), but some studies definitely bear on aspects of the question: researchers in positive psychology(and, earlier and less rigorously, in humanistic psychology) study factors that lead to life satisfaction, full engagement in activities, making a fuller contribution by utilizing one's personal strengths, and meaning based on investing in something larger than the self.  

One value system suggested by social psychologists, broadly called Terror Management Theory, states that human meaning is derived from a fundamental fear of death, and values are selected when they allow us to escape the mental reminder of death.

Neuroscience describes reward, pleasure, and motivation in terms of neurotransmitter activity, especially in the limbic system and the ventral segmental area in particular. If one believes that the meaning of life is to maximize pleasure and to ease general life, then this allows normative predictions about how to act to achieve this. Likewise, some ethical naturalists advocate a science of morality - the empirical pursuit of flourishing for all conscious creatures.

Sociology examines value at a social level using theoretical constructs such as value theory, norms, anomie, etc.

Quran View.

“ We hath made everything which He hath created most good; and began the creation of man with clay; then ordained his progeny from germs of life, from sorry water; then shaped him, and breathed of His spirit unto him, and gave you hearing and seeing and heart : what little thanks do ye return”? {92: 6:8}.

“Man is endowed with the faculty of forming concept of things, and forming concepts of them is capturing them.  Thus the character of man’s knowledge is conceptual, and the weapon of this conceptual knowledge that man approaches the observable aspect of Reality.  The noteworthy feature of Quran is the emphasis that it lays on this observable aspect of Reality. {Iqbal}

“ Actually, in the creation of the Heavens and of the earth; and in alternation of night and day; and in ships which pass through the sea with what is useful to man; and in the rain which God sendth down from Heavens, giving life to the earth after death, and scattering over it all kinds of cattle; and in the change of winds, and in clouds that are made to do service between the Heavens and the earth--- are signs for those who understand.” {2:159}

History of Man

The primitive man surrounded by mysterious surroundings, was helpless with blank brain before the powerful and permeating nature. He was ignorant of the reference and context of the objects around him. On the one hand he was enthralled to see natural phenomena in variegated forms and manifestations, on the other hand he was terrified before the gigantic powers of nature. He tried to get hold of the underlying principles of the existence of animate and inanimate entities. The primitive man had to fabricate explanations to gratify his inquisitiveness.  Now we have not only scientific explanations and elaborations of day to day happenings but also have extensive knowledge of the universe.

Think for a moment, the cause and effect of the strange and awful happenings that affected his daily life sometimes adversely and sometimes favorably. He desired to know the truth :-

[a] Why the sun regularly rises and sets in ?

[b] Why the moon wanes and waxes?

[c] What is the cycle of seasons?

[d] What are the stars?

[e] How earthquakes occur and storms are born?

Above all the convulsion of life and the mysterious occurrence of events goaded him to think over them.

[a] How unexpected occurrences emerge?

[b] What is dream? Why do we see dreams?

[c] Where from we come and where we go after death. ?

[d] How this world came into existence? Then there was the question of survival.

The responses perceived the primitive man were in concurrence with their respective environments and level of thinking in the process of his evolution: the different tribes living in different parts of the world offered different explanations, and their explanations were in compatible with the events tinged and hue with their respective environment, and consequently they knitted strange myths based on their observations with reference to and context of problems facing them. It implies that these responses based on the man’s naivety were the beginning of scientific thought and scientific inquiry. On the other hand these myths were the essentials of the religions. As time rolled on these myths and anecdotes, travelling from one generation to another generation, ambushed in the mind of the people, to all intents and purposes, achieved the sanctity and any amendments or modifications in them begun to be considered blaspheme. Since the responses to the questions about the nature were made on the basis of the observations of a people living in a particular environment, the divergence in their thinking was inevitable. These self-tailored explanations helped in erecting the edifice of various sets of mind and contradictions in them too. Every group considered the inherited beliefs and convictions more true, sacred and invariable.

Quran View.

“ We hath made everything 

“ We hath made everything which He hath created most good; and began the creation of man with clay; then ordained his progeny from germs of life, from sorry water; then shaped him, and breathed of His spirit unto him, and gave you hearing and seeing and heart : what little thanks do ye return”? {92: 6:8}.

“Man is endowed with the faculty of forming concept of things, and forming concepts of them is capturing them.  Thus the character of man’s knowledge is conceptual, and the weapon of this conceptual knowledge that man approaches the observable aspect of Reality.  The noteworthy feature of Quran is the emphasis that it lays on this observable aspect of Reality. {Iqbal}

“ Actually, in the creation of the Heavens and of the earth; and in alternation of night and day; and in ships which pass through the sea with what is useful to man; and in the rain which God sendth down from Heavens, giving life to the earth after death, and scattering over it all kinds of cattle; and in the change of

winds, and in clouds that are made to do service between the Heavens and the earth--- are signs for those who understand.” {2:159}

The influence of the geographical condition on the people of the land.

No one can deny the fact that the physical features of a land have vital influence upon the mind of its people and shaping their norms of living:  there are two great parts of the world which have produced two important religions of the present world.  The sub-continent produced Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. 

 Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The land of Arab is dry and barren.  In day time it is scorching heat.  The land cannot provide its inhabitants adequate necessities of life.  Water is very scanty and the life is very hard. The people of the land fall into two groups viz ‘ the dwellers of the cities’ and ‘ the dwellers of the desert’. The latter was the major part of the population. They were called Bedouins wander from one place to another with all their belongings.  In the midst of their journey they temporarily halt at place where they live in tents.  They have different tastes of life.  To them, sheep and camel raising, horse breeding, hunting and riding are the only occupations worthy of a man. They have no water for cultivation.  Their life spins round sheep and palm trees.  These two gifts of nature sustained their life.    

However the nature has compensated somewhat by the charms and cold climate of night: night is so bewitching and captivating that it creates love for the land despite its hardships for its inhabitants.  Geographic situation of a land has deep impact on body and soul.  The religions cultivated in this land are heavenly rooted.  The people of this land searched each and every comfort and luxury on the heavens because their land has refused to provide them.  Their God/gods live in heavens and shirk to come down on the earth because the earth provide them nothing. It is unfilled of any comfort or luxury. Of course, man does not want to destroy his identity and therefore the inhabitants of this land created their eternal residence on the heavens after the death. 

On the other hand the sub-continent contains each and every thing that a man can imagine.  There are fertile land for cultivation.  There are jungles and orchards to provide its inhabitants with all sorts of fruits.  There is no dearth of food because of the fertility of the land and the availability of water easily.  The mountains like the range of Himalayas present captivating sceneries and the shining cataracts sweeten the atmosphere of the surroundings.  There are so many summer resorts and winter resorts.  It was called the sparrow of gold.  Its vegetation and other needs of life in abundance attracted the foreigners to come and plunder its wealth.

 The people of this land loved it because it provided them with beauty, food and other facilities of life.  Their love for it, drove them to make gods/goddess who live on the land instead in heavens.

Mysterious impact of nature on man.

The primitive man was very simple.  He lived on main instincts only such as hunger, thirst, sex and self-preservation.  As time rolled on, he became more and more sophisticated.  It is common phenomenon that Nature does not distribute its gifts equally among its tributaries.    We find small, big and very big apples on the same tree and even on the same branch of the same tree.  How it happens.  It is very mysterious process.  Somehow or the other the big ones receive more food and enjoy more suitable circumstances, such as sunlight, shadow etc.  Similar is the case with man.  Some men are born weak physically and mentally while other are born strong both physically and mentally. All great men:  spiritual leaders, scientists and artists are born stronger than the others.  It is common observation that the weight of body/ brain of born babies are sometimes very much different. Further Genetics and circumstances are the dominant features in moulding and shaping a man personality and physique. 

Great men can be classified into scientists, artists and spiritual leaders and moralists.  In this classification the necessity of the time plays a great role.  If we cast our gaze on the world history we very easily find there in the world great men according to the need of that country.  The greatest examples can be quoted of Arabia and Greece. There was great need of mighty men to reform and build a good society by removing the evils from the society and further to inject a new blood to make it violable and energetic.  We find the result of it.  Thus when the whole of Arabia was groaning under the oppression and torture, injustice and cruelty, vice and superstitions, Muhammad the great (Sm) appeared as a morning star on the dark horizon of the Arabs and illuminated the whole world with his great zeal, devotion and the strength of his character. His strength of moral and intellectual character made miracles never seen by the human race before the birth this unique personality.

Similarly we find Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Zeno and so many other philosophers, physicians and scientists in the Greek society before the Birth of Christ.  The Greeks and Romans were at that time much advanced in science and arts, and therefore their land produced scientists and philosophers and not spiritual leaders that the land of Arabs and sub-continent produced. 

The big men have deeper perception and conception of the natural phenomena.  They conceive and perceive things differently from common men, and their every action became miracle for common men. 

The attitudes to life recommended by the sages of the ages.

[a] Platonism

Plato was one of the earliest, most influential philosophers — mostly for idealism - a belief in the existence of universals. In the Theory of Forms, universals do not physically exist, like objects, but as heavenly forms. In The Republic, the Socrates character's dialogue describes the Form of the Good. In Platonism, the meaning of life is in attaining the highest form of knowledge, which is the Idea (Form) of the Good, from which all good and just things derive utility and value. Human beings are duty-bound to pursue the good.

[2] Cynicism

In the Hellenistic period, the Cynic philosophers said that the purpose of life is living a life of Virtue that agrees with Nature. Happiness depends upon being self-sufficient and master of one's mental attitude; suffering is consequence of false judgments of value, which cause negative emotions and a concomitant vicious character.

The Cynical life rejects conventional desires for wealth, power, health, and fame, by being free of the possessions acquired in pursuing the conventional. As reasoning creatures, people could achieve happiness via rigorous training, by living in a way natural to human beings. The world equally belongs to everyone, so suffering is caused by false judgments of what is valuable and what is worthless per the customs and conventions of society.

To Epicurus, the greatest good is in seeking modest pleasures, to attain tranquility and freedom from fear via knowledge, friendship, and virtuous, temperate living; bodily pain is absent through one's knowledge of the workings of the world and of the limits of one's desires. Combined, freedom from pain and freedom from fear are happiness in its highest form. Epicurus' lauded enjoyment of simple pleasures is quasi-ascetic "abstention" from sex and the appetites:

"When we say ... that pleasure is the end and aim, we do not mean the pleasures of the prodigal or the pleasures of sensuality, as we are understood to do, by some, through ignorance, prejudice or willful misrepresentation. By pleasure we mean the absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul. It is not by an unbroken succession of drinking bouts and of revelry, not by sexual lust, nor the enjoyment of fish, and other delicacies of a luxurious table, which produce a pleasant life; it is sober reasoning, searching out the grounds of every choice and avoidance, and banishing those beliefs through which the greatest tumults take possession of the soul.

The Epicurean meaning of life rejects immortality and mysticism; there is a soul, but it is as mortal as the body. There is no afterlife, yet, one needs not fear death, because "Death is nothing to us; for that which is dissolved, is without sensation, and that which lacks sensation is nothing to us.

[3] Stoicism

Stoicism teaches that living according to reason and virtue is to be in harmony with the universe's divine order, entailed by one's recognition of the universal logos (reason), an essential value of all people. The meaning of life is "freedom from suffering"  that is, being objective and having "clear judgment", not indifference.

Stoicism's prime directives are virtue, reason, and natural law, abided to develop personal self-control and mental fortitude as means of overcoming destructive emotions. The Stoic does not seek to extinguish emotions, only to avoid emotional troubles, by developing clear judgment and inner calm through diligently practiced logic, reflection, and concentration.

The Stoic ethical foundation is that "good lies in the state of the soul", itself, exemplified in wisdom and self-control, thus improving one's spiritual well-being: "Virtue consists in a will which is in agreement with Nature. The principle applies to one's personal relations thus: "to be free from anger, envy, and jealousy.".

Meanwhile two prominent philosophies sprang from the confusion about the genuine man’s position with reference to the world and God/gods: man is independent in the circle of his activities/ man is a pawn in the hands of a super power. The theories of Fatalism, determinism and Free Will. 

Fatalism.

Shakespeare.

“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,

Rough-hew them how we will”.

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

Than are dreamt of  in your philosophy”.

                ………………………                                                                                                                               

“ As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods,

   They kill us for their sports”.[Shakespeare]

                   ……………………….

Ghalib

’ hasti ke mat fireb men ajaiyo Asad

  Alm tamam halqa{h} dam-e khayal hai’

‘Be not deceived by the apparent reality of your existence, O! Asad!

The entire universe is nothing but a noose of the snare of thought.’

Two prominent views about the destiny of man.

                                  

 (1) The couplet of Mir. Iqbal Is best translated in the theory of Pre-destination and  Fatalism

Fatalism
 
Fatalism, doctrine that all events occur according to a fixed and inevitable destiny that  individual will neither controls nor affects. Fatalism frequently is confused with determinism, the doctrine that events are determined by the events that precede them. According to fatalism, preceding events have no causal connection with the events that follow. A fated event takes place not according to a natural law but in accordance with some mysterious decree issued by some mysterious power, perhaps ages before. Determinism asserts that every event has its determining conditions in its immediate antecedents, which may include the human will, is consistent with a belief in the efficacy of the human will, but fatalism is not. Both fatalism and determinism, thus distinguished from each other, should likewise be distinguished from predestination.

Predestination is determination plus the belief in a supernatural power that has established a determining natural sequence of causes. Fatalism is a belief in a supernatural power that predetermines without recourse to natural  order.

Fatalism appeared among the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans and today is particularly prevalent  among Muslims.

Predestination, in Christian theology, the teaching that the eternal destiny of a person is predetermined by God's unchangeable decree. Predestination does not necessarily imply a denial of free will, however. Most exponents of the doctrine have maintained that it is only the individual's final destiny that is predetermined, not the individual's actions, which remain free. The doctrine customarily takes one of two forms: single predestination or double predestination.

Life and death has dominant in the religious, philosophical and divine discourses.

Life

Shelley

Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822), English poet, considered by many to be among the greatest, and one of the most influential leaders of the romantic movement. Throughout his life, Shelley lived by a radically nonconformist moral code. His beliefs concerning love, marriage, revolution, and politics caused him to be considered a dangerous immoralist who describes life in a very pessimistic way.  Law of necessity also plays a great role in his view of life.

“Birth is  tragedy and death  deliverance”                      

Shelley was an atheist or a materialist.  If he may be said to have occupied any theoretical it was that of an ideal Pantheist.

“The One remains, the many change and pass:

Heaven’s light forever shines, Earth’s shadows fly:

Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass,

Stains the white radiance of Eternity

Until Death tramples it to fragments—Die”. (Adonis).

After having some glimpses from the sages of the ages relating the emergence of life on the earth, naturally the reader is prompted to know something about the direct opposite of life, death.

Death may be defined the permanent cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism.  In human societies, the nature of death has for millennia been a concern of the world's religious traditions and of philosophical inquiry. This may include a belief in some kind of resurrection.  or that consciousness permanently ceases to exist, known as "oblivion" associated with atheism^.  Almost all the revealed religions assert the existence of an eternal life after death.  The believers consider this life as an doorsill of the eternal life.  

Different views about life and death:

 { What is life? a symptomatic manifestation of elements.

 What is death?  Disintegration of these  elements.}

’ hasti ke mat fireb men ajaiyo Asad

  Alm tamam halqa{h} dam-e khayal hai’

‘Be not deceived by the apparent reality of your existence, O! Asad!

The entire universe is nothing but a noose of the snare of thought.’

Having asked for a long life

I bought back four days

Two passed away in yearning

And two in waiting.

In the human’s evolutionary process primitive man, a very simple man, had become sophisticated.     

 According to the scientific research and the knowledge of anthropology the conversion of semi man to human beings took about 30 hundred thousands years through evolutionary process

Religion impact on the life of man

We find the earliest thought of religion ranging from one lac to 35 lac, in Iraq, China and in some parts of Europe, One section of these earliest human beings were called Neanderthal, their places of burial reveal their beliefs which concerned mostly with death.  It signifies that they believed death as a threshold for the next world, and this has been the basic belief of a religion.

Fifty thousand years ago the Paleolithic Period emerged with its inhabitants called Homo Sapiens, and there were so many female statues from which we get an idea of “ Great Mother” which implies the beginning of life.  It strengthens the idea that in the earliest period of the history of mankind the concept of goddess was in vogue. It is evident from this, the first experience of man was that woman is the only source of birth, and consequently the other all producing means would be female. On our planet the Ice Period ended 1000 years B.C , and from 8000 to 6000 B.C man learnt the art of cultivation in Near East, and after some thousand years this art spread in the Europe, the Asia and the Africa. This period is known Neolithic Period. The introduction of cultivation created a revolution in the norms and religious life of man. Human history remembers this period with the name of Bronze Age. In this era there appeared  big settlements on the banks of rivers. The great Empires of classical religions grew up and nature in different forms and manifestations were being worshipped. The sun was considered the chief god because it is the chief source of life. We have failed to find, in the primitive history, the concept of God as the present religions present.

Religious ethics exhibit equally striking differences. Some are world-affirming,[ Confucianism], other world-denying { Buddhism].

In the perspective of history of mankind, present religions seem a newly born children when compared with the span of man’s life : the birth of present religions is a recent phenomenon.  It drives us to think that either man for million years lived without the necessity of religion or his life had no affiliation with the present organized religions. The classical religions are essentially linked with the belief in multiple gods, holy kingdoms, forceful theocracy, and sometimes the existence of Scriptures.  During this period the worship places were built, and the believers started to worship in the small worship places.  Dozens City States grew at the non coastal area. Every city has its own chieftain, and the chieftain himself was a god.  In the early stage the administration was in the hands of the elders, and it took the form of kingship later on. 

A large part of their activities was devoted to the service of ecclesiastical duties. The king occupied the highest position among the clergymen. There was a tower of the building of the temple and the family priest standing on the tower prayed for the absence of floods,  that ruined the crops of the people on the bank of the river Nile. There was a Ma’a’bid ( temple ), and every individual was a member of it, who had link with the local god and would sing songs of his god. Their literature and arts were hue and soaked with religious spirit. The Iraqi Sumerians believed that the purpose of creation of man on this earth is to offer services to gods and his failure in the performance would attract chastisement for him.

Their gods were the pivots of their social, economic and spiritual activities. Every manifestation and form of nature had got a name for the recognition, and they lived a normal life of man. The god of rain was most powerful because that caused terror of floods among them. Perhaps it is not irrelevant to mention here that the tale of the flood associated with Noah { toofa’ n-e nooh} mentioned in the Bible is a duplicate of the myth prevalent in Mesopotamia a part of Iraq. Egyptian civilization is the first civilization that gives the concept of life after the death. About 2000.B.C.the great changes in the political and economic activities brought also a great change in the religion of the world. The Egyptians developed the idea that a happy life is possible after death. The cause of this concept was due to their observation that after the destruction of flood they found fertility and pleasantness in their fields with the circle of seasons. Man experienced that the dry leaves again became green. This observation led them to the belief that man would survive after death. The god of Osiris took the highest official position It was at his discretion to allow or disallow the entry into the “ sacred and blessed place “ The literature containing the principles of morality and pious life began growing. After the period of Bronze (1200-14000 B.C) the period of Iron in the civilization of Near East is a revolution. There emerged a people named Kunhan and in the Old Testament many events are derived from the myths of Kunhaniyan. . El was their greatest god; they considered him separate from matter and thought; he had produced all the material things. But later the concept of being supreme was broken and divided into many gods. Among them BA.AL god had great significance, he was called the god of life and death; his statue was displayed sitting on a bullock, and it was a symbolic of reproduction. It was thought that fertility of the soil owed to the sexual intercourse of BA. Al and his wife Astarte and therefore in order to increase the fertility of the soil they followed the holy prostitution of gods. Children were also sacrificed on the altar of god BA. Al These rituals were performed with the idea that because the purity and innocence of children worked effectively to mitigate the wrath of the god. It implies that the idea of sacrifice was extant at that time; it reflects in the tale of Hazrat Abraham. Though Israeli prophets condemned severely this old religious tradition, yet Israelites appealed to god BA. Al for the prosperity of their crops. In fact this behaviour of Israelites was the result of the conflict between the civilization of Israelites and that of Kunhaniyan. The rationale of this was that Israelites were essentially nomadic tribes and they had no knowledge of cultivation, hence the traditional god of Israelites had to perform these functions, and when Israelites started to settle  with Kunhaniyan in Jerusalem they also adopted the profession of cultivation and they began to appeal to the god of fertility for the good yield of their crops. Though in doing this they earned the displeasure of their prophets. On the other hand, where now is Iraq, there was the civilization of Mesopotamia. Floods more frequently visited this land as compared with the land of Egypt, resulting some time it was hit by famine and some time by flood, and the foreign attacks all combined together made life uncertain. We find the first story of the first great flood in the history of mankind when gods endeavoured to finish humanity through the great flood. It is evident that a great flood in these lands at that time was a worldwide flood for them. They certainly did not know how large the earth is, and the civilizations of the other lands were unknown to them and safe from ravages of the flood.  The people believed that all the powers of Nature possessed sacred strength. Sky, storm, sun, moon, water, earth and other all manifestations of nature were the masters of their will, and they all collectively constitute Divine States and the god Anu had ascendancy over the others. He commanded the arrangement of the universe. About 2000 gods were worshipped among them. The most prominent among them was the goddess of the sky, The affairs of war, love and fertility were in her purview of authority. Murdock was the god of Babylon city government and reigned over the skies. According to him, man is born to serve and offer prayers to gods. It is sacred duty of man to make sacrifices and follow their teaching. The people had the desire of eternal life. The king was the representative of the local population. There were rites to unite the king and the religious female leader of the temple in a wedlock so that by their sexual intercourse could perpetuate the fertility and fructification of the plants and animals. A king of Babylon Hammurabi {1750 B.C} asserted that he was called by the gods and asked to administer justice on the earth, eliminate evil and roguishness so that the powerful could not crush the helpless; this was the precursor of prophet hood. The people did not have the concept of reward and punishment but however. they did emphasize on the moral life so that by serving gods they could build the edifice of the society on the principles of justice and truthfulness.

The third example of classical religion is that of Greek. The civilization of Greek has left indelible impressions on religion, philosophy, art, literature and politics. There we {500-336 B.C} found two great city states of Athens and Sparta. In these states science, philosophy, art, literature and politics progressed tremendously. Afterward Greek emerged in the Roman empire. The Greece had no sacred book, however they had literary works in myths about gods, and these literary works helped to comprehend philosophy of the universe. The prominent features of Greek gods were that though they shared the characteristics of mankind, yet they were immortal, exceptionally powerful, very beautiful and devoid of sufferings. Greek gods were divided into two classes. Some of these were called Olympian gods, who from the Olympian mountain ruled over the world with full strength, and the other, gods of the earth tackled the problems of fertility of the earth and death etc. Olympian gods were 12 in number and their father was Zeus god, his wife was Hera, she was in charge of marriage and other matters relating to women. Apollo was the god of music, foretelling and archery. The other Greek gods included Neptune, the god of sea, virgin goddess, Diana, and the goddess of wisdom and discernment; she was responsible of vigilance of wild animals. Among other gods were, the god of crops, the god of war, the goddess of beauty and love and the god of fire.  According to the Greece the greatest god Zeus created mankind and he watched man’s good and bad deeds. The gods interfered in the human life, and engaged themselves in war fares; pride was considered the most heinous sin. The gods merit prayers and veneration for they grant life to humanity, and the mankind should lead a just life. The public prayers for the gods entailed the betterment and welfare of the people, because it encompassed the rulers, government officials, aristocracy, the devotees of temples and tombs.; the sacrifice of animals and commodities was offered to the gods and priests. In Greek gorgeous festivals were celebrated because they had not only naturally beautiful panorama, but also had separate expressions of each and every passion and strength, and some of the gods had been associated with sexual emotions. With this reference and context, at the occasion of the biggest festival of Greek, Dionysian, a display of the male sexual organs, Penises, was stayed, and in this event free sexual intercourse between men and women was considered reward of virtuous deeds.

In the ancient Greece the evolution of thought played an important role in human civilization.  A new era of human thinking inaugurated when the philosophers started to raise questions on mythology of gods and their immoral behaviour. Its foundation was not religious but secular—intellectual prudence. It relates to the teaching of Socrates [ 399-470] taught  Athenians  “ take everything from the critical angle of vision”. He was sentenced to death for the crime of preaching against the religion and spoiling the moral of the youth.

In the cauldron of superstition and mystery new concepts emerged with unprecedented force to sway the heart of humanity. From religious point of view mankind can mainly be classified into the following faiths.

Definition of faith/religion.

Allama Iqbal.

“ Religion is not a departmental affair; it is neither mere thought, nor mere feeling, nor mere action; it is an expression of the whole man.   Nor is there any reason to suppose that thought and intuition are essentially opposed to each other.  They spring up from the same root and complement each other.  The ne grasps Reality piecemeal, the other grasps it in its wholeness.  The one fixes its gaze on the eternal, the other on the temporal aspect of Reality.  The one is present enjoyment of the whole of Reality; the other aims at traversing the whole by slowly specifying and closing up the various regions of the whole for exclusive observation.  Both are in need of each other for mutual rejuvenation. Both see visions of the same Reality which reveals itself to them in accordance with their function in life.  In fact, intuition, as Bergson rightly says, is a higher kind of intellect”.

Machiavelli.

A famous Italian of a later day, who has written a book on politics, states that religion is necessary for government, and that it may be the duty of a ruler to support a religion which he believes to be false.  We in recent times have had innumerable instances of imperialism advancing under the cloak of religion. It is not surprising that Karl Max viewed “ Religion is the opium of the masses”.

Freud.

‘ During the process of our adjustment to our environment we are exposed to all sorts of stimuli.  Our habitual responses to these stimuli gradually fall into a relatively fixed system, constantly growing in complexity by absorbing some and rejecting other impulses which do not fit with our permanent system of responses.  The rejected impulses recede into what is called the “ unconscious region” of the mind, and there wait for a suitable opportunity to assert themselves and take their revenge on the focal self.  They may disturb our plans of action, distort our thought, build our dreams and fantasies, or carry us back to forms of primitive behaviour which the evolutionary process has left far behind.  Religion is a pure fiction created by these repudiated impulses of mankind with a view to find a kind of fairy land for free unobstructed movement.  Religious beliefs and dogmas, according to the theory, are no more than merely primitive theories of Nature, whereby mankind have tried to redeem Reality from its eternal ugliness and show it off as something nearer to the heart’s desire than the facts of life would warrant.  That there are religions and forms of arts, which provide a kind of cowardly escape from the facts of life.’

There are so many faiths at present but due to the scarcity of time and space it is deemed apt to touch the dominant ones that are the motivation of the thrills of a major section of humanity.

Present prominent religions and their impact on the mankind

Hinduism:- The Aryans lived in this sub-continent for a long  period and developed a great culture and civilization.  The principal religious books of the Aryans are called Vedas which occupy a special place in the history of world literature.  It is not only the earliest literary records of the Indo-Aryan but also of the Aryans of the whole world.  The word Veda means knowledge and is specially applied to the four collections of ‘sacred wisdom’ of the Hindus. These four are known as the Rig-veda, the Sama-veda, the Yajur-veda and the Atharva-veda. 

The Vedas were not written by a single man.  They were written by different men at different times. But the orthodox Hindus believe that the Vedas were not composed by men, they were either taught by God to the ancient sages or they revealed themselves to the seers.  The Vedas are also known as Sruti, because they were heard and preached from mouth to mouth for many generations.  As regards the date of the vedic composition, there is no unanimity of opinion among the scholars.  Some lay down the years 1000B.C. while others fix the same between 3000 and 1500 B.C.

Buddhism

Life of Gautama Buddha.:  He was born about the middle of the 6^th century B.C. in the Lumbini garden in the neighbourhood of Kapilavatu, situated in what is now the Basti district of Uttar Predesh at the foot of the Himalayas.  Suddhodana was the name of his father and Mahanayha of his mother and both of them belonged  to the Sakya clan. The early name of Gautama Buddha was Siddhartha.  He was also known as Sakyasingh as he was born in Sakya clan.

Doctrines of Buddhism

The teachings of Buddha were simple and unostentatious. As he had been disgusted with the teachings of the monks of Rajgriha, he did not concern himself with philosophical discussion about the existence of God.  He repudiated the authority of the Vedas and discarded Vedic rites and sacrifices.  He laid stress on Ahimso or non-injury to the living creatures.  He had no belief in the superiority of Brahmans or any caste distinctions.  But he believed in the transmigration of soul and the law of Karma.  The soul is born again and again on account of its Karma.  If a man does a good thing, he will be rewarded. But if he does otherwise , he will have to suffer punishment in the next birth.  According to Buddha, ignorance is the main cause of human sufferings.  So the main purpose of his teachings was to free human beings from the grim reality of sorrow and sufferings. In his first sermon at Benares, Buddha enunciated the Four Noble Truth. These are: {1} SORROW [2] THE CAUSE OF SORROW [3] THE REMOVAL OF SORROW AND [4] THE WAY LEADING TO THE REMVOVAL OF SORROW.

In order to secure deliverance from this sorrow and suffering he had advised his followers to follow the rightful path.  It consists of right belief, right means of livelihood, right endeavour, right remembrance and right meditation. This path was called the Middle Path because it was midway between severe austerity on the one hand and gross worldliness on the other. By following this Middle path one can attain Nirvana or salvation which implied not only extinction of desire but also the state of mind will secure release from the chain of rebirths and the consequent cessation of sufferings. Attainment of Nirvana was the sole aim of Buddhism. Buddha’s vision of a society is Casteless, Classless and Godless.

Christianity.

This religion is based on belief in Jesus Christ and on his teachings. Christians believe that Jesus was the son of God, and that he died and came back to the life again in order to redeem the world from sin.  Christianity originated in the Middle East but has spread to the most part of the world and exists in many forms, the chief of them are Protestant and Catholic sects of it.

Protestant.  Member of any of the Christian bodies that separated from the Church of Rome in 16 century, or of their branches formed later.

Catholic: Member of the Roman Catholic Church.

The fight between these two parties who believe in the same Jesus as the son of God and other so may articles of faith, had been terrible in the past. Mary Tudor {1516-56}, queen of England , the daughter of Henry VIII, tried to restore England to Roman Catholicism, and her persecution of Protestants earned her the nickname ‘ Bloody Mary’.  She is notorious to burn so many her opposite in religious faith alive.  In this respect Spanish Inquisition is a great black spot on the name of Christian faith : the Inquisition ( also the Holy Office) was an organization appointed by

the Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Ages to discover and punish heretics, esp the very severe one in Spain.

1.    Renaissance.

2.    Reformation.

Renaissance

There occurred two great movements which rocked the whole of the Europe in the beginning and the whole world in all fields of life.  It proved a great alarm for the spiritual world and whereby the Scriptures were greatly tarnished. In place of the domination of Church the humanism began to substitute it with strong muscles.  And the conquest of the humanism with its significance 1. {a] system of beliefs that concentrates on common human needs and seeks rational (rather than) ways solving human problems {b} study of mankind and human affairs ( contrasted with theological subjects) 2. Literary culture{ especially in the Renaissance} based on Greek and Roman learning has been persistently on the way to advancement to eliminate the unscientific attitude of thinking. 

Reformation  

Reformation 16^th century European for  reform of Roman Catholic, which resulted in the establishment of Reformed or Protestant Churches. Many  Christians felt that the Pope had too much political power, that there were many abuses such as the sale of indulgences, and that the spirit of the early Church had been lost. Intellectuals like Erasmus rediscovered the Bible in the original Greek and wrote about it in a new way.  Other went further, and Luther’s protests, followed by those of Calvin and Zwingli, led to the creation of separate Churches in England.  This phenomenal event affected the psyche of the whole Christian world, and helped in a long way to spread the scientific knowledge and the spirit of rationality in the face of prevalent spiritual sway among the masses.    

THE RELGION OF ISLAM.

The Land of Arabia

Arabia the cradle of Islam, is a vast peninsula in the South –West of Asia. It is the largest peninsula in the world and one of the driest countries of the globe.  It has an area of 120,000 square miles but its population is scanty, only seven souls for every square mile.  Arabia occupies a unique position in the map of the old world.  It is situated at the meeting place of the three continents.  Asia, Europe, and Africa.  Hence it commanded a central position of the globe when America and Austria were not discovered.  It is surrounded on the north by the Syrian desert, on the south by the Indian Ocean, on the  east by the Persian Gulf and on the west by the Red Sea.  As it is bounded by water on three sides, the Arabs call it the Jaziral-al Arab, the island of Arabia.

Condition of Arabia at the advent of Islam.

The period preceding the rise of Islam is known as the Age of Ignorance in the history of ancient Arabia.  According to P.K. Hitti, “ the Jahiliah period, which in a sense extends from the creation of Adam down to the mission of Muhammad but more particularly as used here cover the century immediately preceding the rise of Islam”.  The period was so called because the political, religious and social conditions of Arabia were of the worst order.  The pre-Islamic Arabs had no inspired prophet, no revealed book, no clear cut religious ideology and they had no idea of the system of Government, no idea of moral and descent life.  Their religious and political life was still on a thoroughly primitive level.

Religious life of the people.

With the exception of the Jews and Christians, the rest of the Arabs were idolatrous.  But the religion of the Jews and Christians were in a moribund condition.  Their religions could not in any way contribute to the material and spiritual well-being of the Arabs as a whole.

The pre-Islamic Arabs were mainly polytheistic.  They worshipped many gods and goddesses.  Each tribe had its own god and goddess, and every family had its own household deity.  The most important of these gods and goddesses were al-Uzza, al Lat, al-Manat and al-Hubal who were held in high esteem by the Arabs.  The Kaba was the centre of Arab paganism.  It has been said that idolatry was first introduced into Arabia by Amr ibn Luhaiya who brought the great idol ranted round al –Hubal, the chief deity representing in the form of a human being.  Every year men from different parts of the country used to come here to pay homage to their gods.  During this time a big fair was held in Arabia and the fair was called the “ fair of Ukaz”.  Besides idol worship, the Arabs worshipped the sun, the moon, the stars and air.  They had fallen so that they would worship ‘ pieces of stone, tree, and sand-heap”.  The kissing of Black stone and the circumambulation of Ka’bah which are the important items in the rites of Muslims pilgrimage are legacies of the pre-Islamic practices.  Human sacrifices prevailed and beliefs in spirits, (jins) fairies and oracles were universal in Arabia.  They did not believe in the Oneness of God, the immorality of human soul and the Day of judgments. Only a section of the people of Madinah called Hanif believed in a vague monotheism.

When the whole world was groaning under the oppression and injustice, Islam dawned on the Arabian Peninsula and illuminated the entire region with the luminosity of compassion, brotherhood, commitment and service of humanity.  Within a short time the barbarous and impious Arabians were transformed into a civilized and religious nation.  The teaching of Islam lifted up its people from death of moral and spiritual degradation to a high conception of God, morality and justice.  All the tribal factions were banished and the whole Arabia became one homogeneous unit.  In the teachings of Islam friends and foes, Muslims and non-Muslims were all alike in the eye of law. Justice, equality were the motto.

 Arabs and library of Alexandria. { Candid comments of Jawaharlal Nehru}.

“ Like the founders of some other religions, Muhammad was a rebel against many of the existing social customs.  The religion he preached, by its simplicity and directness and its flavour of democracy and equality, appealed to the masses in the neighbouring countries who had been ground down long enough by autocratic kings and equally autocratic and domineering priests. They were tired the old order and were ripe for the change.  Islam offered them this change, and it was a welcome change, for bettered them in many ways and put an end to many old abuses.  Islam did bring any great change revolution in its train which might have put an end to a large extent to the exploitation of the masses.  But it did lessen the exploitation so far as the Muslims were concerned, and made them feel that they belong to one great brotherhood.

So the Arabs marched from conquest to conquest.  Often enough they won without fighting.  Within twenty five years of the death of their Prophet, the Arabs conquered the whole of Persia and Syria and Armenia and a bit of Central Asia on the one side; and Egypt and a bit of northern Africa on the west.  Egypt had fallen to them with the greatest ease, as Egypt had suffered most from the exploitation of Roman Empire and from the rivalry of Christian sects.  There is a story that the Arabs burnt the famous library of Alexandria, but this is now believed to be false.  Arabs were too fond of books to behave in this barbarous manner.  It is probable, however, that the Emperor Theodosius of Constantinople was guilty of this destruction, or part of it.  A part of the library had been destroyed long before, during a siege at the time of Julius Caesar.  Theodosius did not approve of old pagan Greek books dealing with the old Greek mythologies and philosophies.  He was much too devout a Christian.  It is said that he used these books as fuel with which to heat his baths.

The Decline and Fall of Muslim World.  

There are many and manifold causes of the decline and fall of Muslim world.  Here under are given the most outstanding events that triggered nosedive the most imposing edifice of the Muslim World.

 [a] The generosity and fair mindedness of Abdul  Mutalib won for him an undisputed position among the  Quraysh who  recognised his over lordship. Bin Harb, the son of  Umayyad, refused to accept his supremacy.  The decision of the judges again went against him as it did in the case of his father. Thus, there sprang up a jealousy :

[b]  Old Rivalry between the prominent dynasties Omayyad and Hashemite.

[c]  The great tragedy of Imam Hussain.

 [d] Transferring of state authority to one or the other dynasty : the end of relationship of the state    authority and the public,
[e] The religious leaders became engaged in the most non serious discussion  such as whether  Ablution
dhela should move from the bottom to top or top to bottom.

[a] The enmity between the Hash-mites and Umayyads constituted one  of the main causes for the fall of the Khilafat.  The tribal jealousy and rivalry existed even before the birth of Muhammad[Sm].  But the teachings of the great Prophet kept them in check.  Abu Bakr and Umar did not belong to any of the parties and as they were engaged in wars with the foreign powers, the tribal jealousy could not raise its head.  But the peaceful reign of  Uthman allowed the dormant rivalry to rear its  head.  When the Umayyad supremacy under Uthman was going to be established, the Hash mites could not tolerate.  They tried to undo the influence of Umayyads in the empire.  With this end in view,  they sided with the enemies of Uthman.  Had the Hash mites and Umayyads been united at that critical time, the Arab faction which challenged the authority of Uthman would have been crushed.  But the enmity between the two  encouraged the enemy and was ultimately responsible for the murder of the Khalipha, Usman.  With the assassination of Khalipha, the unity of Islam was lost and the gates of civil were opened.

[b] Murder of Imam Hussein at Karbala was a great tragedy and it created an unbridgeable gulf between the Muslim Millet. Whole the nation was so sunk in the sea of religious quibbles and indifference to the
defence of the boundaries that when  Baghdad was under attack of the Mongols, religious leaders were engaged in the most frivolous discussion,   whether the ablution dhela should move from bottom to top or top to bottom.  ‘It is.’

Just fiddling of Nero the Emperor of Roman when the Rom was burning into ashes.’

 2.    Narcissism and Chauvinism :  “ The malady i.e. narcissism is civilizational  because the thought process of Muslim society everywhere is based on certain misconceptions.  For example, the imperialistic impulse to rule the world is not just visible in the subcontinent; it was felt in the earliest parts of Islam, in the first period of caliphate, when it was given out to the world that we are the best people, ordained by divine authority, to rule the world.    There are the two basic concepts of identity that the Muslim civilization preaches to its believers----the tribal and the Ummah identity.  These two identities do not allow for an analytical or critical thought process.  It was the intention of the rulers who conquered the world to keep people less informed and less critical.  And  therefore the tribal authoritative tradition became the Ummah tradition in which there is no questioning of the elders or rulers or superiors.  In such a sate, naturally, chauvinism sets in.  The subjugation of mind allows a certain pride to compensate for intellect.  The rulers as well as the public are made to believe that they are superior, they need not think or question their identity and should go on aspiring for a world empire as a civilization.   This civilization as a whole, ideological as it was, believed that it was very superior, as a right to rule the world, had a duty to wage war whenever there  was an opportunity.  Unfortunately, in the present day world there is little opportunity and we do not understand that.   We are in the habit of thinking that the world is ready to be conquered.”An  other malady of the Muslim is that suffer acutely from Narcissism.  They are always dreaming the glorious period of Islam, the Middle Ages.

  3   Allama Iqbal Views. [ Sufism]   The rise and growth of ascetic Sufism, which gradually developed under influences of a non-Islamic character, a purely speculative side, is to a large extent responsible for this attitude.  On its purely religious side Sufism  fostered a kind of revolt against the verbal quibbles of our early doctors.  The case of Sufyan Sauru is an instance in point.  He was one of the acutest legal minds of his time, and was nearly the founder of a school of law; but being also intensely spiritual, the dry-as-dust subtleties of contemporary legists drove him to ascetic Sufism. On its speculative side which developed latter, Sufism is a form of free –thought and in alliance with Rationalism . The emphasis that it laid on distinction of  zahir and batin [Appearance and Reality ]
created an attitude of indifference to all that applies to Appearance Reality]

This spirit of total other-worldliness in latter Sufism obscured men’s vision of a very important aspect of Islam as a social polity , and offering the prospect of unrestrained thought on its speculative side attracted and finally absorbed the best minds in Islam.  The Muslim state was thus left generally in the hands of intellectual mediocrities, and the unthinking masses of Islam, having no personalities of higher caliber to guide them, found their security only in
blindly following the schools.

“On the top of all this came the destruction of Baghdad – the centre of Muslim intellectual life—in the middle of the 13th century.  This was indeed a great blow, and all the contemporary historians of the invasion of Tartars describe the havoc of Baghdad with a half suppressed pessimism about the future of Islam.  For fear of further disintegration, which is only natural in such a period of political decay, the conservative thinkers of the Islam focused all their efforts on the one point of preserving a uniform social life for the people by a jealous exclusion of all innovations in the law and Shari’at as expounded by the early doctors of Islam.  Their leading idea was social order, and there is no doubt  that they were partly right, because organization does to a certain extent counteract the forces of decay.  But they did not see, and our modern Ulamas do not see, that the ultimate fate of a people does not depend so much on organization as on the worth and power of individual men.  In an over-organized society the individual is altogether crushed out of existence.  He gains the whole wealth of social thought around him and loses his own soul.  Thus a false reverence for the past history and its artificial resurrection constitute no remedy for a people’s decay”.   [Reconstruction of religious thought in Islam]  The verdict of history,” as a modern writer has happily put, “ is that worn out ideas have never risen to power among a people who have worn them out”.

Muslims of today in views of S. Abul A’la Maududi: “ The  Quran came to grant them dignity and power.  It came to make them real vicegerents of God on the earth.  And  history testified that when they acted according to its directions, it demonstrated its power making them Imams and leaders of the world.   But now for them its utility is confined to keeping it in the house in order to drive away demons and ghosts, to inscribe its verses on paper and hang it round the neck or wash it in water and drink it, and read the contents unintelligibly to get some blessing.  Now they do not seek guidance from it in the affairs of their life.   They do not consult it to know what should be our beliefs,  what  should be our deeds, how should  we  conduct transactions, what  law should we follow in contracting friendship and making enmity, what are the rights on us of our fellow-beings and of our own  selves, what  is truth for us and what is falsehood,  whom should we obey and whom to disobey, with whom should  we maintain relation and with whom not,  who  is our friend and who is our enemy, wherein are honour, well-being and benefit for us and wherein lies disgrace,  failure and loss?  Muslims have given up ascertaining all these verities from the Quran.  Now they ask these things from unbelievers, polytheists, misguided and selfish people and from the evil force in their souls, and follow what these elements advise.  Therefore what invariably happens on ignoring God and following the precepts of others, happened to them too, and they are reaping it today in Hindustan, China, Java, Palestine, Syria, Algeria, Morocco and everywhere”. {Fundamentals of Islam  P.No.17-18}.

The Idea of Hell  and Paradise.   The idea of Hell [ Punishment] and Paradise [Reward] has  so strongly  imbibed by our religious leaders in the mind of the members of the Muslim society  that this has embedded with  the DNA at the conception of a baby in  a Muslim family.   Punishment breeds fear and reward creates greed.  The result is that most of Muslim leaders are greedy and fearful. For instance Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, a great leader of the nation was suffering from paranoia :  He was a great intellect no doubt, but he succumbed to the threats of  Fanatics  because he was paranoid  by nature.  When he became a powerful, elected prime minister of the country, he began daydreaming to bring Renaissance of Islam across the Muslim world. To achieve his mission he held the submit conference of the Muslim countries.  Narcissism one of the chief features of a Muslim began to heave in his boson.   

Every idea inherits its decay : hence natural effect of downfall,   It is established that there is no such thing as finality in philosophical thinking.  As knowledge advances and fresh avenues of thought are opened, other views, and certainly sounder views than those prevalent  emerge  to take the place of the old.  In philosophical language it may be elaborated with the help of dialectics: it proceeds with a statement called thesis, the imperfections of which are sought to be corrected through studying its opposite, called the antithesis.  A new view is then proposed in which the best features of the thesis and the antithesis are harmonized. This is known as the synthesis.  This synthesis is further refined by regarding it as another thesis, expounding its antithesis, and so on.  To further elucidate the point the help of Spenser would be beneficial.  He wrote ‘that all organic matter originates in a unified state and that individual characteristics gradually develop through evolution. The evolutionary progression from simple to more complex and diverse states was an important’ process of nature . Therefore the thing which does not fall in the domain of human’s comprehension at present will certainly become understandable through the process of evolution. But alas! The Muslim could not learn lesson from the history of Christian Church which has long remained in power, the prosperity and advancement of the West stayed behind. With the dawn of Renaissance, the refulgence of the Church began to diminish, and the recognition of the new vistas of knowledge make the progress and prosperity of the West self-confident.