The virus of modernisation has captured the whole world’s population, and it was created by the technical and industrial progress of the Western societies. People’s lives have become completely mechanised, losing grace and blessings. It means that peoples lives are robbed of their substance, losing meaning and symbolic intelligence, in modern societies, machines are beginning to dominate people’s life. They decide what man does and who he is. Man becomes a slave of his own inventions.

 

“The split between life and religion is dangerously growing. Modern man has lost the dimension of inwardness.”

Moreover, the old treasures of abundant love have vanished from people’s hearts. The split between life and religion is dangerously growing. Modern man has lost the dimension of inwardness. He suffers from a gradual desacralisation [to remove sacred or religious significance] of the cosmos, nature and himself. He has lost authenticity, originality, and integrity; in other words, he has lost his own verticality [as opposed to animals’ horizontality].

…

Unfortunately, the more material sophistication dominates modern societies, the more barbarian and aggressive man becomes, which is obviously a paradox. Whereas the increase of the material quality of life should necessarily lead to a cultural refinement of society, the human being becomes more “brainless”, arrogant and ignorant.

In the scientific age we live in, we can speak, therefore, of a spiritual crisis. The problem seems to be that the more man loses its own verticality, the more he feels the need to conquer “upwards” into the vast cosmos of our solar system. Through his animalistic greed, the earth is not sufficient anymore. Modern man in the scientific age has lost inwardly what he gained externally; namely, he has lost the inward spiritual ascension of his soul towards the realm of God’s nearness, and he gained the external excursion into space with his technically highly sophisticated space shuttles. So, all actions in his life are aimed at catching up by what he is missing. He becomes a compensator.

 

“We have lost the spiritual journey of our soul … and dream, therefore, for the material, fake, paradises of this world”

With his purely materialistic world view, he identifies entirely with the physical reality and compensates for his internal losses with greed and power-hunger. The more man gets stagnated into the material heaviness of his own life, the more he feels an urge to travel. Especially in our present time, we can observe this restless urge to fly around the world. We have lost the spiritual journey of our soul and the wonderment and admiration towards the infinity of God’s divine knowledge. We have lost the hidden treasures of our hearts and dream, therefore, for the material, fake, paradises of this world.

We can observe that one of the worst problems of our modern societies is the distortion of the human mind! Through the vicious mind games of political leaders, the world has become a very dangerous place. The degeneration, deception, conspiracy, falseness, and hypocrisy of the modern mind has reached its peak. Humanity is under the threat of violation, abuse, corruption, exploitation, terror – which are all sicknesses of the mind caused by the sickness of the heart. Unfortunately, the possessors of such minds are the rulers of this world. This is true not just on the political, but on the economical, social, scientific levels as well. We can define these kinds of people as “man-eaters”, or “economical animals”. Today, mentally disturbed, sick people have become leaders in politics, business, economics, and religion. It seems the more neurotic and pathological they are, the more they are likely to win – the more corrupted they act, the better are their chances of winning.

It is the collapse of human values that has brought the rise of mental illness which, especially today, leads to the use of deadly drugs. And such entirely morally bankrupt people symbolise nothing else than the deepest degeneration of our present societies.

…

Within our global age of political, economical, and military corruption, the religion of Islam has become a target! In the subconsciousness of the powerhungry global invaders, the infinity of the eternal light of Islam has become their most hated object. The ultimate power of the universal religion has become unbreakable resistance. Opponents resent the insurmountability and superiority of Islam and, therefore, act as invaders to gain supreme victory. For though they seem to be driven by their addiction to petroleum, their soul is envious of the glory and grace of the perfected religion.

Did not the devil talk in the front of God’s light, portraying an image of false righteousness and justice, because he felt he was greater than anything his Lord had created? It was envy that distorted his heart, and he disobeyed; and it is the envy of the global invaders that distorts their minds and hearts, so they threaten the religion of Islam. On the surface, they seem to be the supreme authorities who have gained victory over the whole planet; but in reality, they are crushed by the divine light of truth. It is for this reason that we have to apply the light of unity of God’s religion against the torments of our global age.

…

“Every pain, every suffering, is caused by the separation from God”

However, I can tell you like never before – I can smell the sweet scent of lovehood within our present time. This very century we live in is talking to us. It shows that we are not living how God made us to be. Every pain, every suffering, is caused by the separation from God. Jalal al-Din Rumi comments:

The cruelty of time and of every suffering that exists is easier than distance from God and heedlessness. For that cruelty will pass, but distance from Him will not. No one possesses good fortune but he who takes to Him an aware spirit.

Especially today, humanity has a great need for answers of an eternal nature, such as what is the purpose of human life on this earth? Why has man to undergo such suffering? Where does man come from before birth, and where does man go to after death? Before we can solve any problem, we have to think about who we are. We have to know our significance on this planet. Why are we here? Man’s forgetfulness has caused the greatest problems, which is nothing else than his ignorance and refusal to see how things really are.

“We have to realise that God is the solution for all and everything”

Humanity is in urgent need for the truth because we are dangerously far away from it. Now is the time for an interactive dialogue. Humanity is in need of global solutions and eternal values. We are in need of eternal values and, therefore, the solution has to be universal. It means that it is time for the universal religion, the universality of the truth, and to know God’s pure religion. There is only one religion, the religion of absolute truth. We have to realise that God is the solution for all and everything.

…

The human being cannot live without guidance, without spiritual nourishment, without healing, without education. Only religion can give the human being what it needs. Without religion, the human being is lost in the jungle in this world. We have to realise that God is the solution for all and everything. Today, most of all, man is lacking the awareness of the divine reality within himself. Modern man is ignorant of his true self; he is uninformed of the treasures within his breast; he is deaf and blind of his divine origin. This means he is unaware of his total dependence towards his Supreme Creator, the Lord of all worlds. It is the unawareness of the divine Presence and the lack of divine thirst that is the root of all problems.

…

In order to live our earthly life in harmony, our beloved master [Prophet Muhammad] never ceased to advise his community not to allow discrimination between poor and rich; the judge and servant; the academic and peasant; husband and wife; man and woman; Arab and European; and so on. All human beings are equal because they are from one God, which makes them brothers and sisters of the hereafter. We have to see ourselves as one living organism.

…

“And as we are in need of breathing, we are in need of God”

God created and brought us into this world so that we might love each other, serve each other, and help each other. We know from a tradition of our blessed master that there is a condition involved if we wish to be accepted in paradise. Only believers will have permission to enter. Additionally, there is a highly important condition we have to satisfy in order to become believers. We have to love one another for God’s sake, in order to reach the state of a believer; that is to say, we fulfil the conditions of true belief only if we love humankind. And as we are in need of breathing, we are in need of God.

 

The above is an excerpt from the book From the Stage to the Prayer Mat, by Rabia Christine Brodbeck (2011, p.268-289).