A Cursory Assessment of the World Today
Now we possess the light which we can use
to look at the world and observe the situation of existing
nations, specifically the “developed” ones with respect to
shirk and idol worship. Since this book has been written with
consideration to utmost brevity, we shall firstly concentrate
on signalling the most important features and, secondly, keep
the current condition of followers of all religions, not
discuss the reality of their faiths and, thirdly, only mention
those nations who hold some level of cultural significance.
Otherwise, this story could become so long that it will be
very difficult to bring it to a close.
For ease of debate, we shall review nations
of the Far East and followers of Buddhism, then look at India,
followed by Western Europe and the United States on the one
hand and Russia on the other, so that we may assess the dark
and distorted forms of polytheism hidden in these cloaks of
modern civilization. In spite of the claim of researchers that
polytheism has disappeared from the world, it is widely spread
out throughout the world.
Far East
The majority of people in the Far East are
followers of four religions: Shintoism, Taoism, Confucianism
and Buddhism.
The original, oldest religion of Japan is
Shintoism and it remains the main one to date, although Japan
is considered to be the land of 500 religions. In the
beginning of 6th century C.E, Buddhism entered through Korea,
but when a strong nationalist movement took root in 9th
century C.E, Shinto rose up again and since then, it is the
official and national religion.
The key principle of this religion is
worship of nature and elders. It has about 8 million deities
but the main is the goddess of the sun, whose grandson,
according to Japanese belief, became the first ruler of Japan
and the crown has been passed on generation to generation,
with the current King, Micado. The progeny of this goddess has
been ruling Japan for thousands of years, although various
goddesses of the seas, rivers, mountains, fire etc are also
worshipped. Brave warriors of the nation and loyal servants of
the royal family are also worshipped. However, the first
principle of this religion is to worship the original elder
goddess, her relatives and descendants.
The main religions of China are Taoism,
Confucianism and Buddhism. Worship of ancestors, ghosts and
devils, goddesses and gods has been the characteristic of
these religions from ancient times. The first two religions
believed in ancestor and nature worship in principle. Buddhism
does not believe in ancestor worship but when it reached
China, it absorbed the beliefs of the other two religions and
now all three deify ancestors, evils and their demonstrations.
Magic, casting of spells and tricks are their common features
and the list of superstitions of their followers is so long
that the reader gets exhausted.
Laozi was the originator of Taoism. His
philosophy is the philosophy of negation. His religious book
would be about half that of the Gospel of Mark, but the
followers of this religion have added so many superstitions to
the book that their details could not be contained within
thick volumes. Tao monks have been in search since before the
birth of Jesus (sws) of the dragon pine that is said to grow
in an island of fairies of the eastern sea. They have covered
the entire sky with gods and goddesses and the entire earth
with magicians and sorcerers and believe that if humans can
negate their desires and locate the secret of eternal life,
they become heavenly gods. Of their heavenly goddesses, the
most significant is the “Queen of Heaven” or the “Sacred
Mother”. This goddess is also the goddess of the seas, storms
and waves. She is the protector of every Chinese sailor,
fisherman and marine tourist. When there is any trouble in the
sea, she is called upon for help and she immediately appears
in the skies with her sword and destroys the greatest of
storms. If sailors are lost in the darkness of seas, she shows
them the way with red lanterns.
The founder of Confucianism was Confucius.
The original religion of China is ancestor worship and the
reality of Confucianism is nothing other than that it was an
authority for ancestor worship. Ancestor worship is the
backbone of Chinese mythology. Souls of the dead are given
most significance and glorified. They control the divinity of
China. Although the Chinese pay homage and sacrifice to all of
their gods, they worship the souls of their forefathers with
the greatest sincerity of heart.
According to Chinese belief, souls of the
dead remain on earth and if they are not fed, kept satisfied
or worshipped, they become upset and this anger of theirs
causes many calamities. According to their faith, if a
person’s soul is not respected and worshipped by his children,
that soul becomes embroiled in permanent wretchedness.
The concept of individual existence is
absent in China. Every person is assumed to be connected with
the long association of his ancestors that extends from the
beginning of existence to his own life. The being of every
Chinese is totally dependent upon the mercy of the souls of
his ancestors. If there is the least negligence in paying
homage to them or obeying all the necessary rituals as per
established rules, it is enough for him to be damned.
Thousands of years have passed: the
ancestors of Chinese have moved out of nomadic life and
entered modern times; 25 royal families have ruled over them;
terrible wars and great revolutions have changed the
parameters of the country, but ancestor-ship in China remains
unaltered to date.
Confucius has also given many moral
principles. But all of these teachings are based on
ancestor-ship. He says that they must believe their ancestors
to be ever present and offer sacrifices for them and worship
souls as if they existed within individuals.
Although he has not claimed to be a god
anywhere in his teachings, but due to the all embracing nature
of the religion in the country and above teachings, he has
become a deity, as had Laozi. Today, he is worshipped as a
major god in China.
Buddhism was born in India but Brahmans
chased it out such that it never went back. Exiled from here,
it found refuge in the eastern islands of Hindustan, Burma,
China, Japan, Tibet, etc. Except for Japan, where it met with
defeat after the nationalist movement in the 17th century, it
exists prominently in the other places. China and Tibet have a
large number of its followers.
It is commonly believed about Gautam Buddha
that he was a denier of God. But this is not correct. Ancient
history of the world is full of polytheists but atheists are
found only in current times. How could it be assumed about
Buddha that he did not believe in God? The research we have
carried out on the history of Buddha’s times and his religion
tells us that he was a believer in Unitarianism. Before his
time, the philosophy of Upanishads had already been spread in
Hindustan.
It is not possible for one who believes in
oneness of existence to deny God. He believes that the entire
universe is false and illusion and that only the ego is truth.
The ascetic spends his life in seeking to absorb himself in
the soul of the universe, in other words the “ego”, letting go
of the fear of death or love of wealth and life. The history
we find of Hindu hermits before Buddha’s time is demonstrative
of their painful efforts to extract themselves from the net of
wealth and become one with the soul of the universe. When
Guatam Buddha opened his eyes and his heart yearned for this
release, he turned to the same philosophy and began to carry
out extremely difficult exercises to obtain release from the
tussle of life and death and human desires. After some time,
the reality dawned upon him that those efforts were
unnecessary to remove the cover of materialism. The way to
this was to purify one’s soul of desires and gain freedom from
emotions of the heart and soul. Thus, as far as painful
exercises were concerned, he reformed the ways of the Brahmans
and developed rules that focused on obtaining purification and
celibacy and that emphasised internal sacrifices rather than
external ones.
The last slogan of Unitarianism is “I am
God and I am the truth.” This made every Hindu mystic a
spiritual force instead of a servant. Gautam Buddha’s struggle
was also for this purpose. Hence, he, too, shed off his
materialistic cloak according to his belief and absorbed
himself into the universe. After his death, his followers made
him a deity and spread various senseless stories about his
birth to prove that he was a personification of God who had
come to give new life to the world. He is now worshipped as a
god in China, Japan, Tibet, Burma etc and his magnificent
statues and temples surprise many onlookers. His followers in
China are also involved in worship of all kinds of ghosts,
spirits, gods and goddesses. There is a worse situation in
Tibet. The greatest religious priest of Tibet, the Dalai Lama,
is believed to be Buddha’s incarnation and exercises godliness
similarly. When the Dalai Lama dies there, every woman is
desirous of giving birth to a new god and the new god is
chosen through casting lots from among the children who are
born during that period.
India
One is filled with fear when stepping on
the ground in Hindustan. Here, every grain of sand is a god.
From the ant to the elephant, from a grain to the sun, all are
idols and sacred. One can find worshippers of rivers,
mountains, animals, birds, cats, mice and even unmentionable
parts of the human anatomy.
In the Vedas, the story of Indra who gave a
thousand eyes to a peacock taught drunkenness and inebriation
to its followers. Then came the trio of Brahma, Vishnu and
Shiva. The former is the creator, the second is the protector
and the last one kills and burns.
After each period of the world’s existence,
Brahma destroys it and gives it a new birth. His temple is
still to be found in Rajputana and thronged with people.
Whenever a major calamity occurs in the
world, Vishnu descends upon the world to save its people. To
do this, he is born many times in various incarnations. Ten of
his incarnations are famous in Hindu mythology. Shri Krishan
is also thought to be one of his incarnations and the manner
in which his life has been presented and the stories connected
with him that are spread throughout the Hindu nation are too
embarrassing to be mentioned.
Then comes the philosophy of Pathanjali, or
Hindu mysticism. It is based on Unitarianism. This philosophy
includes only the ego: everything else is illusion and
delusion. The extreme form of this is that the grain becomes
the sun, a drop the river and the human being God. The path
towards this is assumed to be release the soul from the body
through extremely hard work. The details of ways to do this
created by Hindu hermits and Yogis are such that one is filled
with horror and their practical demonstrations are enough to
make ones hair stand on end. But anything can be expected from
the person who risks his life for ordinary reasons when he
desires to become God. One must admit, therefore, that
examples of the exertions Hindu Yogis have gone through would
not be easy to find in world history.
In Hindu mythology, gods are followed by
goddesses. They are numerous too. It would not be useful to
discuss their features but Lakshmi Durga, Bhervi and Kali Mai
are commonly known. The latter one holds great significance
for the Hindus. Dreadful diseases such as small pox, cholera,
etc are assumed to be a result of her anger.
Whichever sects exist within Hindus, they
are either worshipers of these gods and goddesses, or are
influenced by the Geeta and Pathanjali. Some groups appear to
be different, but these differences are on the surface only.
There is no difference in their substance and reality. Only
two sects hold distinct features. One is the Arya Samajis and
the other the Sikhs. Both have been influenced by Islam and
have come somewhat close to the concept of tawhid. However,
this closeness has been created as a result of defensive
measures. This is why, in spite of their closeness, they
remain far from Islam. The founders of these sects thought
that it would be difficult to worship idols while fighting
with Muslims. Thus, they gave up praying to their idols and
accepted a reform, which, in their minds, brought them closer
to rationality and the belief of the times. They thought that
they could not combat the Muslims. This is why they possess
the most enmity of all sects against Muslims from the very
beginning, although, being closer to the latter in their
principal belief, they should have feelings of love towards
them. Whatever the reason for accepting this reform, it is an
important one and they have come closer to the basic teachings
of Islam. It is now easier to communicate tawhid and its
requirements to them, provided truth comes to them through the
right path.
This is the situation in India. All common
people and elites are involved in such polytheistic beliefs.
The Unitarianism, which in itself is a major issue, of Geeta
rules over the best minds. The best feature of Aryas and Sikhs
is that they deny idol worship but our readers who have noted
the earlier discussion are aware that they need to cover many
milestones to reach true tawhid.
Just as Arya and Sikh came into existence
in India due to Muslim rule, a new group has emerged due to
colonisation by the British and modern thought and ideology.
This group is, on the whole, more progressive. It has released
itself from the superstitions of Hindu mythology, but it is
creating another mythology based on material from the West.
New gods and goddesses have replaced the older ones. Humans
themselves are gods, make their own rules, implement these
over themselves and blow the trumpet of their kingdom over
God’s world. This is called democracy.
Western Europe and America
The real religion of Europe and America is
Christianity. We have explained the distortions in these
religions in previous pages. After the council of Nicea, faith
in Trinity became the state religion and control by the Pope
and Church began. We have also clarified that Aryus and his
party, which had inherited the beliefs of Peter that possessed
true Christian beliefs, became a minority state and, in fact,
was oppressed and downtrodden.
The rituals of the Christian church were then established on
the basis of Paul’s alterations.
We now need to take a brief look at the
centuries in between until reformation of the church.
During this intermediary phase, we observe
two very significant points: the singularity of the Christian
church, and its wide ranging control. In the Middle Ages, the
rule of the church was so over powering and over reaching that
all small or large states had become mere tools. Even the
great Byzantine rule had become lifeless against the church.
The church misused this power completely. Drunk with this
rule, it started the crusades that took hold of Europe for 200
years. During this period, those at the helm of the church
committed such crimes; spilled the blood of so many people;
destroyed young children by brainwashing them with dreams of
the wars and placed all creative abilities on the path to
subversion that left many people highly disturbed mentally.
Defeats on the battlefield and the massive destruction caused
chaos among thinkers. They began to believe that the rule of
the church was the cause of the destruction. People who loved
research and knowledge thought that the church had occupied
the minds of all like a nightmare, and until this nightmare
was removed, all paths to reason and thought would remain
blocked. Leaders began to think that control by the church
over government was irrational and against nature and that
politics should be separate from religion. Different nations
of Europe began to believe that the Roman Catholic church
control over the state was merely an excuse for Roman control:
it should end. Even from within the church, a group was formed
that started thinking that they had strayed away from the true
teachings of Jesus (sws) and become obsessed with evils of
this world. Their purpose seemed to be only collection of
wealth, showing off pomp and glory and destroying the world.
They should return to the life of poverty, service of
humanity, giving up of the world and obedience of Jesus (sws).
The combination of all of the above gave
rise to the chaotic condition which we know by the name of the
Renaissance. People of knowledge such as Bacon, politicians
such as Machiavelli and Hugo Grotius and liberal thinkers such
as Gardeno Bruno belong to this period. The church answered
the resistance by these people through setting up courts that
determined and punished religious crimes (the inquisitions).
Such horrible punishments were given to those desiring reforms
and seekers of knowledge that it is impossible even to think
about them. But these punishments served only to increase the
demand to rise against the church and bring the control of the
Pope to an end. Nations wanted to protect their own
nationalities; people of knowledge became increasingly
desirous of enhancing research and thought and the science of
philosophy became determined to cut down the roots of church
dogma. Demand for reform from within the church too became so
strong that reform supporters such as Wycliffe Hus and Luther
rose to take action. They divided the unified the Christian
church into two and thus formally set the foundation of the
Protestant sect. The basic concept of this sect was there was
no need for connection between Jesus (sws) and God and that
every Christian had the right to understand and obey the
Bible, just as the Pope had.
Nation states had begun to be created
during the 13th century. By the time the 16th and 17th
centuries arrived, the forces of nationalism, unified states,
separation of religion and politics and religious tolerance
had increased to such as extent that the church, regardless of
whether it was Catholic or Protestant had to give way. All
sectors of knowledge, politics, business, trade and economy
were cleansed of the influence of the church and political
institutions of the 17th and 18th centuries came into
existence in which religion was a personal matter. Instead of
control of priests and elites, control of common people and
parliament came into existence.
It becomes clear from this detail that
Christians were never provided the blessing to worship God
solely. Paul involved them in worship of Jesus (sws), Mary (rta),
the Holy Spirit and evil forces and opened up the door to the
polytheistic beliefs of the Roman catholic church. Luther’s
reforms removed the church from collective life and gave
control to people, members of the parliament, kings and
presidents and thus different rulers of public life were
created.
When the weakness of democracies was
demonstrated by World War I, dictatorship was installed in
some European countries. The difference between dictatorship
and democracy is one of numbers of the rulers. Many deities
make the law and act as gods in democracy; in dictatorship,
only one deity does so with help from his supporters.
USSR
The USSR is managed through communism,
which is the last step of democracy. Democracy had connected
religion and God with private life; communism has cut off this
connection too and installed the rule of humans over all
sectors of human life. Instead of the trinity of Christianity,
it possesses the trinity of Marx, Lenin and Stalin. The
beliefs, moral behaviour and economic systems which this
fundamental trio has designed is the religion of the USSR.
(Translated by Nikhat Sattar)
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