| 22 December 2010
In the history of mankind Karl Marx and Frederick Engels are the two giants who have made the most scathing criticism against religion. The criticism was further advanced by Lenin and other Marxists. It needs a considerable discussion to deal with this criticism in order to assess its worth. It is important to deal with this criticism in order to show how Islam remains unaffected from this clandestine criticism as this is beside the point and it does not apply to Islam in any way.
To start with, Marxism-Leninism considers religion a historically transient phenomenon of social consciousness and shows the man factors those determine its existence at different stages of society’s development. According to Marx religion in primitive society was conditioned by man’s importance Vis-a- Vis forces of Nature because of the low level of the productive forces. Thus in Capital we find that, consciousness is at first, of course, merely consciousness concerning the immediate sensuous environment and consciousness of the limited connection with other persons and things outside the individual who is growing self consciousness. At the same time it is consciousness of nature, which first appears to men as completely alien, all-powerful and unassailable force, which means relations are purely animal and by which they are overawed like beasts, it is thus a purely animal consciousness of nature.1/
According to Marxism: the existence of religion in antagonistic class societies may be traced to oppression, unfair social relations, the poverty and rightless status of the masses, which bred despair and a sense of helplessness thus turning people’s hopes to supernatural forces. By giving people false bearings and other world, religion, according to Marxism, strengthens and perpetuates man’s independence on external forces and dooms him to passiveness and thus retarding the creative potential of the society of antagonistic classes, it diverts working people from active participation in the struggle for changing the world and impedes the formation of their class consciousness. According to the communists, Marxism-Leninism provides convincing proof that the social roots of religion are being undetermined by the economic and social changes brought about in the course of socialist construction and will disappear altogether in a developed communist society.2
Marxism maintains that: The ancient social organisms of production are, as compared with bourgeois society extremely simple and transparent. But they are founded either on the immature developments of man individually, who has not yet served the umbilical cord that unites him with his fellow men in a primitive tribal community, or upon direct relations of subjection. They can arise and exist only when the development of the productive power of labor has not risen beyond a low stage; and when therefore, the social relations with in the sphere of material life, between man and men, and between man and nature, are correspondingly narrow. Marx further writes; this narrowness is reflected in the ancient worship of nature, and in the other elements of the popular religions. Then Marx claims that religion will vanish when the relations will be established on practical basis rather than religious oriented basis.
He says; the religion is the reflex of the real world, in any case, it will only vanish when the practical relations of everyday life offer to man none but perfectly intelligible and reasonable relations with regard to his fellowmen and the nature.3/
The Marxists claim that Marxism alone was able completely to reveal the essence of religion by proving that it is nothing but “the fantastic reflection in men’s minds of those external forces which control the daily life, a reflection in which the terrestrial forces assume the form of supernatural forces.”4/
In capital, Anti-Duhring, Ludwig Feuerbach and other works Marx and angels discuss the roots of religion, showing that whereas in the earliest stages of human development religious beliefs arose from primitive man’s helplessness in his struggle with the forces of nature, under antagonistic class society the social oppression of the working masses and their apparent helplessness against the struggle against their exploiters gave birth to and foster religion in the belief of better life hereafter, the alleged reward for suffering on earth. Marx in his introduction to Critique of the Hegelian philosophy says as early as in 1884.5/
“Man makes religion, religion does not make man. Religion is indeed man’s self- consciousness and self- awareness as long as he has not found his feet in the universe. But man is not an abstract being, squatting side the world. Man is the world of man, the state, the society. This state, this society, produces religion which is an invested world consciousness because they are an inverted world. Religion is the general, the theory of this world, its encyclopedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d’ honour its enthusiasm its moral sanction its solemn complaint, its general basis of consolation, its justification. It is the fantastic realization of the human being in as much as the human being possesses no true reality. The struggle against religion is therefore indirectly a struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion”.
He continued: “Religious suffering is at the same time an expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of people.”
He further says: “the abolition of religion, as the illusory happiness of man, is a demand for their real happiness. The call to abandon their illusions about their condition is a call to abandon a condition which requires an illusion.”
Then Marx suggests a solution to this problem as “……. The immediate task is to unmask human alienation in its secular form now that it has been unmasked in its sacred form. Thus the criticism of earth, the criticism of religion into the criticism of law, and the criticism of politics”.
Marx had gone beyond an anthropological analysis of religion, and had adumbrated a critique of society.”6/
Marx explains his position and says, “Religion is a form of consciousness, which is at first interwoven with the material activity and the material intercourse of men”. He says further:
“Thus production of ideas, of conceptions, of consciousness, is at first directly interwoven with the material activity and the material intercourse of men, the language of real life. Conceiving, thinking, the mental intercourse of men, appears at this stage as the direct efflux of their material behaviour. The same applies to mental production as expressed in the language of politics, laws, morality, religion, metaphysics, etc. of people.7/
In this sense: “Men are the producers of their conceptions, ideas, etc. real, active men as they are conditioned by a definite development of their productive forces and of the intercourse corresponding to these, up to its furtherest forms. Consciousness can never be anything else than conscious existence, and the existence of men is their actual process. If in all ideology man and their circumstances appear upside- down as in the camera obscure, this phenomenon arises just as much as from their historical life process as the inversion of objects of the retina does from their physical life process.”8/
Marx, by identifying religion with some base aspects commits a fallacy as we find that religion in its true sense does not possess these aspects: “we see that we perceive the workings of universe as: “unintelligible”, “supra- rational”, or even unscientific is to loose sight of this reflection and this community. It is that confounds humanity is what Marx calls a “ heartless world” and a dispirited” existence; such is a life for a man who in a world of unfeeling matter, has become plaything of a blind and unending dialectical conflict and is drowning in a “ sea of tears”, with this disheartening black hole of enthusiasm”. 9/
This whole process of arguments against religion leads us to believe that Marx’s approach towards religion was based on hypothetical propositions. For the same reason showing the ignorance of Marx about the exact and original sources of religion, Dr. Shariati comments: “it appears that Marx’s knowledge of religion was confined to what his father of joist descent, Protestant by conversion had comprehended of it. He had not even heard of one of the most basic doctrines of Judaism, protestant Christianity, and Islam alike: god’s assignation of free will to men, that he might struggle in his earthly life and search for his own liberation”.10/
Contrary to Marxian criticism against religion, Islam elevates man to a lofty status where he is not helpless creation, as Islam interprets and evaluates man on the on the basis of tauhid, and Marxism does so on the basis of production (taulid). Not only this it is Islam, which shows the way to consciousness and freedom: “Islam, very simply, is a philosophy of human liberation. Its first summons, “say, there is no god but god’ and prosper,” propounds taulid as the necessary means to that end.
We see that from the same beginning, Islamic humanism ascends to a kind of awareness, while Marxist humanism proceeds to a kind of production. Then does Islam lead to a mystical and ascetic idealism of foreign to actually? Has Islam, like the mystical religions and ideologies, forgotten the principal of justice? Not at all! Islam addresses economic welfare and social justice as principle of its social order; indeed it stresses them. To be precise in Islam theses constitute essential prerequisites; they can free man from poverty and discrimination so that, through moral growth and particular evolution, he may freely unfold his inherent divine nature. This is paramount to the philosophy of human life in Islam. 11/
Not only this, “Islam, on the other hand, goes beyond granting humanity an honored place in nature (“we have honored the progeny of Adam.”17:70). It does more than that God has made a helpless creature who, having lost himself, searches for his own values and powers in God’s being and demands them from Him with “sighs” and “tears”. It holds that God has consigned this trust to humanity. “We offered the trust to the heavens, the earth, and the mountains, and they refused to bear it, fearing it, and men under took it” (2:30). Nothing could go further to confute Marx’s and Feuerbach’ reasoning in deducing man’s alienation from himself before God then the saying of Syyyidna Ali, upon whom be peace, which stands as a decisive affirmation of man’s nobility and man’s responsibility for his own self- perfection and liberation “your disease is with you and you know not, and your remedy is within you and you see not.”12/
Why Marx was led to say such a thing is because in his view religion had a history that was infected with social discrimination and injustice towards mankind. Not only had this have the proponents of Marxism show how religion depends on the development of social relations, on the class structured of society. They reveal the interest the exploiting classes (including clergy) have in furthering religion as a means of blinding and curbing the popular masses.
It should be mentioned that the Marx based this attack on the grounds he found Christianity in practice devoid of all human consideration. He says: “the social principles of Christianity:
rationalized ancient slavery, endorsed medieval serfdom and understands how, when the necessity arises , to support the suppression of the proletariat, however regretfully. “the social principles Christianity preach necessity for the existence of a ruling class and the ruled class.- the social principles of Christianity relegate compensation for all atrocities to the next world, while explaining their persistence in this world as punishment for original sin, or as a burden god has imposed as a test of His servants. The social principles of Christianity preach dishonor, contemptibility, abjectness, servility, humility – in short, all base qualities. The proletariat, refusing to accept this debasement, has much greater need of courage, self respect, pride, and desire for independence, then of bread.
The social principles of Christianity are hypocritical, but the proletariat is revolutionary.13/
By this criticism in these above lines does not apply to Islam in any sense. What were the ulterior motives- which led Marx to criticize religion are as Dr.Sharaiti has rightly pointed out that Marx “identifies the Messiah with the pope, so that all non- Marxist intellectuals and even independent Christian thinkers should join in attacking him, regardless of the weakness of this line of his reasoning.14/
Dr. Shariati says further: “it is vulgar to criticize the weakness and corruption of the religious classes and to infer from it that religious studies are futile. To identify the role in society played by the Christian clerical class in the middle ages with that of Jesus, the Messiah, in the Palestine of two thousand years ago, is if not highly tendentious, indication of utter ignorance. Not only this we find that history is replete with examples of revolutionary struggle against the corrupt Christian clergy. Karl Marx actually not know that independent Christian thinkers, in struggling against the church and the clergy (and against what Marx terms “the social principles of Christianity)” have made greater sacrifices, to greater effect, than materialists and Marxists? The 300,000 in Barcelona alone who were massacred by the church were themselves all Christians”. 15/
In a broader sense we find that “the greatest, most astounding sophistry that the modern humanities- from Diderot and Voltaire to Feuerbach and Marx have committed is this:
They have quoted the mythical world of ancient Greece, which remains with in the spiritual and sacred world of the great ancient religions. They have compared and even bracketed togetter humanity’s relation to Zeus and its relation to Ahuramazda, Rama, the Tao, the Messiah, and Allah, whereas as these two sets of relations are in truth antithetical.16/
Before Marx Feuerback had also committed this fallacy as the well-known charges laid against religion that turns on “ the alienating affect of religion, “proclaimed as a great Marxist discovery, is essentially Feuerbacks’. In his book The Essence of Christianity, he executed the famous inversion wrought upon the school of Hegel in connection with the relation between the son (Christ) and the Father (God). He says:
“In the instance, it is the Father who is born of the sun. God does not manifest Christ: Christ manifest God and the Christ who becomes God is himself the outward realization of the human spirit, the spirit of mankind urgently seeking deliverance. The Holy Spirit is none other than that human spirit. Which, falling to recognize God head with in itself, personifies it in a meta-physical being, and situates what is within itself in an imagined heaven”. 17/
This is what he means by the alienating effect of religion. If one can avoid this alienation, one will arrive at oneself, experience of the self-awareness of Homom homicide (man who is his own God). 18/
Marx was the son of a Jew who, because of the legal restrictions on daily life for the Jews in Germany, had converted to Protestantism. While a young Hegelian, Marx wrote in the preface to a treatise, “philosophy is allied with the faith of Prometheus; in sun, I feel a loathing toward the Gods. Marx equated Greek superstitious beliefs with genuine religion belief and some times bases his arguments on the practice of clerks against religion.
But according to Marx: All the proofs of Gods existence prove rather His non- existence- The real proofs should have the appropriate character, because nature looks a right order, God exists in other words, irrationality is the basis of God’s existence.
In case of Islam his criticism, says Ali Sharati: “by contrast, the scriptures, and particularly the Quran, have made a rational case for Taulid on the basis of nature, causation the constant laws of life; and the ordered and intelligible quality of events in the universe. They look upon these things as objective attestation to the existence of an intelligence who rules over nature.
“The Holy Quran harshly criticizes the materialists asking “do you imagine the order of this world to be futile? It proclaims in answer “we did not create heaven, earth and all between them in vain”. (38:43). Further more; God does not get the affairs of the world in motion without their proper causes. Everything rests solidly on God’s Sunnah (wont) in the world: “you will find no change in God’s Sunnah” (35:43). Everything in nature, man, and history has a known quality and a term. The most important evidence for God’s existence offered in the Quran point to the existence of a rational order and intelligence in nature”.
Dr.Ali Sharati concludes his discussion by these words: At this point, we can se how, like a bigoted medieval school man, or a political blackmailer, Marx sets up the most deviant, vulgarized, and least widely held views of a rival school of thought as straw men to attack and ridicule.19/
According to Lenin religion is a tool for the exploitation of masses and the belief in the life hereafter is a capitalist design to lull the toiling masses. “Religion is one of the forms of spiritual oppression which everywhere weighs down heavily upon the masses of the people, over- burdened by their perpetual work for others, by want and isolation. Importance of the exploited class in their struggle against the exploiters just as inevitably give rise to the belief in the better life after death as importance of the savage in his battles with the nature gives rise to belief in Gods, devils miracles and the like. Those who toil and live in want all their lives are taught by religion to be submissive and patient while here on the earth, and to take comfort in the hope of a heavenly reward. But those who live by labour of others are taught by religion to practice charity while on the earth, thus offering them a very cheap way of justifying their entire existence as exploiters and selling them at a moderate price tickets to well -being in heaven. Religion is the opium for the people. Religion is a sort of spiritual booze, in which the slaves of capital drown their human image, their demand for a life more or less worthy of men.20/
Lenin regards religion opposite to sciences and says: “the proletariat of today takes the side of socialism, which enlists science in the battle against the foe of religion, and frees the workers from their belief in the life after death by wielding them together to fight in the present for a better life on the earth. 21/
Religion has no concern with State and for a communist it has no validity in any sphere of life. “We demand that religion be held a private affair so far as the State is concerned.”22/
According to Lenin religion breeds obscurities and ignorance. He says, “Such an association cannot and must not be indifferent to lack of class consciousness, ignorance, or obscurantism in the shape of religious beliefs. We demand complete disestablishment of the church so as to be able to combat the religious fog with purely ideological weapons, by means of our press, and by word of mouth.23/
Tracing out the economic basis of the religion, Lenin was led to declare that religion is the product of economic yoke in the society to forget that yoke of religion that weighs upon the mankind is merely a product and reflection of the economic yoke within society.24/
“The paradise is to be created on the earth, no need to create it in the heaven as it is only a fantasy. Revolutionary struggle of the oppressed class for the creation of paradise on the earth is more important to us than unity of proletarian opinion on paradise in heaven”. 25/ Says Lenin.
Scientific world out-look will kill religious sentiments according to Lenin: “we shall always preach the scientific world out- look, and is essential for us to combat the in- consistency of various Christians”. 26/
“If economic slavery is removed religion will perish itself----the proletariat will wage a broad and open struggle for the elimination of economic slavery, the two sources of the religion humbugging of mankind. 27/
Marxists have tried to deal with the problem of society in their social identification with religion. “Law, morality religion, is to him (laborer) so many bourgeois interests.28/ Religion is deeply hostile to science. Thus writes Afenssaya:
“Science and religion are incomparable, science gives man true knowledge of the world and the laws of its development. It helps him to master neutral and social forces to arrange production. Religion on the other hand distorts the essence of the world, gives wrong interpretation to it, stultifies the mind and will of man and progress.”29/
According to Marxism, religion is not the basis, but a sign of the various forms of social consciousness, as social consciousness has diverse forms, political and legal ideas, art and religion 30/.
Religion is a new phenomenon created by man with the development of society.
“Religion arose only at a definite stage in society’s development. The origin of religion can be traced to ignorance of the true cause of natural and social phenomenon, to the awe in strong power of nature’s spontaneous and pentanndes forces and social oppression.”31/
Lenin wrote about some of the negative points of religion, that it preaches subordination to the exploiters, submission to fate, non-resistance to evil and violence and thereby paralyses the peoples revolutionary energy, dooms them to passivity, to patient waiting for everything to be done by god’s will. Lenin thinks that by its false promises of the kingdom of heaven, of a happy life in the next world, religion diverts the working people from the most burning issues of reality, from the revolutionary struggle against exploitation and just, genuinely human system.32/
All this criticism by Lenin of religion is not in any way applicable to Islam as Islam in no way preaches subordination to the exploiters. On the contrary it exhorts people to safeguard their genuine rights. Islam does not preach passivity, rather prepares people to be conscious enough to get their genuine rights safeguarded. It permits fight against oppressors. Quran says: “to those against whom war is made, permission is given to fight because they are wronged, and verily, god is powerful for their aid”…33/
Not only this, but Muslims have been ordered by Islam to fight on the side of the oppressed of the world. Islam exhorts Muslims to become a safeguarding force not only for the preservation of their own community’s right, but also launch a struggle in the favour of oppressed of the earth. I this way, Islam becomes a revolutionary programme for the toiling masses and the oppressed people of the world.
The survey of Engel’s views about Islam will show that he was totally ignorant of the Islam as a way of life, encompassing all the aspects of human beings. It seems that on the basis of the hypothetical reasoning and by identifying Islam with other religions, Engels committed a “category mistake”, to borrow the phrase from Gilbert Ryle. He tries out to find economic reasons for the advent of Islam and for this purpose he suggests that the trade of the Arabs demanded a relief in a religion like Islam. Marx has expressed all most similar views about Christianity in Capital while he says: “the religious world is the out reflex of the real world. And for a society based upon the production of commodities and values, whereby they reduce their individual private labour to the standard of homogenous human labour- for such a society, Christianity with its cults of abstract man, more especially in its bourgeois developments, Protestantism, deism etc. is the most fitting form of religion.”34/ Here what is clear in both the cases, is that Marx and Engel’s are enable to see the essence of religion as envisaged by these respective religions and the luminaries belonging to them, but they are determined to repeat their hypothetical assertions, where economic and social conditions are the sole determinants of not only religion, but all other institutions like philosophy, art, morality etc. religion, contrary to these speculations, has set a trend in society to mould rather every aspect of human life according to its tenants including economic conditions as well.
In this form religion seems to be of vital importance and at the center of all activities. The other point is that Marxists try to locate the emergence of Islam in Arabic context. This is against all the teachings of Islam as clearly we find in Quran that Islam has nothing to do with Arab traditions rather it changed the society and built the edifice of Arab world a new.
About Islam Engels has mentioned some points in his letters to Marx, where he sees the basis of Islam to be traced out in economic and at the most national feelings. He wrote: “Islam is a religion adapted to Orientals, especially Arabs, i.e. as on one hand to townsmen engaged in trade and industry on the other, nomadic Bedouin. There lives, however, the embryo of a periodically recurring collision. The towns-people grew rich, luxurious and lax in the observation of the law”. The Bedouins, poor and hence of strict morals, contemplation with envy and covetousness these riches and pleasures. Then they unite under a prophet, a Mahdi.”
According to Engel’s these movements were for economic purposes, but all movements of economic nature were clothed in religion. He writes: “All these movements are clothed in religion, but they have their source in economic causes.”
Engels wants to stress the point that the revolution created by Islam was actually a reaction to return to the “old simple customs’ and to the “old national –Arabian tradition of monotheism.” It means that Islam, to Engels, is not a divinely revealed religion. He writes further that the content of Islam was Arabian rather Semitic in general. He says: “but the ancient Arabian inscriptions, traditions and the Koran, and the case with which all genealogies etc. cannot be unraveled prove that the main content was Arabic or rather Semitic in general.”35/
It is obvious that Engels could not realize the universal appeal of Islam that can be seen easily scattered through The Holy Quran. For example Quran say’s: “we have not sent thee (O! Muhammad) (S.A.W.). But as universal (messenger) to man, giving them glad tidings, and warning them (against sin) but most men understand not.”36/
Marx in his reply supports Engels and says, “with regard to the Hebrews and Arabs your letter was very interesting for me”. Marx also mentioned that it was perhaps due to the fact that, “in Muhammad’s (S.A.W.), time the route from Europe to Asia had been significantly modified and the cities of Arabia, whose share in the trade with India etc, was considerable, were in a state of commercial decay. This is in any case etc impetus”37/. We could not expect anything more from Marx’s ignorance of Islam. Engels writes in another letter to Marx: -
“I think that the destruction of the South-Arabian trade before Muhammad, [SAW] which you very rightly regard as one of the chief factors in the Muhammadan revolution, was to be included here.”
Afterwards, Engels tries to identify the Islamic revolution brought about by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) with the national feelings of Arabs.38/
About Islam the Communists say that it arose in the 7th century in western Arabia in the period of Arab people’s transition from the primitive- communal system to a class society and their unification in the feudal theocratic state of the Arab caliphate.39/ According to these Islam was an ideological reflection of these processes. They hold that the creed of Islam is expounded in the holy book of the Muslims, the Koran, it is compounded in the elements of primitive religions and also of Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism” they say. But the communists confess that the Islam has always played an important role in those countries of the east where it spread. This role has intensified in the present epoch of the rise of national liberation struggle in the process of which Muslim leaders seek to use Islam as the ideology of liberation movements. About the Muslims living in Russia, communists think that the drawing of Muslim working people into the process of socialist construction helps to develop their class-consciousness, liberate them from religious survivals and to enable them to understand the true ways of society’s transformation.40/
From these details we can infer that the Marxism – Leninism tries to show that Islam was not a divinely revealed religion based on universal teachings but only the product of economic and national circumstances then existing in Arabia. They also try to say that Islam was given shape by taking into it different elements and teachings from religions like Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism. But as we will show in the following pages, that according to Islam all prophets were from God and they possessed the same message with which they came to their nations and communities, so the similarities among their teachings are in no case indication of the fact that the essence of religion is a bourgeoisie’s technique.
A very significant point demands our attention here. Marxian criticism of religion may be applicable to Christianity, as the whole history of Christianity was before the eyes of Marx, but as the views expressed by Marx and Engels show they were completely ignorant about Islam, hence their criticism it seems to be merely hypothetical in its nature rather than empirical. In this connection we should also note that Islam regards the distorted religions as the valid forms of religions. These are rather developed in their form after a long period of transition, where they could not retain their purity and authenticity. The other point is that the misuse of these religious forms is also not proved by Islam. On the contrary Quran levels a scathing criticism on the distorted forms of these religions.
The whole correspondence between Marx and Engels shows clearly that both Marx and Engels were totally ignorant about Islam. They were not aware of the sublime teachings of Islam which base their appeal on universal issues. I think the views expressed by Marx and Engels regarding the great Islamic revolution speaks volumes about their ignorance of the real spirit of Islam. My point is that both Marx and Engels had no real knowledge of Islam and therefore, their criticism against religion in general is in no way applicable to Islam. Now we will see how Islam is totally different from the distorted religions against whom Marxism levels his criticism, I will show that long before Marx Islam had launched some severe criticism against these religions. In comparison to this criticism Marxism is very poor in front of Islam, both in its theoretical and practical aspects.
Let us first see how Islam levels criticism against those who distort religions, on the basis of which people exploit people. In a very interesting manner Quran has exposed the greedy and exploitative mentality of those people, who had forgotten the spirit of their religion and they were exploiting the ignorant and poor people on the name of religion.
“Among people of book are some who, if entrusted with a hoard of Gold, will readily give it back. Others, who, if entrusted even with a single gold coin, will not return it unless thou constantly stoodest demanding, because they say, “there is no call on us (to keep faith) with these ignorant (pagans). But they tell a lie against God well though they known it”. 41/
Not only this, Quran has depicted the picture of those Jews also, who were trying to displace the revealed words from their books. Quran says “of the Jews there are those who displace words from their (right) place, and say we hear and disobey…” 42/
The belief of some of Jews of Medina was based on superstitions; Quran refers to that in the following verse.
“Hast thou not turned thy vision to those who were given a portion of the book? They believe in sorcery and evil, and say to the unbelievers that they are better guided in the (right) way than the believers.”
They are men whom God hath cursed, then they will find no one to help.”43/
Say, “Shall I point out to you something much worse than this, (as judged) by the treatment, it received from God? Those who incurred the curse of the God and His wrath, those of whom some He transformed into apes and swine, those who worshipped Evil, these are (many times) worse in rank, and for more astray from the even path”44/. Not only had they transgressed the limit ordered by God, but also usurped the property of people and exploited then, Quran says:
“Many of them dost thou see, racing each other in sin and rancor, and their devouring things forbidden. Evil indeed are the things that they do.”45/
On the other hand the religious scholars and the clergy people did not forbid them from doing these all unlawful acts. Quran says:
“Why do not the rabbis and the doctors of the law forbid them from their (habit of) uttering sinful words and devouring things forbidden? Evil indeed are their works? 46/
Here we see that the religious leaders are condemned because they don’t try to prevent their people from wrong deeds and exploitation of others by usurping their properties.
In the following verse an important point is highlighted that i.e., if the study of religious books does not create sense of responsibility and accountability in man, then it should be understood that distortion of the true religion has taken place.
“After there succeed an (evil) generation they inherit the book, but they choose (for themselves) the vanities of the world, saying (for excuse). (Every thing) will be forgiven us, (even of similar vanities came their way would again seize them, was not the covenant of the taken from them, that they would not ascribe to God anything but the truth, and they study what is in the but best for the right is the Home in the hereafter, will ye not understand”. 47/
“Those who reject (truth), among the people of the book and among the polytheists, were not going to depart from their ways until there should come to them clear evidence- an apostle from God, rehearsing scriptures pure and holy; where in are Laws (orders) right and straight.”48/
But the deceitful behaviour of those people Quran mentioned “and covers not the truth with falsehood, nor conceals the truth when ye know (what it is).”49/
About the worst spiritual condition of the Jews after betraying from the path of Allah, Quran says:
“Thenceforth were your hearts hardened. They become like a rock and even worse in hardness. For among rocks there are some from which rivers gush forth, others there are which sink for fear of God .And God is not unmindful of what ye do.”50/
About the wretchedness of the people of book, who had made their religion a source of income, Quran says while condemning their designs that: -
“ Then woe to those who write the book with their own hands, and then say, “ this is from God”, to traffic with it for a miserable price, woe to them for what their hands do write and for the gain they make thereby”51/
Sometimes theses people claim to be superior to others on the basis of their ancestral background:
“And they say: the fire shall not touch us, but for a few days; say, have ye taken promise from God, for he never breaks his promise. “Or is it that ye say of God what ye do not know”. 52/
The character, which these people were displaying, was due to their materialistic mentality, not due to religious one.
“These are the people who buy the life of this world at the price of the hereafter; their penalty shall not be lightened; nor shall they be helped.”53/
It is the materialism that makes man selfish and exploiter, not religion if followed in its real form. In the case of Jews we find that Quran mentions that they have become headless to everything, when the forgot the real message of religion.
‘Thou will indeed find them, of all the people most greedy of life, even more than the idolaters. Each one of them wishes he could be given a life of thousand years. But the grant of such life will not save him from (due) punishment. For God sees all that they do.”54/
The point of the Quran here is that these people are not following the true religion, which has been always “Islam” (submission before the will of God). Judaism and Christianity are two forms of distortion of the true religion. The claim of superiority of Jews over Christianity and vice versa only shows their shallowness.
“And say: None shall enter paradise unless he is a Jew or a Christian.” Those are their (vain) desires. Say: produce your proof if ye are truthful. Nay- who ever submits his whole self to God and is a doer of Good- he will get his reward with his lord. On such shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve”.55/
The criticism leveled by Marxism on religion is not only invalid in case of Islam, but the real religion that was preached by Abraham, Moses and Jesus Christ (P.B.U.T), in its real form can never become the target of the same. Quran says categorically that Abraham was never a Jew or Christian. He was rather a Muslim, and if their ids any follower of Abraham in real sense of the word, these are the followers of the Islam. Abraham was not a Jew or yet a Christian, but he was a true in faith and bowed his will to Gods, (which is islam0, and not joined Gods with God. Without doubt among men the nearest to kin to Abraham, are those who follow him, are also this apostle and those who believe and God is the protector of those who have faith”. 56/
The criticism that was leveled against religion by Marxism is in no way applied to Islam. On the other hand Islam emerges as a complete code of conduct encompassing the multidimensional aspects of human existence. It is not a religion as dubbed by its opponents in the literal sense. Quran has never used the word “madhab”, to denote Islam. The Arabic term “din” is always used and copious references are scattered in the Quran which, in one or other ways, show that Islam is not a private affair, a subjective response, or a safer recourse to the maladies of spiritual life. Instead of this is mentioned in the Quran that it controls the while privacy as well as externality of an individual and also lays down the strict and regular practices to be followed by a society, which claims to adhere to Islamic faith.
According to Islam all nations received divine guidance in one or other form. Quran says:
“To every people (was sent) an apostle.”57/ And “for we assuredly sent amongst every people an apostle (with the command0. “Serve God, and eschew Evil’.
From the very day, when Adam was sent to this world mankind was also connected with heavenly guidance. Adam was also prophet of God. According to Quran:
“God did chose Adam and Noah, the family of Abraham, and the family of Imran above all people”58/
All prophets according to Islam were the members of the same creed i.e. submission before the will of God (or in other words to Islam). But during the long intervals, which existed in the history of mankind the real guidance was again and again neglected by the people and also revealed message was distorted and manipulated, hence the need of renewal of the old message with some modifications and new commands to continue the chain of divine revelation. 59/ It is for the same reason that each and every prophet testified to and acknowledged predecessors prophets and proclaimed “and believe in what I reveal, confirming the revelation which is already with you” 60/
Quran says: “ we believe in God and the revelation given to us, and to Abraham Ismail, Isaac, Jacob and the tribes, and that given to Moses and Jesus, and given to (all) prophets from their lord. We make no difference between one and another of them, and we bow to God (in Islam).”61/
At the end the neglected and distorted massage of god, was renewed by the last prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H)
“Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but (he is) apostle of god, and the seal of the prophets and God has full knowledge of all things”62/
But according to Marxism religion was created by people themselves at a particular stage of society’s development and in the primitive society, when there were no classes, there was non-religion as there was Non State. Further it is said that religion was formulated by the exploiters in order to lull the masses and exploit them by giving them the hope of happiness in the life in the next world. This class character of religion was claimed to be proclaimed for the first time in history by Marx. Religion according to Marx has worked as opium for the masses and people adhere to religion because they do not get their needs fulfilled in this world because of the exploitation and amalgamation of means of production by a feudal or capitalist class. So they live on the hope of life in the next world, which will be fuller and pleasant one, lacking all the shortcomings of this mundane life.
Religion according to Marxism had been always on the side of the haves exploitors.it has been used as tool by them, as they had control over the means of production and economic resources.
If the maladies of the life, like poverty diseases, deprivation and other miseries will be removed by the socialization of the means of production, by creating a classless society, by eradicating the exploitation by the capitalists of the masses, there will be non need of religious optimism or some hope of fuller life hereafter on the earth, so that people may be relieved from the fanciful hope of happier life in the other world. But as long as we are not able create the world; people will not adhere to religion in one or the other form. It is for that reason that “religion is the spirit of the spiritless and the heart of the heartless.” It is the fanciful image of better life under the heart breaking deprivation by the exploitation of the haves which compels and makes the have –notes to be satisfied with their lot.
In the same way, according to Marxism religion is one of the institutions among the various institutions, which create social consciousness it is not dominant or having upper hand. It is the super structure of an economic basis.
But if we see the conditions in which Marx opened his eyes we learn that Marx saw an extreme exploitation unlashed by the rulers who had joined hands with the priests and clergymen. Being originally from a Jewish descent Marx was fully aware with the brutal atrocities which were incurred upon the Jews on the name of religion by Christian rulers and crusaders. Although Marx’s father had converted to Christianity Marx found that they are not getting their due respect in the society because of their previous Jewish origin. On the other hand church had captured 1/3 of the land and the priests and clergymen were equal shares of power, which had become a tool of oppression for the common masses. The whole history of persecution of scientists and enlightened people by church was also before Marx. These factors together led his disillusionment from the very essence of religion. Otherwise in his early life, Marx was great supporter of the “myth of trinity” and in one of his articles had declared that only through myth of trinity, man can get salvation: but when he came to know the corruption, exploitation and immorality of the religious people, he declared religion as opium of masses. But Marx did not know Islam as the above references show. Rather, Marx has only accepted some views of Engels about Islam, which show that Islam is also a product of economic conditions prevailing those days in Arab continent. But it is sheer ignorance of Islam; we will show further how the criticism of Marx does not apply to the distorted forms of Christianity or Judaism (in their distorted form as Marx had seen them)contrary to this Islam has itself criticized these religions as the Rabbis clergymen adhering exploiting people in the name of religion. In fact the criticism by Islam of the distorted and maligned form of religion is more severe and forthright than that of Marx. But the only difference is that by attaching religion Marx wants to show absurdity of religion, while as Islam shows the purity of religious teachings by presenting the true religion to mankind contrary to Marxist’s view point, history shows that Islam had been there from very beginning. Adam was not only the first human being, but according to Islam the first prophet also. Then the allegation of Marxism on religion that it makes people dull and keeps them in dormant conditions is not correct. On the other hand, Islam has proved to be a great source of inspiration and revolution among the people. It does not work as opium, but as a great catalyst to awaken people from their dogmatic slumbers. It defies all forms of ignorance and obscurantism.
The Quran says:
“ALR-a book which we have revealed unto thee, in order that thou mightiest lead mankind out of the depths of darkness into light by leave of their lord- to the way of (him) the exalted in power, worthy of all praises.”63/
History proves that the Arab nation which was the most backward, barbaric and ignorant nation of the world, become the most enlightened, civilized and learned and lead the course of history to the direction of scientific and technological developments. Then the criticism of Marxism on religion that it makes a person to be suffering passively and resigned manner in order to get the reward in the next world, too is not valid against Islam. Islam has never accepted this concept. Islam is not only promises the better life in life hereafter but also in this mundane life. Quran has categorically said that if a person follows Islam and abides by the dictates of Allah and his apostle (S.A.W.) he will get best of the both worlds. Muslims have been taught to pray for the betterment of this life as well as the life hereafter: Quran says:
“And the man who says: our lord! Give us goods in this world and good in the hereafter, and defend us from the torment of the fire.”64/
At another place Quran says:
“And another (favour will be bestow) which ye do love-help from god and a speedy victory. So give the glad tidings to the believers.”65/
In the same way Islam clarifies for the people that the pleasures of this life are meant for believers also. They should avail all the facilities and live a fuller life in this world as well. They should not deprive themselves from the fine and nice things of the world Quran says:
Say: who hath forbidden the beautiful gifts of god, which he hath produced for his servants, and the things, clean and pure which he hath provided for sustenance?
Say! They are, in the life of this world, for those who believe, and surely for them on the day of judgement. Thus do we explain the signs in the detail for those understand?”66/
Then there is a very significant point which Islam highlights, i.e. that is from the very beginning all the prophets, were given divine guidance to lead humanity on the right path. The distorted religions in no way are accepted by Allah as genuine religions. Although all the prophets (P.B.U.T.) were sent by the god with the same message, but now the real form of religion or the compendium of all religions in Islam which is historically authentic and reliable.
Quran says:
“The same religion has he established for you as that which he enjoined on Noah, which we sent by inspiration to thee and that we enjoined on Abraham, Moses, Jesus: namely, that ye should remain steadfast in religion, and make no divisions thereof therein.”67/
Quran reiterates again and again that all prophets are form on brotherhood: their message is one and their religion and teachings are one; they serve the one true god, who loves and cherishes them; and they own their duty to him and him alone.
Regarding this allegation against this religion that it is always on the side of oppressors, we say that Islam never gives any clue to that direction: Islam is not only says that god will give a support by Islam to be oppressed, but also gives warning to the oppressors of their defeat at the hands of oppressed. Quran says:
“Truly pharaoh elevated himself in the land and broke up its people into sections, depressing a small group among them, their sons he slew, but he kept alive their females, for indeed he was a maker of mischief. And we wished to be gracious to those who were being depressed in the land, to mark those leaders (in faith) and make them heirs.”68/
Quran says:
That the people who were on the side of prophet Noah were poor people, and the rich powerful people were reluctant to attend his message because they did not like that the “mean people should accompany Noah. Quran mentions their saying as follows:
“They said shall we believe in thee when it is the meanest that follow thee.”69/
Prophet Muhammad (S.AW.) himself always liked to be with poor and with down trodden people. In this prophets company the poor and weak were given high status than the rich. Hazrat Bilal (R.A.) was a he brow salve originally, but in the company of the holy prophet (S.A.W.), he was called as our leader” by Hazrat Omar (R.A.). The first revelation wads received by the prophet in the cave of Hira, and when he came hurriedly to his house and told the whole story to his life Hazrat Khadijah (R.A.), she consoled him and said:
“Respectfully, indeed reverently, she said to him,” joy to my cousin, be firm by him who dominates Khadijah’s should I pray and hope that you will be the prophet of his nation. By god, he will not yet let you down. You will be kind to your kin; your speech all is true, you will rescue the weary, entertain the guest and help the truth to prevail.”70/
There are many teachings and many examples of such behaviour, which show that all [prophets were always supporting and helping the poor and down\n trodden people. Here Marxism’s criticism dos not cut any ground at all. Not only has this but Islam enjoins, on the contrary, to all believers to fight for the oppressed and depressed people to save them from the yoke of slavery. Quran says:
“And why should ye not fight in the cause of god and of those who, being weak, are ill-treated (and oppressed) men women and children, who cry is: “our lord rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from thee one who will protect, and raise for us from thee one who will help.71/
At the last to counter the criticism of Lenin against religion that it opposes science, I would like to quote the renowned, Nobel laureate, DR Abdus Salam in this regard.
He says:
“As a scientist the Quran speaks to me in that it emphasizes reflection on the laws of nature, with examples drawn from cosmology, physics, biology and medicine, as signs for all men. Thus “can they not look up to the clouds, how they are created; and to the heaven how it is upraised; and the mountains how they are rooted, and to the earth how it is put spread.72/
And again he says:
“Verily in the creation of heavens and of the earth; and in the alteration of the night and day, there are indeed signs for men of understanding. (3:190)” Seven hundred and fifty verses of Quran (almost one eighth of the book) exhort believers to study nature, to reflect, to make the best use of the reason In their search for the ultimate and to make the acquiring of knowledge and scientific comprehension part of the community’s life. The holy prophet of Islam (P.B.U.H) emphasized that the quest for knowledge of science are compulsory for each Muslim men and women. Abdul Salam continues and says:
“This is the first premise on scientific knowledge with which any fundamentalist thinking in Islam must begin. Add to this the second premise eloquently reinforced by Maurice Bucaille in his essay on the bible, the Quran and science. There is not a single verse in the Quran where natural phenomenon is described and which contradicts what we know for certain from our discoveries in sciences.”73/
“Add to this the third premise in the whole of Islamic history there has never been an incident like that of Galileo’s persecution, ex-communication (takfeer), even today there may be over doctrine difference, but never, to my knowledge for scientific beliefs. And paradoxically, the first inquisition (mihna) in Islam came to be instituted, not only by the orthodox theologians but by the so-called rationalists, the mutazhala themselves who prided themselves on the use of reason. The saintly Ahmed Ibn Hanbal was one of those subjected to the lash of their fury.74
To conclude I would like to say that the understanding of Marx and his followers of Islam is doubtful. They have never studied Islam as their writings show in its real essence. Their criticism of religion, no way is applicable to Islam. Islam has preserved not only the essence of religion, but also has shown clearly the distorted forms of religions, which compelled Marx and his followers to oppose not only these distorted forms, but the very essence of religion itself.
Which speaks of their inherent bias against religion? Their studies regarding religion are not empirical, but hypothetical and partial. They are dogmatic in their approach to Islam, despite their repeated claims of scientific temper and objectivity. Not only Marxists, but also the understanding of western philosophers and social scientists seems to have developed after the rise of materialist and atheist philosophy, it is perhaps for the same reason that all these schools of thought have maintained a negative attitude towards the greatest source of inspiration, ever found in the history, i.e. is religion. I their reaction to the dogmatic and barbaric attitude and behaviour of the priests, they have turned against everything in the name of religion, spirituality of morality. This only a reaction and not a renaissance as claimed by the people. It is perhaps for the same reason that despite their concerted efforts the spirit of religion could not be killed, but it got more strong hold. Even in the communist Soviet Union religious feelings among people are increasing and despite the enormous economic development, religion was not eradicated at all. The agitation that was led by Muslims in protest to the Soviet leader Michael Gorbouch’s speech I that he had said that religious sentiments are feelings should be eradicated at any rate. The demonstrations in central Russia show that Islam has become a political threat to Soviet Union. In Kazakistan, the leader of communist party Mr. Din Muhammad Kaif was removed from the party leadership and Mr., Gandhi we Koublan was made the leader of the Kazakistan and interestingly the participants In the agitations were young Muslims, who are the members of communist party of youth wing “Comsomol”. Tass news agency has reported a central Russian Muslims Syed scholar Bayuf has written a pamphlet about Russian Muslims. In this booklet, the author has shown that the religious feelings among Muslims are on its increase. The author has further written that the Russian scholars were considering Islam as a social problem and that too of the past and believed that Islam has gone into oblivion. But now this belief has been proved fallacious.75/
Bishop K.H. Ting (president china Christian council) said at the international religion liberty association, Asia congress held in Delhi in, March 1987, that in china now people are not persecuted on the name of religion and now there is equality between believers. He said further that two million Bibles have been published in china since 1981, and 4000 buildings of worship have been built.76/ These reports show that in the every citadels of communism, the religious sentiments were not killed, but these natural feelings are getting more and more strength, which proves once again the wrong and reactionary interpretation of the founders of Marxism and Leninism about religion. There is a need to change the attitude towards the religion for the communists also. Otherwise their old historical and materialistic dialectical philosophy has proved to be a failure in treating religion as opium of the masses.
Islam is now able to show that the material welfare that was only hope from Marxism could not prove to be the real source of solace for the masses. It is very strange that in Muslim counties there are a good number of people, who believe in communism and some people are so credulous that they claim that Islam and the socialism are very similar to each other. It shows that these baffled scholars and intellectuals are ignorant both bout the essence of Islam as well Marxism.
Now there are two versions about the approach of people towards Marxism. Some people regard Marxism a challenge to the essence of Islam, while as compromising intellectuals insist that there is a great affinity between Marxism and Islam. But I think the second view seems to be totally fallacious. As Marxism according to its own claims is a culmination of the materialist philosophy, which has banished everything concerning spirituality or religion from its spheres, and which advocates the atheistic philosophy based on dialectical and historical materialism, which opposes the very concept of life after death, which considers morality and ethics as relic of “bourgeois’s mentality”, is in no way near to islam and when the basic concepts are not similar, how is it possible to rely upon the minor details and claims a thing which has greater and far reaching implications.
Before concluding this article I want to quote Dr. Ali Shariati who has given a real picture of the position of both the ideologies i.e. Islam and communism. There are people who believe that Islam and Marxism completely contradict each other in their anthologies and cosmologies. Briefly Marxism is based on materialism and derives its sociology, anthropology, ethics, and philosophy of life from materialism. The Marxist O’Connor i.e. the materialist cosmos is as Marx puts it, a heartless and dispirited world.” Where man lacks a real destiny. By contrast, the cosmology of Islam rests upon faith in the unseen being definable as the unknown actuality that exists beyond senses and to an intellectual scientific, and empirical perceptions, and which constitutes higher order of reality and the control focus of all the movements, laws, and phenomena of this world.”77/ The opposition between Islam and Marxism is based on the belief system.
“The Quran, at the beginning of the surah, al-Baqarah, proclaims faith in the unseen to be the prerequisite for guidance and the very source of piety.” “A.L.M. this is the book in which is no doubt, a guide to the pious, who believe in the unseen, are stead fast in prayer; and spend out what we have provided for them” (2:1.2.). This unseen is in the truth that the absolute spirit and will of existence. Contrary to idealism, which looks upon the phenomenon of the material world as arising from the idea, and in contrast to materialism, which imagines idea as springing from the material world, Islam regards matter and ideas as different manifestations ayah of the unseen absolute being, thus negating both materialism and idealism. It likewise grants the existence of the natural world separate from our idea of it and also mentions that a man, as being in which the idea subsists, has independence and nobility relative to material nature, society and production.”78/ Materialism and idealism both are in this way a fragmentary process to see an organic whole of human existence as is conceived by Islam in its total.
In almost all aspects of life, there is glaring opposition “also from the radical difference deriving from two opposed conceptions of humanity, which give rise in turn to two opposed conceptions of morals, life, economics, culture, education-of man’s eschatological and historical destiny, of society and the universe as a whole.79/
Why people are misled in dealing with Islam and Marxism is because…similarities of ideal are typically compared with ideological similarities. Opposing ideologies may hold shared deals.80/
REFERENCES
1-Karl Marx, Capital, A Critical Analysis of Capatalisat Production, (Tr.from 3rd German Edited by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling) Edited by Ferederick Engels.Gearge and Unwin Ltd.1946, p-42
2-Frolow, Dictionary of Philosophy, Progress publishers, Moscow, 1984 p-357
3-ibid.p-358
4-Capital, opt.cit.p-52
5-Marx, Engels, On Religion, Progress Publishers, p-2
6-Marx, Karl, (quoted in) Selected Writings in Sociology and Social Philosophy, T.B Boltomore, and Maximullien Rubel, Watts and Co., London, 1956,pp-26-27.
7- Marx, Karl, German Ideology, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1964, p-37
8-IBid.p-52
9- Shariati Dr.Ali, Marxism and Other Western Fallacies, Tr.by R.Campbell, Islamic Foundation Press, Kerala, India, 1987,p-57
10-Ibid.p-58
11-ibid.p-73
12- ibid.p-58
13-The Communism of the Rhein Ischar Boe Bacchter, dated September 5,1847,quoted in, Marxism and Other Western Fallacies, op.cit p-60
14-Ibid.p-60
15- Ibid
16- Ibid-p-18
17- Ibid, p-53
18- Ibid
19- Ibidp-55
20-Lenin, V.Socialist Ideology and Culture, Progress publishers, 1978, p-42
21- Ibid, p-43
22- Ibid, p-45
23- Ibid, p-46
24- Ibid, p-46
25- Ibid
26- Ibid, p-47
27-V.A. Afanasyev, Marxist Philosophy, Progress publishers, Moscow, 1978, p-348
28- Ibid, p-384
29- Ibid, p-356
30- Ibid, p-382
31- Socialist Ideology and Culture, op.cit.p-42
32- Marxist Philosophy, op.cit, p-385
33-The Holy Quran (xx11: 39)
34-Ibid. (1v: 75)
35- Marx, Engels, Selected Works, Introduction to Dialectics of Nature, Progress publishers 1978, p-276
36-Ibid. (Letter of Engels to Marx) May 26, 1853, p-42
37- The Holy Quran (XXXIV: 2)
38-Selected Works op.cit.p-109
39- Ibid
40-Frolow, op.cit.p-203
41- I bid.
42- 111:75)
43- The Holy Quran (1v: 46)
44- The Holy Quran (1v: 51-52)
45- The Holy Quran (v: 63)
46- The Holy Quran (v: 65)
47- The Holy Quran (v: 63)
48- The Holy Quran (V11: 169)
49- The Holy Quran (XCV111:1-2)
50- The Holy Quran (11:42)
51- The Holy Quran (11:74)
52- The Holy Quran (11:79)
53- The Holy Quran (11:80)
54- The Holy Quran (11:86)
55- The Holy Quran (11:96)
56- The Holy Quran (11:111-112)
57- The Holy Quran (111:67-68)
58- The Holy Quran (X: 47)
59- The Holy Quran (XV-36)
60- The Holy Quran (111-53)
61- The Holy Quran (11:41)
62- The Holy Quran (11:136)
63- The Holy Quran (XXX111: 40)
64- The Holy Quran (XIV: 1)
65- The Holy Quran (11:201)
66- The Holy Quran (LXI: 13)
67- The Holy Quran (V11: 32)
68- The Holy Quran (XL11: 13)
69- The Holy Quran (XXVIII: 4-5)
70- The Holy Quran (XXV1: 111)
71- The Holy Quran (1V: 75)
72-Dr.Abdul Salam, Review of Religions, Newyork, July, 1986, p-33
73-Ibid.p-34
74-Ibid.
75-Ibid.
76-The Dawat, New Delhi, April4, 1987, p-3
77-IRLA, Asian Congress, Ashoka Hotel, New Delhi, March 2-6, 1987
78- Marxism and Other Western Fallacies, op.cit, p-60
79-Ibid.p-63
80-Ibid.