Reality of Secularism by Abul ‘Ala Mawdudi

The civilization on which the world’s intellectual, moral, ethical, political and economic system is based is grounded in three basic principles, the first of which is secularism. Secularism–which can be referred to as dunyawia or ladini. The basic premise of secularism is that God, His guidance and His worship are matters that belong to the personal domain of an individual. Outside of this personal domain, all worldly matters must be viewed from a strictly worldly perspective, divorced from any religiosity, based purely on human intellect and man-made moral and ethical systems. In worldly matters, it must not matter what the God Almighty states, or what He has revealed in the Scriptures.

This dogma started in the West due to the fundamentalism and backwardness of Christian theologians. However, with the passage of time, this reactionary dogma became the permanent way of life and the first pillar of the modern civilization. Under this modern way of life, religion became a private matter between a human being and God–a simple sentence that became the slogan of this way of life. Under this system, if your conscious leads you to believe that there is a God who must be obeyed, you should obey and worship that God in private. But that God of yours has no authority on anything other than your personal, private life. Under the system of secularism, God has no place when it comes to inter-human interactions.

Social, educational, economic, legal, parliamentary, political and bureaucratic systems are independent of God and His Will.

Whatever relates to these aspects of life must be decided based on human whims and wishes independent of God. It is considered wrong, in fact backward and ignorant, to even raise the question: what did God say about these matters?

And as far as the individual life is concerned, so that as well has been rendered God-less due to the purely worldly (secular) education and a religion-less society. Today, very few people consciously reach the conclusion that there is indeed a God who must be obeyed. Sadly, even the personal connection with God is absent in those who are at the forefront of shaping our culture today.

The notion that God and religion only relate to ones personal affairs is a whimsical one that has become independent of any need for rational argument. If you were to look at it rationally, it is obvious that the God Almighty cannot be half-god. He is either the Lord of the entire universe, private and public, or He is not. If He is not the Creator, the Lord, the Almighty, then there is no need for a personal connection with Him. It is utterly useless and frivolous to obey such a being who has no authority and no control over what happens on this Earth. On the other hand, if this God is in fact the Creator and the Lord of this universe, then it makes no sense that his jurisdiction would be limited to ones private affairs only. It makes no sense that two men, both of whom are individually under God’s jurisdiction, become independent of that very God as soon as they interact with each other. If God himself divided up the matters like that, there should be some proof for that. And if human beings invented these limits on God’s jurisdiction, then is this plain transgression against the Lord of this universe?

Only a man devoid of all intellect can claim to obey God in his private life and yet transgress against him so openly in the public affairs.

How foolish must one be to argue with a straight face that individually, we must obey God, but as soon as these individuals come together to form a community, no obedience to God is owed.

And it is even harder to understand that if we don’t need God is our family affairs, in our towns and cities, in our schools and colleges, in our markets and businesses, in our parliaments and government buildings, in our courts and civil secretariats, in our barracks and police stations, in our war and peace, then why do we need this God at all? Why should we obey this God in any matter whatsoever? Why even waste time in worship of such an utterly useless god?

This is the intellectual side of this issue. If we examine the secular dogma from a practical perspective, its results are extremely horrendous.

The reality is that whenever we sever our ties with God in any aspect of our lives, we connect those ties with the Satan. In reality, there is no such thing as our private life. Human beings are wholes, and their entire life is a communal life. The very birth of this man takes place from the interaction of his mother and father. As soon as opens his eyes in this world for the first time, he is part of a family. As he grows up, he interacts with the society, his family, his town and his nation. He has to deal with, and live within, the socio-economic and political systems around him.

Human beings rely on their countless social connections for their very survival.

And it is only God Almighty who can show human beings how to negotiate these social connections in a manner that is just and equitable–and most importantly, permanent. Where man becomes self-sufficient and independent of God, the permanency of these social norms disappears, and along with it goes the justice and peace that God enjoined upon us. This is so because once we remove ourselves from the Eternal Intellect of God Almighty, we are forced to rely on our deficient and inexperienced minds.

Where laws and regulations are based on whims and desires–or rather the human experience and intellect–we see these laws and regulations change regularly. You can see for yourself that every aspect of human interactions is overwhelmed with tyranny, injustice, corruption–and ultimately the lack of trust that shakes the very foundations of a society.

All human matters have been consumed by the selfish desires of man. Whether it is the relationship between two human beings or two nations, every relationship has become crooked. Every individual, every group, every social class, every nation, as far as their circle of influence can take them have made rules and regulations that serve their own interests at the expense of others. The powerful rarely think about the externalities of their actions; and why should they as long as they have the power? The only time someone restricts their self-interest is when they are afraid of the other party’s power and strength.

And we should know well that power is not the name of any compassionate and just being. It is brute force, and you can never establish equity with brute force. The dilemma of power is that the

powerful don’t restrict themselves to getting what is their fair share; their selfish desires lead them to pushing every boundary they can, taking every advantage possible.

So the consequence of secularism is nothing but that whosoever adapts that as a way of life is destined to a life of no purpose, no responsibility and slavery of the self; whether it is adapted by an individual, a group, a nation or a league of nations.