Page 126 - The Religion Of The Ignorant

THE RELIGION OF THE IGNORANT

tially fail to adopt the relevant moral values and lifestyle. Allah has
revealed the existence of such people in the Qur'an. In verses, Allah
says:
Have you seen him who denies the religion? He is the one
who harshly rebuffs the orphan and does not urge the feed-
ing of the poor. So woe to those who perform prayer, and
are forgetful of their prayer, those who show off and deny
help to others. (Surat al-Ma'un, 1-7)
These characters have a distorted understanding of religion,
peculiar to itself and far removed from the Qur'an. Even if they say
they are religious, they are actually very flexible on the subject of
what is permitted and prohibited in the religion. They don't tremble
in fear of Allah as they should. They therefore fulfill the require-
ments of the moral values of the religion which they believe to be
easy, and ignore those that seem difficult or incompatible with their
interests. For instance, they pray once during the day but can easily
elect not to perform other prayers if they are sleepy, invited to a
party or out shopping, saying, "There is no need to perform all
prayers; once is enough." This is extremely perverse attitude, incom-
patible with the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Or they make excuses by
erroneous reasons such as, "It's my intention that counts, not my ac-
tions." However, Allah states in the Qur'an that this is wrong.
According to this perverse outlook, religion is brought up only
on specific days, alongside specific people or during specific events.
For example, people with affected personalities consider funerals or
the Mawlid as opportunities to display themselves as devout. In
such situations, they act in a way to demonstrate the fake impor-
tance they attach to religion. Of course acting with sincere intentions
is praiseworthy, but the difference is that in performing such acts,
people with affected characters forget about Allah, regard death

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