Facebook “likes”

This past week I have been very attentive to social networks, I have been looking at the comments of my contacts, and of others who are not contacts but who appear on Facebook.
And reading many of them I have become very sad and worried.
I have become sad and concerned because I see that, not in all but in many cases, we are losing our way, we are disoriented, we are letting ourselves be carried away by the wind that today blows in one direction and tomorrow in another, we are changing key points of our belief as Muslims because what is socially accepted today, and what you have to accept to be an exemplary citizen, it’s either this or that.
Reflecting on all this, I have gone to the origin of the science of ‘aqidah, the science of belief, as we usually translate it into English. This science emerged, or rather than emerging, people began to talk and write about it, when the situation among Muslims was in decline; And the truth is that it reminds me a lot of our situation today. This science arises when pure and innocent Islam comes into contact with other civilizations and other beliefs, with other aspects that the Muslims of the past have not even considered and that, therefore, they do not master the tools or the language to face these new challenges. It arises mainly – and this is one of the great revolutions of the Islamic world – when it comes into contact with Greek philosophy, when it comes into contact with Plato and with Aristotelian logic, which have such an important force that Muslims do not know in principle how to deal with it. And what do they do then? They begin to interpret the Qur’an and Sunnah in the light of these parameters because these parameters marked what was good and what was bad. It is just at that moment that the figure of the Imam of the ‘aqidah par excellence, the great Abul Hasan al Ash’ari, emerged, who realizing the danger that this entailed, and realizing that Islam would end up becoming something that would always be conditioned by the dictates of time and society, saw that the Qur’an and the Sunna would always be interpreted according to these dictates.
Abul Hasan puts a stop to this and does so by returning to the origin, that is, by returning to the Qur’an and the Sunna in their purest states.
One of the great arguments used by this noble Imam, whom we must consider as one of the saviors and heroes of Islam, is that the intellect, understanding, reason of the human being cannot be above Revelation; that is, it cannot be above what is established by Allah.
The intellect is necessary to understand, analyze and put into practice revelation, of course it is, it is essential, but it can never be above.
Why?
Because the Qur’an, the Revelation is ma’sum (possesses infallibility) and the intellect is not.
I have been remembering this these days when I read comments on social networks from supposed experts, who make an interpretation of verses of the Qur’an unknown until now, a completely new interpretation and very different from the classical interpretations.
And all this with a single objective: to adapt Islam to what is happening.
A big question arises here: is Islam not adaptable, is it not valid for all times and all societies? Of course it is and of course in Islam there are certain aspects that can be “adapted”, but what can never be done, what we should never tolerate, is to turn Islam into a religion that changes as the wind blows; especially, and this is very important, when these changes are against human nature and orchestrated to destroy the integrity of men and women, and the integrity, value, position and importance of the family.
The fact that among Muslims today there are people who raise the flag that Islam accepts everything, and that everything is valid and good because it is the valid and good thing that is accepted in the street, and that for this they make their interpretations of the Qur’an, or rather, translations of the Qur’an, and take very weak, very badly translated hadiths and take them as a basis for your judgments and rulings, it is a reality, it is something that is present.
Why?
I’m sure there are several reasons, but I can think of two main reasons.
The first of these is the lack of knowledge and taqwa, which when not present in a person, will cause him to end up being guided by his desires and appetites; as Allah says: “And who is more misguided than he who follows his passions without any guidance from Allah?” And the second reason that occurs to me is that Imam Abdul Wahid ibn ‘Ashir considers that it is the origin of all the evils, of all the diseases of the heart that make the individual sick and spread their disease to communities and societies; and it is none other than the desire for position, for prestige, for recognition, to be someone, to be heard, to have your Facebook posts “liked” many times, to be mentioned.
And this, believe me if I tell you, is the worst evil that can affect human beings.
All of this that we are talking about, this going back to the origin of the science of ‘aqeedah, this changing Islam for what most people accept, this putting the intellect, reason and progress that accepts and establishes as “good” what is above Revelation is happening today, we see it present around us.
So, in order to look good with others, are we going to say that Islam tolerates and accepts it?
Are we going to change Islam so that we are seen in a good light?
Whatever each one does, and I am not who or anyone else to judge it, ─ but from there to saying that it is something allowed, valid and accepted in Islam, and to interpret some verses of the Qur’an in an astonishingly strange way ─ there is a stretch, a very long way, that I ask Allah to free us and protect us from traveling.
Shaykh Ahmed Bermejo www.ahmedbermejo.com