ISLAM AND MENTAL PEACE

Islam gives the believer the peace of mind which disbelievers lack because of the comprehensiveness and integrity that Islam has.

No Inner Contradictions:

In Islam, the right is clear and the wrong is clear and there are no compromises.  Islam does not include contradictions in its internal structure.  Each order in Islam serves other orders in superb harmony.

The Western Diseases:

In contrast, in Western civilization, for example, everything goes against the other in a soil that may grow anything.  Western civilization gave birth to nationalism and then it began to fight it.  Western civilization gave birth to Nazism and the began to fight it.

Western civilization gave birth to atheism and then it began to fight it.  Western civilization gave birth to socialism and communism and then it began to fight them.

Western civilization gave birth to racial discrimination and began to fight it or pretended to do so.  Western civilization gave birth to zionism.  Western civilization gave birth to imperialism and then began to put an end to it or was forced to do so.

How can the individual living under the umbrella of Western civilization explain all these contradictions and productions of such a civilization? How can a Westerner enjoy the minimum of peace of mind in a civilization that gives birth to everything going from socialism, to communism, to atheism, to zionism, to racial discrimination, to imperialism to nationalism, to Fascism, to Nazism, etc.?

How can a Westerner live in mental peace with all such contradictions around him? Christianity orders the Christian not to engage in sexual intercourse except with his wife and except through marriage.  This is good.  But actually, and in most cases, sexual intercourse is done in the Western society before marriage with the church passing no effective objections.  Christianity is a religion of chastity and decency, but where is this chastity and where is the decency in the Western civilization of today?

It is obvious now that Christianity is not well observed by most Westerns, because Christianity failed to attract the people of the West, failed to convince them, and failed to solve their everyday problems.  And there is no other way to explain why Westerners, in most cases, have turned their backs on true Christianity.

The Clean Page of Islam

In contrast, the page of Islam is white and clean.  Islam did not cause imperialism or racial discrimination.  Islam did not cause nationalism, Nazism, or fascism.  Islam did not give birth to atheism and Marxism.  All the social diseases of today were caused outside the Islamic world, including imperialism, racial discrimination, atheism, Marxism, communism, nakedness, and irreligiousness.

How can a person have mental peace in a civilization that produced such contradictions, such a strange mixture of philosophies, policies, trends, and-isms?

The Western Cocktail Civilization:

I would like to call Western civilization "the civilzation of anything".  If you want religion, you find it in Western civilization, provided that you search hard.  There you  find anything and everything, i.e., any trends and all trends.  There you find all philosophies, all ideologies, all religions, all normal things, and all abnormal things.

Western civilization has no clear identity, because it is a salad or a cocktail civilization.  Being as it is, Western civilization cannot bring peace of mind to man, because this phenomenon uncovers the following:

1-     This proves that Western civilization may produce any ideology and may produce an ideology that destroys Western civilization itself.  In fact, this has happened when Western civilization produced communism, which is the main threat to the Western civilization of today.

2-     This cocktail quality of Western civilization proves that the people of the West are not satisfied with the social structure or the values of their societies and that is why they keep inventing new social trends and ideologies.  With this Western chaos of ideologies, how can the ordinary man find mental peace?

  The effect of Islam:

In contrast, the effect of Islam on Muslims is tremendous. No one can attack  Islam publicly in the Islamic World without subjecting himself to real trouble, not only because of the Muslims' respect of Islam, but also because Islam itself is so rational and logical that it is rather impossible for any person to attack it provided that he know it.

Peace of Mind:

Islam gives the Muslim a real peace of mind, because Islam guides the Muslim in his everyday life including how to worship Allah, how to treat people, how to greet others, how to go to war or peace, and all the other main aspects of life.

  Overall Guidance:

Islam guides the Muslim in his everyday life, not on Sunday only.  Islam connects the Muslim with Allah continuously through prayer.  Islam gives the Muslim the feeling of belonging to  Allah, to humans in general, and to the Islamic nation in particular.  Islam makes the Muslim clean in both soul and body.

  Night-Club Civilization:

In a city somewhere in this world, you walk along a street or streets to see nothing but bars, night clubs, houses of prostitution, and alcoholics.  Is this Christianity? Is this religion?  Where do these phenomena lead? Who are the victims? How many are the victims of this "anything" civilization, the civilization of night clubs, the civilization of alcohol? Where the civilization taking man, this civilization of anything and everything?

Can man find peace of mind with alcohol, which is the motto of Western civilization? Alcohol is a poison that has killed millions, but the civilization of night clubs boasts of alcohol!

  No Alcohol in Islam:

Islam is as white as snow and as clean as imaginable.  Islam prohibited alcohol and prohibited any food or drink or act that harms man.

I remember a real story of a British woman, who was married to an alcoholic.  She did her best to make her husband abandon alcohol, but in vain.  She suffered a great deal from her alcoholic husband.  She asked, "Is their a religion which prohibits alcohol?".  She was told that Islam is the religion which prohibits alcohol.  She embraced Islam and summoned her husband to do the same.  He refused, so she got divorce, because a Muslim woman cannot marry a non-Muslim man.

Western civilization is a sick civilization, yes, a sick civilization, attacked by so many social diseases.  Such a civilization cannot give mental peace to man.  In contrast, Islam is devoid of all social diseases and can and could bring about the mental peace each one of us needs.

-Muhammad Ali Alkhuli.