Islam Brings Mankind out of Darkness into the Light, and Capitalism brings them back to Darkness
(Translated)

Allah (swt) says in the noble Qur’an:

﴿اللَّهُ وَلِيُّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا يُخْرِجُهُم مِّنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى النُّورِ وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا أَوْلِيَاؤُهُمُ الطَّاغُوتُ يُخْرِجُونَهُم مِّنَ النُّورِ إِلَى الظُّلُمَاتِ أُولَٰئِكَ أَصْحَابُ النَّارِ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ﴾

“Allah is the ally of those who believe. He brings them out from darknesses into the light. And those who disbelieve - their allies are Taghut. They take them out of the light into darknesses. Those are the companions of the Fire; they will abide eternally therein” [Al-Baqara: 257]

In this verse, there is a clear description of how to get out of the darkness into the light, from the darkness of polytheism, sins and innovation to the light of belief and truth by following the orders of Allah and abstaining from His prohibitions, for the Creator (swt) to be the ally of the believers and their supporters and guarantee their success. Just as darkness acts as a barrier to sight from perceiving and proving things, kuffr also obscures the perception of hearts from understanding the truths of belief and the knowledge of its correctness and correctness of its causes.

The verse also shows the other side of the picture, which is the removal of the believers from the light they reached and return to the darkness that Islam brought to them, i.e. their disbelief again, may Allah forbid, or their distance from Islam after adhering to it, or the introduction of capitalist concepts to our societies and making Muslims embrace them as part of Islam. All this is by following the orders of the kuffar and their teachings, and taking them as allies, so they take the Muslims out of the light of truth to the darkness of ignorance and disobedience.

There are many paths of falsehood that Allah (swt) has shown; He made the darkness in the plural form and light in singular form, which means there is one way to the truth.

﴿وَأَنَّ هَٰذَا صِرَاطِي مُسْتَقِيماً فَاتَّبِعُوهُ وَلَا تَتَّبِعُواالسُّبُلَ فَتَفَرَّقَ بِكُمْ عَن سَبِيلِهِ﴾

“And, [moreover], this is My path, which is straight, so follow it; and do not follow [other] ways, for you will be separated from His way. This has He instructed you that you may become righteous.” [Al-An’am: 153]

This light, brought by all the prophets and messengers to their peoples, has created a revolution in the way of thinking and living. Islam turned the life of Quraish and mankind around and created a revolution in them. The Muslims became the world leaders after they were weak and humiliated, and the Ummah carried this Deen more than thirteen centuries. In it the armies of the Islamic State spread to the east and west and removed the obstacles and physical barriers so that the good spreads among the other nations; and they opened the lands and spread the light and justice among the slaves. They removed the kingdoms and the thrones and melted people in its body and they became part it, and they extracted them out of the teeth of the West that were swallowing them and stealing their resources.

Today, after the Muslims have abandoned their Deen as a way of life and an integrated system of life and their obedience to the kuffr regime, capitalism, which ruled them by iron and fire since the destruction of the Khilafah, has brought them out of the light that they lived under the Islamic rule, and brought back to the darkness of the kufr rule and exploited their resources, looted their wealth and colonized them under the pretext of protecting their interests! The reality of humanity today is similar to Quraish before Islam.

Corruption has reached most of their morals and the evil and vice spread due to the corruption of their creed, thoughts and feelings. And because of the kuffr regimes that they ruled by, many of them dared to attack the Hudood of Allah, fought it, and spread kufr ideas, while others lost them (Hudood) due to their ignorance and the absence of the just ruler who governs by Islam.

People in the Days of Ignorance were famous for their worship of idols, laying sacrifices for them, sanctifying their leaders, and believing in superstition and heresy. They surrendered their matters to non-thinking creatures, like birds and the like! And when Islam came, it took them out of the darkness of this kufr to elevate them from the worship of men and the stone to the worship of the Lord of mankind alone, who have no partner, and absolute loyalty is to Him and complete surrender to Him. Then they became the best nation brought to mankind.

Today, although we may see the phenomenon of atheism in our societies, but the idea of ​​secularism - the separation of Deen from life - has spread intensively and worship is confined to the individual relationship with Allah (swt), separating and not accepting it in the rest of life matters of relations and transactions with others and all systems of government. This, of course, is a product of the deep intellectual weakness that occurred in the Ummah in the late years of the Ottoman state, which led to the destruction of the Khilafah. The concepts of livelihood, cure, victory and loyalty are no longer for Allah alone but they have been associated with the benefit and the interest and the prevention of evil. This is one of the darkness of capitalism, which brought the Ummah back to it; it surrendered the minds to some of the clerics who are dependent on the rulers, and who are, in turn, implementing the kaffir Western agenda, and accepted the foreign ideas to Islam in an Islamic dress, such as the four freedoms, Moderate Islam, the acceptance of the other opinion, democracy if from Islam, and many other intellectual pollutants that delayed the Ummah's decision to remove its rulers and the kufr regimes. Although people rebelled against their rulers because of injustice, oppression and corruption, yet they did not adopt the correct Islamic project without missing out something or altering it or postponement. The Muslims’ revival is not complete except by overthrowing of the kufr agent regimes and replacing them with the rule of Islam by implementing the Hudood (punishments) of Allah in full, and preventing what corrupts and pollutes the ideas of the Muslims.

In the pre-Islam Days of ignorance, ideas like tribalism, fighting and violating the sanctities of others by theft and looting were also spread. Today, after the Sykes-Picot division of the Muslim countries, another form of this nationalism emerged. This is a Jordanian, that is an Iraqi and another is Lebanese. They are fighting for livelihood in the same country under the pretext that one of them is an outsider on the land of the other! Also usury has spread among Quraish, and the economy was based on that, and despite the belief of Muslims and the prohibition of usury, and dealing with it, but the spread of capitalism, which they live under its rule, has imposed on them dealing with usury in banks and all transactions and contracts, but some of them consider dealing with it is out of force or even interest! In the Days of Ignorance, bars (for alcohol) spread in the societies which resulted in the outbreak of vices and immorality, and today and in the absence of the Khilafah, these bars have been re-introduced in many Muslim countries, which negatively affected the minds of many young Muslims and their behaviour in particular. Unemployment and economic problems became rife, which they do not see an escape from except by resorting to such places. Not to mention the huge media pumping to market these corrupt customs in TV serials, movies and entertainment programs as if wine and gambling and obscenity and mixing of men and women are part of the Muslim belief and customs!

One of the deviant ideas in Quraish society before Islam is the inferior view of women at the time, and the fact that they are considered as a physical body and for enjoyment only. Women used to beautify themselves and go out almost naked. There were many practices of marriage that resemble brothels today. Like trade marriage (istibda’) where the husband sends his wife to sleep with a man of status among the people so that she carries his child who will get the description of that man of position! And the marriage of Ar-Rahat (group); which is the participation of a group of men to sleep with one woman and then the woman gives the right of the child to whom she chooses! And in the marriage of Rayat, they were the prostitutes who raised flags so that she is known to be available. These types of marriages are spread today in one form or another in the Kafir Western countries, and are marketed in the Muslim countries as liberties, and homosexuality (sodomy and lesbianism) is promoted as personal freedom! The West has long regarded women as animals or evil, and today they are seen as physical bodies, for pleasure and cheap labour.

Islam came to save humanity from all these darkness. It has elevated the status of women, allowed her to inherit, judge between people, carry the call, give pledge to the ruler and account him and take full rights from her husband. Islam ensured that women are not exploited for their femininity at work or at other places; it did not impose on women to work but imposed maintenance for them in all stages of their lives. Islam raised the status of women in life; it entrusted them with the greatest task to raise a generation committed to the law of Allah that lives in balanced happy families to become leaders of the world. Islam made women the helper to men and support, not his opponent or an enemy or rival. Islam has assigned both women and men with Shariah obligations without preference between them by sharing duties and rights with good treatment, while making the right of leadership in marriage to the man because he is more capable to provide and protect. Islam also made women's money their own right; It is not permissible for anyone to take their money without their permission even if the woman is wealthier than her husband.

The path of light is one and nothing else, which is to follow all the orders Allah and abstain from all His prohibitions in the way chosen by Allah for us and as it was implemented by His noble Messenger in the first Islamic state in Al-Medina Al-Munawara and it was followed by the rightly guided Caliphs. Although, the darkness today has been imposed upon us by the colonizing Kufr regimes; (militarily previously, culturally, and intellectually) we live its outcome in its hardship every day and the fight against our ideas and our creed to suppress and displace us from our lands.

They certainly do not want for us or for humanity to live in the light that is brought by Islam because this means the end of their capitalism and their looting and theft of the world's wealth and the wealth of the countries without any accountability. We say - and with confidence - there is no choice for the Islamic Ummah if it wants to return to the light that our noble Messenger brought, except to work to uproot the kufr regimes that govern us today and to establish the Righteous Khilafah (Caliphate) the protector of the Muslims and the one that implements the law of Allah; it is the body that carries Islam, the light, guidance, mercy for all humankind.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Hanan Shu’aib