History is a mirror for learning lessons and a lamp for finding the way. By examining the history of the West, from the emergence of Judaism and Christianity to the present day, valuable lessons can be drawn.
Divine religions emerged to revive monotheism, foster spirituality, spread morality, and save humanity from the darkness of ignorance and servitude to base desires. Prophets, saints, and true believers made sacrifices and gave their lives to preserve and propagate religion. Yet, alas, over time, two great afflictions threatened these religions: the distortion of sacred texts and misunderstandings of religious teachings on one hand, and the failure of many followers to adhere to religious principles in practice, alongside the abuse of sacred authority by religious institutions, on the other. Heavenly religions, which had come to reform and elevate humanity, to liberate it from servitude to the self and eradicate oppression, fell captive to the misguided and the self-indulgent.
Deliberate distortion or misinterpretation of sacred texts, and even more critically, behaviors inconsistent with religious ethics by those claiming religious leadership, tarnished the face of religion.
The history of Islam, too, did not follow the path laid out by its great Prophet. The understanding of religion by many self-proclaimed scholars and the actions of rulers who seized power in the Islamic world—from the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs to later kings and tyrants—stood in stark contradiction to the teachings of Islam and the Prophet’s tradition.
This deviant trend fueled religious aversion and hostility, paving the way for secularism as a deceptive alternative—a myth that proclaimed reason and science without religion as humanity’s ultimate savior. Yet, in practice, this led to skepticism and agnosticism in theory, and a distancing from morality and spirituality in action.
The modern West, by rejecting religion and relying on instrumental reason, promised to bring freedom, equality, and human rights. However, despite some superficial advancements in certain aspects of human life, we now witness unprecedented crises threatening humanity—crises in security, the environment, morality, family, and crises of injustice and meaninglessness.
During the colonial era, domineering powers occupied lands, massacred other nations, plundered their wealth and resources, and imposed their culture upon them. Today, despite their humanitarian slogans, these powers continue the same murder, plunder, and imposition in different forms. The United States launches military campaigns wherever it pleases and assassinates whomever it wills, while the Zionist regime, with the unconditional support of the U.S. and Europe, commits the most savage crimes in history through the occupation of Palestine, terrorism, and genocide. Many countries claiming to champion human rights either support these atrocities or, at the very least, remain silent in the face of them, sacrificing all values for their economic interests.
This glaring contradiction proves that reason divorced from divine revelation ultimately submits to the slavery of power and wealth, and science detached from ethics and spirituality, rather than saving humanity, creates crises. Godless human rights become a tool to justify oppression.
The lesson to be learned is that humanity’s problems and crises stem not from religion itself, but from the distortion of religion in belief and the failure to adhere to it in practice.
The inability to distinguish between the authentic teachings of religion and what has occurred in the thought and actions of many who claim religiosity has led to the erroneous conclusion that religion and religiousness are incompatible with reason and human experience, or that they are the cause of crises, and that liberation from them is the path to salvation. In reality, divine religions did not come to negate reason or human experience but to guide them toward truth.
Humanity’s salvation lies in revisiting authentic, undistorted sacred texts, purifying religion of superstition and power-seeking, integrating divine revelation with critical rationality and human experience, and adhering to it in practice. Only through the partnership of reason and faith, and science and ethics, can a truly humane, just society and genuine well-being be achieved.