When Faith Turns into Slavery

A fearless look at the religious practice of today’s average Muslim

Once upon a time it was said: “Islam is Deen-e-Fitrat (the religion of innate nature), Deen-e-Aql (the religion of intellect).” Allah gave man eyes, ears, and the greatest blessing of all – intellect – so that he may think, understand, reflect, and then believe.

But if you peep into the homes of 99% of Muslims today, visit madrasas, listen to Friday sermons in mosques, or watch debates on social media, only one picture emerges:

Allah is missing.
The Messenger left 1400 years ago.
The Qur’an is in Arabic, and no one knows its real meaning.

Yet every Muslim has rock-solid “yaqeen” (certainty) that Islam is the absolute truth.

Where does this certainty come from?

One-word answer: Maulana.

Seven Questions No Ordinary Muslim Can Comfortably Answer with a Simple “Yes”

1. Have you ever seen Allah with your own eyes or heard His voice?
→ No.

2. Have you ever seen the man who claimed to speak to Allah – Prophet Muhammad ?
→ No.

3. Do you know Classical Arabic? Can you, without any translation or tafsir, explain the full meaning and detailed context (sha’n-e-nuzool) of Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 255 (Ayat al-Kursi) by yourself?
→ No. (Even the biggest maulanas and muftis declare each other’s tafsirs wrong and sometimes even label each other kafir.)

4. Have you ever read even one complete book of Hadith (Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, Nasa’i, Ibn Majah) from cover to cover – by yourself, without a maulana’s lecture?
→ 99.9% answer: No.

5. Have you ever read any complete classical tafsir (Tafsir Tabari, Ibn Kathir, Jalalayn, Baghawi, Qurtubi, etc.) from beginning to end?
→ No.

6. Have you ever read any authentic historical book of Islam – such as Al-Bidaya wa al-Nihaya (Ibn Kathir), Tarikh al-Tabari, Seerah Ibn Hisham, Zad al-Ma’ad, Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh, etc.?
→ No. Most people can barely name one such book.

7. The final and most dangerous question:
If tomorrow someone brings a hadith from Sahih Bukhari and says, “The Prophet ﷺ said this,” will you accept it immediately, or will you first go to your sect’s maulana and ask, “Maulana Sahib, should we accept this hadith or not?”
→ Everyone knows the answer: Maulana Sahib’s approval is required first.

In other words, even the Prophet’s statement is not true until the maulana says “Yes.”

Who Is the Real Deity?

Therefore, the bitter truth: the average Muslim today
– Does not follow Allah → he treats whatever the maulana says as Allah’s command
– Does not follow the Messenger → he treats whatever the maulana says as the Messenger’s command
– Does not understand the Qur’an → he treats the maulana’s tafsir as the Qur’an
– Does not read Hadith → he treats the maulana’s Facebook status as Hadith

Prayer timings? According to the maulana’s calendar
Sehri and Iftar for fasting? According to the maulana’s announcement
Moon sighting? According to the maulana’s committee
Marriage, divorce, inheritance, Hajj, sacrifice, funeral – in everything, Allah and His Messenger are silent. Only the maulana speaks.

The Magic of Sects

The most astonishing thing: there isn’t one maulana – there are thousands.
Deobandi maulana gives one fatwa, Barelvi another, Ahl-e-Hadith another, Shia another, Ismaili another.
And every sect’s follower will obey his own maulana first, even if Sahih Bukhari is lying open in front of him.

The criterion of faith is no longer the Qur’an, nor Hadith, nor the way of the Prophet ﷺ.
The criterion of faith has become “Our Maulana.”

The Result?

Today’s Muslim is running a huge business in the name of religion – but he is not the owner; the maulana is.
Mosques are built, but donations go to the maulana.
Madrasas run, but the syllabus is decided by the maulana.
Fatwas are sold, tickets to paradise are issued, and the common Muslim stays silent because “Maulana Sahib knows best.”

The Final Question

Allah repeatedly asks in the Qur’an:
أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ ۖ أَفَلَا تَتَفَكَّرُونَ ۖ أَفَلَا تَتَدَبَّرُونَ
“Do you not use your intellect? Do you not reflect? Do you not ponder deeply?”

But we have handed our intellect over to the maulana.
We have outsourced our reflection to YouTube lectures of maulanas.
And we have evaded our responsibility by saying, “We are just poor common folk; Maulana Sahib knows better.”

Until you yourself read,
yourself understand,
yourself think –

you will remain, not the servant of God,
but the slave of maulanas.

And this is the biggest proof that the “Islam” present in the mind of the average Muslim today
is not Allah’s Islam,
but a frightening, expensive, and deeply divided brand created by maulanas.

There is still time.

Free your intellect.

Because God created free-thinking servants,
not slaves.