A brief film titled "Egyptian Cinema Before the Islamic Invasion of the Art Sector" was posted on the Reddit network (which is becoming increasingly popular among young people). The video is a compilation of atheistic scenes from well-known films that discuss atheism (including The Beggar, The Brothers Enemies, Dancing with the Devil, and Meeting There). Analyzing the young people's comments on this post, we find that the majority are asking for the names of the movies, some are criticizing the content of the scenes, reminding others of God and the Day of Judgment, while one person says, "I am an atheist," and another writes, "Hey there, atheist, how are you!"

If we focus on the last comment, we can see that it reflects a group of young people who do not approach the subject of faith and atheism on logical or rational grounds. They are not seeking thought or truth, but rather displaying a form of youthful "trendiness," if you will, by boasting about their atheism, which they believe distinguishes them from the "herd." In one Facebook community named "Atheism Without Borders," one user identifies as "Not of the Herd" and openly states that the Quran contains linguistic mistakes! Another produced a foolish poem, copying half of its words from Quranic verses and creating it in the manner of free verse, then promoting it as linguistically superior to the Quran!

The superficiality with which such posts are presented demonstrates that there is no room for reflection or thought in what is published. The abundance of harsh and disgusting insults on atheist pages demonstrates that the purpose for this atheism is not scientific investigation or enthusiasm for science, but rather breaching sanctities and degrading them. On the page "Satirical Religious Drawings," there is a massive amount of "memes" mocking everything related to religion, including depicting the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in an obscene and vulgar manner, prophets as a group of mentally ill people, and Gabriel and the angels in a ridiculous way! They've even gone so far as to portray God (SWT) as a feeble old man (like the drawing where an old sick guy wearing a gold crown is seated in a wheelchair labeled "God" while the atheist physicist Stephen Hawking stands as a huge figure!) and presenting Him (SWT) as a dictator and narcissist (He is exalted above what they describe). The Sharia is widely mocked, particularly when it comes to women's issues.

Atheism of the Rabble

Atheism defined by insults, derision, breaching religious taboos, publicly professing atheism with pride, and promoting it through social media can be regarded a new form of atheism, which we can refer to as "atheism of the rabble." This is one of the most extreme forms of atheism because it appeals to basic instincts. For example, in the previously mentioned Reddit article, a remark titled "Why is there halal and haram love?" attracted the most responses from young people.

What is astonishing is that these atheists employ a defensive mechanism known as projection; they project their own desires onto the believing community and onto religion itself, considering it a religion that promotes desires!

The distinguishing feature of atheism of the rabble is that most of its adherents do not belong to the scientific community. Despite their devotion of science as an alternative to religion for explaining the nature of the universe we live in and their brazen claims that religion has bequeathed our countries poverty and ignorance while atheism has contributed to creating happy, advanced societies, most of these rabble-rousers do not pursue natural sciences, and many of them are academically unsuccessful.

Nevertheless, they are capable of stirring up controversy because social media audiences love short posts and satirical memes. The truth is that many of this audience respond to these atheism-promoting posts with comments characterized by deep replies and attempts to engage the atheist, while others curse them and many resort to obscene insults similar to those used by the atheists.

The problem is that some people fall into the trap of doubt without receiving a convincing and reassuring response. Publicly professing atheism and despising sacred matters, especially with frequent exposure, can cause a subtle type of inner turmoil for some, especially among young people who have grown up under policies that dry up sources of faith and religious education, which is not included in the total grades.

Dawkins as an Actor

The brazen display of atheism by the rabble traces its roots to what is known as the New Atheism movement, which employs professional mockery to destabilize religious belief. This movement does not merely advocate for the freedom to be atheist or religious; it calls for the denial of religious faith, viewing it as the "The Root of All Evil," which is also the title of a two-part documentary produced and hosted by the most famous figure of New Atheism, Richard Dawkins. This documentary is available with Arabic subtitles.

Dawkins, a biologist who has taken it upon himself to evangelize New Atheism, has numerous publications, the most prominent of which is "The God Delusion." The question arises: why did he not stick to published books and instead sought to produce documentaries through his foundation, even acting in them with his sarcastic style, pointed questions, and selective choice of characters and religions to serve his predetermined goal? The simple answer is that he aims to influence in the age of screens. In his book, "The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution," Dawkins criticized Muslims for supposedly standing in the way of science, while praising Christian clergy for their evolution in perspective regarding the theory. When attacking religions in his documentary, he allocated minimal space to present the issue from an Islamic viewpoint, exploiting the flaws in the Old and New Testaments to make broad judgments about God and the creation of the world.

Seriousness of the Issue

Preachers must approach the issue of atheism with extreme seriousness, avoiding superficiality. The rampant disbelief has reached such an extent that it denies the existence of God, considering it merely a delusion invented by primitive humans. This atheism even extends to mocking and ridiculing God and persistently attempting to obscure the principles of faith from children, considering belief to be the root of all evil.

This disbelief must be confronted with unconventional methods. Despite the abundance of scholars studying theology and the fundamentals of religion, only a few are capable of addressing this blatant atheism, which uses tools that traditional scholars may not be able to employ.

There are two groups tasked with this confrontation:

Natural Science Scholars: These individuals should strive for more scientific research with a philosophical perspective that supports the faith-based argument. They should also simplify science and disseminate it to the public, focusing on research that critiques theories used to promote atheism. Dawkins should serve as a model for them; he is a professor of biology who spreads his ideas as a preacher, and he does not hesitate to produce and act in films that serve his cause, striving in every way to prevent children from embracing faith.

Digital Media Specialists: These experts are capable of producing short films, concentrated posts, and creating sarcastic memes, which can often be more impactful than rational arguments.

Of course, this does not negate the usual work of preachers and scholars, who must continue to instill the warmth of faith in hearts and eradicate seeds of doubt and skepticism.

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The Holy Qur'an derives its fundamental strength from two main aspects: first, providing solutions to social problems; and second, shaping an individual capable of improving, developing, and transforming their reality, society, and world.

However, the social researcher has lost a true and effective connection with the Qur'an as a societal framework and as a source for creating suitable social solutions to improve and reform the reality of the Ummah. If this connection had occurred, the social researcher could have produced knowledge, created intellectual innovations, and contributed socially to developing a social theory that would rescue society from the disasters and critical civilizational turns it is currently facing, whose effects are increasing day by day.

The exclusion of the Qur'an from the ummah's activities and movements has burned away the ummah's energy and human and material resources, dissipated the system of ideas that drives life and society, and replaced it with a handful of ashes from this burning. This substitution no longer serves the truth.

The Qur'an, indeed, and not merely figuratively, is "clarification of all things" (An-Nahl: 89), offering humanity two essential and necessary elements for its social movement: first, a revealing and motivating idea that clarifies the nature of the journey, its requirements, warnings, and preferences, serving as a reference, guide, motivator, and support, providing reassurance in the nature of one's striving and effort.

Second, it provides a standard to judge the phenomena and events encountered in this journey. The function of this standard is to enable a person to have a balanced and just measuring tool, allowing them to issue balanced and fair judgments: to accept or reject, to love or hate, to advance or hold back, to emulate or correct, to destroy or reform.

In its fundamental guidance, the Qur'an provides humanity with these two elements: the revealing, guiding idea and the balanced standard of measurement. Its verses are clear in their unique condensation of these two clarifications.

Work and Unemployment

The Ummah has replaced its reliance on the capitalist economic system with the Qur'anic economic system, which emphasizes maintaining employment levels and the necessary workforce to ensure the stability of commodity prices and control over production quantities. The capitalist system only increases production based on its own decisions, leading to rising unemployment, especially in resource-rich countries that could be self-sufficient. However, their subordination to capitalist dependency prevents them from deviating from prescribed work nature and workforce numbers, all within the framework of foreign investment, privatization, and franchises that mortgage the Ummah's economies to Western capitalism.

In contrast, the Qur'anic approach values all forms of work, whether manual or intellectual, and does not tolerate unemployment or idleness among its people. It condemns idleness and considers it a deviation from worshipping Allah on Earth, contrary to the principle of human vicegerency and stewardship, which are among the most important divine purposes of creation. Allah says: "He has produced you from the earth and settled you in it" (Hud: 61).

The concept of work in the Qur'anic vision encompasses the simplest forms of activity, from using the mind to employing hands and senses. This model laid the foundation for a civilization where work continues until the last moment, not only in an individual's life but in the life of the entire universe. This was encapsulated by Malik in his definition of work: learning three letters of the alphabet is work, teaching these letters is work, removing harm from the road is work, planting a tree is work, and utilizing our free time to help others is work, and so on. Directing work means harmonizing all these efforts to change the human condition and create a new environment ⁽¹⁾.

Directing work during the formative stage of society means aligning collective efforts in one direction, including the efforts of the questioner and the shepherd, the craftsman, the merchant, the student, the scholar, the woman, the intellectual, and the farmer, so that each of them places a new brick in the building every day ⁽²⁾.

Economic activity undertaken by a Muslim falls within the scope of worship in its essential sense, provided it meets two conditions: first, that the activity achieves the purposes of Sharia in creation and development, and second, that it is done sincerely for Allah's sake, followed by the necessary condition of ihsan (excellence) in the work, whether mental or physical.

The principle of faith in the Qur'anic model links belief with work. There is no faith without work, and work without faith is like a mirage in a desert. The combination of work and faith realizes the practical methodology of Islamic thought, imbuing the Muslim character with positivity. There is no monasticism in Islam, no withdrawal from reality or society, but participation, initiative, and daring to achieve development.

In this context, the Qur'anic model establishes several principles to connect humans with their reality and various social and humanitarian activities. These principles lie between human capacity and nature's adaptability through the Qur'anic principle of subjugation. Both the soul and nature are prepared for work and development. The monotheistic methodology encourages humans to work at all times until the end of the universe. If this end comes and a person can perform a simple act like planting a sapling, they should do it.

This appreciation for the nature of work and its sanctification is aimed at elevating human skills, developing life, and fulfilling one's role. Therefore, scholars have linked faith to two aspects: verbal acknowledgment and heartfelt belief, and the aspect of work or physical and bodily affirmation.

Moreover, the value of good or beneficial work, central to the Qur'anic guidance, is not limited to benefiting the community of believers who receive these works or enjoy their benefits. Instead, it is offered to all people in fulfillment of the goodness that the Ummah brought forth for mankind. Therefore, the welfare envisioned in the Qur'anic social system is not exclusive to the Muslim community, as the capitalist system does for capitalists and their social circles, creating two conflicting classes (the rich and the poor). Instead, the standard of sufficiency and self-sufficiency is the foundation of the Qur'anic economic view of society.

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The spirit of the Quran granted the ummah a significant moral and intellectual boost, which cannot be measured by any temporal or situational substitute. This boost contributed to organizing the energies of individuals, the community, and society, resulting in a cultural achievement that lasted for 10 centuries, known as the Civilization of Uprightness, or the "Islamic Civilization." This civilization provided the Western civilization with the essentials of its scientific renaissance, a fact that is clear to anyone, whether fair-minded or not.

Despite the ummah possessing large, extensive, and diverse human resources, it has not produced a successful project in contemporary times after abandoning the Quran. It has not been able to overcome the issues of backwardness, disease, and ignorance, despite importing Western technological means and adopting secular systems in culture and education for over a century. The question here is: Why has the ummah not produced this project during its adoption of secular systems for over a century?

The answer is that the ummah lost its vitality by removing the spirit of the Quran from its movement and development. This spirit served as the fuel for its vitality, guiding its path, shaping its actions, and assisting in its struggles. Instead, it turned, either willingly, ignorantly, or under manufactured coercion, to secular models for inspiration in thought, emotion, behavior, and systems. As a result, it found no good, remaining classified as part of the third world, unable to advance even a single inch. The Western model has divided the world and determined the fates of the ummahs within its orbit, based on a system of dependency, monopoly, and subordination, rather than competition, participation, equality, or human dignity.

The Holy Quran is the source of that vitality for the ummah, its fuel, and its unparalleled drive. This Quranic spirit enabled major intellectual shifts in the world of civilization, granting the ummah strength through its higher energy, which interweaves with earthly energy in humans, thus creating the driving moment for the ummah and achieving its presence and witness over people. However, in the absence of this Quranic spirit, the psychological energy of the ummah has been entirely drained, its strengths dissipated, and it has surrendered to temporal substitutes that neither satisfy nor suffice. Its strengths have been wasted and misdirected.

The Squandering of Islamic Intellectual Effort

The extinguishment of the ummah's vitality and the dissipation of its energy, spending it in the wrong areas, has led to a significant waste of intellectual and research effort in academic institutions and research centers. These efforts have been directed towards models that are alien to the reality of the ummah in an attempt to solve its problems, while in fact, they address imported issues that are irrelevant to the ummah's context. This has led to a situation where the Muslim research intellect is torn between its belonging and the adopted knowledge model, widening the gap between it and the reality it lives in.

The Quran has brought about three major intellectual shifts in the human mind ⁽¹⁾ :

-The Conceptual and Creedal Shift: This includes conceptual values such as divinity, comprehensiveness, balance, monotheism, dynamism, positivity, and realism, which intertwined to form a unique intellectual framework.

-The Epistemological Shift: This appears in the cognitive transformation of the mind, providing it with the ability to engage with the universe, the world, and existence.

-The Methodological Shift: This allowed the Muslim mind to realize and shape itself according to its principles and insights, extending in three directions: causality, historical law, and the empirical research method.

In light of these transformations, the Muslim intellect produced a revolution in the fields of cosmic and human sciences, which continued for nearly 10 full centuries. Modern Western civilization built upon this legacy when it adopted the empirical method from the Quranic civilization, but separated it from its divine context. Over the past two centuries, Muslim researchers have been unable to revive the movement of Quranic civilization.

We attribute the inability of Islamic research efforts to the exclusion of the Quran from academic research methodologies, especially in the social sciences. This exclusion has produced researchers without identity, who are indecisive, neither aligning with one side nor the other, lacking civilizational ambition. Their sole ambition is to obtain a degree or certificate, by any means, whether legitimate or not, as the Quranic epistemological approach has not infiltrated their minds and hearts, nor have they discovered the Quran's epistemological and scientific value.

Research work in the field of social sciences relies on three paths:

First Path: Working under the dominance of Western methodology and tools, consciously, intentionally, and with the desire to empower this methodology in the academic scene. This path has turned social research into something resembling a dubbing of original works, essentially echoing the Western methodology without presenting an Arab Islamic voice capable of offering new knowledge to solve societal problems.

Second Path: Relying on randomness and lack of methodology, governed by blind imitation of previous studies and research, regardless of their methodology and references, without understanding the knowledge model behind these studies and the implications on the Arab research mind and the knowledge generated from it.

Third Path: Identifying with heritage and prioritizing human opinions over the Quran, the original reference for all Islamic thought. This identification has turned Arab Islamic research into a preaching format, unable to offer real solutions to research problems, social issues, or scientific methodology. This is because it discusses new problems with old methodologies tied to their specific spatial, temporal, and intellectual contexts.

Due to this loss and the inadequacy of Islamic research efforts, Arab Islamic social sciences have lost the ability to provide genuine solutions to our societal problems and even the contemporary world's issues. Moreover, they have failed to shape a civilization's human, leaving our researchers trapped either in dependency or in severe intellectual poverty, or both. Consequently, we do not find researchers who innovate in knowledge production or construct ideas that drive reality and society forward. This is primarily because they either flounder in intellectual or scientific randomness or base their thinking on a reference that contradicts their society's reference, ideas that oppose their community's foundations, and principles that conflict with the principles of their identity and ummah. All these elements - reference, idea, and social principle - are fundamental in social research, which essentially aims to provide solutions to societal problems or formulate human models that align with the current or anticipated development and progress in their society. However, the duality of dependency and intellectual poverty of the researcher has deprived us of such solutions and formulations.

What we want to emphasize to the Arab Islamic research mind is that the success of borrowed ideas in their environment does not mean their success in other environments. In fact, there might be an impossibility of application, or these ideas might lose their essence when transferred from their social and civilizational context to a different one, not to mention their expected theoretical and practical effects, as they lead to intellectual paralysis by relying on the importation of ready-made ideas and programs prepared abroad.

Borrowed ideas cannot be applied within the context of our lives; instead, we mimic them in the form in which others apply them in their lives. This makes us reluctant to use all our capabilities in building our economy, as we want to imitate the economy of others as they construct it with their specific advanced means, which are not available to us at our stage of development. Thus, we lose some of our capabilities when we fail to recognize their value behind the words intended for the specialist who planned for us, and time is also wasted in this process ⁽²⁾ .

Even if borrowed ideas are successful in their Western countries, this success is conditional on the psychological and social conditions in which they originated and thrived. The cultural framework and social environment where society's 91ideas meet from one side and its local activities for its needs from the other side produce renaissance ideas. It is the civilizational specificity that was and is still missing from the visions of those importing these ideas.

All types of socially formulated solutions we borrow from other countries, where they have proven effective, are indeed correct in those countries. However, when applied in our countries, they require complementary elements that do not accompany them and cannot accompany them, as they cannot be confined or separated from their social environment in their countries; they cannot be separated from their spirit ⁽³⁾.

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(1) Imad al-Din Khalil, Reconstructing the Muslim Mind.

(2)  Malik Bennabi, Reflections, p. 55.

(3)  Malik Bennabi, The Birth of a Society, p. 103.

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In the first article, we discussed the meaning of the "Neglection of the Qur'an" and some of its implications in the lives of Muslims. In this article, we will address some of the manifestations of the loss suffered by the nation from the neglection of the Qur'an and the neglect of its role in thought and action.

Loss of Civilizational Independence in Favor of Dependence and Submission

The Qur'an, in its essence, focuses on educating its followers towards a framework of civilizational independence and freeing them from all forms of dependency on anyone other than Allah. It emphasizes:

1. Individual and Social Responsibility: “Every soul is responsible for what it has earned” (Qur'an 74:38).

2. Freedom: “The freeing of a slave” (Qur'an 90:13).

3. Human Dignity: That is subject only to one God.

4. Honor and Dignity: “And to Allah belongs [all] honor, and to His Messenger, and to the believers” (Qur'an 63:8). This is achieved through sincere adherence to its teachings and laws.

5. Strength: Independence—where civilizational strength is necessary—requires power, which the Qur'an commands and considers essential for the independence and witness of the nation and its moderation. Allah says: “And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war” (Qur'an 8:60). Power here is understood broadly, including knowledge, physical strength, military, cultural, and intellectual preparation.

6. Principled Action: “And say, ‘Do [as you will], for Allah will see your deeds, and [so will] His Messenger and the believers’” (Qur'an 9:105), and “Eat of the good things and work righteousness” (Qur'an 23:51).

These meanings, which are abundant in the Book of Allah, affirm the essence of civilizational independence for the nation and the necessity of relying on its own resources to meet the needs of its contemporary generations, and even to save for future generations, rather than the opposite.

However, in the absence of the Qur'an from the movement of the nation, many of our Arab countries, and the Muslim world in general, have sunk into the clutches of the capitalist system and its vices through processes of dependency and submission. They are now reaping the consequences of this submersion, suffering from social and civilizational afflictions. Countries endowed with natural resources have not achieved any civilizational benefits from their wealth; instead, they remain consumers of technology, relying on Western products and technologies.

Non-oil-producing countries have been unable to benefit from the human resources and intellectual potential that Allah has endowed them with. This potential could have transformed their civilizational trajectory, as was both a Qur'anic and civilizational duty. Instead, this human power is now reflected in unemployment, poverty, and need statistics! This contrasts sharply with the Chinese model, for example, which has reached almost every home in the world, including Muslim households, with its labor force.

This situation arose because the nation succumbed to the fires of the capitalist political system and the tentacles of the old-new American Western materialistic global system. This model resembles Qarun, who sees money as the ultimate goal and interest (usury) as the means to wealth, promoting the principle of luxury consumption which enriches this flawed system and its monopolistic control over agriculture, trade, and labor, exploiting the human capacities of weaker or weakened nations to ensure dominance and exploitation.

The Qur'an warned against this capitalist system: “So that it will not be a perpetual distribution among the rich from among you” (Qur'an 59:7), knowing its destructive effects on humanity. This system only allows growth for its institutions and its European partners, while the rest of the world—what Huntington referred to as "the rest"—has only a role in consumption and importing Western products and brands, enriching multinational companies that control the global economy. It also restricts access to technological secrets, which are exclusive to it and those working within its sphere, considering profit and loss.

The nation abandoned an economic system based on the Qur'anic principles of valuing private and public ownership, the rights of people and the poor, and societal rights, which the Qur'an considers to be the rights of Allah. This economic system relies on productive work as the only way to obtain capital, rather than using money itself to generate more money (usury), which leads to idleness, unemployment, and associated social and moral crimes.

With the exclusion of the Qur'an and its financial regulations from the reality of Arab and Islamic economic policies, the Muslim world has the highest rates of poverty and hunger, despite having significant wealth relative to its population. This surplus could cover the needs of poor Muslims and even people in other nations, freeing them from debt and new colonial slavery.

What is said about the economy also applies to politics. The nation has oscillated between dependency on the East and the West, forgetting that it has a unique political system: the Shura system (“and whose affair is [determined by] consultation among themselves” (Qur'an 42:38), “So pardon them and ask forgiveness for them and consult them in the matter” (Qur'an 3:159)). This system could have been developed independently of the socialist and democratic myths that did not grow in the nation's reality but turned into retaliatory ideas against the people and their resources, and their political independence. The freedom promised by democracy and liberalism has turned into a unique form of oppression, encompassing every aspect of society under the threat of assassination or restricted freedom.

Similarly, in the military and defense sector, the nation ignored the Qur'anic directive: “And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war to intimidate the enemy of Allah and your enemy” (Qur'an 8:60), and instead adopted the approach of “import what you can from them,” i.e., replacing the superior with the inferior.

Instead of reflecting on the Surah "Iron" and Allah’s statement: “And We have sent down iron with great military might and benefits for the people” (Qur'an 57:25), the nation neglected compliance and the benefits of manufacturing its own security and defense tools. It continued to import and stockpile weapons rather than producing them, leading to a decline in weapon manufacturing technology and related technologies. This could have achieved self-sufficiency and self-development in weaponry. Instead, several Arab and Islamic countries occupy top positions in global arms imports, despite not using them. They have either signed treaties with their enemies (at the end of wars) or rented Western military bases to secure their borders, with the imported weapons always being much older and less advanced than those possessed by their enemies in the Arab region.

The Absence of the Qur'anic Approach to Psychological and Social Reform in Contrast to the Empowerment of Conflict in the Self and Society

Muslims, and indeed the contemporary world, have lost significantly with the removal of the Qur'an from their social, cultural, and educational lives. They failed to present a tangible model of the Qur'an in modern life, showcasing its uniqueness in reforming societal dynamics, cultural movements, educational approaches, and developmental philosophies.

Modern humans have lost a methodology where material and spiritual life are integrated, without the need to incite conflict between them or experience tension or hesitation in choosing between them. The Qur'anic approach offers a way where individuality and collectivism can coexist without sacrificing one for the benefit of the other.

This person has lost a methodology that harmonizes the worldly life with the Hereafter, without needing to disregard one for the sake of the other.

Modern humans have lost a Qur'anic approach where the witnessed and the unseen are seamlessly integrated, where the absolute and the empirical coexist without contradiction, and where the normative and the practical align without logical or emotional discord.

The alternative to the absence of the Qur'anic model in the cultural and social realms has been the empowerment of the principle of conflict in individual and social life. This has been established by the contemporary Western model, which is an offspring of Darwinian Zionism. This model has led to the proliferation of mental health issues at the individual level and social conflicts at the societal level, such as class struggles, generational conflicts, and cultural clashes, as promoted by Samuel Huntington. Conflict has thus become the defining characteristic of the contemporary world, which lacks a Qur'anic model for others to emulate.

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The Quran: Its Status and Civilizational Role

The Quran represents the key to the desired civilizational development, as evidenced by the changes it brought about in the initial Arab environment where it was revealed, and the vast psychological and social transformations it induced in that environment and in other connected environments and psychologies. The Quran succeeded in reshaping the human being of civilization, or the new human capable of carrying the message of stewardship on earth through this upright and valuable methodology.

The status and civilizational role of the Quran are also evident in its immense ability to organize the vital energy of both society and the individual within a prominent framework of social and ethical features, linking earthly and heavenly objectives. This was evident in the first Islamic society (the real/experimental witness), where the Quranic revelation provided the temporal and psychological conditions for civilizational development, subjecting both the individual and society to perform their activities with great success. The Quranic message also subjected the simple Bedouin to its precise system, transforming them into civilized and civilizing individuals, demonstrating its effectiveness in reorganizing and directing the vital energy of this ignorant society.

The foundation from which we approach the Quran in this article is Allah's statement to the Muslims: "And this is a Book We have revealed [which is] blessed, so follow it and fear Allah that you may receive mercy" (Surah Al-An'am, 6:155). This verse indicates both a command and a warning; the first: a command to follow, where the form of following here is to act upon the Quran and its commands and prohibitions, through tracing the Quran with knowledge and understanding. This following achieves, as per the Quran, guidance for people to both worldly and hereafter truths, presenting them with clear indications of their situations, clarifying their questions, and distinguishing between truth and falsehood. Or collectively, the Quran's guidance includes guidance for intellect and knowledge, emotions and feelings, behavior and actions, society and systems. Muslims are legally and rationally obliged to follow and act upon these guidances, as they are essential for their worldly life and hereafter.

The warning is: "and fear Allah," which means a warning against distorting the Quran. Distortion in words is not feasible according to the Quran: "Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur'an and indeed, We will be its guardian" (Surah Al-Hijr, 15:9). Thus, the second meaning of distortion remains, which is to disable the Quran from being practiced in the reality of Muslims, falsify its intended meanings, or mislead people from its function among them, which we meant here by the term "neglecting the Quran;" i.e., removing it from the reality of Muslims and their social and emotional lives.

This concept is the essence of this series of articles titled "What Has the Ummah Lost by Neglecting the Quran?"

The Concept of "Neglecting the Quran"

Neglecting: is the lifting and removal; it is usually used in contracts that are annulled by mutual consent, meaning the removal of what was agreed upon and its consequences. In the Hadith: " If anyone rescinds a sale with a Muslim, God will cancel his slip on the day of resurrection" ⁽¹⁾. Therefore, by neglecting the Quran, we mean removing the effects of the Quran from people's lives and disabling its goodness and benefit in their livelihood, not removing or erasing the Quran itself, as it will not be erased from existence by the will of Allah who promised to preserve it.

Neglecting the Quran here is intended as the Prophet's complaint to Allah about the abandonment of the Quran; "And the Messenger has said, 'O my Lord, indeed my people have taken this Qur'an as [a thing] abandoned'" (Surah Al-Furqan, 25:30). Although the Muslim Ummah did not claim that the Quran is magic or falsehood as the disbelievers of Quraysh did, their abandonment occurred knowingly after it became clear to them that it is the truth, they experienced it and acted upon it, but they returned and lifted it from their lives and systems. The role of the Quran in people's livelihood and their witnessed world was obscured.

More than abandoning the recitation of the Quran, the greater neglect is the lack of awareness of the Quran's social guidance role and its role in the movement of the individual and the Muslim society. The Quran is not considered a reference for solving social problems, guiding developmental, educational, political, and economic issues, or guiding the ethics of leaders and the community in general, nor as legislation for its systems and laws. This is the true neglect of the Quran in the reality of the Ummah. Initially, it was a silent neglect, and then its effects were seen in the Islamic life in general and the social movement in particular. This absence of that book, which should always be present in the movement and life of Muslims, was noted.

Neglecting the Quran occurred sometimes knowingly through responding to the Western project that separated Muslims' lives and systems from religion, and sometimes ignorantly by Muslims' response to this separation which was followed by a weak care for the Quran; in studying, practicing, and conveying, contenting themselves with the sound and body of the Quran in the reality of the Ummah over its spirit, energy, vitality, and reality. Sometimes it happened through temptation by ornamentation and coloring to distract hearts and minds from its guidance, fertility, responses, and answers, sometimes through intimidation and misleading by frightening people from approaching its aspects, rulings, and legislations, claiming that it hinders movement and the speed of life, and sometimes through misleading by trivializing its ideas and objectives through nonsense about it; "And those who disbelieve say, 'Do not listen to this Qur'an and speak noisily during [the recitation of] it that perhaps you will overcome'" (Surah Fussilat, 41:26). It was said about how to make noise here: by shouting, clapping, and mixing... so that it becomes noise that does not attract hearts or appears (i.e., does not have a standing among people), and its truth is not known, nor is its acquisition achieved.

Muslims in this era have excelled in making noise about the Quran and turning away from its truths; by embedding advertisements in its recitation, exploiting it in so-called charitable works, preventing the people of the Quran from connecting with people, promoting trivial matters with Quran slogans, making the recitation of scholars (members) only and excluding the general people (non-members) for fear that the Quran might infiltrate the souls of Muslims, focusing on the Quran's script, ornamentation, and colors while constraining the real Quran, and giving space for people of whims to exploit it in the worst way.

Points of Neglecting the Quran

Several points can be noted where the Quran was neglected, including:

1. The decline of Quranic studies in the Arab-Islamic educational system - mostly - in so-called religious institutions like Al-Azhar in Egypt, Al-Qayrawan in Tunisia, the Islamic University in Algeria, or similar institutions in other Islamic countries, and the absence of a clear methodology for Quranic studies in the general educational system or what is called civil education.

2. The decline of Quranic studies in their traditional inherited aspects; i.e., in linguistic, rhetorical, and interpretative aspects, excluding the Quran from social, psychological, cultural, and media studies, and others that are part of human development and achieving the Quran's relevance to changes and developments.

3. Weakening the role of the Quranic mosque, as the mosque represents a haven for studying and teaching the Quran. This role has clearly weakened in recent decades in all Arab countries, and mosques, Quranic schools, and kuttabs face serious existential challenges in the recent period in particular.

4. The weak role of the community in general towards its individuals regarding Quranic studies and teaching, unlike the commercial role that has spread in the outward dealing with the Quran.

5. This led to the expansion of Quranic illiteracy among Muslims, from illiteracy in recitation to illiteracy in dealing and relating to Quranic study and understanding, to illiteracy in benefiting and applying, to illiteracy in conveying and practicing.

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(1) Al-Tabarani, Al-Mu'jam Al-Awsat (1/272).

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