No society throughout human history has been without the religious phenomenon and the innate need for religion. This is expressed through the public, individual, and collective display of religiosity, known as the social existence of religion. Ancient societies, since the Stone Age, have lived according to religious beliefs, practiced worship rituals, and created a vast religious heritage, reaching the level of religious myths that governed the behavior of individuals, societies, and civilizations. Humans have an inherent religious nature, as stated in the noble hadith: "Every child is born with a true faith of Islam; then his parents convert him to Judaism or Christianity or Magianism,…" Just as individuals have an innate need for religion, there is also a collective need for it as institutions.
Although the emergence of religious institutions is much later than the appearance of religion and religious manifestations—meaning that the institutionalization of religion is not as ancient as religion itself—it became evident in simple places of worship. It then evolved and took on more civilized forms, such as mosques, churches, religious houses, and religious groups. This means that the appearance and development of religious institutions are linked to the development of human civil life, that is, the development of history itself. This has led to their quantitative and qualitative increase, especially in conservative societies. The religious institution has taken on an official history of appearance, emerging as an institution with a role, influence, and authority, reaching the level of the highest reference and supreme religious authority in society.
Some Arab and Islamic Regimes Have Not Hidden the Nationalization and Monopolization of Religion by Employing Official Religious Institutions
Although concepts often suffer from epistemological issues, including differences and lack of consensus on their comprehensive and exclusive definitions, the term "religious institution" in our Arab and Islamic world can be summarized to encompass its structure, importance, and function. It refers to the organized and official religious body with specific and permanent tasks and functions, such as the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowments, Zakat and Hajj, universities, zawiyas (Sufi lodges), Quranic schools, and fatwa and religious guidance bodies, which play cultural, social, and spiritual roles, even if they overlap in tasks and functions with some non-religious institutions. Consequently, they occupy a central and pivotal place in the lives of people and states due to their soft influence on public life.
Here, we are talking about the religious institution, which often refers to official institutions, not non-governmental religious institutions such as charitable associations, volunteer organizations, and religious parties. This raises the issue of their true roles between the process of the nation’s civilizational revival and the secular containment by the state.
Despite the overwhelming wave of secularism that swept the world, especially after the rational revolution against the church in the West, and despite the flood of some contemporary ideologies and secular philosophies, the demand for "religion" in political and public life has been renewed. Its renewed role in political crafting and societal influence has reemerged, with modernity not lasting long against it.
Despite strenuous attempts to make the modern state a state of citizenship, to impose the logic of its ideological neutrality, and to remove it from religious conflicts, elevating it to the level of a non-ideological institutional civil state, official political use of religion has appeared. Secularism has been employed as a tool by the state to control religion, causing some regimes to use the "religious shield" as one of the pillars of despotism through the religious institution and directed religious thought to legitimize power religiously and morally. Thus, some regimes in Arab and Islamic countries have not hidden the nationalization and monopolization of religion by employing official religious institutions, such as controlling mosques and zawiyas to direct and control their religious influence.
.. Some regimes have skillfully employed traditional religious institutions to counter the civilizational political project of Islam.
In recent decades, religiously flavored policies have emerged in some ostensibly secular countries, known as the opportunistic exploitation of religion. This reflects an illegitimate relationship between authority and religion, exploiting religion without genuinely adopting its methodology, behavior, law, and truth. Religion is invoked each time to legitimize the ruler and ensure religious loyalty to him, exploiting religious and national sentiments to cement blind acceptance of state authority over individuals and societies.
Despotic regimes have masterfully employed traditional religious institutions to counter the civilizational revivalist political project of Islam through claims of "renewing religious discourse," re-examining religious texts, reviewing the heritage of Islamic jurisprudence, and even nationalizing and monopolizing official religious institutions. They have diluted educational, pedagogical, and media systems, stripping them of any fundamental or identity-related dimension under the guise of combating "terrorism" and drying up the sources of extremism. The champion of freedom and enemy of despotism, Imam Abdul Rahman al-Kawakibi, rightly exposed such justificatory roles of the ruler in the name of religion: "Despotism in politics is born out of or accompanies despotism in religion."
However, a reflection on the pages of Islamic history, despite the unfortunate phenomenon of court scholars and ruler-worshipping clerics, reveals a clear truth: the makers of civilization and those who maintained the vitality of the ummah were not the political authorities. History has recorded dark pages about some of its princes who were closer to corruption, decadence, dictatorship, and absolute monarchy, marking the glaring constitutional crisis of Islamic civilization after the Rightly Guided Caliphate.
Despite these lamentable manifestations of the corruption of kings and princes, there was a societal engagement within the depths of the ummah that preserved hope by tipping the scales in favor of civilizational action over political corruption. It was the society that stood guard over identity and values, and the influence of what is today called religious and societal institutions was stronger than that of the state in organizing peoples and guiding the ummah. The crafting of civilization was not penned by rulers but began in the depths of society, liberating the human conscience, will, thought, and behavior through ijtihad (independent reasoning), creativity, and renewal at the societal level, not at the level of authority.
The religious institution needs self-criticism and genuine review in order to restructure and enhance its roles
Even during moments of separation between politics and civilization, the religious institutions were compelled to bear the burden of civilizational effectiveness. Their fuel was scholars, thinkers, judges, moral supervisors, creators, writers, intellectuals, and others who influenced reality without waiting for authorization from the ruler.
This was evident in the spread of Quranic schools, religious education, the authority of fatwas, the mission of mosques, the fields of endowments, the role of zakat, and the manifestations of social solidarity and various forms of volunteering. These represented brilliant aspects of Islamic civilization and embodied independent and effective cooperative institutional entities. The theoretical divine preservation of identity and values in society, as stated in the verse: "Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur'an and indeed, We will be its guardian" (Al-Hijr: 9), was combined with their practical preservation through the duty of enjoining good and forbidding evil, performed independently through organized institutional and civilizational action, as mentioned in the verse: "And let there be [arising] from you a nation inviting to [all that is] good, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, and those will be the successful" (Aal Imran: 104).
Between this historical revivalist role of the religious institution and its containment in modern times, it needs self-criticism and genuine review to restructure and elevate its roles to genuinely revive and bear the trust of religion, free from authoritative exploitation and bureaucratic containment policies. Dealing with both its official and popular levels with full independence and sovereignty preserves its civilizational role for the benefit of the ummah, making religion beneficial to humanity. It should not isolate religion in mere ritualistic practices, detached from engaging with the major issues of contemporary life. The mission of creating a purposeful human being is the sacred and civilizational duty of this religious institution, which it must fulfill sincerely for Allah. The harmony with the human renaissance and the civilizational role of religion depends on its historical and ethical responsibility.
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