Material Civilization, Moral Civilization, and Striving

Material Civilization, Moral Civilization, and Striving

Most people deeply confuse material progress with human moral progress, so they regard every people that has achieved material advancement as morally advanced as well. This comes from conflating material civilization with moral civilization and making the two one and the same for every nation.

This idea that material advancement equates with moral advancement is a false standard and analogy. Otherwise, the prophets, successors, and their followers, who had no share whatsoever in the adornment of this world, its material civilization, or its fleeting power, would have been the lowest in moral standing, far be it from them. Pharaoh, Nimrod, and their likes, who built pyramids, towers, palaces, and flourishing cities, would then be the people of morality, enlightened thought, and progress. They were far from that. The first to stand accused would also be He who destroys and lays waste to material civilizations through punishments and exemplary chastisements, exalted is He above what they associate with Him.

Rather, by God, they did not understand the matter before them, and so they judged it by what was already within themselves.

The truth is that moral and civilizational progress is the project of the prophets, the very thing they brought from God. Whatever noble character exists among humanity is nothing but traces of those divine morals brought by the prophets and successors. The master and seal of the prophets and messengers, Muhammad, summed up the purpose of his mission to mankind in these words: “I was sent only to perfect noble character.”^[138]

The source and wellspring of noble character is the teaching of the prophets, and morality is the true measure of a nation’s progress. Material progress, that is, material civilization, has no value, however great it may be, if it is not accompanied by moral progress, that is, moral civilization. Yet despite the clarity and simplicity of this truth, most people have not grasped it.

The perverse conclusion many people have drawn from these corrupt premises is that America’s wars must be just. In their eyes, America is materially advanced and therefore unquestionably morally advanced as well. Accordingly, they believe its wars were fought to remove oppression and tyranny and to establish democracy, the rule of the people, and freedom. Thus, whoever stands against America, or against the order America has devised and seeks to impose upon this earth, is deemed an oppressor and a tyrant. In this way, the scales have been overturned.

Then, the confusion prevailing on the world stage today has further clouded vision and distorted thought, until seekers of truth have become rarer than red sulfur.

Perhaps if people would ask themselves, “Who sets the law and appoints the ruler, God or the people?” their vision would become clear, and America, with its democracy and its freedom, would appear to them for what it is: an idol worshiped instead of God, no different from the tyrants you have seen in Afghanistan and Iraq. America is a satanic monstrosity, just as Saddam, Bin Laden (may God curse them), and their followers were satanic monstrosities, because none of them, America, Saddam, Bin Laden, or their like, was appointed by God, Glorified and Exalted. Nor do they know the divine law or seek to establish it, though some of them claim otherwise in order to deceive people in the name of religion while understanding nothing of religion.

It is self-evident in the three divine religions that God sets the law and appoints the ruler, and the texts indicating this are numerous in the Torah, the Gospel, and the Quran. Simply put, the law in this age is the Quran, the Gospel, and the Torah, and the ruler is the Mahdi, Jesus, and Elijah, peace be upon them.

All the heavenly books are one, for they were all sent down by One, and all the prophets and Imams are one, for they were all sent by One.

I believe that if people were to ask themselves this question and answer it with this clear answer, their word would be united upon monotheism. They would worship God and acknowledge His vicegerent on His earth and His law. No true unifier of all the people of the earth exists except the divine law and the divine ruler. These are what unite the people of the earth in truth, justice, and mercy.

Believers, therefore, must strive to establish the divine law and the divine ruler, God’s vicegerent, so that the earth may be filled with equity and justice, noble character, and a moral civilization, just as today it is filled with injustice and corruption.

What is actually happening, however, is that Satan’s soldiers, may God curse him, are fighting to establish the rule of Satan and satanic morals. Why, then, should God’s soldiers not fight to establish the rule of God, Glorified and Exalted, and to uphold divine morals? Their fighting and striving are, in truth, a defense of the moral civilization brought by the prophets and messengers since Satan and his armies, the champions of material civilization, are waging a war on the truth of divine morals.

There is no middle ground: either you support God and acknowledge His sovereignty, or you fight alongside Satan and in defense of his rule (may God curse him). The one who remains silent is a mute devil. Those who stand with God stand with God, and those who stand with Satan stand with Satan. Those who sit on the fence, as they call themselves, are mute devils.