This is a very interesting article written by Dr Qazi Ashfaq Ahmad. You can check the original source here. Happy reading!

“Each one is born on the imprint of Islam, then his /her parents
bring him/her up as a Jew, Magii or Christian.” (Hadith: Sahih)

A human being undergoes two stages of life – one without using his/her intellect in the childhood and the other using intellect when grown up. In childhood, parents influence the most their religious rituals and other customs. The above saying of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) indicate this phenomenon of religion. After the downfall of Islamic civilisation and the isolation of religion from the efforts towards the material development of Western civilisation specially after the Renaissance, religion lost its importance in the daily living of humanity. Secularism and existentialism have taken the place of religious ideology.

Pertaining to religion the parents situation is ridiculous. A person
is a Jew, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Baha’i or of whatever religion or creed
because of the parents who are the vehicle for his/her coming in this world.
Thus, generally the religion associated with the child is the one to which
its parents are denominated in a society. Thus the vast majority of the
persons known, in the present society as Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Christians
and Buddhist, etc are so and so by chance – the chance of being born in
a family of particular denomination.

Reversion is the change of this religion by chance to the primordial
religion Islam by choice. A strange attitude prevails among the religious
leaders in the propagation of their religions, they are more interested
in the conversion of the persons from other religions to their religions
but not interested in converting the persons of their own religion from
“by chance” to “by choice”. In this submission let us
concentrate on Muslims. Almost all of them (with very few exceptions) are
Muslims by chance. They are born in a Muslim family and hence their names
and afterward their interest are associated with the religion Islam.

Muslims by chance do not feel the necessity to revert – to become Muslim
by choice. The reasons are two fold: Firstly, by not doing so, they do not
gain anything. It does not affect their health, their wealth, their position
and their status. They can get all the privileges of Islam without fulfilling
their duties and responsibilities which Islam imposes upon its followers.
A Muslim by chance (by name) can marry a Muslim, can vote as a Muslim, can
take the highest position in an Islamic organisation and can become President
or Prime Minister of a Muslim country without having to face any questions
about his beliefs and practices of Islam. Secondly, it is very painstaking
and entails going through material losses in the reversion from ‘Muslim
by chance’ to ‘Muslim by choice’. One shall have to study Islam without
any financial reward, one has to leave material gains prohibited by Islam,
one has mostly give than to take, and one has to surrender to Allah in place
of himself/herself living freely on his/her whims and fantasies. Hence to
continue living as Muslim by chance is much easier than to become a Muslim
by choice which is hard and demands great sacrifice.

There is a subtle difference between the situation in the early days
of Islam and the present one. From the very start, in the time of Muhammad
(s) there was no concept of a ‘Muslim by chance’. A person even born in
a Muslim family, was supposed to deal with Islam consciously at each and
every step. The education system was having the basis of Islam in its curriculum
and thus every Muslim from childhood was educated in Islam. Thus he/she
became Muslim by choice in due course. But together with this situation,
there were so called Muslims who did not have true beliefs in Islam and
they played the role of hypocrites (munafiqeen) to damage Islamic
society. There were also those Muslims who were weak in practice because
of temptations. It is a fact that because Islam was the most important component
of the society, there was not a single Muslim just because of birth alone.
The Prophet (s) never envisaged that a time would come having a Muslim without
knowing what is Islam – Muslims offering salat without knowing what they
were uttering, Muslims listening to the whole Quran in the month of Ramadan
in Tarawih prayers without knowing their meanings, Muslims reciting Quran
at the time of death of another Muslim without understanding and so on.
Applying to the present situation, the Prophet would have added the word
Muslim in his Hadith started at the beginning “a Jew, Magii, Christian
or Muslim.” Let us pick one of the piece of verses in which the weak
Muslims and the hypocrites are admonished. This may provoke the Muslims
by chance to revert themselves to become Muslim by choice.

“O you, who have professed as the believers, believe sincerely
in Allah and His Messenger and in the divine writ which He sent down to
His Messenger, step by step, as well as in the revelations which He sent
down aforetime. He that denies Allah, His angles, His Scriptures, His messengers
and the Last Day, strays far away from the truth.” (Quran, 4: 136)

This verse directly addresses the Muslims by chance who, without realisation,
declared

“la ilaha illallah Muhammad ur Rasullullah” or even
not declared this phrase themselves and are registered as Muslims in the
society. All these are commanded by Allah to believe sincerely in the fundamental
articles of Islamic faith with all the implications. Quran has clearly emphasised
that a Muslim name by birth merely brings a person in the fold of the Muslim
community but does not bring him/her truly in the fold of Islam. Hence Muslims
by chance should become Muslims by choice firstly by declaring truly the
words “la ilaha illallah Muhammad ur Rasullullah” again
even if they have done before and then to believe sincerely and seriously
in Islam to the extent of moulding one’s thoughts, likes, attitudes and
conduct in accordance with one’s beliefs. “As for those who come to
believe and than deny the truth and again come to believe and again deny
the truth and thereafter grow stubborn in the denial of the truth, Allah
will neither forgive them nor rightly guide them.

“Give warnings of a painful torture to the hypocrites.” (Quran, 4: 137,138)

The denial of the truth implies two things: firstly outright rejection
of Islam with declaration against Islam. Secondly one may pay lip-service
to Islam (as most Muslims by chance do) but may not (sincerely believe in
it or show by one’s behaviour and conduct that he/she does not believe in
Islam. These verses warn that these two kinds of denial of truth can not
go side by side with the articles of Islamic faith and mislead the one away
from the truth into the paths of deviation.

“As for those who takes the denies of the truth for their allies
in preference to the believers, in the hope to be honoured by them, are
doomed. Behold! All honour belongs to Allah alone.” (Quran, 4: 139)

The persons mentioned in the above verse may fall in the category “Muslims
by chance”, who do not consider the question of faith as a serious
matter but play with it to glorify their whims and lusts. If any more against
Islam helps them materially, they hide that they are Muslims. They deny
the truth, without least hesitation, if their interest lie in disbelief.
Obviously Allah will not forgive them. Sometimes such “Muslims by chance”
go further. They strive to turn other Muslims away from Islam. Such persons
deserve more punishment from Allah.

“The hypocrites wait to see what befalls you. Thus, if triumph
comes to you from Allah, they say: ‘Did we not stand on your side.’ Whereas,
if the disbelievers gain the upperhand, they say (to them): ‘Have we not
earned your affection by defending you against the believers.’
“Indeed on the Day of Resurrection, Allah will judge between
you and them, and (in this judgment) Allah has left no way for disbelievers
to overcome the believers.” (Quran, 4:140,141)

The ‘Muslims by chance’ sometimes knowingly and sometimes unknowingly
behave like the hypocrites mentioned above. At the same time they enjoy
all the benefits they can derive from the present society mixing with non-Muslims
and assuring them: ‘we are not ‘orthodox’ Muslims; just by chance we are
associated with them, being born into a Muslim family. We are liberal and
modern like you in culture, in thoughts and in the way of life. Our interests
and loyalties are the same as yours. We will take your side by denouncing
Muslim terrorists very openly as well as hide your atrocities and terrorism.
We have the same interpretations of justice and human rights as you have.’

As far as Islam is concerned, the main problem is of paradigm shift.
Other religions, being confined to the spiritual aspect of life, are not
much involved in the totality of living. Hence there is not much requirement
of paradigm shift for them.

Islam being a life style and value-system in every aspect of life, needs
a paradigm for daily living. The present society and the civilisation has
a definite, precise and explicit paradigm to work for material success in
this world. This paradigm very clearly depicts the end of life in this world
and hence unaccountability of one’s deeds after this life. Even in this
life, if one manages to deceive others by being smart, one is termed successful.

A Muslim can not live as a true Muslim under the present paradigm. Its
bearing is so intense that the apparent and temporary virtues and value-system
can not over-run the influence of a wrong paradigm. This is the reason that
all Dawah work, propagation of Islam, the tafseers of Quran and explanation
of Islamic tenets do not work in presence of the un-Islamic materialistic
and God-less paradigm of the present civilisation. In spite of all the efforts
to bring Muslims toward the practice of true Islam, the present paradigm
shall continue to navigate every person, Muslim or non-Muslim, who lives
under it.

Hence the only way for Muslims to live Islamically is to formulate an
effective and precise Islamic paradigm based on the totality of life in
this world and the Hereafter with total surrender to Allah. The next important
task is to shift the paradigm of the present to the Islamic one by undergoing
a real Islamic education based on the absolute truth of the Quran interpreted
by the Hadith.