How did those who ignore justice kill religions?

Undoubtedly, believing has a direct relationship with trust. You believe the words of people you trust, you care about what they say, and you focus on their discourse. In the opposite case, faith is damaged, wounded, loses its meaning, and loses its direction.

Religion, which has existed as a social phenomenon throughout history, also appears as a manifestation of faith. In this respect, one of the important values sought in religion is trust. Just like justice. We want the religion we belong to to carry fair values and its followers to be reliable people. How fair religions are in themselves and how much they defend justice is a separate subject of debate, but no one defends the opposite for their religion or thinks so. In that case, religion is either fair or it should be!

On the other hand, we also know that the economic, social, and cultural conditions into which religion is born, and the actors of these conditions, influence religion in a certain way throughout the historical process, and in this interaction process, a divergence emerges among the followers of the religion. Whoever looks at religion from where, and reads which surah or verse how, religion turns into that a little bit; it is rewritten according to where it is read. In this context, although religion is one, its sects, schools, and communities have never been one. This is almost the case for all religions. Because religion must conform to class conditions in life, the social structure built upon it, privileges, and the comfort of life; otherwise, that harmony must be fabricated. 

For example, while fasting may consist only of not eating for some, for Ali Shariati, it is a matter of the rights of the people (kul hakkı). Those who see fasting only as not eating and those who define it as a matter of the rights of the people will naturally defend different values in life, both spiritually and intellectually.

Where are we going with this?

If we return to the beginning of our article, we said that faith and religion rise on the ground of trust and justice, and they need these values in terms of their spirit and followers. Because this is a necessary and essential need both for the protection of spirituality and for building a meaningful life. However, this need is not met by itself; as Hz. Ali said, the book does not speak by itself, people make it speak. It is in this speaking process that the actors diverge. Ali Shariati stands in one place, while the "Cübbeli" (the robed one) who defends the palace, wealth, and personal riches, and even creates a sectoral island of faith from this, stands in another. 

At this very point, it must be stated that faith is reproduced by its followers in almost every era and period in the light of certain traditions. In the context of the Islamic faith, the line of Abu Dharr, which defends justice, solidarity, and humility against the palace, stands in one place, while Muawiyah, the master of the palace, stands in another. These two lines create two different religious practices with their corpus, positions, acceptances, and objections. At the stage we have reached, people no longer look at the book but at the lines, and they make their religion speak through what those lines say. Just like the separation of Kufa and Damascus in the past, and the way the lines of Karbala and Yazid made religion speak from two very different places. You might ask, "Was Yazid inside the religion then?" Whether he was or not, in the end, on the day of Karbala, Yazid's soldiers prayed first and then girded their swords. 

The point we have reached is this: We are looking for justice in religion and people who maintain reliable relationships among its followers. Because where there is no justice and people lose their reliability, holiness becomes unable to breathe. Where it remains breathless, it dies; it may appear to live in form, it may appear to live in temples, rituals, and among books, but let's say it is a living dead. And let us add: today, most religions exist as an illusion, they have no connection with life, they try to live as dead. And the perpetrators are the followers. What did Nietzsche say: "God is dead. What remains of God is a corpse. And we killed him."

So who killed God or religion? 

We answered this question above as the perpetrators, but it needs to be elaborated. These perpetrators we mentioned killed their religion by offering it to the command of the powerful and the rulers, by chasing money, power, and authority, sometimes writing fatwas for them, sometimes writing religious texts, and taking positions by making religion speak for the powerful. Because in such a place, the source of allegiance is not God, but the actors we mentioned. The discourse is shaped accordingly, and they make religion speak or silence it accordingly. 

Parties, communities, or groups that emerge in the name of religion do this. These are the perpetrators; for a follower of a religion, structures as organized as the religion itself are also important. Indeed, these can be a murderer or a comrade for religion. The line it follows, the table it sits at, and the frame it enters in a photograph determine this. The proof is there, and so is the result.

While we are talking about religion, let's remember An-Nisa 135, if you wish. The verse says: "O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm in justice, witnesses for Allah, even if it be against yourselves or parents and relatives. Whether one is rich or poor, Allah is more worthy of both. So follow not [personal] inclination, lest you not be just." 

Now, remember the current developments both in our country and in the world, and think about the relationship of Muslims with this verse and therefore with justice, review their commitment to religion, and please ask this question: While the verse is written in such clear language, how Muslim are the Muslims who ignore this principle, and what kind of a religion is the one they believe in? And of course, if these Muslims believe in another religion, isn't the Islam pointed to by the verse already dead? Please ask.