Muslims who do not live Islam and infidels who follow the Quran!

To address societies independently of their beliefs, value judgments, culture, and ideologies, and to read the social structure independently of these dynamics, can have severe consequences in terms of results. Because a society does not move in a vacuum; there are factors that give it direction and spirit. Moreover, the treatment of deficiencies that emerge in the social structure is primarily possible through a correct diagnosis. If a cancer patient is diagnosed with the flu, the death of that patient has been signed from the very beginning.

The sentences that led to the introduction above are related to an answer given by Imam Hatip graduate İsmail Yaşar to a question. Let me first convey the question: “Why do infidels live in prosperity, why do they not face trouble?” Yes, that is the question. 

Let us come to the answer.

Look, İsmail Yaşar gives exactly this answer to the aforementioned question: “The world is the place of testing for the believer; for the infidel, it is a land of temporary blessings.” In other words, while Muslims are struggling with poverty, bribery, corruption, and many such problems because they are in a state of testing, infidels can live in temporary blessings. While saying these words, Yaşar bases this argument on a verse in the Quran; in other words, he was bringing God to the forefront. 

Then it falls to the Muslim to remain silent, right? If God is speaking, does the word of a human have any validity!? This attitude is already the underlying reason for referencing religious texts most of the time. For believers, the “word of God” is put forward so that all other words may fall silent. 

However, one cannot remain silent. Neither for the believers nor for those who witness this situation, remaining silent means becoming a partner to the word and the thought. I will come to why one should not remain silent in a moment, but before moving on to that, I want to quote a saying attributed to Ali ibn Abi Talib because it is relevant here. Ali says: “The Quran does not speak; people make it speak.” When we remember who has made the Quran speak and how throughout history, we grasp the importance of the word once again. Most notably, the pages of the Quran on the tips of spears during the Battle of Siffin offer us the most striking photograph of this reality.

We can now continue with İsmail Yaşar’s explanation. What was Yaşar saying: “The world is the place of testing for the believer; for the infidel, it is a land of temporary blessings.” Here, the emphasis on blessings is as important as the test. First of all, let us state this; without looking at the reasons behind the gains we call blessings, we cannot understand the troubles experienced by Muslim communities. For example, the question of why the press is freer, income distribution is more equitable, and the concepts of democracy, rights, and freedoms are more established in some countries defined as “infidel,” while these are not experienced in Muslim countries, is not realized through a conflict between blessings and testing, but through a major confrontation and reckoning.

To carry out this confrontation we are talking about, some academics who are also Muslim have been working for years on an index called the “World Islamicity Index.” According to this, the degree of their countries' adherence to Islamic teachings is revealed. The general headings measured here are divided into different categories as human and political dimension, economic dimension, legal and international dimension. As a result, the place of countries in the Islamicity index is determined. Look, according to the 2025 results, Ireland is in the first place in the Islamicity index. It is followed in order by Iceland, New Zealand, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and Finland. In other words, according to this result, the infidels are the ones living out Islam!

There are only three Muslim countries among the top fifty countries on the list. In other words, it is very ironic, but Muslim countries do not want to live “Islam.”

What about Turkey? It is in 109th place out of 149 countries. 

Those who do not leave the practice of Islam to anyone in words, in preaching, on the podium, in politics, in trade, or in coffeehouses, when it comes to listening to the moral advice of the religion, I think they say, “We will pass, we need the form of the religion, not its essence.” More precisely, according to the index in question, this is exactly what is being experienced. 

But how can you live a religion whose essence, spirit, meaning, and purpose you ignore and do not embrace, and how can you keep it alive? Is such a reality possible? In such a situation, would you not have killed the religion with your own hands? The answers are as important as the questions, and clearly, the Islamicity index presents us with striking realities regarding the answers we expressed above.

Returning from here to İsmail Yaşar’s explanation, we can state that; there is no blessing that the infidel is experiencing here as he says. As the research results we have included show, they comply with the law better than you, distribute income more equitably, observe justice; they perform better than you in matters such as corruption, bribery, and the looting of public property. That is why they live better than you. If trouble is coming to you, you are the cause; the cause is the realities you do not face, the mirror you hide, the truth you do not give space to. Therefore, one should not look for trouble or blessings elsewhere, but in the administration and governance of the countries themselves, in the economic system applied, in the entirety of morality, and in the ideologies that are upheld.

On the other hand, of course, there may be other reasons for these results. Again, there may be the development dynamics of non-Muslim countries, their historical crimes, or the problems they still face today. However, all of this does not negate the reality of structural analysis when we look at the world through a lens. If we are not looking at society from a genuine, sincere, moral, and structural place, we lose not only our eyes but also our minds and our faith. 

To not lose and to take a meaningful life test, we must keep our resistance and our objections constant. And we must never forget this quote by Amin Maalouf. Because that quote sheds light not only on today but also on a history. It is certain that that light will illuminate our path. The author, who comes from a religious and faithful family, says: “They act as if they have no need for morality because they have a religion.” Indeed, it is true, we are witnesses.