The Great Replacement Theory:
Today, non-Muslims talk about a theory called the “Great Replacement”, which arose out of the intense fear due to the great spread of Islam, which led them to believe that this was a conspiracy which aimed at overthrow them and replace them with Muslims.
This theory has become a pretext for killing, torturing, or expelling Muslims from their countries in some regions of the world.
So, what is the story?
A French lady once told me:
The head cover is not normal for us.
She persisted:
The headcover is retardation and backwardness.
I challenged:
Is there any backwardness beyond Adam’s time? Showing the head itself was the backwardness. People started since the time of Adam to cover more and more parts of their bodies.
Go back to the photos of your grandmother on her way to school, and see what she was wearing. When the swimming suit appeared for the first time, demonstrations that we’re against it, took place all over Europe and Australia that were against it because it violated human nature and traditions not for religious reasons.
Therefore, the manufacturing companies embarked on making extensive advertisements using girls at the age of five, wearing it initially to encourage women to wear it. The first girl who walked out wearing it was too ashamed to continue with the show. At that time, women and men used to swim in white and black swimwear covering their entire bodies.
I also said: I’ll tell you a symbolic story.
There once was a ruler of a village who fell grievously ill, that his nose was amputated because his doctor insisted.
On the following day, the minister came in to check up on the king, but he was so startled by the sight of the nose-less king that he burst out in laughter.
The king was furious and ordered his doctor to cut out the minister’s nose.
On the third day, the minister’s assistants laughed at the sight of their minister without a nose. So, the minister got offended and told the king what had happened. So, the king ordered his doctor to chop off the noses of all the ministers.
On the fourth day, the ruler went out with his minister and minister’s assistants to solve some of the people’s problems, and the people laughed at them. Therefore, the king decreed that the doctor should also cut off the noses of all people and noses of any newly-born children.
As a result, all folks of the village became without noses. Later, when a natural person, with a healthy nose from another town, came to visit their town, everyone pointed at him and jeered: This one has a nose, he is not a normal human being.
But the reality is that whoever has a nose is normal.
The Creator ensured that the natural would always return to the scene, even if after a while.
- The belief that this universe has a Creator is natural.
- The belief that the Creator is not embodied in a human form or an animal form is natural.
- Worshiping the Creator alone without a saint or a priest is natural.
- Worshiping the Creator without resorting to the Prophet of God Muhammad or any member of his family is natural.
- The belief in all of the Creator’s messengers from Adam to Muhammad, including Moses and Jesus, may blessings and peace be upon them, is natural.
- Covering the body and not staying naked is natural.
- Male and female marriage is natural.
- Relationships within marriage are natural.
- There is no difference between black and white, nor rich or poor, which is natural.
If the successor person – individually and collectively – did not fulfill his religious and moral duty; God Almighty replaces him with another successor who is able to fulfill his duty of succession.
This is evident in the Almighty’s saying:
...If you ˹still˺ turn away, He will replace you with another people. And they will not be like you. (Muhammad:38).
This task is the one in which God provides man with air, water, food, drink, health, and other blessings.
It is similar to what is called internationally (daily subsistence allowance) for someone who is assigned a task from a specific institution.
The Daily subsistence allowance (DSA) comprises the organization’s total contribution towards such charges as lodging, meals, gratuities, transport cost from place of lodging to the first place of official business, and vice versa, along with other payments made for personal services that are rendered.
But when the tasked person fails to complete the task entrusted to him and is preoccupied with other than the goal assigned to him, the company replaces him.
The replacement is a cosmic norm.
[Due to] arrogance in the land and plotting of evil; but the evil plot does not encompass except its own people. Then do they await except the way [i.e., fate] of the former peoples? But you will never find in the way [i.e., established method] of God any change, and you will never find in the way of God any alteration. (Fatir:43)
The universal norms come in the Qur’an as a set of laws according to which the whole of existence runs, and according to which life moves, and governs its parts and vocabulary, and no creature is deviated from it. There is no atom or motion in the universe except that it has a law and a norm. All living beings, including humans, animals, plants, etc., only have a law.
There is no planet or star, otherwise it has an involuntary law that runs according to it. There is no psychological or social movement or a cultural shift, except that it also has a law that is manifested in the causes and factors leading to it.
In this sense, the norms are divided into two parts:
- Obligatory norms:
It applies to all living things, including humans. This is like birth, death, and life, as well as the moral descriptions and the innate states of man, and everything in the world of the unseen, including the power and divine will of matters that man has no power in.
- Optional norms:
It is based on the level of human will within the circle of human ability. This type of norms is the basis for man’s success or failure in the successive project entrusted to him. In other words, man will not achieve the succession project as God has pleased him, and will not build the desired civilization and urbanization, except through his understanding of the divine laws and harnessing them. From that moment on, the norms became the existential, cosmic and historical law that governs human development and succession.
The replacement does not mean the extermination of individuals; Rather, societies may disintegrate and the forces of nations collapse, and their social and political impact on the existing lives of people is erased.
However, the number of its members and the proportion of the population of the societies of this nation may not change, rather it may increase, or decrease due to neglect of the institutionalization of marriage, resorting to homosexuality, and other reasons. But they remain as desolate nations without features or purpose.
A true muslim does not conspire or plan to do bad to others just to reserve his place on Earth. He is only occupied with the real task that he has been assigned (reform the earth through worshipping the Creator), and the Creator takes care of the matters of his empowerment
Industry of ignorance:
5 monkeys were placed in a cage as part of an experiment. In the middle of the cage there was a ladder with bananas on the top rung. Every time a monkey tried to climb the ladder, the experimenter sprayed all of the monkeys with icy water. Eventually, each time a monkey started to climb the ladder, the other ones pulled him off and beat him up so they could avoid the icy spray. Soon, no monkey dared go up the ladder.
The experimenter then substituted one of the monkeys in the cage with a new monkey. The first thing the new monkey did was try to climb the ladder to reach the bananas. After several beatings, the new monkey learned the social norm. He never knew “why” the other monkeys wouldn’t let him go for the bananas because he had never been sprayed with ice water, but he quickly learned that this behaviour would not be tolerated by the other monkeys.
One by one, each of the monkeys in the cage was substituted for a new monkey until none of the original group remained. Every time a new monkey went up the ladder, the rest of the group pulled him off, even those who had never been sprayed with the icy water.
By the end of the experiment, the 5 monkeys in the cage had learned to follow the rule (don’t go for the bananas), without any of them knowing the reason why (we’ll all get sprayed by icy water). If we could have asked the monkeys for their rationale behind not letting their cage mates climb the ladder, their answer would probably be: “I don’t know, that’s just how it’s always been done.”
This story, whether real or a fable, captures a pervasive theme in many organizational cultures: We tend to do things the way we’re told they’ve always been done without questioning or revisiting the reason behind it, even long after that reason ceases to exist.
Unfortunately, this is what societies do today. They always try to make people ignorant, and at first they do this without knowing why they are doing this, but they are following the footsteps of the previous ones.
Many people are imbued with this nature just like monkeys, and this is pure ignorance.
There are many behaviors in our lives, homes, workplace, and our surroundings, and we do not know the real reasons behind them. However, some are desperate to defend them despite not knowing their real motives for them.
- Some people today resort to an animal or an idol by request, while they do not know why they do that.
- Some turn to a saint or a priest and seek help from the dead, while they do not know why they do that.
- Some people thank other than the Creator for the blessings that surround them, which are a gift from the Creator, and they do not know why they do that.
- A male marries a male and a female marries a female, and they do not know why they do that.
- Some people marry animals and don’t know why they do that.
- Some people attack females who cover their bodies and glorify those who strip themselves of their clothes, while they do not know why they do that.
A person should ask himself when he behaves in certain behavior. Why am I behaving like this? In order for him to discover the causes of error and the correct behavior to be made clear to him from the wrong behavior, man must search for himself and use the rationality which God distinguished him from the animal before it is too late.