The Religion Of The Ignorant

On the way to the ceremony, the car carrying the couple is decorated beyond all recognition. Lace and stickers adorn the rear windows, and gold-leafed cardboard letters are arranged on top, representing the bride and groom's initials. Clichéd phrases such as "Just Married" are placed on the licence plate. A plastic baby is often placed on the front of the car, representing the couple's future baby. The families decide long beforehand what the bride and groom will do and where, which answers they will give to whom, when they will smile and when they will cry.

The wedding guests calculate their own best interests. If the son or daughter of any of them is to get engaged or married shortly, the families will pin an expensive gift onto the bride, so that their child will be given something equally expensive when the time comes. Such gifts are attached in the most eye-catching way, in the reception room in full view of everyone. All the guests want to be the star of the occasion. People use videos to record the gift-pinning ceremony. The aim here is to determine who gives what. When the time comes to pin a gift for a similar occasion onto a guest, the aim is for that gift to be only as expensive as that individual's gift. Giving anything better is regarded as plain silly, while giving anything less expensive spells poverty.

Everyone has now done what is expected of them. The guests are happy to have had a free meal. The families are happy at being able to show off and to strike a good deal in the bargain. The bride and groom are tired and stressed. The ceremony of moving from table to table, kissing or shaking hands is now performed. Everyone's eyes are on the couple, who must behave with the greatest care.

Just about everyone at a wedding of the kind described above has similar goals in mind: showing off to others, material calculations and far from sincere behavior requiring everyone's eyes to be on them. Yet very few think about Allah. None of them think of freeing themselves from their preoccupations and remembering Allah, or giving thanks to Him. They do not consider whether their actions will meet with His approval. They are unaware that the money they have spent unnecessarily may be a waste.

The classic attitudes and behavior that Ignorantist society displays at the wedding of a standard-level individual depict their psychology. Of course, some get married in a very different mindset and environment. Various segments of society may have different attitudes towards introductions, preparations for marriage and the ceremonies themselves. Some people meet through the auspices of intermediaries or their families, and others meet their future spouses at university, at work, or through friends. Some marry at ordinary special-purpose halls, while other weddings are held at five-star hotels and are much more showy and magnificent. Some people adopt a more classical and traditional style, and others a more modern European one. To attract attention, some people are careful to do very different and original things.

Yet it's only the location, the décor or the way the couple meets that changes. The important point is that in the society of the ignorant, marriage is practiced with a most distorted logic. Marriage is not the formal joining of two people who love and respect one another, but has become an odd institution in which hundreds of ignorant customs and peculiar ceremonies are held, based on show and calculations of self-interest and adorned with insincere and hypocritical behavior.

No matter what their cultural or social status, when it comes to marriage, the fundamental logic, attitudes and psychology of members of the Religion of the Ignorant are exactly the same in terms of show, expectations and self-interest. They implement to the letter the mentality revealed in the verse:

Know that the life of this world is merely a game and a diversion and ostentation and a cause of boasting among yourselves and trying to outdo one another in wealth and children... (Surat al-Hadid, 20)

Indeed, since there is no place in Ignorantism for such concepts as observing the approval of Allah, maintaining the bounds set by Him and living in the manner He has set out, all that remains is the path of Earthly desires, wants, passions and greed. Though the forms and methods may change, the mentality remains the same.

After Marriage