The Religion Of The Ignorant

We have sent down the Book to you with truth. So worship Allah, making your religion sincerely His. Indeed is the sincere religion not Allah's alone? If people take protectors besides Him—"We only worship them so that they may bring us nearer to Allah"—Allah will judge between them regarding the things about which they differed. Allah does not guide anyone who is an ungrateful liar. (Surat az-Zumar, 2-3)

Say: "It is Allah I worship, making my religion sincerely His, so worship anything you will apart from Him!" Say: "The real losers are those who lose themselves and their families on the Day of Resurrection." Isn't that clear loss? (Surat az-Zumar, 14-15)

So call upon Allah, making your religion sincerely His, even though the disbelievers detest it. (Surah Ghafir, 14)

They Never Abandon Their Affected Characters,

Even Under the Most Difficult Conditions

Another feature of the affected character is how it dominates peoples' entire lives. That dominion is so powerful that such people never abandon their own rules, even under the most difficult conditions. Funerals are, again, an example of this. Even at the deaths of their closest friends, even of their husbands or children, such people are never willing to forego their characters, which are the direct opposites of the moral values of the Qur'an.

Since such people never use their ability to reason, they cannot fully comprehend the might and greatness of Allah, which is why they do not fear Him. Just about no event affects them particularly deeply, nor leads them to behave with genuine sincerity. Such events as a close friend contracting a dangerous illness, their children being injured or their spouse coming close to death, produce no deep effect in their souls. They never learn from people's experiences. They never think that one day, something similar might happen to them, and never seek to improve their moral values and rectify their mistakes.

The one event that affected characters cannot withstand and at which they totally collapse is their own deaths. To die is the one thing they fear most, and experience terror when they feel that death is really close at hand. Only then do they abandon their ugly personalities and show their true faces. The panic felt when an earthquake strikes, for instance, may lead them to abandon their affected character. At such a moment, their facial expressions, tone of voice, behavior and way of calling on Allah all suddenly change. Such people know their helplessness, are humble, full of fear, genuine and sincere. The moment the earthquake ends, however, that effect suddenly vanishes and the affected characters re-appear. That is because the force that caused their character to change, albeit for a moment, is not fear of Allah but fear of death. Once that fear has passed, this character re-emerges in all its ugliness.

The Affected Character Gives Rise to Sloth,

Incompetence and Ignorance