Chapter Seven: Dialogue, Tolerance, and the Security of Religions

The Nature of True Religion and the Universality of Truth

True religion is a divine method for articulating truths. These truths are timeless, transcending the constraints of time, place, condition, doubt, or other mundane contingencies. Religions, to the extent that they partake in truth, are imbued with the vitality of those ever-living truths. The articulation of truth is attributed to the one who first renders it scientific and transmissible, documenting it under their name, thus becoming its recognized reference and authority. Consequently, the variation in the names of religions does not lead to a divergence in truths; rather, every religion is true to the degree that it possesses truths, and faith in truth, wherever it may be found, is a dictate of reason.

Religions and their original sources do not harbor unnatural discord. However, the followers of prophets, as custodians of religion and knowing agents, often fail to discern the singular and unified truth of religions due to unmethodical interpretations. Through myth-making, superstition, contrived disputes, fabricated schisms, constructed divisions, and belligerence, they foster rebellion and psychological aggression.

The Role of Dialogue in Religious Growth and Global Peace

Dialogue in religion and inquiry into it fosters the growth of religion. The expansion and development of religion are facilitated through dialogue and proclamation, not through war and conflict. Global peace and tranquility can be achieved through the dialogue of thinkers, sages, and religious leaders, and there exists no other path to ensure security and relative peace in today’s tense, chaotic, and perilous world.

Truth-seeking is the starting point of dialogue, and respecting the right to life and existence for all religions and their adherents as a fundamental right provides the necessary foundation. The point of consensus, agreement, compatibility, and peace among religions lies in their partial possession of truth, their shared commitment to truth and truth-seeking, and their pursuit of wisdom, sagacity, tolerance, and forbearance to establish connection, interaction, inquiry, and dialogue. If the adherents of religions can be freed from rigid fanaticism and purified faith, and if they can be cautioned against arrogance, pride, and self-aggrandizement stemming from claims of possessing the entirety of truth, they can be elevated to the realm of the sagacious. Truth-seeking and fairness enable an individual to accept truth and sincerity even from rivals and others, and to be grateful for their guidance and benevolence.

Common Ground and the Role of Divine Wisdom

The broadest point of convergence among religions is the recognition of God and the acceptance of the sagacity of prophets and the wise origins of each religion. God and sagacity can unite all religions, rendering them compatible and capable of peaceful coexistence, elevating them through reason and truth-seeking to the independent heights of each faith. Every religion must bring forth its sages and the radiant rational content of their teachings for dialogue, and in a scholarly atmosphere, agreement must be reached on the sagacity and rational content of religions, substantiated by reason and evidence. These commonalities should become the focal point of purposeful religious propagation.

If the partial possession of truth by religions is not acknowledged, and other religions are deemed wholly false, entirely obsolete, completely distorted, or enemies of God, and if the shared divine presence, innate religiosity, radiant reason, and divine charisma in their various manifestations are denied, a final and irrevocable judgment is pronounced, leaving no room for dialogue. Instead, by declaring the other wholly false, war and belligerence become inevitable.

The Necessity of Sagacious Leadership in Interfaith Dialogue

Only a divinely inspired sage, endowed with the authority of expansive divine governance, can manage the discourse of religions and guide them toward mutual understanding and collective reason. The path of interfaith dialogue and its guidance is articulated in the following noble verse:

“They say: ‘We believe in it; all of it is from our Lord.’” (Qur’an, Al ‘Imran 3:7)

Faith, which every religion possesses, is a force sweeter and more foundational than love, engendering a more potent religious zeal. If the prerequisites for realizing faith are not analyzed and reconsidered with sagacious logic, tolerance, and forbearance, it can lead to arrogance, self-opinionatedness, autocracy, and meaningless monologue, fostering fanaticism instead of humility, chivalry, and fairness. Such attitudes obstruct coordination among religions and dialogue with other faiths aimed at learning, recognizing truth and righteousness, accepting truth, and upholding truth and sincerity. However, faith founded on correct insight creates commonality, affection, and guardianship among believers, not division and chaos.

Interfaith Dialogue and the Security of Faith

For faith to grow and manifest its truth, and to first grant itself immunity and security, it requires, in the first instance, dialogue and peaceful interaction with other homologous religions, particularly the Abrahamic faiths of Islam and Christianity, to achieve a fuller understanding and ensure security and well-being. Religion must prohibit religious warfare and sectarian violence, as well as any form of belligerence and violence, declaring them crimes subject to prosecution. To prevent or resolve conflict and violence, a culture and working group of constructive dialogue must be established and organized.

If humanity once lived as isolated islands, today the world has been conquered by communication, and countries, borders, cultures, and rituals derive meaning through connectivity. Interfaith dialogue also draws strength from communication and beneficial interaction. Extensive communication has facilitated the awareness of peoples and scholars about each other’s cultures, religions, and beliefs. If religious adherents avoid intolerance and approach even opponents or the misguided with tolerance and resilience, the era of communication provides a fertile ground for constructive engagement among religious leaders and followers of various denominations. This fosters efforts toward dialogue, acquaintance, understanding, peace, compatibility, and the relative peace of communities, nations, and states, allowing innate religions to manifest freely. Dialogue, inquiry, and investigation also contribute to the elevation of civilizations and religions.

Overcoming Obstacles to Interfaith Harmony

However, if colonialists, profiteers, dominant yet declining powers, or deceitful religion-opposers interfere, and their mischief and deceptions are exposed, these interactions will lead to peaceful behavior among the adherents of innate religions. If the rational-historical approach and fair reporting of religions are combined with a sagacious approach and a sacred rational reading, it creates the conditions for the beliefs, rituals, ceremonies, and practices of each religion—particularly their philosophy, jurisprudence, and rights—to be studied scientifically and comprehensively, with a systemic or galactic perspective. This enables the discernment of authentic and inauthentic, scientific and unscientific religious data. In this case, the ground for the unity of religions and denominations can be laid, in the sense of discovering the scientific truths and falsehoods of each religion through a commitment to scientific judgment, research-based evaluation, and scholarly fairness. This calls all to the commonalities among religions that are true and accepted by science, and to a minimal balance in behavior and mutual respect based on shared values.

The Basis of Constructive Interfaith Dialogue

Contact among living religions and dialogue centered on minimal commonalities and overlapping beliefs fosters understanding, alignment, and constructive interaction. The foundation of constructive interfaith dialogue lies in examining and comparing shared narratives and homologous beliefs in the sacred texts of religions, preserving the collective interests of the adherents within the domain of religions, and safeguarding the well-being of people as the true bearers of religion. Otherwise, monologue-driven and intolerant religions will lead people into the abyss of war, terrorism, and death. Religious diversity, which enjoys popular and global acceptance, must be recognized with respect to shared rights, establishing them as a common religion among all faiths and the basis for global religiosity.

Interfaith dialogue can unite religious adherents in a cultural struggle against godless infidelity and scholarly endeavor to eradicate polytheism, as no religion can thrive freely in an atmosphere of infidelity. In the study of religions and interfaith dialogue, upholding noble ethical values—particularly chivalry, fairness, and the preservation of freedoms—and avoiding any deviation, impatience, loss of fairness and sincerity, as well as refraining from humiliation, reprimand, despotism, and self-opinionatedness, is of fundamental importance.

Respect for Sacred Figures in Interfaith Studies

In the study of religions, dialogue concerning divine prophets and the fourteen infallible figures (peace be upon them) must be conducted with respect and reverence for their sanctity. The slightest disrespect in dialogue is considered a crime under legal statutes and carries appropriate penalties. Moreover, personal malice against religious custodians and psychological aversions toward them, insofar as they are religious representatives and embodiments of faith and righteousness, places the malefactor in opposition to religion, aligning them with falsehood, infidelity, and religious deceit, akin to the Antichrist, and subjecting them to the consequential effects of such disrespect. Such a person, who contends with the path of religion and the way of religiosity, is a slayer of religion and religiosity, just as some have been slayers of divine sages and saints.

Deceitful religion, even if it feigns participation in interfaith dialogue, will approach other religions with non-cognitive, negative prejudices and a domineering, religion-erasing stance, marked by disrespect. Additionally, whether through negligence or intent, it will present distorted or deviant narratives of those religions. Thus, in religious studies, it is critical to avoid falling into the infernal and misleading trap of deceitful religionists.

Methodological Neutrality in Religious Studies

In the study of religions, one should not speak as a representative of a single religion. Instead, one must adopt a supra-religious stance, independently and freely, even detached from one’s own religion, acting as a guarantor and representative of every religion without bias or favoritism toward any specific faith. This must occur in a position of authority above all religions, with peaceful and fair interaction in a pure atmosphere filled with sincerity, devotion, and love, and with the intention of attaining truth, righteousness, and guidance. Religious and philosophical studies should not be conducted as a representative or researcher of a particular religion, as this precludes impartiality and fairness. Such a researcher, instead of committing to science, follows the path of their own faith and remains bound by their religion. Religious custodians can address the challenges of religiosity in the present era only through unity, networked and collective deliberation, and a discourse characterized by humility, wisdom, and affection, transforming religion into science and fostering compatible, tolerant, and peaceful coexistence without malice or intent to attack, with love and sacrifice.

Prioritizing Abrahamic Religions in Dialogue

Interfaith discourse must begin with the major and significant Abrahamic and non-racial religions, namely Christianity and Islam, with the aim of fostering peaceful coexistence among their adherents, centered on the Abrahamic God. The compatibility of these two living religions in scholarly dialogue, conducted with dignity and free from proselytizing, brings peace, security, and vitality to the world. It can regulate the behavior of rulers, power institutions, sectarians, and separatists. However, incompatibility, threatening other religions, and engaging in self-centered conflict cast the shadow of death, insecurity, and the autocratic chaos of dominant leaders and rulers over the world.

If these religions formally recognize each other as divine faiths, they can, through constructive discourse and mutual understanding, uphold the rights of their adherents, preserve their freedoms, and counter the divisive intrigues of colonialists, malefactors, and ambitious deceitful religionists, thereby laying the groundwork for relative global peace. In this regard, Russia, which globally exhibits the least adherence to religion, will have the smallest share in global peace. Following it is Israel, along with the influence of Zionism among Jewish communities, which has the closest material affinity to Russian culture. These two entities alone suffice to render grand peace initiatives mere hypocritical slogans. In practice, they commit atrocities that make the criminal records of the most notorious dictators seem like mere misunderstandings. Examples include the belligerent actions of adversaries of any dominant system or religion, who, even if they propose compatibility, do so to buy time for plotting, gaining strength, and committing crimes or overthrowing the system’s foundation.

Challenges in Engaging with Judaism

Thus, in interfaith dialogue, one cannot naively trust Judaism, particularly as it often considers itself racially distinct, unless there emerges an individual among them who is independently truth-seeking and free-thinking. However, the emergence of such a figure within a community tightly knit in worldly ambition and steadfast in the arrogant belief that they are God’s exclusive children and of His race is unlikely to carry weight. A single flower, lacking the requisite power and quality, cannot bring about the spring of peace and compatibility.

Dialogue among Abrahamic religions, particularly at the level of religious leaders and especially through understanding between preeminent scholars and deeply rooted theorists of the two major religions of Islam and Christianity, can normatively lead to compatibility, peaceful coexistence, and the resolution of tensions in a sincere and untainted atmosphere. Mere dialogue and interaction among ordinary adherents or purely academic figures, which lack prevailing influence, cannot quell religious belligerence.

Common Essence of Religions

In comparative, adaptive, and interfaith studies, it must be recognized that religions share a common essence and origin, all calling to God. Religions do not inherently conflict, although, due to differences in time, place, conditions, and the exigencies related to the personalities of prophets and their followers, they occasionally abrogate certain rulings. However, the immutable laws of divine codes, which are based on the essence of subjects without the interference of contingent, mutable, or perishable factors, are preserved in the undistorted teachings of all religions and are accepted even by adherents of non-religions and miscreants. All of humanity is duty-bound before divine religion, whose rulings possess natural and real criteria. All share fundamental obligations, though their content and structure vary according to the perfection of the prophet, eras, and communities.

For instance, oppression, lying, sexual sins, and the consumption of intoxicating alcoholic beverages are prohibited and condemned by all divine prophets. The Qur’an states:

“And do not incline toward those who do wrong, lest the Fire touch you, and you have no protectors other than Allah, nor would you be helped.” (Qur’an, Hud 11:113)

In all religions, following belief in God, faith in the resurrection and afterlife, prophethood, divine scriptures, the necessity of righteous deeds, and commitment to certain rituals are present. Physical purification and some form of ablution (wudu or ghusl), prayer or fasting, and abstention from all or certain foods are common across religions. Likewise, lawful marriage and the permissibility of matrimonial bonds according to communal traditions are recognized, with each religion considering its customary union as the official marital bond. Each community, through its religious and cultural traditions, transcends mere cohabitation, accepting commitments based on those traditions, thus forming a lawful and legitimate marriage.

It is noteworthy that the content of prayer in past religions resembled hymns, whereas in Islam, due to the resilience of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his community, it has attained a profoundly intricate and elevated form.

Building Consensus Through Shared Beliefs

To achieve agreement and peaceful, secure, and non-hostile interaction among religions, it is necessary to begin with the commonalities accepted among religions, recognizing the fundamental, homologous beliefs and undeniable shared elements. These documented and scientifically substantiated commonalities, free from the self-centeredness and monologue of religious custodians, should form the basis of scholarly discourse for mutual understanding, discerning the temperament and ethos of religion, and fostering faith in this divine ethos.

Roots of Religious Discord

Humans, by their nature, are inherently inclined toward affinity and convergence, with no innate enmity, hatred, or discord among them, though they differ in degrees, and no two individuals are identical. Divine religions, originating from a single source—God Almighty—express shared truths in their pristine essence and are unified. However, due to the divine intermediary, community, and era, they differ in degree, not in truth.

All divine religions possess a natural and real direction of unity, which is the objective and tangible content of divine revelation. This unity is not achieved through artificial synthesis or eclectic interfaith amalgamation but is the result of the intrinsic and real convergence within religions. To the extent that they partake in existential truths, their permanence is essential and inherent.

The natural differentiation among valid and true religions primarily stems from the natural distinctions in the personalities of prophets, the disposition of religious sages, and the degree of their faith, authority, and strength in monotheism, which also encompasses the temporal and spatial conditions of their communities. Therefore, religions naturally differ but do not inherently conflict. It is the ignorant, fanatical, rigid, narrow-minded followers, ensnared by multiplicity and particularly by the deceit and charlatans of religion, who transform natural differences into contrived disputes, leading to fragmentation, sophistic multiplicity, conflict, and incompatibility, turning the natural gradations of religions into fabricated and constructed hierarchies.

Deceit and religious charlatans inflict far greater harm on religion and religiosity than the world of infidelity and polytheism, cloaking true religion in the vilest stigmas and crimes, thereby defaming it. Even in such cases, if convergence is necessary to promote magnanimity, free-thinking, truth-seeking, or the general welfare of people, the conventional directions of religions that facilitate truth-seeking, general religiosity, or the worldly interests of people serve as temporary points of commonality, understanding, and agreement, particularly with free-thinkers and Christianity. However, such conventional unity is never permanent and will dissolve when the center of interests shifts.

The Role of Prophetic Virtues in Religious Perfection

The virtues and varying degrees of divine prophets, stemming from their radiant disposition, divine precedence, guardianship, and luminosity, as well as their faith, imbue religions with varying degrees of truth and perfection. However, only the final religion possesses completeness and totality. I have discussed the nature and manner of the finality of religion and faith in my book Knowledge and Divine Humanity.

All adherents of religions claim the finality of their faith. This belief, particularly when misunderstood, is a significant factor in denying other religions and fostering interfaith discord.

Today, religious communities live in accordance with the stature of their religious leaders, the teachings of their sacred texts, and the faith and ethics of their prophets. Atheistic societies, conversely, bear the ignominy of irreligiosity, occupying a vastly inferior position compared to societies with divine prophets. Deception, betrayal, and dishonor in interactions and communications among irreligious individuals are the prevailing norms.

The Evolutionary Nature of Divine Religion

Just as humans are subject to development and growth, divine religion is also an evolving entity endowed with growth. With the advancement of prophets, political communities, and cultural groups, the innate religion and faith of these entities are elevated. Divine prophets, being human, are subject to a process of development, growth, intensification, and hierarchical virtues in a non-linear manner (not in a strictly chronological or ascending progression of perfection), governed by the following principle:

“Those messengers—We favored some over others.” (Qur’an, Al-Baqarah 2:253)

As the Qur’an considers all divine prophets to possess varying degrees of truth and hierarchical virtues without negating their truths, it deems faith in their essential truth, adherence to them, and belief in their specific degrees and virtues necessary. Living religions must, through dialogue, formally recognize each other and, in their discussions, strive for the survival of all religions, which lies in the eternity of their true virtues, scientific perfections, and commitment to research concerning the sages and sagacity of religion. This is not about proving one’s own righteousness or enforcing an exclusivist policy of “this and nothing else, only us and not others.” As Martin Buber (1878–1965) articulated:

“If Israel assumes no duty beyond the obligation to preserve and affirm itself for its own sake, it is doomed to extinction.”

This statement applies equally to religions isolated from other faiths. In the words of the Qur’an, divine prophets must be seen as interconnected and unified in a collective system to sustain the framework of faith and religiosity:

“The Messenger has believed in what was revealed to him from his Lord, and [so have] the believers. All of them have believed in Allah and His angels and His Books and His messengers, [saying], ‘We make no distinction between any of His messengers.’ And they say, ‘We hear and we obey. [We seek] Your forgiveness, our Lord, and to You is the [final] destination.’ Allah does not charge a soul except [with that within] its capacity. It will have [the consequence of] what [good] it has gained, and it will bear [the consequence of] what [evil] it has earned. ‘Our Lord, do not impose blame upon us if we have forgotten or erred. Our Lord, and lay not upon us a burden like that which You laid upon those before us. Our Lord, and burden us not with that which we have no ability to bear. And pardon us; and forgive us; and have mercy upon us. You are our protector, so give us victory over the disbelieving people.’” (Qur’an, Al-Baqarah 2:285–286)

Other Factors of Religious Discord

Another factor contributing to dispute, conflict, and belligerence among religions is the satanic machinations and temptations of devils. The Qur’an states:

“And indeed, the devils induce their allies to dispute with you; and if you obey them, you would indeed be polytheists.” (Qur’an, Al-An’am 6:121)

To this list must be added psychological issues and the deliberate strategy of sowing discord and the colonial policy of “divide and conquer,” which will be discussed later.

Among the instances of contrived and systematic discord in religion is opposition to the sage, rebellion against the legitimate imam, obstruction of the qualified wise religious leader, boycotting and prohibiting his activities—either softly and peacefully with public announcements or harshly through violent actions, systemic aggression, and collective confrontation aimed at overthrowing or weakening him, asserting one’s own claim to his scholarly and religious position, or gradually or abruptly distorting, transforming, or altering the core beliefs of his religion.

An example of this is termed “baghy” (rebellion) in Islamic terminology, when opposition and fragmentation exceed mere expression of dissenting opinions and take on external application. The root of baghy may be envy of divinely bestowed wisdom or granted revelation through the religious intermediary. The Qur’an states:

“And if two factions among the believers should fight, then make settlement between the two. But if one of them oppresses the other, then fight against the one that oppresses until it returns to the ordinance of Allah. And if it returns, then make settlement between them in justice and act justly. Indeed, Allah loves those who act justly. The believers are but brothers, so make settlement between your brothers. And fear Allah that you may receive mercy.” (Qur’an, Al-Hujurat 49:9–10)

This noble verse outlines the prohibition and cessation of war under all circumstances, the obligation of all parties involved to engage in dialogue and negotiation to achieve peace and tolerance, and the necessity of systematic efforts to create conditions for reconciliation, avoiding any malicious intent or misconduct, violence, and adhering practically to respecting each other’s rights with just arbitration and refraining from violence and practicing forbearance. However, war, even with complete authority and even initial just strikes, is sometimes unavoidable to preserve survival and ensure safety, security, and peace against predatory wolves and autocratic figures who create survival conflicts and duels of death.

The phrase “make settlement between them” indicates that efforts toward reconciliation among parties are not conditional on upholding justice or fulfilling all legitimate expectations of the involved parties; the priority is agreement and peace, even if not fully just and even if not all legitimate demands are met.

Freedom, Choice, and the Nature of the World

Another factor contributing to discord and fragmentation is the possession of freedom and choice and the contingent nature of the worldly system. Voluntary and chosen religiosity is unique to this world and the material realm. The world, in its collective capacity, is the most qualitative of created realms. Voluntary faith, infidelity, polytheism, and hypocrisy operate contingently in this world and within the limited lived experience of human life, with an eternity-shaping quality. Given the voluntary and contingent nature of all factors in the material realm, including religiosity and the decision to engage in dialogue, discord and separation are inseparable from the world. No dialogue can definitively eliminate discord; rather, a constructive dialogue brings the parties closer to satisfying their interests with relative contentment.

Religious Superstition

One of the most significant roots of religious discord and a fundamental challenge for all religions is their susceptibility to deceit, charlatanism (the antithesis of religion), and systematic, organized distortions by self-serving and malevolent groups, deviations, accretions, and superstitions throughout history and its countless events.

No rational or wise person accepts accretions or superstitions, and superstition is a clear indication of weak rationality and feeble reasoning. A rational, superstition-free, and unadulterated narrative of religion, and a standard, methodical, and logical interpretation, can only be achieved through living divine saints and sagacious figures authorized to proclaim religion. A religion not transmitted through sages and living saints becomes tainted with the accretions and fabrications of deceitful figures, ceasing to be a true and epistemological religion and inevitably becoming superstition-laden.

Religions with fewer sages in their history or those where deceitful figures have marginalized and suppressed religious sages are more prone to accretions and superstitions. Traditional religions have all been tainted and afflicted by dominant deceit. This very contamination drives enlightened minds and radiant hearts to react and turn away from these religions. Contaminated religions, if they become governmental, institutionalized, and hereditary, become the worst agents of anti-religiosity. The world of domination and colonialism, wherever it seeks to bring a religion to decline, establishes religious deceit to dominate, ensuring that religious superstitions repel everyone from religion. In such cases, deceitful religion is compelled to transform into a secular and worldly religion, or, by divine will, a divine sage raises the banner of reform, establishing a sagacious and divinely inspired religion over deceitful religion. Only in this way does contemporary religion and faith regain divine vitality and light, emerging from the obscurity of personal conviction and the private domain of sages to manifest publicly, gaining widespread acceptance, majority societal embrace, and becoming the dominant religious sphere.

Superstitions, particularly the systematic fabrications of religious deceit, are the most significant factor in religious discord. If religions are purged of superstitions, they can achieve thoughtful coexistence and semantic proximity. The disparagement, criticism, and overthrow of a religion are directly correlated with proving its superstitious nature. Superstition is a fabricated, constructed, and false narrative designed to alleviate suffering.

Superstition, in the sense of corrupt yet appealing, pleasing, and delightful speech, is akin to myths, legends, and exaggerated short stories that are neither reasonable, scientific, nor truthful in theory and are predominantly harmful in practice and effect, except in therapeutic contexts. The technical term “religious superstition” refers to testimony and claims, typically organized, based on undocumented revelation, illogical and unjustified beliefs or practices, or beliefs and practices whose truth, goodness, or harm are unproven, indescribable, astonishing, mythical, and unreal, yet believed by the superficial adherent. This internal sentiment, particularly concerning the influence of metaphysical realms and semantic phenomena, generates irrational fear and doubt in the superficial adherent when abandoning such beliefs, destabilizing their illusory and temporary sense of security.

Religious superstitions render religion superficial, debased, lacking necessary and sufficient scientific inquiry, expertise, logical coherence, and rationality, presenting it as illusory, ignorant, confused, chaotic, and discredited—directly opposing and killing the purpose and essence of religion. Religion, whose mission is guidance, enlightenment, and the explication of realities and truths, stands in opposition to superstitions, innovations, and superficial or literalist interpretations of religion.

Religious superstition leads to weak religiosity, widespread religious aversion, and anti-religiosity among the enlightened. Consequently, religion’s adversaries exert their greatest efforts to inject superstitions and innovations into religion to pave the way for its downfall and the eradication of its derived values.

Sources of Religious Accretions

Religious accretions arise either from the influence and infiltration of foreign cultures, the politicking of malevolent or fraudulent profiteers, or from ignorance, lack of awareness, weakness, laxity, and neglect in scholarship and research, insufficient effort, and lack of necessary striving by religious custodians, or from misunderstandings and unmethodical interpretations. Superstitions are neither provable nor substantiated through science and reason nor supported by proper religious and revelatory evidence. Here, superstition is defined in accordance with scientific understanding and a commitment to research.

When the essence of religion, faith, belief, and the rationale and purpose of religious rulings are not researched and explicated in a competitive and alien scholarly environment, the source becomes muddied, opaque, and filled with baseless and chaotic superstitions.

A religion tainted with narrative superstitions whose origins are obscure, whose sources are unclear, whose reality lacks evidence, and which is not provable but is institutionalized and considered religious becomes purified, clear, and trustworthy only through upholding freedom, religious free-thinking, creating a space for religious critique based on revelation, strengthening faith in God and divine sources of guidance and enlightenment, mental resilience against the dark assaults of malevolent critics, and scientific examination, laboratory testing, and a return to rational and philosophical analysis and logical description under the guidance of a sacred sage or divine saint.

Religious superstitions are so pervasive and infiltrating that, like unchecked weeds in an unpruned garden, they dominate the orchard of religions with audacity and recklessness. In a contradictory interaction with religion, they impose incorrect and false propositions, presumed certain, and become entrenched and institutionalized, dominating religion. If superstitions gain social power and prevail over religion and its adherents, they consign true religion to obscurity and punishment, defaming it and presenting it as deviant, harming and threatening the security of the true, divinely inspired religious scholar and sage.

Religion’s Opposition to Superstition

Religion stands in opposition to superstition. As much as religion fosters security, superstition undermines it. As I defined religion: the purpose of religion and faith is the pleasure of the One God, the attainment of legal legitimacy, and human security. Human security encompasses tangible protection against danger, a sense of safety and mental immunity, freedom from doubt through trust in personal knowledge and insights, and the fulfillment of physical and spiritual human needs. Superstitions target tangible security, mental immunity, and trust and faith, undermining all aspects of security because they are in direct conflict with religion. Security-destroying superstitions replace religious truths with pleasurable sedatives of myths, inverted, transformed, and distorted realities to provide illusory reassurance and temporary escape from the insecurity felt by superstition adherents through fabricated facades.

Rigidity and eclecticism are two superstition-generating, distorting, and deviating factors in religion. Rigidity and lack of mental flexibility stem from obstinacy and mental contraction, while eclecticism arises from self-centeredness, particularly greed and ambition.

Superstitions degrade the scientific culture of religion into futility, superficial literalism, regression, rigidity, dogmatism, reactionism, eclecticism, innovation, and anomalies, becoming a tool to oppose God, revelation, prophets, religion, and divine values in the name of God, serving the interests of superstition narrators. Superstitions conflict with science, philosophy, knowledge, and religion, and a religion tainted by them inevitably requires reform and a struggle against accretions. Otherwise, coexistence with religious superstitions will render a religious society—lacking truths—hollow, weak, helpless, and weary, draining its spirit of joy, vitality, and life.

Religion, viewed broadly without specifying a particular denomination, is afflicted by various superstitions, akin to ancient sciences. A religion saturated with superstitions ceases to be religion and becomes superstition itself. If it gains dominant discourse, it not only fails to bring development and progress but becomes a major obstacle to all values, science, philosophy, and culture, destroying the opportunity for civilization-building.