This has reference to Aijaz Zaka Syed’s “Needed a new road map for Muslim renaissance,” Arab News (April 28) that says “We have reduced our faith to a set of rituals and customs just like any other dogma.” This epitomizes the sad situation we are in; but the remedy also lies in that single line.

Muslims all around the world believe in the same dogma of their religion, but when rituals and customs gain importance over the basics we see the weakening of the unity and solidarity that Islam has so stressed on.

The aim of this great religion is to free human beings from greed, fear and ignorance which are the basis of all corruption. Unfortunately the same social evils have pervaded in the lives of the Muslims.

Mushrooming of organizations in the name of Islam (and also in the name of the founders of the organizations) is a tragedy, as these organizations instead of primarily serving the interests of Islam, behave like political entities fighting for supremacy.

Though the article envisages a universal outlook, I like to draw the attention of the readers to the tiny Indian state of Kerala. A Muslim accepts himself as the slave of the Almighty the Creator, thus freeing himself from the slavery of everything that is created, but we find the followers of this religion becoming defenders of their organizational leaders, enslaving them to the whims, wishes and the will of the organizational leaders rather than to the will of the Creator. Different organizations subscribing to their respective schools of thought in Kerala have set up their own madrassas and mosques, thus creating divisions among them instead of being brothers in faith.

Picture this in global context and we find a similar situation. And, we find the answer to all the chaos in the Muslim community and the strife in Islamic world. — A.S. Ansar, Jeddah