Allah says in the Qur’an:
“Then is one to whom the evil of his deed has been made attractive so he considers it good [like one rightly guided]? For indeed, Allah sends astray whom He wills and guides whom He wills. So do not let yourself perish over them in regret. Indeed, Allah is Knowing of what they do.”
[35:8]
Allah describes in this ayah a mindset which has sadly taken over most of society these days. Acts of evil are made to seem like some sort of progress in making humanity better, moving our minds out of “close-minded religious thought”.
Let’s take women as an example. We have groups working towards banning the hijab in the West – women’s right to “not be ashamed of their bodies” and “oppression”. In their mind they’re working towards women’s liberation or rights yet when women are used as pieces of flesh in the advertising industry and media nobody says anything.
These causes are given attractive titles to make them more appealing. If we look back at recent history in the Vietnam war there were protests in the US against pictures of women and children suffering and villages being destroyed because in that time the media in Vietnam was transparent.
Now a similar tragedy is occuring in many countries around the world yet what we hear is “freedom of Afghanistan” and “freedom of Iraq”; soldiers “protecting their country”.
The same could be said for the Muslim world going to war against eachother and naming it “jihad for Allah”. This is in its own way a method of beautifying a horrible act and in turn beautifying it to the Muslim society.
This also applies on an individual scale – we see shamelessness being beautified everywhere even in schools and colleges. The people who back away from shameless acts such as zina and alcohol/drugs are treated as inferior to those who engage in them.
Then Allah reminds us that He sends astray whom He wills and guides whom He wills. This is why we see good people who see right through the nonsense being portrayed by the World and hold their desires back through the most tempting situations because at the end of the day Allah will guide those with pure hearts even if everyone turns against our Deen.
He then adds some advice to all of us – to not let it overwhelm us. “Tathhab nafsuk ‘alayhim hasarat” means that we shouldn’t let the grief over what’s happening in the world take over us to the point where that’s all life becomes – just venting over the tragedies and fitna around the world, all that is being talked about is how bad everything is.
The Deen is not against protests or speaking out or whatever it may be, but if these acts are not followed up by a concrete path of action then there’s a problem.
Indeed Allah is fully aware of what the wrongdoers. Everything is being written, every small act is recorded and will be dealt with true justice by Allah Himself. We as Muslims must guard ourselves from haram acts however appealing they may seem. If we let ourselves go down that rabbit whole of fitna it will be very difficult to crawl back out.
May Allah make us of those who beautify His Deen.
Allah knows best.