Friday Sermon by: Alban Fejza, Online Congregation Director

Summary:

In this Friday sermon, Alban Fejza compares the nine characteristics of a great nation from Appendix 36 of the Authorized English Version of the Quran with the positions of the political left and right, finds a tie, and concludes that the only truly good party is the party of God (5:56).

Video Transcript:

Praise be to God. There is no other god except God.

As soon as we start talking about politics, what you might notice with the majority of people is that they tend to support one side of a political issue or a political idea, or maybe support a political party. But who’s right? Let’s take the US as an example. You have two main political parties: the right, or the Republicans, and the left, or the Democrats. Who’s right? To determine that, I’m going to play a game. Let’s put the right on this side, and let’s put the left on this side.

Now, I have a book here. It’s titled “Quran: The Final Testament, Authorized English Version with Arabic Text,” translated from the original by Rashad Khalifa, Ph.D. In this book, the author has added some appendices which are important for the modern world. They are basically summaries of some important issues. They are not a complete story, but they are very nice summaries.

One of those appendices is Appendix 36. It’s titled “What Price a Great Nation.” Basically, this appendix summarizes the main points which a nation should support in order to be a prosperous nation, or in order to win. The author has tried to summarize the politics of the Quran in nine points. What I’m going to do is play a game where I try to see which of these points are promoted by the left and which are promoted by the right, and see which one wins. Does the left win, or does the right win? So let’s start.

Point one is about maximum freedom for the people: freedom of religion, of expression, to travel, and of the economy. This sounds like a point which is promoted by the right. One point for the right.

Point two is about guaranteed human rights for all people, regardless of race, color, creed, social status, financial situation or political affiliation. This sounds like the left, like the Democrats.

Point three is about prosperity for all, through the constant circulation of wealth and productive investment, without non-productive practices such as gambling, lotteries and high-interest loans. This sounds like the right.

Point four is about social justice for all: because of the obligatory charity, no one goes hungry or unsheltered. Social justice sounds like the left.

Point five is about a political system based on unanimous consensus, reached through mutual consultation and freedom of expression, rather than a 51 percent majority overruling a 49 percent minority. Actually, this does not sound like the left or the right, because it promotes a way of making decisions by both parties at the same time. Neither the left nor the right gets a point here.

Point six is about a society that maintains the highest standards of moral behavior, with strong families, and without alcoholism, illicit drugs, illegitimate pregnancies or abortion. This sounds like the right.

Point seven is about maximum regard for people’s lives and properties, so that there is no crime against them. This is questionable, because both parties support the protection of lives. But when it comes to the protection of properties, I think the right promotes it more. So this sounds like the right.

Point eight is about love, courtesy, peace and mutual respect among the people, and between the nation and other world communities. This sounds like the left.

Point nine is about environmental protection, through conservation and the prohibition of wasteful practices. This sounds like the left.

So if we look at this simple way of summarizing the politics in the Quran, we end up with four points for the left, four points for the right, and one point that does not fit the right or the left. Basically, we have a tie. So according to a simple analysis of this book, we can say that both the right and the left have values which are supported by the Quran. What I just showed you is that both political parties in the United States are equally correct. They are equally supported by the Quran.

If we do the same analysis with other countries, it might be more complicated, because usually they have more than two political parties, but we will pretty much reach the same conclusion. And the question is: why, in democracies, do you always end up with political parties which are equally correct and equally wrong? This is because the system is set up in such a way that any political party which has more good in it than bad will not get voted in, and if any political party has more bad in it than good, it’s not going to get voted in either.

This is because the struggle between good and bad in this world is in equilibrium. Of course, there are more bad people than good people in this world, but the good people are willing to fight harder. They are willing to give up their finances or their lives to achieve a good goal, while the bad people are not willing to fight as hard. They will not give their finances or their lives to achieve a bad goal. So even though the bad people are more in number, the good people are willing to fight harder, and this puts the world in perfect equilibrium.

This means that the world is not going to get better or worse. From the time of Adam until the end of the world, the world is in a constant struggle. It’s not getting better, and it’s not getting worse. It’s getting more advanced; we have computers now, but that does not make our life better. Computers mean more social connections, for example, but they mean less family time, because to build this computer you have to work, and when you go to work, you have less family time. So basically, the world is not getting better or worse. It’s a constant struggle, and it’s staying the same. Satan is still the same Satan, and God is still the same God. So the solution to our problems does not exist in politics.

Is there a solution? By the way, there is a solution, and the solution is in the Quran. If we want to know which political party is correct, let me tell you which one. In chapter 5, verse 56, it says that those who ally themselves with God and His messenger, and those who believed, belong in the party of God; absolutely, they are the winners. So the only political party which is really good is the party of God. All the other parties are equally good and bad.

I’m not against them, and I don’t support them. I watch them as entertainment, but I don’t believe they will make my life better, and I don’t believe they will make my life worse. I do feel that a good party in this world actually does get excluded from a political system. However, I’m completely okay with it, because it also excludes the bad parties. The good people are excluded, but the bad people are also excluded, so at least we are safe. At least there’s no physical fighting.

That’s why democracies are usually more peaceful. They exclude the bad people and the good people. If you put a bad person and a good person together, they would fight. So if you exclude the bad people and you exclude the good people, you get a more peaceful society. This is not a good thing to do, and it is not a bad thing to do. This is just something which has happened. This is the modern world; this is how democracy works, and I’m okay with it. Again, I’m indifferent. I don’t care about official politics.

If good people can do anything good, they should try to do it outside of politics; not illegally, but outside of official politics. Because if you go inside official politics, you will have to acquire as many bad values as you have good values. You have to put yourself in a neutral position, and that’s the only way you can succeed in politics. But if you want to really succeed in life, you will have to be with God’s party.