Friday Sermon by: Alban Fejza, Online Congregation Director

Summary:

In this Friday sermon, Alban Fejza explains that some questions in the Quran are not merely rhetorical, and projects how much of human behavior will be forced globally by democracies in the coming centuries.

Video Transcript:

Praise be to God there is no other God except God. There are many verses in the Quran where God, instead of making a statement, he asks a question. And a lot of people understand these as rhetorical questions because the answers to those questions seem so obvious. For example, in verse 2:140, God asks, “Who is more evil than one who conceals a testimony he has learned from God?” The general message which people get from this seemingly rhetorical question is that the most evil are those who conceal a testimony from God. However, if God wanted to say that, he would have said that, but he didn’t. He purposely put it as a question because there are cases, probabilistically, where the answer to that question might be different. And we can show that this question might have a different answer because in verse 2:114, God asks, “Who are more evil than those who boycott God’s masjids where His name is commemorated and contribute to their desertion?” So then, which people are more evil? The ones who boycott masjids or the ones who conceal testimonies? See, God intentionally put these as questions because had he put them as statements, there are cases where they would not be true. But since there are cases where those statements would not be true, God rephrased that statement as a question so that we can easily imply what the answer could be in most cases, but also be aware that there might be exceptions, which is why it is phrased as a question. Now, in the same way, God in verse 4:97 tells us that at the moment of death of a disbeliever, the disbeliever will claim that he was forced to be a disbeliever by the society. And the response comes as a question. He will be asked, “Was God’s earth not spacious enough for you to emigrate therein?” So this is asked as a question because even though almost always it is true that God’s earth is spacious to emigrate therein when we are forced by others to do things which we do not want to do, there are circumstances and times and proportions when this is actually not true. And this is given in verse 3:28, which says that the the believers never ally themselves with the disbelievers except for those who are forced to do this to avoid persecution. And actually, because today the world is dominated by democracies, this makes it possible to measure the amount or proportion of this forcing. Here is how. See, unlike true kingdoms where the king has a will, democracies have no will of their own. They are just the average of the will of every individual in that population.

Now, given that individuals have separate wills, they cannot be made to have a common will except where they have an average compromising interest. And since the average will of the population is actually a compromise, and not the idea of any particular individual, then no one is interested to force that will except through payment. So, basically, democracies will not force anything more than what happens through payment. And to make that payment, they have to collect taxes. So, in conclusion, democracies do not force anything more than what the collected taxes allow. And given that we can know what proportion of the economy passes through the tax system, this automatically also tells us how much the actions of the people are forced. So, basically, the proportion of taxes in any particular government compared to its economy is also the proportion of actions which are forced among the people. Now, let’s take this analysis one step further. It is true that the governments of the world today have different tax levels. However, the difference in tax levels is actually just an illusion. Here is why. Here is a map of different countries today and their different total tax levels, which range from almost zero in the poorer countries to about 50% in the very rich countries.

However, what happens in reality is that the people from the poorer countries are willing to immigrate to the richer countries. And as a result, the demand for buying property and products in richer countries increases faster than the demand for property and products in poorer countries, which pushes the property and product prices in richer countries to increase faster. And as a result, the people who paid higher taxes in richer countries get recompensate for it through a higher increase in their wealth compared to the people who live in poorer countries. Now, this compensates for most of the difference in tax levels. And whatever is left comes to equilibrium through additional means. Like for example, the richer governments will force the poorer governments to bend to their will, which makes those poorer countries less democratic because it’s not the will of their people, and therefore the amount of force with the poorer countries implement on their own people is higher than their actual taxes. So basically, the people in poorer countries are being ruled by their plus a percentage of richer countries. This means that even though a person in a poor country might pay only 15% in taxes, for example, there is an additional, let’s say 10% force outside of taxes, which comes from the fact that the richer country also implements the will on him by forcing the poorer country to bend its will. So in conclusion, even though tax levels in different countries are different, because of immigration pressures from poorer countries to rich countries, and because of power pressures from rich countries to poor countries, this brings the force which is felt by individuals from world governments in each country at an equilibrium, which means that people of the world feel the force of all governments of the world equally, provided that the dominant government style are democracies, which is the case today. So in reality, there is an average global force which forces people to bend to its will, and because this force ultimately can come only through taxes, then we can measure this global forced behavior of people by simply measuring the global tax proportion compared to the whole global economy. And the global economy is measured by the global GDP, which for the year 2024 was about 100 trillion dollars. Now, the total amount of revenue which governments of all the world collected through taxes was about 25 trillion dollars. So, the global revenue to GDP ratio in 2024 was about 25%. So, this means that globally 25% of all the actions of the world were forced by governments. And because democratic governments are always as much evil as they are good, equally good and evil, which I explained in another video, that means that 25% of global actions are forced to be equally good and evil, effectively neutral. And you know what? It has gotten to the level of 25% by gradually increasing from the previous years, which has been enabled with technological progress. So, technology, not politics, is the only driver of global economic growth. This is not true for non-democratic single states, but when we talk about the democratic countries, and especially the whole world dominated by democracies, then economic progress happens only through technological progress, not through politics, only through technological progress, which then enables bigger governments to exist. And because technological progress is unavoidable globally, as we know from history, and also indirectly implied from verse 41:53 and a few other verses, then this means that the increase of government size in the future is also unavoidable. So, the governments will continue to increase from the level of 25% where they are now until they reach 100% due to the unavoidable increase in technology. But when will the governments reach 100% power? Or when will governments reach the level to force 100% of people’s actions. Well, because the Quran says that this world is a test, had the governments reached 100% before the end of the world, then the world would not be a test for us because all our actions would be forced by governments, and that would not be a test. The governments would make the decisions for us. So, the governments cannot reach 100% before the end of the world. On the other hand, the world can only end according to verse 10:24 when the earth is fully adorned, fully civilized, fully human humanly controlled, which can only happen if governments reach 100%. So, governments cannot reach 100% control before the end of the world, and they cannot reach 100% control after the end of the world, which means that they must reach 100% control exactly at the time of the end of the world. So, the governments will reach that 100% at that moment when the world ends. And we know that the world will end in 2280, which means that the governments will reach 100% power in the year 2280. Now, because we are talking about the whole world, then growth of the world governments can only be endogenous, which means that statistically it would be safe to forecast that the total of the world governments will increase by an equal percentage year over year with minor exceptions in a few years. So, we know that it is about 25% now, and we know that it will reach 100% in 2280, and we know that in the years in between the increase will be by approximately a similar percentage increase each year, and these three facts enable us to predict approximately every year between 2024 and 2280. So, here’s a table which shows what percentage of human behavior is forced globally by democracy during each year. So, this is a projection of what will happen. What the governments might say is happening in the future, that is a different thing. For example, the governments right now are actually hiding some taxes by naming them as car insurance, for example. So, things will very likely take different names by then. For example, the government will even control internet, and it will make people pay for the internet and call it internet subscription, or have many subscriptions for different channels within the internet. And even though the government might call them subscriptions, or insurances, or fees, or memberships, if the government makes them mandatory, they are actually taxes. So, when I say that taxes will reach 100% in the end of the world, I mean things which are really taxes, not necessarily what the government might call taxes. So, by taxes, I mean mandatory payments enforced by government rules, or government rules which force people to buy or sell things, which effectively would be as if though you are self-imposing a tax on yourself, on behalf of the government. So, regardless if the governments will admit that the prediction in this table has happened, this projection about how much of our behavior is forced by the global democratic governments is quite reliable. If you look at what governments do instead of what they say they do. So, what are the implications of this realization that the behavior of people will increasingly be forced behavior as we move towards the future? Well, first of all, it should humble us and not make us think that we are that special. Because we, the believers right now in 2024, are about 25% the same as the disbelievers. In other words, in 2024, the disbelievers of the world are 75% our enemies, and 25% our acquaintances. And the believers and disbelievers will become more and more similar in the future, as this table suggests. And the question is, how does this affect our organized aspects of religion?

Well, it does not affect the regular 2.5% zakat, which we have to give, because that is given from excess wealth. In a world where governments collect more taxes, that also means less wealth for the people, which means that the person will end up paying less zakat anyway. So, there is no need to make any adjustments there. It also does not affect the additional zakat, because that is calculated from net income, which is done after government taxes. However, the congregational directors of the future should make sure to let the people know that they can count their net income as income not only after taxes, but also after other mandatory government insurances or subscriptions or memberships or mandatory pensions and so on. Anything which is made mandatory by the government. Now, on the other hand, the aspect of religion which is affected by this table is the charity which the submitters have to pay for living with non-submitters. First of all, let me remind you that there is a charity which submitters have to pay if they live together with non-submitters, which is equal to 4 g of gold per year. But, because of for this year, for example, for 2024, submitters and non-submitters are 24% the same according to this table, then there should be a 25% discount in that payment. And the discount becomes bigger and bigger with each passing year. And the amount of that discount is basically these percentages here. So, for example, in the year 2152, the submitters who live with non-submitters, they are 50% excused to do that or 50% forced or 50% living with an acquaintance rather than an enemy. So, they get a 50% discount from their normal charity of 4 g of gold. Now, the other aspect of religion which is affected by this table is the 20% penalty zakat which submitters have to give when inheriting wealth from non-submitters. I explained this 20% in my video titled penalty zakat. In that video, I basically explained that submitters should give 20% of the net inheritance which they get from the death of their enemies, which is any non-submitter. However, from this table, we can see that they are not 100% our enemies. In the year 2024, for example, they were only 75% enemies, but 25% acquaintances. This means that for the year 2024, anyone who has to give penalties a cat for inheriting wealth after the death of a non-submitter, they should actually reduce that amount by 25%. So, basically, they get a 25% discount for the year 2024. Or if the year is, let’s say, 2111, then they should get a 40% discount, and so on. This table does not affect the 2.5% zakat or the additional zakat or the contact prayer or the obligatory fasting or the Hajj. As a matter of fact, this table is a good way to approximately predict when the Mahdi will come or when he should start the resistance. Because we simply have to watch when does the 2.5% zakat, together with the additional zakat, come into conflict with the government power. So, when will the government not leave enough money to its people so that they can give their due zakat, their due charity? So, we know that the regular zakat is 2.5%. If people during those times, approximately, are engaged in 50% mixed deeds, then that means that they also have to give a 3.25% zakat for their mixed deeds, which means that it will be necessary for those people to be left alone to spend 5.75% of their money in the cause of God. This means that if the government forces more than 94.25% of the behavior of the people, then the global government has not left enough freedom for the submitters to be submitters. And this 94.25% is reached around the year 2270 or about 10 years before the end of the world, give or take a few years due to the fact that this these percentages are best approximations and not absolute facts, anyway. So, God will send the final messenger, or the guide messenger, or as it is known in Arabic, the Mahdi, which in Arabic simply means the guided one, to guide the believers into enough religious freedom from the global technocracy. We said that time will be around 94.25% forceful. That technocracy will not be all bad. It will be slightly more than 50% bad, while the submitters will only be slightly more than 50% good at that time. But still, the struggle will be to protect that approximate final 5.75% of religious financial freedom, so that it can be used in the cause of God. So, basically, we the submitters have no problem if governments take our money, because after all the democratic governments are neither good and neither bad. But we do have a problem if governments take God’s money, the portion of money which we are obliged to set aside for God to make it to heaven. And this is also why Moses never asked Pharaoh to release the children of Israel from slavery for the sake of freedom itself. If you read the Bible, you can see that Moses asked Pharaoh only to release them from slavery so that they can go in the desert and worship God. So, in other words, Moses was not fighting for the freedom of his people, but for freedom of religion, freedom to be a submitter. And in the same way, we do not fight for freedom from today’s governments. We only fight for freedom to be a submitter, which today we still have, so there’s no need to fight for it. Only in the end times, the global technocracy or government will attempt to take freedom of religion away from us, which will make the resistance of the believers, together with the final messenger, the Mahdi, necessary.