Humanity's affliction and the cause of its tragedy under the modern

materialistic culture stems from the crisis of thought, the

ideological loss, together with confused concepts and ideas, which

impose weird attitudes, limiting outlook toward things around and

rigidly defining fellowmen and society in an absurd manner.

If a researcher or an analyst casts a passing glance at the nature

and appearance of the social, economic and psychological conditions in

the contemporary ignorant materialistic culture, he will immediately

recognize the tragic pictures of human sufferings, injustice,

suppression, loss and deprivation in this complex civilization.

By tracing the origin of these social, psychological and intellectual

catastrophes to their historical roots, one may realize that these are

strongly linked to the superstitious attitudes of the history of

ignorance on this planet. They draw a sketch whose lines passing

across the dimension of the times of ignorance and cutting through the

vacuum of the contemporary period, form the biggest circle of

mankind's cultural confusion and loss, both mentally and spiritually.

They illustrate a disfigured image whose inborn nature has been

polluted, and whose life has deviated from the law of human nature and

the path of righteousness and justice. 

The figure emerges of a confused personality, devoid of any

humanistic values and concepts and unable to cultivate or express its

true identity and its sound innate self.

From these concepts of distorted values and relations, stemming from

the depths of the history of ignorance and pouring into the basin of

the modern materialistic culture, the deviated theories about man.

woman, sex, family life, social relations, etc. have been formed.

The history of these concepts, values and relations presents a tragic

picture of humanity and its brutal behavior that offends the very

law of life, contrary to man's innate nature, miserably degrading the

woman to a position which does not suit her natural self and upsets

the social balance and the equation of man-woman relations.

Woman, thus, is greatly suffering from the misery of the modern

society, being maltreated by man and inhumane social laws. This has

been ever so since the primitive times up to the present modern

materialistic civilization. These man-made laws and cultures have

always viewed woman as a commercial commodity in life, a means of

pleasure, a prisoner who has no freedom and a creature who enjoys no

human merits that have been bestowed on man. Actually, she is

considered a source of evil in this world, a cause of sin, and a filth

from which one needs to purify oneself.

Historically speaking, woman has been exploited. In the past

civilizations like that of the Greeks and the Romans, she was deprived

of her civil rights and was subjected to maltreatment by her father,

brothers and her husband who only regarded her as a heavy burden, a

means of pleasure or a slave to toil.

According to Jewish concepts, deviated from the original laws of

Moses, she was looked upon as a cause of sin. The myth goes even

further, saying it was the woman who caused Adam to sin and be driven

out of paradise. The Torah - the fabricated Torah of the Jews - says:

Under this Jewish misinterpretation of the divine religion of Moses,

woman is regarded as an inheritable property. The Old Testament says:

sons, his widow called `Yabamah' in Judaic terminology should

immediately become the wife to his next surviving brother whether she

likes it or not, and he has to provide for her and inherits her when

she dies.

We reproduce here for the benefit of our readers, the following from

the Old Testament:

Article No. 36 of the Jewish Personal law confirms this fact. It

says: If a man dies without sons, and if he has a full, or a

consanguineous brother, his widow is regarded as the lawful wife of

that brother. She becomes unlawful to other than him as long as he

lives, unless he releases her.

Furthermore, this religion of the Jews, allows a poor father to sell

his daughter like a slave, in order to relieve himself from misery.

In short. this distorted religion degrades the status of women and

looks upon girls as saleable commodity.

If we take a look at the Arabian society during the period of

Ignorance before Islam, it also presents a sad picture of the bitter

tragedy from which woman suffered. The Arabs used to regard woman as a

shame, and hated her existence because they feared disgrace and the

consequences of her captivity. An Arab would rather not have a female

born to him. and if born, he would not see her face. Hate and spite

overwhelmed the souls of those cruel men to such an extent that some

of them babies started walking and playing around.

As a result of this absurd and ignorant way of thinking, woman became

a commodity or a property in the ignorant Arabian society, to the

limit of allowing a son to marry his stepmothers. The Glorious Qur'an

illustrates this horrible picture of Arab Jahiliyyah, denouncing all

its customs, attitudes and thoughts about women.

As regards the concepts of the Christian Church, they are a queer

admixture of Jewish ideas and the pagan Roman state. The Church's

attitude towards woman is explicitly explained opinion of Christianity

A noted Christian scholar, says the following about woman:

Thus, it was natural the growth of the European modern materialistic

culture to react and reject these savage, mythical and backward Jewish

and Christian concepts which for centuries had ruled the thoughts of

peoples of Europe, America and other places.

So, naturally, these misconstrued theories about sex and woman, and

her relationship to man, life and civilization, fell to pieces and

materialistic Europe consequently had to formulate its own theories to

fill the resulting vacuum. It based them on the Greek and Roman

cultural heritage on one hand, and the result of a counter-action

against woman's tragic position under the inherited concepts, laws and

values of distorted Judaism and Christianity, on the other. But sadly,

this modern theory, though calling for the destruction of those false

mythical concepts, and voicing the slogan of liberty and woman's

emancipation, actually fell a prey to its own pleasure-seeking

conscience.

This materialistic concept of pleasure, sex, enjoyment and

instinctive pursuits, advocated by the modern European culture

distorted woman's status, the concept of sex and the relationship

among man, woman and life, causing more harm than the fossil

ecclesiastic concepts and the remnants of Jewish thought. Under this

modern culture, the woman was dipped deeper into the filth of

degradation, and the claws of social tragedy tightened closer around

her neck. This trend did not give her any chance to get out of the

calamity of contempt, servitude and the state of despising her own

humanity, and she plunged herself into the anarchy of wanton

enjoyment, loss of values and the pains of family and psychological

sufferings, imposed upon her by this sick and decaying culture. In a

way, as if trying to escape from the frying pan she fell into the fire

itself.

Thus, by analyzing the status of woman in Europe, America, Japan,

Russia and other parts of the world affected by this materialistic

current, one sees tragic and painful results. At the same time, we

realize that the civilization of this ignorant man is finally going to

collapse, as its caravan stumbles on rock upon rock while passing

through the deserts of loss and stray. We recognize it to be a

repetition of what had been experienced by the past ignorant nations,

whose misery has been described by the Qur'an:

The Holy Qur'an (9: 69)

Despite the claims of this culture about woman's emancipation, rights

and equality, the problems of woman, sex and her relationship with man

and society have become more complex and dangerous, threatening the

happiness of not the family alone but the society as a whole.

Actually, such claims have become the cause of woman's misery,

destroying her human nature. Figures and statistics come out everyday

with terrifying and painful facts, warning of an incoming destruction,

that forces the contemporary man to reconsider his understandings and

concepts about sex, man, woman and social relations.

In order to place before the reader a testimony a testimony backed by

statistics and figures obtained from relevant studies, here are some

examples that speak of the terrible pictures of loss and tragedy under

the modern materialistic culture, concerning family problems, such as

divorce, adultery, illegitimate children and the misery of the family

life of the contemporary man and woman.

"Al-Qabas" newspaper in its issue of 11-7-1979, reported that:

"12,713 housewives had fled their houses during the year before in

Japan, on and average of 35 housewives a day. The Japanese Police

disclosed these figures on Mother's Day, as a result of demands by

children and husbands looking for their absconding mothers and

housewives. Most of those disappearances were caused by family

disputes, cruelty of husbands and the like, the police said.

The number of housewives who elope with other men, deserting their

husbands and children, is on the increase. The police also added that

400 housewives deserted their homes because of debts."

Dr. Homer, a Swede, when asked by the United Nations to study the

status of women in Arab countries in 1975, announced: "It is the

Swedish woman who should demand her freedom, as the woman in the Arab

countries has already reached the peak of her freedom under Islam".

She added "the Swedish woman tries these days to have this year

announced as `The International Year of the Woman', and then declare

another year for the man, so that he may extract his rights from the

woman."

Dr. Homer continues in her report: "25% of Swedish women suffer from

psychological and nervous sicknesses, and 40% of Sweden's income is

spent on these diseases caused by the so-called freedom which the

Swedish woman attained and which she is practicing. In fact the

tragedy of the Swedish edge of such a terrifying and perilous

precipice."

Premarital pregnancies are at epidemic proportion in the U.S. where

adultery runs rampant. Homosexual and bisexual men and women often

openly express their sexual preferences.

With unwanted pregnancy comes the moral question of abortion - taking

the life of an unborn child.

Sexually transmissible diseases have become a world-wide horror.

A recent study reported by Associated Press showed: Four out of every

five single American women in their 20s have had sex. One in three had

lived with a man out of wedlock. One third of all these women had been

pregnant at least once, and 40% of those who became pregnant had an

abortion."

Those statistics seem to be symptomatic of the nation if not most of

the Western World.

Husbands and wives are too often unfaithful to their marriage vows.

Children learn this lack of values from parents and the cycle is

perpetuated. So once again we are faced with another problem

unsolvable at the human level.

In another report disclosing the human tragedy under the

materialistic culture, the American Association for Family Services

says: the disintegration of the family, which has reached an epidemic

stage, tops the list of social problems. Every year more than one

million persons are separated of divorced, which is seven fold higher

in percentage compared with that of a century ago.

Another report says: The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

reports that in murder cases within families, the husbands are mostly

the murderers of their wives; and in 15% of family crimes the children

are the victims of their parents.

According to recent statistics released by UNESCO, 60% of the

housewives in the U.S.A. and Europe feel discontented, disappointed, and

miserable.

In the U.S. 6,500 people are divorced each day, in other words well

over a million each year.

Recent surveys show that between 21 and 43 percent of married women

in U.S. have committed adultery.

Juvenile crime and violence has increased since World War II in the

U.S. In 1950 1 out of 8 serious crimes were committed by youths under

18 years but in recent years the figures has soared to 2 out of every

8. Youth suicide is on the increase, children are neglected.

Between 1900 and 1985 in the U.S., the divorce rate increased by 70%.

Today one out of every 3 marriages (1 out of 2 in many large cities)

ends in divorce or separation. Illegitimate births among certain

segments of society is over 50%.

The West and other non-Islamic societies continue to produce

illegitimate children in great proportions. Wife-beating, run away

children, parent beating, child abuse, broken marriages are rampant in

such societies.

A report concerning divorce cases in the U.K.

The October 1985 issue of Woman's World has disclosed the following

startling facts which prove the decadence of non-Muslim societies:

-1 in every 6 children born in U.K. in 1984 was illegitimate.

- A poll conducted for woman married 5 to 15 years showed that 2 out

of 5 women admitted having an extra-marital affair.

- A poll at a high school for girls showed that three quarters of the

girls did not want to marry at all and preferred sex without marriage.

- The number of this year, compared to the same period last year. The

Home Office disclosed that a total of 780 rapes occurred in England and

Wales alone, compared to the official figure of 613 in the first half

of 1984.

- According to a leading psychologist of the National Children's Home,

1 in every 5 British children suffers from sexual or physical abuse.

Blaming the epidemic on the breakdown of family life, he said that the

children were abused by their step-fathers or their mother's live-in

lovers.

- A national survey conducted by an educational psychologist

indicated that as many as 1 in every 10 adults in the U.K. were

sexually abused during childhood.

Still another report says: "Nine out of 12 girls in Britain are

subjected to rape and kidnapping."

The British News Agency `Reuter' in its dispatch of December, 3,

1985, said an average of 4 children a week are killed in Britain by

their parents or guardians, according to the National Society for the

Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC). Saying that the problem is

far more serious than anyone realizes, a spokesman for the NSPCC

disclosed the horrible figure of 200 children dying each year from

parental abuse and besides every two weeks a child is slain in Britain

by strangers or other relatives.

Council registers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were found

to list a total of 30,000 child victims of abuse, representing an

increase of more than 5,000 new cases discovered in the past two

years.

The figures were revealed by Brian Roycroft, leader of the

Association of Social Service Directors at a judicial inquiry into

child abuse in Cleveland, Northern England. He said that the rise was

even higher that 22 percent in some areas and described the situation

in Cleveland as "alarming." the numbers showed significant increases

in regions where separate statistics were kept for sexual offences

against children, he pointed out.

The breakdown of family stability in Britain which has dramatically

increased the numbers of unmarried mothers, of unmarried people living

together and people living alone, is much to blame for these social

ills.

According to new figures published by the U.K. Government on Jan. 14,

1988, the percentage of illegitimate births has soared from 4 percent

in the 1950s to 21 percent of all births in 1986. Only Denmark with 43

percent has a higher rate in Europe.

The statistics of social trends confirm that Britain has the highest

divorce rate in Europe and nearly twice the rate in France and West

Germany.

Between 1979 and 1985, it was found that the proportion of people

cohabiting without marriage nearly doubled. Some 15 percent of all

single women between the age of 18 and 49, and including many

divorced, were illicitly cohabiting in 1985.

The breakdown in family life has also seen a rapid rise in people

living alone. Nearly 25 percent of all households contained only one

person in 1986 compared with an average 10 persons in 1951.

The way the woman is treated in the western countries who claim to be

the champions of freedom and equality is evident from the

International Meeting on Women and Mass Media held at Athens, Greece,

November 20. 1985.

One of the participants, Petra Kelly, a member of the West German

Parliament bitterly complained. "In Germany they treat us like a

minority, equal to invalids, the lower strata of society and like

children. They portray us pornographically and consider using violence

against us as natural. Every 15 minutes one woman is a victim of

rape."

The Meet urged the Greek Parliament to pass a law banning

exploitation of women on the TV. Though criticisms of the

exploitation of women is fully justified, the women of these so called

advanced countries are themselves to be blamed. If women did not

consent there will be no pornographic publications, sex films and nude

advertisements.

Turning to the east, we find the decadence of society, in the

communist world equally shocking. The Magazine, `Interphase' in its

April 1977 issue reports:

"The grave problem of the Soviet communist society is that, out of

every two marriages one ends in divorce in most parts of Western

Russia. In Moscow, for example, nearly 49% of the marriages ended in

divorce, after the birth of the first child. In the Mavadansk region

the percentage of divorce is as high as 72.9 percent. The Physicians'

Conference held at Moscow University in 1975 called for urgent measures

to tackle this grave social problem, concerning the high divorce rate

It is evident from the report that according to the latest

statistics. the number of Muslims in the Soviet Union have been

increasing at a rate much higher than the usual population growth,

while, at the same time the birth rate in non-Islamic regions of the

Soviet Union is falling lower, a fact which is worrying the Russians.

The reports and statistics confirm that all attempts to separate the

Muslims from Islam have come to naught, and that the Islamic spirit

has shown unprecedented growth, and the underground Islamic movements

have started to grow and spread out.

The demonstrations held in the streets of Baku, the capital of Soviet

Azerbaijan, after the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, are a

proof of the Islamic resurgence in Soviet Union, as also the sympathy

shown for Afghan Mujahidin fighting against the Russian-imposed

communist regime in Kabul. Moreover there have been frequent reports

of desertion by Muslim soldiers from the occupying Soviet army in

Afghanistan.

It is possible that this increase in the Muslim population was

responsible for the recent principal amendment of the Soviet

Constitution which formerly allowed the so-called autonomous Republics

under Russian colonial control to withdraw from the Union on the basis

of self-government. The Soviets fear that the Muslims in the Soviet

Union may become a majority by the end of this century.

Thus, by analyzing the above facts, we discover the significance of

the political and social connections in the Islamic system which

exercise a deep influence on the life of Muslims. We also realize the

importance of the Islamic family system in positively effecting the

lives of the Muslims, even if it is not strictly adhered to.

The following statistics reveal how alarming the family breakdown

epidemic has become in non-Muslim societies: 

One in four marriages ends in divorce; in cities the rate may be 50

percent. Each year 600,000 couples marry, 100,000 choose to live

together without marriage and 100,000 divorce. 

Almost 40 percent of first marriages end in divorce. The divorce rate

doubled between 1972 and 1982.

About 70 percent of marriages will break up in 10 years, according to

Moskovskaya Pravda. Factors involved include drunkenness, lack of

money and lack of privacy.

The UNESCO Courier stated that single-parent families are often

created by women migrating to the cities and having children in a

series of unstable unions. Due to alcohol abuse or the inability of

husbands to find adequate work locally, the family breaks up and

mothers and children are left in poverty. The nations with the highest

percentages of illegitimate births in the world are in the Caribbean

and in Central and South America.

Although China's divorce rate is lower than most Western nations, it

has risen 70 percent in five years. The Peking Review reported that

"the divorce rate" is rising dramatically.

The divorce rate in the U.K. is the highest in Western Europe. Nearly

one in seven single women age 18 to 49 lives with a man she has not

married.

Half the marriages this will probably end in divorce. Sixty percent

of the children born this year will spend part of their childhood in a

single-parent family.

The divorce rate has doubled in the past 20 years. Before 1947, men

were allowed to evict their wives into the streets with only a short

note of divorcement. Now, about 70 percent of divorce cases are

initiated by women.

Going back to the analysis and evaluation of the sexual relations,

and woman's status and position under the European materialistic

culture, we realize that not only did it ruin society and family life

through divorce, illegitimate children, abortion, rape, misery,

frustration, increase of juvenile delinquency…etc., but actually this evil plague even affected physical health of both man and

woman, because of the disordered, abnormal and beastly sexual

relations practiced by both sexes, under the patronage of this

declining culture of ignorance.

Reports of physicians, health institutes and other relevant

statistics testify what has been said, and give warning signs.

Below are some examples:

Dr. Lirbete, a French physician, reports that, "In France 0,000

people die every year from diverse venereal diseases as a result of

adultery.

Abul A'la la-Mawdudi, in his book "Al-Hijab" (The Veil) writes, "...It

is estimated that 90% of the US population are afflicted with venereal

diseases."

The Encyclopaedia Britannica mentions that in 650 government

hospitals in U.K. 100,000 patients are treated for syphilis and

another 160,000 for gonorrhea.

But the figures fade into insignificance, when compared with the

private clinics who treat and estimated 61% syphilis patients and 89%

gonorrhea! it adds.

Furthermore, some 30 to 40 thousand children in the U.S. die from

inherited venereal diseases every year. Reliable sources say that at

least 60% of the youth population, irrespective of singles or married

are afflicted with gonorrhea. Venereologists stress that 75% of women

that undergo venereal operation are found to be infected with venereal

diseases.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated there are between

30 million and 50 million cases of venereal syphilis in the world and

more than 150 million cases of gonorrhea infection. Director-general

of the WHO, Halfdon Mahler, estimates there may be 10 million carriers

of the AIDs virus in the world's population.

During the 1960s gonococcus organisms because increasingly drug

resistant. Then during the 1970s genital herpes swiftly cut through

the sexually permissive.

But the most infectious sexual disease threatening the very

foundations of Western society is the recently discovered disease

called AIDS, which is forcing people to reconsider man, woman and

sexual relations. It is spreading like wild fire especially in th U.S.

where millions are believed to be afflicted. No cure has yet been

found for this dangerous disease, the result of promiscuity and

homosexuality. The victim after loosing all bodily resistance dies

miserable lingering death.

In the West in the 1980s, AIDS, caused by the HTLV-3 virus, swept

first through homosexual ranks. It was then spread by bisexuals to

heterosexuals, who in turn spread it to their mates or partners.

W.H.O. has recorded 73,747 cases of AIDS but at least twice this

number is thought to be more accurate and that up to 10 million may be

infected by the virus, which can take up top five years to develop.

The worst affected is the United States which has 49,700 cases with

other hard-hit countries well behind with France reporting 2,500

cases, Uganda and Brazil with 2,300 each, Tanzania with 1,600, West

Germany 1,500, Canada 1,400 and Britain 1,200.

An analysis of the British figures shows that the overwhelming

majority of cases, 1,032, are among homosexual and bisexual males and

from which 577 have died. Most of the other sufferers have contracted

the disease as blood recipients or through sharing infected needles.

The epidemic has caused a reversal of opinion about homosexuality in

Britain, which was legalized among consenting adults over 20 years ago.

In a poll by Harris for Britain's commercial television channel in

1987,43 percent were now found to disapprove the law while in 1985

only 27 percent had said that they disagreed with the unnatural law.

The number of people suffering from AIDS disease has more than

doubled in Britain during the past year, according to figures released

by the Health Department in January 1988.

The figures show that at least five people everyday are becoming

infected with the fatal virus and each day someone is dying of it.

The Health Department recorded 32 sufferers dying from AIDS last

month, bringing the total of deaths to 679 out of a total of 1,227

known cases.

A total of 8,016 people are registered as HIV-positive carriers - an

increase of 459 in the past three months - but the real extent of the

epidemic is unknown.

Some researchers believe that the true total of infected people could

be at least 50,000, with the overwhelming majority unaware because of

the years it takes in some cases, if at all, to develop the disease.

The figures confirm that AIDS is still a disease virtually confined

to homosexuals, where 84 percent of all cases are said to be

homosexual and bisexual men.

That is a brief account of woman's relations with man, and of family

life under these materialistic non-Islamic cultures, especially the

modern European culture, which has been driven to sexuality and

wantonness, justifying the resulting chaos through absurd

philosophization and sciences as claimed by their theorists, such as

Freud who explained man's human activity as entirely caused by sexual

motives. He considered human conduct, human civilization and all

innovations, tragedies, excitement and frustration, merely to be

different aspects of man's sexual instincts.

In his researches on diseases and psychological sickness, he

attributed them to sexual restraint, and demanded sexual freedom as

the only way to get rid of sexual repression and ailment.

But the scientific facts, statistics and figures recorded by the

concerned institutes, physicians' clinics and sanatoriums all confirm

that man's psychological crisis is aggravated, and the venereal

diseases are spreading more and more as the sexual liberties are

increasing.

According to the materialistic philosophy, in which the modern

ignorant culture believes, all sorts of sexual practices and

expressions are regarded lawful, however abnormal and deviated they

may be.

Thus, these ignorant materialistic cultures, with their absurd and

unnatural philosophies, theories and practices in respect to woman and

sex, have come to a calamitous stage seriously undermining their

civilization and way of life.