Why Has Every Religion Lost Its Way?

 

By Naseer Ahmed, New Age Islam

3 June 2025

Every religion today seems to have drifted from its true purpose: cultivating a virtuous and moral life. When stripped to their essence, all divinely revealed religions came to teach humanity how to rise above base instincts—those impulses that lead to injustice, selfishness, and cruelty—and instead live lives grounded in conscience, fairness, and self-restraint. The moral compass of religion has always pointed toward virtue.

But when power and control become more important than morality, virtue is the first casualty. This has happened in every religion. The greatest culprits are not the laity but the gatekeepers—priests, clergy, or religious functionaries—who have positioned themselves as the sole interpreters and enforcers of divine will. When moral living is central, their authority is limited. But when rituals, group identity, and theological orthodoxy take centre stage, these gatekeepers thrive, at the expense of truth and justice.

History is full of examples:

• In medieval Christianity, indulgences were sold and inquisitions were launched, not to uphold God’s justice but to maintain clerical dominance.
• In Hinduism, caste-based priesthoods solidified hierarchical control over spiritual life, even justifying social injustice.
• In Islamic history, the ulema class in various empires increasingly served rulers and sanctioned injustice, side lining the Quran’s moral imperatives for political expediency. Reformers like Abu Dharr al-Ghifari and later thinkers were ostracised or silenced for calling out this corruption.

It is no coincidence that those who tried to return religion to its moral roots have always been marginalised, declared heretical, or cast out. Genuine virtue is a threat to institutional power.

The Foundation: Belief in the Law-Giver

But this is not a call for secular humanism. Morality, to endure and bind society, must be grounded in something greater than cultural trends or subjective values. Belief in the Law-Giver—God—is essential, because it provides both the origin and accountability for moral law. Otherwise, the “law” becomes just another tool in the hands of the powerful.

The Quran refers to its guidance as Al-Furqan—the Criterion. This is not simply a list of rules, but the codification of moral clarity revealed by the One who knows human nature better than any philosopher or psychologist. True law is not arbitrary; it is a formal articulation of the moral path. When this codified moral law, rooted in divine wisdom, is ignored or distorted, the law itself becomes a source of oppression rather than justice.

The Real Cause of Division: Clerical Corruption

What divides us today is not God’s message but those who have corrupted it for gain. The deeper the corruption, the greater the need to draw dividing lines—sectarian splits, theological hair-splitting, excommunication of dissenters. To preserve their fiefdoms, corrupt religious leaders must declare all others infidels, heretics, or misguided.

Ironically, those entrusted with spreading virtue have become the fountainhead of moral decay. Whether it’s violent extremism in the name of religion, politicised fatwas, or caste-justified discrimination, the original purpose of divine law—to uphold justice and mercy—has been betrayed.

What Is the Way Forward?

Change will not come from these gatekeepers. It never has. It must come from the people—those who still believe in the Law-Giver and who understand that virtue is the heart of all true religion. When ordinary believers reclaim their moral agency and reject clerical manipulation, the authority of these corrupt intermediaries will vanish.

What can we do?

• Recenter our faith on moral action, not just ritual observance.
• Hold our religious leaders accountable to moral standards, not just theological credentials.
• Form communities where ethical living is the core, regardless of sectarian or doctrinal differences.
• Study divine scripture for ourselves, especially its moral principles, and insist on returning to Al-Furqan as the true measure of law and leadership.

Conclusion: Reclaiming the Moral Path of Religion

Let us move toward the true calling of every religion: to walk the path of virtue and justice, united under the God of all virtue. It is only when we reestablish moral living, grounded in belief in the Law-Giver, that religions will regain their lost meaning, and humanity can move toward unity, dignity, and peace.

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A frequent contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Naseer Ahmed is an Engineering graduate from IIT Kanpur and is an independent IT consultant after having served in both the Public and Private sector in responsible positions for over three decades. He has spent years studying Quran in-depth and made seminal contributions to its interpretation.

 

URL:    https://www.newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/religion-lost-way/d/135759

 

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