Hedonism in the Present

Prologue...
Few hundred years ago, there was a meeting between the Pharisees. Pharisees were the ones who had confronted Jesus’ teachings. They met and decided on how to deviate Jesus’ followers. At the end of that legendary meeting, a secret organization was formed. A society named *Freemasonry. This secret organization has been trying to pin Semitic religions down for a long time. At their early period of assault, they fought Christians and Muslims face to face. Later then, they collaborated with Christians in order to destroy Islam. One of their efforts was the Holy War. A massive war between the Crusaders and the Muslims. The war ended with a glorious victory led by Salahuddin Al Ayubi. The Muslims managed to conquer Jerusalem after 800 years. In the meantime, Freemasons learned their mistakes. King Philip, who was once held in captivity by the Muslims, presented his observations during his imprisonment to his people. He said Muslims were invulnerable in physical fights; as they loved to die as Christians loved to live. He said the only way to defeat Muslims is by making them forget their histories and far from their source of strength which is the Quran. Since then, a new kind of war has been engineered to attack Muslims.


-Introduction-
It has been almost 100 years since the Caliphate of Ottoman was tragically overthrown. The conspiracy was planned and executed by Western powers with the help of Turkish Masons. The tragedy brought grief and sorrow to all Muslims around the world. Since then, a new war had been massively waged on Muslims. A war that requires little fund, has a wide range of target, very hard to detect and causes a lot of damages. It is deadlier than biological weapon and much quicker to spread than viral assault. This new war is known as psychological war (Ghazwul Fikr). It has sacrificed many people’s faith and ideologies. Some become the opponents of their own ideology and faith while some destroy their own religion from within. Ideology is the main weapon of this war and one their foremost weapons is hedonism. Before we delve deeper, let us pay a visit to the past to study about the terminology of hedonism and its origin.

-Terminology and origin-
Terminologically, hedonism is derived from a Greek word ‘hedone’ which means sweetness, joy or delight. It refers to theories about the nature and functions of pleasure. Originally hedone was the sort of sweetness that could be appreciated by taste or smell; then hearing was involved; finally it was applied metaphorically to any pleasant sensation or emotion. Hedonism was popularized by Socrates’ student, Aristipus (433-355 BC). One day Socrates asked Aristipus what was the final goal of human life? Aristipus’ answer was to attain the highest pleasure is the purpose of life. Later this idea was developed by various schools of thought such as Democritus, Carvaka, and Cyrenaic schools. Democritus embraced the supreme goal of life ‘contentment’ which was to attain the highest joy and to abolish sorrow. While Carvakan philosophers claimed that pleasure should be the aim of living and there was nothing wrong with sensual indulgence. From its terminology and origin we can conclude that the very basic concept of hedonism is to hold pleasure as the only thing that is good for a person. It acts as a justification for evaluating actions in terms of pleasure and suffers.

-Relationship between Hedonism and Freemasonry-
Before I start to elaborate more on hedonism in the present, I would like to introduce to you the real culprit that had overthrown our Caliphate and their relationship with hedonism. Freemasonry is a secret society that moves underground and works together in order to fulfill their missions. Inside Freemasonry, there is an elite group that acts as the society’s mastermind called Illuminati. According to The Knights Templars by Harun Yahya, Illuminati executes their plans based on a principle, “Novus Ordo Seclorum” which means New Secular Order. The very basic ideology of Illuminati is secularism. If we study deeper there is a very close connection between secularism and hedonism. Secularism is a vast ideology that was built on five principles. Those five principles are Vetalism, Relative, Creativity, Hedonism and power of majority. Interesting enough to note that hedonism is one of the fundamental principles of secularism; an ideology that lies in the heart of every Illuminatus, an idea that promotes destruction of religion and theism.

-Purpose-
Hedonism is not originally a product of Freemasonry. It is only this flawed philosophy was manipulated, channeled and redirected to us. Hedonism has its influence mostly on youth. This group of age has become their main target for two reasons. Firstly, this group holds the majority voice of the community, more familiarly decides the 'public opinion'. Biologically, youth is the range of age where pleasure, satisfaction and self-gratification have the most influences. Any element that is equipped with these factors will be the main choice for youth. As youth holds the majority, hedonism is used to alter and direct the destination of a social system. Hedonism’s pure essence is youth’s effective catalyst which is pleasure.
Secondly, in order to make a community crumbles into pieces, new generation plays an important role. In a community, youth is the indicator of excellence in the future. If a community inherits a powerful young generation, the community soon will pave its way to success. But, if a community inherits a fearful young generation, the community will extinct. As mentioned earlier, hedonism is used to destroy Islam indirectly. Thus, young generation of Muslims must be infected in order to crush the whole system in the future.
In a nutshell, the purpose of hedonism is to destroy our youth. It is natural that new generation will replace the older one. Instead of facing this powerful group face to face, they use hedonism to distract our youth. In a long term, it is our religion that’ll be facing grave dangers. It is a clear-cut evidence that hedonism is used to destroy Islam.

-Mediums-
Hedonism works through small but effective mediums. This ideology mostly is relayed by the media. Basically media is a basic tool of communication that transmits and relays information to the society. Interesting enough, media is also a medium of hedonism. In a smaller scale, these mediums of hedonism are television (TV), music, and internet.
According to a research that was done by Focus Adolescent Service in 2004, about 83 percents of 20 TV shows contained porn pictures and 20 percent of it showed explicit sex scenes. In music aspect, 42 percent of popular lyrics contained sex elements and 19 percent of it described about sexual intercourse. It is clear enough that these mediums were manipulated to carry the messages of hedonism. It is a disastrous symphony in a cancerous melody that tunes the minds of our youth in a deteriorating way.
Besides TV shows and music, internet also plays the role in relaying hedonistic messages. Almost all of us use internet in our daily life. Internet provides undeniable services and helps in our life. Our globalized life will surely be put on a hiatus if internet stops working. Despite its importance, internet also acts as a medium to spread hedonism all around the world. Internet promotes pleasure to be attained as high as possible. With the existence of online-streaming programs, pleasure will be easily available to anyone from anywhere at anytime. Research conducted by the Internet Reviews 2006 shows a very stunning fact. There are around 4.2 millions websites with 372 millions pages which were registered as official porn sites.
As we can see almost everything around us is used to propagate these hedonistic ideas. Without doubt the most affected group is youth. TV, music, and internet are all manipulated for the same purpose.


-Effects-
Although modernization rate increases exponentially, our moral development seems deteriorating day by day. Is moral development inversely proportional to modernization rate? Hedonism has caused many problems to our society. Its effects pierced into the heart of ummah, tearing every potential teenager apart and leaving them strayed from the path. Thus, I would like to present some results from surveys that had been conducted by various agencies.
Some facts here may shock some people, but it is a reality that we have to face. According to Durex Sex Survey, Malaysian teenagers have their first sex around 19.3 to 20 years old on the average. I-Kon Berita Harian also reported another shocking result. Based on their survey, about 23 percent of teenagers in Kuala Lumpur have their first sex before the age of 15. This survey was reported on 30 July 2005 under Seks Luar Nikah. From these surveys, we can conclude that our youth are really thirst for sex. Beside sex, concerts and gigs that are held throughout the year also promote hedonistic cultures. Those who participate will be indulged in pleasure and will somehow find ways to gain more pleasures progressively. By then, more people will start using drugs and stimulants, more people will start drinking wine and beer, and more people will start embracing hedonism indirectly. Consequently, this social sickness will give birth to something darker. Ring a bell? Black Metal, tattoo, prostitution, ‘Mat Rempit’, sex party and many of them to be listed.
Without any doubt, this kind of culture will only reduce moral awareness and highlight individualistic values. It is a culture that encourages violence, selfishness, and self-gratification. If we observe carefully, we will know that hedonism will only make a person become more unstable. Correlation does imply causation. Rape, murder, pre-marital sex, drug addict, and suicide and its correlation with sex, pornography, wine, ecstasy, concert and any way to embrace hedonism prove that the latter is the causation of the former. This fact is undeniable. It is for us to see that hedonism brings only harmful effects to our society.

-Solutions-
Before I focus to the solution, I would like to re-engineer our understanding and explain why we are against this ideology. Islam does not reject every ideology that exists. Indeed, Islam treats it as a natural process as human mind produces personal view of life. As long as it does not against any value in Islam, it is acceptable. If then, why are we against this ideology?
Theologically, hedonism promotes freedom of thinking. On the surface this characteristic may appear normal, but when we look deeper we will find that hedonism encourages values that destroy religion to its very basic pillars. Hedonism encourages human to think and act in accordance to their free will without tied to any divine revelation or religious view. More specifically it encourages us not to follow our two important sources which are Al-Quran and Sunnah. This dangerous principle of hedonism went deep to the root of every religion and infected their followers to rebel against their own religions. Explicitly hedonism promotes values which are against every fundamental principle of religion.
Secondly, hedonism does not fit logically into human society. This argument was voiced out by many philosophers. Why? Hedonism is a doctrine that holds that pleasure is the highest good. Each person is different from one another. So do their kind of pleasures. Not everyone gains pleasure through wine and sex. I have an interesting thought experiment suggested by a philosopher to share. If a person gains his pleasure by killing people and another person gains his pleasure by raping girls, do these persons benefit the community? What could the community do if both of them acted based on hedonism? This example is often used to counter hedonism. It is a very strong argument to deny hedonism and its existence. While hedonism prefers individual pleasure, Islam offers the solution by preferring community’s well-being, interest, and security.
We have seen how bad its effects are, we have known the purpose behind this ideology, we have analyzed its mediums of propagation and we have discovered its relationship with Freemasonry. So what can we do in order to heal this social cancer?

Help one another in righteousness and piety, but do not help one another in sin and rancor
(Al-Ma’idah, 2)

From this verse, we know that cooperation and collaboration in doing good deeds are encouraged. Thus, before we start solving problems, let us learn to cooperate. By working together, we will produce more fruitful decisions and actions. A larger scope will be enveloped and a larger range will be covered.
Secondly, as mentioned by Ustaz Hasrizal(Saifulislam.com), apparent problems and real problems must be recognized. Social and moral collapses are the apparent problems. The real problem is the manipulation of propagation mediums. Those mediums must be then reconstructed in order to heal this social sickness. Most importantly, each of us must learn to lead a real Muslim life. Only by this way can produce a stronger and powerful generation that can resist these hedonistic waves. Each of us must learn to represent Islam to our community. In the midst of social deterioration, Islam offers the solution.

-Conclusion-
In this short essay, I have introduced hedonism from its historical aspect. I have elaborated its terminology. I also have related this ideology with Freemason’s ultimate objective which is secularism. Later I have revealed the true purpose of this ideology and the reasons why youth became their main target. I have listed their main mediums and presented its effects on our society. I have proven theologically and logically why hedonism is flawed. Lastly I have suggested my personal solutions to this problem. Thus, I hope from my little efforts I have illuminated some perspectives in viewing this issue and brought new insights in perceiving this problem. May God Bless All of us. Allahu Akbar!


*Freemasonry - their name wasn't Freemasonry yet at that time, only their movement was known. Official Freemasonry was official when the remnants of Knights Templars fled from Pope Clement's order and conquered mason's societies in the surrounding countries.

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"Salam..bila kita nak kena buat essay ni? Tak tampal apa-apa pun.."
"Eh...kau tak tahu ke? Lagi dua hari nak kena hantar..ni tajuk dia......."
"La..bijaknya..kata haritu akan ditampal..p mana benda tu?"
"Derang kata kena cabut dah..sebab...jadi derang bgtau aku..sorry terlambat bgtahu..lupa."
"Hmm...takpelah..okay je..tak sempat hantar, pujuk teacher hantar lambat sikit..hehe"

How dare you!! Last-minute notification!

I sent this a day after its deadline. Language Fun Fiesta and I represented my batch, IQRAC. Asked my friend to send it for me. Allah..really..miserable..imagine I only had a BM-BI dictionary besides me, and Quran Saintifik. No research, no internet(my Operamini went screwed), only my friends encouraging me. Alhamdulillah. I won the second place after all. 'Kegelabahan' paid well. Thanks to Him. It is just I really want to share what I know, about hedonism, in this organized essay so that you will also be at least in the same orbit with me. Fighting them, pace by pace. Ya Allah, I pray to you, please enrich every living or dying soul with iman, enlighten our path, crystallize our fikrah, mobilize our harakah, optimize our talents and potentials, and lastly illuminate our world, their world, THIS WHOLE WORLD!! with Your Light.. Ya Allah, Ya Nur..Fill our hearts with Your shining light, as you are the Light of the heaven and earth. Bless this whole world with your glorious light. Amin...


Footnotes.
I don't have the chance to refer anything while writing this essay, due to last minute notification. Only Quran Saintifik for the statistics and my memory for the whole. In case you want to know more about this, do read this book. Do let me know if any information in my essay were inaccurate or wrong. I would really appreciate your effort to help me to be a better Muslim. Syukran :)

1. The Knights Templars - Harun Yahya
2. Templars and Freemasons - Harun Yahya
3. Global Freemasonry - Harun Yahya
4. The Hand of Iblis - I don't remember the writer, but it is a white colored-covered book, written by a lecturer from ISTAQ, UIAM.
5. Gerakan Freemasonry - Hijjaz Records