People express their hopes for peace and prosperity through such celebrations. New Year’s celebrations are a positive attitude generated and developed as part of a universal culture.” Instead of delving into his remark that “new year celebrations have taken on a cultural meaning rather than a religious one” -- a pretentious argument -- let’s see if the term “universal” was used correctly.
The perspectives of each one of the three Abrahamic religions are different in regard to universality. Judaism is a tribe-specific religion according to which God granted supremacy to Jews. The proof of this supremacy is that their prophet was born “circumcised” and while other nations only witnessed the miracles of their prophets, the Israelites experienced the miracle of Moses, peace be upon him, in person by walking with him through the Dead Sea, whose waters divided when Moses struck the sea with his staff. The Torah and the religious doctrine of Judaism exalt the tribe, conferring domination and supremacy of this tribe over other nations (goyim). For this reason, Judaism is not universal -- it doesn’t try to communicate its doctrine to other nations. Conversely, Christianity is universal; Jesus, peace be upon him, sacrificed himself to save and redeem sinful mankind. Since the church is the body of Jesus, the only way to salvation is the church. Salvation is given through guidance and whether people want it or not, they “have to partake of this guidance (supper)” and they even “should be forced to partake of it” (Luke 14).
Islam, the recipient of the final divine revelation, the Quran, puts forth the argument that it is universal and demands to be regarded as such. However, Islam, unlike Christianity, doesn’t force people into the straight path and is not after universal prevalence. The meaning of universality in Islam is that “the door of its guidance and straight path” is ever open to all those willing to come in of their own free will. Those who have chosen to resort to the guidance door of Islam are “brothers and sisters in religion” and are each “an equal member of a single community” (ummah). Westerner and Easterner, black and white and rich and poor are all equal. The highest value is endowing oneself with piety in Islamic terms, which means being in awe of God, trying to be close to him and loving him unconditionally. The different colors and languages of races and nations are also the verses (ayah) of God; everybody can take part in this universal circle with their own different and authentic customs and traditions, ways of dress, cuisines, etc., as elements of richness. The Islamic community is like a blessed and beautiful garden endowed with flowers of so many different kinds and colors. Amidst this colorfulness, every single member of this huge community turns toward the same direction, or qiblah, while worshipping. This is unity in multiplicity. As we can observe in the history of Catholicism, a religion’s adoption of forcing people to partake of guidance as a principle renders the freedom of religion and conscience totally void, and such an approach to “universal guidance” gives birth to religious totalitarianism. The philosophy of illumination, contrary to Christianity, has installed “the universal mind” instead of the guidance of Catholicism and has developed totalitarian and repressive political structures to suppress and encompass the entire world within this universal mind. Whether fascist, communist or liberal, modern states have the goal of realizing a universe-wide prevalence like the Christian church.
Islam has never made such demands in this sense either in history or today. Although some Muslims, not the religion itself, have perceived and still perceive this principle in the most incorrect way possible, the religion itself can never be totalitarian or repressive. Therefore, in Islam the sign of a legitimate universality is the opening of the door to anyone. Historical Catholicism tried to force everyone to enter its door, Judaism has always kept it closed and modernism imitates Catholicism in a reverse manner and it, too, is trying to force everybody to enter its door.
Benzer Haberler 
