By Munir Varraich, Sweden

It was assumed that the season for making forecasts for the year 2016 had ended on 31st December 2015. No, it continues.

While all eyes were focused on the Presidential Election campaign in the US, Saudi Arabia managed to add fuel to the volatile situation in the Middle East region. Without giving any second thought of repercussions, the Saudi government went ahead with the execution of death sentences 47 of “criminals”. Among them was a Saudi-born Shia cleric, Nimr al-Nimr.

The execution prompted widespread condemnation within the Arab world as well as other countries, the European Union and the United Nations; with protests being carried out in Iran, India, Pakistan and Turkey.

On 3rd January 2016, Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic relations with Iran, recalled the Saudiambassador and Saudi foreign minister said “All Iranian diplomats are to leave the country within 48 hours”. Other Gulf countries followed suit.

This incident, besides being a power play between two regional powers, Saudi Arabia and Iran, has sparked off the centuries’ old religious divide within the Islamic world. There might be a solution to their political and regional issues, however, dragging in religion in regional politics does not auger well for over one billion Muslims; many of whom are living in secular societies in Europe, Americas, Russia and China.

Such actions by the Saudi Monarch, the so called “Custodians of the Holy Cities” and the reactions of the clerics of Iran, send waves of “extremism” which affects the Muslim mindset everywhere; which in turn adds strength to the phenomenon of ISIS which has plagued the Middle East and the world at large. Consequently, this religious divide within the Muslim World has the potentiality of dragging in world powers – USA, Europe, Russia and China.

The fact that the world powers intervened and were able to pursue Saudi Arabia and Iran to tone down their sabre rattling is good news for the region. Their focus must remain to contain ISIS phenomenon and its fall out.

However, the world powers, especially USA, Europe and Russia, must remember that an “idea” which has its roots in religion cannot be killed by material weapons. Worst still is the “idea” which has been distorted for more than a thousand years and is no more connectedwith the Source. In one of his letters to Karl Marx, Engels points out this great truth when hesays, “unless we have faith in the continuation of supra natural revelation, no religion can suffice to uplift a tottering society”.

Neither Saudi Arabia’s Sunni Islam nor Iran’s Shia Islam has “faith in the continuation of supra natural revelation”. To expect them to “uplift their tottering societies” is a far cry. And to expect such a religious mindset to use logic and rationality is asking for miracles. Unless, of course, their leaders adopt a secular approach in the affairs of the state.

It also needs to be understood that at various times of mankind’s history, a Divine Wave from Infinity reaches the shores of finite Time. And, as it ebbs, it imparts knowledge and wisdom, both material and spiritual, to humankind. The Divine Wave which reached the shores more than a fourteen hundred years ago with the advent of Islam, had ebbed more than three hundred years ago; spirituality, which is the essence of religion, vanished. Islam got disconnected with the Source, and the Muslim mindset got infested with bigotry ever since.

Will there be another Divine Wave which will wash the shores of the Latter Days? Or is it that the Divinity of the Wave is no more?

Arnold Toynbee in his masterly works “The West verses Islam” mentions about “superior religion” which gets born when the civilizations interact. That “superior religion” is the manifestation of the Divine Wave which sweeps the shores of Time.

Such a “superior religion” was born at the turn of nineteenth century, in 1880s, in India, when a man claimed to be the Reformer of this Age. He claimed to be a prophet and receive revelations from a living God. Thus according to Engels, his “superior religion” “had faith in the continuation of supra natural revelation” and consequently “could suffice to uplift a tottering society”, not only of the Muslims but also of humankind.

However, the Muslim world, both Sunni and Shia, have declared the Reformer’s followers, The Ahmadiyya, as heretics, thereby closing the Muslim mindset to any new ideas and knowledge, neither materially nor spiritually, which might be present in the Divine Wave.

As for those who live in secular societies, whether in the west or the east, their mindsets have benefited from this Divine Wave, which carries in it the seeds of future knowledge and wisdom for humankind.

It is hoped that secular leadership of world powers will make use of this wisdom and avoid being roped into the quagmire of the world of “distorted religions”, whether in the Middle East or any other region.