Islam is Not an Ideology

“All ideologies are idiotic, whether religious or political, for it is conceptual thinking, the conceptual word, which has so unfortunately divided man.” — Jiddu Krishnamurti

Recently, I was accused of holding to an “ideology” when I called out injustice in regards to Gaza.

It struck me as an interesting accusation — because in our modern world, “ideology” has become the category into which all serious conviction is forced. But is that really what Islam is? Or more to the point: is that what I’m doing when I insist that oppression is wrong?

What Is Ideology?

The word “ideology” belongs to the modern world. An ideology is not simply a belief, but a closed system. Liberalism, socialism, nationalism, capitalism — they all operate in the same way. They take a few key principles, simplify the messy chaos of human experience, and build a totalizing framework through which everything is filtered.

An ideology does not just explain; it mobilizes. It is designed to produce loyalty, slogans, and programs. It’s reactive — born of historical struggle, revolution, or resistance. At its core, ideology is a man-made system that turns thought into a weapon.

That is not necessarily always wrong — sometimes people need to organize, resist, and fight. But ideology remains fundamentally historical, provisional, and instrumental.

Islam as Dīn, Not Ideology

Islam, however, is something else. It is not a man-made program, but a revealed dīn (or way of seeing and a way of life). It is not historical invention, but timeless command. It governs worship, ethics, law, and spirituality; it does not belong to the realm of provisional human systems but to the eternal.

Where ideology is horizontal, Islam is vertical. Ideologies look outward — to organize power in the world. Islam looks upward — to God — and only then outward, shaping society in light of that transcendence.

The Qur’an says:

“Indeed, Allah commands you to render trusts to whom they are due and when you judge between people to judge with justice. Excellent is that which Allah instructs you.” (Qur’an 4:58)

Justice in Islam flows not from ideology but from revelation. It is an act of obedience to God, not a project of human engineering.

My Time as a Priest-Monk

This distinction is not something I only discovered after embracing Islam. As a Christian priest and monk, I lived within a tradition that was not ideological either. Monasticism was not a political project; it was an ascetic struggle toward God. The liturgy, the sacraments, the ascetic path — they were not about mobilization or power, but about sanctification.

Yet even there, we were not blind to injustice. The prophets thundered against the oppressors of their time. The Scripture which we lived by confronted hypocrisy, greed, and violence:

“Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people.” (Isaiah 10:1–2)

And again:

“Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors Him.” (Proverbs 14:31)

To denounce corruption or cruelty was not “ideology” — it was fidelity to God.

The continuity here is striking. Both in Christianity and Islam, calling out injustice is an act of fidelity, not partisanship. It is a refusal to let religion be flattened into mere rhetoric.

Where the Confusion Comes In

Of course, Islam can be treated as an ideology. We’ve all seen it reduced into a party slogan, a flag, or a bullet point in a manifesto. In those cases, Islam is flattened into one more “ism” alongside secular modern projects.

But that reduction is precisely the problem. When I write, when I speak, when I call out injustice, I am not working within an ideology. I am working within a dīn. My framework is not constructed by historical reaction but revealed by God, interpreted through centuries of scholarship, spirituality, and lived tradition.

Yes, Islam contains politics. Yes, it addresses society and governance. But politics in Islam is downstream of revelation. It is not the first principle; God is.

My Own Thought

In my own writings, I have tried to cut through the ideological fog. I critique both Left and Right not because I want another party or “ism,” but because I recognize the poverty of all such projects. My concern is not with rallying people around my own personal vision but with pointing back toward divine justice — toward a way of seeing the world that resists the reduction of human beings into secular categories and slogans.

When I say that oppression is wrong, it is not because I am a partisan of this or that ideology. It is because God is Just, and injustice is forbidden:

“And establish weight in justice and do not make deficient the balance.” (Qur’an 55:9)

If anything, I am anti-ideological. I write against the totalizing systems of modernity precisely because they are attempts to replace dīn with ideology. They flatten transcendence into politics. They reduce revelation to rhetoric.

All ideology, I have always deeply believed, is anti-human at its core.

The Distinction in a Line

• Ideology: A man-made system to mobilize people toward power.
• Islam: A divine path that calls people back to God and justice.
• Christian Monasticism/Tasawwuf ‘Sufism’: A divine struggle that sanctifies the heart while still calling out the hypocrisy of worldly power.

Accusing a believer of “ideology” for calling out injustice is like accusing a physician of “ideology” for treating a disease. What looks like politics in religion is, at its root, medicine for the soul and society.

And this is why the accusation misses the mark. I am not an ideologue. I am not selling one more “ism” in the marketplace of ideas. In my own path as a believing person — first in Christianity, now in Islam — I walk a road not of ideology, but rather one that demands truth, justice, and submission to God.

May every ideology find its rightful place — in the dustbin of history.

And may every striving for justice be rooted in its rightful place — in the striving for humanity built within the eternity of God.

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Thank you, and may God reward you! Glory to God for all things!