Today, our religious practices are no longer hidden. “premium experience package” has become a thing of the past: Gold Prayer Package, Platinium Umrah Tour, VIP Sacrifice Slaughter. Let us not be surprised if a “Monthly Sevap Subscription” comes out soon. Automatic payment instructions are given, and a “spiritual update” notification is dropped. Because it is no longer worship, sense of faith is being sold. Satisfaction is measured, not delivery. User experience, not moral depth.
We are looking for wisdom, but we find it in the format of reels; the maximum depth is thirty seconds. When the silence lasts too long, the algorithm deactivates and contemplation is deemed “unproductive”.
We are now postmodern dervishes. Our credit cards are our dhikr, shopping malls are our tekke, restaurants are our masjid. The old call to “discipline your soul” has turned into today's slogan of “reward yourself”. Perhaps this is why every bomb that falls in the Islamic geography creates only a slight vibration in our ergonomic armchairs. We turn the TV down a bit, stir the tea, and go on with our lives.
While we meticulously question the halal certificate of the food that falls on our plates, we are already leaving aside the halal-haram scales of the words that fall from our lips, the votes we cast, the interest relations we establish, the injustices we keep silent about. Faith has ceased to be a moral orientation the means of bodily pleasure and social capital and followers. The perception window of the soul looks at the number of “likes” and followers, not the conscience.
And here is the tragicomic symbol of this age: Fireproof shrouds.
Our plastic prostrations are as strong as our capital, our VIP slippers are certified. Prayers are filtered, intentions are statistical. The claims of “fireproof shrouds” circulating on the internet are just ordinary commercial products marketed with the promise of spiritual benefits. There is not a single scientific proof of its fire resistance, but demand is high. Because it is not fabric that is sold here; a sedated version of the fear of death.
The issue is not whether the shroud burns or not. It's about this:
Hoping that the shroud will not burn while the conscience burns.
Go through life with injustice, silence, compliance with power, but when you die, a technical product will save you. This is the epitome of modern religiosity: Transferring moral responsibility to objects, certificates and packages.
Religion has become a hollowed-out shell in recent years. We sanctify every experience and put the sacred on the table of experimentation. We secularize the sacred and sanctify the secular. We try to establish a new system of values by filtering faith through the filter of consumption, pleasure and spectacle. Then we look for peace... but it doesn't come.
It doesn't work because one should not be the gravedigger of one's own soul.
It doesn't work because the will should not become window dressing.
It doesn't work because we have even packaged our own apocalypse: labeled, campaigned, in installments.
Our prayer rugs are made of silk, our prostrations are made of plastic; our prayers have turned into postage stamps, our intentions are focused on “access” and “interaction”. Even the accounting of sins and answers has now been tabulated, reported and visualized.
Hz. Mevlana said, “Look inside yourself, don't look elsewhere.” We describe the inside through TikTok trends, influencer meditation packages and “purification in five steps” videos. Fiqh books are heavy; Gold Package formulas are more practical. The fireproof shroud does not satisfy the soul, VIP sacrifices do not soothe the conscience. Because the moral will, ethical compass and social responsibility have been deliberately disabled.
This decay is not individual; organized and systematic. Sects and congregations no longer produce only spirituality; logistics, outreach, employment and loyalty they produce. They distribute soup, run dormitories, establish companies, receive tenders and manage the media. Religion has ceased to be a moral call to an organizational commitment regime is transforming.
The Charity Industry: The Institutionalization of Compassion
At this point, we come across one of the most polished structures of the modern era: charity industry. Helping is no longer a virtue; it is an industry. Donation campaigns, sponsorships, PR videos, corporate social responsibility reports... Compassion is professionalized, conscience is outsourced.
The helper has to be visible. No camera, no charity. Silent charity is considered unproductive; unshared goodness is not included in statistics. Thus, charity ceases to be a practice that reduces poverty. a mechanism to manage poverty is transforming.
Poverty is not solved; it is made sustainable. Because if poverty ends, so does the charity industry. Therefore, the system does not empower the poor; makes the poor dependent. The one who receives help becomes indebted, the one who is indebted becomes silent, and the one who is silent obeys.
Politics of Charity: Gratitude Instead of Rights
The political version of the charity industry is politics of charityis. In this model that replaces the social state, there are no citizens; there are voters. There is no demand for rights; there is gratitude. Aid is offered not as a right but as a favor.
Politics of charity does not talk about justice; it praises patience. It does not question income distribution; it talks about fate. Those who criticize the system are considered “ungrateful” and those who remain silent are considered “acceptable”. Thus, religion ceases to be a morality that stands by the poor; it turns into an ideology that governs poverty.
The “endless soup” of the sects is one of the most symbolic examples of this politics. This soup fills the stomach, but at the same time blunts objection. The community does what the state should do, but not citizenship in return, obedience whether he wants it or not.
Over time, these structures become conglomerates. Foundations, associations, companies, schools, media organs... Faith is no longer in the heart; on the balance sheet wanders. Who believes what becomes irrelevant; who one is affiliated to becomes everything.
The political picture is completed here. Religiosity is reduced to a tool that manages voter behavior. While shopping at a halal-certified grocery store, political advertisements on the “balance between faith and the economy” are playing on the screen. Religion ceases to be a morality that limits power; it becomes a decoration that adorns power.
At this point humor no longer makes you laugh; hurts.
We pray in soft armchairs, take selfies on umrah tours, and share photos at VIP sacrifices. Postmodern dervishes struggle in this world that corporealizes the sacred and sanctifies the body. The soul is kneaded with commercialized experiences; worship is packaged; spirituality becomes a billboard.
But faith does not produce comfort; generates responsibility.
The sacred does not exist to comfort people; it exists to shake them.
The fireproof shroud is therefore a deception. Man is not made of fire; is evaded from accountability.
Perhaps the solution is to return to silence. To a prayer rug without pretense, a prayer without filters, a faith without marketing. Shrouds that do not burn will not save. Plastic prayer rugs, VIP slippers, certified products cannot save people. What will save is moral courage, ethical will and social responsibility.
Faith is too serious a business to be a package, a prestige object or a campaign. The sacred reduced to bodily pleasures leaves only an empty shell.
The soul has to relearn how to survive in the postmodern world. Otherwise, we will continue to console ourselves with gold packages, VIP tourism, the charity industry, the politics of charity, endless soups, non-burning shrouds and certified slippers on the soul graves we have dug with our own hands.