On the culture of life and the culture of death
“I have set before you life and death, so choose life.”
The recent war has once again demonstrated clearly that the ideology of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and, at their forefront, Khomeini’s Iran, is an ideology of death and destruction. Their culture is a destructive one that shows no regard for the tragedies it causes or the innocent victims who fall as a result of their reckless actions.
They raise their children to believe that dying for their distorted version of Islam and the Abrahamic faiths is a noble goal. They send their youth to the battlefields of death and destruction, using distorted verses, hadiths, and religious teachings as justification. In doing so, they deprive them of a happy life and a prosperous future, exacting a heavy toll on their own society and on others.
While Islam emphasizes the sanctity of life and the necessity of protecting it, these extremist groups contradict the spirit of Islamic law. They strip themselves of humanity and brutally take lives in a manner that contradicts the teachings of all religions.
This is the culture of death, which devalues human life and sacrifices it under the guise of hollow slogans that carry no real meaning, such as “jihad,” “establishing the caliphate,” “the Islamic State in Palestine and the Levant,” and statements like, “We love martyrdom as much as you love life,” and so on.
All of this is done to serve the interests and ambitions of these groups for dominance and power. This upbringing produces a mentality that considers the killing of innocents, kidnapping, rape, and desecration of bodies as permissible and justified, as we witnessed on October 7th. Thus, these agents of death commit crimes not only against their victims but also against their youth whose minds have been brainwashed and incited to carry out such atrocities.
Moreover, this culture leads only to backwardness, poverty, and despair, especially after it fails to achieve its illusory goals. Unfortunately, these groups have not learned from their past failures and continue to drag generation after generation into the trap of their senseless adventures.
On the other hand, the culture of life emphasizes the sanctity of life and the obligation to preserve it, prohibiting the unjust taking of life. As stated in the Quran: “Whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land – it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one – it is as if he had saved mankind entirely” (Al-Ma’idah 5:32). And in Surah Al-Isra: “And do not kill the soul which Allah has forbidden, except by right” (17:33).
In the Bible, the Lord commanded the children of Israel to choose life:
“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses, I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19).
This verse makes it clear that life is a blessing and death is a curse. Although the Lord has granted humans the freedom to choose, as inferred from the verse, He has urged them to choose life. Life, metaphorically, means living in peace, working towards development, prosperity, and building, while death, metaphorically, signifies ruin, destruction, stagnation, and decay.
The Sixth Commandment of the Ten Commandments, given by the Lord to Moses , is succinctly stated: “You shall not kill.”
Therefore, humans must choose life and defend it. In the Torah, killing is absolutely prohibited except in specific, necessary cases, such as self-defense.
In Jewish prayers, the Torah is described as the “Torah of Life,” meaning it was revealed to guide humans to live according to its teachings and to organize life in a way that is beneficial and not burdensome.
Thus, we see that nations and states that have embraced the path of life and adhered to these commandments are generally prosperous and advanced societies where people live in safety, dignity, and abundance. In contrast, those nations, states, and groups that have chosen the path of death have brought nothing but ruin and destruction upon themselves. Although they may temporarily succeed in seizing territories and subjugating peoples, their end is inevitable annihilation, as seen with Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and others.
We also observe that when these nations decided to reject the culture of death and embrace the culture of life, they became some of the most advanced and prosperous societies on Earth.
It is my hope that these nations will serve as a model and lesson for the younger generations in Arab and Islamic countries, so they may free themselves from the mentality of death and destruction and adopt a culture of life and prosperity.