In modern society, there are very few who point out the unconscious seeping of materialism within society like Alija Izetbegovic does. He highlights a very deep and important concept in his book Islam between East and West that the modern society or rather, the Modern State, wants us humans to live in a utopian world which can never be attained. A world full of functioning people, a world where humans are valued according to their work and profession, and not according to their ideas and personality. A world where a man or woman has assigned ‘functions’ that they must do to live in that utopia; and the way to carry out those functions is also stated, leaving no space for the individual to flourish organically. In the modern world, a person's identity is his work, such that the work is glorified before his own name. Take for example: Anas, a young man, who prays and is kind with others, and he's a doctor too. The modern materialistic world will ignore everything about Anas and only remember his profession i.e., a doctor, such that his new name will be Dr. Anas. There are many doctors, engineers and advocates in this society but there are few good humans. The modern world wants us to remember only the good ‘’function’ part while leaving everything aside, be it our humility, our ideas, our wishes and interests. It drags down an entire personality to a function and generalizes it with similar functions.
"There is no drama in a utopia and, vice versa, there is no utopia in a drama - that is, antagonism between man and the world or between an individual and society."
In Utopia where only the functional roles matter, the non-functional humans are discarded.
In Plato's Republic, we can read :
"A citizen should not be ill or on medical treatment because in this way he causes damage to the state. He should either work or die ... It is good therefore for a man who is ill for a long time or who has a sick posterity to commit suicide."
Man must follow the order, he must be a function that the State or society acknowledges or else he's just like garbage that should be thrown out. There is no freedom of thinking, no freedom of creativity, no space for flaws.
"The mechanism of a utopia is inhuman but perfect. If freedom is the essence of a drama, order and uniformity are the two essential things in a utopia."
The presence of these events in today's society is more than evident: limited freedom “in the interest of the society,” leadership cults, social oppression, abolition of family and parental relationships, art at the service of the state, Darwinian selection, euthanasia, social (not family) education, the superiority of the state over the individual, the acceptance of technical progress, the equality of sexes in the social division of labor, property leveling, voluntary mass physical labor due to financial crisis, competitive work lifestyles, collectivism, dull monotonous routines, and so on.
Utopia wants uniformity, it needs uniformity. There should be no individuality and no autonomy on anyone's part. What should be the point of difference between two men? His profession and name? So what if both are doctors and named Anas, what's the difference then? Nothing. The modern society doesn't even let one develop something that makes them different from the masses, the whole state has a fixed syllabus, and the doctors and engineers are all going through the same chapters and concepts together. So, the universities produce hundreds of engineers and the only difference among them are their names, batch numbers and roll numbers. If something mismatches and two people with the same name and the same batch get exactly the same roll number, the identities of both vanish. One cannot differentiate because there isn't anything to differentiate. How can you differentiate when the functional roles are the same and there isn't anything that differentiates them? In modern society only robots with functions exist, with no space for flaws and rest, all looking the same way and doing the same thing.
"Science will help to create completely identical human beings, human beings “in copies”. They will have no personality, but they will have “optimal properties” instead."
Utopia doesn't have moral questions simply because it doesn't have morality, it only has functions.
In his barracks, a soldier has all his basic needs satisfied: dwelling, food, clothes, and work. We find order, safety, discipline, hygiene, and even some kind of equality or uniformity here. Most of us will nevertheless agree that barracks, with all their "benefits,” represent the worst prototype of a society possible. Societies are being built nowadays that are nothing but huge barracks, or are very close to being so. Beautiful slogans that ornate them change little or nothing of their essence.
"Humanism and morality are connected to the name of man, to the human "calling." A member of a society or an inhabitant of a utopia is not a man in the true meaning of the term; he is a "social animal" or an "animal endowed with reason." Man has morality or immorality; a member of a utopian society has only function."
The modern world is shaping itself into this utopian concept where man is reduced to function and all his identity is that function only.
The marriage arena is a good example. In today’s marriage arena, everyone is trying to marry as rich as possible, which is why it is strongly shaped by material considerations rather than humane aspects. People won't give their daughters to a human but to a function. An engineer, a doctor, a lawyer all these are functional roles in a society. An engineer doesn't have interests or hobbies, an engineer doesn't like or dislike, he just works because that's his function. A man has interests or hobbies, likes and dislikes. Fathers will easily hand out their daughters to a good function but not to a good man, an excellent doctor but not to a respectful man. They see the functions first and the man second. The salary first and the qualities second. How do they then wish for a happy marriage when they marry their daughters off to a function? A function will provide but to love and protect is for the man. "If you don't earn this much, you're not eligible for marriage", how can a human earn? It's Allah Who provides, one can only try to work hard. For man is to work and for God is to provide. How can a man get money? He can just try hard, he can only work. Allah is Ar Raziq and Ar Razzaq, how can a mere human provide?? A function does not have a soul, a man has a soul. Dowry deaths and extramarital affairs are on a rise, why? People are marrying their sisters and daughters to a soul-less function. Morality and religion is for the soul of a man, not for function. How can you ask a soulless function to treat anyone's daughter right? How can one imagine their sister being treated with respect by a soulless function? How can a doctor marry? It's the man who marries. The doctor can only treat, that's a function. An engineer builds, that's what he can do, that's a function. How can an engineer marry? It's not in the syllabus. It's not taught. Universities and schools produce good functions and good citizens but only mothers can bring up good men and good humans. ‘Functions’ are getting married nowadays and humans are told to become functions.
I would like to conclude by quoting Sir Alija -
"In utopia, the immense inner world of man is reduced to a fictitious auxiliary point. Since people have no soul - and that is the presumption of each utopia - there are no human or moral problems in Utopia. In it, people function; they do not live. They do not live because they have no freedom. A citizen has no character here; instead, he has the "psychology" which depends on his function in the labor process, that is, in the reproduction of his own life."
"Good and evil are meaningless to him. Not a single utopia, including the so-called scientific socialism, deals with moral questions. Utopia is beyond good and evil. Everything is a scheme."