People find many examples presented in the old moralistic books very odd and it is hard for them to understand what they are talking about and be convinced by their arguments. The oddest of them are the ones about consumption and waste. Anyone who reads them will have difficulty comprehending the world around them and what it is like to live a simple life.

There is no need to even think about why it is like that: Humans discovered richness in the second half of this century, the world presented them with all its treasures and afterward, they started to question what wasting meant. In the past, everyone had to live penuriously like an ascetic because resources were limited, it was even hard to access the food necessary to sustain life and it was almost impossible to have a decent house. Poverty, diseases, and battles caused by unequal distribution of resources led to mass deaths, and the world was an unbearable place to live.

It was understandable when religions told people that they were banished from heaven and sent to the world. It must be a test on its own to endure life on Earth. The world was like a cage or a dungeon; while suffering was general, felicity was an exception. Don’t overestimate the nostalgia that people are having today. The old world is yearned and longed for by modern people and has become a utopia in our imagination today.

Nostalgias and praises for the past while living in the luxury of the modern world to the extent of wasting it are nothing but a spoiled attitude. Because centuries are experienced differently in different parts of the world, today; people who live as they did in olden times try to escape their world, while no other wants, to go there to live like in ancient times. Nostalgias are only for historical periods and do not have a down-to-earth motive.

Hunger engraved in the subconscious

What was experienced in the past was the opposite of nostalgia. People might have dreamt of the modern world with all its wealth and abundance as "the paradise" and they must have been working hard to have a life that can be labeled as "ordinary" in this era. In ancient times, a natural lifetime was short due to some direct factors such as diet, lack of health and hygiene products, and so on. For this reason, people envied and talked highly of kings or wealthy people, and it was regarded as a virtuous act to help the ones in need and share wealth with the less fortunate.

Of all the virtuous acts, sharing was assumed to be the greatest, which reflects the poverty and scarcity experienced at that time. In our society, it is notable that Abraham is remembered for his generosity and Ayyub for his patience. It seems as if life in ancient times was an endless discomfort in which you shared what you had and you endured when you didn’t.

We have mentioned that abundance is a new concept for human beings. So, people carrying traces of hunger engraved in their subconscious have attacked the resources of the world rapaciously and tried to forget their old habit of craving by consuming all that they could find. And soon, it has been clear that nature will not suffice for long if we do not change our behavior in relation to consumption. Today, air, water and soil have been polluted and destroyed; and as a result that the balance between nature and human beings has been ruined.

In ancient civilizations, nature was described as a mother and sometimes identified with sanctity or even with God. Today, our kinship with nature has been broken and we have lost touch with it; nature is no longer sacred, nor is it a mother. It is discussed whether it will be possible to live on Mars in the near future. This reminds me of the saying of The Prophet Muhammad, "If given a valley of gold, humans would ask for more." The age and the situation we live in justify this hadith: People could not be satisfied with the world; they ask for another and another. What lies behind space exploration is the hunger humankind has suffered for a long time.

Modern values shaped around ambition

There is no apparent reason or decisive authority that seems to have the potency to handle the problem of over-consumption, which has led to the conflict between humans and nature, or at least it does not seem probable in the near future. Besides, relatively religious or moralistic societies – fearing they might be "left behind" – have found themselves reasonable justifications to become a part of the consumption, if not the production. Especially the Muslim societies with similar justifications have felt that they must have their share in the production and, naturally, the consumption. In our age, anyone who avoids producing or consuming in any kind is not acknowledged as a real citizen or a partaker of the modern world.

The modern world has established its values, especially the freedom of humankind, upon consumption. It is stated to be one of the most common values that consumption offers is freedom. The modern world promises us that it will provide us with anything we can dream of, as it is an organization formed by experts who know our weaknesses the best. The idea that a person can become freer as he works, achieves, and consumes may seem convincing at first. However, we have started to realize that there is no end or consequence to this consumption; we have seen it, but still, we lack the justification that will persuade us to stop or show us the way.

The change in the static medieval world, moving slowly in balance and harmony, was initiated by very passionate figures with great ambitions. Explorations, scientific discoveries and inventions were achieved ambitiously by a particular generation. The modern world was established by these passionate people, and its values were shaped by them. Therefore, it would be only possible through great efforts to eliminate the problems created by such a world, especially overcoming the spiral of consumption. In other words, challenging the modern world would require more passion and ambition than the ones that brought it out. That is what the world lacks today. No one really thinks of consumption as a real threat, and no one believes that it will be the end of the world.

Today we make the mistake of analyzing the modern world and its problems by putting consumption at the center of discussion. The problems of the modern world should not be discussed around consumption and waste as we cannot understand the course of the world and the men who create it by just focusing on consumption. The real and bigger issue is our insatiable desire to produce more and more that we feel we are obliged to. This desire comes from our ambition for power or a manifestation of power. This ambition for power motivates us to act and the raison d’être of the modern world is that our ambition has effaced our reason.

Consequently, consumption is just an outcome, the reason is production. We have an obsession with it and we have made our existence depend on production. As long as we misunderstand the problem and its reasons and focus on consumption, we will miss the real issue, which has been nature all along and we will fail to save the world. It is incumbent on each person to ask themselves this question: Why do we have to produce all the time?

Can Islam or Sufism offer a remedy?

Even if the modern world is the actualized dream of ancient times, the humans living in it have started questioning its course and its truth. One of the most exciting criticisms seems to be the fact that more and more well-educated, wealthy, and influential people choose to have a secluded life at some point in their lives or at all. We often witness their examples and experiences on different platforms.

This being the case, it has started to be discussed whether this is a new trend of isolation in Muslim societies or whether this is the rediscovery of Sufi seclusion and individuality with a new intention. It is hard to foresee how this issue will evolve, but we have to talk about this question: Is it possible that asceticism, which is the core of the Sufi movement, can be a reference point for the criticisms of consumerism? The answer to this question will shape the future of Sufism and Ascetism in the modern world.

First ascetic movements arose as a reaction to the new social structure; ascetics started to leave cities as they preferred a more individualistic and secluded lives. Later, this criticism was directed to wealth and then intellectual life as it was intertwined with wealth and so on. In this respect, the first ascetics criticized the new society for aiming a lifestyle circled around individuality, illiteracy and poverty and they searched for virtue and perfection outside the city. On the other hand, Muslim societies criticized this way of asceticism for a long time.

The roots of this criticism go back to the time of the friends of the Prophet. Asceticism was criticized as it was assumed to lead to idleness, beggary, etc. With modernization, the criticisms became harsher; intellectuals in contemporary Muslim societies directed their criticisms about religion and progress towards Sufism. They thought that "tawakkul" (putting trust in God) was the primary reason for underdevelopment. Unless tawakkul was abandoned, progress would not be possible.

Many intellectuals, such as Muhammad Iqbal and Mehmet Akif, thought that the most important problems of Muslim societies were: Submissiveness escalated with the understanding of "trust in God," our inability to analyze, and the loss of individuality. This perspective became so widespread that it turned into a dogma today without being questioned. Partly because of that, Sufi groups in Muslim societies wanted to be engaged in the process of production and tried to be a part of the modern world.

Religion, criticism of modern life

Expecting criticism against consumerism by Sufis is not realistic. On the one hand, Sufi groups are eager to participate in modern life. On the other hand, they have already acquired some urban sophistication, habits and lifestyles. Sufi groups have earned a reputation for being urbanites and for their admiration of cities and their opportunities. In this respect, we cannot expect Sufis to put forward a criticism of consumerism. Apart from that, Sufi understanding of illiteracy also cannot find itself a place in the modern world. So, it is not fair to criticize Sufism for that; instead, it should continue to be criticized within Sufism itself.

Therefore, it seems impossible to find criticism of the modern world in Sufism in the near future. Instead, it can be found in some aspects of religious life, which encompasses Sufism. However, we witness that fiqh has a very hesitant and cowardly approach in its interpretation of the conflict between religion and the modern world. Looking at the recent discussions of fiqh, there seems to be no hesitation except for a few points over the question of production-consumption. It is the most significant problem for everyone that Muslim societies can’t get their share of the wealth. This being the case, it is not possible – neither for fiqh nor Sufism – to be able to bring out noteworthy critical discourses.

Religion lacks the essential and systematic approach with which it can criticize the modern world as a whole. Religion has never been faced with such an issue in history. Because the mainstreams within the religion promote production in almost all aspects of life, they consider it to be a virtue to be a part of the power and dominion and even if they put obstacles in the way, they would never have a radical attitude and claim that they would change the whole world.

On the other hand, it can be expected that critical attitudes within religion can lead to some improvements, and that religious groups – if they cooperate with Sufism – can acquire a more systematic language. As these attitudes spread widely around the world, they will interact with each other and will contribute to the development of religious thought by criticizing both the traditional and the compromising interpretations of religion.

However, these attitudes will succeed only if they are focused on the human ambition for production rather than consumption. Because what makes the earth an uninhabitable place is not our desire for consumption, but our insatiable ambition for production. For modern human beings, consumption is just a desire, while production is both an obligation and a meaning.