The key of understanding Marxism is to recognize that it’s an ‘atheistic’ religion which fills the void for people who were either disillusioned with the religion or didn’t have any religion at all. Raymond Aron quite succinctly observed that Marxism fills the void of the religion. By religion, it should be understood strictly in Abrahamic sense and not in Dharmic sense. Every Abrahamic religion comes with its own conception of history and a destined utopia which can either occur in this world or beyond it. However, it doesn’t matter whether Utopia is conceived to be occurring in this world or beyond it as Utopia by definition is a concept of imagination and bereft of empirical reality.
The way Marxism sees present is through the lens of material history shaped by the series of class struggles – between feudal lords and bourgeois, bourgeois and proletariat, and ultimately achieving the goal of Communist society which is the end of history as there is no concept of class. In Marxist conception of the world, conflict is primary as it shapes the direction of the history. So, Marxism is a philosophy of antagonism which gives it the ability to create conflicts by applying it in any other conditions by changing the participating actors. While Marx borrowed this idea of conflict from Hegel who was obsessed with the dialectic of thesis and anti-thesis in non-material world, the true exposition of this idea–in the sense of praxis as Marx conceptualized Marxism–was expressed by Abrahamic religions.
In Islam, the actors in the scheme of conflict are believers and Kafirs/infidels. The goal of taking the message of Allah to each and every individual which is the end goal of Islam at collective level, which is possible only via the path of conflict between the believers and infidels. But the similarities don’t end here. In Marxist scheme of things, a bourgeois is the personification of abomination. He is the cause and manifestation of every evil due to which a bourgeois deserves no sympathy. He is the primary obstacle in the progress of history to its final stage by his insistence on holding whatever dear to him. In Islam, a kafir is the primary hindrance in taking the message of Allah to each and every human. As a bourgeois commits great crime by merely rejecting the wisdom of Marxism, non-acceptance of Islam by a kafir is a crime in itself against Allah which deserves every form of punishment.
In Marxism, Allah is replaced by Dialectic Materialism. As Allah is the one who moves everything and the principal agent of cause, Dialectic Materialism as an impersonal force moves everything and causes the changes in material factors ultimately effecting changes in superstructure (religion, culture, law etc.) as well. But in terms of the final utopia, at the collective level, the similarities are even greater. The goal of Marxism is establishment of a Communist society having no existence of class, state or money. Here, class is central as state and money are the products of Capitalist and Feudal mode of production which will have no meaning in the absence of class and private property. As there is no existence of class, the process of dialectic materials stops as we have achieved the end of the history.
The corresponding end of the history in Islam is Dar-Ul-Islam where the entire world is under the command of Allah without the presence of any Kafirs. In this world, there is absence of distinction between believers and Kafirs as there are no Kafirs left to necessitate the differentiation, similar to the Communist society having no concept of the class. Turning our attention to the individual level, a Marxist doesn’t feel responsible for even killing millions of people since he believes that he is merely acting as per the scheme of Dialectic Materialism and accelerating the world towards the end goal by removing the obstacle. A momin doesn’t feel any remorse for killing Kafirs, rather takes pride in being a Gazhi as he believes that he is merely acting on the behalf of Allah for achieving the end goal which absolves him of any individual responsibility for his actions. It’s difficult to say though whether Islam is the most successful version of Marxism or the opposite.
World Through A Kaleidoscope 