Take off your shoes, for you have stepped into the valley of repression and the mire of oppression. Enter it humbly, under orders, and leave your humanity at its gates. Fierce, unyielding soldiers stand guard over the people, yet they are cowardly and submissive before any occupier and every delusional ruler.
Those are the beginnings of entry. As for the outcomes upon exit: you may emerge as a subservient follower, or a broken cripple, or a disappeared soul, or a newly formed being—deformed in spirit, shattered at heart, and stripped of your humanity.
Such a story is repeated daily under ominous shadows, in various lands and in many tongues. The common thread binding them is dictatorial regimes and barbaric policies reminiscent of the darkest chapters of history.
Neither religion nor philosophy nor values nor principles restrain these regimes, for they are but shadows of falsehood and embodiments of tyranny, held together only by the devil of absolute power.
God Almighty says in the Qur'an (2:205):
"And when he turns away, he strives throughout the land to cause corruption therein and destroy crops and livestock. And God does not like corruption."
This verse reflects how tyrants spread ruin, seeking not merely to destroy the land and its produce but also to annihilate values and humanity itself.
From the medieval church inquisitions to the brutality of communist atheism, they stand just as close to the blood-soaked tales of Al-Hajjaj. Perhaps those narratives are mere breezes of freedom when compared to the prisons of Abdel Nasser or Assad, or the sectarian oppression in Iraq, or the policies of certain monarchies east and west.
These tragedies have been documented in works such as The Black Gate, which details the heinous torture in Abdel Nasser's prisons; Bloodbaths in Tadmur Prison, chronicling horrifying crimes in one of the most feared detention centers; The Shell, exposing gruesome sectarian-based torture; and Five Minutes Only, which records nine years of anguish in Syrian prisons, where human dignity fades into a distant memory.
George Orwell's novel 1984 resonates like a beacon with the statement:
"Oppression is not only about controlling bodies, but also about controlling minds, turning humans into mere tools in the hands of tyrants."
Even my own memories as a former detainee pale in comparison to what is seen, heard, and read about torture, detention, and enforced disappearances.
And so the question arises: Why? For what purpose? I yearn to understand the philosophy behind torture.
These are the seven pillars upon which this philosophy stands. I shall recount them so that time may preserve them, and so we may understand falsehood in order to refute it.
1. The Frenzy of Oppressive Power
It is a frenzy blinded by whim and deafened by desire—bereft of any qualification for governance but oppression and the art of politicizing injustice. As the Prophet (peace be upon him) said:
"Two hungry wolves sent among sheep would not do more damage to them than a man's greed for wealth and prestige does to his religion."
(Authentic; reported by al-Tirmidhi)
Here, the Prophet (peace be upon him) encapsulates the philosophy of tyrants, propelled by a lust for power and status that drives them to deform and crush those around them without just cause—transforming them into predatory beasts that devour whomever falls under their grip. Similarly, the European thinker Alexis de Tocqueville observed:
"Unrestrained desire for power turns a ruler into a tyrant, and nations into a flock accepting injustice out of fear of oppression."
Reflect on their thirst for wealth intertwined with power, and see how they plunder nations and violate rights. To such rulers, the people are but a docile flock of sheep, powerless and unable to resist, while these despots respect neither treaties nor moral commitments.
In their frenzy—which deprives them of reason—tyrants invert the very laws of governance. As Ibn Khaldun wrote in his Muqaddimah:
"Royal authority is maintained by the army; the army is maintained by money; money is gained through prosperity; prosperity is attained through justice; and justice is achieved by caring for the subjects."
Tyrants replace justice with coercion and mercy with corruption, leaving society prey to chaos and devastation. They do not destroy their people merely through starvation, but by pervasive corruption. Were it only about hunger, a single sheep from the flock would have sufficed to feed them.
2. The Baseness of Origin and the Depravity of Purpose
People are like minerals, akin to gold and silver—just as the Prophet (peace be upon him) taught in his saying:
"People are like minerals, like gold and silver. The best of them in the pre-Islamic era are the best of them in Islam when they gain understanding."
(Reported by al-Bukhari)
For this reason, colonial powers and their collaborators have always been keen to install those of depraved character—giving them authority over people's lives and granting them power to oppress. Such baseness is far from random; rather, it is a calculated policy designed to perpetuate injustice and tyranny. This is underscored by the Prophet's (peace be upon him) warning:
"When authority is entrusted to those unfit for it, then await the Hour."
(Reported by al-Bukhari)
It is as though this indicates the end of goodness on earth when leadership falls into the hands of those who do not deserve it. Indeed, what unites those who subjugate people is nothing but their vile nature, rendering them devoid of basic human compassion and natural mercy.
You will even find them delighting in sadism and torturing others, as if they feed on the sufferings and pains of their subjects. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in his Social Contract, describes this phenomenon:
"The ruler who sees his people merely as a means to fulfill his own ends is the worst kind of tyrant, for he destroys their humanity before taking their freedom."
Such individuals possess no genuine faith beyond outward hypocrisy, nor any principle beyond the hollow words on their tongues—empty of any real impact on their deeds. Their reality is steeped in injustice and oppression, and their true nature is not hidden from anyone with insight.
Ibn Khaldun reminds us that "Oppression heralds the ruin of civilization." The corruption of these rulers is not a passing phenomenon but a catastrophic force that undermines all moral and social values, to the point where baseness itself becomes the hallmark of their authority.
3. Psychological Deformities
All who practice torture and oppression against another—even an animal—are afflicted with a distorted psyche and a diseased soul. Such a malady naturally arises from the illegitimate desire for leadership and dominance. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said:
"Indeed, you will covet leadership, but it will be a cause of regret on the Day of Resurrection. How excellent it is for those who nurse it, and how evil it is for those who wean themselves from it."
(Authentic; reported by al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 7148)
This ḥadīth points to the deep psychological imbalance that afflicts those who seek authority without rightful justification. It is as if the Prophet (peace be upon him) likens it to an unnatural "premature weaning," leading to an underdeveloped psyche and a loss of equilibrium. The word "evil" in the narration underscores the profound deformity befalling the soul when this illegitimate craving for power takes root, morphing into a psychological illness that harms its bearer and those around him.
Indeed, no ruler takes pleasure in torturing, imprisoning, and subjugating his people unless he suffers from a profound internal distortion.
4. The Psychological Defeat of Reformers
Such oppression often deters people from pursuing reform, driving them instead toward corruption and its agents under the guise of seeking apparent safety. This has been the norm throughout history. However, when reform becomes a matter of faith and creed, the situation grows more complex. The Prophet (peace be upon him) went so far as to describe a man being combed with iron combs—tearing the flesh from his bones—in an attempt to force him to renounce this mission of reform, which is intrinsic to Islam. In the ḥadīth narrated by Khabbāb ibn al-Aratt (may God be pleased with him), the Prophet (peace be upon him) said:
"There were people before you who would have a pit dug for them in the ground, and they would be placed in it. Then a saw would be placed over their heads, splitting them into two, and their flesh would be combed away from their bones with iron combs. Yet none of that would make them renounce their religion."
(Authentic; reported by al-Bukhari)
Hence, tyrants and brutal torturers become the fiercest enemies of reform and reformers. They tirelessly endeavor to weaponize the philosophy of torture to stifle progress—backwardness and regression are the fertile soil in which these corrupt figures thrive.
Al-Kawākibī, in Tabā'iʿ al-Istibdād (The Characteristics of Despotism), describes such a despot:
"He seeks to control the people's affairs by his own will, not by theirs; he governs them by his whims, not by their law; he is fully aware that he is a usurper and an aggressor. He plants the heel of his foot on the mouths of millions, silencing them from speaking the truth or daring to demand it. He is the enemy of truth, the enemy of freedom, its very executioner. By nature, he is ever-prepared for evil. The despot wants his subjects to be like sheep in yielding and obedience, like dogs in their abasement and flattery."
Robert Conquest, in his work The Great Terror, illustrates how Stalin's Soviet regime employed repression and mass executions to subjugate society:
"The Great Purge did not merely eliminate individuals or groups seen as potential opposition; it created an all-encompassing climate of fear that paralyzed society, preventing even the faintest whisper of criticism or inclination toward reform."
5. Leading the Masses
Among the core pillars of the philosophy of torture is the effort by repressive regimes to steer submissive masses—people who have been gripped by the terror inflicted through torture and oppression. Such regimes deliberately carry out mass killings without clear justification, instilling fear in anyone with reformist demands or voices, causing individuals to abandon their goals for change in favor of mere physical survival.
History records numerous instances of this, particularly in Egypt, beginning with the "Citadel Massacre" and the "Tora Prison Massacre," the massacres of the Muslim Brotherhood in government prisons, the violent incidents at "Port Said Stadium," and the suppression of demonstrators in "Rābiʿa Square" and "al-Nahḍah." In Syria, there are parallels in the massacres of Ḥamāh and Tadmur, among others—mass atrocities that stand out in history for the devastation and annihilation of entire cities.
This is precisely what Timothy Snyder affirms:
"By intimidating entire population groups, these (totalitarian) regimes ensured that even the thought of opposition became futile, as the brutality of mass killing overwhelmed society's ability to act."
(Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, Basic Books, 2010, p. 387)
Stathis N. Kalyvas expresses a similar view:
"While selective violence aims to enforce compliance by demonstrating an ability to effectively punish defectors, indiscriminate violence aims to deter collective action by shocking entire communities into passive submission."
(Stathis N. Kalyvas, The Logic of Violence in Civil War, Cambridge University Press, 2006, p. 146)
6. Imposing the Oppressor's Will on the Oppressed
A central pillar of the philosophy of torture is for sick-minded figures and regimes to exercise coercion without justification. There need not be political opposition or a reform movement for them to brutalize the population. Even those with no involvement in politics or reform may find themselves subjected to cruelty, all to cultivate generations of the oppressed, with no objective other than submission to the tyrant's will. Thus, people come to adopt slogans that degrade their dignity—effectively saying, "We will die so that the tyrant may live," accepting hunger and poverty to ensure he is fed and enriched.
Through this subjugation, their will is broken, their minds and hearts emptied. People of high academic rank and social standing become incapable of grasping the simplest truths, for the oppression has so thoroughly seized their minds that they no longer dare to think freely or express an opinion.
In this regard, Hannah Arendt sighed in lament, describing the effect of imposed tyranny:
"The ideal subject of totalitarian (tyrannical) rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist."
(Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, Harcourt Brace, 1973, p. 474)
7. Corrupting the Soil of Reform
Through torture, human dignity is violated to a degree lower than that of mere animal treatment, corrupting souls to the point that society becomes wholly unsuitable for nurturing reform. Its soil is tainted, its crops fail, leaving behind only the Devil's yield. Morals and dispositions decay, the most trivial elements rise to prominence, and the emptiest values prevail. Ultimately, the supreme aim of torture's philosophy is to break the human being—eroding his values, worth, and civilization. Ibn Khaldūn alluded to the marks of such oppression:
"When taxes multiply, injustice spreads, and oppression intensifies, people's drive toward productivity withers, and the very order of existence is disrupted."
Such are the seven pillars of the philosophy of torture upon which brutal dictatorships are built—led by psychologically unwell, morally corrupt souls, devoid of integrity and virtue—enabling them to seize control of people and lands, sowing unbelief, corruption, and discord.
Indeed, the turmoil they unleash far exceeds the cost of revolutions; for "fitnah (sedition and strife) is worse than killing," and this fitnah, embodying unbelief and all it entails, is even harsher than the burdens of reform.
These pillars of torture are nothing but the pillars of injustice, aggression, and transgression without right. Their end is inevitably ruinous, even if they momentarily elude worldly punishment. As the Prophet (peace be upon him) said:
"God will punish those who torture people in this world."
(Reported by Muslim)