If you ask yourself 'What is God?' and 'What is religion?' with an open mind, you cannot rely on books, even if classified as holy. You have to ask yourself what kind of entity or beeing that may be called 'God' and what kinds of phenomena that may be grouped together as 'religion'.
The scriptures that are read and used in the ceremonial praxices of the different sects that exist express those experiences made during the spiritual path. To choose that path is to volontarily submite to a program, although vage, that intends to bring progress to the individual undertaking the path. The underlying phenomena in the natural world relating to religion is that spiritual path. Three steps or stations on the path is 1. to love the sheijk, 2. to love the prophet Muhammad, and 3. to love God. After making that progress the seeker has to I. identify with the sheykh, II. to identify with the prophet Muhammad, and III. to identify with God. When that progress is done, the seeker has i. to annihilate in his shejkh, ii. to annihilate in the prophet Muhammad, and iii. to annihilate in God. The Three above mentioned lines of spiritual progress are part of how the Naqsbandi sufis work but other orders and other spiritual methods are close to what I have sketched. The point is that the religion has a purpose. You can imagine the purpose first and when that is done, it is a lot easear to understand religion.
It is not just the individual that have to follow rules to progress according to that activity labeled spirituality or religion. It is a job for the whole society. When we understand in what sense, we can understand why we can go from a level that is totally theocratic to a level totally secular via a mix of them. The point is that the secular phase may be as spiritual as the theocratic! It is a valid opinion to consider kings and presidents as acting according a divine plan such as allowing the individual members to form groups that worship God according to particular belief systems. Different ways are to be viewed as equal since we have recognised and accepted the core meaning of religion and religious activities. Some like to sing and shout during the ceremony, others prefer silence. Who but you are to choose? If you live in a society with strict alternatives, few in number, your choice is limited but you may be helped in that way if you realise what you ought to aim at is not the surface at the beginning but the depths at the end.
It seems obvious that the religious lessons we have to learn have to do with the individual's lives in the society. If they are following the intentions with the norms they will prosper. First by gaining the correct attitudes, then by correct actions following that transformation of the inner. Few are perfect. The doctrine of the Perfect Man is a sufi manual of a kind for spiritual transformations of the inner, i. e. of the individuals. A natural consequence of the transformation of the individuals is a better society, a society more loved by God. Realising this, one may ask if some kind of property owning democracy may be intended by God. We have to ask ourselves following questions: Why do we have to be better persons and create a society loved and intended by God? How will such a society look like? Is it perhaps better to let the individuals chose the religious expression of their liking and let everyone be a part of a society that takes care of the individuals and of the greenery, based on a property- owning democracy, or ought we all to accept the standards just of one religion and then work for the improvement of the conditions on the planet without much talk about religious differences?
