A church has moved the Ten Commandments to the appendix of its service book because they seem too sombre. May God’s commandments be pushed into the background like this?

It depends on where a religion comes from. If it is man-made, it can be changed at will; if it is from God, no one has the right to change it.

The real question is not only about the Ten Commandments. It is about how we understand religion at all. There are only two possibilities: either a religion is revealed by God, or it is made by people.

If it is made by people, then one can do with it whatever one likes. Each generation adjusts it to the taste of its time, deletes what is inconvenient and sets aside what sounds too serious. But if it is from God, then the question arises: by what right does a human being change what God has given?

One can believe or not believe. Both are honest decisions. But whoever believes that the commandments come from God cannot treat them like an old text to be moved to the appendix because it no longer suits the mood. A doctor would not leave out an important instruction just because the patient finds it unpleasant.

The Holy Qur’an respects the commandments that God gave to Moses (as) and the children of Israel. The verses above show that their core is alive in Islam too: worship God alone, honour your parents, do not kill, avoid indecency, be good to the poor. These commandments are not gloomy. They protect life, family and human dignity.

What comes from God does not lose its value with time. It does not need to be adapted to fashion. It needs people who take it seriously.