Towards
Understanding Islam
Some
may think it pretentious of me to write a foreword
to a book by an Islamic thinker as outstanding in
our time as Mawlana Mawdudi, especially when any
need to introduce the eminent author or his
remarkable book Towards Understanding Islam
has been magisterially fulfilled by Brother Khurshid
Ahmad. Towards Understanding Islam
has already made its mark and this edition is only
an improved English version. However. I can hardly
neglect this opportunity to express our gratitude to
Allah, subhanahu wala'aia for having enabled
us to bring out a new revised version of a book
which has so deeply influenced such a large number
of men and women. Only recently I received a letter
from a friend in Brazil, saying how a leading
journalist had embraced Islam purely because of the
simple and persuasive exposition of the Islamic way
of life in Towards Understanding Islam.
There must be innumerable other examples of a
similar kind and I hope that the book will be even
more effective in its present form.
The
Islamic Foundation envisages a comprehensive plan to
bring the moving and inspiring work of Mawlana
Mawdudi before the world at large. in English and
other major European languages. Towards Understanding
Islam is only the first step and we hope
that other important books by him, certainly some of
the most influential in our age, will soon find
their way to thirsty souls and hungry intellects.
We
pray to Allah to bless our effort with mercy and
acceptance.
13
December, 1979
4 Miiharram 1400 A.H.
K. J. Murad
Director General
AUTHOR'S
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
The
present edition of Towards Understanding Islam is more than a new translation of my
book Risalah Diniyat: it is an
entirely new and revised version. The first edition,
which was rendered into English by the late Dr.
Abdul Ghani (Director of Public Instruction,
Afghanistan), was very brief and sketchy.
Unfortunately, Dr. Abdul Ghani did not live to
improve the translation. I later revised the
original book and made substantial additions to it.
Prof. Khurshid Ahmad, to whom my heartfelt thanks
are due for this labour of love, has now skillfully
translated this revised edition of Risalah Dinivat.
I am confident that the book will serve its purpose
better in this new form.
My
object in writing this book has been to provide all
those — Muslims and non-Muslims alike — who have
no access to the original sources with a brief
treatise giving a lucid, comprehensive and
all-embracing view of Islam. I have avoided minute
details and endeavoured to portray Islam as a whole
in a single perspective. Apart from staling what we
Muslims believe in and stand for, I have also tried
to explain the rational bases of our beliefs.
Similarly, in presenting the Islamic modes of
worship and the outlines of the Islamic way of life,
I have also tried to unveil the wisdom behind them.
I hope this small treatise will go far towards
satisfying the intellectual cravings of Muslim
youth, and that it will help non-Muslims to
understand our real position.
Lahore ABUL
A'LA
11th September, 1960
It
is a cherished intellectual fashion of our times to
highlight the challenge of secular civilization to
faith and religion. There is however, very little
reflection on the challenge that religion —
particularly Islam — poses to the sensate culture
of the age. For the last few centuries religion in
the West has been on the defensive, most often
apologetic, at all times making concessions to and
compromises with an approach to life and culture
that is alien to the values and ideals of religion.
The Muslim World has also weathered the global
onslaughts of Western civilization, especially its
politico-economic arm, imperialism, which inflicted
many a dent and deformity. The religious approach to
life and its problems was discarded and the role of
religion in the socio- economic spheres became
minimal. At both the conceptual and operational
levels the faith and religion of all those under
colonial rule, and of the Muslims in particular, was
reduced to a secondary position, if not to one of
total irrelevance. The situation is now changing.
The tide of Imperialism has receded. The Muslim
World, after attaining political independence, is
now engaged in an ideological effort to rediscover
its cultural personality. By drawing upon its own
spiritual and historical sources it is trying to
develop new attitudes and roles for restructuring
its own society and for the establishment of a new
world order. This new resilience in the Muslim World
symbolises the revivalist movement of Islam.
The
Muslims look upon the crisis of the twentieth
century as a crisis of values and believe that the
way out of the human predicament lies in the
construction of a new social order. The real need is
not to seek concessions here and there or to effect
a few changes in the institutional superstructures.
What is needed is a searching re-examination of the
foundations on which the entire structure of society
is built and of the ideals, which the culture
aspires to achieve. The crisis in economic and
political relations is the natural outcome of the
ideals, values and institutions that characterize
modern civilization. Islam, therefore, suggests that
it is only through summoning mankind towards a new
vision of man and society that its house can be set
in order. This calls for a basic change in man's
approach. It is only through a thorough
understanding of the social ideals and values of
religion and a realistic assessment of their
socio-economic situation — resources, problems and
constraints — that faith-oriented communities can
develop a creative and innovative approach to the
challenges confronting humanity today. This approach
must be ideological. The real objective which
inspires the Muslims is not a package of economic
and political concessions nor even certain changes
in the economic superstructure, but the construction
of a new world order, with its own framework of
ideals, values and foundations. The Western approach
has always assumed that radical change can be
brought about by changing the environment. That is
why emphasis has always been placed on change in
structure. This approach has failed to produce
proper results. It has ignored the need to bring
about change within men and women themselves and has
concentrated on change in the outside world. What is
needed, however, is a total change — within people
themselves as well as in their social environment.
The problem is not merely structural, although
structural arrangements would also have to be
remodeled. But the starting point must be the hearts
and souls of men and women, their perception of
reality and of their own place and mission in life.
The Islamic approach to social change takes full
cognizance of these aspects.
Islam
is an Arabic word. It is derived from two
root-words: one Salin, meaning peace and the
other Silm, meaning submission. Islam stands
for "a commitment to surrender one's will to
the Will of God" and thus to be at peace with
the Creator and with all that has been created by
Him. It is through submission to the Will of God
that peace is brought about. Harmonization of man's
will with the Will of God leads to the harmonization
of different spheres of life under an all-embracing
ideal. Departmentalization of life into different
watertight compartments, religious and secular,
sacred and profane, spiritual and material, is ruled
out. There is unity of life and unity of the source
of guidance. As God is One and Indivisible, so is
life and our human personality. Each aspect of life
is inseparable from
the other. Religious
and secular are
not two autonomous categories; they
represent two sides of the same coin. Each and every
act becomes related to God and His guidance. Every
human activity is given a transcendent dimension; it
becomes sacred and meaningful and goal-centred.
Islam
is a worldview and an outlook on life. It is based
on the recognition of the unity of the Creator and
of our submission to His will. Everything originates
from the One God, and everyone is ultimately
responsible to Him. Thus the unity of the Creator
has as its corollary the Oneness of His creation.
Distinctions of race, colour, caste, wealth and
power disappear: our relation with other persons
assumes total equality by virtue of the common
Creator. Henceforth our mission becomes a dedication
to our Creator; worship and obedience to the Creator
becomes our purpose in life.
The
Creator has not left us without guidance for the
conduct of our life. Ever since the beginning of
creation He has sent down Prophets who have conveyed
His message to humanity. They are the source from
which to discover God's Will. Thus we have the chain
of Prophets beginning with Adam (peace be upon him)
and ending with Muhammad (peace be upon him).
Abraham, Moses, Noah, John, Zechariah and Jesus
(peace be upon them) all belong to this golden chain
of Prophets. The Prophets David, Moses, Jesus and
Muhammad (may peace be upon them all), brought
revealed books of guidance with them. The Qur'an,
the Book revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be
upon him), is the last and final of these books of
guidance.
The
Qur'an contains the word of God. In it is preserved
the divine revelation, unalloyed by human
interpolation of any kind, unaffected by any change
or loss to the original. In it is distilled the
essence of all the messages sent down in the past.
In it is embodied a framework for the conduct of the
whole of human life. There are explicit criteria for
judging between right and wrong; there are
principles of individual and collective conduct. In
it are depicted the human follies of the past. In it
are warnings for humankind, and in it are assurances
for continued guidance for those who seek God's
help.
The
Qur'an has depicted a path, the Straight Path (Siral
al-Muslaq'lin), which when followed
revolutionizes the whole of life. It brings about a
transformation in character and galvanizes us into
action. This action takes the form of purification
of the self, and then unceasing effort to establish
the laws of God on earth, resulting in a new order
based on truth, justice, virtue and goodness.
Men
and women play a crucial role in the making of this
world. They act as God's vicegerents (Khulofa')—His
deputies and representatives on earth. They are
morally prepared to play this role. Success lies in
praying it properly, by enjoining what is right and
for hiding what is wrong, by freeing people from the
bondage of others, by demonstrating that a sound and
serene society can only result if one harmonizes
one's will with the Will of God. This makes seeking
the Creator's pleasure one's purpose in life,
treating the whole of creation as one's partner,
raising the concept of human welfare from the level
of mere animal needs to seeking what is best in this
world and what is best in the Hereafter.
This
is the Islamic worldview, and its concept of men and
women and their destiny. Islam is not a religion in
the Western understanding of the word. It is at once
a faith and a way of life, a religion and a social
order, a doctrine and a code of conduct, a set of
values and principles and a social movement to
realize them in history.
The
uniqueness of Islamic culture lies in its values and
principles. When Muslims, after an illustrious
historical career, became oblivious of this fact and
became obsessed with the manifestations of their
culture, as against its sources, they could not even
fully protect the house they had built. The strength
of Islam lies in its ideals, values and principles,
and their relevance to us is as great today as it
has ever been in history. The message is timeless
and the principles Islam embodies are of universal
application. In our search for a new world order
today, Islam emphasizes that we must aspire to a new
system of life through which to approach human
problems from a different perspective, not merely
from the perspective of limited national or regional
interest, but from the perspective of what is right
and wrong, and how best we can strive to evolve a
just and a humane world order at different levels of
our existence, individual, national and
international. That the present order is
characterized by injustice and exploitation is
proved beyond any shadow of doubt. But Islam
suggests that the present order fails because it is
based upon a wrong concept of man and of his
relationship with other human beings, with society,
with nature, and with the world. The search for a
new order brings us to the need for a new concept of
man and his role. From the viewpoint of world
religions in general, and of Islam in particular,
the focus of the discussion must be shifted to a new
vision of man and society, to an effort to bring
about change at the level of human consciousness, of
values, leading to new cultural transformation.
This
is the, concept of Islam that lies at the root of
the contemporary resurgence of Islam. It is in the
framework of these parameters that the Muslims are
today awakening to a new world role, facing the
problems of modernization, challenging the secular
concepts and institutions of the world
establishment, purging their thought and society of
alien intrusions from Western civilization, and
harnessing their resources to build a new order at
home which could act as a window on the Islamic
order for all humankind. Amongst the chief
architects of this new awakening in the world of
Islam is Mawlana Sayyid Abul A'la Mawdudi.
Born
in 1903 C.E., Mawdudi started his public career as
early as 1918. He wrote and spoke as editor,
scholar, religious thinker and leader of a
movement, authoring over a hundred works of varying
size and delivering more than a thousand speeches.
His death in September 1979 marks the end of an era.
He
made his debut in the intellectual life of the
Indo-Pakistan subcontinent in 1927, at the early age
of twenty-four, and created a stir by his voluminous
scholarly work Al-Jihad fil-lslam
("Jihad in Islam") first serialized in a
newspaper, and subsequently published in the form of
a book in 1930. From the early thirties he was a
major, dominating, undaunted figure on the
intellectual scene of the Indo-Pakistan
subcontinent. The monthly magazine, Tarjuman al-Qur'an,
which he edited since 1933, has been a major
influence on the minds of the Muslim intellectuals
of the subcontinent. Since the forties, when Mawlana
Mawdudi's writings began to be available in
translated versions, especially in Arabic and
English, his ideas have attracted an increasing
number of people far beyond the confines of the
subcontinent. It is no exaggeration to say that by
the time of his death he had become the most widely
read Muslim author of our time, contributing
immensely to the contemporary resurgence of Islamic
ideas, feelings and activity all over the world.
Islam,
however, was never a merely intellectual concern of
Mawlana Mawdudi. He consciously tried to live Islam
and to live for Islam. As far back as his
mid-twenties he had resolved not only to devote all
his energy to expounding the teachings of Islam, but
also to do all that lay in his power to transform
Islamic teachings into practical realities. Mawlana
Mawdudi was always emphatic in asserting that Islam
is not merely a body of metaphysical doctrines, nor
merely a bundle of rituals, nor even merely a set of
rules of individual conduct. It is indeed a way of
life, the bases of which lie rooted in Divine
Revelation; a way of life which is permeated with
God consciousness and is oriented to doing God's
Will and actualizing good and righteousness in human
life. A Muslim is committed to follow this way of
life, to bear witness to it by word and deed, and to
strive in order to make it prevail in the world.
Hence, in addition to his intellectual contribution,
in 1941 Mawlana Mawdudi founded a movement known as
the Jamaat-I-Islaim ("The Islamic
Organization"). He led this movement as its
chief from its inception till 1972. Even after
getting himself relieved of the duties of its formal
headship for reasons of health, he continued to be a
major source of guidance and inspiration for those
associated with the Jamaat-I-Islaim, and
indeed for a very large number of men and women
across the globe, who do not have any affiliation to
that organization. More and more people,
particularly Muslims of the younger generation, are
coming to appreciate Mawdudi and even identify with
the vision of Islam that he articulated so lucidly
and incisively.
Mawlana
Mawdudi, therefore, was no mere academician; he was
also a man of action engaged in a grim struggle for
the implementation of the Islamic vision. During
this struggle the many sterling qualities of .his
character came to the surface — notably his
magnanimity and tolerance. It is because of his
involvement in practical matters, especially since
1948, that Mawlana Mawdudi often had to suffer
persecution at the hands of the men of authority in
Pakistan who failed lo perceive the real motives and
true character of his movement. Many a time he had
to court imprisonment, not unlike some of the great
heroes of Islam — Abu Hanifah, Ahmad ibn Hanbal,
Ibn Taymiyah, Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi, and Sayyid Qutb
of our own time, to name only a few luminaries. Not
only that, in 1953 he narrowly escaped the gallows
and, in 1963, the bullets of an assassin. In braving
persecution for the sake of his cause, Mawlana
Mawdudi displayed a serene dignity and heroic
fearlessness, which won him the abiding love and
respect of friends and foe alike.
It
is remarkable that despite the exacting tasks laid
on Mawlana Mawdudi's shoulders as the head of a
large movement, he remained prolific as a writer and
his writings remained impressive, not only
qualitatively, but also quantitatively. His magnum opus, of course, is his translation and
tafs'ir (exegesis) of the Holy Qur'an, an epitome of his
elegant literary style, his erudition, and the
clarity and brilliance of his thought. One of the
major characteristics of Mawlana Mawdudi was his
ability to bring out the relevance of Islam to the
problems and concerns of man in the present age.
This is largely because he combined with his Islamic
scholarship awareness and knowledge of the
intellectual trends and practical problems of man in
the modern age. In encountering the challenge of
modernity. Mawlana Mawdudi displayed neither
ultra-conservative rigidity, nor proneness to be
overawed by the ideas and institutions current in
our time simply because they were fashionable in the
modern age or had gained respectability among the
nations which are currently the leaders of the
world. He wanted the Muslims to appropriate
creatively the healthy and beneficial elements from
the cumulative treasure of human experience, and to
employ them to serve the higher ends of life
embodied in the Islamic tradition. It is this aspect
of Mawlana Mawdudi, which has attracted many but at
the same time repelled many others, particularly the
ultra-conservative and the ultra-westernized
elements in Muslim society.
Towards
Understanding Islam is another
of his important books. It is an elementary study of
the basic concepts and principles of I slam. It
offers a simple, understandable and unsophisticated
interpretation of the meaning and message of Islam
for the ordinary reader, particularly the young. It
is not written in the browbeating style of theology
books, rich in awe-inspiring jargon and legal
quibbling but of little help in bringing the reader
into direct contact with the spirit of the faith.
Towards Understanding Islam is
a religious text with a difference. It offers a
simple exposition of Islam; its approach to life,
the articles of its faith, its worship and prayers,
and the scheme of life, which it envisages. The
method of exposition is steeped in the methodology
of the Qur'an. It offers in summary form the
essential teachings of Islam. And as the book is
primarily meant for lay readers and students no
attempt is made to burden the mind of the reader
with difficult or philosophic dissertations. The
language and style of the author are clear, candid
and rational.
Originally
written in 1932 in Urdu, under the title Risalah
Dmiyal, the book was intended as a textbook
for students of the higher classes and for the
general public. It served an important need and
became a popular Islamic reader. Most of the schools
and colleges of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent
adopted it as a textbook in theology and made its
study a part of their curricula. It has been
translated into many of the world's languages,
including English, Arabic, Hindi, Persian, German,
French, Italian, Turkish, Portuguese, Swahili,
Indonesian and Japanese. Malayalam, Tamil, Pushto,
Bengali, Gujrati and Sindhi.
The
first English translation appeared in 1940
(Translator: Dr. Abdul Ghani) and ran into many
editions. In the early fifties the need for a new
translation was felt for more than one reason. The
earlier translation suffered from certain
deficiencies. Moreover, the author re-edited the
text in the forties, making substantial alterations
and revisions. I was assigned the task of rendering
a new translation based on the revised text
(sixteenth [revised] edition), which I accomplished
in the mid-fifties. Although I kept the earlier
translation before me, only a very few paragraphs
were finally embodied in the new translation.
Strictly speaking, I did not venture a literal,
word-for-word, translation of the original text. I
tried to follow the original as faithfully as
possible, but departed wherever necessary from a
strictly literal rendering in the interest of a more
effective communication of the meaning of the text.
The learned author was kind enough to go through my
translation in 1959 and it was offered to the public
with his approval.
During
the last two decades many reprints of the 1959
edition have appeared. As the years went by I came
to feel that the translation needed further
improvement. My long stay in the United Kingdom
(1968-78) provided me with an opportunity for
further reflection upon a work done in my student
days. Now the Islamic Foundation is publishing a
revised translation. I am grateful to my friend Paul
Moorman. Editor. Middle East Education
and a former Foreign Editor, The Times Higher Educational
Supplement, for his
meticulous assistance in revising the present text.
I would also like to place on record the assistance
I received from Khwaja Abdul Wahid and Ansar Azam in
preparing my first translation. I cannot but record
my profound debt to Mawlana Mawdudi for the
influence his ideas and his noble example have had
on my own life, in all phases of its development so
far, and how impoverished I feel by his departure
from our midst towards life-eternal. May Allah bless
his soul and enable his intellectual progeny, to
which I among others feel proud to belong, to
continue his mission. Towards Understanding Islam is one of those books, which have
changed the lives of many and set them along the
Islamic path. Over a million copies of this book
have appeared in different languages of the world.
It is a unique privilege to be associated with the
production of this edition of the book.
Institute
of Policy Studies,
Islamabad, Pakistan.
1st Muharram, 1400November 20,1979.
KHURSHID AHMAD
Go
to Top
Chapter
1
ISLAM
— What does it Mean?
The
Nature of Disbelief
The
Blessings of Islam
Every
religion of the world has been named either after
its founder or after the community or nation in
which it was born. For instance, Christianity takes
its name from its prophet Jesus Christ; Buddhism
from its founder. Gautama Buddha; Zoroastrianism
from its founder Zoroaster; and Judaism the religion
of the Jews from the name of the tribe Judah (of the
country of Judea) where it originated. The same is
true of all other religions except Islam, which
enjoys the unique distinction of having no such
association with any particular person or people or
country. Nor is it the product of any human mind. It
is a universal religion and its objective is to
create and cultivate in man the quality and attitude
of Islam.
Islam,
in fact, is an attributive title. Anyone who
possesses this attribute, whatever race, community,
country or group he belongs to, is a Muslim.
According to the Qur'an (the Holy Book of the
Muslims), among every people and in all ages there
have been good and righteous people who possessed
this attribute — and all of them were and are
Muslims.
Islam
is an Arabic word and connotes submission, surrender
and obedience. As a religion, Islam stands for
complete submission and obedience to Allah.1 (1.
Another literal meaning of the word Islam is
"peace' and this signifies that one can achieve
real peace of body and mind only through submission
and obedience to Allah. Such a life of obedience
brings with it peace of the heart and establishes
real peace in society at large.
- Editor.)
Everyone
can see that we live in an orderly universe, where
everything is assigned a place in a grand scheme.
The moon, the stars and all the heavenly bodies are
knit together in a magnificent system. They follow
unalterable laws and make not even the slightest
deviation from their ordained courses. Similarly,
everything in the world, from the minute whirling
electron to the mighty nebulae, invariably follows
its own laws. Matter, energy and life — all obey
their laws and grow and change and live and die in
accordance with those laws. Even in the human world
the laws of nature are paramount. Man's birth,
growth and life are all regulated by a set of
biological laws. He derives sustenance from nature
in accordance with an unalterable law. All the
organs of his body from the smallest tissues to the
heart and the brain, are governed by the laws
prescribed for them. In short, ours is a
law-governed universe and everything in it is
following the course that has been ordained for it.
This
powerful, all-pervasive law, which governs all that
comprises the universe, from the tiniest specks of
dust to the magnificent galaxies of the heavens, is
the law of God, the Creator and Ruler of the
universe. As the whole of creation obeys the law of
God, the whole universe, therefore, literally
follows the religion of Islam — for Islam
signifies nothing but obedience and submission to
Allah, the Lord of the Universe. The sun, the moon,
the earth and all other heavenly bodies are thus
'Muslim'. So are the air, water, heat, stones, trees
and animals. Everything in the universe is
'Muslim' for it obeys God by submission to His laws.
Even a man who refuses to believe in God, or offers
his worship to someone other than Allah, has
necessarily to be a 'Muslim' as far as his existence
is concerned.
For
his entire life, from the embryonic stage to the
body's dissolution into dust after death, every
tissue of his muscles and every limb of his body
follow the course prescribed by God's law. His very
tongue, which, on account of his ignorance advocates
the denial of God or professes multiple deities, is
in its very nature 'Muslim'. His head which he want
only bows to others besides Allah is born 'Muslim'.
His heart, which, through his lack of true
knowledge, cherishes love and reverence for others,
is 'Muslim' by intuition. These are all obedient to
the Divine Law, and their functions and movements
are governed by the injunctions of that law alone.
Let
us now examine the situation from a different angle.
Man is so constituted that there are two distinct
spheres of his activity. One is the sphere in which
he finds himself totally regulated by the Divine
Law. Like other creatures, he is completely caught
in the grip of the physical laws of nature and is
bound to follow them. But there is another sphere of
his activity. He has been endowed with reason and
intellect. He has the power to think and form
judgments, to choose and reject, to approve and
spurn. He is free to adopt whatever course of life
he chooses. He can embrace any faith, and live by
any ideology he likes. He may prepare his own code
of conduct or accept one formulated by others.
Unlike other creatures, he has been given freedom of
thought, choice and action. In short, man has been
bestowed with free will.
Both
these aspects co-exist side by side in man's life.
In
the first he, like all other creatures, is a born
Muslim, invariably obeying the injunctions of God,
and is bound to remain one. As far as the second
aspect is concerned, he is free to become or not to
become a Muslim. It is the way a person exercises
this freedom, which divides mankind into two groups:
believers and non-believers. An individual,
who chooses to acknowledge his Creator, accepts Him
as his real Master, honestly and scrupulously
submits to His laws and injunctions and follows the
code. He has achieved completeness in his Islam by
consciously deciding to obey God in the domain in
which he was endowed with freedom of choice. He is a
perfect Muslim: his submission of his entire self to
the will of Allah is Islam and nothing but Islam.
He
has now consciously submitted to Him Whom he had
already been unconsciously obeying. He has now
willingly offered obedience to the Master Whom he
already owed obedience to involuntarily. His
knowledge is now real for he has acknowledged the
Being Who endowed him with the power to learn and to
know. Now his reason and judgement are set on an
even keel — for he has rightly decided to obey the
Being Who bestowed upon him the faculty of thinking
and judging. His tongue is also truthful for it
expresses its belief in the Lord who gave it the
faculty of speech. Now the whole of his existence is
an embodiment of truth for, in all spheres of life,
he voluntarily as well as involuntarily obeys the
laws of One God — the Lord of the Universe. Now he
is at peace with the whole universe for he worships
Him Whom the whole universe worships. Such a man is
God's vice-regent on earth. The whole world is for
him and he is for God.
In
contrast to the man described above, there is the
man who, although a born Muslim and unconsciously
remaining one throughout his life, does not exercise
his faculties of reason, intellect and intuition to
recognise his Lord and Creator and misuses his
freedom of choice by choosing to deny Him.
Such a man becomes an unbeliever — in the language
of Islam a Kafir.
Kufr
literally means 'to cover' or 'to conceal'. The man
who denies God is called Kafir (concealer)
because he conceals by his disbelief'
what is inherent in his nature and embalmed in his
own soul — for his nature is instinctively imbued
with Islam'. His whole body functions in obedience
to that instinct. Each and every particle of
existence — living or lifeless — functions in
accordance with Islam' and is fulfilling the duty
that has been assigned to it. But the vision of this
man has been blurred, his intellect has been
befogged, and he is unable to see the obvious. His
own nature has become concealed from his eyes and he
thinks and acts in utter disregard of it. Reality
becomes estranged from him and he gropes in the
dark. Such is the nature of Kufr.
Kufr
is a form of ignorance, or, rather, it is
ignorance. What ignorance can be greater than to be
ignorant of God, the Creator and the Lord of the
Universe? A man observes the vast panorama of
nature, the superb mechanism that is ceaselessly
working, the grand design that is manifest in every
aspect of creation — he observes this vast
machine, but he does not know anything of its Maker
and Director. He knows what a wonderful organism his
body is but is unable to comprehend the Force that
brought it into existence, the Engineer Who designed
and produced it, the Creator Who made the unique
living being out of lifeless stuff: carbon, calcium,
sodium and the like. He witnesses a superb plan in
the universe — but fails to see the Planner behind
it. He sees great beauty and harmony in its working
— but not the Creator. He observes a wonderful
design in nature - but not the Designer! How can a
man, who has so blinded himself to reality, approach
true knowledge? How can one who has made the wrong
beginning reach the right destination? He will fail
to find the key to Reality. The Right Path will
remain concealed for him and whatever his endeavours
in science and arts, he will never be able to attain
truth and wisdom. He will be groping in the darkness
of ignorance.
Not
only that; Kufr is a tyranny, the
worst of all tyrannies. And what is 'tyranny'? It is
an unjust use of force or power. It is when you
compel a thing to act unjustly or against its true
nature, its real will and its inherent attitude.
We
have seen that all that is in the universe is
obedient to God, the Creator. To obey, to live in
accordance with His Will and His Law or (to put it
more precisely) lo be a Muslim
is ingrained in the nature of things. God has given
manpower over these things, but it is incumbent that
they should be used for the fulfillment of His
Will and not otherwise. Anyone who disobeys God and
resorts to Kufr perpetrates the greatest
injustice, for he uses his powers of body and mind
to rebel against the course of nature and becomes an
instrument in the drama of disobedience. He bows his
head before deities other than God and cherishes in
his heart the love, reverence and fear of other
powers in utter disregard of the instinctive urge of
these organs. He uses his own powers and all those
things over which he has authority against the
explicit Will of God and thus establishes a reign of
tyranny.
Can
there be any greater injustice, tyranny and cruelty
than that exhibited by this man who exploits and
misuses everything under the sun and unscrupulously
forces them to a course, which affronts nature and
justice?
Kufr
is not mere tyranny; it is rebellion, ingratitude
and infidelity. After all what is the reality of
man? Where do his power and authority come from? Is
he himself the creator of his mind, his heart, his
soul and other organs of his body — or have they
been created by God? Has he himself created the
universe and all that is in it—or has it been
created by God? Who has harnessed all the powers and
energies for the service of man — man or God? If
everything has been created by God and God alone,
then to whom do they belong? Who is their rightful
sovereign? It is God and none else. And if God is
the Creator, the Master and the Sovereign, then who
would be a greater rebel than the man who uses God's
creation against His injunctions — and who makes
his mind think against God. harbours in his heart
thoughts against Him, and uses his various faculties
against the Sovereign's Will.
If
a servant betrays his master you denounce him as
faithless. If an officer becomes disloyal to the
state you brand him as a traitor and renegade. If a
person cheats his benefactor you have no hesitation
in condemning him as ungrateful. But such acts
cannot begin to compare to the one, which the
disbeliever commits by his Kufr. All that a
man has and all that he uses for the benefit of
others is a gift of God. The greatest obligation
that a man owes on this earth is to his parents. But
who has implanted the love of children in the
parents' heart? Who endowed the mother with the will
and power to nurture, nourish and feed her children?
Who inspired the parents with the passion to spend
everything in their possession for the well being of
their children? A little reflection would reveal
that God is the greatest benefactor of man. He is
his Creator, Lord, Nourisher, Sustainer, as well as
King and Sovereign. So what can be greater betrayal,
ingratitude, rebellion and treason than Kufr,
through which a man denies and disobeys his real
Lord and Sovereign?
Do
not think that by committing Kufr man does or
can do the least harm to Almighty God. Insignificant
speck on the face of a tiny ball in this limitless
universe that man is, what harm can he do to the
Lord of the Universe Whose dominions are so
infinitely vast that we have not yet been able to
explore their boundaries even with the help of the
most powerful telescope; Whose power is so great
that myriads of heavenly bodies, like the Earth, the
Moon, the Sun and the stars are, at His bidding,
whirling like tiny balls; Whose wealth is so
boundless that He is the sole Master of the whole
universe: and Who provides for all and needs none to
provide for Him? Man's revolt against Him can do Him
no harm: on the other hand, by his disobedience, man
treads the path of ruin and disgrace.
The
inevitable consequence of this revolt and denial of
reality is a failure in the ultimate ideals of life.
Such a rebel will never find the thread of real
knowledge and vision; for knowledge that fails to
reveal its own Creator can reveal no truth. Such a
man's intellect and reason always run astray; for
reason which errs about its own Creator cannot
illumine the paths of life.
Such
a man will meet with failures in all the affairs of
his life. His morality, his civic and social life,
his struggle for livelihood and his family life, in
short, his entire existence, will be unsatisfactory.
He will spread confusion and disorder. He will,
without the least compunction, shed blood, violate
other men's rights and generally act destructively.
His perverted thoughts and ambitions, his blurred
vision and distorted scale of values, and his evil
activities will make life bitter for him and for all
around him.
Such
a man destroys the calm and pose of life on earth.
And in the life hereafter he will be held guilty for
the crimes he committed against his nature. Every
organ of his body — his brain, eyes, nose, hands
and feet — will complain against the injustice and
cruelty he had subjected them to. Every tissue of
his being will denounce him before God Who, as the
fountain of justice, will punish him as he deserves.
This is the inglorious consequence of Kufr.
It leads to the blind alleys of utter failure, both
here and hereafter.
The
Blessings of Islam
These
are the evils and disadvantages of Kufr. Let
us now look at some of the blessings of Islam
You
find in the world around you and in the small
kingdom of your own self-innumerable manifestations
of God's divine power. This grand universe, which
ceaselessly works with matchless order and in
accordance with unalterable laws, is in itself a
witness to the fact that its Designer, Creator and
Governor is an Omnipotent, All-Powerful Being with
infinite power, knowledge and resources, a Being of
perfect wisdom. Whom nothing in the universe dares
disobey. It is in the very nature of man, as it is
with every other thing in this universe to obey Him
Besides endowing man with the capacity to acquire
knowledge, the faculty to think and reflect, and the
ability to distinguish right from wrong. God has
granted him a certain amount of freedom of will and
action. In this freedom lies man's real trial; his
knowledge, his wisdom, his power of discrimination
and his freedom of will and action are all being
tried and tested. Man has not been obliged to adopt
any particular course, for by compulsion the very
object of the trial would have been defeated. If in
an examination you are compelled to write a certain
answer to a question, the examination will be of no
use. Your merit can be properly judged only if you
are allowed to answer the questions freely,
according to your own knowledge and understanding.
If your answer is correct you will succeed; if it is
wrong you will fail, and your failure will bar the
way to further progress.
The
situation, which man faces, is similar. God has
given him freedom of will and action so that he may
choose whatever attitude in life he likes and
considers proper for himself— Islam or Kufr.
By
the correct use of his knowledge and intellect a man
recognises his Creator, reposes belief in Him, and,
in spite of being under no compulsion to do so,
chooses the path of obedience to Him. He understands
both his own nature and the laws and realities of
nature itself: despite the power and freedom to
adopt any course, he adopts the way of obedience and
loyalty to God, the Creator. He is successful in his
trial because he has used his intellect and all
other faculties properly. He uses his eyes to see
the reality, his ears to listen to the truth and his
mind to form right opinions. He puts all his heart
and soul into following the right way he has so
chosen. He chooses Truth, sees the reality, and
willingly and joyfully submits to his Lord and
Master. He is intelligent, truthful and dutiful, for
he has chosen light over darkness. Thus he has
proved by his conduct that he is not only a seeker
after Truth but is its knower and worshipper as
well. Such a man is on the right path, and is
destined to succeed in this world and in the world
to come.
Such
a man will always choose the right path in every
field of knowledge and action. The man who knows God
with all His attributes knows the beginning as well
as the ultimate end of reality. He can never be led
astray, for his first step is on the right path, and
he is sure of the direction and destination of his
journey in life. He will reflect on the secrets of
the universe, and will try to fathom the mysteries
of nature, but he will not lose his way in mazes of
doubt and scepticism. His path being illumined with
Divine Vision, his every step will be in the right
direction. In science he will endeavour to learn the
laws of nature and uncover the hidden treasures of
the earth for the betterment of humanity. He will
try his level best to explore all avenues of
knowledge and power and to harness all that exists
on earth and in the heavens in the interests of
mankind.
At
every stage of his enquiry his God-consciousness
will save him from making evil and destructive uses
of science and the scientific method. He will never
think of himself as the master of all these objects,
boasting to be the conqueror of nature, arrogating
to himself godly and sovereign powers and nourishing
the ambition of subverting the world, subduing the
human race and establishing his supremacy over all
and sundry by fair means or foul. Such, an attitude
of revolt and defiance can never be entertained by a
Muslim scientist — only a Kafir scientist
can fall prey to such illusions and by submitting to
them expose the entire human race to the danger of
total destruction and annihilation2. (2.
The situation, which confronts modern man today, is
similar. Dr. Joad says: "Science has given us
power fit for the gods, and to its use we bring the
mentality of schoolboys and savages." The
famous philosopher Bertrand Russell writes:
"Broadly speaking, »e are in the middle of a
race between human skill as to means and human folly
as to ends, every increase in the skill required lo
achieve them is to the bad. The human race has
survived hitherto owing to ignorance and
incompetence: but, given knowledge and competence
combined with folly, there can be no certainty of
survival. Knowledge is power, but it is power for
evil just as much as for good. It follows that
unless man increases in wisdom as much as in
knowledge, increase of knowledge will be increase of
sorrow." (Impact of Science on Society, pp.
120-121.) Another leading thinker has put the
paradox in these words: "We are taught lo fly
in the air like birds, and to swim in the water like
fishes: but how to lire on the earth we do not
know." (Quoted by Joad in Counter Attack From
the East, p. 28.)
A
Muslim scientist, on the other hand, will behave in
an altogether different way. The deeper his insight
into the world of science, the stronger will be his
faith in God. His head will bow down before Him in
gratitude. His feelings will be that as his Master
has blessed him with greater power and knowledge so
he must exert himself for his own good and for the
good of humanity. Instead of arrogance there will be
humility. Instead of power-drunkenness there will be
a strong realisation of the need to serve humanity.
His freedom will not be unbridled. He will be guided
by the tenets of morality and Divine Revelation.
Thus science will in his hands, instead of becoming
an instrument of destruction, become an agency for
human welfare and moral regeneration. And this is
the way in which he will express his gratitude to
his Master for the gifts and blessings He has
bestowed on man.
Similarly,
in history, economics, politics, law and other
branches of arts and science, a Muslim will nowhere
lag behind a Kafir in the fields of inquiry
and struggle, but their angles of view and
consequently their modus operandi will
be widely different. A Muslim will study every
branch of knowledge in its true perspective. He will
strive to arrive at the right conclusions.
In
history he will draw correct lessons from the past
experiences of man, and will uncover the true causes
of the rise and fall of civilisations. He will try
to benefit from all that was good and right in the
past and will scrupulously avoid all that led to the
decline and fall of nations. In politics his sole
objective will be to strive for the establishment of
policies where peace, justice, fraternity and
goodness reign, where man is a brother of man and
respects his humanity, where no exploitation or
slavery is rampant, where the rights of the
individual are upheld, and where the powers of the
state are considered as a sacred trust from God and
are used for the common welfare of all. In the field
of law, the endeavour of a Muslim will be to make it
the true embodiment of justice and the real
protector of the rights of all — particularly of
the weak. He will see that everybody gets his due
share and no injustice or oppression is inflicted on
anyone. He will respect the law, make others respect
it, and will see that it is administered equitably.
The
life of a Muslim will always be filled with
godliness, piety, righteousness and truthfulness. He
will live in the belief that God alone is the Master
of all, that whatever he and other men possess has
been given by God, that the powers he wields are
only a trust from God, that the freedom he has been
endowed with is not to be used indiscriminately, and
that it is in his own interest to use it in
accordance with God's Will. He will constantly keep
in view that one day he will have to return to the
Lord and submit an account of his entire life. The
sense of accountability will always remain implanted
in his mind and he will never behave irresponsibly.
Think
of the moral excellence of the man who lives with
this mental attitude — his will be a life of
purity and piety and love and altruism. He will be a
blessing unto mankind. His thinking will not be
polluted with evil thoughts and perverted ambitions.
He will abstain from seeing evil, hearing evil, and
doing evil. He will guard his tongue and will never
utter a word of lie. He will earn his living through
just and fair means and will prefer hunger to a food
acquired unfairly through exploitation or injustice.
He will never be a party to any form of oppression
or violation of human life and honour. He will never
yield to evil, whatever the cost of defiance.
He will be an embodiment of goodness and nobility
and will defend right and truth even at the cost of
his life. Such a man will be a power to be reckoned
with. He is bound to succeed.
He
will be highly honoured and respected. How can
humiliation ever visit a person who is not prepared
to bow his head before anyone except God the
Almighty, the Sovereign of the universe? No one can
be more powerful than he — for he fears none but
God and seeks blessings from none but Him. What
power can make him deviate from the right path? What
wealth can buy his faith? What force can shape his
conscience? What power can compel him to behave, as
he does not want to?
He
will be the wealthiest. No one in the world can be
richer or more independent than he — for he will
live a life of austerity and contentment. He will be
neither a sensualist, nor indulgent, nor greedy. He
will be contented with whatever he earns fairly and
honestly and however much ill-gotten wealth is
heaped before him he will not even look at it. He
will have peace and contentment of heart — and
what can be a greater wealth than this?
He
will be the most revered, popular and beloved. No
one can be more lovable than he — for he lives a
life of charity and benevolence. He will be just to
everyone, discharge his duties honestly, and work
for the good of others. People's hearts will be
naturally drawn towards him.
No
one can be more trust worthy than he — for he will
not betray his trust, nor will he stray from
righteousness: he will be true to his word, and
straightforward and honest in his dealings. He will
be fair and just in all his affairs, for he is sure
that God is ever-present, ever vigilant. Words fail
to describe the credit and good will, which such a
man commands. Can there be anyone who will not trust
him? Such is the life and character of a Muslim.
If
you understand the true character of a Muslim, you
will be convinced that he cannot live in
humiliation, abasement or subjugation. He is bound
to prevail and no power on earth can overwhelm him.
For Islam, inculcates in him the qualities, which
cannot be driven out.
And
after living a respectable and honourable life on
this earth, he will return to his Creator Who will
shower on him the choicest of His blessings — for
he will have discharged his duty ably, fulfilled his
mission successfully and emerged from his trial
triumphantly. He is successful in life in this world
and in the hereafter will live in eternal peace, joy
and bliss.
This
is Islam, the natural religion of man, the religion
that is not associated with any person, people,
period or place. It is the way of nature, the
religion of man. In every age, in every
country and among every people, all God-knowing and
truth-loving men have believed and lived this very
religion. They were all Muslims, irrespective of
whether they called that way Islam. Whatever its
name was, it signified Islam and nothing but Islam.
Go
to Top
Chapter
2
Faith:
What does it Mean?
How to
Acquire the Knowledge of God?
Faith in the Unknown
Islam
means obedience to God. And it is common sense that
this obedience cannot be complete unless man knows
certain basic facts of life and places firm faith in
them. What are those facts? And what are the
essentials, which a man must know to fashion his
life in accordance with the Divine Way? This we
propose to discuss in the present chapter.
First
of all, one should have an unshakable belief in the
existence of God; without this, obedience to Him is
clearly impossible.
Then,
one must know the attributes of God. It is the
knowledge of the attributes of God, which enables
man to cultivate the noblest of human qualities and
to fashion his life in virtue and godliness. If a
man does not know that there is One and only One God
who is the Creator, the Ruler and the Sustainer of
the Universe and there is none else to share with
Him even a shred of Divine power and authority, he
may fall prey to false gods, and offer his homage to
them in search of favours.
But
if he knows the divine attribute of tawhid (Oneness
of God), there is no possibility of this. Similarly,
if a man knows that God is Omnipresent and
Omniscient and sees, hears and knows everything that
we do in public or private — including our
unexpressed thoughts! — Then how can he afford to
be disobedient to God? He will feel that he is under
eternal vigil and will, therefore, behave
accordingly. But he who is not aware of these
attributes of God may be led, because of his
ignorance, into disobedience. It is the same with
all the other attributes of God.
The
fact is that the qualities and attributes which a
man must possess, if he wants to pursue the way of
Islam, can be cultivated and developed only out of
profound knowledge of the attributes of God. It is
the knowledge of God's attributes, which purifies a
man's mind and soul, his beliefs, morals and
actions. And a mere cursory acquaintance with or
just an academic knowledge of these attributes is
not sufficient — there must be an unflinching
conviction firmly rooted in the mind and heart of
man so that he may remain immune from insidious
doubts and perversions.
Moreover,
one must know in detail the way of
living by following which one can seek the
pleasure of God. Unless a man knows the likes and
dislikes of God, how can he choose the one and
reject the other? If a man has no knowledge of the
Divine Law, how can he follow it? Thus knowledge of
the Divine Law and the Revealed Code of Life is
essential.
But
here, again, mere knowledge is not enough. Man must
have full confidence and conviction that is the
Divine Law and that his salvation
lies in following this code alone. For
knowledge without this conviction will fail to spur
man to the Right Path and he may be lost in the
blind alley of disobedience.
Finally,
man must also know the consequences both of belief
and obedience and of disbelief and disobedience. He
must know what blessings will be showered upon him
if he chooses God's way and leads a life of purity,
virtue and obedience. And he must also know what
consequences follow if he adopts the way of
disobedience and revolt. Thus, knowledge of life
after death is absolutely essential for this
purpose. Man must have an unwavering belief in the
fact that death does not mean the end of life; that
there will be resurrection and he will be brought to
the highest court of justice, to be presided over by
God Himself; that on the Day of Judgement complete
justice will prevail; and that good deeds will be
rewarded and misdeeds punished. Everybody will get
his due; there will be no escape. This is bound to
happen. A sense of accountability is essential for
fully-fledged obedience to the Law of God.
A
man who has no knowledge of the world to come many
considers obedience and disobedience quite
immaterial. He may think that the obedient and the
disobedient will both meet a similar end: after
death, both will be reduced to mere dust. With this
attitude of mind, how can he be expected to submit
to all the inconveniences and troubles that are
inextricably associated with the life of active
obedience, and avoid committing those sins which do
not apparently bring him any moral or material loss
in this world? With this mental attitude a man
cannot acknowledge and submit to God's Law.
Nor
can a man, who lacks firm belief in
the life hereafter and in the Divine Court of
Judgement, remain steadfast in the turbulent waters
of life with its temptation to sin, crime and evil;
for doubt and hesitancy rob a man of his will to
action. You can remain consistent in your behaviour
only if you are firm in your beliefs. You can
whole-heartedly follow a course only if you are sure
of the benefits that will accrue to you by following
it and of the losses that will engulf you if you
disobey it. Thus, a profound knowledge of the
consequences of belief and disbelief and of the life
after death is crucial.
These
are the essential facts, which one must know if one
wants to live the life of obedience, that is, Islam.
Faith
is what we have described in the foregoing
discussion as 'Knowledge and Belief. The Arabic word
lman, which we have rendered in English as
faith, literally means 'to know', 'to believe' and
'to be convinced beyond the least shadow of doubt'.
Faith, thus, is firm belief arising out of knowledge
and conviction. And the man who knows and
reposes unshakable belief in the Unity of God, in
His Attributes, in His Law and the Revealed
Guidance, and in the Divine Code of Reward and
Punishment is called Mu'min (faithful).
This faith invariably leads man to a life of
obedience and submission to the Will of God. And one
who lives this life of submission is known as Muslim.
It
is therefore clear that without faith (lman)
no man can be a true Muslim. It is the indispensable
essential; rather, the very starting point, without
which no beginning can be made. The relation of
Islam to lman is the same as of a tree to its
seed. As a tree cannot sprout forth without its
seed, in the same way it is not possible for a man
who has no belief to start with, to become a
'Muslim'. On the other hand, just as it can happen
that, in spite of sowing the seed, the tree may, for
many reasons, not grow, or if it does grow, its
development may be impaired or retarded, in the same
way, a man may have faith, but due to a number of
weaknesses, he may not become a true and staunch
Muslim.
From
the viewpoint of Islam and lman, men may be
classified into four categories:
1Those
who have firm faith — a faith that makes
them whole-heartedly submit to God. They follow the
way of God and devote themselves heart and soul to
seeking His pleasure by doing all that He likes and
by avoiding all that He dislikes. In their devotion
they are even more fervent than is the common man in
pursuit of wealth and glory. Such men are true
Muslims.
2.
Those who do have faith, who believe in God, His Law
and the Day of Judgement, but whose faith is not
deep and strong enough to make them totally submit
to God. They are far below the rank of true Muslims,
deserve punishment for their defaults and misdeeds,
but are still Muslims. They are wrongdoers but not
rebels. They acknowledge the Sovereign and His Law
and, although they are violating the Law, they have
not revolted against the Sovereign. They admit His
supremacy and their own guilt. Thus they are guilty
and deserve punishment, but Muslims they remain.
3.Those
who do not possess faith
at all. These people refuse
to acknowledge the sovereignty of God and are
rebels. Even if their conduct is not bad and even if
they are not spreading corruption and violence, they
remain rebels and their apparent good deeds are of
little value. Such men are like outlaws. Sometimes
outlaws may act in accordance with the laws of the
land, but this does not make them loyal and obedient
citizens; in the same way the apparent good deeds of
those who revolt against God cannot compensate for
the gravity of the real wrongs, revolt and
disobedience.
4
Those who neither possess faith nor do good deeds.
They spread disorder in the world and perpetrate all
kinds of violence and oppression. They are the worst
of the people; for they are both rebels and
wrongdoers and criminals.
The
above classification of mankind shows that the real
success and salvation of man depends on faith (lman).
The life of obedience (Islam) takes its birth
from the seed of lman. This Islam of a person
may be flawless or defective. But without lman
there can be no Islam. Where there is no Iman
there is no Islam. Where there is no Islam there is Kufr.
Its form and nature may vary, but it remains Kufr
and nothing but Kufr.
How
to Acquire Knowledge of God?
Now
the question arises of how to acquire knowledge of
and belief in God, His Attributes, His Law and the
Day of Judgment?
We
have already referred to the countless
manifestations of God around us and in our own
selves, which bear witness to the fact that there is
One and only One Creator and Governor of this
Universe and it is He Who controls and directs it.
These manifestations reflect the divine attributes
of the Creator: His great wisdom. His all-embracing
knowledge, His omnipotence, His mercy. His
all-sustaining power — in short His attributes can
be traced everywhere in His works. But man's
intellect and capacity for knowledge have erred in
observing and understanding them. Some men have
argued that there are two gods, others have
professed belief in a trinity, and still others have
succumbed to polytheism. Some have worshipped nature
and others divided the Creator into the gods of
rain, air, fire, life, death and so on.
Similarly,
men have put forward many erroneous notions about
life after death; for instance, that man is reduced
to dust after death and will not rise to life again;
or that man is subject to a process of continuous
regeneration in this world and is punished or
rewarded in future cycles of life.
Even
greater difficulty arises when we come to the
question of a code of living. To formulate a
complete and balanced code that conforms to God's
pleasure merely using human reason is an extremely
difficult task. Even if a man is equipped with the
highest faculties of reason and intellect and
possesses matchless wisdom and experience, the
chances of his formulating the correct views on
existence are slight. And even if, after a lifetime
of reflection, he does in fact succeed he will still
lack the confidence that he has really discovered
the truth and adopted the right path.
The
fullest and fairest test of man's wisdom, reason and
knowledge might have been to have left him to his
own resources without any external guidance. But
this would have meant that only those with the
determination and ability to find the path of truth
would find salvation. God, therefore, spared His
human creatures such a hard test. Through His Grace
and Benevolence He raised for mankind men from among
themselves to whom He imparted the true knowledge of
His attributes, revealed to them His Law and the
Right Code of Living, gave them the knowledge of the
meaning and purpose of life and of life after death
and thus showed them the way by which man can
achieve success and eternal bliss.
These
chosen men are the Messengers of God — His
Prophets. God has communicated knowledge and wisdom
to them by means of revelation (Wahi), and
the book containing the Divine Communications is
called the Book of God, or the Word of God. The test
of man's wisdom and intellect therefore lies in
this: does he recognize God's Messengers after
observing their pure and pious lives and carefully
studying their noble and flawless teachings? A man
of wisdom and common sense would accept instructions
given by the Messengers of truth. If he denies the
Messengers of God and their teachings, his denial
would signify that he was devoid of the capacity to
discover truth and righteousness. He would fail his
test. Such a man will never be able to discover the
truth about God and His Law and life after death.
It
is an everyday experience that when you do not know
a thing, you look for somebody who does know. If you
get ill and you cannot treat and cure yourself, you
go to a doctor and follow his instructions without
question. Why? Because he is properly qualified to
give medical advice, possesses experience and has
treated and cured a number of patients. Similarly,
in matters of law you accept whatever a legal expert
says and act accordingly.
In
educational matters you trust in your teacher. When
you want to go to some place and do not know the
way, you ask somebody who knows it, and follow the
way he points out. In short, the course that you
adopt in your day-to-day life about matters, which
you do not or cannot know, is that you approach
someone who does know about them, accept his advice
and act accordingly. You make every effort to select
the proper person. But from then on you accept his
advice unquestioningly. This kind of belief is
called "belief in the unknown" (Iman-bi'l-ghayb).
Iman-bi'l-ghayb
signifies that you get knowledge of what was not
known to you from one who knows. You do not know God
and His real attributes. You are not aware that His
angels are directing the machinery of the whole
Universe according to His orders, and that they
surround you on all sides. You have not the proper
knowledge of the way of life through which you can
seek the pleasure of your Creator. And you are in
the dark about the life to come. Such knowledge is
given to you by the Prophets, who have had direct
contact with the Divine Being. They are the persons
whose sincerity, integrity, trustworthiness,
godliness and absolute purity stand as irrevocable
witnesses to the truth of their claim to knowledge.
And above all, the wisdom and force of their message
makes you admit that they speak the truth and
deserve to be believed and followed.
This
conviction of yours is Iman-bi'l-ghayb. Such
a truth-discerning and truth-acknowledging attitude
is essential for obedience to God and for acting in
accordance with His pleasure; for you have no other
medium than God's Messengers for the achievement of
true knowledge, and without true knowledge you
cannot proceed on the path of Islam.
Go
to Top
Chapter
3
Prophethood:
Its Nature and Necessity
Brief
History of Prophethood
The
Prophethood of Muhammad
Muhammad's
Prophethood: A Rational Vindication
Arabia—
The Abyss of Darkness
The Saviour is Born
Diamond in a
Heap of Stones
A Revolution Comes
Why all that Enmity?
A Changed
Man at Forty—Why?
His
All-embracing Message
His
Contribution to Human Thought
The Greatest
Revolutionary
The Final Testimony
The Finality
of Prophethood
Our
discussion so far has made the following points:
1.The
right course for man is to live in obedience to God,
and for such a life of obedience knowledge and faith
are absolutely essential: knowledge of God and His
attributes. His likes and dislikes. His chosen way
and the Day of Judgement: and unflinching faith in
this knowledge: this is Iman.
2.
God has graciously spared man the arduous
task of acquiring this knowledge through his
personal effort alone. Instead. He has revealed this
knowledge to the Prophets He has chosen from amongst
men and commanded them to convey the Will of God to
other human beings and show them the right path.
This has saved man from much great misfortune.
3.
The duty of men and women is to recognise a true
Prophet of God, to have faith in him and his
teachings and to scrupulously obey him and follow in
his footsteps. This is the road to salvation.
In
this chapter we shall discuss the nature, history
and other aspects of Prophethood.
God
has most graciously provided man with all that he
needs in this Universe. Generally every new-born
child arrives in the world endowed with eyes to see,
ears to hear, a nose to smell and breathe, hands to
touch, feet to walk and a mind to think. All those
potentialities, powers and faculties, that a man
needs or can need are most carefully provided and
marvellously set in his tiny body. Every minute
requirement is foreseen and provided for.
It
is the same with the world he lives in. Everything
essential for his life is provided: air, light,
heat, water and so on. A child on opening his eyes
finds his food in his mother's breast. His parents
love him instinctively and in their hearts has been
implanted an irresistible urge to look after him, to
bring him up and to sacrifice there all for his
welfare.
Under
the sheltering care of His system of sustenance the
child grows to maturity and at every stage of his
life obtains from nature all that he needs. All the
material conditions of survival and growth are
provided for: he finds that the whole Universe is at
his service.
Furthermore,
man is blessed with all those powers, capacities and
faculties - physical, mental and moral —, which he
requires in his struggle for life. But God has not
distributed these gifts equally. This would have
made men totally independent of each other and would
have excluded mutual care and co-operation. Thus,
although mankind as a whole possesses all that is
needed, between men capacities are distributed
unequally and sparingly.
Some
possess physical strength and prowess; others
distinguish themselves for their mental talents.
Some are born with a greater aptitude for arts,
poetry and philosophy, some possess sharpness of
tongue, others military acumen, commercial
intelligence, mathematical keenness, scientific
curiosity, literary observation or philosophical
bent. These special aptitudes make a man distinct
and enable him to grasp those intricacies, which
elude the common man. These insights, aptitudes and
talents are the gifts of God. They are innate in the
nature of those men whom God has destined to be thus
distinguished. They cannot be acquired merely by
education and training.
Reflection
on this disposition of God's gifts also reveals that
man's talents have been distributed in a marvelous
way. Those capacities, which are essential for the
general maintenance of human culture, have been
endowed to most people, while extraordinary talents,
which are required only to a limited extent, are
given only to a small number. There are many
soldiers; peasants, artisans and workers; but
military generals, scholars, statesmen and
intellectuals are comparatively few. The general
rule seems to be: the higher the capacity and
greater the genius, the fewer people who possess
them. Supergeniuses, who leave an indelible mark on
human history and whose achievements guide humanity
for centuries, are fewer still.
Here
we are faced with another question: do people just
need specialists in the fields of law and politics,
science and mathematics, engineering and mechanics,
finance and economics and the like? Or do they also
need men to show them the right path — the way to
God and salvation? There must clearly be someone to
tell man the purpose of creation and the meaning of
life itself: what man himself is and why he
has been created: who has provided him with
all the powers and resources and why: what are the
proper ends of life and how are they to be achieved:
what are the proper values of life and how they can
be attained.
Our
reason refuses to accept that God, Who has provided
man with even the smallest of his requirements,
would not provide for this greatest and most vital
need. It can never be so. And it is
not so. While God has produced men of
distinction in arts and science. He has also raised
men with deep vision, pure intuition and the highest
faculties to know and understand Him, to them. He
revealed the way of godliness, piety and
righteousness. He gave them the knowledge of the
aims of life and values of morality and entrusted
them with the duty to communicate Divine Revelation
to other human beings. These men are the Prophets
and Messengers of God.
The
Prophets distinguish themselves in human society by
their special aptitudes, natural bents of mind and a
pious and meaningful way of life, more or less in
the same way as other geniuses in art and science
distinguish themselves by their extraordinary
capacities and natural aptitudes. The genius in man
is its own advertisement and automatically persuades
others to recognise and acknowledge it.
Thus,
a Prophet's mind grasps problems which defy other
minds; he throws light on subjects which no one else
can; he has insights into such subtle and intricate
questions that no one else would have even
understood after years of deep thought and
meditation. Reason accepts whatever he says; the
heart feels its truth; and experience of the world
testifies to every word that flows from his mouth.
If, however, we ourselves try to produce the same or
a similar work, we inevitably meet with failure. In
all affairs his attitude is that of truthfulness,
straightforwardness and nobility. He never does or
utters wrong, nor does he commit any evil. He always
encourages virtue and righteousness, and practices
himself what he preaches to others. Neither his
words nor his deeds are prompted by self-interest.
He suffers for the good of others, and never makes
others suffer for his own good.
When
it becomes quite clear that a person is a true
Prophet of God, the natural dictate of this
realisation is that his words should be accepted,
his instructions followed and his orders obeyed. It
is illogical to accept a man as God's true Prophet
and yet not to believe in what he says and not to
follow what he ordains; for your very acceptance of
him as God's Prophet means that you have
acknowledged that what he says is from God and that
whatever he does is in accordance with God's Will
and Pleasure. Disobedience of him is disobedience of
God — and disobedience of God leads to ruin.
Therefore,
the very acceptance of a Prophet makes it incumbent
on you to follow his instructions unconditionally.
You may not be able fully to grasp the wisdom and
usefulness of" this or that- order, but the
very fact that an instruction has emanated from a
Prophet is sufficient guarantee of its truth. One's
inability to understand it does not mean there is
something wrong with it. Rather it is our
understanding, which is at fault.
Some
men admit the integrity and truthfulness of a
Prophet, but do not put faith (Iman) in him,
nor do they follow him in the affairs of their life.
Such men are not only Kafirs, but imprudent:
for not to follow a Prophet after admitting him to
be true means that one knowingly follows untruth.
And what folly can be greater than that!
Some
people declare: "We do not need a Prophet for
our guidance and we can ourselves find the way to
truth." This, too, is a wrong view. You have
probably learnt geometry, and you know that between
points there can be only one straight line; all
other lines must be crooked or will fail to touch
the points in view. The same is the case with the
way to truth, which in the language of Islam, is
called the Straight Path (al-Sira( al-MuslaqJm).
This path begins from man and goes straight up to
God, and this path can by definition be one and only
one; all other paths must be aberrations. This
Straight Path has been indicated by the Prophets,
and there is and can be no straight path besides
that. The man who ignores that path soon finds
himself lost in the maze created by his own fancy.
What can you think of a person who loses his way
and, when a good man shows him the right one,
defiantly declares: "I will not take your
guidance nor accept the way you have shown to me,
but I will myself grope in this unknown region and
try to reach the object of my search in my own
way?" This, in the presence of the clear
guidance of the Prophets, is sheer stupidity. If
everybody tried to start from scratch, it would be a
gross waste of time and energy. We never do so in
the sciences and arts: why here?
If
you go a little deeper into the matter, it will
become clear that a person who disbelieves in a true
Prophet cannot find any way, straight or otherwise,
to God. This is because a man who refuses to believe
the advice of a truthful man adopts such a perverse
attitude that he ceases to understand the difference
between truth and falsehood and becomes a victim of
his own obstinacy, arrogance, bias and perversity.
This refusal may be due to false arrogance, or blind
conservatism and obstinate adherence to the way of
one's forefathers, or to slavery to the lower
desires of the self, whose gratification becomes
impossible by submission to the teachings of the
Prophets.
On
the other hand, if a man is sincere and truth
loving, the road to reality opens up to him. He will
find in the teachings of the Prophets the very echo
of his own soul and discover himself by discovering
the Prophets.
Above
all, a true Prophet is raised by God Himself. It is
He Who has sent him to mankind to convey His message
to His people. It is His Command that one should put
one's faith in the Prophet and follow him. Thus, one
who refuses to believe in God's Messenger refuses to
follow God’s Commandment and becomes a rebel.
There is no denying that one who refuses to
acknowledge the authority of the viceroy of a
sovereign actually refuses the authority of the
sovereign himself. This disobedience turns him into
a rebel. God is the Lord of the Universe, the true
Sovereign, tl ..- King of Kings, and it is the
bounden duty of every man to acknowledge the
authority of His Messengers and Apostles and to obey
them as His accredited Prophets. Anyone who rejects
the Prophets of God is a Kafir, be he a
believer in God or a disbeliever.
Now
let us look at the history of prophethood. Let us
see how this long chain began, how it gradually
unfolded itself and finally culminated in the
prophethood of the last of the Prophets, Muhammad
(blessings of Allah and peace be upon him).
The
human race began from one man: Adam. It was from him
that the family of man grew and the human race
multiplied. All human beings born in this world have
descended from that earliest pair: Adam and
Eve1. (1. This is a very
important and revolutionary concept. Its logical
outcome is unity of mankind and the equality of
human beings. It is stupid to distinguish and
discriminate between men on grounds of class, colour,
race or territory. In an age when nationalism,
narrow racialism and bloodthirsty anti-semitism have
torn the world into shreds, this creed of the unity
of mankind is a powerful ray of hope for the future.
– Editor.) History
and religion are agreed on this point. Nor do
scientific investigations into the origin of man
show that originally different men came into being,
simultaneously or at different points of time, in
different parts of the world. Most scientists
conjecture that one man would have been brought into
existence first and the entire human race might have
descended from that one man.
Adam,
the first man on earth, was also the first Prophet
of God. He revealed His religion — Islam — to
him and told him to convey and communicate it to his
descendents: to teach them that Allah is One, the
Creator, the Sustainer of the world; that He is the
Lord of the Universe and He alone should be
worshipped and obeyed: that to Him they would have
to return one day and to Him alone they should
appeal for help: that they should live righteous
lives in accordance with God's pleasure and that if
they did so they would be blessed and if they did
not they would suffer both here and in the
hereafter.
Those
of Adam's descendants who were good trod the right
path, but those who were bad abandoned their
father's teachings. Some began to worship the sun,
the moon and the stars; others took to the worship
of trees, animals and rivers. Some believed that
air, water, fire, health and all the blessings and
forces of Nature were each under the control of a
different god and that the favour of each one could
be won by worship. In this way ignorance gave rise
to many forms of polytheism and idolatry, and scores
of religions were formulated. This was the age when
Adam's progeny had spread over the globe, and formed
different races and nations. Every nation had
created a different religion for itself, each with
rituals of its own. God — the one Lord and Creator
of mankind and the universe — was forgotten. Every
kind of evil custom grew; many evils began to be
considered right and many right things were either
ignored or condemned as wrong.2
(2. This view of the history of religions is
diametrically opposed to the so-called evolutionary
view of religion, which regards nature-worship as
the first stage. More modern scientific studies are
confirming the view that worship of one God (Tawhid)
was the earliest Form of worship and all other forms
are perversions of that original religion. Those who
want to pursue the topic may refer to Prof. W.
Schmidt's valuable research treatise. The Origin and
Growth of Religions, English translation by H. J.
Rose (London. Methuen). — Editor.)
At
this stage God began to raise Prophets among every
people. Each one reminded his people of the lesson
they had forgotten. They put an end to idol-worship
and the practice of associating other deities with
God (shirk), did away with all customs of
ignorance, taught them the right way of living in
accordance with God's pleasure, and gave them laws
to be followed and enforced in society. God's true
Prophets were raised in every land and among every
people. They all possessed one and the same religion
— the religion of Islam.3 (3.
There is a common misconception, mostly among
Western writers, that Islam owes its origin to the
Prophet Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be
upon him) and some of the writers even go to the
extent of calling him 'the founder of Islam'. This
is a travesty of the truth. Islam has been the
religion of all the Prophets of God and all of them
have brought the same message from Him. Prophets
have not been the founders of Islam: they have only
been the messengers of it. Islam consists of the
Divine Revelation conveyed to mankind by the
truthful Prophets. — Editor.)
No
doubt the methods of teaching and the legal codes of
different Prophets varied in accordance with the
needs and the stage of culture of the people among
whom they were raised. The particular teachings of
each Prophet were determined by the kind of evils,
which he was trying to eradicate. When people were
in the primitive stages of society, civilisation and
intellectual development, their laws and regulations
were simple; they were modified and improved as the
society evolved and progressed.
Such
differences were, however, only superficial. The
fundamental teachings of all the religions were the
same, i.e. belief in the unity of God adherence to a
life of piety, goodness and peace, and belief in
life after death with its just mechanism of reward
and punishment.
Man's
attitude towards God's Prophets has been strange. He
has ill-treated them and refused to accept their
teachings. Some of the prophets were expelled from
their lands; some were assassinated: some, faced
with indifference, preached the whole of their lives
without winning more than a few followers. But
despite the harassment, derision and indignity, to
which they were perpetually subjected, these
Apostles of God did not cease to spread their
message. Their patient determination at last
succeeded: large groups of people and nations were
converted to their creed.
The
false tendencies, born of centuries of deviation,
ignorance and malpractice, now took another form.
Though they accepted their Prophets during their
lives and practiced their teachings, after their
deaths they introduced their own distorted ideas
into their religions. They adopted novel methods of
worshipping God; some even took to the worship of
their Prophets. They made the Prophets the
incarnations of God or the sons of God; some
associated their Prophets with God in His Divinity.
In
short, man's varied attitudes in this respect were a
travesty of his reason and a mockery of himself; he
made idols of those very persons whose holy mission
was to smash idols.
By
intermixing religion, rituals born of ignorance,
baseless and false anecdotes and man-made laws, men
so changed and perverted the teachings of the
Prophets over the centuries that they became lost in
a welter of fictions to the extent that it became
impossible to distinguish the grain from the chaff.
Not content with this, they made up so many stories
about their Prophets that real and reliable accounts
of their lives became impossible to discern. Despite
all this, the work of the Prophets was not
altogether in vain. Traces of truth survived. The
idea of God and of life after death was assimilated
in some form or other. A few principles of
goodness, truthfulness and morality were accepted
throughout the world. The prophets thus
prepared the mental attitude of their respective
peoples in such a way that a universal religion
could be safely introduced — a religion which
accords with the nature of man, which embodies all
that was good in all other creeds and societies, and
which is acceptable to mankind.
As
we have said above, in the beginning separate
Prophets appeared among different nations or groups
of people, and the teaching of each Prophet was
meant specially and specifically for his people. The
reason was that at that stage of history, nations
were so cut off from each other geographically that
opportunities for mutual intercourse were
non-existent. In such circumstances it was
very difficult to propagate a common World Faith
with an accompanying common system of law.
In
addition, the ignorance of the early nations was so
great that it had given different forms to their
moral aberrations and distortions of Faith. It was,
therefore, necessary that different Prophets be
raised to preach the Truth to them and win them over
to God~ to gradually eradicate evils and
aberrations; to root out ignorance and teach them
the simple, pious and righteous life. God alone
knows how many thousands of years were spent in thus
educating man, and developing him mentally, morally
and spiritually.
With
the progress and spread of commerce, industry and
the arts, intercourse was established between
nations. From China and Japan, as far as the distant
lands of Europe and Africa, regular routes were
opened both by sea and land. Many people learnt the
art of writing; knowledge spread. Ideas began to be
communicated from one country to another and
learning and scholarship began to be exchanged.
Great conquerors appeared, extended their conquests
far and wide, established vast empires, and knit
many different nations under one political system.
Thus nations came closer and closer to one another,
and their differences became less and less.
It
became possible under these circumstances that one
and the same faith, envisaging a comprehensive and
all-embracing way of life, meeting the moral,
spiritual, social, cultural, political, economic and
other needs of men and embodying both religious and
secular elements could be sent by God to the whole
of mankind. More than two thousand years ago mankind
had reached such a mental awareness that it seemed
to be craving for a universal religion.
Buddhism,
though it consisted only of a set of moral
principles and was not a complete system of life
emerged from India, and spread as far as Japan and
Mongolia on one side, and Afghanistan and Bokhara on
the other. Its missionaries traveled far and wide in
the world. A few centuries later, Christianity
appeared. Although the religion taught by Jesus
Christ (peace be upon him) was pure Islam,
his followers reduced it to a hotch-potch called
Christianity, and even this overtly Israelised
religion spread to far-off Persia and Asia Minor and
to the distant climes of Europe and Africa. From
these events it is evident that the conditions of
mankind in that age demanded a common religion for
the whole human race. Indeed, when people found no
complete and true religion in existence they began
to develop existing religions, however defective,
incomplete and unsatisfying they might have been.
At
such a crucial stage of human civilisation, when the
mind of man was itself craving for a world religion,
a Prophet was raised in Arabia for the whole world
and for all nations. The religion he was given to
propagate was again Islam — but now in the form of
a complete and fully-fledged system covering all
aspects of the life of man. He was Muhammad, the
Prophet of Islam (blessings of Allah and peace be
upon him)!
If
we cast a glance at the world atlas, we find that no
other country could have been more suitable than
Arabia for the much-needed world religion. It is
situated right in the middle of Asia and Africa, and
Europe is not far away. At the time of Muhammad's
(blessings of Allah and peace be upon him)
appearance central Europe was inhabited by civilised
and culturally advanced nations; these people were
about the same distance from Arabia as were the
people of India.
Look
at the history of that era, too, and you will find
that no other people were more suited to be endowed
with this Prophet than the Arabs. Great nations of
the world had long been struggling for world
supremacy as a consequence they had exhausted their
resources and vitality. The Arabs were a fresh and
virile people. So-called social progress had
produced bad habits among the advanced nations,
while among the Arabs no such social organisation
existed, and they were, therefore, free from the
inactivity, debasement and decadence arising out of
luxury and sensual satiety.
The
pagan Arabs of the fifth century had not been
affected by the evil influence of the artificial
social systems and civilisations of the great
nations of the world. They possessed all the good
human qualities of a people untouched by the 'social
progress' of the time. They were brave, fearless,
generous, faithful to their promises, lovers of
freedom and politically independent — not subject
to the hegemony of any of the imperial powers.
There
were not also certain undesirable aspects of their
life as well, as we shall mention later on, but the
reason for this was that for thousands of years no
prophet had risen among them, nor had there appeared
a reformer who might have civilised them and purged
their moral life of its impurities. Centuries of
free and independent desert life had bred and
nourished extreme ignorance among them. They had,
therefore, become so fixed in their traditions of
ignorance that to humanise them was beyond an
ordinary
At
the same time, however, if some person of
extraordinary powers were to give them a noble
ideal, they would readily rise to act for the
achievement of such an ideal. They would be prepared
to face the hostility of the entire world in the
cause of their mission. It was just such young,
forceful and virile person that was needed to
disseminate the teachings of the World Prophet,
Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him).
Take
also the Arabic language. The more you study its
literature, the more you will be convinced that
there is no other language more suited to express
high ideals, to explain the most subtle aspects of
Divine knowledge, and to impress the heart of man
and mould it into submission to God. Small phrases
and brief sentences express a whole world of ideas:
they are so powerful that their very sound can move
men to tears and ecstasy. They are so sweet that it
is as if honey were being poured into one's ears;
they are so full of harmony tha0t every fiber of the
listener's body is moved by their symphony. It was a
rich and powerful language such as this that was
needed for the Qur'an, the Great Word of God.
It
was therefore, a manifestation of God's great wisdom
that He chose Arabia as the birthplace of the World
Prophet. Let us now see how unique and extraordinary
was the blessed personality chosen by God for this
mission.
If
one were to close one's eyes and imagine oneself in
the world of 1400 years ago, one would find that it
was a world completely different from ours. How few
and far between were the opportunities for the
exchange of ideas! How limited and undeveloped were
the means of communication! How meager was man's
knowledge! How narrow his outlook! How enveloped was
he in superstition and wild ideas!
Darkness
held sway. There was only a faint glimmer of
learning, hardly strong enough to light up the
horizons of human knowledge. There was neither radio
nor telephone, neither television nor the cinema.
Railways and cars and aeroplanes were undreamt of,
and printing presses were unknown. Hand-written
books or copyists alone supplied what little
literary material there was to be transmitted from
generation to generation. Education was a luxury,
meant only for the most fortunate, and educational
institutions were very few and far between.
The
store of human knowledge was scanty, man's outlook
was narrow, and his ideas of men and things were
confined to his limited surroundings. Even a scholar
of that age lacked in some respects the knowledge
possessed by a layman of today, and the most
cultured person was less refined than the modern man
in the street.
Indeed,
humanity was steeped in ignorance and superstition.
Whatever light of learning there was seemed to be
fighting a losing battle against the darkness
prevailing all around. People used to spend a whole
lifetime acquiring the modest information, which is
now everybody's heritage. Things, which are classed
as ‘myth’ and ‘superstition’ today, were the
unquestionable truths of that age. Acts, which we
now regard as barbarous, were then the order of the
day. Methods which appear obnoxious to our moral
sense today constituted the very soul of morality:
incredulity had assumed such proportions and had
become so widespread that people refused to consider
anything as sublime unless it appeared in the garb
of the supernatural, the uncanny and even the
impossible. They had developed such inferiority
complexes that they could not imagine human beings
possessing saintly souls.
In
that benighted era, there was a territory where
darkness lay even heavier than elsewhere. The
neighbouring countries of Persia, Byzantium and
Egypt possessed a glimmer of civilisation and a
faint light of learning. But Arabia stood isolated,
cut off by vast tracts of desert.
Arab
traders travelling great distances, which took them
months, carried their wares to and from these
countries, but they had little chance to find out
anything about them. In their own country, they did
not have a single educational institution or
library. No one seemed interested in the
cultivation and advancement of knowledge. The few
who were literate were not educated enough to
understand the existing arts and sciences. Although
they did possess a highly developed language capable
of expressing the finest shades of human thought in
a remarkable manner, a study of the remnants of
their literature reveals how limited was their
knowledge, how low was their standard of culture and
civilisation, how saturated were their minds with
superstitions, how barbarous and ferocious were
their thoughts and customs, and how decadent were
their moral standards.
It
was a country without a government. Each tribe
considered itself to be an independent sovereign
unit. There was no law except the law of the
strongest. Loot, arson and murder of innocent and
weak people were the order of the day. Life,
property and honour were constantly in jeopardy.
Tribes were always at daggers drawn with one
another. Any trivial incident was enough to spark
off a ferocious war. Indeed, Bedouins from one tribe
thought they had every right to kill people from
other tribes.4 (4. Prof.
Joseph Hell writes in The Arab Civilisation (p. 10);
“These struggles destroyed the sense of national
unity and developed an incurable particularism; each
tribe deeming itself sufficient and regarding the
rest as its legitimate victims for murder, robbery
and plunder.)
Whatever
notions they had of morals, culture and civilisation
were primitive in the extreme. They could hardly
discriminate between pure and impure, lawful and
unlawful. Their lives were barbaric. They reveled in
adultery, gambling and drinking. Looting and murder
were part of their everyday existence. They would
stand stark naked before each other without any
qualms of conscience. Even their women-folk would
strip nude at the ceremony of circumambulating the
Ka'bah. They would bury their daughters alive lest
anyone should become their son-in-law. They would
marry their stepmothers after the death of their
fathers. They were ignorant of even the rudiments of
everyday life such as proper eating, dressing and
washing.
As
regards their religious beliefs, they suffered from
the same evils, which were playing havoc with the
rest of the world. They worshipped stones, trees,
idols, stars and spirits; in short, everything
conceivable except God.
They
knew nothing about the teachings of the Prophets of
old. They had an idea that Abraham and Ishmael were
their forefathers, but they knew next to nothing
about their religious preaching’s and about the
God Whom they worshipped. The stories of 'Ad and
Thamud were to be found in their folklore, but they
contained no traces of the teachings of the Prophets
Hud and Salih. The Jews and Christians had passed on
to them certain legends relating to the Israelite
Prophets. They presented a harrowing picture of
those noble souls. Their teachings were adulterated
with the figments of their own imagination and their
lives were tarred black. Some idea of the religious
conceptions of those people can still be got today
by looking at those Israelite traditions which
Muslim commentators of the Qur'an have conveyed to
us. The picture presented of the institution of
prophethood and of the character of the Israelite
Prophets is the very antithesis of all that those
noble followers of truth stood for.
In
such a dark age and in such a benighted country a
man is born. His parents die when he is very young
and a few years later the sad demise of his
grandfather also occurs. Consequently, he is
deprived even of that scant training and upbringing
which an Arab child of his time could get. In his
boyhood he tends flocks of sheep and goats in the
company of Bedouin boys. When of age, he takes to
commerce. All his associations and all his dealings
are with the Arabs alone, whose condition has just
been described.
He
is completely illiterate and unschooled. He never
gets a chance to sit in the company of learned men,
for such men were non-existent in Arabia. He does
have a few opportunities to go out of his country,
but those journeys are confined to Syria and are
nothing more than the usual business trips
undertaken by Arab trade caravans. If he meets any
learned men there, such random meetings are so rare
as to play no part in the forming of his
personality. Nor can they be the means of the
acquisition of that profound and vast knowledge
which transformed an unlettered Bedouin into a
leader not only of his own country and age but of
the whole world and of all ages to come. These
journeys cannot have given him those conceptions and
principles of religion, ethics, culture and
civilisation: they were non-existent in the world of
those days. And they cannot have created that
sublime and perfect human character which was
nowhere to be found in those days.
We
may now look at the life and work of this noble man
in the context not only of the Arabian society but
also of the entire world as it stood in that period.
He
is totally different from the people among whom he
is born and passes his youth and early manhood and
attains finally his full stature. Even his worst
enemies never accuse him of telling a lie. He never
uses obscene and abusive language. He has a charming
personality and winning manners with which he
captivates the hearts of those who come into contact
with him. In his dealings with people he always
follows the principles of justice and fair play. He
remains engaged in trade and commerce for years, but
he never enters into any dishonest transaction.
Those who deal with him in business have full
confidence in his integrity. The entire nation calls
him Al-Amin (the Truthful and the
Trustworthy). Even his enemies deposit their
valuable belongings with him for safe custody.
He
is the embodiment of modesty in the midst of a
society, which is immodest to the core. Born and
bred among a people who regard drunkenness and
gambling as virtues, he never touches alcohol and
never indulges in gambling. His people are uncouth,
uncultured and unclean, but he personifies the
highest culture and the most refined aesthetic
outlook.
Surrounded
on all sides by cruelty, he himself has a heart
overflowing with the milk of human kindness. He
helps orphans and widows. He is hospitable to
travelers. He harms no one; rather, he suffers
hardships for others' sakes. Living among those for
whom war is bread and butter, he is such a lover of
peace that his heart melts for them when they take
up arms and cut each other's throats. He stays aloof
from the feuds of his tribe, intervening only to
bring about reconciliation. Brought up in an
idolatrous race, he regards nothing in the heavens
and the earth worth worshipping except the One True
God. He does not bow before any created thing and
does not partake of the offerings made to idols,
even in his childhood. Instinctively he hates all
worship of any creature and being except God.
In
brief, the towering and radiant personality of this
man, in the midst of such a benighted and
dark environment, may be likened to a beacon-light
illumining a pitch-dark night or to a diamond
shining in a heap of dead stones.
After
spending a great part of his life in such a pure and
civilised manner there comes a revolution in his
being. He has had enough of the darkness and
ignorance around him. He wants to swim clear of the
horrible sea of corruption, immorality, idolatry and
disorder, which surround him. He finds society out
of harmony with his soul. He withdraws alone to the
hills spending days and nights in total seclusion
and meditation. He fasts so that his soul and his
heart may become still purer and nobler.
He
muses and ponders deeply. He is in search of a light
to melt away the encompassing darkness. He wants the
power to bring about the downfall of the corrupt and
disorderly world of his day and lay the foundations
of a new and better world.
Suddenly
his heart is illuminated with the Divine Light
giving him the power he has yearned for. He comes
out of the confinement of his cave, goes to the
people, and addresses them thus:
"The
idols which you worship are a sham. Stop worshipping
them from now on. No mortal being, no star, no tree,
no stone, no spirit is worthy of human worship.
Therefore bow not your heads in worship before them.
The entire universe with everything that it contains
belongs to God Almighty. He alone is the Creator,
the Nourisher, the Sustainer and consequently, the
real Sovereign before Whom all should bow down and
to Whom all should pray and render obedience. Thus
worship Him alone and obey only His commands.
"Loot
and plunder, murder and rapine, injustice and
cruelty — all the vices in which you indulge —
are crimes in the eyes of God. Leave your evil ways.
He hates them all. Speak the truth. Be just. Do not
kill anyone. Do not rob anyone. Take your lawful
share. Give what is due to others in a just manner.
"You
are human beings and all human beings are equal in
the eyes of God. None is born with the slur of shame
on his face: nor has anyone come into the world with
the mantle of honour hung around his neck. He alone
is high and honoured who is God fearing and pious,
true in words and deed. Distinctions of birth and
race are no criteria of greatness and honour. One
who fears God and does good deeds is the noblest of
human beings. One who does not love God and is
steeped in bad ways is doomed.
'There
is an appointed day after your death when you shall
have to appear before your Lord. You shall be called
to account for all your deeds, good or bad, and you
shall not be able then to hide anything. The whole
record of your life shall be an open book to Him.
Your fate shall be determined by your good or bad
actions. In the court of the True Judge—the
Omniscient God — the question of unfair
recommendation and favouritism does not arise. You
will not be able to bribe Him. No consideration will
be given to your pedigree or parentage. True faith
and good deeds alone will
stand you in good stead at
that time. He who has them shall take
his abode in the Heaven of eternal happiness, while
he who is devoid of them shall be cast in the fire
of Hell."
This
is the message with which he comes. The ignorant
nation turns against him. Abuse and stones are
showered on his august person. Every
conceivable torture and cruelty is perpetrated on
him: and this continues not for a day or two but
uninterruptedly for thirteen long, troubled years.
At last he is exiled. But he is not given respite
even there. He is tormented in various ways in his
place of refuge. The whole of Arabia is incited
against him. He is persecuted and bounded
continuously for fully eight years there. He suffers
it all, but does not budge from the stand he has
taken. He is resolute, firm and inflexible in his
purpose.
One
might ask: how is it that his nation became his
sworn enemy? Was there any dispute about gold and
silver or other worldly possessions? Was it due to
any blood-feud? Did he ask for anything from them?
No! The whole enmity was based on the fact that he
had asked them to worship the One True God and to
lead lives of righteousness, piety and goodness. He
had preached against idolatry and the worship of
other beings besides God, and had denounced their
wav of life. He had cut at the roots of priest
craft. He had inveighed against all distinctions of
high and low between human beings, and had condemned
the prejudices of tribe and race as sheer ignorance:
and he wanted to change the whole structure society
which had been handed down to them from time
immemorial.
In
their turn, his countrymen told him that the
principles of his mission were hostile to their
ancestral traditions and asked him either to give
them up or to bear the worst consequences.
Why
did he suffer all those hardships? His nation
offered to accept him as their king and to lay all
the riches of the land at his feet if only he would
stop preaching his religion and spreading his
message5. (5. The
Prophet Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be
upon him) had to face tempests of adversity in the
cause of truth. He faced all the opposition and
oppression with a smile. He stood firm. Undeterred
by criticism and coercion. When the natives saw that
the threats failed to frighten him and the severest
tribulations heaped upon his person and his
followers could not make them budge, they played
another trick - but that too was destined to
fail! A deputation of the leading Quraish
called upon the Holy Prophet and tried to bribe him
by offering all the worldly glory they could
imagine. They said: "If you want to possess
wealth, we will amass for you as much as you wish:
if you aspire to win honour and power we are
prepared to swear allegiance to you as our overlord
and king: if you have a fancy for beauty, you shall
have the hand of the most beautiful maiden of your
choice."
But
they wanted him to abandon his mission. The terms
were extremely tempting for any human mortal. But
they had no significance for the Great Prophet. His
reply fell like a bombshell upon the deputation:
"Pray! I want neither wealth nor power. I have
been commissioned by God to warn mankind. I deliver
His message to you. Should you accept it, you shall
have joy in this life and eternal bliss in the life
hereafter: should you reject it, surely God will
decide between you and me." On another occasion
he said to his uncle, who, under pressure from the
leaders of Arabia, was trying to persuade him to
abandon his mission: "0 Uncle! Should they
place the sun in my right hand and the moon in my
left in order to make me renounce this mission, it
would not be so. I will never give it up till it
should please God to make it a triumph or I perish
in the attempt." This was the character of the
Prophet of Islam! -- Editor.)
But
he chose instead to refuse the tempting offers and
to suffer for his cause.
Why?
What had he to gain, if those people became pious
and righteous?
Why
was it that he cared nothing for riches and luxury,
kingship and glory, and ease and plenty? Was he
playing for some higher material gain so that these
blessings sank into insignificance in comparison
with them? Were those gains so tempting that he
could elect to go through fire and sword and bear
tortures of the soul and torments of the body with
equanimity for years? One has to ponder these
questions deeply to find the answer.
Can
anyone imagine a higher example of self-sacrifice,
fellow-feeling and humanity than that a man may ruin
his own happiness for the good of others, while
those very people for whose betterment he is
striving should stone him, abuse him, banish him and
harass him even in his exile, and that, in spite of
all this, he should continue striving for their
well-being? Can anyone who is insincere undergo so
much suffering for a false cause? Can anyone who is
dishonest exhibit such determination to stick to his
guns in the face of dangers and tortures of every
description when a whole country rises up in arms
against him?
The
faith, perseverance and resolution with which he led
his movement to ultimate success are eloquent proof
of the supreme truth of his cause. Had there been
the slightest doubt and uncertainty in his heart, he
could never have been able to brave the storm, which
continued unabated for twenty-one long years.
This
is one side of the revolution wrought in his being.
The other is even more wonderful and remarkable.
For
forty years he lived as an Arab among Arabs. During
that long period he was not known as a statesman, a
preacher or an orator. No-one had heard him
imparting gems of wisdom and knowledge as he began
to do hereafter. He was never seen discoursing
on metaphysics, ethics, law, politics, economics and
sociology. Let alone being a great general, he was
not even known as an ordinary soldier. He had
uttered no word about God, the Angels, the Revealed
Books, the early Prophets, and the bygone nations,
the Day of Judgment, Life after Death, Hell and
Heaven.
Although
he possessed an excellent character and charming
manners, and was highly cultured, there was nothing
so striking about him who could make men expects
something great and revolutionary from him in the
future. He was known among his acquaintances as a
sober, calm, gentle, law, abiding citizen of good
nature. But when he came out of the cave with his
Message he was transformed.
When
he began preaching his Message the whole of Arabia
stood in awe and wonder and was bewitched by his
wonderful eloquence and oratory. It was so
impressive and persuasive that his worst enemies
were afraid of hearing it, lest it should penetrate
deep into their hearts or the very marrow of their
beings and convert them from their old religion and
culture. It was so unique that the whole legion of
Arab poets, preachers and orators of the highest
caliber failed to match it in beauty of language and
splendour of diction when he threw the challenge to
his opponents to produce even a single line like the
ones he was reciting.
Along
with this, he now appeared before his people as a
unique philosopher. a wonderful reformer, a renowned
molder of culture and civilisation, an illustrious
politician, a great leader, a judge of the highest
eminence and an incomparable general. This
unlettered Bedouin, this desert dweller, spoke with
learning and wisdom, the like of which none had said
before and none could say after him.
He
expounded the complex problems of metaphysics and
theology. He delivered speeches on the decline and
fall of nations and empires, supporting his thesis
with historical fact. He reviewed the achievements
of the old reformers, passed judgments on the
various religions of the world, and gave verdicts on
the differences and disputes between nations. He
taught ethical canons and principles of culture. He
formulated laws of social culture, economic
organisation, group conduct and international
relations whose wisdom even eminent thinkers and
scholars can grasp only after life long research and
vast experience of men and things. Their beauties,
indeed, unfold themselves progressively as man
advances in theoretical knowledge and practical
experience.
This
silent and peace-loving trader who had never even
handled a sword before turned suddenly into such a
brave soldier that he was never known to retreat
however fierce the battle. He became such a great
general that he conquered the whole of Arabia in
nine years, at a time when the weapons of war were
primitive and the means of communication very poor.
His military acumen and his ability to transmit the
skills of war to a motley crowd of Arabs (who had no
equipment worth the name) meant that within a few
years he had overthrown the two most formidable
military powers of the day and become the master of
the greater part of the then known world.
This
reserved and quiet man who, for fully forty years,
never gave any indication of any political interest
or activity, appeared suddenly on the stage of the
world as such a great political reformer and
statesman that, without the aid of the media, he
brought together under one banner, one law, one
religion, one culture, one civilisation and one form
of government the scattered inhabitants of a desert
of twelve hundred thousand square miles — a people
who were warlike, ignorant, unruly, uncultured and
plunged in internecine tribal warfare6. (6.
Sir William Muir, a staunch critic of Islam, admits
in his book. The 1.iff of Muhammad (p. xciv)
"The first peculiarity, then, which attracts
our attention is the subdivision of the Arabs into
innumerable bodies . . . each independent of the
others; restless and often at war amongst
themselves: and even when united by blood or by
interest, ever ready on some insignificant cause to
separate and give way to an implacable hostility.
Thus at the era of Islam the retrospect of Arabian
history exhibits, as in tile kaleidoscope, an
ever-varying slate of combination and repulsion,
such as had hitherto rendered abortive any attempt
at a general union . . . The problem had yet to be
solved, by what force these tribes could be subdued,
or drawn to one common center', and it was solved by
Mohammed" (emphasis ours).)
He
changed their modes of thought, their customs and
their morals. He turned the uncouth into the
cultured, the barbarous into the civilised, the
evil-doers and bad characters into pious God fearing
and righteous persons. Their unruly and obstinate
natures were transformed into models of obedience
and submission to law and order. A nation, which had
not produced a single great man worth the name for
centuries gave birth, under his influence and
guidance, to thousands of noble souls who went forth
to far-off corners of the world to preach and leach
the principles of religion, morals and
civilisation7. (7. It would
be instructive to refer here to an important speech
of Ja’far ibn Abi Talib. When the oppression
of the Muslims of Makka reached its height, the
Prophet Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be
upon him) asked some of them to migrate to the
adjoining state of Abyssinia. A group did so. But
the Quraish who, were perpetrating every,
conceivable oppression against the Muslims did not
sit by idlv. They pursued the Muslims and asked King
Negus of Abyssinia to forcefully return his
immigrants. In the court of King Negus, Ja’far
made a speech, which threw light on the revolution
that the Holy Prophet had brought about. He said:
"O King! We were ignorant people, given to
idolatry. We were used to eating corpses even of
dead animals, and to doing all kinds of disgraceful
things. We did not carry out our obligations to our
relations, and ill-treated our neighbours. The
strong among us would thrive at the expense of the
weak, till, at last. God raised a Prophet for our
reformation. His descent, his righteousness, his
integrity and his piety are well known lo us all. He
called us to the worship of God and exhorted us to
give up idolatry and stone-worship. He enjoined us
to speak the truth, to make good our trusts, to
respect ties of kinship, and to do good to our
neighbours. He taught us to shun everything foul and
to avoid bloodshed. He forbade all manner of
indecent things: telling lies, misappropriating
orphans' belongings, and bringing false accusation
against the chastity of women. So we believed in
him. Followed him, and acted upon his teaching . .
.")
He
accomplished this feat not through any worldly lure,
oppression or cruelty, but by his humanity, his
moral personality and his teaching. With his noble
and gentle behaviour he befriended even his enemies.
He captured the hearts of the people with his
unbounded sympathy and the milk of human kindness.
He ruled justly. He did not deviate from truth and
righteousness. He did not oppress even his deadly
enemies who were after his life, who had stoned him,
who had turned him out of his native place, who had
set the whole of Arabia against him — nay, not
even those who had chewed the raw liver of his dead
uncle in a frenzy of vengeance8. (8.
On the occasion of the Battle of Uhud, Hinda, the
wife of the chief of the pagan Arabs, actually
chewed the raw liver of the Prophet's uncle, Hamza.)
He forgave them all when he triumphed over them. He
never took revenge on anyone.
Although
he became the ruler of his country, he was so
selfless and modest that he remained very simple and
sparing in his habits. He lived poorly, as before,
in his humble mud-cottage. He slept on a mattress,
wore coarse clothes, ate either the simplest food of
the poor or went without food at all. He used to
spend whole nights standing in prayer before his
Lord. He came to the rescue of the destitute and the
penniless9. ( 9. The
Prophet said: "Anyone who dies in debt or
leaves behind dependents who are in danger of
becoming destitute should come to me because I am
their guardian." His whole life bears ample
testimony to this.) He
felt not the least insult in working like a labourer.
Till his last moments there was not the slightest
tinge of royal pomp or hauteur of the high and
mighty in him. Like any ordinary man he would sit
and talk with people and share their joys and
sorrows. He would so mingle with the crowd that a
stranger would Find it difficult to single out the
leader of the people and the ruler of the 'nation
from the rest of the company.
He
never sought any reward or profit for himself, nor
left any property to his heirs. He dedicated his all
to his Millah. He did not ask his adherents
to earmark anything for him or his descendants, so
much so that he forbade his progeny to receive the
benefit of poor-tax (Zakah).
The
achievements of this great man do not end here. I
arrive at a full appreciation of his worth one has
to view them against the background of the history
of the world as a whole. This reveals that this
unlettered dweller of the desert of Arabia, who was
born in the 'dark ages' some 1400 years ago, is the
real pioneer of our modern age. He is not only the
leader of those who accept his leadership but also
of those who do not, even of those who denounce him
— the only difference being that the latter are
unaware that he is still imperceptibly influencing
their thoughts and their actions and is the
governing principle of their lives and the guiding
spirit of the modern times10. (10.
Arthur Leonard says: "Islam, in fact, has done
a work. She has left a mark on the pages of human
history, which is so indelible that it can never be
effaced . . . that only when the world grows will be
acknowledged in full."'
John
Devenport, a leading scientist, observed: "It
must be owned that all the knowledge, whether of
physics, astronomy, philosophy or mathematics, which
flourished in Europe from the 10th century, was
originally derived from the Arabian schools, and the
Spanish Saracen may be looked upon as the father of
European philosophy." — Quoted by A. Karim in
Islam's Contribution to Science and Civilization.
Bertrand Russell, the famous British philosopher,
wrote: "The supremacy of the East was not only
military. Science, philosophy, poetry and the arts
all flourished . . . in the Muhammedan world at a
time when Europe was sunk in barbarism. Europeans,
with unpardonable insularity, call this period 'The
Dark Ages': but it was only in Europe that it was
dark — indeed only in Christian Europe, for Spain,
which was Muhammedan had a brilliant culture."
— Pakistan Quarterly, Vol. IV. No. 3. (Emphasis
ours).
Robert
Briffault, the renowned historian, acknowledges in
his book The Making of Humanity: "It is highly
probably that but for the Arabs, modern European
civilisation would never have assumed that character
which has enabled it to transcend all previous
phases of evolution. For although there is not a
single aspect of human growth in which the decisive
influence of Islamic culture is not traceable,
nowhere is it so clear and momentous as in the
genesis of that power which constitutes the
paramount distinctive force of the modern world and
the supreme source of its victory — natural
sciences and the scientific spirit . . . What we
call science arose in Europe as a result of a new
spirit of inquiry: of new methods of investigation,
of (he method of experiment, observation,
measurement, of the development of mathematics in a
form unknown to the Greeks. That spirit and those
methods were introduced into the
European
world by the Arabs."
Stanwood
Cobb, founder of the Progressive Education
Association, says: "Islam . . . was the virtual
creator of the Renaissance in Europe." —
Quoted by Robert L. Gullick. Jr. in Muhammad the
educator.)
It
was he who turned the course of human thought from
superstition- mongering, love for the unnatural and
the inexplicable, and monasticism towards a rational
approach, love for reality, and a pious, balanced
worldly life. It was he who in a world, which
regarded only supernatural happenings as miracles
and demanded them for the verification of the truth
of a religious mission, urged that rational proof
should be the criterion of truth. It was he who
opened the eyes of those who had been accustomed to
look for the signs of God in natural phenomena.
It
was he who, in place of groundless speculation, led
human beings to the path of rational understanding
and sound reasoning on the basis of observation,
experiment and research. It was he who clearly
defined the limits and functions of sense
perception, reason and intuition. It was he who
brought about a rapprochement between
spiritual and material values. It was he who
harmonized Faith and Knowledge and Action, who, in
short, evolved true religiosity on the basis of the
scientific spirit.
It
was he who eradicated idolatry, man-worship and
polytheism in all forms so thoroughly and created
such a firm faith in the Unity of God that even
those religions, which were based entirely on
superstition and idolatry, were forced to adopt a
monotheistic approach.
It
was he who changed the basic concepts of ethics and
spirituality. Those who believed that asceticism and
self-annihilation alone led to moral and spiritual
purity — that purity could only be achieved by
running away from life, disregarding all the desires
of the flesh and subjecting the body to all types of
tortures — he showed the path of spiritual
evolution, moral emancipation and attainment of
salvation through active participation in the
affairs of the world around them.
It
was he who brought
home to man his true worth;
those who acknowledged only a God-incarnate or a son
of God as their moral preceptor or spiritual guide
were told that human beings with no pretensions to
Godhead could become vicegerents of God on earth;
those who proclaimed and worshipped powerful
personages as their gods were made to understand
that their false lords were mere ordinary human
beings and nothing more. It was he who stressed the
point that no person could claim holiness, authority
and overlordship as his birthright and that no one
was born with the stigma of untouchability, slavery
or serfdom. It was he and his teaching, which
inspired thoughts of the unity of mankind, equality
of human beings, true democracy and real freedom.
Laws,
which he gave, have penetrated deep into the
structures of society, and this process continues up
to this day. The basic principles of economics,
which he taught, have ushered in many a movement in
world history and hold out the same promise for the
future. The laws of governance, which he formulated,
brought about many upheavals in political theories
and continue to have influence even today. The
fundamental principles of law and justice, which
bear the stamp of his genius, have influenced to a
remarkable degree the administration of justice in
the courts of nations. This unlettered Arab was the
first person to formulate a framework of
international relations and lay down laws of war and
peace. No one previously had even the rernotest idea
that there could be an ethical code of war and that
relations between different nations could be
regulated on the basis of common humanity11.
(1. For details, see Abul A’la Mawdudi’s
AI-Jihad fi’l-islam.)
In
the cavalcade of world history the sublime figure of
this wonderful person towers so high above all
others that they appear to be dwarfs when contrasted
with him None of them possessed a genius capable of
making a deep impression on more than one or two
aspects of human life. Some are brilliant
theoreticians but are lacking when it comes to
practical action. Some are men of action but with
little knowledge. Some, are renowned as statesmen
only, others are masters of strategy. Others again
have devoted their energies to ethical and spiritual
problems but have ignored economics and politics. In
short, one comes across heroes who are expert in one
walk of life only.
His
is the only example where all the excellences have
been blended into one personality. He is a
philosopher and a seer as well as a living
embodiment of his own teachings. He is a great
statesman as well as a military genius. He is a
legislator and also a teacher of morals. He is a
spiritual luminary as well as a religious guide. His
vision penetrates every aspect of life. His orders
and commandments cover a vast field from the
regulation of international relations down to the
habits of everyday life like eating, drinking and
personal hygiene. On the foundations of his
philosophy he established a civilisation and a
culture without the slightest trace of a flaw,
deficiency or incompleteness. Can anyone point to
another example of such a perfect and all-round
personality? Most of the famous personalities of the
world are said to be the products of their
environment. But his case is unique. His environment
seems to have played no part in the making of his
personality. At most one might accept in the light
of Hegel's philosophy of history or Marx's
historical materialism that the time and environment
demanded the emergence of a leader who could create
a nation and build an empire. But Hegelian or
Marxist philosophy cannot explain how such an
environment could produce a man whose mission was to
teach the highest morals, to purify humanity and to
wipe out prejudice and superstition, who looked
beyond the artificial compartments of race and
nation-state, who laid the foundations of a moral,
spiritual, cultural and political superstructure for
the good of the whole world, who practically, not
theoretically, placed business transactions, civics,
politics and international relations on
moral grounds and produced such a
balanced synthesis between worldly life and
spiritual advancement that even to this day it is
considered a masterpiece of wisdom and foresight.
Can anyone honestly call such a person a product of
the all-pervading darkness of Arabia?
He
does not only appear to be independent of his
environment. When we look at his achievements we are
irresistibly drawn to the conclusion that he
actually transcends the limitations of time and
space. His vision breaks through all temporal and
physical barriers, passes beyond centuries and
millenniums and encompasses within itself the whole
of human history.
He
is not one of those whom history has cast into
oblivion, and he is not praised only because he was
a good leader in his own time. He is that unique and
incomparable leader of humanity who marches with
time, who is modern in every age and in every era.
Those
whom people style 'makers of history' are only
'creatures of history'. In fact, in the whole of the
history of mankind, he is the unique example of a
•maker of history'. One may scan the lives and
circumstances of the great leaders of the world who
brought about revolutions and one will find that on
such occasions the forces of revolution were
gathering momentum for the destined upheaval, were
taking their course in certain directions and were
only wailing for the right moment. In harnessing
these forces the revolutionary leader played the
part of an actor for whom the stage and the role is
set beforehand. On the other hand, the Prophet is
the only person who had to genuinely create a
revolution: he had to mould and produce the kind of
men he wanted because the spirit of revolution and
its necessary conditions were non-existent.
He
made an indelible impression on the hearts of
thousands of his disciples by his forceful
personality and moulded them to his way of thinking.
By his iron will be prepared the ground for
revolution and directed events into the channels he
wanted. Can anyone cite another example of a maker
of history of such distinction, another
revolutionary of such brilliance and splendour?
One
may wonder how, in the dark ages 1400 years ago in a
benighted region of the earth like Arabia, an
illiterate Arab trader and herdsman came to possess
such light, such knowledge, such power, such
capabilities and such finely developed moral
virtues?
One
may say that there is nothing peculiar about his
Message, that it is the product of his own mind. If
this is so, then he should have proclaimed himself
God. And if he had done so at that time, the peoples
of the earth who did not hesitate in calling Krishna
and Buddha gods and Jesus the Son of God, and who
could without compunction worship such forces of
nature as fire, water and air — would have readily
acknowledged him as such.
But
he argued just the opposite. For he proclaimed: I am
a human being like yourselves. I have not brought
anything to you of my own accord. It has all been
revealed to me by God. Whatever I possess belongs to
Him. This message, the like of which the whole of
humanity is unable to produce, is the message of
God. It is not the product of my own mind. Every
word of it has been sent down by Him and all glory
to Him Whose Message it is. All the wonderful
achievements, which stand to my credit in your eyes,
all the laws which I have given, all the principles
which I have enunciated and taught — none of them
is from me. I find myself incompetent to produce
such things out of my sheer personal ability and
capabilities. I look to Divine Guidance in all
matters. Whatever He wills I do, what He directs I
proclaim.
Hearken!
What a wonderful and inspiring example of honesty,
integrity, truth and honour those sentiments are!
Liars and hypocrites often try to take all the
credit for the deeds of others, ever, when they can
easily be found out. But this great man does not
claim any of these achievements for himself even
when no-one could contradict him as there was no way
of establishing the source of his inspiration.
What
more proof of perfect honesty of purpose,
uprightness of character and sublimity of soul can
there be! Who else can be more truthful than he who
received such unique gifts through a secret channel
and still pointed out their source? All these
factors lead to the irresistible conclusion that
such a man was the true Messenger of God.
Such
was our Holy Prophet Muhammad (blessings of Allah
and peace be upon him). He was a prodigy of
extraordinary merits, a paragon of virtue aid
goodness, a symbol of truth, a great apostle of God
and His Messenger to the entire world. His
life and thought, his truthfulness and
straightforwardness, his piety and goodness, his
character and morals, his ideology and achievements
— all stand as unimpeachable proofs of his
Prophethood. Any human being who studies his life
and teachings without bias will testify that he was
the true Prophet of God and the Qur'an — the Book
he gave to mankind — the true Book of God. No
serious seeker after truth can come to any other
conclusion.
It
must also be clearly understood that now, through
Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him)
alone can we know the straight path of Islam. The
Qur'an and the life-example of Muhammad (blessings
of Allah and peace be upon him) are the only
reliable sources that are available to mankind to
learn God's Will in its totality. Muhammad
(blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) is the
Messenger of God for the whole of mankind and the
long chain of Prophets has come to an end with him.
He was the last of the Prophets and all the
instructions which it was God's Will to impart to
mankind through direct revelation were sent by Him
through Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be
upon him) and are enshrined in the Qur'an and the Sunnah.
Anyone who seeks to become a sincere Muslim must
have faith in God's last Prophet, accept his
teachings and follow the way he has pointed out to
man. This is the road to success and salvation
This
brings us to the question of the finality of the
Prophethood of Muhammad (blessings of Allah and
peace be upon him).
We
have already discussed the nature of Prophethood and
this discussion makes it clear that the advent of a
prophet is not an everyday occurrence. Nor is the
presence in person of the Prophet
essential for every land, people and period. The
life and teachings of the Prophet is the beacon to
guide a people to the right path, and as long as his
teachings and his guidance are alive he is, as it
were, himself alive.
The
real death of a Prophet consists not in his physical
demise but in the ending of the influence of his
teachings. The earlier Prophets have died because
their followers have adulterated their teachings,
distorted their instructions, and besmirched their
life-examples by attaching fictitious events to
them. Not one of the earlier books — Torah, Zabur
(Psalms of David), Injl (Gospel of Jesus),
for example—exists today in its original text and
even the adherents of these books confess that they
do not possess the original books. The life
histories of the earlier Prophets have been so mixed
up with fiction that an accurate and authentic
account of their lives has become impossible. Their
lives have become tales and legends and no
trustworthy record is available anywhere. It cannot
even be said with certainty when and where a certain
Prophet was born, how he lived and what code of
morality he gave to mankind. Thus, the real death of
a Prophet consists in the death of his teachings.
By
this criterion no one can deny that Muhammad
(blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) and his
teachings are alive. His teachings stand uncorrupted
and are incorruptible. The Qur'an — the book he
gave to mankind — exists in its original text,
without a word, syllable or even letter having been
changed. The entire account of his life — his
sayings, instructions and actions — is preserved
with complete accuracy. It is as though it all
happened yesterday rather than thirteen centuries
ago. The biography of no other human being is so
detailed as that of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam
(blessings of Allah and peace be upon him). In
everything affecting our lives we can seek the
guidance of Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace
be upon him) and the example of his life. That is
why there is no need
of any other Prophet
after Muhammad, the last Prophet
(blessings of Allah and peace be upon him).
Furthermore,
there are three conditions, which necessitate the
advent of a new Prophet over and above the need to
replace a deceased Prophet. These may be summed up
as follows:
1.That
the teachings of the earlier Prophets have been
distorted or corrupted or they have died and their
revival is needed.
2.That
the teachings of the Prophet who has passed away
were incomplete and it is necessary to amend them,
improve on them or add something to them.
3."That
the earlier Prophet was raised for a particular
nation or territory and a Prophet for another
nation, people or country is requiredl2. (12.
Another may be the situation when a Prophet 's
raised to help and assist another Prophet, but as
the instances of such Prophets are very few — in
the Qur'an only two such instances are given —and
a this kind of Prophethood seems to be the exception
rather than the rule, we have not added this as the
fourth condition. – Author.)
None
of these conditions exist today. The teachings of
the last Prophet Muhammad (blessings of Allah and
peace be upon him) are alive, have been fully
preserved and made immortal. The guidance he has
shown unto mankind is complete and flawless, and is
enshrined in the Holy Qur'an. All the sources of
Islam are fully intact and each and every
instruction or action of the Holy Prophet can be
ascertained without the least shadow of doubt.
Secondly,
God has completed His revealed guidance through the
Prophet Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be
upon him) and Islam is a complete religion for
mankind. God has said that, "Today I have
perfected your Faith - religion — for you,
and have completed my bounty upon you," and a
thorough study of Islam as a complete way of life
proves the truth of these Qur’an words. Islam
gives guidance for life in this world and in the
hereafter and nothing essential for human guidance
has been left out. There is no ground for new
Prophethood on the plea of imperfection13. (13.
Some people say that the passage of time itself is a
sufficient ground for the need of new guidance, and
a religion, which was revealed some thirteen
centuries ago, must necessarily grow obsolete and
become a thing of the past. The objection is totally
unfounded. The reasons may be briefly stated as
follows:
(a)
Islam's teachings are eternal, because they have
been revealed by Allah Who knows all the past,
present and future and Who Himself is eternal. It is
the human knowledge that is limited. It is the human
eve, which cannot see into the dim vista of the
future, not God Whose knowledge is above all the
limitations of time and space.
(b)
Islam is based on human nature, and the nature of
man has remained the same in all times and epochs.
All men are cast in the moulds of the earliest men
and fundamental human nature remains unchanged.
(c)
In human life there is a beautiful balance between
permanence and change. Neither is everything
permanent, nor is everything changeable. The
fundamental principles, the basic values, do not
invite change. It is the outward forms which change
with the passage of time and which are changed while
keeping in view certain principles, which are to be
observed. And Islam has catered for the needs of
both permanence and change. The Qur'an and the
Sunnah propounded (he eternal principles of Islam,
while through ljtihad they are applied to every age
according to its own needs. Islam is the only
religion, which has established machinery for the
perennial evolution of human society in accordance
with the fundamental principles and permanent values
of life.
(d)
Scientifically, the human race is living in the age,
which was inaugurated by the advent of man on earth,
and no fundamental evolutionary change has occurred
in this phase of existence. Civilisations have
arisen and died, cultures have grown and withered,
empires have emerged and disintegrated. But the age
in the great chain of cosmic evolution remains the
same. Therefore the view that guidance given some
centuries back automatically becomes obsolete with
the passage of time is unfounded and superficial.
— Editor.)
Lastly,
the Message of Muhammad (blessings of Allah and
peace be upon him) was not meant for any particular
people, place or period. He was raised as the World
Prophet — the messenger of truth for the whole of
mankind. The Qur'an has commanded Muhammad
(blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) to
declare: "0 mankind. I am God's Messenger to
all of you." He has been described as "a
blessing for all (the people of) the world" and
his approach has been universal and human. That is
why after him there remains no need for new
Prophethood and he, has been described by the Qur'an
as Khatam-an-Nabiyyin (the last of the chain
of the true prophets14.) (14.
The Qur'an and the Hadith are very explicit on this
point. The Qur'an says: "Muhammad is the
Messenger of God and the last of the Prophets"
(xxxiii. 40). The Holy Prophet himself has said:
"There will be no prophet after me. "On
another occasion he said: “My relation to the
(long chain of the) Prophets can be understood by
the parable of a palace: the palace was most
beautifully built. Everything was complete therein
except the place for one brick. I have filled in
that place and now the castle has been
completed" (ride Bukhari and Muslim).
—Editor.)
The
only source, therefore, for the knowledge of God and
His Way is Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be
upon him). We can know of Islam only through his
teachings, which are so complete and so
comprehensive that they can guide men through all
ages to come. The world does not need a new prophet;
it needs only such people as have full faith in
Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him),
to become the standard-bearers of his message,
propagate it throughout the world, and endeavour to
establish the culture which Muhammad (blessings of
Allah and peace be upon him) gave to man. The world
needs such men of character as can translate his
teachings into practice and establish a society
which is governed by Divine Law, whose supremacy
Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him)
came to establish.
This
is the mission of Muhammad (blessings of Allah and
peace be upon him) and on its success hinges the
success of Man.
Go
to Top
Chapter
4
Our
discussion so Far can be summarised as follows:
1.Islam
consists of submission and obedience to Allah, the Lord of the Universe. Since
the only authentic source of knowing Him and His Will and Law is the teachings
of the true Prophet, we may define Islam as that religion which stands for
complete faith in the teachings of the Prophet and steadfast obedience to his
ways of life. Consequently, one who ignores the medium of the Prophet and
claims to follow God directly is not a 'Muslim'.
2.In
earlier epochs there had been separate Prophets for different nations, and the
history of Prophethood shows that even in one and the same nation several
Prophets appeared one after the other. In that age Islam was the name of that
religion which was taught to a nation by its own Prophet or Prophets. Though
the nature and substance of Islam was the same in every age and country, the
modes of worship, codes of law and other detailed rules and regulations of
life varied according to local and particular conditions. It was not,
therefore, necessary for any nation to follow another nation's Prophet and its
responsibility was confined to following the guidance given by its own
Prophet.
3.This
period of poly-prophetism came to an end with the advent of Muhammad
(blessings of Allah and peace be upon him). The teachings of Islam were made
complete through him; one basic law was formulated for the whole world and he
was made a Prophet for all mankind. His Prophethood was not meant for any
particular nation or country or period; his message was for all peoples and
for all ages. The earlier codes were abrogated by the advent of Muhammad
(blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) who gave the world a complete code
of life. This means there will be no new Prophets and no new religious code
until the Last Day. Muhammad's (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him)
teachings are meant for all the children of Adam, the entire human race. Now
Islam consists in following Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon
him), that is, acknowledging his Prophethood, believing in all that he has
asked us to believe in, following him in letter and spirit, and submitting to
all his commands and injunctions, the most fundamental of which is La
illaha illallah "There is no deity but Allah".
This brings
us to the question; what has Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon
him) asked us to believe in? What are the articles of Islamic faith? We shall
discuss these articles and see how simple, how true, how lovable and how
valuable they are and to what high pinnacle they raise the status of Man in
this world and the world to come.
The most
fundamental and the most important teaching of Prophet Muhammad (blessings of
Allah and peace be upon him) is faith in the unity of God. This is expressed
in the primary Kalimah of Islam as "There is no deity but
Allah" (La illaha illallah). This beautiful phrase
is the bedrock of Islam, its foundation and its essence. It is the expression
of this belief, which differentiates a true Muslim from a kafir
(unbeliever), mushrik (one who associates others with God in His
Divinity) or dahriyah (an atheist).
The
acceptance or denial of this phrase produces a world of difference between man
and man. The believers in it become one single community and those who do not
believe in it form an opposing group. For the believers there is unhampered
progress and success in this world and in the hereafter, while failure and
ignominy are the ultimate lot of those who refuse to believe in it.
But
the difference between the believers and the unbelievers does not result from
the mere chanting of a few words. Obviously, the mere utterance of a phrase or
two is not in itself important. The real difference lies in the conscious
acceptance of this doctrine and complete adherence to it in practical life.
Mere repetition of the word 'food' cannot dull hunger; mere chanting of a
medical prescription cannot heal the disease.
In the same
way, if the Kalimah is repeated without any understanding, it cannot
work the revolution, which it is meant to bring about. This can occur only if
a person grasps the full meaning of the doctrine and accepts and follows it in
letter and spirit. We avoid fire because we know that it burns; we keep away
from poison because we know that it can kill. Similarly, if the real meanings
of Tawhid are fully grasped, we avoid, in belief as well as in action,
every form of disbelief, atheism and polytheism. This is the natural
consequence of belief in the Unity of God.
In
Arabic the word Hah means 'one who is worshipped', that is, a being
which on account of its greatness and power is considered worthy to be
worshipped: to be bowed to in humility and submission. Anything or any being
possessing power too great to be comprehended by man is also called Hah.
The concept Hah also includes the possession of infinite powers and
conveys the sense that others are dependent on Hah and that he is not
dependent on anyone else. The word Hah carries, too, a sense of
concealment and mystery. The word Khuda in Persian, Deva in
Hindi and God in English have similar connotations. Other languages
also contain words with a similar meaning1. (1.
For instance, in Greek it is Oeo’s, in Latin Deus, in Gothic Guth, in German
Gott. For reference, see Encyclopedia Britannica (Chicago. 1956) Vol. X. p.
460. — Editor.)
The word Allah,
on the other hand, is the essential personal name of God. La illaha illallah
literally means, "There is no illah other than the One Great Being
known by the name Allah." It means that in the whole of the
universe, there is absolutely no being worthy to be worshipped other than
Allah, that it is only to Him that heads should bow in submission and
adoration, that He is the only Being possessing all powers, that we are all in
need of His favour, and that we are all obliged to seek His help. He is
concealed from our senses, and our intellect cannot perceive what He is.
Now
we know the meaning of these words, let us look more closely at their real
significance.
From
the earliest known history of man as well as from the oldest relics of
antiquity that we have been able to obtain, it appears that in every age man
recognised some deity or deities and worshipped them. Even today every nation,
from the most primitive to the most advanced, believes in and worships some
deity. Having a deity and worshipping him is ingrained in human nature. There
is something within man's soul, which forces him to do so.
But
the question is: what is that thing and why does man feel impelled to do so?
The answer to this question can be discovered if we look at the position of
man in this huge universe. Neither man nor his nature is omnipotent. He is
neither self-sufficient nor self-existing; nor is his powers limitless. In
fact, he is weak, frail, needy and destitute.
He
is dependent on a multitude of forces to maintain his existence, but all of
them are not essentially and totally within his powers. Sometimes they come
into his possession in a simple and natural way, and at times he finds himself
deprived of them. There are many important and valuable things which he
endeavours to get, but sometimes he succeeds in getting them, while sometimes
he does not, for it is not completely in his own power to obtain them. There
are many things injurious to him; accidents destroy his life's work in a
single moment; chance brings his hopes to a sudden end; illness, worries and
calamities are always threatening him and marring his way to happiness. He
attempts to get rid of them, and meets with both success and failure.
There
are many things whose greatness and grandeur overawe him; mountains and
rivers, gigantic animals and ferocious beasts. He experiences earthquakes,
storms and other natural disasters. He observes clouds over his head and sees
them becoming thick and dark, with peals of thunder, flashes of lightning and
heavy rain. He sees the sun, the moon and the stars in their constant motions.
He reflects how great, powerful and grand these bodies are, and, in contrast
to them, how frail and insignificant he himself is!
These
vast phenomena, on the one hand, and the consciousness of his own frailty, on
the other, impress him with a deep sense of his own weakness, humbleness and
helplessness. And it is quite natural that a primitive idea of divinity should
coincide with this sense. He thinks of the hands, which are wielding these
great forces. The sense of their greatness makes him bow in humility. The
sense of their powerfulness makes him seek their help. He tries to please them
so that they may be beneficent to him, and he fears them and tries to escape
their wrath so that they may not destroy him.
In
the most primitive stage of ignorance, man thinks that the great objects of
nature whose grandeur and glory are visible, and which appear to be injurious
or beneficent to him, hold in themselves the real power and authority, and,
therefore, are divine. Thus he worships trees, animals, rivers, mountains,
fire, rain, air, heavenly bodies and numerous other objects. This is the worst
form of ignorance.
When
his ignorance dissipates to some extent and some glimmers of light and
knowledge appear on his intellectual horizon, he comes to know that these
great and powerful objects are in themselves as helpless and dependent, or
rather; they are still more dependent and helpless. The biggest and the
strongest animal die like a tiny germ, and loses all his power; great rivers
rise and fall and become dry: the highest mountains are blasted and shattered
by man himself: the productiveness of the earth is not under the earth's
control—water makes it prosperous and lack of water makes it barren, liven
water is not independent. It depends on air, which brings the clouds.
Air, too, is powerless and its usefulness depends on other causes. The moon,
the sun, and the stars are also bound by a powerful law outside whose dictates
they cannot make the slightest movement.
After these
considerations man's mind turns to the possibility of some great mysterious
power of divine nature, which controls the objects he sees and which may be
the repository of all authority. These reflections give rise to belief in
mysterious powers behind natural phenomena, with innumerable gods governing
various parts and aspects of nature such as air, light and water. Material
forms or symbols are constructed to represent them and man begins to worship
these forms and symbols. This, too, is a form of ignorance, and reality
remains hidden to the human eye even at this stage of man's intellectual and
cultural pilgrimage.
As
man progresses still further in knowledge and learning, and as he reflects
more and more deeply on the fundamental problems of existence, he finds an
all-powerful law and all-encompassing control in the universe. What a complete
regularity is observed in sunrise and sunset, in winds and rains, in the
motions of stars and the changes of seasons! With what a wonderful harmony
countless different forces are working jointly. And what a highly effective
and supremely wise law it is according to which all the various causes in the
universe are made to work together at an appointed time to produce an
appointed event! Observing this uniformity, regularity and complete obedience
to one great law in all fields of Nature, even a polytheist finds himself
obliged to believe that there must be a deity greater than all the others,
exercising supreme authority. For, if there were separate, independent
deities, the whole machinery of the universe would be upset.
He calls
this greatest deity by different names, such as Allah, Pemeshwar,
God, Khuda-i-Khuda'igan. But as the darkness of ignorance still
persists, he continues worshipping minor deities along with the Supreme One.
He imagines that the Divine Kingdom of God may not be different from earthly
kingdoms. Just as a ruler has many ministers, trusted associates, governors,
and other responsible officers, so the minor deities are like so many
responsible officers under the Great God Who cannot be approached without
winning the favour of the officers under Him. So they must also be worshipped
and appealed to for help, and should in no case be offended. They are taken as
agents through whom an approach can be made to the Great God.
The
more a man increases his knowledge, the greater becomes his dissatisfaction
with the multiplicity of deities. So the number of minor deities begins to
decrease. More enlightened men bring each one of them under the searchlight of
scrutiny and ultimately find that none of these man-made deities has any
divine character; they themselves are creatures like man, though rather more
helpless. They are thus eliminated one by one until only one God remains.
But
the concept of one God still contains some remnants of the elements of
ignorance. Some people imagine that He has a body as men have, and is in a
particular place. Some believe that God came down to earth in human form;
others think that God, after settling the affairs of the universe, retired and
is now resting. Some believe that it is necessary to approach God through the
media of saints and spirits, and that nothing can be achieved without their
intercession. Some imagine God to have a certain form or image, and they
believe it necessary to keep that image before them for the purposes of
worship.
Such
distorted notions of godhead have persisted and lingered, and many of them are
prevalent among different people even today.
Tawhid
is the highest conception of godhead, the knowledge of which God has
sent mankind in all ages through His Prophets. It was this knowledge with
which, in the beginning, Adam was sent down to earth; it was the same
knowledge that was revealed to Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus (God's blessings
be upon them all). It was this knowledge, which Muhammad (blessings of Allah
and peace be upon him) brought to mankind. It is Knowledge, pure and absolute,
without the least shade of ignorance. Man became guilty of shirk,
idol-worship and kufr only because he turned away from the teachings of
the Prophets and depended on his own faulty reasoning, false perceptions or
biased interpretations. Tawhid dispels all the clouds of ignorance and
illuminates the horizon with the light of reality. Let us see what significant
realities the concept of Tawhid — this little phrase: la
illaha illallah embraces: what truth it conveys and what beliefs
it fosters.
First, we
are faced with the question of the universe. We are face to face with a grand,
limitless universe. Man's mind cannot discern it’s beginning or visualise
its end. It has been moving along its chartered course from time immemorial
and is continuing its journey in the vast vista of the future. Creatures
beyond number have appeared in it — and go on appearing every day. It is so
bewildering that a thinking mind finds itself wonderstruck. Man is unable to
understand and grasp its reality by his unaided vision. He cannot believe that
all this has appeared just by chance or accident. The universe is not a
fortuitous mass of matter. It is not a jumble of un co-coordinated
objects. It is not a conglomeration of chaotic and meaningless things.
All this cannot be without a Creator, a Designer, a Controller, a Governor.
But
who can create and control this majestic universe? Only He can do so, Who is
Master of all; Who is Infinite and Eternal; Who is All-Powerful, All-Wise,
Omnipotent and Omniscient; Who is All-Knowing and All-Seeing. He must have
supreme authority over all that exists in the universe. He must possess
limitless powers, must be Lord of the universe and all that it contains, must
be free from every flaw and weakness and none may have the power to interfere
with His work. Only such a Being can be the Creator, the Controller and the
Governor of the universe.
Second,
it is essential that all these divine attributes and powers must be vested in
One Being: it is impossible for two or more personalities having equal powers
and attributes to co-exist. They are bound to collide. Therefore, there must
be one and only one Supreme Being having control over all others. You cannot
think of two governors for the same province or two supreme commanders of the
army! Similarly, the distribution of these powers among different deities, so
that, for instance, one of them is all-knowledge, the other all-providence and
still another life-giver — and each having an independent domain — is also
unthinkable. The universe is an indivisible whole and each one of such deities
will be dependent upon others in the execution of his task. Lack of
co-ordination is bound to occur. And if this happened, the world would fall to
pieces. These attributes are also un transferable. It is not possible that a
certain attribute might be present in a certain deity at one time and at
another time be found in another deity. A divine being who is incapable of
remaining alive himself cannot give life to others. The one who cannot protect
his, own divine power cannot be suited to govern the vast limitless universe.
The
more you reflect on the problem, the firmer must your conviction be that all
these divine powers and attributes must exist in one and the same Being alone.
Thus, polytheism is a form of ignorance that cannot stand rational scrutiny.
It is a practical impossibility. The facts of life and nature do not fit in
with it. They automatically bring men to Reality, that is Tawhid, the
Unity of God.
Now,
keeping in mind this concept of God, look closely at this vast universe. Exert
yourself to the utmost and say if you find among all the objects that you see,
among all the things that you perceive, among all that you can think, feel or
imagine — all that your knowledge can comprehend — anyone possessing,
these attributes. The sun, the moon, the stars, animals, birds or fishes,
matter, money, any man or a group of men — does any of them possess these
attributes? Most certainly not! For everything in the universe is created,
controlled and regulated, is dependent on others, is mortal and transitory;
its slightest movements are controlled by an inexorable law from which there
can be no deviation. Their helpless condition proves that the attire of
divinity cannot fit their body. They do not possess the slightest trace of
divinity and have absolutely nothing to do with it. It is a travesty of
truth and a folly of the highest magnitude to attribute divine status to them.
This is the
meaning of La ilaha, (i.e. there is no god) no human and
material object possesses the divine power and authority deserving worship and
obedience.
But this is
not the end of our quest. We have found that divinity is not vested in any
material or human element of the universe, and that none of them possesses
even the slightest trace of it. This leads us to the conclusion that there is
a Supreme Being, over and above all that our eyes see in the universe. Who
possesses Divine attributes? Who is the Will behind all phenomena, the Creator
of this grand universe, the Controller of its superb Law, the Governor of its
serene rhythm, the Administrator of all its workings: He is Allah, the Lord of
the Universe and no one and nothing is associated in His Divinity. This is
what illallah (but Allah) means.
This
knowledge is superior to all other kinds of knowledge and the greater you
exert yourself; the deeper will be your conviction that this is the
starting-point of all knowledge. In every field of inquiry — be it that of
physics, chemistry, astronomy, geology, biology, zoology, economics, politics,
sociology or the humanities, you will find that the deeper you probe, the
clearer become the indications of the truth of La illaha illallah.
It is this concept, which opens up the doors of inquiry and investigation and
illumines the pathways of knowledge with the light of reality. And if you deny
or disregard this reality, you will find that at every step you meet
disillusionment, for the denial of this primary truth robs everything in the
universe of its meaning and significance.
Now let us
study the effects, which the belief in La illaha illallah has on the life of a
man, and see why he should always make a success of life and why one who
denies it becomes a failure in life, both here and in the hereafter.
1.A
believer in this Kalimah can never be narrow in outlook. He believes in
a God, Who is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the Master of the East
and the West and Sustainer of the entire universe. After this belief he does
not regard anything in the world as a stranger to himself. He looks on
everything in the universe as belonging to the same Lord he himself belongs
to. His sympathy, love and service are not confined to any particular sphere
or group. His vision is enlarged, his intellectual horizon widens, and his
outlook becomes as liberal and as boundless as is the Kingdom of God.
How can this width of vision and breadth of mind be achieved by an atheist, a
polytheist or one who believes in a deity supposed to possess limited and
defective powers like a man?
2.This
belief produces in man the highest degree of self-respect and self-esteem. The
believer knows that Allah alone is the Possessor of all power, and that none
besides Him can benefit or harm a person, or provide for his needs, or give
and take away life or wield authority or influence. This conviction makes him
indifferent to and independent and fearless of, all powers other than those of
God. He never bows his head in homage to any of God's creatures, nor does he
stretch out his hand before anyone else. He is not overawed by anybody's
greatness. This attitude of mind cannot be produced by any other belief. For
it is necessary that those who associate other beings with God or who deny
God, should bow in homage to some creatures, regard them able to benefit or
harm them, fear them and place their hopes in them.
3.Along
with self-respect this belief also generates in man a sense of modesty and
humbleness. It makes him unostentatious and unpretending. A believer
never becomes proud, haughty or arrogant. The boisterous pride of power,
wealth and worth can have no room in his heart, because he knows that whatever
he possesses has been given to him by God, and that God can take away just as
He can give. In contrast to this, an unbeliever, when he achieves some worldly
merit, becomes proud and conceited because he believes that his merit is due
to his own worth. In the same way pride and self-conceit are a necessary
outcome and concomitant of shirk (association of others with God in His
divinity), because a mushrik believes that he has a particular relation
with the deities which does not exist between them and other people.
4.This
belief makes man virtuous and upright. He has the conviction that there is no
other means of success and salvation for him except purity of soul and
righteousness of behaviour. He has perfect faith in God Who is above all need,
is related to none and is absolutely just. This belief creates in him the
consciousness that, unless he lives rightly and acts justly, he cannot
succeed. No influence or underhand activity can save him from ruin. As against
this, the kafirs and the mushriks always live on false hopes.
Some of them believe that God's son has atoned for their sins; some think that
they are God's favorites, and will not be punished; others believe that their
saints will intercede with God on their behalf; while others make offerings to
their deities and believe that by so bribing the deities they acquire a
license to do whatever they like. Such false beliefs keep them enmeshed in sin
and evil deeds; depending on their deities, they do not bother about their
souls and living pure and good lives. As to atheists, they do not believe that
there is any Being having power over them, to Whom they should be responsible
for their good or bad actions; therefore they consider themselves independent
to act in whatever wav they like. Their own fancies become their gods and they
live like slaves of their wishes and desires.
5.The
believer never becomes despondent. He has a firm faith in God, Who is Master
of all the treasures of the earth and the heavens, Whose grace and bounty have
no limit and Whose powers are infinite. This faith imparts to his heart
extraordinary consolation, fills it with satisfaction and keeps it filled with
hope. Although he may meet with rejection from all sides in this world, faith
in and dependence on God never leave him, and on their strength he goes on
struggling. Such profound confidence can result from no other belief than
belief in one God. Mushriks. Kafirs, and atheists have small
hearts; they depend on limited powers: therefore in times of trouble they are
soon overwhelmed by despair and frequently, they commit suicide2. (2.
To have an idea of what a harrowing situation this despair of heart can
create, the reader is referred to the thought-provoking -study of modern life
by Mr. Colin Wilson: The Outsider (11th impression. London 1957). The
testimony of Prof. Joad is also very explicit on this point. He writes about
the West: "For the first time in history here is coming to maturity a
generation of men and women who have no religion, and feel no need for one.
They are content to ignore it. Also they are very unhappy, and the
suicide rain abnormal high." (C. E. M. Joad, The Present and Future
of Religion, quoted by Sir Arnold Lunn, and yet so New. London. 1958. p. 228).
As to the world of [slam. let the views of a non-Muslim historian not in any
way sympathetic to Islam, be read with profit: "In this uncompromising
monotheism, with its simple, enthusiastic faith in the supreme rule of a
transcendent being, lies the chief strength of Islam. Its adherent enjoy a
onsciousness of contentment and resignation unknown among followers of most
creeds. “Suicide is Rare in Muslim Lands” (Philip K. Hitti, History of the
Arabs, 1951, p.129))
6.
This belief produces in man a very strong degree of determination, patient
perseverance and trust in God. When he makes up his mind and devotes his
resources to fulfilling the Divine Commands in order to secure God's pleasure,
he is sure that he has the support and backing of the Lord of the universe.
This certainty makes him firm and strong like a mountain, and no amount of
difficulties, impediments and opposition can make him give up his resolution. Shirk,
kufr and atheism have no such make.
7. This
declaration inspires bravery in man. There are two things which make a man
cowardly: (i) fear of death and love of safety, and (ii) the idea that there
is someone else besides God who can take away life and that man, by adopting
certain devices, can ward off death. Belief in La illaha illallah
purges the mind of both these ideas. The first idea goes out of his mind
because he knows that his life and his property and everything else really
belong to God, and he becomes ready to sacrifice his all for His pleasure. He
gets rid of the second idea because he knows that no weapon, no man or animal
has the power of taking away his life; God alone has the power to do so. A
time has been ordained for him. And all the forces of the world combined
cannot take away anyone’s life before that time. It is for this reason that
no one is braver than the one who has faith in God. Nothing can daunt him: not
even the strongest tempest of adversity and the mightiest of armies. Where can
the mushriks, the kafirs and the atheists get such great
determination, force and power from? They hold life the dearest thing in the
world: they believe that death is brought about by the enemy and can be warded
off by running away from him!
8.
The belief in La ilaha illallah creates an attitude of peace and
contentment, purges the mind of jealousy, envy and greed and keeps away the
temptations of resorting to base and unfair means for achieving success. The
believer understands that wealth is in God's hands, and He apportions it out,
as He likes; that honour, power, reputation and authority — everything —
is subjected to His will and He bestows them as He will; and that man's duty
is only to endeavour and to struggle fairly. He knows that success and failure
depend on God's grace: if He wills to give, no power in the world can prevent
Him from so doing: and if He does not will it, no power can force Him to. On
the other hand, the mushriks, the kafirs and the atheists
consider success and failure as dependent on their own efforts and the help or
opposition of earthly powers. Therefore, they always remain slaves to cupidity
and envy. They never hesitate to turn to bribery, flattery, conspiracy and
other kinds of base and unfair means to achieve their ends. Jealousy and envy
of others' success eat them away, and they will stop at nothing to bring about
the
9.
The most important effect of La ilaha illallah is that it
makes man obey and observe God's Law. One who has belief in it is sure that
God knows everything hidden or open and is nearer to him than his own jugular
vein. If he commits a sin in a secluded corner and in the darkness of night.
He knows it; He even knows our thoughts and intentions, bad or good. We can
hide from everyone, but we cannot hide anything from God; we can evade
everyone, but it is impossible to evade God's grip. The firmer a man's belief
in this respect, the more observant will he be of God's commands; he will shun
what God has forbidden and he will carry out His behests even in solitude and
in darkness, because he knows that God's 'police' never leaves him alone, and
he dreads the Court whose warrant he can never avoid. It is for this reason
that the first and the most important conditions for being a Muslim is to have
faith in La illaha illallah. 'Muslim', as you have already been
told, means one 'obedient to God' and obedience to God is impossible unless
one firmly believes in La ilaha illallah.
In
the teachings of Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) faith in
One God is the most important and fundamental principle. It is the bedrock of
Islam and the mainspring of its power. All other beliefs, commands and
laws of Islam stand firm on this foundation. All of them receive strength from
this source. Take it away, and there is nothing left of Islam.
The Prophet
Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) has further instructed us
to have faith in the existence of God's angels. This is the second article of
Islamic faith and is very important; because it absolves the concept of Tawhid
from all impurities and frees it from the danger of every conceivable shadow of
shirk (polytheism). The polytheists have associated two kinds of
creatures with God:
(a) Those
which have material existence and are perceptible to the human eye, such as
the sun, moon, stars, fire, water, animals, great men.
(b) Those
who have no material existence and are not perceptible to the human eye: the
unseen beings who are believed to be engaged in the administration of the
universe; for instance, one controls the air, another imparts light, another
brings rains, and so on and so forth.
The
alleged deities of the first kind have material existence and are before man's
eye. The falsity of their claim has been fully exposed by the Kalimah —
La ilaha illallah. This is sufficient to dispose of the
idea that they enjoy any share in divinity or deserve any reverence at all.
The second kind of things, being immaterial, are hidden from the human eye and
are mysterious; the polytheists are more inclined to pin their faith in them.
They consider them to be deities, gods and God's children. They make their
images and render offerings to them. In order to purify belief in the Unity of
God, and to clear it from the admixture of this second kind of unseen
creatures, this particular article of faith has been expounded.
Muhammad
(blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) has informed us that these
imperceptible spiritual beings, whom people believe to be deities of gods or
God's children, are really His angels. They have no share in God's divinity;
they cannot deviate from His commands even by the slightest fraction of an
inch. God employs them to administer His Kingdom, and they carry out His
orders exactly and accurately. They have no authority to do anything of their
own accord; they cannot present to God any scheme conceived by themselves,
they are not even authorized to intercede with God for any man.
To worship
them and to solicit their help is degrading and debasing for man. For, on the
very first day of man's creation, God had made them prostrate themselves
before Adam, granted to him greater knowledge than they possessed and bestowed
on Adam His own vicegerency on this earth in preference to them.3 (3. See
Al-Quran, ii.34 and vii.11.) What debasement can, therefore, be greater
for man than prostrating himself before those who had prostrated themselves
before him!
Muhammad
(blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) forbade us to worship angels, and
to associate them with God in His divinity. He also informed us that they were
the chosen creatures of God, free from sin, from their very nature unable to
disobey God, and ever engaged in carrying out His orders. Moreover, he
informed us that these angels of God surround us from all sides, are attached
to us, and are always in our company. They observe and note all our actions,
good or bad. They preserve a complete record of every man's life. After death,
when we shall be brought before God, they will present a full report of our
life's-work on earth, wherein we shall find everything correctly recorded, not
a single movement left out, however insignificant and however carefully
concealed it may be.
We have not
been informed of the intrinsic nature of the angels. Only some of their
virtues or attributes have been mentioned to us, and we have been asked to
believe in their existence. We have no other means of knowing their nature,
their attributes and their qualities. It would therefore, be sheer folly on
our part to attribute any form or quality to them of our own accord. We must
believe in them exactly as we have been asked to do. To deny their existence
is kufr for, first, we have no reason for such a denial, and, second,
our denial of them would be tantamount to attributing untruth to Muhammad
(blessings of Allah and peace be upon him). We believe in their existence only
because God's true Messenger has informed us of it.
The third
article of faith which Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) has
commanded us to believe is faith in the Books of God; Books which He has sent
down to mankind through His Prophets.
God had
revealed His Books to His Prophets before Muhammad (blessings of Allah and
peace be upon him) and these books were sent down in the same way as He sent
down the Qur'an to Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him). We
have been informed of the names of some of these books: Books of Abraham, the
Torah of Moses. Zabur (Psalms) of David, and the lnjil (Gospel)
of Jesus Christ. We have not been informed of the names of Books, which were
given to other Prophets. Therefore with regard to other existing religious
books, we are not in a position to say with, certainty whether they were
originally revealed books or not.
But
we tacitly believe that whatever Books were sent down by God are alt true.
Of the
Books we have been told, the Books of Abraham are extinct and not traceable in
existing world literature. David's Zabur, the Torah and the Injil exist
with the Jews and the Christians, but the Qur'an informs us that people have
changed and added to these books, and God's words have been mixed up with
texts of their own making. This corruption and pollution of the Books has been
so large and so evident that even the Jews and the Christians themselves admit
that they do not possess their original texts, and have only their
translations, which have been altered over many centuries and are still being
changed. On studying these Books we find many passages and accounts, which
evidently cannot be from God. God's words and those of man are mixed together
in these books, and we have no means of knowing which portions are from God
and which from man.
We
have been commanded to believe in previously revealed Books only in the sense
of admitting that, before the Qur'an, God had also sent down books through His
Prophets, that they were all from one and the same God, the same God Who sent
the Qur'an and that the sending of the Qur'an as a Divine Book is not a new
and strange event, but only confirms, restates and completes those divine
instructions which people had mutilated or lost in antiquity4.
(4. Even a cursory study of the first books of the Old Testament and the four
Gospels of the New Testament reveals that they are the productions of men and
in these writings some parts of the original Psalms of David and the Gospels
of Christ have been incorporated. The first five books of the Old Testament do
not constitute the original Torah, but parts of the Torah have been mixed up
with other narrative written by human beings and the original guidance of the.
Lord is lost. Similarly, the four Gospels of Christ are not the original
Gospels as they came from the Prophet Christ (peace be upon him). They are in
fact, the life histories of Christ compiled by four different persons on the
basis of knowledge and hearsay, and certain parts of the original Gospel also
fell into them. But the original and the fictitious, the Divine and the human,
are so intermingled that the grain cannot be separated from the chaff. The
fact is that the original Word of God is preserved neither with the Jews nor
with the Christians. The Qur'an, on the other hand, is fully preserved and not
a syllable has been changed or left out of it.)
The
Qur'an is the last of the Divine Books sent down by God and there are some
very pertinent differences between it and the previous Books. These
differences may briefly be stated as follows:
1.The
original texts of most of the former Divine Books were lost altogether, and
only their translations exist today. The Qur'an, on the other hand, exists
exactly as it was revealed to the Prophet: not a word — nay, not a syllable
of it — has been changed. It is available in its original text and the Word
of God has been preserved for all time.
2.In
the former Divine Books man mixed his words with God's, but in the Qur'an we
find only the words of God — and in their pristine purity. This is admitted
even by the opponents of Islam.
3.In
respect of no other sacred Book possessed by different peoples can it be
said on the basis of authentic historical
evidence that it really belongs to the same Prophet to whom
it is attributed. In the case of some of them it is not even known in what age
and to which Prophet they were revealed. As for the Qur'an, the evidence that
it was revealed to Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) is so
voluminous, so convincing, so strong and so compelling that even the fiercest
critics of Islam cannot cast doubt on it. This evidence is so detailed that
even the occasion and place of the revelation of many verses and injunctions
of the Qur'an can be known with certainty.
4.The
former Divine Books were sent down in languages, which died long ago. No
nation or community now speaks those languages and there are only a few people
who claim to understand them. Thus, even if the Books existed today in their
original and unadulterated form, it would be virtually impossible in our age
to correctly understand and interpret their injunctions and put them into
practice in their required form. The language of the Qur'an, on the other hand
is a living language; millions of people speak it, and millions more know and
understand it. It is being taught and learnt in nearly every university of the
world; every man can learn it, and he who has not time to learn it can find
men everywhere who know this language and can explain to him the meaning of
the Qur'an.
5.Each
one of the existing sacred Books found among different nations of the world
has been addressed to a particular people. Each one contains a number of
commands which seem to have been meant for a particular period of history and
which meet the needs of that age only. They are neither needed today, nor can
they now be smoothly and properly put into practice. It is evident from this
that these Books were particularly meant for that particular people and not
for the world. Furthermore, they were not sent to be followed permanently by
even the people they were intended for; they were meant to be acted upon only
for a certain period. In contrast to this the Qur'an is addressed to all
mankind; not a single injunction of it can be suspected as having been
addressed to a particular people. In the same manner, all the commands and
injunctions in the Qur'an can be acted upon at any place and in any age. This
proves that the Qur'an is meant for the whole world, and is an eternal code
for human life.
6.There
is no denying the fact that the previous divine Books also enshrined good and
virtue; they also taught the principles of morality and truthfulness and
presented the mode of living, which was to God's pleasure. But none of them
was comprehensive enough to embrace all that is necessary for a virtuous human
life. Some of them excelled in one respect others in some other. It is the
Qur'an and the Qur'an alone which enshrined not only all that was good in the
former Books but also perfects the way of Allah and presents it in its
entirety and outlines that code of life which comprehends all that Is
necessary for man on this earth.
7.On
account of man's interpolations, many things have been inserted in those
Books, which are against reality, revolting to reason and an affront to every
instinct of justice. There are things, which are cruel and unjust, and vitiate
man's beliefs and actions. Furthermore, things have unfortunately been
inserted that are obscene, indecent and highly immoral. The Qur'an is free of
all such rubbish. It contains nothing against reason, and nothing that can be
proved wrong. None of its injunctions is unjust; nothing in it is misleading.
Of indecency and immorality not a trace can be found. From the beginning to
the end the Book is full of wisdom and truth. It contains the best of
philosophy and the choicest of law for human civilisation. It points out the
right path and guides man to success and salvation.
It
is on account of these special features of the Qur'an that all the peoples of
the world have been directed to have faith in it, to give up all other Books
and to follow it alone.
The
study of the difference between the Qur'an and other divine Books makes one
easily understand that the natures of faith in the Qur’an and of belief in
the former Books are not similar.
Faith
in the earlier divine Books should be limited to the confirmation that they
were all from God, were true and were sent down to fulfill, in their time, the
same purpose for which the Qur'an has been sent. On the other hand, belief in
the Qur'an should be of the nature that it is purely and
absolutely God's own words, that it is perfectly
true, that every word of it is preserved,
that everything mentioned therein is right,
that it is the bounden duly of man
lo carry out in his life each and
every command of it and that whatever be
against it must be rejected.
In the last
chapter we explained that God's Messengers had been raised among every people,
and that they all brought essentially that same religion — Islam — which
the Prophet Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) propagated. In
this respect all the Messengers of God stand on a par with each other. If a
man belies any one of them, he, as it were, belies all, and if a man affirms
and believes in one of them, he must and ought to affirm all. The reason is
simple. Suppose ten men make one and the same statement; if you admit one of
them to be true, you ipso facto admit the remaining nine as true, and
if you belie any one of them, by implication you belie all of them. It is for
this reason that in Islam it is necessary to have implicit faith in all the
Prophets of God. One who does not believe in a particular Prophet would be a Kafir,
though he may profess faith in all the other Prophets.
Tradition
has it that the total number of Prophets sent to different peoples at
different times is 124,000. If you consider the life of the world since it was
first inhabited and the number of different peoples and nations that have been
on it, this number will not appear too great. We have to positively believe in
those of the Prophets whose names have been mentioned in the Qur'an. Regarding
the rest, we are instructed to believe that all the Prophets sent by God for
the guidance of mankind were true.
Thus we
believe in all the Prophets raised in India, China, Persia, Egypt, Africa,
Europe and other countries of the world, but we are not in a position to be
definite about a particular person outside the list of Prophets named in the
Qur'an, whether or not he was a Prophet, for we have not been told anything
definite about him. Nor are we permitted to say anything against the holy men
of other religions. It is quite possible that some of them might have been
God's Prophets, and their followers corrupted their teachings after their
demise, just as the followers of Moses and Jesus (peace be upon them) have
done. Therefore, whenever we express any opinion about them, it should be
about the tenets and rituals of their religions; as for the founders of those
religions, we will remain scrupulously silent, lest we should become guilty of
irreverence towards a Prophet.
All the
Prophets of God have been deputed by Him to teach the same straight path of
Islam'. In this sense there is no difference between Muhammad and other
Prophets (blessings of Allah and peace be upon them all), and we have been
ordered to believe in all of them alike. But in spite of this equality, there
are the following three differences between them:
1.The
Prophets of the past came to certain people for certain periods of time, while
Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) has been sent for the
whole world and for all time to come5. (5 This point
has been discussed in detail in Chapter Three.)
2.The
teachings of those Prophets have either disappeared altogether from the world,
or whatever of them remains is intermingled with many erroneous and fictitious
statements. For this reason, even if anyone wishes to follow their teachings,
he cannot do so. In contrast to this, the teachings of Muhammad (blessings of
Allah and peace be upon him), his biography, his discourses, his way of
living, his morals, habits and virtues, in short, all the details of his life
and work, are preserved. Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him),
therefore, is the only one of the whole line of Prophets who is a living
personality, and in whose footsteps it is-possible to follow correctly and
confidently.
3.The
guidance imparted through the Prophets of the past was not complete.
Every Prophet was followed by another who effected alterations and additions
in the teachings and injunctions of his predecessors and, in this way, the
chain of reform and progress continued. That is why the teachings of the
earlier Prophets, after the lapse of time, were lost in oblivion. Obviously
there was no need to preserve earlier teachings when amended and improved
guidance had taken their place. At last the most perfect code of guidance was
imparted to mankind through Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon
him) and all previous codes were automatically abrogated, for it is futile and
imprudent to follow an incomplete code when the complete code exists. He who
follows Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) follows all the
Prophets, for whatever was good and eternally workable in their teachings has
been embodied in his teachings. Whoever, therefore, rejects and refuses to
follow Muhammad's (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) teachings, and
chooses to follow some other Prophet, only deprives himself of that vast
amount of useful and valuable instruction and guidance which is embodied in
Muhammad's (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) teachings, which never
existed in the books of the earlier Prophets and which was revealed only
through the Last of the Prophets.
This is why
it is incumbent on each and every human being to have faith in Muhammad
(blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) and follow him alone. To become a
true Muslim (a follower of the Prophet's way of life) it is necessary to have
complete faith in Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) and to
affirm that:
(a)
He is a true Prophet of God;
(b)
His teachings are absolutely perfect, free from any defect or error; and
(c)
He is the Last Prophet of God. After him no Prophet will appear among any
people till the Day of Judgement, nor is any such personage going to appear in
whom it would be essential for a Muslim to believe.
The
fifth article of Islamic Faith is belief in life after death. The Prophet
Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) has directed us to believe
in resurrection after death and in the Day of Judgement. The essential
ingredients of this belief, as taught to us by him, are as follows:
That the
life of this world and of all that is in it will come to an end on an
appointed day. Everything will be annihilated. That day is called Qiyamah, i.e.
the Last Day.
That all
the human being's who have lived in the world since its inception will then be
restored to life and will be presented before God Who will sit in judgement on
that day. This is called Hashr (Resurrection).
That the
entire record of every man and woman — of all their doings and misdoings —
will be presented before God for final judgement.
That one
who excels in goodness will be rewarded; one whose evils and wrongs outweigh
his good deeds will be punished.
That those
who emerge successful in this judgement will go to Paradise and the doors of
eternal bliss will be opened to them; those who are condemned and deserve
punishment will be sent to Hell — the abode of fire and torture.
Belief in
life after death has always been an integral part of the teachings of the
Prophets. Every Prophet asked his followers to believe in it, in the same way
as the last of the Prophets, Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon
him), has asked us to do. This has always been an essential condition of being
a Muslim. All Prophets have categorically declared that one who does not
believe in it, or casts doubts on it, is a Kafir. This is so because
denial of life after death makes all other beliefs meaningless. This denial
also destroys the very sanction for a good life and man is driven to a life of
ignorance and disbelief. A little reflection makes this quite clear.
In your
everyday life, whenever you are asked to do anything, you immediately think:
what is the use of doing it and what harm is involved in not doing it? This is
in the very nature of man. He instinctively regards a useless action as
totally unnecessary. You will never be willing to waste your time and energy
in useless and unproductive jobs. Similarly, you will not be very eager to
avoid a thing that is harmless. And the general rule is that the deeper your
conviction about the utility of a thing, the firmer will be your response to
it; and the more doubtful you are about its efficacy, the more wavering will
be your attitude. After all, why does a child put his hand into fire? Because
he is not sure that fire burns. Why does he evade study? Because he does not
fully grasp the importance and benefits of education and does not believe in
what his elders try to impress on his mind.
Now think
of the man who does not believe in the Day of Judgement. Will he not consider
belief in God and a life in accordance with His code of no consequence? What
value will he attach to a life in pursuit «f His pleasure? To him neither
obedience to God is of any advantage, nor disobedience to Him of any harm.
How, then, can it be possible for him to scrupulously follow the injunctions
of God, His Prophet, and His Book? What incentive will there be for him to
undergo trials and sacrifices and to avoid worldly pleasures? And if a man
does not follow the code of God and lives according to his own likes and
dislikes, of what use is his belief in the existence of God, if indeed he has
any such belief? That is not all. If you reflect still deeper, you will come
to the conclusion that belief in life after death is the most decisive factor
in the life of a man. Its acceptance or rejection determines the very course
of his life and behaviour.
A man who
has in view success or failure in this world alone will be concerned with
immediate benefits and ills. He will not be prepared to undertake any good act
if he has no hope of gaining thereby some worldly interest, nor will he be
keen to avoid any wrong act if it is not injurious to his interests in this
world.
But a man
who believes in the next world as well and is convinced of the final
consequences of his acts will look on all worldly gains and losses as
temporary and transitory and will not put his eternal bliss at stake for a
passing gain. He will look on things in their wider perspective and always
keep the permanent benefit or harm in view. He will do the good, however
costly it may be to him in terms of worldly gains, or however injurious it may
be to his immediate interests: and he will avoid the wrong, however tempting
it may look. He will judge things from the viewpoint of their eternal
consequences and not according to his whims and caprices.
Thus there
is a radical difference between the beliefs, approaches and lives of the two
persons. One's idea of a good act is limited to whether in this brief
temporary life it will bring gain in the shape of money, property, public
applause and similar other things which give him position, power, reputation
and worldly happiness. Such things become his objectives in life. Fulfillment
of his own wishes and self-aggrandizement become the be-all and end-all of his
life. And he does not draw back even from cruel and unjust means to achieve
his ends. Similarly, his conception of a wrong act is one, which may involve a
risk or injury to his interests in this world such as loss of property and
life, harming of health, blackening of reputation or some other unpleasant
consequence.
In contrast
to this man, the believer's concept of good and evil will be quite different.
To him all that pleases God is good and all that invokes His displeasure and
wrath is evil. A good act, according to him, will remain good even if it
brings no benefit to him in this world, or even entails loss of some worldly
possession or injury to his -personal interests. He will be confident that God
will reward him in the eternal life and will be the real success. Similarly,
he will not fall prey to evil deeds merely for some worldly gain, for he knows
that even if he escapes punishment in his short worldly life, in the end he
will be the loser because he will not be able to escape punishment from the
court of God. He does not believe in the relativity of morals but sticks to
the absolute standards revealed by God and lives according to them
irrespective of gain or injury in this world.
Thus it is
the belief or disbelief in life after death, which makes man adopt different
courses in life. For one who does not believe in the Day of Judgement it is
absolutely impossible to fashion his life as suggested by Islam.
Islam says
"In the way of God give charity (zakah) to the poor." His
answer is: "No zakah will lessen my wealth: I will, instead, take
interest on my money," And in its collection he will not hesitate to take
everything belonging to the debtors however poor or hungry they may be. Islam
says: "Always speak the truth and shun lying, though you may gain ever so
much by lying and lose ever so much by speaking the truth." But his reply
will be "Well, what shall I do with a truth which is of no use to me
here, and which instead brings loss to me; and why should I avoid lying where
it can bring benefit to me without any risk, even that of a bad name?" He
visits a lonely place and finds a precious metal lying there; in such a
situation Islam says: "This is not your property, do not take it,"
but he would say: "This is a thing I have come by without any cost or
trouble; why should I not have it? There is no one to see me pick this up, no
one who might report it to the police or give evidence against me in a court
of law, or give me a bad name among the people. Why should I not make use of
this valuable?" Someone secretly keeps a deposit with this man, and
eventually he dies. Islam says: "Be honest with the property deposited
with you and give it over to the heirs of the deceased." He says:
"Why? There is no evidence of his property being with me; his children
also have no knowledge of it. When I can appropriate it without any
difficulty, without any fear of legal claim, or stain on my reputation, why
should I not do so?"
In short,
at every step in life, Islam will direct him to walk in a certain direction
and adopt a certain attitude and course of behaviour; but he will go in the
opposite direction. For Islam measures and values everything from the
viewpoint of its eternal consequence; while such a person always has in view
only the immediate and earthly outcome. Now, you can understand why a man
cannot be a Muslim without belief in the Day of Judgement. To be a Muslim is d
very great thing; the fact is that one cannot even become a good man without
this belief, for the denial of the Day of Judgement degrades man from humanity
to a place even lower than that of the lowest of animals.
So
far we have discussed the need and importance of belief in the Day of
Judgement. Now let us consider how far the constituents of the belief are
rationally understandable. The fact is that whatever Muhammad (blessings of
Allah and peace be upon him) has told us about life after death is clearly
borne out by reason. Although our belief in that Day is based on our implicit
trust in the Messenger of God, rational reflection not only confirms this
belief but also reveals that Muhammad's (blessings of Allah and peace be upon
him) teachings in this respect are much more reasonable and understandable
than any other viewpoint about life after death.
The
following viewpoints are found about life after death:
1.Some
people say that there is nothing left of man after death, and that after this
life-ending event there is no other life. According to these people, belief in
life after death has no reality. They say it is scientifically impossible.
This is the view of the atheists who also claim to be scientific in their
approach and bring in Western science to support their arguments.
2.Other
people maintain that man, in order to bear the consequences of his deeds, is
repeatedly regenerated in this world. If he lives a bad life, he will assume
in the next generation the shape of some animal, such as a dog or a cat, or
some tree or some lower kind of man. If his acts have been good, he will be
reborn as a man into a higher class. This viewpoint is found in some Eastern
religions.
3.There is
a third viewpoint which calls for belie!' in the Day of Judgement, the
Resurrection, man's presence in the Divine Court, and the meting out of reward
and punishment. This is the common belief of all the Prophets.
Now let us
consider these viewpoints one by one.
The first
group, which arrogates to itself the authority and support of science, alleges
that there is no life after death. They say that they have never seen anybody
coming back from the dead. After death a man is reduced to dust; therefore,
death is the end of life and there is no life after death. But consider this
reasoning: is this really a scientific argument? Is the claim really founded
on reason? If they have not seen a single case of revival after death, they
can only say that they do not know what will
happen after death. But, instead of remaining within this
limit, they declare that nothing will happen after
death, at the same time alleging that they speak out of knowledge! In
fact they merely generalize on ignorance. Science tells us nothing —
negative or positive — in this respect and their assertion that life after
death has no existence is totally unfounded. Their claim is not dissimilar to
the claim of an ignoramus who has not seen an aeroplane and on that
'knowledge' proclaims that aeroplanes do not exist at all! Because somebody
has not seen a thing, it does not mean that that thing does not exist. No man,
not even the whole of humanity, if it has not seen a thing, can claim that
such a thing does not, or car-not, exist. This claim is out and out
unscientific. No reasonable man can give it any weight.
Now look at
the beliefs of the second group. According to them, a human being is a human
being because in his previous animal form he had done good deeds; and an
animal is an animal because previously as a human being he had behaved badly.
In other words, to be a man or an animal is the consequence of one's deeds in
one's former form. One may well ask "Which of them existed first, man or
animal?" If they say man preceded animal, then they will have to accept
that he must have been an animal before that, and was given a human form for
its good deeds. If they say it was animal they will have to concede that there
must have been before that a man who was transformed into an animal for his
bad deeds. This leads to a vicious circle; the advocates of this belief cannot
settle on any form for the first creature, for every generation implies a
preceding generation so that the succeeding generation may be considered as
the consequence of the former. This is simply absurd.
Now
consider the third viewpoint. Its first proposition is: that "this world
will one day come to an end. God will destroy and annihilate the universe, and
in its place will evolve another higher and far superior cosmos."
This
statement is undeniably true. No doubt can be cast on it. The more we reflect
on the nature of the cosmos, the more clearly it is proved that the existing
system is not permanent and everlasting: all the forces working in it are
limited in their nature, and will one day be exhausted. That is why the
scientists agree that one day the sun will become cold and will give up all
its energy, stars will collide with one another and the whole system of the
universe will be upset and destroyed. Moreover, if evolution is true in the
case of the constituents of this universe, why may it not be true for the
whole of it? To think of the universe becoming totally non-existent is more
improbable than that it will pass into another evolutionary stage, and
another, much-improved order of things will emerge.
The
second proposition of this belief is that "man will again be given
life". Is it impossible? If so, how did the present life of man
become possible? It is evident that God Who created man in this world
can do so in the next. Not only is it a possibility, it is also a positive
necessity, as will be shown later.
The third
proposition is that "the record of all the actions of man in this world
is preserved and will be presented on the Day of Resurrection". The proof
of the truth of this proposition is provided today by science itself. The
sounds, which we make, produce slight waves in the air and die out. It has
been discovered that the sound leaves its impression on its surrounding
objects and can be reproduced. Gramophone records are made on this principle.
From this it can be understood that the record of every movement of man is
being impressed on everything, which comes into contact with the waves
produced by the movements. This shows that the record of all our deeds is
completely preserved and can be reproduced.
The fourth
proposition is that "on the Day of Resurrection. God will hold His Court
and, with just judgement, reward or punish man for his good and bad
deeds". What is unreasonable about this? Reason itself demands that God
should hold His court and pronounce judgement. We see men doing good deeds and
gaining nothing in this world. We see other men doing bad deeds and not
suffering for it. Not only this, we see thousands of cases of good acts
bringing trouble on the doer, and of bad deeds resulting in the happiness and
gratification of the guilty person. When we notice these events happening
every day, our reason and sense of justice demand that a time must come when
the man who does good must be rewarded and the one who does evil must be
punished. If you have a tin of petrol and a match- box, you can set fire to
the house of your opponent, and apparently escape every consequence.
Does this mean that such an offence has no consequences at all? Certainly not!
It means only that its physical outcome has appeared, and the moral outcome is
hidden. Do you really think it reasonable that it should never appear? If you
say it should, the question is, where? Certainly not in this world, where only
the physical consequences of actions manifest themselves fully, and rational
and moral consequences do not become apparent.
Results and
consequences of this higher category can appear only if there comes into
existence another order of things wherein rational and moral laws reign
supreme and occupy the governing position and where the physical laws are made
subject to them. That is the next world, which, as we have said before, is the
next evolutionary stage of the universe. It is evolutionary in the sense that
it will be governed by moral rather than by physical laws. The rational
consequences of man's actions, which are hidden wholly or partly in this
world, will then appear. Man's stature will be determined by his rational and
moral worth judged in accordance with his conduct in this life of test and
trial. There you will not find a worthy man serving under a fool, or a morally
superior man in a position inferior to a wretch, as is the case in this world.
The last
proposition of this belief is the existence of Paradise and Hell, which is
also not impossible. If God can make the sun, the moon, the stars and the
earth, why should He not be able to make Paradise and Hell? When He holds His
Court, and pronounces just judgments, rewarding the meritorious and punishing
the guilty, there must be a place where the meritorious may enjoy their reward
— honour, happiness and gratification of all kinds — and another place
where the condemned may feel debasement, pain and misery.
After
considering all these questions, no reasonable person can escape the
conclusion that belief in life after death is highly acceptable to reason and
commonsense, and that there is nothing in it, which can be said to be
unreasonable or impossible. Moreover, when a true Prophet like Muhammad
(blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) has stated this to be a fact, and
it involves nothing but what is good for us, wisdom lies in believing in it
implicitly and not in rejecting it without any sound reasons.
The above
are the five articles of faith, which form the foundation for the
superstructure of Islam. Their gist is contained in the short sentence known
as Kalimah-tayyibah. When you declare La illaha illallah
(there is no deity but Allah), you give up all false deities, and profess that
you are a creature of the One God; and when you add to these words Muhammad-ur-Rasulullah
(Muhammad is Allah's Messenger) you confirm and admit the Prophethood of
Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him). With the admission of his
Prophethood it becomes obligatory that you should believe in the divine nature
and attributes of God, in His angels, in His Revealed Books and in life after
death, and earnestly follow that method of obeying God and worshipping Him
which the Prophet Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) has
asked us to follow. That way lies the road to success and salvation,
Go to Top
The
earlier discussion has made it clear that the Prophet Muhammad (blessings of
Allah and peace be upon him) has enjoined us to believe in five articles of
faith:
1.
Belief in one God Who has absolutely no associate with Him in His divinity.
2.
Belief in God's Angels;
3.
Belief in God's Books, and in the Holy Qur'an as His Last Book.
4.
Belief in God's Prophets, and in Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be
upon him) as His Last and Final Messenger: and Belief in life after death.
These
five articles make up the bedrock of Islam. One who believes in them enters
the fold of Islam and becomes a member of the Muslim community. But one does
not become a complete Muslim by mere vocal profession alone. To become a
complete Muslim one has to fully carry out in practice the instructions given
by Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) as ordained by God.
For
belief in God makes practical obedience to Him incumbent; and it is obedience
to God, which constitutes the religion of Islam. By this belief you profess
that Allah, the one God, alone is your God, and this means that He is your
Creator and you are His creature; that He is your Master and you are His
slave; that He is your Ruler and you are His subject. Having acknowledged Him
as your Master and Ruler, if you refuse to obey Him you become a self-admitted
rebel. Along with faith in God, you believe that the Qur'an is God's Book.
This means that you have admitted all the contents of the Qur'an to be from
God. Thus it becomes your bounden duty to accept and obey whatever is
contained in it. Along with that, you have admitted Muhammad (blessings of
Allah and peace be upon him) to be God's Messenger, which means that you have
admitted that each and every one of his orders and prohibitions are from God.
After this admission, obedience to him becomes your duty. You will therefore
be a fully-fledged Muslim only when your practice is consistent with your
profession.
Now
let us see what code of conduct Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon
him) has taught as ordained by God Almighty. The first and foremost things in
this respect are the lbadah — the primary duties
which must be observed by each and every
person professing to belong to the
Muslim community.
lbadah
is an Arabic word derived from 'Abd (a slave) and it means submission.
Allah is your Master and you are His slave and whatever a slave does in
obedience to and for the pleasure of his Master is 'lbadah. The Islamic
concept of 'lbadah is very wide. If you free your speech from filth,
falsehood, malice and abuse and speak the truth and talk goodly things, and do
all this only because God has so ordained, they constitute 'lbadah, however
secular they may appear. If you obey the law of God in letter and spirit in
your commercial and economic affairs and abide by it in your dealings with
your parents, relatives, friends and all those who come into contact with you,
all these activities of yours are also 'lbadah. If you help the poor
and the destitute, give food to the hungry and serve the afflicted and do all
this not for any personal gain but only to seek the pleasure of God, this is
all 'lbadah. Even your economic activities — the activities you
undertake to earn your living and to feed your dependants — are 'lbadah
if you remain honest and truthful in them, and observe the law of God.
In
short, all your activities are 'lbadah if they are in accordance with
the law of God and your ultimate objective is to seek the pleasure of God.
Thus, whenever you do good or avoid evil for tear of God, in whatever sphere
of life and field of activity, you are discharging your Islamic obligations.
This is the true significance of 'lbadah, that is, 'total submission to
the pleasure of Allah, the moulding into the patterns of Islam one's entire
life, leaving out not even the most insignificant part.
To
help achieve this aim, a set of formal lbadah (worships) has been drawn
lip as a course of training. The more assiduously we follow the training, the
better equipped we are to harmonies ideals and practices. The 'lbadah
are thus the pillars on which the edifice of Islam rests.
Salah
is the most fundamental and the most important of these obligations. Salah
are the prescribed daily prayers, which consist in repeating and refreshing
five times a day the belief in which you repose your faith.
You
get up early in the morning, cleanse yourself, and present yourself before
your Lord for prayer. The various poses that you assume during your prayers
are the very embodiment of the spirit of submission; the various recitals
remind you of your commitments to your God. You seek His guidance and ask Him
again and again to enable you to avoid His Wrath and follow His Chosen Path.
You read out from the Book of the Lord and express witness to the truth of the
Prophets and also refresh your belief in the Day of Judgement and enliven in
your memory the fact that you have to appear before your Lord and give an
account of your entire life.
This
is how your day starts. After a few hours the muezzin calls you to
prayers and you again submit to your God and refresh your covenant with Him.
You dissociate yourself from your worldly engagements for a few moments and
seek audience before God. This once again brings to the fore of your mind your
real role in life. After this rededication you revert to your occupations
before presenting yourself to the Lord again a few hours later. This again
acts as a reminder to you, and you once more refocuses your attention on the
stipulations of your Faith. When the sun sets and the darkness of the night
begins to shroud you, you once more submit yourself to God in prayers so that
you may not forget your duties and obligations in the midst of the approaching
shadows of the night. After a few hours you again appear before your Lord for
your last prayer of the day. Thus before going to bed you once again refresh
your faith and prostrate yourself before your God. And this is how you
complete your day. The frequency and timings of the prayers never let you lose
sight of the object and mission of life in the maze of worldly activities.
It
is easy to understand how daily prayers strengthen the foundations of your
faith, prepare you for the observance of a life of virtue and obedience to
God, and refresh that belief from which springs courage, sincerity,
purposefulness, purity of heart, advancement of the soul and enrichment of
morals.
Now
see how this is achieved. You perform ablution in the way prescribed by the
Holy Prophet (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him). You also say your
prayers according to the instructions of the Prophet. Why do you do so? Simply
because you believe in the Prophethood of Muhammad (blessings of Allah and
peace be upon him) and deem it your bounden duty to follow him ungrudgingly.
Why
do you not intentionally misrecite the Qur'an? Is it not because you regard
the Book as the Word of God and deem it a sin to deviate from even a letter?
In prayers you recite many things quietly and if you do not recite them or
make any deviation from them there is no one to check you. But you never do so
intentionally. Why? Because you believe that God is ever watchful, is
listening to all that you recite and is aware of things both open and hidden.
What makes you say your prayers at places where there is no one to ask you to
offer them or even to see you offering them? Is it not because of your belief
that God is always looking at you? What makes you leave some important
business and hurry towards the mosque for prayers? What makes you break your
sweet sleep in the early hours of the morning, come to the mosque in the heat
of noon and leave your evening entertainment for the sake of prayers? Is it
anything other than your sense of duty — your realisation that you must
fulfill your responsibility to the Lord, come what may? And why are you afraid
of any mistake in your prayer? Because your heart is filled with the fear of
God and you know that you have to appear before Him on the Day of Judgement
and give an account of your entire life.
Now
look! Can there be a better course of moral and spiritual training than
prayers? It is this training which makes a man a perfect Muslim. It reminds
him of his covenant with God, refreshes his faith in Him and keeps the belief
in the Day of Judgement alive and ever-present before his mind's eye. It makes
him follow the Prophet and trains him in the observance of his duties. This is
indeed a strict training for matching one's practice to one's ideals.
Obviously,
if a man's consciousness of his duties towards his Creator is so acute that he
prizes it above all worldly gains and keeps refreshing it through prayers, he
will be honest in all his dealings for, otherwise, he will be inviting the
displeasure of God which he has all along striven to avoid. He will abide by
the law of God in all aspects of his life in the same way as he follows it in
the five prayers every day. This man can be relied on in other fields of
activity as well, for if the shadows of sin or deceit approach him, he will
try to avoid them. If even after such training, a man disobeys the law of God,
it can only be because of some intrinsic depravity of his self.
Then,
again, you must say your prayers in congregation and especially so the Friday
prayers. This creates among Muslims a bond of love and mutual understanding.
It arouses in them a sense of collective unity and fosters among them national
fraternity. Prayers are also a symbol of equality, for the poor and the rich,
the low and the high, the rulers and the ruled, the educated and the
unlettered, the black and the white; all stand in a row and prostrate
themselves before their Lord. Prayers also inculcate a strong sense of
discipline and obedience to an elected leader. In short, prayers train people
in all those virtues, which make possible the development of a rich individual
and collective life.
These
are a few of the myriads of benefits we can derive from our daily prayers1.
(1. For a detailed discussion of the nature and significance of salah,
see Maulana Mawdudi’s book: Islami lbaadat Par Tahqiqi
Nazar (A Treatise on Islamic Worship). — Editor.
If we refuse to avail ourselves of them we and only
we are the losers. Shirking the prayers can only mean one of two things.
Either we do not recognise prayers as our duty or we recognise them as our
duty and still shirk them. In the first case, our claim to faith is a
shameless lie, for if we refuse to take orders, we no longer acknowledge God's
Authority. In the second case, if we recognise His Authority and still flout
His Commands, we are the most unreliable of the creatures that ever trod the
earth. For if we can do this to the highest authority in the universe, what
guarantee is there that we shall not do the same in our dealings with fellow
human beings? And if double-dealing dominates a society, terrible discord will
be the certain outcome!
What
prayers seek to do five times a day fasting in the month of Ramadan (the ninth
month of the lunar year) does once a year. During this period we eat not a
grain of food nor drink a drop of water from dawn to dusk, no matter how
delicious the dish or how hungry or thirsty we feel. What is it that makes us
voluntarily undergo such rigours? It is nothing but faith in God and the fear
of Him and the Day of Judgement. Each and every moment during our fast we
suppress our passions and desires and proclaim, by so doing, the supremacy of
the Law of God. This consciousness of duty and spirit of patience that
incessant fasting for a whole month inculcates in us help us strengthen our
faith. Rigour and discipline during this month bring us face to face with the
realities of life and help us make our life, during the rest of the year, a
life of true subservience to His Will.
From
yet another point of view fasting has an immense impact on society, for all
the Muslims irrespective of their status must fast during the same month. This
emphasises the essential equality of men and thus goes a long way towards
creating in them sentiments of love and brotherhood. During Ramadan evil
conceals itself while good comes to the fore and the whole atmosphere is
filled with piety and purity.
This
discipline has been imposed on us for our own advantage. Those who do not
fulfill this primary duty cannot be relied on to discharge their other duties.
But the worst are those who during this holy month do not hesitate to eat or
drink in public. They show by their conduct that they care nothing for the
commands of Allah in Whom they profess their belief as Creator and Sustainer.
Not only this, they also show that they are not loyal members of the Muslim
community — rather, they have nothing to do with it. Only the worst can be
expected of such hypocrites.
The
third obligation is Zakah. Every Muslim whose finances are above a
certain specified minimum must pay 2 ½ per cent of his cash balance annually2
(2. Zakah is not merely on the cash balance. It is also charged on
gold, silver, merchandise, cattle and other valuables. The rate of zakah
for all these commodities can be found in the books on fiqh and is not
given here for the sake of economy of space.) to a deserving fellow-being, a
new convert to Islam, a traveller or a person with debts3. (3. It should be
noted that the Holy Prophet has forbidden his own kith and kin to take Zakah.
Though it is obligatory on the Hashimites to pay Zakah, they cannot
receive it even if they are poor and needy. If anybody wants to help a poor
Hashimite, he may give him a gift. He cannot be helped out of Zakah.)
This is the minimum. The more you pay, the greater the reward that Allah will
bestow on you.
The
money that we pay as Zakah is not something Allah needs or receives. He
is above any want and desire. He, in His benign Mercy, promises us manifold
rewards if we help our brethren. But there is one basic condition for being
thus rewarded: when we pay in the name of Allah, we shall neither expect nor
demand any worldly gains from the beneficiaries nor aim at becoming known as
philanthropists.
Zakah
is as basic to Islam as other forms of lbadah: Salah (prayer)
and Sawm (fasting). Its fundamental importance lies in the fact that it
fosters in us the quality of sacrifice and rids us of selfishness and
plutolatry. Islam accepts within its fold only those who are ready to give
away in God's way some of their hard-earned wealth willingly and without any
temporal or personal gain. It has nothing to do with misers. A true Muslim
will, when the call comes, sacrifice all his belongings in the way of Allah,
for Zakah has already trained him to do so.
Muslim
society has much to gain from the institution of Zakah. It is the
bounden duty of every well-to-do Muslim to help his lowly placed, poor
brethren. His wealth is not to be spent solely for his own comfort and luxury
— there are rightful claimants on his wealth, and they are the nation's
widows and orphans, the poor and the invalid; those who have the ability but
lack the means to get useful employment and those who have the talent but not
the money to acquire knowledge and become useful members of the community. He
who does not recognise the call on his wealth of such members of his own
community is indeed cruel. For there could be no greater cruelty than to fill
one's own coffers while others die of hunger or suffer the agonies of
unemployment. Islam is a sworn enemy of selfishness, greed and
acquisitiveness. Disbelievers, devoid of sentiments of universal love, know
only how to preserve wealth and to add to it by lending it out on interest.
Islam's teachings are the antithesis of this attitude. Here one shares ones
wealth with others and helps them stand on their own Feet and become
productive members of society.
Hajj,
or the pilgrimage to Makka, is the fourth basic lbadah.
Makka
today stands at the site of a small house that the Prophet Abraham (God's
blessings be upon him) built for the worship of Allah. Allah rewarded him by
calling it His own House and by making it the center towards which all must
face when saying prayers. He also made it obligatory on those who can afford
it to visit this place at least once in a lifetime. This visit is not merely a
courtesy call. This pilgrimage has its rites and conditions to be fulfilled
which inculcate in us piety and goodness. When we undertake the pilgrimage, we
are required to suppress our passions, refrain from bloodshed and be pure in
word and deed. God promises rewards for our sincerity and submissiveness.
The
pilgrimage is, in a way, the biggest of all 'lbadah. For unless a man
really loves God he would never undertake such a long journey leaving all his
near and dear ones behind him. And this pilgrimage is unlike any other
journey. Here his thoughts are concentrated on Allah, his very being vibrates
with the spirit of intense devotion. When he reaches the holy place, he finds
the atmosphere filled with piety and godliness; he visits places, which bear
witness to the glory of Islam, and all this leaves an indelible impression on
his mind, which he carries to his last breath.
Then
there are, as in other lbadah, many benefits that Muslims can derive
from this pilgrimage. Makka is the center towards which Muslims must converge
once a year, meet and discuss topics of common interest, and in general create
and refresh in themselves the faith that all Muslims are equal and deserve the
love and sympathy of others, irrespective of their geographical or cultural
origin. Thus the pilgrimage unites the Muslims of the world into one
international fraternity.
Although
the defence of Islam is not a fundamental tenet its need and importance have
been repeatedly emphasized in the Qur'an and the Hadith. It is in
essence a test of our sincerity and truthfulness as believers in Islam. If we
do not defend one whom we call our friend against intrigues or open assaults
from his foes, or are guided in our actions towards him solely by selfishness,
we are indeed false friends. Similarly, if we profess belief in Islam, we must
jealously guard and uphold the prestige of Islam. The sole guide in our
conduct must be the interest of Muslims at large and the service of Islam, in
the face of which all our personal considerations must take a back seat.
Jihad
is part of this overall defence of Islam. Jihad means to struggle to
the utmost of one's capacity. A man who exerts himself physically or mentally
or spends his wealth in the way of Allah is
indeed engaged in Jihad. But in the language of the Shari'ah
this word is used particularly for a war that is waged solely in the name of
Allah against those who practise oppression as enemies of Islam.
This
supreme sacrifice of life devolves on all Muslims. If, however, a section of
Muslims offer themselves for the Jihad, the community as a whole is
absolved of its responsibility. But if none comes forward, everybody is
guilty. This concession vanishes for the citizens of an Islamic State when it
is attacked by a non-Muslim power. In that case everybody must come
forward for the Jihad. If the country attacked has not enough strength
to fight back, then it is the religious duly of the neighbouring Muslim
countries to help her: if even they fail, then the Muslims of the whole world
must fight the common enemy. In all such cases, Jihad is as much a
primary duty of the Muslims concerned as are the daily prayers or fasting. One
who shirks it is a sinner. His very claim to being a Muslim is doubtful. He is
a hypocrite whose lbadah and prayers are a sham, a worthless, hollow
show of devotion.
Go to Top
Chapter
6
So
far we have been dealing with Din or Faith. We now come to a discussion of the
Shari'ah of the Prophet Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon
him). But let us first be clear about the difference between Din and Shari'ah.
In
the foregoing chapters we said that all the Prophets who have appeared from
time to time propagated Islam, that is a belief in God with all His
attributes, faith in the Day of Judgement and faith in the Prophets and the
Books; they asked people to live a life of obedience and submission to their
Lord. This is what constitutes al-Din and it was common to the
teachings of all the Prophets.
Apart
from this Din there is the Shari'ah, the detailed code of
conduct or the canons comprising ways and modes of worship, standards of
morals and life and laws that allow and proscribe that judge between right and
wrong. Such canon law has undergone amendments from time to time and though
each Prophet had the same Din, he brought with him a different Shari'ah
to suit the conditions of his own people and time. This process ended with the
advent of Muhammad, the last Prophet (blessings of Allah and peace be upon
him), who brought with him the final code which was to apply to all mankind
for all times to come. Din has undergone no change, but all the
previous Shari’ahs stand abrogated because of the comprehensive Shari'ah
that Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) brought with him.
This is the climax of the great process of training that was started at the
dawn of the human era.
We
draw upon two major sources to learn about the Shari’ah of Muhammad
(blessings of Allah and peace be upon him), the Qur'an and the Hadith.
The Qur'an is a divine revelation — each and every word of it is from Allah.
The Hadith is a collection of the instructions issued or the memoirs of
the last Prophet's conduct and behaviour, as preserved by those who were
present in his company or those to whom these were handed down by the first
witnesses. These were later sifted and collected by divines and compiled in
the form of books among which the collections made by Malik, Bukhari, Muslim,
Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, Nasa'i and lbn Majah are considered to be the most
authentic.
Fiqh
Detailed
law derived from the Qur'an and the Hadith covering the myriads of
problems that arise in the course of man's life have been compiled by some of
the leading legislators of the past. The Muslims should forever be grateful to
those men of learning and vision who devoted their lives to gaining a mastery
of the Qur'an and the Hadith, and who made it easy for every Muslim to
fashion his everyday affairs according lo the requirements of the Shari'ah.
It is due to them alone that Muslims all over the world can follow the Shari'ah
easily even though their attainments in religion are never such that they
could themselves give a correct and authentic interpretation of the Qur'an or
the Hadith.
Although
in the beginning many religious leaders applied themselves to the task, only
four major schools of thought remain. They are: (1.
The periods and present position of the respective Fiqhs are as follows: Abu
Hanifa Nu'man bin Thabit was burn in 80 A.H. (699 A.D.) and died in 150 A.H.
(767 A.D.). There are approximately 340 million followers of this Fiqh, mostly
concentrated in Turkey, Pakistan, Bharat, Afghanistan, Transjordan,
Indo-China, China and Soviet Russia. Malik bin Anas Asbahi was born in 93 A.H.
(714 A.D.) and died in 179 A.H. (798 A.D.). There are approximately 45 million
followers of this Fiqh, mainly concentrated in Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, Sudan,
Kuwait and Bahrain. Muhammad bin ldris al-Shafi was born in 150 A.H. (767
A.D.) and died in 240 A.H. (854 A.D.). He has approximately 100 million
followers concentrated mainly in Palestine. Lebanon. Egypt. Iraq. Saudi
Arabia. Yemen and Indonesia. Ahmad bin Hanbal was born in 164 A.H. (780 A.D.)
and died in 241 A.H. (855 A.D.). There are some 3 million followers of this
Fiqh, mainly concentrated in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Syria)
|
Hanafi
|
This is the Fiqh
compiled by Abu Hanifa Nu’man bin Thabit with the assistance and
co-operation of Abu Yusuf Muhammad, Zufar and others, all of whom
had high religious attainments to their credit. This is known as the
Hanafi School of Fiqh.
|
|
Fiqh Maliki
|
This Fiqh was derived
by Malik bin Anas Asbahi.
|
|
Fiqh
Shafi i
|
Founded by Muhammad
bin ldris al-Shafi'i.
|
|
Fiqh
Hanbali
|
Founded by Ahmad bin
Hanbal.
|
All
of these were given their final form within two hundred years of the time of
the Prophet. The differences that appear in the four schools are but the
natural outcome of the fact that truth is many-sided. When different persons
employ themselves in interpreting a given event, they come out with different
explanations according to their own lights. What gives these various schools of
thought the authenticity that is associated with them is the unimpeachable
integrity of their respective founders and the authenticity of the method they
adopted. That is why all Muslims, whatever school they may belong to, regard
all the four schools of thought as correct and true. Even so one can normally
follow only one of them in one's life (there is the group of Ahl-d-lfadith
who believe that those who have the required knowledge and learning should
directly approach the Qur'an and the Hadith for guidance and those who
are not bestowed with such knowledge and faculties should follow whichever
school they like in any particular matter. (2.
Another major school of' thought is that of the Shi’ah who have founded
their own Fiqh. - Editor)
Fiqh
deals with observable conduct, the fulfilling of a duty to the letter. That
concerning itself with the spirit of conduct is known as Tasawwuf. For
example, when we say our prayers. Fiqh will judge us only by the
fulfillment of the outward requirements such as ablution, facing towards the
Ka'bah and the timing and the number of Raka'ahs. Tasa'wufill
judge our prayers by our concentration and devotion and by their effect on our
morals and manners. An lbadah devoid of spirit, though correct in
procedure, is like a man handsome in appearance but lacking in character and
an 'lbadah full of spirit but defective in execution is like a man
noble in character but deformed in appearance.
The
above example makes clear the relation between Fiqh and Tasawwuf. But
it is to the misfortune of the Muslims that as they sank in knowledge and
character with the passage of time, they also succumbed to the misguided
philosophies of nations which were then dominant, partook of them and patched
Islam with their perverted dogmas.
They
polluted the pure spring of Islamic Tasawwuf with absurdities that
could not be justified by any stretch of the imagination on the basis of the
Qur'an and the Hadith. Gradually a section of Muslims appeared who
thought and proclaimed themselves immune to and above the requirements of the Shari'ah.
These people are totally ignorant of Islam, for Islam cannot admit of Tasawwuf
that takes liberties with the Shari'ah. No Sufi has the
right to transgress the limits of the Shari'ah or treat lightly primary
obligations (Fara'id) such as daily prayers, fasting. Zakah and
the Hajj. Tasawwuf, in the true sense, is an intense love of Allah and
Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) and such love require a
strict obedience to their commands as embodied in the Book of God and the Sunnah
of His Prophet. Anyone who deviates from the divine commands makes a false
claim of his love for Allah and His Apostle.
Go
to Top
Chapter
7
Our
discussion of the fundamentals of Islam will remain incomplete if we do not
cast a glance over the law of Islam, study its basic principles, and try to
visualise the type of man and society, which Islam wants to produce. In this
last chapter we propose to undertake a study of the principles of the Shari'ah
so that our picture of Islam may become complete and we may be able to
appreciate the superiority of the Islamic way of life.
Man
has been endowed with countless powers and faculties and Providence has been
very bountiful to him in this respect. He possesses intellect and wisdom, will
and volition, faculties of sight, speech, taste, touch and hearing, powers of
hand and feet, passions of love, fear, anger and so on. These faculties have
been bestowed on him because they are indispensable to him. His very life and
success depend on the proper use of these powers for the fulfillment of his
needs and requirements. These God-given powers are meant for his service and
unless they are used in full measure life cannot become worth living.
God
has also provided man with all those means and resources to make his natural
faculties function and to achieve the fulfillment of his needs. The human body
has been so made that it has become man's greatest instrument in his struggle
for the fulfillment of his life's goal. Then there is the world in which man
lives. His environment and surroundings contain resources of every
description: resources, which he uses as a means for the achievement of his
ends. Nature and all that belongs to it have been harnessed for him and he can
make every conceivable use of them. And there are other men of his, own kind,
so that they may co-operate with each other in the construction of a better
and prosperous life.
These
powers and resources have been conferred so that they may be used for the good
of others. They have been created for your good and are not meant to harm and
destroy you. The proper use of these powers is that which makes them
beneficial to you; and even if there be some harm, it must not exceed the
unavoidable minimum. That alone is the proper utilisation of these powers.
Every other use, which results in waste or destruction, is wrong, unreasonable
and unjustified. For instance, if you do something that causes you harm or
injury, that would be a mistake, pure and simple. If your actions harm others
and make you a nuisance to them, that would be sheer folly and an utter misuse
of God-given powers. If you waste resources, spoil them for nothing or destroy
them that too is a gross mistake. Such activities are flagrantly unreasonable,
for it is human reason which suggests that destruction and injury must be
avoided and the path of gain and profit be pursued. And if any harm be
countenanced, it must be only in such cases where it is unavoidable and where
it is bound to yield a greater benefit. Any deviation from this is
self-evidently wrong.
Keeping
this basic consideration in view, when we look at human beings, we find that
there are two kinds of people: first, those who knowingly misuse their
powers and resources and through this misuse waste the resources, injure their
own vital interests, and cause harm to other people; and, second, those
who are sincere and earnest but err because of ignorance. Those who
intentionally misuse their powers are wicked and evil and deserve to feel the
full weight of the law. Those who err because of ignorance need proper
knowledge and guidance so that they see the Right Path and make the best use
of their powers and resources. And the code of behaviour — the Shari'ah
—, which God has revealed to man, meets this very need.
The
Shari'ah stipulates the law of God and provides guidance for the
regulation of life in the best interests of man. Its objective is to show the best
way to man and provide him with the ways and means to fulfill his needs in
the most successful and most beneficial way. The law of God is out and out for
your benefit. There is nothing in it which tends to waste your powers, or to
suppress your natural needs and desires, or to kill your moral urges and
emotions. It does not plead for asceticism. It does not say: abandon the
world, give up all ease and comfort of life, leave your homes and wander about
on plains and mountains and in jungles without bread or cloth, putting
yourself to inconvenience and self-annihilation. This viewpoint has no
relevance to the law of Islam a law that has been formulated by God Who has
created this world for the benefit of mankind.
The
Shari'ah has been revealed by that very God Who has harnessed
everything for man. He would hardly want to ruin His creation. He has not
given man any power that is useless or unnecessary, nor has He created
anything in the heavens and the earth which may not be of service to man. It
is His explicit Will that the universe — this grand workshop with its
multifarious activities — should go on functioning smoothly and graciously
so that man — the prize of creation — should make the best and most
productive use of all his powers and resources, of everything that has been
harnessed for him on earth and in the high heavens. He should use them in such
a way that he and his fellow human beings may reap handsome prizes from them
and should never, intentionally or unintentionally, be of any harm to God's
creation. The Shari'ah is meant to guide the steps of man in this
respect. It forbids all that is harmful to man, and allows or ordains all that
is useful and beneficial to him.
The
fundamental principle of the Law is that man has the right, and in some cases
the bounden duty, to fulfill all his genuine needs and desires and make every
conceivable effort to promote his interests and achieve success and happiness
— but (and it is an important 'but') he should do all this in such a way
that not only are the interests of other people not jeopardized and no harm is
caused to their strivings towards the fulfillment of their rights and duties,
but there should be all possible social cohesion, mutual assistance and
co-operation among human beings in the achievement of their objectives. In
respect of those things in which good and evil, gain and loss are inextricably
mixed up, the tenet of this law is to choose a little harm for the sake of
greater benefit and sacrifice a little benefit, so avoiding a greater harm.
This is the basic approach of the Shari'ah.
Man's
knowledge is limited. Every man in every age does not, by himself, know what
is good and what is evil, what is beneficial and what is harmful to him. The
sources of human knowledge are too limited to provide him with the unalloyed
truth. That is why God has spared man the risks of trial and error and
revealed to him the Law, which is the right and complete code of life for the
entire human race. (1. It would be instructive to
refer here to an example. Look at the colour problem. The world has not yet
been able to adopt a rational and human approach towards coloured people.
Biology, for a time, was used to sanction colour discrimination. In the United
States for the last two centuries the courts upheld the differentiation.
Thousands of human beings were coerced, gagged and tortured for the
"crime' that their skin was black. Separate laws were administered to the
whites and the blacks. They' could not even study under the same roof in the
same school or college. It was only on May 1". 1954 that the U.S. Supreme
Court ruled that colour discrimination in universities was unjust and against
the principle of equality of man. After committing heinous blunders for
centuries man came to the view that such discriminations are unjust and should
be abolished. But even now there are many who have not realized (he truth of
this assertion and still stand for segregation, for instance, the Government
of the Union of South Africa and the Western population of the African
continent. Even in the United States a large number of 'civilised' people have
not as yet accepted desegregation. This is how the human mind has dealt with
this problem. The Shari'ah, on the other hand, declared this discrimination
unjust from the very first day. It showed the right path, the noble course and
saved man from error and blunder. The Ho1y Qur'an says: "We have made all
the children of Adam. i.e. all human beings, respectable and dignified."
The Qur'an again declares: "0 ye people! Surely we have created you of a
male and a female and made you tribes and families so that ye may identify
each other. Surely the noblest of you in the sight of Allah is one who is most
pious, most mindful of his duly. "Similarly, the Holy Prophet says:
"0 people, verily your Lord is one and your Father is one. All of you
belong lo Adam, and Adam was made of clay. There is no superiority for an Arab
over a non-Arab nor for a non-Arab over an Arab: nor for a white-coloured\over
a black-coloured nor for a black-skinned over a white-skinned, except in
piety. Verily the noblest among you is he who is the most pious" (vide
Oration of the Prophet on the occasion of the Farewell Pilgrimage). This is
the clear truth, which the Shari'ah told to man more than thirteen centuries
ago, but unguided reason has succeeded only in touching the fringe of it after
centuries of waste, losses and blunders, after subjecting hundreds of
thousands of people to indiscriminate segregation and after degrading men and
corrupting human society. The Shari'ah gives the simplest and the shortest
approach to reality and its disregard leads to utter waste and failure. –
Editor.)
The
merits and the truths of this code are becoming more and more clear to man
with the passage of time and of knowledge. Even today some people do not
appreciate all the merits of this code, but further progress of knowledge will
throw new light on them and bring their superiority into even clearer
perspective. The world is willy-nilly drifting towards the Divine
Code— many of those people who refused to accept it are now, after centuries
of groupings and trials and errors, being obliged to adopt some of the
provisions of this law. Those who denied the truth of the revelation and
pinned their faith on unguided human reason, after committing blunders and
courting bitter experience, are adopting in one way or another the injunctions
of Shari'ah. But after what loss! And even then not in their entirety!
On the other hand, there are people who repose faith in God's Prophets, accept
their word and adopt the Shari’ah with full knowledge and
understanding. They may not be aware of all the merits of a certain
instruction, but on the whole they accept a code which is the outcome of true
knowledge and which saves them from the evils and blunders of ignorance and of
trial and error. Such people are on the right path and are bound to succeed.
The
scheme of life, which Islam envisages, consists of a set of rights and
obligations, and every human being, everyone who accepts this religion, is
enjoined to live up to them. Broadly speaking, the law of Islam imposes four
kinds of rights and obligations on every man: (i) the rights of God which
every man is obliged to fulfill: (ii) his own rights upon his own self: (iii)
the rights of other people over him; and (iv) the rights of those powers and
resources which God has placed in his service and has empowered him to use for
his benefit.
These
rights and obligations constitute the corner stone of Islam and it is the
bounden duty of every true Muslim to understand them and they them carefully.
The Shari'ah discusses clearly each and every kind of right and deals
with it in detail. It also throws light on the ways and means through which
the obligations can be discharged — so that all of them may be
simultaneously implemented and none of them violated or trampled underfoot.
Now
we shall briefly discuss these rights and obligations so that an idea of the
Islamic way of life and its fundamental values may be formed.
1. The
Rights of God
First
of all we must study the ground on which Islam bases the relationship of man
to his Creator. The primary and foremost right of God is that man should have
faith in Him alone. He should acknowledge His authority and associate none
with Him. This is epitomized in the Kalimah: La illaha
illallah (there is no god but Allah). 2 (2.
This point has already been discussed in detail in Chapter Four.)
The
second right of God on us is that man should accept wholeheartedly and follow
His guidance (Hidayah) — the code He has revealed for man— and
should seek His pleasure with both mind and soul. We fulfill the dictates of
this right by placing belief in God's Prophet and by accepting his guidance
and leadership.3 (3. This has been"
discussed in Chapter Three.)
The
third right of God on us is that we should obey Him honestly and unreservedly.
We fulfill the needs of this right by following God's Law as contained in the
Qur'an and the Sunnah.4 (4. See Chapter four.)
The
fourth right of God on us is to worship Him. This is rendered by offering
prayers and other lbadah as described earlier. 5 (5. See
Chapter Five.)
These
rights and obligations precede all other rights and as such they are
discharged even at the cost of some sacrifice of other rights and duties. For
instance, in offering prayers and keeping fasts man has to sacrifice many of
his personal rights. He has to get up early in the morning for his prayers and
in so doing sacrifices his sleep and rest. During the day he often puts off
important work and gives up his recreation to worship his Creator. In the
month of Ramadan (the month of fasts) he experiences hunger and
inconvenience solely to please his Lord. By paying Zakah he loses his
wealth and demonstrates that the love of God is above everything else. In the
pilgrimage he sacrifices wealth and takes on a difficult journey. And in Jihad
he sacrifices money, material and all that he has — even his
own life.
Similarly,
in the discharge of these obligations one has to sacrifice some of the
ordinary rights of others and thus injure one's own interests at large. A
servant has to leave his work to worship his Lord. A businessman has to stop
his business to undertake the Pilgrimage to Makka. In Jihad a man takes
away life and gives it away solely in the cause of Allah. In the same way, in
rendering God's rights one has to sacrifice many of those things which man has
in his control, like animals, wealth, etc. But God has so formulated the Shari'ah
that harmony and equilibrium are established in the different fields of life
and the sacrifice of others' rights is reduced to the barest minimum.
This
is achieved by the limits prescribed by God. He has allowed us every facility
in the fulfillment of the obligation of Salah. If you cannot get water
for ablution, or you are sick, you can perform tayammum (dry ablution).
If you are on a journey, you can cut short the Salah. If you are ill
and cannot stand in the prayer, you can offer it while sitting or lying. The
recitation of the prayer is so manageable that they can be shortened or
lengthened as one may wish; at times of rest and ease we may recite a long
chapter of the Qur'an, at busy times we may recite a few verses only. The
instruction is that in the congregational prayers and in those prayers, which
occur during business hours, the recitation should be short. God is pleased
with the optional devotions (Nawafil), but He disapproves our denying
ourselves sleep and rest and the sacrifice of the rights of our children and
of the household. Islam wants us to strike a balance between the various
activities of life.
It
is similar with fasts. In the whole year there is only one month of
obligatory fasting. If you are travelling or ill you can omit it and observe
it at some other convenient time of the year. Women are exempted from fasting
when they are pregnant and during their menstrual or suckling periods. The
fast should end at the appointed time and any delay is disapproved of.
Permission is given to eat and drink from sunset to dawn. Optional fasts are
highly valued and God is pleased at them. but He does not like you to keep
fasts continuously and make yourself too weak to do your ordinary business
satisfactorily.
Similarly,
look at the case of Zakah; the minimum rate has been fixed by God and
man has been left free to give as much more as he likes in the cause of Allah.
If one gives Zakah, one fulfils one's duty, but if one spends more in
charity, one seeks more and more of God's pleasure. But He does not like us to
sacrifice all our belongings in charity or to deny our relatives and ourselves
those rights and comforts, which they should enjoy. He does not want us to
impoverish ourselves. We are commanded to be moderate in charity.
Then
look at the pilgrimage. It is obligatory only for those who can afford the
journey and who a physically fit to bear its hardships. Then it is obligatory
to perform it only once in one's life, in any convenient year. If there is a
war or any other situation «which threatens life, it can be postponed.
Moreover, parental permission has been made an essential condition, so that
aged parents may not suffer in one's absence. All these things clearly show
what importance God has Himself given to the rights of others vis-a-vis
His own rights.
The
greatest sacrifice for God is made in Jihad, for in it a man sacrifices
not only his own life and property in His cause but destroys those of others
also. But, as already stated, one of the Islamic principles is that we should
suffer a lesser loss to save ourselves from a greater loss. How can the loss
of some lives -- even if the number runs into thousands — be compared to the
calamity that may befall mankind as a result of the victory of evil over good
and of aggressive atheism over the religion of God. That would be a far
greater loss and calamity, for as a result of it not only would the religion
of God be under dire threat, the world would also become the abode of evil and
perversion, and life would be disrupted both from within and without.
In
order to escape this greater evil God has, therefore, commanded us to
sacrifice our lives and property for His pleasure. But at the same time He has
forbidden unnecessary bloodshed, injuring the aged, women, children, the sick
and the wounded. His order is to fight only against those who rise to fight.
He enjoins us not to cause unnecessary destruction even in the enemy's lands,
and to deal fairly and honorably with the defeated. We are instructed to
observe the agreements made with the enemy and to stop fighting when they do
so or when they stop their aggressive and anti-Islamic activities.
Thus
Islam allows only for the minimum essential sacrifice of life, property and
other people's rights in the discharging of God's rights. It is eager to
establish a balance between the different demands of man and adjust different
rights and obligations so that life is enriched with the choicest of merits
and achievements.
Next
come man's personal rights, that is, the rights of one's own self.
The
fact is that man is more cruel and unjust to himself than to any other being.
On the face of it this may seem astonishing: how can a man be unjust to
himself, particularly when we find that he loves himself most? How can he be
his own enemy? It seems unintelligible. But deeper reflection shows that it
contains a large grain of truth.
The
greatest weakness of man is that when he feels an overpowering desire, instead
of resisting it, he succumbs to it, and in its gratification knowingly causes
great harm to himself. There is the man who drinks: he cannot stop his craving
for it and does it at the cost of money, health, reputation and everything
that he has. Another person is so fond of eating that in his eating excesses
he damages his health and endangers his life. Another person becomes a slave
to his sexual appetites and ruins himself in overindulgence. Still another
becomes enamored of spiritual elevations: he suppresses his genuine desires,
refuses to satisfy the physical needs, controls his appetite, does away with
clothes, leaves his home and retires into mountains and jungles. He believes
that the world is not meant for him and abhors it in all its forms and
manifestations.
These
are a few of the instances of man's tendency to go to extremes. One comes
across such instances of maladjustment and disequilibrium in one's everyday
life and there is no need to multiply them here.
Islam
stands for human welfare and its avowed objective is to establish balance in
life. That is why the Shari'ah clearly declares that your own self also
has certain rights upon you. A fundamental principle of it is: "there are
rights upon you of your own person."
The
Shari'ah forbids the use of all those things, which are injurious to
man's physical, mental or moral existence. It forbids the consumption of
blood, intoxicating drugs, flesh of the pig, beasts of prey, poisonous and
unclean animals and carcasses; for all these have undesirable effects on the
physical, moral, intellectual and spiritual life of man. While forbidding
these things, Islam enjoins man to use all clean, healthy and useful things
and asks him not to deprive his body of clean food, for man's body, too, has a
right on him. The law of Islam forbids nudity and orders man to wear decent
and dignified dress. It exhorts him to work for a living and strongly
disapproves of him remaining idle and jobless. The spirit of the Shari'ah
is that man should use for his comfort and welfare the powers God has bestowed
on him and the resources that He has spread on the earth and in the heavens.
Islam does not believe in the suppression of sexual desire; it enjoins man to
control and regulate it and seek its fulfillment in marriage. It forbids him
to resort to self-persecution and total self-denial and permits him, indeed,
bids him, to enjoy the rightful comforts and pleasures of life and remain
pious and steadfast in the midst of life and its problems.
To
seek spiritual elevation, moral purity, nearness to God and salvation in the
life to come, it is not necessary to abandon this world. Instead, the trial of
man lies in this world and he should remain in its midst and follow the way of
Allah in it. The road to success lies in following the Divine Law in the midst
of life's complexities, not outside it.
Islam
forbids suicide and impresses on man that life belongs to God. It is a trust,
which God has bestowed for a certain period of time so that you may make the
best use of it—it is not meant to be harmed or destroyed in a frivolous way.
This
is how Islam instills in the mind of man that his own person, his own self,
possesses certain rights and it is his obligation to discharge them as best he
can, in the ways that have been suggested by the Shari'ah. This is how
he can be true to his own self.
On
the one hand the Shari’ah has enjoined man to fulfill his personal
rights and be just to his own self, and on the other, it has asked him to seek
their fulfillment in such a way that the rights of other people are not
violated. The Shari'ah has tried to strike a balance between the rights
of man and the rights of society so that no conflict arises and there is
co-operation in establishing the law of God.
Islam
has strictly forbidden the telling of a lie in any shape or form, for lies
sully the liar, harm other people and become a source of menace to society. It
has totally forbidden theft, bribery, forgery, cheating, the levying of
interest and usury, for whatever man gains by these means is obtained by
causing loss and injury to others. Backbiting tale telling and slander have
been forbidden. Gambling, lottery, speculation and all games of chance have
been prohibited, for in all of them one-person gains at the expense of
thousands of losers.
All
those forms of exploitative commerce have been prohibited in which one party
alone is to be the loser. Monopoly, hoarding, black marketing, holding of land
from cultivation and all other forms of individual and social aggrandizement
have been prohibited. Murder, blood spilling and spreading of mischief,
disorder and destruction have been made crimes, for no one has a right to take
away the life or property of other people merely for his personal gain or
gratification.
Adultery,
fornication and unnatural sexual indulgence have been strictly prohibited for
they not only vitiate the morality and impair the health of the perpetrator
but also spread corruption and immorality in society, cause venereal disease,
damage both public health and the morals of the coming generations, upset
relations between man and man and split the very fabric of the cultural and
social structure of the community. Islam seeks to eliminate, root and branch,
such crimes.
All
these limitations and restrictions have been imposed by the law of Islam to
prevent a man encroaching on the rights of others. Islam does not want a man
to become so selfish and self-centered that for the attainment of a few
desires of the mind and body he unashamedly assails the rights of others and
violates morality. The law of Islam so regulates life that the welfare of one
and all may be achieved. But for the attainment of human welfare and cultural
advancement, negative restrictions alone are not sufficient. In a peaceful and
prosperous society people should not only not violate the rights of others and
injure their interests but should positively co-operate with each other and
establish mutual relations and social institutions that contribute towards the
welfare of all and the establishment of an ideal human society. The Shari'ah
has guided us in this respect as well. We therefore propose to give here a
brief summary of those injunctions of Islamic law, which throw light on this
aspect of life and society. Family is the first cradle of man. It is here that
the primary character-traits of man are set. As such it is not only the cradle
of man but also the cradle of civilisation. Therefore, let us first consider
the injunctions of the Shari'ah relating to the family.
A
family consists of the husband, the wife and their children. The Islamic
injunctions abort the family are very explicit. They assign to man the
responsibility for earning and providing the necessities of life for his wife
and children and for protecting them from all the vicissitudes of life. To the
woman it assigns the duty of managing the household, training and bringing up
children in the best possible way, and providing her husband and children with
the greatest possible comfort and contentment. The duty of the children is to
respect and obey their parents, and, when they are grown up, to serve them and
provide for their needs. To make the household a well-managed and
well-disciplined institution, Islam has adopted the following two measures:
a)
The husband has been given the position of head of the family. No institution
can work smoothly unless it has a chief administrator. You cannot think of a
school without a headmaster or a city without an administrator. If there is
nobody to control an institution, chaos results. If everybody in the family
goes his own way, nothing but confusion will prevail. If the husband goes one
way and the wife another, the future of the children will be ruined. There
must be someone as the head of the family so that discipline may be
maintained. Islam gives this position to the husband and in this way makes the
family a well-disciplined primary unit of civilisation and a model for society
at large.
b)
The head of the family has responsibilities. It is his duty to work, and do
all those tasks, which are performed outside the household. Woman has been
freed from all activities outside the household so that she may devote herself
fully to duties in the home and in the rearing of her children — the future
guardians of the nation. Women have been ordered to remain in their houses and
discharge the responsibilities assigned to them. Islam does not want to tax
them doubly: to bring up their children and maintain the household, as well as
to earn a living and do outdoor jobs would be a clear injustice. Islam,
therefore, effects a functional division of labour between the sexes6. (6.
After tasting the bitter consequences of destroying this functional
distribution, even some Western thinkers are talking in terms of women going
back to their homes. Here are the views of two leading thinkers: Dr. Fulton J.
Sheen writes in Communism and the Conscience of
the West: "The disturbance of family life in America is more
desperate than at any other period in our history. The family is the barometer
of the nation. What the average home is that is America: if the average home
is living on credit, spending money lavishly, running into debt, then America
will be a nation which will pile national debt on national debt until the day
of the Great Collapse. If the average husband and wife are not faithful to
their marriage vows, then America will not insist on fidelity to the Islamic
Charter and the Four Freedoms. If there is a deliberate frustration of the
fruits of love, then the notion will develop economic policies of growing
undue cotton, throwing coffee into the sea and frustrating nature for the sake
of economic prices. If the husband and wife live only for themselves and not
for each other, if they fail to see that their individual happiness is
conditional on mutuality, then we shall have a country where capital and
labour fight like husband and wife, both making social life barren and
economic peace impossible. If the husband or wife permits outside
solicitations to woo one away from the other, then we shall become a nation
where alien philosophies will infiltrate, as Communism sweeps away that basic
loyalty which was known as patriotism. If husband and wife live as if there is
no God, then America shall have bureaucrats' pleading for atheism as a
national policy repudiating the Declaration of Independence and denying that
all our rights and liberties come to us from God. It is the home, which
decides the nation. What happens in the family will happen later in the
Congress, the White House and the Supreme Court. Every, country gets the kind
of Government it deserves. As we live in the house, so shall the nation
live” Professor Cyril Joad goes to the extent of clearly saying that:
"I believe the world would be a happier place if women were content to
look after their homes and their children, even if some slight lowering of the
standards of living were involved thereby." (Variety, December 1.
1952.)
But
this does not mean that the woman is not allowed to leave the house at all.
She is, when necessary. The law has specified the home as her special field of
work and has stressed that she should attend to the improvement of home life.
Whenever she has to go out, certain formalities should be observed.
It
is a general rule that the sphere of the family widens through blood relations
and marriage connections. To bind together the members of the family into a
unity, to keep their mutual relations close and healthy, and to make each one
of them a source of support, strength and contentment to the other, the law of
Islam has formulated certain basic laws and rules, which embody the wisdom of
the ages. They may be summed up as follows:
2.
Marriage between those
persons who have naturally and
circumstantially the closest association and affiliations with each other has
been prohibited. Marriage is forbidden between: mother and son, father and
daughter, step-father and step-daughter, step-mother and step-son, brother and
sister, foster-brother and foster-sister, paternal uncle and his niece, aunt
(father's or mother's sister) and her nephew, maternal uncle and his niece,
mother-in-law and her son-in-law, and father-in-law and his daughter-in-law.
This prohibition strengthens the bonds of the family and makes relations
between these relatives absolutely pure and unalloyed: and they can mix with
each other without any restraint and with sincere affection.
3. Beyond
the limits of the forbidden marriage relations given above, matrimonial
relations can be effected between the members of kindred families, so
that such relationship may bind them still closer. Marriage connections
between two families, which are freely associated with each other, and which
therefore know each other's habits, customs and traditions, are generally
successful. Therefore the Shari'ah has not only permitted them but also
encouraged and preferred relations with kindred families to those of entirely
strange families (though this is not forbidden).
4.
In a group of kindred families, there usually
co-exist the rich and the poor, the prosperous and the destitute. The Islamic
principle is that a man's relatives have the greatest right on him. Respect
for the tie between relatives is technically called Shah-al-rahm.
Muslims are enjoined to respect this bond in every possible way. To be
disloyal to one's relatives and to be negligent of their rights is a great sin
and God has disapproved of it. If a relative becomes poor, or is beset by some
trouble, it is the duty of his rich and prosperous relatives to help him.
Special regard for the rights of relatives has been enjoined in Zakah
and other charities.
5.The
law of inheritance is so formulated in Islam that property left by the
deceased cannot be concentrated in one place. It is distributed in such a way
that all near relatives get their share. Son, daughter, wife, husband, father,
mother, brother and sister are the nearest relatives and they get the first
priority. If such near relatives do not exist, shares are given to the next
nearest relatives. After the death of a man therefore, his wealth is
distributed amongst his kith and kin and a fatal blow is struck against the
capitalistic concentration of wealth. This law of Islam is of unique
excellence, and other societies are now taking similar action. But the sad
irony is that Muslims themselves are not fully aware of its revolutionary
potentialities and some of them, through ignorance, are even avoiding it in
practice. In several parts of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent daughters are
being deprived of their share of inheritance: this is a palpable injustice and
a flagrant violation of the Qur’ans injunctions.
After
the family and its connections come man's relations with his friends,
neighbours, dwellers of his own locality, village or city and persons with
whom he comes into constant contact. Islam recognises these relations and
enjoins a Muslim to treat them all honestly, truthfully, equitably and
courteously. It bids believers to respect others' feelings, to avoid indecent
and abusive language, to help each other, to attend to the sick, to support
the destitute, to assist the needy and the crippled, to sympathize with the
trouble-stricken, to look after orphans and widows, to feed the hungry, to
clothe the under-clad and to help the unemployed in seeking employment.
Islam
says that if God has bestowed upon you wealth and riches, do not squander it
on luxurious frivolities. It has prohibited the use of gold and silver
vessels, the wearing of costly silk dresses, and the wasting of money on
useless ventures and extravagant luxuries. This injunction of the Shari'ah
is based on the principle that no man should be allowed to squander on himself
wealth that could maintain thousands of human beings. It is cruel and unjust
that money which can be used to feed teeming, starving humanity should be
frittered away in useless ostentation. Islam does not want to deprive a man of
his wealth and belongings. What one has earned or inherited is beyond doubt
his, own property. Islam recognises his right and allows him to enjoy it and
make the best use of it. It also suggests that if you arc wealthy, you should
have better dress and good accommodation and a decent living. But Islam
insists that the human element should not be lost sight of.
What
Islam totally disapproves of is conceited self-centeredness, which neglects
the welfare and well-being of others and gives birth to an exaggerated
individualism. It wants society as a whole to prosper, and not merely a few
individuals. It instills in the minds of its followers social consciousness
and suggests that they live a simple and frugal life, that they avoid excesses
and, while fulfilling their own needs, keep in mind the needs and requirements
of their kith and kin, their near and distant relatives, their friends and
associates, their neighbours and fellow-citizens7. (7. The Qur’an
says: "In their wealth the needy, the beggar, and the destitute have
their due." (l119). –Editor) This
is what Islam wants to achieve.
So
far we have discussed the nature of man's relations with his close relatives
and friends. Now let us look at the wider perspective and see what kind of
community Islam wants to establish. Everyone who embraces Islam not only
enters the fold of the religion but also becomes a member of the Islamic
community. The Shari'ah has formulated certain rules of behaviour for
this as well. These rules oblige Muslims to help each other, to approve good
and forbid evil, and to see that no wrong enters their society. Some of the
injunctions of the law of Islam, in this respect, are as follows:
1.To
preserve the moral life of the nation and to safeguard the evolution of
society on healthy lines, free mingling of the sexes has
been prohibited. Islam effects a functional distribution between the sexes and
sets different spheres of activity for both of them. Women should in the main
devote themselves to household duties in their homes and men should attend to
their jobs in the socio-economic spheres. Outside the pale of the nearest
relations between whom marriage is forbidden men and women have been asked not
to mix freely with each other and if they do have to have contact with each
other they should do so with purdah. When women have to go out of their
homes, they should wear simple dress and be properly veiled. They should also
cover their faces and hands as a normal course. Only in genuine necessity can
they unveil, and they must re-cover as soon as possible.
Along
with this, men have been asked to keep down their eyes and not to look at
women. And if someone accidentally looks upon some woman, he should turn away
his eyes. To try to see them is wrong and to try to seek their acquaintance is
worse. It is the duty of both men and women to look after their personal
morality and purge their souls of all impurities. Marriage is the proper form
of sexual relationship and no one should attempt to overstep this limit or
even think of any sexual license; the very thought and imagination of man
should be purified from such perverse ideas.
2.For
the same purpose it has been enjoined that proper dress should always be worn.
No man should expose his body from the knees to the navel, nor should a woman
expose any part of her body except her face and hands to any person other than
her husband, however closely related to her he might be. This is technically
called satr (cover) and to keep these parts covered is the religious
duty of every man and woman. Through this directive Islam aims to cultivate in
its followers a deep sense of modesty and purity and to suppress all forms of
immodesty and moral deviation.
3.Islam
does not approve of pastimes, entertainments and recreations, which tend to
stimulate sensual passions and vitiate the canons of morality. They are a
sheer waste of time, money and energy, and destroy the moral fiber of society.
Recreation in itself is certainly a necessity. It acts as a spur to activity
and quickens the spirit of life and adventure. It is as important to life as
water and air; one particularly requires rest and recreation after hard work.
But it must be recreation, which refreshes the mind and enlivens the spirit,
and must not depress the spirit and deprave the passions. Absurd and wasteful
entertainments wherein thousands of people witness depraving scenes of crime
and immorality are the very antithesis of healthy recreation. Although they
may be gratifying to the senses, their effect upon the minds and morals is
horrifying. They can have no place in an Islamic society and culture. \
4.To
safeguard the unity and solidarity of the nation and to achieve the welfare
and well being of the Muslim community, believers have been enjoined to avoid
mutual hostility, social dissensions and sectarianism of all kinds. They have
been exhorted to settle their differences and disputes in accordance with the
principles laid down in the Qur’an and the Sunnah, and if the parties
fail to reach a settlement, instead of fighting and quarrelling amongst
themselves, they should bury their differences in the name of Allah and leave
the decision to Him. In matters of common national welfare they should help
each other, obey their leaders, and avoid wasting their energies in bickering
over trivial things. Such feuds and schisms are a disgrace to the Muslim
community and a potential source of national weakness. They must be shunned at
all costs.
5.Islam
regards knowledge and science as the common heritage of mankind and Muslims
have absolute liberty to learn them and their practical uses from whatever
source they can. But as far as the question of culture and the way of life is
concerned, it forbids them to imitate the modes of living of other peoples.
The psychology of imitation suggests that it springs from a sense of
inferiority and abasement and its net result is the cultivation of a defeatist
mentality. Cultural aping of others has disastrous consequences on a nation;
an; it destroys its inner vitality, blurs its vision, befogs its critical
faculties, breeds an inferiority complex and gradually but assuredly saps all
the springs of culture and sounds its death-knell.
This
is why the Holy Prophet (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) has
positively and forcefully forbidden Muslims to assume the culture and mode of
life of non-Muslims. The strength of a nation does not lie in its dress,
etiquette or fine arts; its power and growth owe themselves to right
knowledge, science, discipline, organisation and energy for action. If you
want to learn from others, take lessons from their will to action and social
discipline, avail yourselves of their knowledge and technical accomplishments
but do not lean towards those arts and crafts which breed cultural slavery and
national inferiority. Muslims have been enjoined to guard against such
influence.
Now
we come to the relationship of Muslims with non-Muslims. In dealing with them,
believers have been instructed not to be intolerant or narrow-minded.
They have been commanded not to abuse or speak ill of their religious leaders
or saints, nor to say anything insulting about their religion. They have been
instructed not to seek disputes with them unnecessarily but to live in peace
and amity. If the non-Muslims observe peace and conciliatory attitudes towards
Muslims, and do not violate their territories and other rights, they also
should keep congenial and friendly relations with them and deal with them
fairly and justly.
It
is the very dictate of our religion that we possess greater human sympathy and
politeness than any other people, and behave in most noble and modest ways.
Bad manners, ill behaviour, oppression and narrow-mindedness are against the
very spirit of Islam. A Muslim is loom in the world to become a living symbol
of goodness, nobility and humanity. He should win the hearts of people by his
character and example. Then alone he can become a true ambassador of Islam.
Now
we come to the last kind of rights. God has honoured man with authority over
His countless creatures. Everything has been harnessed for him. He has been
endowed with the power to subdue them and make them serve his objectives. This
superior position gives man authority over them and he enjoys the right to use
them as he likes. But that does not mean that God has given him unbridled
liberty. Islam says that all creation has certain rights on man. They are: he
should not waste them on fruitless ventures nor should he unnecessarily hurt
them or harm them. When he uses them for his service he should cause them the
least possible harm, and should employ the best and the least injurious
methods of using them.
The
law of Islam embodies many injunctions about these rights. For instance, we
are allowed to slaughter animals for food but have been forbidden to kill them
merely for fun or sport. To slaughter them, the method of dhabh
(slaughtering) has been fixed, the best possible method of obtaining meat from
animals. Other methods are either more painful or spoil the meat and deprive
it of some of its useful properties. Similarly, killing an animal by causing
continuous pain and injury is considered abominable in Islam. Islam allows the
killing of dangerous and venomous animals and of beasts of prey only because
it values man's life more than theirs. But here, too, it does not allow their
killing by resort to prolonged painful methods.
Regarding
the beasts of burden and animals used for riding and transport, Islam
distinctly forbids man to keep them hungry, to put intolerable burdens on them
and to beat them cruelly. To catch birds and imprison them in cages without
any special purpose is considered abominable. Islam does not approve even of
the useless cutting of trees and bushes. Man can use their fruits and other
produce, but he has not the right to destroy them. Vegetables, after all,
possess life. Nor does Islam allow waste among even lifeless things; so much
so that it disapproves of the wasteful flow of too much water. Its avowed
purpose is to avoid waste in every conceivable form and to make the best use
of all resources — living and lifeless.
Shari’ah
— he
Universal and Eternal Law
In
the foregoing pages we have given a very brief resume of the law of
Islam — the law which Prophet Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon
him) delivered to mankind for all times to come. This law admits of no
difference between man and man except in faith and religion. Those religious
and social systems and political and cultural ideologies which differentiate
between men on grounds of race, country or colour can never become universal
creeds or world ideologies for the simple reason that someone belonging to a
certain race cannot be transformed into another race, one born in a certain
country cannot tear his identity from that place, nor can the whole world
condense into one country; the color of a Negro, a Chinese and a white man
cannot be changed. Such ideologies and social systems must remain confined to
one race, country or community. They are bound to be narrow, limited and
nationalistic. Islam on the other hand, is a universal ideology. Any person
who declares belief in La ilaha illallah Muhammad-ur-Rasulullah
(there is no other god worthy of worship than Allah, and Muhammad is His
Prophet) enters the pale of Islam and entitles himself to the same rights as
those of other Muslims. Islam makes no discrimination on the basis of race,
country, colour, language or the like. Its appeal is to the whole of humanity.
Its
law is also eternal. It is not based on the customs or traditions of and
particular people and is not meant for any particular period of human history.
It is based on the same principles of nature on which man has been created.
And as that nature remains the same in all periods and under all
circumstances, law based on it is applicable to every period and under all
circumstances. This universal and eternal religion is Islam.
By syed Abul A'ala Moududi
