By Prof. K. S. Ramakrishna
Rao, Head of the Department of Philosophy,
Government College for Women University of Mysore, Mandya-571401 (Karnatika).
Government College for Women University of Mysore, Mandya-571401 (Karnatika).
Re-printed
from "Islam and Modern age", Hydrabad, March 1978.
When he appeared Arabia was a desert -- a nothing. Out of nothing a new
world was fashioned by the mighty spirit of Mohammad -- a new life, a
new culture, a new civilization, a new kingdom which extended from Morocco to
Indies and influenced the thought and life of three continents -- Asia, Africa
and Europe.
When I thought of writing on Mohammad the prophet, I was a bit
hesitant because it was to write about a religion I do not profess and it is a
delicate matter to do so for there are many persons professing various
religions and belonging to diverse school of thought and denominations even in
same religion. Though it is sometimes, claimed that religion is entirely
personal yet it can not be gain-said that it has a tendency to envelop the
whole universe seen as well unseen. It somehow permeates something or other our
hearts, our souls, our minds their conscious as well as subconscious and
unconscious levels too. The problem assumes overwhelming importance when there
is a deep conviction that our past, present and future all hang by the soft delicate,
tender silked cord. If we further happen to be highly sensitive, the center of
gravity is very likely to be always in a state of extreme tension. Looked at
from this point of view, the less said about other religion the better. Let our
religions be deeply hidden and embedded in the resistance of our innermost
hearts fortified by unbroken seals on our lips.
But there is another aspect of this problem. Man lives in society. Our
lives are bound with the lives of others willingly or unwillingly, directly or
indirectly. We eat the food grown in the same soil, drink water, from the same
the same spring and breathe the same air. Even while staunchly holding our own
views, it would be helpful, if we try to adjust ourselves to our surroundings,
if we also know to some extent, how the mind our neighbor moves and what the
main springs of his actions are. From this angle of vision it is highly
desirable that one should try to know all religions of the world, in the proper
sprit, to promote mutual understanding and better appreciation of our
neighborhood, immediate and remote.
Further, our thoughts are not scattered as appear to be on the surface.
They have got themselves crystallized around a few nuclei in the form of great
world religions and living faiths that guide and motivate the lives of millions
that inhabit this earth of ours. It is our duty, in one sense if we have the
ideal of ever becoming a citizen of the world before us, to make a little
attempt to know the great religions and system of philosophy that have ruled
mankind.
In spite of these preliminary remarks, the ground in these field of
religion, where there is often a conflict between intellect and emotion is so
slippery that one is constantly reminded of fools that rush in where angels
fear to tread. It is also not so complex from another point of view. The
subject of my writing is about the tenets of a religion which is historic and
its prophet who is also a historic personality. Even a hostile critic like Sir
William Muir speaking about the holy Quran says that.
"There is probably in the world no other book which has remained twelve
centuries with so pure text." I may also add Prophet Mohammad
is also a historic personality, every event of whose life has been most
carefully recorded and even the minutest details preserved intact for the
posterity. His life and works are not wrapped in mystery.
My work today is further lightened because those days are fast
disappearing when Islam was highly misrepresented by some of its critics for
reasons political and otherwise. Prof. Bevan writes in Cambridge Medieval
History, "Those account of Mohammad and Islam which were published in
Europe before the beginning of 19th century are now to be regarded as literary
curiosities." My problem is to write this monograph is easier because
we are now generally not fed on this kind of history and much time need be
spent on pointing out our misrepresentation of Islam.
The theory of Islam and Sword for instance is not heard now frequently
in any quarter worth the name. The principle of Islam that there is no
compulsion in religion is well known. Gibbon, a historian of world
repute says, "A pernicious tenet has been imputed to Mohammadans, the
duty of extirpating all the religions by sword." This charge based on
ignorance and bigotry, says the eminent historian, is refuted by Quran,
by history of Musalman conquerors and by their public and legal toleration of
Christian worship. The great success of Mohammad's life had been
effected by sheer moral force, without a stroke of sword.
But in pure self-defense, after repeated efforts of conciliation had
utterly failed, circumstances dragged him into the battlefield. But the prophet
of Islam changed the whole strategy of the battlefield. The total number of
casualties in all the wars that took place during his lifetime when the whole
Arabian Peninsula came under his banner, does not exceed a few hundreds in all.
But even on the battlefield he taught the Arab barbarians to pray, to pray not
individually, but in congregation to God the Almighty. During the dust and
storm of warfare whenever the time for prayer came, and it comes five times a
every day, the congregation prayer had not to be postponed even on the
battlefield. A party had to be engaged in bowing their heads before God while
other was engaged with the enemy. After finishing the prayers, the two parties
had to exchange their positions. To the Arabs, who would fight for forty years
on the slight provocation that a camel belonging to the guest of one tribe had
strayed into the grazing land belonging to other tribe and both sides had
fought till they lost 70,000 lives in all; threatening the extinction of both
the tribes to such furious Arabs, the Prophet of Islam taught self-control and
discipline to the extent of praying even on the battlefield. In an aged of
barbarism, the Battlefield itself was humanized and strict instructions were
issued not to cheat, not to break trust, not to mutilate, not to kill a child
or woman or an old man, not to hew down date palm nor burn it, not to cut a
fruit tree, not to molest any person engaged in worship. His own treatment with
his bitterest enemies is the noblest example for his followers. At the conquest
of Mecca, he stood at the zenith of his power. The city which had refused to
listen to his mission, which had tortured him and his followers, which had
driven him and his people into exile and which had unrelentingly persecuted and
boycotted him even when he had taken refuge in a place more than 200 miles
away, that city now lay at his feet. By the laws of war he could have
justly avenged all the cruelties inflicted on him and his people. But what
treatment did he accord to them? Mohammad's
heart flowed with affection and he declared, "This day, there
is no REPROOF against you and you are all free." "This day"
he proclaimed, "I trample under my feet all distinctions
between man and man, all hatred between man and man."
This was one of the chief objects why he permitted war in self
defense, that is to unite human beings. And when once this object was achieved,
even his worst enemies were pardoned. Even those who killed his beloved uncle,
Hamazah, mangled his body, ripped it open, even chewed a piece of his liver.
The principles of universal brotherhood and doctrine of the equality of
mankind which he proclaimed represents one very great contribution of Mohammad
to the social uplift of humanity. All great religions have preached the same
doctrine but the prophet of Islam had put this theory into actual practice and
its value will be fully recognized, perhaps centuries hence, when international
consciousness being awakened, racial prejudices may disappear and greater
brotherhood of humanity come into existence.
Miss. Sarojini Naidu speaking about this aspect of Islam says, "It
was the first religion that preached and practiced democracy; for in the
mosque, when the minaret is sounded and the worshipers are gathered together,
the democracy of Islam is embodied five times a day when the peasant and the king
kneel side by side and proclaim, God alone is great."
The great poetess of India continues, "I have been struck over and
over again by this indivisible unity of Islam that makes a man instinctively a
brother. When you meet an Egyptian, an Algerian and Indian and a Turk in
London, it matters not that Egypt is the motherland of one and India is the
motherland of another."
Mahatma Gandhi, in his inimitable style, says "Some one has
said that Europeans in South Africa dread the advent Islam -- Islam that civilized
Spain, Islam that took the torch light to Morocco and preached to the world the
Gospel of brotherhood. The Europeans of South Africa dread the Advent of Islam.
They may claim equality with the white races. They may well
dread it, if brotherhood is a sin. If it is equality of colored races then
their dread is well founded."
Every year, during the Haj, the world witnesses the wonderful spectacle
of this international Exhibition of Islam in leveling all distinctions of race,
color and rank. Not only the Europeans, the African, the Arabian, the Persian,
the Indians, the Chinese all meet together in Medina as members of one divine
family, but they are clad in one dress every person in two simple pieces of
white seamless cloth, one piece round the loin the other piece over the
shoulders, bare head without pomp or ceremony, repeating "Here
am I O God; at thy command; thou art one and alone; Here am I."
Thus there remains nothing to differentiate the high from the low and every
pilgrim carries home the impression of the international significance of Islam.
In the opinion of Prof. Hurgronje "the league of nations
founded by prophet of Islam put the principle of international unity of human
brotherhood on such Universal foundations as to show candle to other
nations." In the words of same Professor "the fact is that
no nation of the world can show a parallel to what Islam has done the
realization of the idea of the League of Nations."
The prophet of Islam brought the reign of democracy in its best form.
The Caliph Caliph Ali and the son in-law of the prophet, the Caliph Mansur,
Abbas, the son of Caliph Mamun and many other caliphs and kings had to
appear before the judge as ordinary men in Islamic courts. Even today
we all know how the black Negroes were treated by the civilized white races.
Consider the state of BILAL, a Negro Slave, in the days of the prophet of Islam
nearly 14 centuries ago. The office of calling Muslims to prayer was considered
to be of status in the early days of Islam and it was offered to this Negro
slave. After the conquest of Mecca, the Prophet ordered him to call for prayer
and the Negro slave, with his black color and his thick lips, stood over the
roof of the holy mosque at Mecca called the Ka'ba the
most historic and the holiest mosque in the Islamic world, when some proud
Arabs painfully cried loud, "Oh, this black Negro Slave, woe be to him. He
stands on the roof of holy Ka'ba to call for prayer." At that moment, the
prophet announced to the world, this verse of the holy QURAN
for the first time.
"O mankind, surely we
have created you, families and tribes, so you may know one another.
Surely, the most honorable of you with God is MOST RIGHTEOUS AMONG you.
Surely, God is Knowing, Aware."
Surely, the most honorable of you with God is MOST RIGHTEOUS AMONG you.
Surely, God is Knowing, Aware."
And these words of the holy Quran
created such a mighty transformation that the Caliph of Islam, the purest of
Arabs by birth, offered their daughter in marriage to this Negro Slave, and
whenever, the second Caliph of Islam, known to history as Umar the great,
the commander of faithful, saw this Negro slave, he immediately stood in
reverence and welcomed him by "Here come our master; Here come our
lord." What a tremendous change was brought by Quran in the Arabs,
the proudest people at that time on the earth. This is the reason why Goethe,
the greatest of German poets, speaking about the Holy Quran declared that, "This
book will go on exercising through all ages a most potent influence."
This is also the reason why George Bernard Shaw says, "If any religion
has a chance or ruling over England, say, Europe, within the next 100 years, it
is Islam".
It is this same democratic spirit of Islam that emancipated women from
the bondage of man. Sir Charles Edward Archibald Hamilton says "Islam
teaches the inherent sinlessness of man. It teaches that man and woman and
woman have come from the same essence, posses the same soul and have been
equipped with equal capabilities for intellectual, spiritual and moral
attainments."
The Arabs had a very strong tradition that one who can smite with the
spear and can wield the sword would inherit. But Islam came as the defender of
the weaker sex and entitled women to share the inheritance of their parents. It
gave women, centuries ago right of owning property, yet it was only 12 centuries
later , in 1881, that England, supposed to be the cradle of democracy adopted
this institution of Islam and the act was called "the married woman
act", but centuries earlier, the Prophet of Islam had proclaimed that "Woman
are twin halves of men. The rights of women are sacred. See that women
maintained rights granted to them."
Islam is not directly concerned with political and economic systems,
but indirectly and in so far as political and economic affairs influence man's
conduct, it does lay down some very important principles to govern economic
life. According to Prof. Massignon, it maintains the balance between
exaggerated opposites and has always in view the building of character which is
the basis of civilization. This is secured by its law of inheritance, by an
organized system of charity known as Zakat, and by regarding as
illegal all anti-social practices in the economic field like monopoly, usury,
securing of predetermined unearned income and increments, cornering markets,
creating monopolies, creating an artificial scarcity of any commodity in order
to force the prices to rise. Gambling is illegal. Contribution to schools, to
places of worship, hospitals, digging of wells, opening of orphanages are
highest acts of virtue. Orphanages have sprung for the first time, it is said,
under the teaching of the prophet of Islam. The world owes its orphanages to
this prophet born an orphan. "Good all this" says Carlyle
about Mohammad. "The natural voice of humanity, of pity and
equity, dwelling in the heart of this wild son of nature, speaks."
A historian once said a great man should be judged by three
tests: Was he found to be of true metel by his contemporaries ?
Was he great enough to raise above the standards of his age ? Did he leave
anything as permanent legacy to the world at large ? This list may be
further extended but all these three tests of greatness are eminently satisfied
to the highest degree in case of prophet Mohammad. Some illustrations
of the last two have already been mentioned.
The first is: Was the Prophet of Islam found to be of true metel by
his contemporaries?
Historical records show that all the contemporaries of Mohammad
both friends foes, acknowledged the sterling qualities, the spotless honesty,
the noble virtues, the absolute sincerity and every trustworthiness of the
apostle of Islam in all walks of life and in every sphere of human activity.
Even the Jews and those who did not believe in his message, adopted him as the
arbiter in their personal disputes by virtue of his perfect impartiality. Even
those who did not believe in his message were forced to say "O
Mohammad, we do not call you a liar, but we deny him who has given you a book
and inspired you with a message." They thought he was one
possessed. They tried violence to cure him. But the best of them saw that a new
light had dawned on him and they hastened him to seek the enlightenment. It is
a notable feature in the history of prophet of Islam that his nearest relation,
his beloved cousin and his bosom friends, who know him most intimately, were
not thoroughly imbued with the truth of his mission and were convinced of the
genuineness of his divine inspiration. If these men and women, noble,
intelligent, educated and intimately acquainted with his private life had
perceived the slightest signs of deception, fraud, earthliness, or lack of
faith in him, Mohammad's moral hope of regeneration, spiritual
awakening, and social reform would all have been foredoomed to a failure and
whole edifice would have crumbled to pieces in a moment. On the contrary, we
find that devotion of his followers was such that he was voluntarily
acknowledged as dictator of their lives. They braved for him persecutions and
danger; they trusted, obeyed and honored him even in the most excruciating
torture and severest mental agony caused by excommunication even unto death.
Would this have been so, had they noticed the slightest backsliding in their
master?
Read the history of the early converts to Islam, and every
heart would melt at the sight of the brutal treatment of innocent Muslim men
and women.
Sumayya, an innocent women, is cruelly torn into pieces with
spears. An example is made of "Yassir whose legs are tied to two
camels and the beast were are driven in opposite directions", Khabbab
bin Arth is made lie down on the bed of burning coal with the brutal legs
of their merciless tyrant on his breast so that he may not move and this makes
even the fat beneath his skin melt. "Khabban bin Adi is put to
death in a cruel manner by mutilation and cutting off his flesh
piece-meal." In the midst of his tortures, being asked weather he did not
wish Mohammad in his place while he was in his house with his family,
the sufferer cried out that he was gladly prepared to sacrifice himself his
family and children and why was it that these sons and daughters of Islam not
only surrendered to their prophet their allegiance but also made a gift of
their hearts and souls to their master? Is not the intense faith and conviction
on part of immediate followers of Mohammad, the noblest testimony to
his sincerity and to his utter self-absorption in his appointed task?
And these men were not of low station or inferior mental caliber.
Around him in quite early days, gathered what was best and noblest in Mecca,
its flower and cream, men of position, rank, wealth and culture, and from his
own kith and kin, those who knew all about his life. All the first four
Caliphs, with their towering personalities, were converts of this period.
The Encyclopedia Brittanica says that "Mohammad
is the most successful of all Prophets and religious personalities".
But the success was not the result of mere accident. It was not a hit
of fortune. It was a recognition of fact that he was found to be true metal by
his contemporaries. It was the result of his admirable and all compelling
personality.
The personality of Mohammad! It is most difficult to get into
the truth of it. Only a glimpse of it I can catch. What a dramatic succession
of picturesque scenes. There is Mohammad the Prophet, there is Mohammad the
General; Mohammad the King; Mohammad the Warrior; Mohammad the Businessman;
Mohammad the Preacher; Mohammad the Philosopher; Mohammad the Statesman;
Mohammad the Orator; Mohammad the reformer; Mohammad the Refuge of orphans;
Mohammad the Protector of slaves; Mohammad the Emancipator of women; Mohammad
the Law-giver; Mohammad the Judge; Mohammad the Saint.
And in all these magnificent roles, in all these departments of human
activities, he is like, a hero..
Orphanhood is extreme of helplessness and his life upon this earth
began with it; Kingship is the height of the material power and it ended with
it. From an orphan boy to a persecuted refugee and then to an overlord,
spiritual as well as temporal, of a whole nation and Arbiter of its destinies,
with all its trials and temptations, with all its vicissitudes and changes, its
lights and shades, its up and downs, its terror and splendor, he has stood the
fire of the world and came out unscathed to serve as a model in every face of
life. His achievements are not limited to one aspect of life, but cover the
whole field of human conditions.
If for instance, greatness consist in the purification of a nation,
steeped in barbarism and immersed in absolute moral darkness, that dynamic
personality who has transformed, refined and uplifted an entire nation, sunk
low as the Arabs were, and made them the torch-bearer of civilization and
learning, has every claim to greatness. If greatness lies in unifying the
discordant elements of society by ties of brotherhood and charity, the prophet
of the desert has got every title to this distinction. If greatness consists in
reforming those warped in degrading and blind superstition and pernicious
practices of every kind, the prophet of Islam has wiped out superstitions and
irrational fear from the hearts of millions. If it lies in displaying high
morals, Mohammad has been admitted by friend and foe as Al
Amin, or the faithful. If a conqueror is a great man,
here is a person who rose from helpless orphan and an humble creature to be the
ruler of Arabia, the equal to Chosroes and Caesars, one who founded great
empire that has survived all these 14 centuries. If the devotion that a leader
commands is the criterion of greatness, the prophet's name even today exerts a
magic charm over millions of souls, spread all over the world.
He had not studied philosophy in the school of Athens of Rome, Persia,
India, or China. Yet, He could proclaim the highest truths of eternal value to
mankind. Illiterate himself, he could yet speak with an eloquence and fervor
which moved men to tears, to tears of ecstasy. Born an orphan blessed with no
worldly goods, he was loved by all. He had studied at no military academy; yet
he could organize his forces against tremendous odds and gained victories
through the moral forces which he marshaled. Gifted men with genius for
preaching are rare. Descartes included the perfect preacher among the rarest
kind in the world. Hitler in his Mein Kamp has expressed a similar view. He
says "A great theorist is seldom a great leader. An Agitator is more
likely to posses these qualities. He will always be a great leader. For
leadership means ability to move masses of men. The talents to produce ideas
has nothing in common with capacity for leadership." "But",
he says, "The Union of theorists, organizer and leader in one man, is
the rarest phenomenon on this earth; Therein consists greatness."
In the person of the Prophet of Islam the world has seen this rarest
phenomenon walking on the earth, walking in flesh and blood.
And more wonderful still is what the reverend Bosworth Smith
remarks, "Head of the state as well as the Church, he was
Caesar and Pope in one; but, he was pope without the pope's claims, and Caesar
without the legions of Caesar, without an standing army, without a bodyguard,
without a palace, without a fixed revenue. If ever any man had the right to say
that he ruled by a right divine It was Mohammad, for he had all the power
without instruments and without its support. He cared not for dressing of
power. The simplicity of his private life was in keeping with his public
life."
After the fall of Mecca, more than one million square miles of land lay
at his feet, Lord of Arabia, he mended his own shoes and coarse woolen
garments, milked the goats, swept the hearth, kindled the fire and attended the
other menial offices of the family. The entire town of Medina where he lived
grew wealthy in the later days of his life. Everywhere there was gold and
silver in plenty and yet in those days of prosperity many weeks would elapse
without a fire being kindled in the hearth of the king of Arabia, His food
being dates and water. His family would go hungry many nights successively
because they could not get anything to eat in the evening. He slept on no soften
bed but on a palm mat, after a long busy day to spend most of his night in
prayer, often bursting with tears before his creator to grant him strength to
discharge his duties. As the reports go, his voice would get choked with
weeping and it would appear as if a cooking pot was on fire and boiling had
commenced. On the very day of his death his only assets were few coins a part
of which went to satisfy a debt and rest was given to a needy person who came
to his house for charity. The clothes in which he breathed his last had many
patches. The house from where light had spread to the world was in darkness
because there was no oil in the lamp.
Circumstances changed, but the prophet of God did not. In victory or in
defeat, in power or in adversity, in affluence or in indigence, he is the same
man, disclosed the same character. Like all the ways and laws of God, Prophets
of God are unchangeable.
An honest man, as the saying goes, is the noblest work of God, Mohammad
was more than honest. He was human to the marrow of his bones. Human sympathy,
human love was the music of his soul. To serve man, to elevate man, to purify
man, to educate man, in a word to humanize man-this was the object of his
mission, the be-all and end all of his life. In thought, in word, in action he
had the good of humanity as his sole inspiration, his sole guiding principle.
He was most unostentatious and selfless to the core. What were the
titles he assumed? Only true servant of God and His Messenger. Servant first,
and then a messenger. A Messenger and prophet like many other prophets in every
part of the world, some known to you, many not known you. If one does not
believe in any of these truths one ceases to be a Muslim. It is an article of
faith.
"Looking at the circumstances of the time and unbounded
reverence of his followers" says a western writer "the most
miraculous thing about Mohammad is, that he never claimed the power of working
miracles." Miracles were performed but not to propagate his faith and
were attributed entirely to God and his inscrutable ways. He would plainly say
that he was a man like others. He had no treasures of earth or heaven. Nor did
he claim to know the secrets of that lie in womb of future. All this was in an
age when miracles were supposed to be ordinary occurrences, at the back and
call of the commonest saint, when the whole atmosphere was surcharged with
supernaturalism in Arabia and outside Arabia.
He turned the attention of his followers towards the study of nature
and its laws, to understand them and appreciate the Glory of God. The Quran
says,
"God did not create the
heavens and the earth and all that is between them in play. He did not create
them all but with the truth. But most men do not know."
The world is not illusion, nor
without purpose. It has been created with the truth. The number of verses
inviting close observation of nature are several times more than those that
relate to prayer, fasting, pilgrimage etc. all put together. The Muslim under
its influence began to observe nature closely and this give birth to the
scientific spirit of the observation and experiment which was unknown to the
Greeks. While the Muslim Botanist Ibn Baitar wrote on Botany after collecting
plants from all parts of the world, described by Myer in his Gesch. der
Botanikaa-s, a monument of industry, while Al Byruni traveled for forty years
to collect mineralogical specimens, and Muslim Astronomers made some
observations extending even over twelve years. Aristotle wrote on Physics
without performing a single experiment, wrote on natural history, carelessly
stating without taking the trouble to ascertain the most verifiable fact that
men have more teeth than animal. Galen, the greatest authority on classical
anatomy informed that the lower jaw consists of two bones, a statement which is
accepted unchallenged for centuries till Abdul Lateef takes the trouble to
examine a human skeleton. After enumerating several such instances, Robert
Priffault concludes in his well known book The making of humanity, "The
debt of our science to the Arabs does not consist in starting discovers or
revolutionary theories. Science owes a great more to Arabs culture; it owes is
existence." The same writer says "The Greeks systematized,
generalized and theorized but patient ways of investigation, the accumulation
of positive knowledge, the minute methods of science, detailed and prolonged
observation, experimental inquiry, were altogether alien to Greek temperament.
What we call science arose in Europe as result of new methods of investigation,
of the method of experiment, observation, measurement, of the development of
Mathematics in form unknown to the Greeks. That spirit and these methods,
concludes the same author, were introduced into the European world by
Arabs."
It is the same practical character of the teaching of Prophet Mohammad
that gave birth to the scientific spirit, that has also sanctified the daily
labors and the so called mundane affairs. The Quran says that God has
created man to worship him but the word worship has a connotation of its own.
Gods worship is not confined to prayer alone, but every act that is done
with the purpose of winning approval of God and is for the benefit of the
humanity comes under its purview. Islam sanctifies life and all its pursuits
provided they are performed with honesty, justice and pure intents. It
obliterates the age-long distinction between the sacred and profane. The Quran
says if you eat clean things and thank God for it, it is an act of worship.
It is saying of the prophet of Islam that Morsel of food that one places in the
mouth of his wife is an act of virtue to be rewarded by God. Another tradition
of the Prophet says "He who is satisfying the desire of his heart will
be rewarded by God provided the methods adopted are permissible." A
person was listening to him exclaimed 'O Prophet of God, he is answering the
calls of passions, is only satisfying the craving of his heart. Forthwith came
the reply, "Had he adopted an awful method for the satisfaction of his
urge, he would have been punished; then why should he not be rewarded for
following the right course."
This new conception of religion that it should also devote itself to
the betterment of this life rather than concern itself exclusively with super
mundane affairs, has led to a new orientation of moral values. Its abiding
influence on the common relations of mankind in the affairs of every day life,
its deep power over the masses, its regulation of their conception of rights
and duty, its suitability and adaptability to the ignorant savage and the wise
philosopher are characteristic features of the teaching of the Prophet of
Islam.
But it should be most carefully born in mind this stress on good
actions is not the sacrifice correctness of faith. While there are various
school of thought, one praising faith at the expense of deeds, another
exhausting various acts to the detriment of correct belief, Islam is based on
correct faith and righteous actions. Means are important as the end and ends
are as important as the means. It is an organic Unity. Together they live and
thrive. Separate them and both decay and die. In Islam faith can not be
divorced from the action. Right knowledge should be transferred into right
action to produce the right results. How often the words came in Quran -- Those
who believe and do good thing, they alone shall enter paradise. Again and
again, not less than fifty times these words are repeated as if too much stress
can not be laid on them. Contemplation is encouraged but mere contemplation is
not the goal. Those who believe and do nothing can not exist in Islam. These
who believe and do wrong are inconceivable. Divine law is the law of effort and
not of ideals. It chalks out for the men the path of eternal progress from
knowledge to action and from action to satisfaction.
But what is the correct faith from which right action spontaneously
proceeds resulting in complete satisfaction. Here the central doctrine of Islam
is the Unity of God. There is no God but God is the pivot from which hangs the
whole teaching and practice of Islam. He is unique not only as regards his
divine being but also as regards his divine attributes.
As regards the attributes of God, Islam adopts here as in other things
too, the law of golden mean. It avoids on the one hand, the view of God
which divests the divine being of every attribute and rejects, on the
other, the view which likens him to things material. The Quran says, On
the one hand, there is nothing which is like him, on the other , it
affirms that he is Seeing, Hearing, Knowing. He is the King who is
without a stain of fault or deficiency, the mighty ship of His power floats
upon the ocean of justice and equity. He is the Beneficent, the Merciful. He is
the Guardian over all. Islam does not stop with this positive statement. It
adds further which is its most special characteristic, the negative aspects of
problem. There is also no one else who is guardian over everything. He is the
meander of every breakage, and no one else is the meander of any breakage. He
is the restorer of every loss and no one else is the restorer of any loss
what-so-over. There is no God but one God, above any need, the maker of bodies,
creator of souls, the Lord of the day of judgment, and in short, in the words
of Quran, to him belong all excellent qualities.
Regarding the position of man in relation to the Universe, the Quran
says:
"God has made
subservient to you whatever is on the earth or in universe. You are destined to
rule over the Universe."
But in relation to God, the Quran
says:
"O man God has bestowed
on you excellent faculties and has created life and death to put you to test in
order to see whose actions are good and who has deviated from the right
path."
In spite of free will which he enjoys, to some extent, every man is
born under certain circumstances and continues to live under certain
circumstances beyond his control. With regard to this God says, according
to Islam, it is my will to create any man under condition that seem best
to me. cosmic plans finite mortals can not fully comprehend. But I will
certainly test you in prosperity as well in adversity, in health as well as in
sickness, in heights as well as in depths. My ways of testing differ from man
to man, from hour to hour. In adversity do not despair and do resort to
unlawful means. It is but a passing phase. In prosperity do not forget God.
God-gifts are given only as trusts. You are always on trial, every moment on
test. In this sphere of life there is not to reason why, there is but to do and
die. If you live in accordance with God; and if you die, die in the path of
God. You may call it fatalism. but this type of fatalism is a condition of
vigorous increasing effort, keeping you ever on the alert. Do not consider this
temporal life on earth as the end of human existence. There is a life after
death and it is eternal. Life after death is only a connection link, a door
that opens up hidden reality of life. Every action in life however
insignificant, produces a lasting effect. It is correctly recorded somehow.
Some of the ways of God are known to you, but many of his ways are hidden from
you. What is hidden in you and from you in this world will be unrolled and laid
open before you in the next. the virtuous will enjoy the blessing of God which
the eye has not seen, nor has the ear heard, nor has it entered into the hearts
of men to conceive of they will march onward reaching higher and higher stages
of evolution. Those who have wasted opportunity in this life shall under the
inevitable law, which makes every man taste of what he has done, be subjugated
to a course of treatment of the spiritual diseases which they have brought
about with their own hands. Beware, it is terrible ordeal. Bodily pain is
torture, you can bear somehow. Spiritual pain is hell, you will find it almost
unbearable. Fight in this life itself the tendencies of the spirit prone to
evil, tempting to lead you into iniquities ways. Reach the next stage when the
self-accusing sprit in your conscience is awakened and the soul is anxious to
attain moral excellence and revolt against disobedience. This will lead you to
the final stage of the soul at rest, contented with God, finding its happiness
and delight in him alone. The soul no more stumbles. The stage of struggle
passes away. Truth is victorious and falsehood lays down its arms. All
complexes will then be resolved. Your house will not be divided against itself.
Your personality will get integrated round the central core of submission to
the will of God and complete surrender to his divine purpose. All hidden
energies will then be released. The soul then will have peace. God will then
address you:
"O thou soul that art
at rest, and restest fully contented with thy Lord return to thy Lord. He
pleased with thee and thou pleased with him; So enter among my servants and enter
into my paradise."
This is the final goal for man;
to become, on the, one hand, the master of the universe and on the other, to
see that his soul finds rest in his Lord, that not only his Lord will be
pleased with him but that he is also pleased with his Lord. Contentment,
complete contentment, satisfaction, complete satisfaction, peace, complete
peace. The love of God is his food at this stage and he drinks deep at the
fountain of life. Sorrow and defeat do not overwhelm him and success does not
find him in vain and exulting.
The western nations are only trying to become the master of the
Universe. But their souls have not found peace and rest.
Thomas Carlyle, struck by this philosophy of life writes "and
then also Islam-that we must submit to God; that our whole strength lies in
resigned submission to Him, whatsoever he does to us, the thing he sends to us,
even if death and worse than death, shall be good, shall be best; we resign
ourselves to God." The same author continues "If this be
Islam, says Goethe, do we not all live in Islam?" Carlyle himself
answers this question of Goethe and says "Yes, all of us that have any
moral life, we all live so. This is yet the highest wisdom that heaven has
revealed to our earth."
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