Muhammad : Legacy of a Prophet
In the desert of Arabia was Mohammad born,
according to Muslim historians, on April 20,
571. The name Mohammad means "highly praised."
He is to me the greatest man among all the sons
of Arabia. He means so much more than all the
poets and kings that preceded him in that
impenetrable desert of red sand.
The time 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 about Mohammad, the
prophet, I was a bit hesitant because I was to
write about a religion I do not profess and it
is a delicate matter to do so for there are many
people professing various religions and
belonging to diverse schools of thought and
denominations even in same religion. Though it
is sometimes claimed that religion is entirely
personal yet it can also be said that it has a
tendency to envelop the whole universe seen as
well as 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
religions 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 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 of
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 they
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 this 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 that Prophet Mohammad
is also a historic personality, every event of
whose life has been most carefully recorded and
even the minor 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 political reasons and other reasons
too. Prof. Bevan writes in Cambridge Medieval
History, Those account of Mohammad and Islam
which were published in Europe before the
beginning of the 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 is needed to be spent on pointing out
our misrepresentation of Islam. The theory of
Islam and the 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 the 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 affected by sheer moral force, without
a stroke of sword.
But in pure self-defence, 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 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 age 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 justlay 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-defence; that is to unite
human beings. And when once this object was
achieved, even his worst enemies were pardoned.
It even extended to those who killed his beloved
uncle, Hamzah, 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
contributions 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 kneels side by side and proclaims, "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
"Someone 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
the same Professor "the fact is that no nation
of the world can show a parallel to what Islam
has done not even in 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 Umar, the
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."»
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 have come from the
same essence, possess 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 who was himself 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 mettle by his contemporaries? Was he great
enough to rise 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 mettle 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 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 the 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 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 Britannica 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 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. Orphan-hood 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 ups 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 consists 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 wrapped
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, Mohammmad 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 a humble creature to be the ruler of Arabia,
the equal to Chosroes and Caesar, 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 that 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 the ability to move masses of
men. The talent 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 a
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 breath 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 that lie in the
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 an 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 gave
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 until Abdul
Lateef takes the trouble to examine a human
skeleton. After enumerating several such
instance's, 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 Mathematical 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 a 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
schools 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 as 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
cannot 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 works, they alone
shall enter paradise.» Again and again,
not less than fifty times these words are
repeated as if too much stress cannot be laid on
them. Contemplation is encouraged but mere
contemplation is not the goal. Those who believe
and do nothing cannot 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 to His divine being but also as
regards His divine attributes.
As regards to 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 a
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 seems best to me through cosmic plans that
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 you are on a test. In this sphere
of life there is not to reason why, there is but
to do and die. If you live, then you have to
live in accordance with God; and if you die,
then die in the path of God. You may call it
fatalism but this type of fatalism is a
condition of vigorous increasing effort, always
keeping you 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,
a 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 disease's which they have brought
about with their own hands. Beware, it is a
terrible ordeal. Bodily pain is torture, you can
bear somehow. Spiritual pain is hell and 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 spirit 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 stumbles no
more. 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 around 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 is pleased with thee and
thou are 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."
Author : Prof. K. S. Ramakrishna Rao |
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