The beauty, benefits of Islam
The world has suffered with the one-sidedness of many religions and ideologies. Some have laid emphasis on the spiritual side of life but have ignored its material and mundane aspects.
They have looked upon the world as an illusion, a deception, and a trap. On the other hand, materialistic ideologies have totally ignored the spiritual and moral side of life and have dismissed it as fictitious and imaginary. Both of these attitudes have resulted in disaster, for they have robbed mankind of peace, contentment, and tranquility. Even today, the imbalance is manifested in one or the other direction. The French scientist Dr. De Brogbi rightly said: “The danger inherent in too intense a material civilisation is to that civilisation itself; it is the disequilibrium which would result if a parallel development, of the spiritual life were to fail to provide the needed balance.”
According to Lord Snell: “We have built a nobly-proportioned outer structure, but we have neglected the essential requirement of an inner order; we have carefully designed, decorated and made clean the outside of the cup; but the inside was full of extortion and excess; we used our increased knowledge and power to administer to the comforts of the body, but we left the spirit impoverished.”
Islam seeks to establish equilibrium between these two aspects of life — the material and the spiritual. It says that everything in the world is for man, but man was created to serve a higher purpose: the establishment of a moral and just order to fulfill the will of God. Its teachings cater to the spiritual and the temporal needs of man.
A Complete Way of Life: Islam is not a religion in the common and distorted sense, for it does not confine its scope to one’s private life. It is a complete way of life and is present in every field of human existence. Islam provides guidance for all aspects of life — individual and social, material and moral, economic and political, legal and cultural, and national and international. The Qu’ran enjoins man to embrace Islam without any reservation and to follow God’s guidance in all areas of life. In fact, it was an unfortunate day when the scope of religion was confined to the private life of man and its social and cultural role was reduced to naught, as has happened in this century. No other factor, perhaps, has been more important in causing the decline of religion in the modern age than its retreat into the realm of private life.
In the words of a modern philosopher: “Religion asks us to separate things of God from those of Caesar. Such a judicial separation between the two means the degrading of both the secular and the sacred ... that religion is worth little if the conscience of its followers is not disturbed when war clouds are hanging over us all and industrial conflicts are threatening social peace.”
Islam totally denounces this concept and clearly states that its objectives are the purification of the soul and the reform and reconstruction of society.
Discretion belongs only to God. He has ordered you to serve Him alone; such is the right religion, even though most men do not realise it. ( 12: 40) (Muslims are) those who, if We establish them in the land will keep up prayer (salah) and pay the welfare due (zakah); command what is proper and forbid what is improper. (22:40-41)
Thus even a cursory study of the teachings of Islam shows that it is an all embracing way of life and does not leave out any field of human existence to become a playground for the forces of evil. (The writer is a former KT staffer.)