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Islam stresses social unity

A starving man can have no mind and time for life’s spiritual, moral and aesthetic pursuits. Islam gives due importance and value to man’s earthy, secular and temporal life, here and now.

The Holy Quran calls upon man to bring the forces of Nature under human control and to harness them for the fulfillment of human needs. Ironically, this Quranic command has been acted upon by the Western nations for the last few centuries since the Renaissance period.

The history of civilisation and human development is the story of man’s efforts to change conditions of living for the better and to protect himself against hostile forces of Nature. Man’s discontent with the existing reality spurs him to improve his conditions. Perpetual development and progress is man’s earthly destiny. Islam does not divide human life into watertight compartments of the sacred and the profane.

As a national, balanced and practical religion, Islam fully takes into account and lays equal emphasis on all aspects and dimensions of human life: the spiritual and the secular, the temporal and the eternal, here and the Hereafter, the social and the economic, the moral and the material.

It does not call for renunciation of and withdrawal from the world. It is not a religion in the Western detached and private sense of the word.

In the words of Justice Syed Ameer Ali, Islam is: “The religion of right-doings, righting-thinking and right-speaking, founded on divine love, universal charity and equality of man in the sight of the Lord.” The present life, according to Islamic teachings, has a meaning and purpose and man has to play a positive and active role on the stage of the world. Islam does not crush and suppress human nature. Within the bounds of limits set by God’s laws, man can attain his full stature and satisfy physical, moral and emotional desires. The positivist philosophy of Islam insists on the fullest development of man as an individual and as a member of society.

Concepts of the dignity and high vocation of man, freedom of faith and conscience and the unity and equality of mankind are an essential part of the Islamic creed. These liberal and democratic concepts, plus rational and scientific models of though are Islam’s legacy to the modern world and its democratic and scientific civilisation.

Islam and the spirit and methods of science—that is an objective method of observation and investigation of natural phenomena and discovery of the universal and uniform laws operating in the universe, are one. The Holy Quran repeatedly calls upon man to use all his senses and observe and reflect upon the phenomena of Nature, where is good in modern civilisation is its inheritance from and its debt to Islamic thought.

In the words of Robert Briffault: “Science is the most momentous contribution of Arab civilisation to the modern world.”

Islam, through its Divine Book, the Holy Quran, and through the words and examples of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), encourages human effort and activity towards human development and improvement. Islam calls for the total annihilation of human misery, enslavement and exploitation, injustice and inequality.

It is the primary function of an Islamic state to provide food for the hungry, shelter for the shelterless, clothing and medication for the poor and sick and education and enlightenment for the unlettered.

The life of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) and the lives of his close Companions were models of simplicity and austerity, but their voluntary and self-chosen simplicity and austerity did not imply glorification and extolling of poverty 
and penury.

They did not encumber themselves with worldly goods and paraphernalia. As for poverty, the Holy Prophet is reported to have said that: “If poverty were (personified) as man, I would have killed him.”

Almighty Allah and His (Holy) Prophet (peace be upon him) allowed the believers to satisfy their material needs reasonably and to enjoy the good things of life: “Say who hath forbidden the beautiful gifts of God which He hath produced for His servants, and the things clean and pure which He hath provided for sustenance.” (the Holy Quran).

Islam’s struggle against—and victory over the pagans of Arabia and decadent civilisations of Byzantine and Persia was a war and victory over primitive barbarism and social and economic inequality. Islam aims at improving human conditions so that the world should become an abode of peace and justice.

Khwaja Mohammed Zubair is former Khaleej Times staffer