A Muslim is supposed to undertake his worldly ventures in the spirit, ethics, principles and framework of Islam. He/she has to present a model to the world, that, “See, this is how a Human being should live, this is Islam, this is what Allah s.w.t. has told us to be like!”
For a long time now, I have always been intrigued by one thought, whether Deen-ul-Islam inherently teaches or prods a person to be more Spiritual or does it want us to be more Practical?
We all meet thousands of people in our life-time and we also observe and make calculated judgments about many of these people. Some of them are really good people, they are not cunning or greedy, they are very sincere, honest and innocent, they have a very large amount of Faith and they follow the teachings of Islam (or their teacher or Maulana) quite literally, without ever doubting or questioning their teachings, we all love such people because they are very simple, trustworthy, non-critical and practically incapable of causing harm to any person. But unfortunately in today’s world, these guys are considered to be stupid, ignorant and living in another era, they are most likely to be failures in business as they are taken undue advantage of, they never manage to make windfall profits, as it is against their principles, they are almost always found at the bottom-end of the food-chain and are practically failures, as far as life in this world is considered to be.
I have also observed that people who dedicate themselves to the Spiritual aspect of religion, whereby they have never missed a single Salat with Jamaat, they observe all their Tasbeeh, they read 5 Para of the Quran everyday, they pray 7 times a day unfailingly (Tahajjud + Ishraq), their mind is always in the Masjid, they are always in Wudu and reciting the Tasbeeh, they always talk about Allah, Deen, Quran, Hadith and the Afterlife, and they are not worried about their income as they firmly believe that Allah (s.w.t.) will provide for their needs, spend the better part of their waking hours in Allah’s remembrance (the balance being eating, bathing and other personal needs).
When we see such a person, we are almost sure that he is a Jannati, though we always imagine that he is a retired person. Almost without exception, his household considers this sort of a person, as a visitor in their home, his wife may be critical of his behaviour and detachment with the family, he may be consulted for certain procedures regarding Deen (such as Death, Birth, Nikah or legal matters) but this guy will most certainly be ignored for consultations on Business or Education or Marriage Ceremonies or any other worldly matters, as his opinion is considered to be unsuitable for such practical situations.
The world today has turned into such a competitive, aggressive, dog-eat-dog, inhuman, commercial and profit-only-motive place, that this ‘simpleton’ finds it almost alien to his belief and thinking.
Our Islamic Teachings and interpretation, offers different point of views, when read and understood from different backgrounds and biases. Hence it is said that the Holy Quran is a book which has so many layers and layers of meanings, that even if a person keeps reading it again and again for his entire lifetime, he will always find some new meanings and information within it. Alhamdulillah. Allah is Great... he has given us a book which will last till Qayamat and beyond.
Some of the views/info are purely Spiritual and have everything to do with our Afterlife, hence our existence in this world can be taken to be purely devoted to living in a state of mind which is detached from this world and concerned only with the Hereafter. According to me, living in this state of mind cannot be considered as the true projection of Islam and the complete model of a Muslim.
According to me, this itself has led to our deterioration as a community. Hence my argument is that, the Muslim is supposed to be Wordly-wise, highly educated, a professional, a scientist, a doctor, an engineer, a journalist, a skilled workmen and everything else.... and he is supposed to undertake these worldly ventures in the spirit, ethics, principles and framework of Islam. He/she is supposed to present a model to the world, that “See, this is how a Human being should live, this is Islam, this is what Allah s.w.t. has told us to be like”. He is supposed to set standards for human behaviour, business deals, honesty in trade, never under-cutting, providing the best of material of the exact weight at the exact price. He will — nay — He CANNOT Cheat, because he is a Muslim.
This will be the actual Jihaad. Why? because the world will always offer him opportunity to cheat, to deceive others, Satan will be after him, to behave immorally, but his Jihaad will prevent him from taking the easy route. He will be committed to Islamic values, he will implement them at all times, in every aspect of his life.
To really undertake this, he will have to come out of his dream, he will have to live in this world—mentally, he will have to consider the After-life as D-Day, Result-day, but the result will be dependant on his paying attention to this world, in making himself a role model for others, in being a professional Muslim, in this world. This cannot come from Detachment..... the fight is in the Attachment...detachment removes the fight altogether....
Spirituality helps him to understand the reason and purpose of he being in the world. It gives him a reason to exist, why is he here, who brought him here, what is he supposed to do, what will happen to him afterwards........ these are the questions answered by Spirituality.... but normally people use this to detach themselves from this world altogether... they want to live on another planet, their Spiritual growth tends to make them abhor the day-to-day living... hence it is said ‘Wal Asr, innal Insaana, lafi khusr’ Indeed Mankind is in a Khasara (roughly described as Loss).
In today’s world, being practical means, following the world, doing what others are doing and generally blending in with others. It means giving-in to what is the standard practisc in the world today. Being worldly-wise is considered as being corrupt, dishonest, manipulative, political, diplomatic and all the negative things associated with this world.
What we were supposed to do as Muslims, were to show the path, that being practical does not mean doing the wrong things. Being worldly-wise did not mean being corrupt or dishonest. We are supposed to imbibe the teachings of Islam into our day-to-day life in a manner which will show the others, how to lead a complete and full-life on the commandments of our Creator. This is really what being a Muslim is all about.
(The writer can be reached at sskhan@gawab.com)
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February 2005 |