KINDNESS
A prophetic saying further elaborates this in
these words:
‘He who is devoid of kindness is devoid of all
good’.
A higher stage of ‘twasi bil-haqq’ is that of
calling people to Allah, enjoining good and forbidding evil. A true Muslim
should give clothing to the ill-clad, food to the hungry and drink to the
thirsty. But the greatest benefit he can render to his fellow beings is to turn
them back from moral and spiritual bankruptcy and guide them to the straight
path of the Quran and Sunnah.
In one’s life journey to the ultimate goal, the
duty of each Muslim is to catch hold of the hand of one who goes astray from
the straight path of Islam and to guide him aright. Mutual counsel gives life
to actions and fosters a healthy spirit among the individuals.
At a still higher stage, ‘twasi bil-haqq’
adopts the form of testifying to the truth and veracity of Islam
(Shahadat-ihaqq) exalting the truth from Allah over all man-made ideologies
(E’Ia-e-Kallmatillah), and establishing Islam both in the individual and social
aspects of life (Iqamat-i-Din). The testimony to the truth may be by the tongue
of a true preacher or the pen of a devoted scholar, or by the life of a man
devoted to service. The highest and most revered form of this testimony is
presented by a Muslim who leaves his house and family to fight the enemy for
the cause of Allah (Jehad-fi-Sabilillah). Endurance is the greatest solace of a
true Muslim while going through all the trials on account of ‘twasi bil-haqq’.
Especially in the higher stages, mutual teaching and exhorting to constancy
become so essential that ‘twasi-bis-sabr’ has been mentioned separately to
highlight the collective and cooperative character of Muslim society.
It is no doubt difficult for all and sundry to
attain the above mentioned highest stages of belief or ‘Iman’, righteous deeds,
mutual exhortation of truth and mutual exhortation of patience and endurance.
But if a man’s inner personality has not been corroded by some spiritual or
moral ailment, it is almost certain that a healthy and potent seed of religious
belief will flourish into wholesome and balanced branches of righteous actions,
exhortation to truth and constancy.
It is surely excusable if a lay Muslim, who
has very little knowledge of the fundamentals of Islam and performs the well
known basic duties of ‘Shariah’ (Islamic code of law), confines himself to
‘twasi bil-marhama’ i.e., doing himself acts of kindness and compassion and
advising others to the same, which is just the threshold of ‘twasi bil-Haqq’.
But those who embark on rigorous spiritual exercises like repeated recitation
of a religious formula called ‘Zikr’ to attain deeper and richer states of
faith and belief, those who engage themselves in devotional prayers and
‘mustahabbat’ (some thing additional to what is obligatory of ‘farz’) but pay
little attention to the more obligatory duty of ‘twasi-biI-haqq’ are seriously misguided
in their attitude. Lives of these people are mostly either totally devoid of
the essential religious duty of ‘twasi bll-haqq’ or they exhibit just a vestige
of it in the form of occasional brief sermon or sporadic moralizing advice.
This state of affairs is certainly wrong and needs to be rectified immediately.
In this connection a story reported by Prophet
Muhammad (peace be upon him) puts the urgency of this duty in very bold relief.
He mentioned an extremely pious old man whom the angels testified that he never
indulged in sin even for as long as the blink of an eye, but who never angered
or got moved at the sight of people breaking the commands of God. Despite all
his piety and life-long spiritual observances, Allah ordered the angels to
destroy him first and then the entire community.
On the other hand, it should also be clearly
understood that it is equally dangerous to aspire and struggle for the highest
stages of ‘twasi bil-haqq’ through activities geared to establishing an Islamic
order of society, but taking meager interest in spiritual devotions and
performing only those prayers which are obligatory (farz), and attenuate faith
to a mere theological belief without realizing its deeper meaning and
cultivating it inwardly. All types of unbalanced attitudes and life-styles
within these two extremes are misconceived and possibly dangerous.
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