The Way to Salvation - UNITY

UNITY

If an exhortation is made to uphold the truth without evil forces putting obstacles in its way, if a programmatic and concerted call is issued to establish social justice but tyrants and oppressors merely keep silent, then either the advocates of Truth have some clandestine agreement with the forces of injustice, or they are working for just a part of the Truth, not the whole of it. Men thriving upon injustice may not deem it necessary to suppress a movement towards social justice if they find that that particular part of the truth is harmless to their vested interests. 

But total commitment to truth and the struggle to establish it inevitably brings persecution and harassment. Every step on this path invites ever greater ordeals and challenges. A poet has rendered this in a beautiful couplet:

“People consider being a true Muslim an easy affair.

Nay! It is like stepping in the pyre of love and martyrdom. ”

At this stage there is no alternative for men of faith in the true religion but to unite their aspiration and energies. Encouraging and helping each other, being firm and patient themselves and exhorting others to firmness and patience, they must form a united front, what the Quran calls a ‘solid cemented structure’  In so doing, they will make themselves an embodiment of the Quranic verse:

“O Ye who believe! persevere in patience and constancy. Vie in such perseverance ; Strengthen each other. And fear God so that ye may succeed and prosper.” (III : 200)

At the stage of ‘twasi-bil-haqq’ (mutual exhortation to Truth), it is perhaps impossible for Muslims in their individual capacities to stand up to the opposition mounted against them by the evil forces. It is therefore, imperative, that they unite into a well-organized group. This is the reason why the Quran has given the injunctions regarding ‘Haqq’ and ‘Sabr’ in the Arabic grammatical form of “tafa’uI’. that is to say, in the verse ‘Wa twaso biI-Haqqe wa twaso bis-sabr’ there is an implicit reference to the necessity of a united and organized group life for Muslims. 

These virtues we must exercise both for ourselves and in relation to others. We must set an example for others and take the excellence of others as an example for ourselves, so that we may not fall short of what is due from us. In this way we strengthen each other and bind our mutual relations closer in common service to God. In the later part of the passage quoted above from Maulana Farahi’s book, he says, ‘-and since the establishment of ‘Khilafat’ depends on obedience to an ‘Ameer’ (the leader), it is essential that Muslims submit themselves to discipline. It is, therefore, clear that belief, righteous deeds, mutual exhortation to truth and mutual exhortation to steadfastness are not mutually exclusive. Rather, they are bound together closely in a strictly logical sequence, four stages of a single straight path.

Faith is like a seed from which sprouts the bud of righteous conduct. The bud grows into a mature plant with leaves and flowers of mutual exhortation to truth and constancy. This also explains why the Quran almost always couples faith and good deeds, even when only faith is mentioned, the reader can easily understand that it covers in its connotation all of the four requirements. For instance, in the following verse:

‘Lo! those who say: Our Lord is Allah, and further stand straight and steadfast….’ (XLI 30)

Here only the most fundamental of Islamic beliefs, i.e., belief in the providence of Almighty Allah, has been mentioned, though, it should be taken to include the other fundamentals, such as Hazrat Muhammad’s prophet hood (peace be upon him) and the reality of life in the Hereafter. And in ‘Summa-Staqamu’ (further stand straight and steadfast) have been summed up the remaining three conditions, viz., righteous conduct, mutual exhortation of truth and mutual exhortation to persistence in truth. At other places in the Quran, in addition to the primal condition of belief only mutual exhortation has been mentioned. The following verse of Surah ‘AI.-Balad’is an example of this:

“Then will he be of those who believe and enjoin compassion”. (XXC: 17)

The truth of the matter is that all these four conditions are basic to the Quranic way that leads to eternal bliss and salvation. Elucidation and explanation of these requirements and detailed accounts of their stages and degrees are found throughout the Holy Book.

Source: The Way to Salvation (Book by Dr Israr Ahmed)