DUTIES TO SELF

 

 Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society

2. DUTIES TO SELF

Human Personality and its Functions:

According to the Holy Qur’an, humanity emerged in Creation primarily in the transcendental dimension of existence:

“We (God) said: ‘O Adam! Dwell you and your wife in the Garden; and eat of the bountiful things therein as you wish; but approach not this tree, or else you run into harm and transgression.” (2:35).

At that stage of existence itself, they possessed not only the spiritual but also the rational and the aesthetical dimensions of personality.

The spiritual dimension was there because of the very fact of the transcendental nature of their existence. The existence of the rational dimension has been affirmed thus:

 “And He (i.e., God) taught Adam the nature of all things.” (2: 31).

The existence of the aesthetical dimension is established in the very concept of the “Garden” where Adam and Eve lived in innocent enjoyment. Subsequently they fell victim to the Devil’s Deception. After that they appeared in the physical world, which is spatio-temporal, as physical and moral beings:

“Then Satan caused them both (i.e., Adam and Eve) to deflect therefrom and got them expelled from that in which they had been. We (God) said: ‘Get you down all (i.e., let entire humanity commence its descent from the then transcendental stage towards the spatio-temporal, or, the physical, stage of existence), with the spirit of clash between yourselves (that being the condition of all struggle, including the moral). On earth (where you will stay with physical qualities required for a physical environment) will be your dwelling place and provision for a time (i.e., for the duration of each individual’s earthly sojourn)’.” (2:36).

 

Hence, the human personality and its functions are to be understood in the following terms:

1. The real human personality is spiritual in nature.

Besides 2:35, this fact is also corroborated by the following verse, which speaks, not only of the existence of all human beings— from the first to the last—at the dawn of Creation, but also of the possession of Consciousness—self-consciousness as well as consciousness of the Personality of God—and hence of personality, which is based and built up on conscious, appreciative and non-mechanical response to other personality or personalities:

“And recall that time (at the dawn of Creation and in the ‘world of spirits’) when your Lord took from the children of Adam their posterity from their back, and made them testify as to themselves, saying: ‘am I not your Lord?’ They said: ‘Yes we testify’. (Thus was the Covenant of Monotheism inscribed on every human Soul). That was lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection: verily of this we have been unaware.” (7:172).

Thus, because this event relates to the transcendental world and conditions of transcendental existence, the transcendental, or spiritual nature of the original, i.e., the real, human personality is thereby established.

This fact is further affirmed by the following verses: 

“And they ask you regarding the (human) Soul. Say: the Soul proceeds from my Lord’s Amr, or, Command, created by Him, like other things); and of knowledge you have been vouchsafed but little. (Therefore, in spite of its intangibility, or non-physical character, do not doubt its reality).” (17:85).

“Surely there came over Man a period of Time when he was not a thing that could he spoken of (i.e., a thing tangible).” (76:1). 

 

2.    The earthly existence of every human being commences when the human Soul, whose original abode is the transcendental world, projects itself into spatio-temporal dimensions and takes on the physical form, even as the personalities of Adam and Eve were projected into the material world (2:36).

The assumption, under the Command of God, of tangibility, i.e., physical form and function, after passing through different stages of evolution, has been directly referred to thus:

“O Man! What has made you careless concerning your Lord, the Bountiful?—Him Who created you, then fashioned you in due proportion, then wrought you in symmetry; (then) into whatever form (or, figure) He willed, He constituted you.” (82:6-8).

 

3.    Then, the human Soul, while retaining its transcendental dimension, viz., function and activity, and centered in devotion to its Source of Existence and Capabilities, namely, God, of Whom it is the vicegerent (2:30), functions in four other dimensions also : namely, physical, rational, moral and aesthetical.

 

4.    Thus: the spiritual, the physical, the rational, the moral and the aesthetical constitute the five dimensions of human personality, and activity relating to all these five should be pursued in a balanced and integrated manner, in order that the human personality may evolve and function in a healthy form on the basis of healthy activity (al-‘amal al-saleh)

“O you who believe!  Enter into Submission wholly (i.e., adopt the Way of Life consisting of total submission to the Will of God with the totality of your life).” (2:208).

“For those who believe and practice al-salihat (i.e., engage in healthy activity according to God’s Law and with comprehensiveness and integration) is a reward that will never fail.” (41:8).

“… and healthy (or, righteous) activity does He exalt (thereby raising the practiser of healthy activity, or, righteousness, to higher and higher levels of his personality).” (35:10).

 

5.    Moral activity being thus a part of an empire of Activity, which forms an organic Whole, it cannot be taken up with genuine & rational enthusiasm, and cannot be pursued consequentially— namely, cannot lead to the proper enrichment of the human personality,—unless it is grounded in the very foundation of human personality, which is spiritual in nature and transcendental in its reach and scope, and also unless all the other aspects of human activity are properly coordinated with it.

Such being the Qur’anic view, it is necessary that the Qur’anic Moral Code should be viewed not only in the essentially moral perspective but also in the background of those spiritual, physical, intellectual and aesthetical duties that have a direct or indirect bearing on the moral life of a human being—moral life as it is conceived in the strict sense.

 

Categories of Duties to Self. 

The above discussion leads us to the following five categories of Duties to Self:

A. Duties as Spiritual Being:

1.       Duties with reference to God: • Duties of Commission;

•       Duties of Omission.

2.       Duties with reference to the Holy Prophet, (in whom God’s Blessings and Peace abide!)

•       Duties of Commission;

•       Duties of Omission. 

3.       Duties with reference to the Angels: 

            •    Duties of Commission;

•       Duties of Omission. 

 

B. Duties as Physical Being:

•       Duties of Commission;

•       Duties of Omission.

C.      Duties as Rational Being:

•  Duties of Commission;

•  Duties of Omission.

D.     Duties as Aesthetical Being:  

• Duties of Commission;

•  Duties of Omission. 

 

E. Duties as Moral Being:

•  Duties of Commission;

•  Duties of Omission.

Source

to be continued . . . . . 

Quranic Foundation & Structure Of Muslim Society In The End Times

 

 

 Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society

CLASSIFICATION OF DUTIES

 

1. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS

The function of the Code should be the realization of the Ideal and the actualization of the norms that it implies.

Before we proceed to the structural constituents of systematization, however, it is necessary to establish the Qur’anic point of view with respect to the concepts of ‘Duty’ and ‘Right’.

 

Duty and Right:

The Qur’anic moral code is based on the emphasis on ‘obligation’ or ‘duty’ in contrast to the emphasis on ‘right’ (5:48; etc.). Now, the implications of the emphasis respectively on duty and right are:

Right is a right against someone. Duty is a duty towards someone. Right means that someone else owes something to us. For, when we say: ‘it is our right’, it means that someone has to perform a duty to us. On the contrary when we say; ‘it is our duty’, it means that someone has a right against us.

The emphasis on duty creates harmony in social life, because if everyone were to concentrate on his or her duty, the emphasis on grumbling for rights will naturally vanish. On the contrary, the emphasis on rights creates strife, because if everyone were to think about his rights on others, he would hardly have the mind to think of his duties towards others. The immense increase in quarrels and strifes between the different classes of human beings, as for instance, between laborers & capitalists, and between races & nations, which we find in the world today, is the direct outcome of the emphasis on rights. As regards the political life in different countries, the subjects or citizens clamor for their rights more than taking pains for fulfilling their duties towards their fellow-beings, the state and the country. Everyone tries thus to transfer blame to the shoulders of others, and the confusion gets worse confounded. This state of affairs will not improve unless the world adopts the Qur’anic emphasis on duty.

Then, the emphasis on duty creates unity among human beings, because it is built up on the idea and the sentiment of sympathy,— sympathy in the sense that in fulfilling our duty we have always to do some positive good to someone in the world. On the contrary, the emphasis on rights is conducive to disintegration and disunity among human beings, because it is based on the idea of demanding some thing from others. We all know that we feel happy when anyone gives something to us, and most people feel unhappy and miserable when anyone demands anything from them.

 

The Empire of Duties:

As to the classification of Duties: Since, according to the Holy Qur’an, man is not merely a moral being but also a spiritual, physical, rational and aesthetical being, as we shall shortly see, the fulfillment of duties relating to all those aspects of the human personality is necessary for the realisation of the Qur’anic moral Ideal.

Now, since morality originates in the attitude that man takes towards personality in his own being or in the being of others, the moral duties should be classified basically as:  (1) Duties to Self, and (2) Duties to Others. And since the person who is nearest to the moral agent is his own person, Duties to Self should come first and the Duties to Others thereafter.

The question may now be raised: What is the relationship between Duties to Self and Duties to Others? 

If the problem is viewed in the light of the ideational cultural philosophy, the two duties remain unconnected; because the point of view there is individualistic. Their relationship can be affirmed only on the basis of the Qur’anic philosophy of idealistic, or integralistic, culture which is based on the synthesis of the ideational and the sensate, and which, consequently, stands for interdependent relationship between morality and social life. Thus moral perfection of the moral agent is conceived there with reference to the happiness of others, which, in its turn, is possible only in terms of social welfare.

Source

to be continued . . . . . 

Quranic Foundation & Structure Of Muslim Society In The End Times