THE PROBLEM OF DESPAIR AND THE GOSPEL OF EMANCIPATION

 

 Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society

APPENDIX 2

 

THE PROBLEM OF DESPAIR AND THE GOSPEL OF EMANCIPATION

 

In many human beings the consciousness of past sinfulness creates a sense of despair—sometimes involving great severity—as to the possibility of their moral emancipation; and it can actually damage their prospects with respect to moral reformation, unless they are offered some principle that may ensure to them that the evil spiritual consequences of their past sins could be washed away, enabling them to build up a healthy moral life with hope and confidence and serenity, and without any lurking sense of past guilt that may disturb their moral enthusiasm.

The Holy Qur’an has supplied that principle in its teaching that sincere repentance (taubah)^[1] brings immediate forgiveness from God which washes away the spiritual stains of guilt. It says:

“O you who believe! Turn to Allah with sincere repentence:

Belike your Lord will expiate from you your misdeeds …” (66:8).

 

The fact is that doubtlessly the commission of sins leads a person farther and farther away from moral purity. But once a person performs taubah, i.e., repents truly and with all the force of his personality, his latent will for the good is revived and activised, reinforcing his moral fibre. This is what we learn from the story of Adam, the father of humanity. The Holy Qur’an attributes his entanglement in the Devil’s deception not to deficiency in knowledge but to deficiency in will. It says :

“And verily We made a covenant of old with Adam, but he forgot: and We found in him no firm resolve ^[2] (in that affair).” (20:115).

 

The wrong which Adam pbuh had committed was of an innocent type, consisting, as it did, not in moral turpitude but only in error of judgment. But even so, it did not repeat itself, because his repentance brought about the tazkiyah, i.e., purified him of the deficiency in his will, as we read in the Holy Qur’an:

“Then Adam learnt from his Lord words (of penitence), and He relented towards him; for He is Oft-Returning, Most Merciful.” (2:37).

 

The Attribute of God as ‘Oft-Returning’ (Tawwab) in the above verse is expressive of the Islamic teaching that God’s attitude towards the sinners is one of continued mercy and compassion. Persons with weak will but a good heart may relapse time and again from their commitment in respect of taubah. But they should not lose heart. Rather, they should re-affirm their taubah with greater determination, each time they fail, and keep up the exercise for their firm establishment on the path of virtue. For that they will have to return again and again to the seeking of God’s mercy; and they will not fail to get it, because God is Oft-returning, Most Merciful.

Besides inviting to Repentance, the Holy Qur’an has also stated the law:

“Lo! good deeds annul ill deeds: Be that the word of  remembrance to those who remember (their Lord).” (11:114).

 

However, the following proclamation forms the greatest Message of Hope even for the worst sinners, provided they repent truly and start their life in conformity with the Divine Law:

“Say: ‘O My Servants who have transgressed against their souls! despair not of the Mercy of Allah: for Allah forgives all sins: verily, He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. Turn you to your Lord (in repentance) and bow to His (Will), before the Penalty comes on you after that you shall not be helped.” (39:53-54).

 

     Indeed, evils already committed can be blotted out, with regard to the spiritual effects on the human personality, if: (a) an evil-doer repents truly, and (b) wages a determined struggle for pursuing Good in Submission to God.

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[1] The act of taubah is actually three-dimensional, because it consists of: (1) sincere acknowledgment in one’s heart of the wrong committed; (2) firm establishment in one’s consciousness of a proper estimate of the evil nature of that wrong and the consequent dissociation from it; (3) firm resolve in respect of avoiding its commission in the future. As such, it might be termed as a ‘contract with the future’.

[2] “wa lam najid lahu ‘azma” in the Arabic text may also mean: “and We did not find in him determination (to disobey) “—implying that Adam’s act of eating from the forbidden tree was not voluntary, and, consequently, Adam’s sinlessness was not impaired in spite of that act.

Source

to be continued . . . . . 

Quranic Foundation & Structure Of Muslim Society In The End Times

ART AND MORALITY

 

 Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society

APPENDIX 1

 

ART AND MORALITY 

 

Vulgar aestheticism, with its base in erotic art, forms a very serious obstacle in the way of moral progress. Coming into conflict with the genuinely-moral yearnings, it exerts a profound immoral influence if it is permitted to hold sway, even as it is exerting on a progressively more and more damaging scale among the Westernised human societies—especially in the countries of origin, where vulgar pursuit of aestheticism is assuming alarming proportions day by day leading the affected communities headlong to ultimate spiritual and moral destruction. 

 

Now, while the Holy Qur’an itself affirms the aesthetical value and prescribes aesthetical duties, as we have recorded elsewhere in this book,^[1] it is with the same vehemence opposed to the immoralisation of the aesthetical pursuit. Indeed, it lends the entire weight of its philosophy of life firmly to the principle that the aesthetical value cannot stay pure unless it is wedded to the highest spiritual and moral considerations. It is convinced that aestheticism based on sensuousness is the mother of all moral ills and spiritual perversions. 

 

Behind this attitude of the Qur’an, which has withstood the test of history, there is its scheme of values wherein the gradation is: (1) Religion; (2) Morality; (3) Knowledge; (4) Art.^[2]

 

This gradation of values emerges when we consider, in the first instance, the oft-repeated Qur’anic expression:

“those who possess Faith and practise the Virtues.” (2:25; etc.—mentioned 49 times).

Here ‘religion’ forms the highest value, and next to it stands ‘morality’.

Then, in the following verse, ‘religion’ stands first and ‘knowledge’ stands second:

“… Allah will exalt those of you who possess Faith and those who are endowed with Knowledge …” (58:11). 

 

However, because, according to the Qur’anic philosophy of life, Faith is meaningless without the possession of sound Morality, which makes religion and morality twins, as in  the previously-quoted verse, the gradation finaly deducible from the above verses is: Religion, Morality, Knowledge.

 

As for the pursuit of the Beautiful, the Qur’anic standpoint is:

a.     That pursuit can be undertaken both ways: good and evil; and hence it should always be treated in terms of morality. Thus we are told:

 “Lo! We have made that which is on the earth an ornament (i.e., source of beauty) thereof (i.e., with reference to the life on it, which is related to sensuous pleasure—both refined and vulgar) that We may try them (i.e.,the human beings): which of them is best in conduct (with respect to their aesthetical pursuit wherein the test is whether they indulge in vulgarity and indecency or adopt in that respect the highest moral standards).” (18:7). 

 

b.    All sensuous vulgar pursuit in the aesthetical domain is from the Devil and should, therefore, be avoided:^[3]

“Lo! he (i.e., the Devil) commands indecency and abomination …” (24:21).

 

And the holy Book has reminded us that it is the mission of the Devil to employ beauty for misleading mankind, in as much as he had proclaimed at the dawn of Creation:

“… I verily shall employ Beauty for them (i.e., the human beings) in the earth (i.e., based on the earthly environment, inducing them to the love of sensuous pleasure and to the adoption, for that purpose, of the materialistic and hedonistic approach to Art), and shall mislead them all,—except such as are your perfectly devoted servants.” (15:39-40).

 

Thus, the aesthetical pursuit has, in the very nature of the case, to be subordinated always to the demands of morality, whereby alone the moral tone and social health of the human beings can be ensured.

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[1] Ref : Volume 2, pp. 49-59.

[2] Only such cultures as are pessimistic in outlook and stand consequently in need of dopes, can reasonably idolise Art and give it a status higher than that of Morality or Religion or Knowledge in their gradation of values. Indeed, they are in need of employing momentary ‘contemplation of the beautiful’ as an escape from the sense the of misery and the consequent agony to which the pessimistic outlook on life gives rise. This cannot be possible in the case of the Qur’anic philosophy of life which upholds vigorously an optimistic outlook and regards pessimism as nothing less than Infidelity: Kufr (12:87).

[3] For certain direct commands relating to this problem, refer to 24:31, 60; etc.

Source

to be continued . . . . . 

Quranic Foundation & Structure Of Muslim Society In The End Times

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