The Spirituo-Moral Duties

 

 Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society

The Spirituo-Moral Duties —Some Vital Facts:

Among the Duties to Self, besides the duties based on the earthly environment of Man, the Holy Qur’an has explicitly prescribed certain duties which bear reference to the transcendental dimension of his personality and may, therefore, be termed as spirituo-moral, or, ethico-religious, duties. It says, for instance:

“Virtue does not consist in turning your faces towards the east and the west (in direction-worship, which has formed part of the practices of superstitious nations, including the Greeks, the Hindus and the Christians), but virtue is of him who believes in Allah and the Last Day and the Angels and the Book (i.e., the Divine Scripture) and the Prophets; and gives of his wealth, for love of Him (i.e., from the purest self-less motive), unto kindred and orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and those who ask and for the emancipation of slaves; and establishes Prayer; and pays the Poor-rate; and is of those who perform their covenants when they have covenanted; and is of the patient in adversity and affliction and time of violence. Such are those who have proved themselves true (in their Faith). Such are the God-fearing” (2:177).

Besides the essentially moral duties, this verse bears reference to the spirituo-moral duties also; which, though they appear to stand in the category of duties to others, are actually duties to Self—as we shall shortly observe.

The function of such duties is to nourish the faith that the world is a Moral Order, thereby continuously reinforcing the moral fibre of human beings and furnishing the ground for moral struggle—indeed, the sure ground; and they are to three types of personalities, viz., (1) God, (2) the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace be on him!) and, (3) the Angels. With them may also be mentioned the duties of belief in Divine Guidance and in the Life Hereafter.

Now, since the Holy Qur’an affirms the existence of the personal God, Who is the Possessor of all Perfection and Who undertakes to lead His creatures to perfection adequate to them, duties to Him become the foremost duties. However, those duties are, in the final analysis, duties to Self because God being al-samad (112:2), He does not stand in need of anything from anyone while the entire Creation depends on Him for everything. Moreover, God being the ultimate condition of the realisation of Man’s moral ideal, every duty to God is really duty to Self.

 

Duties to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (the Divinely-Blessed) originate, like the duties to God, in the Islamic Article of Faith itself; and they have been laid down by the Qur’an in the interest of the Muslims themselves, because :

Firstly, he alone is the Leader who is to be followed unconditionally. Thus the bond of loyalty to him is the bond of integrity of the Islamic world-community.

[In that connection, it is necessary to emphasize that the ‘bond of loyalty’ to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace be on him!) resides in absolute allegiance to him, which means that the association of anyone else in that allegiance as a condition of faith in Islam—in terms of conferring upon anyone, or accepting anyone’s claim to, divinely-bestowed Authority, on the basis of prophetic status or any status akin to it, in any sense whatsoever, is disbelief in the Prophet’s status, and is regarded as disbelief in Islam itself, and that inspite of otherwise absolute allegiance to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace be on him!)—expels a person from the fold of Islam in the same way as when he associates anyone in any manner in the Godhood of Allah.]

Secondly, he is the Model of Perfection whom every Muslim is under obligation to imitate for advancement in his spiritual and moral life. But to imitate him consequentially is not possible without practicing love and respect for him, which has been prescribed as duty.

Thirdly, he is the Medium through whom Divine Grace  flows to his followers in respect of their spiritual and moral purification (62:3-4).

These facts necessitate the maintenance of a constant dutiful attitude in terms of love and respect for him.

However, just as duties to God are really duties to Self, because they involve the self-perfection of the moral agent, in the same manner duties to the Holy Prophet (Peace be on him!) are really duties to Self, because of the benefits that accrue to the person who fulfils them.

As regards the Angels, they are, according to the Holy Qur’an, possessors of the attribute of personality (3:39, etc.). Also, they are sinless (i.e., holy) beings and function as executors of Divine Will in the universe (66:6). Thus, duties towards them appear to stand under three categories, viz., (1) duty of belief in their existence; (2) duty of love for their sinless-ness; and (3) duty of respect for them as functionaries of the Divine Order.

The duty of belief in the existence of the Angels forms a part of the Islamic Creed, which means that it has a basic significance in the Islamic system. The question might arise here, however, that moral duty is duty of action and not of belief, and hence the duty of belief should not be included here. But the fact is that the duty of belief in the Angels is a duty of attitude and is actually a necessary prerequisite to the cultivation of purity in moral outlook on the basis of which alone moral life can be Islamically pursued. Thus it comes under the duty of the Moral Perfection of the Self. Also, this duty has a reference to Divine Control in the life of humanity, which highlights God’s function as the Moral Ruler of the world.

We learn from the Holy Qur’an about two functions of the Angels which bear a direct reference to our moral life, viz., bringing the Revelations to the Prophets from God for the guidance of man— Archangel Jibreel (Peace be on him!) being the chief functionary in this respect (22:75; 2:97); and recording the deeds of human beings for presentation to them on the Day of Judgment (82:10-12), when virtue and vice shall be finally and comprehensively recompensed by God.

It may be observed here in passing that belief in the Divine Messengers and the Divine Scriptures, mentioned in the above-quoted verse (2:177), and forming part of the Islamic Creed, bears reference to the existence of the Law concerning the Guidance of Man as a spiritual and moral being. Similarly, belief in the Life Hereafter has a bearing on the moral life of man, as also on his spiritual life, being the pre-requisite to the performance of the moral action with the purest motive wherein all earthly considerations are transcended.

Source

to be continued . . . . . 

Quranic Foundation & Structure Of Muslim Society In The End Times

 

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