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.

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to be continued . . . . . 

Quranic Foundation & Structure Of Muslim Society In The End Times

 

THE WORLD - IN THE LIGHT OF THE QUR’AN

 

 Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society

2.       IN THE LIGHT OF THE QUR’AN:

Turning to the Holy Qur’an, we find that the different requirements affirmed in the foregoing with regard to the realisation of the moral ideal are contained explicitly in the guidance it offers. It says:

1.       The world is not eternal but has been created by God:

“To Him is due the primal origin of the heavens and the earth: when He decrees a matter, He says to it: ‘Be’, and it is.” (2:117).

He (i.e., Prophet Abraham) said: ‘Nay, your Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth, He Who brought them into existence: and I am a witness to this (truth).” (21:56).

“Allah originates the creation (—nothing existing of its own accord or fortuitously) …” (30:11).^[1]

2.       The world has been created by the All-Wise, All-Powerful, All-Controlling God with exquisite Plan and Design:

“Blessed is He Who sent down the Criterion to His Servant (Muhammad), that he may be unto all nations a Warner— He to Whom belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth: no son has He begotten, nor has He a partner in His dominion: It is He Who created every thing, and ordained for it a measure (establishing thereby exquisite Plan and Design).” (25:1-2).

“No want of proportion will you see in the Creation of (Allah) Most Gracious. So turn your vision again. See you any flaw?” (67:3).

3.       The world created for a serious and definite Purpose:

“We created not the heavens, the earth, and all between them, merely in (idle) sport: We created them not except for just ends, But most of them do not understand.” (44:3839).

4.       Creation of the world is for a moral end—the world is a Moral Order:

“And Allah has created the heavens and the earth with purpose (and for just ends) and in order that every soul may find the recompense of what it has earned, and none of them be wronged.” (45:22).

“Blessed is He in Whose hands (i.e., possession) is the Dominion, and He over all things has Power;—He Who created Death and Life, that He may try which of you is best in deeds: and He is the Exalted in Might, Oft-Forgiving.” (67:1-2).

5.       The world is real:

“And it is He Who has created the heavens and the earth in Truth (or, as real).” (6:73).

“Not falsely and without purpose did We create the heavens and the earth and all between! That were the thought of the Rejectors of Truth.” (38:27).

“Behold! in the constitution of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of the Day and the Night, there are indeed Signs for those who possess and employ understanding. (They are those) who remember Allah standing, sitting and lying on their sides, and contemplate the (wonders of) Creation in the heavens and the earth (and say): ‘Our Lord! You have created not all this falsely (and in vain).^[2] Glory be to You! Preserve us from the doom of the Fire’.” (3:191).

Also, we have been told:

“(O Man!) pursue not that of which you have no knowledge (i.e., entertain no such opinion for which you have no sound reason to believe to be true). Verily, the hearing and the sight and the heart—each of these is accountable in respect of it.” (17:36).

It should be noted here that if the contents of sense experience be unreal, the accountability of the senses would become meaningless. Hence, the world, according to this verse also, is real.

6.       The world is essentially Good and it is the Best Possible World:

“… He Who has made every thing which He has created Most Good …” (33:7).

7.       Basis for struggle in the form of pairs of conflicting forces functioning under the Law of Opposites,^[3] is ingrained in the very constitution of the world:

“And in all things We have created pairs (—pairs of opposites and pairs of complimentaries—): that haply you may reflect (and obtain the guidance involved).” (51:49).

8.       Realisation of the Moral Ideal enshrined in the very Destiny  of the world:

This point has been discussed and affirmed in detail in the section on “Life-after-Death”. Here we may quote just two verses:

The following verse refers to the success of the forces of the Good and the defeat of the forces of Evil, both in the earthly career of humanity and the Life Hereafter:

“Yes, to Allah belongs all that is in the heavens and on the earth: so that He may recompense those who do evil according to their deeds, and He may reward those who do good with what is best.” (53:31).

The following verse speaks specially of the final and total triumph of the forces of the Good in the Life-Hereafter:

“Those who are god-fearing (i.e., cultivate and practise righteousness out of respect for Divine Pleasure) shall be (triumphant) above them (i.e., the Unbelievers in the principle of Submission to God—or, the unrighteous) on the Day of the Resurrection.” (2:212).

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[1] As to the words bada‘a, fatara, bada’a used for the act of creation in the above verses: Bada‘a stands for the very primal beginning; Fatara implies, like bada‘a, the creating of a thing out of nothing and after no pre-existing similitude, or, the creation of primeval matter to which further processes were applied later; Bada’a (without the ‘ain) denotes beginning the process of creation. (Ref: Lane’s Arabic English Lexicon).

[2] Here the Hindu doctrine of Maya, which regards the whole universe as an illusion, has been repudiated, affirming the reality of the world as we perceive it by our senses.

[3] This Law has been discussed in detail in the Author’s forthcoming book on the “Dynamics of Moral Revolution”.

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to be continued . . . . . 

Quranic Foundation & Structure Of Muslim Society In The End Times