Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society

Chapter 2.

DUTIES TO THE HOLY PROPHET*

*According to the Holy Qur’an, the status of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace be on him) is that of nabi and rasul. Unfortunately, there is no English word capable of conveying the connotation of these terms properly. As regards the word “Prophet”, it means, according to English lexicon, “a spokesman of the deity, one who proclaims a divine message, a preacher, a foreteller whether claiming to be inspired or not.” Thus it can be adopted as an Islamic term only in a qualified manner— signifying there: “a spokesman of the One True God, who receives the Message from Him through Revelation, and proclaims and preaches it as a divinely-appointed Teacher and as the possessor of a flawless, sublime and extraordinary spiritual and moral personality”

 

1.       Duties of Respect; 

2.       Duties of Love.

ENDS:

(a)   Objective

Maintenance of the attitude of obedience and loyalty through the constant cultivation of respect and love for the Teacher and Exemplar of Qur’anic morals, in order to be able to act enthusiastically on the Qur’anic Moral Code.

(b)  Subjective

Maintenance of assurance, through the remembrance of the Example of the Holy Prophet (Peace be on him), in respect of his personal conduct and his achievements in the moral domain, so that the moral ideal set forth by the Holy Qur’an is realizable.

We have seen in the foregoing that Love for God is a Muslim’s highest pursuit and the highest duty. In that connection, the Holy Qur’an states further that this love should manifest itself in loyally following and imitating the communicator and exemplar of God’s Guidance for mankind, namely, the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace be on him). It says:

“Say (O Muhammad)! If you do love Allah, follow me (and build up your moral and spiritual life on my model): Allah will love you and forgive you your sins: For Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” (3:31).

Following and imitating the Holy Prophet (Peace be on him) is not possible, however, without maintaining the attitudes of respect and love towards him,—these, in their turn, giving rise respectively to obedience and absolute loyalty. Thus we arrive at four duties relating to our relation with the Holy Prophet (Peace be on him), namely:

1)      to respect him above all created beings;

2)      to love him above all created beings;

3)      to obey him without demur;

4)      to be absolutely loyal to him.      

Starting from the side of man, these four duties form the essential condition of the moral agent’s Moral Perfection and of the Moral Perfection and Happiness of others—humanity at large, because true Guidance in that connection is available only through the Holy Prophet (Peace be on him) and that Guidance cannot be truly accepted and enthusiastically followed without maintaining the attitude implied in those duties.

We may now state the duties in the language of the Qur’an:

 

 

(1) DUTIES OF RESPECT

(a) Subjective :

To regard the Holy Prophet with respect;

(1)  Duty of Commission:

Maintaining the attitude of positive respect enjoined:

“… So it is those who believe in him (i.e., Muhammad), and honor him, and help him, and follow the Light which is sent down with him,—it is they who will prosper.” (7:157). 

 

(2)  Duty of Omission:

Directly or indirectly insulting the Holy Prophet prohibited:

“And it is not right for you to insult Allah’s Messenger (Muhammad) …” (33:53).

Worthy of note in this respect is the following stern command of God given to the Muslims of the Holy Prophet’s time:

“O you who believe! Put not yourselves forward before Allah and His Messenger; and fear Allah: for Allah hears and knows all things.

“O you who believe! raise not your voice above the voice of the Prophet (Muhammad), nor speak aloud to him in talk as you may speak aloud to one another, lest your deeds (of righteousness) be rendered vain (thereby) and you perceive not (the loss).

“Verily those who lower their voice in the presence of Allah’s Messenger—these are they whose hearts Allah has disposed unto piety: For them is Forgiveness and a great Reward.” (49:1-3).

Also: the following guidance to the socially uncouth people of those days:

“Verily those who shout out to you (O Muhammad) from outside the inner apartments—most of them lack a path proper sense. If only they had patience until you could come out to them, it would be best for them: but Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” (49:4-5). 

(b) Objective:

To obey the Holy Prophet without demur.

(1)  Duty of Commission:

          Practicing positive obedience enjoined:        

“… and obey the Messenger (Muhammad)… ” (4:59).

“The answer of the Believers, when summoned to Allah and His Messenger, in order that He may judge between them, is no other than this: they say, ‘we hear and we obey’: It is such as these that will attain felicity.” (24:51).

(2)  Duty of Omission:

Disobedience in any manner whatsoever, prohibited:

“… and whosoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger, he verily goes astray in error manifest.” (33:36).

“And whosoever opposes the Messenger even after Guidance has been plainly conveyed unto him, and follows a path other than that of the men of Faith, We shall leave him in the path he has chosen, and land him in Hell,—what an evil refuge!” (4:115).

 

 

(2) DUTIES OF LOVE

(a) Subjective:

To regard the Holy Prophet with love.

(1) Duty of Commission:

Maintaining the attitude of positive love—a love which transcends the love for any other created being, emphasized; hence it is duty:

“The Prophet is closer to the Believers than their own selves (—this spiritual relationship entitling him to more love and respect from the Believers than for any created being related in any way).” (33:6).

“None of you can have Faith unless I become to him dearer than his parents, his off-springs and (in fact) all human beings.” (Bukhari)

This personal spiritual love for the Holy Prophet (on whom be Peace and the Blessings of Allah) is to be cultivated, besides obeying him in all things with overflowing love, through forming spiritual contact with him by reciting salat and salam, as commanded by God in the following verse:

“Lo! Allah and His Angels shower blessings on the Prophet. O you who believe! send your benedictions on him (i.e., ask Allah for His blessings on him) and salute him with a worthy salutation (i.e., with respect and love).” (33:56). 

 The shortest formula in this connection is: 

“Allah has bestowed on him His Blessings and Peace”. 

This formula has been further condensed in the form: 

“Peace is with him”, and is employed in the form of prayer: “Peace be on him.”

 

(a) Objective:

To foster absolute loyalty to the Holy Prophet (Peace be on him).

(1) Duty of Commission:

To be positively loyal to him emphasized as a condition of Faith; hence it is duty:

“But nay, by your Lord, they can have no (real) Faith, until they make you judge in all disputes between them, and find in their souls no resistance against your decisions, but accept them with the fullest submission.” (4:65).

“And it is unbecoming of a believing man or a believing woman, when Allah and His Messenger have decided an affair (for them), that they should (after that) claim any say in their affair;…” (33:36).

(2) Duty of Omission:

Being disloyal to him in any manner, prohibited:

“O you who believe! be not disloyal to Allah and His Messenger…” (8:27).

Source

to be continued . . . . . 

Quranic Foundation & Structure Of Muslim Society In The End Times

 

INTEGRALISTIC MORAL PHILOSOPHY

 

 Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society

Chapter 7

INTEGRALISTIC MORAL PHILOSOPHY

AND COMPREHENSIVE MORAL CODE

 

We have noticed in the foregoing that the Holy Qur’an gives a monistic principle of evaluation in its concept of God. That principle plays a vital role in the Qur’anic moral philosophy, so that the Qur’anic ethical norms are established in what might be named as Divine Ethics.  

 

The Divine Ethics emerges in the Qur’anic concept of God as ‘ethical Being’ Who behaves towards human beings in the ethical way. As for the human being, he has to imitate the Divine Ethics as the vicegerent of God—as best as he can. 

 

God is the Possessor of the Best ^[1] Attributes (7:180; 17:110; 59:24), and “all that is in the heavens and the earth is devoted to His tasbīh (i.e., proclaims His absolute freedom from every type of evil and attests His glory in respect of His absolute perfection).^[2] (59:24). 

 

Elsewhere, the act of tasbīh has been distinguished from the act of prayer: “Behold you not that it is Allaah Whose tasbīh is the function of all (beings that are) in the heavens and the earth, and the birds (in flight) with wings outspread? Surely each one knows its (own mode of) prayer and its (own mode of) tasbīh. And Allaah is Aware of what they do” (24:41). 

 

Then, among the human beings, those who do not ignore the Signs of God—which form the keys to the understanding of the meaning of human life and the nature of human destiny—and establish such a living faith in God that they become capable of appreciating those Signs, surrender of their whole self and tasbīh enshrined in the realisation of God’s absolute Perfection become the guiding lights of their lives: “Only those (human beings) are  (genuine) believers in Our Signs, who, when they obtain admonition therewith, fall down prostrate (in adoration of Allaah’s Glory) and engage in tasbīh celebrating the praise of their Lord; and they are never arrogant (in respect of the acceptance of their total dependence on Allaah)” (31:15). 

 

Tasbīh has been made a regular daily routine for the Believers: “O you who believe! Remember Allaah with much remembrance and engage in His tasbīh morning and evening” (33:41-42). 

 

According to Imam Raghib al-Isfahani, the act of tasbīh stands for worship in thought, word and deed.^[3] 

Thus: As it relates to thought and word, tasbīh is a process of active realisation in one’s consciousness of the infinite glory of the Divine Attributes, and thereby of the infinite purity and perfection of the Personality of God; and, as it relates to deed, it is a process of active assimilation of the ethical value-system of those Attributes in one’s personality on the basis of a dynamic understanding of the privileged status that God has conferred on him through the infusion of what He calls ‘My spirit’ (15:29)—the goal being the realisation of the human vicegerency of God, which starts actualising only when the human personality begins to project the reflection of the Divine Attributes. 

 

The ethical implications of this Qur’anic teaching are:

God Himself is the ethical ideal, and the proper ethical function of the human being is to imitate Him.^[4] This teaching forms the fundamental base of the Qur’anic moral  philosophy, and it has been repeatedly brought into focus in explicit terms in the Qur’an. For instance: 

 

1.    The mercy, compassion and loving kindness of God is the ever-recurring theme of the holy book. Its very first verse projects it with full emphasis in terms of rahmah. Hence the observance of compassionate kindness (marhamah) has been made one of the governing principles of Islamic life (90:17), along with its different dimensions projected in different contexts at different places,—for instance, love and mercy spoken of in respect of their observance by the husband and the wife (30:21).

2.    God is al-Barr (52:28). Hence, a human being has to act as barr through practising birr comprehensively (2:177), with special emphasis on social good (3:92). In fact, birr has been made one of the governing principles of human life (5:2), and to be from among the abrar (pl. of barr) has been made the ideal (3:193).

The words barr and birr, which emerge from the same root, are untranslatable because of the richness of their meanings. The basic connotation is: kindness, affection, gentleness, justice, righteousness, honesty, veracity, considerateness, extensive beneficence.^[5]

3.    God is Forgiving (Ghafūr) and Merciful (Rahīm). Human beings should also be forgiving and merciful in their behaviour towards one another (24:22).

4.    God is the Bestower of Good. A human being should also do  good to his fellow-beings (28:77).

5.    God does not wrong any human being even in the slightest measure (10:44; 4:40). The human beings also should not wrong either others or themselves (2:279; etc.). 

 

One important aspect of this ideal is that it has not been laid down only theoretically, but has also been projected in practical terms in the moral personalities of all the Prophets of mankind, who came to exemplify the Divine Ethics,—and, finally, in the exemplary moral character of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace be on him!), which enshrines comprehensively the Divine Ethics in terms of human perfection and thus forms the perfect human Model for imitation (33:21).^[6]

 

As to the implications of the ideal of “imitation of Divine Ethics” for moral philosophy, they may be stated thus :

1.    This ideal is the highest—the most sublime, the noblest and  the most consequential—ideal conceivable for humanity,  because of its basis in God’s Personality.

2.    This ideal imparts a dynamic approach to human life, because God’s Personality is dynamic.

3.    This ideal makes creativity the fundamental mode of human   struggle, because God’s Personality is committed to continuous creation.

4.    This ideal supplies an objective moral standard, because it  places the standard totally outside of human subjectivity;—  and thus it ensures the absolutely-pure moral behaviour.

5.    This ideal provides the highest motivation for morality. Because, on the positive side, the entire human moral behaviour has been conceived therein as based on ‘love for  God’ (2:177; etc.); and, on the negative side, the devotee of   God is to remain perpetually in a state of ‘fear of God’, Who is always present with him (57:4), is always watching him  as to whether he is fulfilling his role of vicegerency (49:18; etc.), and will recompense him after death, i.e., at the termination of his earthly sojourn, as the Lord of the Day of Judgment (1:3; 99:6-8; etc.).

6.    This ideal enshrines infinite possibilities for human evolution, because the levels of imitation of the infinite perfection of the Divine Personality are infinite.

7.    This ideal projects an integrated and comprehensive view of  human struggle and destiny, because God’s Personality possesses the highest integration and comprehensiveness; and, consequently, the Qur’anic moral philosophy runs into all the dimensions of human activity and functions as a philosophy governing total human behaviour.^[7]

 

As such, the Moral Code which the Qur’an has given is the most comprehensive code possessed by humanity.^[8]

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[1] al-Husna: the Best (Lane’s Lexicon).

[2] Meaning of tasbīh according to Lane’s Lexicon.

[3] Mufradat al-Qur’an, sec: SBH.

[4] Cf. The Qur’anic verse: “(We take our) colour from Allah, and who is better than Allah at colouring ? It is He whom we worship” (2:138).

[5] Lane’s Lexicon, Sec: ‘BR’.

[6] All the Divine Messengers of the world have been, as mentioned above, the embodiments of the ideal. But, because history has not preserved any authentic records of their lives, while historical records are available for a critical assessment of the Holy Prophet Muhammad’s imitation of the Divine Ethics, he alone is to be followed as the Exemplar.

[7] The Holy Qur’an integrates the life of humanity both horizontally and vertically. The integration mentioned here is horizontal integration; while, through its teaching concerning the role of the Prophets and their genuine followers, it establishes vertical integration in human moral history.

[8] The entire volume on the “Structure of Islamic Society” forms the Qur’anic moral code.

Source

to be continued . . . . . 

Quranic Foundation & Structure Of Muslim Society In The End Times