The Man Islam Builds
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
The man
Islam aims to build is one in whom a two-fold activity is set off at the same
time, internal activity as well as external activity. As a result of this twin
activity, on the one hand his spiritual development continues and on the other
his intellectual development goes on unhampered. On the one side it is a
consolidation of his personality and on the other its expansion.
How Islamic way of life sets off inner activities in man. The greatest reason of it is the concept of accountability. That is the feeling that for all one's word and deed, even intentions, one is accountable before God Almighty. And after death he will have to face the divine court of justice. His whole record of life will be examined. And then according to its verdict he will be sent either to eternal hell or eternal Heaven. This feeling surging within him is so strong and so powerful that it shakes the entire human personality Afterward, he becomes the picture of one described in the Hadith in these words: Reckon yourself before being reckoned with. Weigh yourself before being weighed. And prepare yourself for the Great Appearance on Doomsday. (Al-Tirmidhi)
Islam brings man to the realization that God is omnipresent and omniscient. The consciousness of the presence of God activates all the brain cells of a person. A hunter once made this observation: If you are walking along a jungle, and all of a sudden you notice that in a nearby fence a live tiger is standing, your blood circulation will transform into a blood storm.
This is the case of feeling the presence of a tiger. Islam brings man to the realization every moment not only of the creator of the lion but also of the Creator of the entire universe. One can judge that when the thought of the presence of a tiger turns man's blood circulation into a blood storm, then how great a storm the thought of the presence of the creator of the lion, that is God Almighty, will be produced within a believer.
Therefore, by his own inner compulsion, he becomes a man of character and a good believer. For him it becomes impossible to be immoral or unjust or dishonest in his conduct to his fellow men.
This concept of the presence of God is no negative concept. This is wholly a positive concept. This is wholly a positive concept. Because God is not simply a source of power, He is also a source of mercy. In this way the storm brought about by the awareness of the presence of God awakens not only the feeling of fear, but a strong feeling of hope as well. Similarly, the feeling of the presence of God becomes a perpetual incentive for the positive development of human personality. This is called spiritual revolution in Islamic terms.
In short, the belief in Islam makes accountability to God the greatest perpetual concern. This psychology brings about within man such spiritual revolution as positively influences the whole human personality. Therefore this is the only course of the spiritual revolution Islam seeks to produce within man. The experience shows that this provides so powerful incentive that man undergoes a perpetual spiritual storm. The potential of spirituality latent with man are activated to the ultimate extent and turns man into a spiritual superman. The feeling of the presence of God Almighty makes man cut to size. 'And man cut to size' is the ultimate word in the spiritual dictionary. He succeeds in finding all those things, in the full sense of the word, what he ought to find at the spiritual level. He becomes a spiritual person through and through.
The second aspect is that an Islamic man is one who experiences a perpetual intellectual activity, which results in the greatest brainstorming. Intellectual awakening or intellectual development of an Islamic man takes place on such an extensive scale that he becomes one whose brain particles are activated to the highest possible extent. What is that external factor which creates such kind of intellectual activity in an Islamic man? It is D'awah work. According to the Quran Prophet of Islam is the final Prophet. No Prophet is going to come after him. But the mission of the Prophet continues. The Ummah of the Prophet is held responsible to carry on this mission after him.
Addressing the Ummah the Quran says: And thus We made you an intermediary nation so that you may bear witness upon the people and the Prophet may be a witness to you. (2:143)
A commentator of the Quran has interpreted this in these words: Muslims are intermediary between the Prophet and the nations of the world: (Al-Tabari)
According to this, D'awah work is obligatory for Muslim Ummah. It is their essential duty to receive the divine massage from the Prophet and convey it to the rest of humanity.
It is not simply an act of announcement. It is the most important struggle. Because of this the Quran says: Do with them the great jihad by the help of the Quran (25:52)
Quran is a book not a weapon "Great jihad with the Quran" means a great ideological jihad. So d'awah work is a great ideological struggle. It is a super intellectual effort, which may involve all the mental capacity of a person.
D'awah mission is strictly a non-political mission. But it is a highly difficult job to perform. Because it invites challenges from virtually al the sections of the society. The proclamation of a Dayee that here is a truth with a capital. I and that success in this world as well as in the world hereafter depends on the acceptance of this truth, so man has no choice but to accept this truth. This kind of claim is highly provocative. It provokes reaction from every ideological group-religious, materialist, secular, atheist etc.
This state of affairs produces a situation, which may be, called challenge-response-mechanism the man of mission the rows a challenge, which provokes a response. There is a continuous interaction. During this interaction the process of intellectual development begins. D'awah mission, furthermore, leads to a continuous process of questions and answers, discussions and dialogues. D'awah mission invokes intellectual challenge and continuous intellectual challenges results in intellectual development.
Moreover D'awah work is a divine mission. Because of this nature, the people of mission are bound to adopt a code of ethics; that is, to stick to positive response overlooking the behavior of the audience they are bound to keep the principle of unilateral avoidance.
In this regard the Quran says: "certainly, we (the Prophets) would bear with patience your persecution of us." (14:12)
This positive behavior on the part of people of D'awah mission prevents them from succumbing to hatred and violence against the other party. That again ensures that their intellectual growth and development will go on uninterruptedly. No situation whatsoever will halt this process of peaceful d'awah and, subsequently, the inner progress of those involved in it will continue ceaselessly.
The Prophet of Islam once said: "Beware of the wisdom of Momin (a believer) because he sees with the light of God." (Al-Hakim) How is it that a Momin becomes a man of wisdom, in such a superior sense? It is because his Imaan gives him taqwa, which is fear of God. Through this taqwa he undergoes that kind of inner experience, which is called by psychologists brainstorming. This helps activate his potential to the full extent. The result is miraculous: if he was a man so far, now after this brainstorming he becomes a superman.
Then comes d'awah, that is, call to Islam. According to the Quran, D'awah is the great jihad. Why D'awah is great jihad or great struggle. Because it is a universal mission, it is most serious job. It engages one with all one's capacity throughout one's whole life. Every time he is faced with intellectual challenges he is bound to give strong response to it.
Thus, D'awah becomes an extensive course through which one's personality develops day by day until he reaches the highest level of intellectual and spiritual development.
Imaan and D'awah are two basic levels of Islam. If Imaan is a superior ideology, D'awah is a superior course of action. Imaan purifies one's mind and soul, while D'awah adorns one's personality with sublime moral character. One who adopts Islam as a universal mission, in both the ideological and practical sense, it makes him active to the maximum extent and this course, slowly but surely, leads him to reach the highest pinnacle of humanity.
Describing the relationship between man and true religion the Quran says:
So you set your face towards the true faith uprightly, the upright nature with which God has endowed man, and let there be no alteration in God's creation. That is the right religion, but most men know not. (30:30)
It means that every human being is created by God with the natural constitution therefore by his very nature he is Capable of accepting the religion of truth. Unity of God is an intuitive truth, plain to every man of commonsense, unless he perverts himself by different prejudices he receives from his environment. Islam is thus the natural religion that a child left to itself would develop. A western writer, Lady Cobbold has rightly described it in these words:
Islam is the religion of commonsense.
When this potential is turned into 'actual' it results in the emergence of a new man as we learn from a hadith. What kind of character is possessed by this new man is clear for this hadith:
Nine things the Lord has commanded me:
i.
Fear of God is private and in public;
ii. Justness,
whether in anger or in calmness;
iii. Moderation in
both poverty and affluence;
iv. That I should join
hand with those who break away from me;
v. And give to
those who deprive me;
vi. And forgive those
who wrong me;
vii. And that my silence
should be meditation;
viii. And my words remembrance of God;
ix. And to take lesson
from my observation.
One may
find a complete picture of man Islam wants to build from this hadith.