THE ISLAMIC CONCEPT OF LIFE


Basic Principles
The chief characteristic of Islam is that it makes no distinction between the spiritual and the secular in life. Its aim is to shape both individual lives as well as society as a whole in ways that will ensure that the Kingdom of God may really be established on earth and that peace, contentment and well-being may fill the world. The Islamic way of life is thus based on a unique concept of man’s place in the universe.  Its basic principles are as under:

1.     God, who is the Creator, the Ruler and the Lord of the universe, has created man and provided him with a temporary home in that part of His vast kingdom which is the earth. He has endowed man with the faculties of thinking and understanding, and has given him the power to distinguish right from wrong. Man has also been invested with free will and the power to use the resources of the world however he likes. That is, man has a measure of autonomy, while being at the same time God’s representative on earth.

2.     Before assigning to man this vicegerency (Khilafat), God made it clear to him that He alone was the Lord, the Ruler and the Deity. As such, the entire universe and  all creatures in it (including man) should submit to Him alone. Man must not think himself totally free and must realize that this earth  is not  his permanent abode. He has been created to live on it only for a probationary period and, in due course, he will return to his Lord, to be judged according to the way he has spent that period. The only right course for man is to acknowledge God as the only Lord, the Sustainer and the Deity, and to follow His guidance and His commands in all he does. His sole objective should be to merit the approval of Allah.
If man follows a course of righteousness and godliness (which he is free to choose and follow) he will be rewarded in this world and the next: in this world he will live a life of peace and contentment, and in the Heareafter he will qualify for the heaven of eternal bliss, al-Jannah. If he chooses to follow the course of godlessness and evil (which he is equally free to choose and follow), his life will be one of corruption and frustration in this world, and in the life to come he will face the prospect of that abode of pain and misery which is called Hell.     

3.     After making this position clear, God set man on earth and provided the very first human beings (Adam and Eve) with guidance as to how they were to live. Thus man’s life on this earth did not start in utter darkness. From the beginning a bright torch or light was provided so that humanity could fulfil its glorious destiny. The very first man received revealed knowledge from God Himself, and was told the correct way to live. This code of life was Islam, the attitude of complete submission to Allah, the Creator of man and the whole universe. It was this religion which Adam, the first man, passed down to posterity. But later generations gradually drifted away from the right path. Either they lost the original teachings through negligence or they deliberately adulterated and distorted them. They associated God with innumerable human beings, material objects and imaginary gods. Shirk (polytheism) became widespread. They mixed up the teachings of God with myths and strange philosophies and thus produced a jumble of religions and cults; and they discarded the God-given principles of personal and social morality, the Shari’ah.

4.     Although man departed from the path of truth, disregarded or distorted the Shari’ah or even rejected the code of Divine guidance, God did not destroy them or force them to take the right course. Forced morality was not in keeping with the autonomy He had given to man. Instead, God appointed certain good people from among the human society itself to guide men to the right path. These men believed in God, and lived a life of obedience to Him. He honoured them by His revelations, giving them the knowledge of reality. Known as Prophets, blessings  and peace be on all of them, they were assigned the task of spreading God’s message among men.

5.     Many thousands of these prophets were raised throughout the ages, in all lands and in all nations. All of them brought the same message, all of them advocated the same way of life, (din), that is, the way which was revealed to man on the first day of his existence. All of them had the same mission: they called men to Islam- to submit to God alone, asked those who accepted the Divine guidance to live in accordance with it and organized them into a movement for the establishment of the Divine law, and for putting an end to all deviations from the true path. Many people, however, refused to accept their guidance and many of those who did accept it gradually drifted away from their initial commitment.

6.     Lastly, God raised the Prophet Muhammad, blessings and peace be on him, in Arabic to complete the mission of the earlier prophets. The message of Muhammed, blessings and peace be on him, was for the whole of mankind. He presented a new the teachings of Islam in their pristine form and provided humanity once again with the Divine guidance which had been largely lost. He organized all those who accepted his message into one community (Ummah), charged with living in accordance with the teachings of Islam, with calling humanity to the path of righteousness and with establishing the supremacy of the word of God on earth. This guidance is enshrined in the Holy Qur’an.

 

Bargain based on free will
Everything in this world belongs to Allah. As such, man’s life and wealth, whch are part of this world, also belong to Him, because He has created them and has entrusted them to every man for his use. Looked at from this angle, the question of ‘selling’ or ‘buying’ may not seem to arise at all; God does not need to buy what is already His man cannot sell what is not really his.
But there is one thing which has been conferred on man, and which now belongs fully to him, and that is free will, which gives his freedom to choose between following or not following the path of Allah. This freedom of will and choice does not automatically make man the real owner of all the power and resources over which he has command, nor does it give him the right to use them just as he likes. Yet, because of this free will, he may, if he likes, consider himself free of all obligations to the Lord and independent of any higher authority. It is here that the question of bargain arises.
This bargain thus does not mean that God is purchasing something which belongs to man. Its real nature is this: all creation belongs to God but He has bestowed certain things on man to be used by him on trust. ‘God wants man to willingly and voluntarily acknowledge this. A person who voluntarily renounces his freedom to reject God’s supremacy and instead acknowledges His sovereignty, and, in so doing, ‘sells’ his ‘autonomy’ (which, too, is a gift from God)  to God, will get in return God’s promise of eternal bliss in Paradise. A person who makes such a bargain is a Mu’min (Believer) and Iman (faith) is the Islamic name for this contract; a person who chooses not to enter into this contract, or who, after making such contract, does not keep to it, is a Kufir. The avoidance or abrogation of the contract is technically known as Kufr.
Such is the nature of the contract. Now let us briefly study its various aspects and stipulations.
1 God has set us to account for ourselves in two areas:
(a)  He has left man free, but nonetheless wishes to see whether he will remain honest and loyal to Him, or whether he will rebel against his own Creator, whether he will behave nobly or start ‘playing such fantastic tricks as make the angels weep’.
(b)  He wants to see whether man is prepared to have enough trust in God to offer his life and wealth in return for a promise about the next world.
The will of God, which it is obligatory for man to follow, is the one which God Himself has revealed for man’s guidance. It cannot be determined by man himself. God has Himself explained it clearly and there is no ambiguity about it. Therefore, if a society sticks honestly to its contract with Allah, it must shape its life in accordance with the Book of God and the Sunnah of the Prophet, blessing and peace be on him.
It is clear why the payment of the price has been postponed till the life after death. Paradise is not the reward for the mere profession of the bargain; it is the reward for the faithful execution of it. Unless the behaviour of the ‘vendor’ complies with the terms of the contract he will not be entitled to the reward. The final act of the ‘sale’ can only be concluded after the last moment of the vendor’s earthly life.