REAL CRITERION
OF ISLAM
Brethren-in-Islam! “ALLAH” has started
in His Holy Book:
“Say (O Muhammad) my worship and my
sacrifice and my living and my dying for “ALLAH”, Lord of the Worlds. He has no partner. This
am I commanded, and I am first to those who surrender (unto Him)”.
(Al-Qur’an 7 : 163-164)
The elucidation of the above
verse is contained in the following saying of the Holy Prophet:
On whose friendship and enmity is
for the sake of ”ALLAH” and whose giving and withholding is for the sake of
“ALLAH”, he has completed his Iman, i.e., he becomes a perfect Momin.
The verse I have quoted above
indicates that what is Islam demands is that a man should keep his servitude,
his living and his dying exclusively reserved for “ALLAH” and make nobody a
partner unto Him in this. That is to say, neither his servitude nor his living
and dying should be for anyone other than “ALLAH”.
The elucidation by the Prophet of
this verse which I have quoted to you indicates that the precise requirement of
a man’ friendship and enmity with others as well as his worldly dealing should
be purely to seek the pleasure of God. Without it Iman cannot become
perfect, not to speak of access to higher grades of spirituality. The
deficiency in Iman will be in proportion to deficiency in this matter.
And when in this capacity a man wholly
identifies himself with God, then only his Iman becomes perfect.
Some people think that these
qualities are needed only to reach higher spiritual ranks, whereas these are
not required to ensure Iman and Islam. That is to say, in other
words, that even without this requisite a man can be a Momin and a Muslim. But this is a misconception which
has arisen because of the fact that the people in general do not differentiate
between the legal Islam cognizable in temporal life and the real Islam
which is authentic in the sight of “ALLAH”.
Fundamentals of Islam
Sayed Abul A’la Maudoodi
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