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Living \r\n the Quran

Al-Adiyat \r\n (The Courses)
\r\n Chapter 100: Verses 6-8

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Truth \r\n Against Oneself
\r\n \"Man is surely ungrateful \r\n to his Lord and of this he himself is a witness; And truly, he is passionate \r\n in his love for worldly riches\"

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It is a fact that man reacts with ingratitude to all the bounties of \r\n his Lord. He denies the favours which Allah confers on him. His thanklessness \r\n and ingratitude is reflected in a host of actions and verbal statements \r\n which will serve as witness against him. Or perhaps, on the Day of Judgement, \r\n he may testify against himself, admitting his ingratitude: \"and \r\n of this he himself is a witness \". For on the Day of Judgement \r\n he will speak the plain truth even against himself, without any contentions \r\n or excuses.

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\"And truly, he is passionate in his love for worldly riches\". \r\n Man is a passionate self-lover. But he loves only what he imagines to \r\n be good for him: wealth, power and the pleasures of this world. This is \r\n his nature unless he has faith which changes his concepts, values and \r\n even his concerns. Faith changes his ingratitude to humble thankfulness. \r\n It changes his greed and miserliness to benevolence and compassion. It \r\n makes him aware of the proper values which are worthy of being the object \r\n of ambition and hard competition. Indeed these are much more exalted than \r\n money, power and mundane pleasures.

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Man without faith is an ignoble creature having only trivial ambitions \r\n and petty concerns. However big his desires, however strong his ambitions \r\n and high his objectives may seem, he remains sunk in the cesspool of this \r\n earth, confined within the limits of this life, imprisoned in self. He \r\n cannot be freed or elevated except by an attachment to a world superior \r\n to this earth, extending beyond this life; a world which originates from \r\n Allah who is the First Being and returning to Allah the Eternal; a world \r\n into which this life and the life hereafter converge and which has no \r\n end.

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Compiled From:
\r\n \"In the Shade of the Quran\" - Sayyid Qutb

\r\n Understanding the Prophet's Life
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The Pact of the Virtuous

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Abdullah ibn Judan, the chief of the Taym tribe and a member of one \r\n the two great alliances of Meccan tribes, decided to invite to his home \r\n all those who wanted to put an end to the conflicts and establish a \r\n pact of honour and justice that would bind the tribes beyond alliances \r\n based merely on tribal, political, or commercial interests. This alliance, \r\n known as hilf al-fudul (the Pact of the Virtuous), was special \r\n in that it placed respect for the principles of justice and support \r\n of the oppressed above all other considerations of kinship or power. \r\n Young Muhammad, like Abu Bakr, who was to become his lifelong friend, \r\n took part in that historic meeting.

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Long after Revelation had begun, Muhammad (peace be upon him) was to \r\n remember the terms of that pact and say: \"I \r\n was present in Abdullah in Judan's house when a pact was concluded, \r\n so excellent that I would not exchange my part in it even for a herd \r\n of red camels; and if now, in Islam, I was asked to take part in it, \r\n I would be glad to accept.\" This statement is of \r\n particular significance for Muslims, and at least three major teachings \r\n can be derived from it.

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The first teaching is that the act of laying out those principles is \r\n prior to and transcends belonging to Islam, because in fact \r\n Islam and its message came to confirm the substance of a treaty \r\n that human conscience had already independently formulated. \r\n Here, the Prophet clearly acknowledges the validity of a principle of \r\n justice and defence of the oppressed stipulated in a pact of the pre-Islamic \r\n era.

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The second teaching is no less essential: at a time when the message \r\n was still being elaborated in the course of Revelation and of the Prophet's \r\n experiences, he acknowledged the validity \r\n of a pact established by non-Muslims seeking justice and the common \r\n good of their society.

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The third teaching is a direct consequence of this reflection: the \r\n message of Islam is by no means a closed value system at variance or \r\n conflicting with other value systems. Islam does not establish a closed \r\n universe of reference but rather relies on a set of universal principles \r\n that can coincide with the fundamentals and values of other beliefs \r\n and religious traditions. Islam is a message \r\n of justice that entails resisting oppression and protecting the dignity \r\n of the oppressed and the poor, and Muslims must recognize \r\n the moral value of a law or contract stipulating this requirement, whoever \r\n its authors and whatever the society, Muslims or not.

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Compiled From:
\r\n \"In the Footsteps of the Prophet\" - Tariq Ramadan, pp. 21-22

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Blindspot
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DAWAH is a state of mind

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Dawah (call towards Islam), prior to everything, is a \r\n state of mind, a world view, an attitude to life, indeed a kind \r\n of life. The critical prerequisite to Dawah is a consciousness, \r\n personal and collective, imbued with a true vision of Dawah \r\n in Islam.
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\r\n Once we have understood what Islam is and what it demands of us, \r\n what place Dawah should occupy in our Islamic life, we \r\n will have taken the first essential step towards understanding and \r\n solving our problem. This may sound too simplistic but, then, real \r\n solutions to complex problems are often simple.
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\r\n What is Islam? It may seem rather naive to ask such a question here. \r\n But it is important, for a proper answer will set the whole perspective \r\n right. Islam means living in total surrender to Allah, in private \r\n and in public, inwardly and outwardly. This has two clear, important \r\n implications. One, as most of human life comprises of relationships \r\n with other people, living in surrender to Allah cannot be actualised \r\n fully unless other people join us in our endeavour, unless the whole \r\n society lives in surrender. Hence, at least inviting others to join \r\n in our venture, that is Dawah, is an essential part of \r\n being Muslim. Two, Islam is not a once-in-a-lifetime decision; it \r\n is a process, it is a life-long pursuit. Here we must continuously \r\n invite ourselves and everyone else to join in this pursuit.
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\r\n Thus Dawah is integral to Islam. To be a Muslim means to \r\n continually strive to become Muslim, that means to do Dawah. \r\n In my humble view, there is no other way of becoming Muslim. Dawah \r\n is essential to the fulfillment of the very purpose of this Ummah \r\n (Nation), the purpose of its existence; the mission of Shahadah \r\n (Witnessing).

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Compiled From:
\r\n \"Da'wah Among Non-Muslims in the West- Some Conceptual and \r\n Methodological aspects\" - Khurram Murad, pp. 11-12

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