Friday Nasiha

Living The Quran

Maximizing Production
Al-Jumuah (The Congregation) Sura 62: Verse 10 (partial)

"Strike out into the earth and seek what you can of Allah's bounty."

Allah has created humankind to serve Him. He has made them His vicegerents on earth, and made everything in creation subservient to them. He expressly commanded them to "strike out in the earth," to seek His bounty, and to enjoy the usufruct of nature. He promised that He and His Prophet will proudly behold man's accomplishments. He made work, the production of food, the reclamation of the earth, the construction of villages and cities, the rendering of services, the building up of culture and civilization, the reproduction and upbringing of men and women to continue, perpetuate and enjoy the fruits of human labour, definitive of His vicegerency. Evidently, then, men ought to produce.

Islam is for the maximization of production. It expects every person to produce more than he consumes, to render more service than he is rendered. The individual's life ought to terminate with a net gain which would count as his or her contribution to creation. On Judgement Day, every person will be asked to read out his/her ledger, to justify his/her existence on earth. That person whose productivity in life would entitle him/her to say no more than j'ai vecu [I lived] will not be well received at all. And he may be condemned, depending on the inner motivation which led him to contribute naught to creation, such as cynicism, egotism, laziness or skepticism, or the greatest self-conceit of those who think the world owes them a living.

Compiled From:
"Tawhid: Its Implications for Thought and Life" - Ismail Raji Al-Faruqi, pp. 174-175

Understanding The Prophet's Life

Twenty Characteristics of Faith

A member of a delegation from the tribe of Azd Suwayd ibn Al-Harith reports:

I was one of the seven men who were sent as a delegation from our tribe to the Prophet, peace be upon him. When we entered the mosque and spoke to him, he was pleased with our appearance. He asked us what we were. We said: "We are believers." The Prophet smiled and said: "Every statement must have a substance. What is the substance of your statement and your beliefs?" Our answer was: "Fifteen characteristics, five of which we were ordered to believe in by your messengers, and five we were ordered by them to implement, and five were part of our moral code, prior to Islam, which we still maintain unless you reject any of them." The Prophet asked: "What are the five in which my messengers have ordered you to believe?" We said: "They have ordered us to believe in God, His angels, His books, His messengers and in resurrection after death."

The Prophet asked: "What are the five that my messengers have ordered you to implement?" We said: "They have ordered us to declare that there is no deity other than God, to attend regularly to our prayers, to pay Zakat, fast in the month of Ramadan and offer pilgrimage to the House if we are able to do so."

The Prophet then asked us: "And what are the five which you have adopted in pre-Islamic days?" Our answer was: "To be thankful in times of plenty and to be patient in times of trial, and to accept the turns of fate, and to show our commitment and dedication when we meet the enemy, and not to express pleasure at misfortunes befalling our enemy."

The Prophet commented: "These people are wise and learned. Indeed, they are so wise that they approach the degree of Prophets." He then said: "I am adding five more qualities so that you have 20 in all. If you are truly as you have described, then do not accumulate what you cannot eat, do not build houses you shall not use for living, do not compete for something you are leaving behind tomorrow, have fear of God, to Whom you shall return and be accountable, and look forward to what you are certainly facing and that in which you shall remain forever." [Ibn Kathir, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah]

Compiled From:
"Muhammad: Man and Prophet" - Adil Salahi, pp. 762, 763

Blindspot!

Authoritarianism

Intolerance is rooted in the belief that one's own reading is obviously correct, whether that reading is based on a literalistic approach to the text or on a conviction that (one's own) reason is such a perfect instrument for assessing truth, justice, and fairness that interpretations in conflict with assessment are dismissed out of hand. This attitude is not just intolerant, but, in contemporary scholar Khaled Abou El Fadl's words, "authoritarian." He says, "Authoritarianism is the act of 'locking' or captivating the Will of the Divine, or the will of the text, into a specific determination, and then presenting this determination an inevitable, final and conclusive."

Compiled From:
"The Story of The Quran: Its History and Place in Muslim Life" - Ingrid Mattson, pp. 212, 213