Living The Quran
From Issue: 1052 [Read full issue]
Competitiveness
Al-Hadid (The Iron) Sura 57: Verse 21
"Vie with one another, hastening to forgiveness from your Lord, and a garden as vast as the heavens and earth, which has been readied for those who have attained to faith in God and the conveyors of His message. That is the bounty of God, which He grants on whomever He wills; and God is of bounty abounding."
Individual competitiveness is human, and the Quran legitimizes it but directs it towards good deeds that are for the benefit of the individual and the society. Islam strikes the balance between social solidarity and cooperation on one side and legitimate individual competitiveness on the other. As the goal of human competition becomes the eternal paradise in the life to come, the pleasures of this world which persuade human greed and selfishness and accordingly human conflict and rivalry are replaced by common goals and benefits that strengthen solidarity and morality.
Those who have attained to faith become competitive in serving the common cause and the society, and individual accomplishments and would benefit the whole society. It is significant that what is categorized in the Islamic jurisprudence as the "right of God" distinctively from the "right of the person" represents often a collective right that reverts to the whole society.
Compiled From:
"Concepts of the Quran" - Fathi Osman, p. 721