On the Fundamentals of the Message

On the Fundamentals of the Message
The Two Fundamentals
The eternal Message is based on two fundamentals: faith (iman) and right-doing (ihsan) .on these its structure rises; from them it branches out, and on them must its beliefs depend. According to the words of the Almighty,

        Lo! those who believe [in that which is revealed unto thee, Muhammad], and those who are Jews, and Christians, and Sabaeans-whoever believeth in Allah and the Last Day and doeth right-surely their reward is with their Lord, and there [in the other world] shall no fear come upon them, neither shall they grieve.

       Nay, but whosoever surrendereth his purpose to Allah while doing good, his reward is with his Lord; and there shall no fear come upon them, neither shall they grieve.

        Who is better in religion than he who surrendereth his purpose to Allah while doing good [to men]...

        These and similar verses set forth the directives of Islam and the total of Muhammad's Message: beliefs, acts of worship, and laws. In them lies the secret of the Message's simplicity, its power, universality, and rapid diffusion among the learned and the common people of mankind.

And in them lies the history of the Message, of which Muhammad is the final disseminator among the many since the beginning of man's time:
        Say [O Muslims]: We believe in Allah and that which is revealed unto us and that which wasrevealed unto Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus received, and that which the Prophets received from their Lord.

        The Message itself is eternal because God, its Author, is eternal. Muhammad came to expound, confirm, and renew the Message, and to develop the meaning of its two fundamentals, faith and right-doing.

Belief in the One God
Belief in the one God as the sole and unassisted author of creation is the fundamental principle of the  Muhammad religions. It is the font of the Message of Muhammad. It is the spring from which the Almighty flooded the heart of Muhammad with guidance and with the truths pertaining to goodness and to peace.

Belief is the deep, resounding echo of that voice which called out to Muhammad from Heaven and from earth:
        Read: In the name of thy Lord who createth.. Man from a clot. Read: And thy Lord is the Most Bounteous, Who teacheth [writing] by the pen, teacheth man that which he knew not.

        O thou enveloped in thy cloak, arise and warn! Thy Lord magnify, thy raiment purify, pollution shun! And show not favor, seeking worldly gain! For the sake of thy Lord, be patient!

        And thus have We revealed to thee [Muhammad] Our command. Thou knewest not what the Scripture was, nor what the Faith. But We have made it a light whereby We guide whom We will of Our bondsmen. And lo! thou verily dots guide unto a right path, the path of Allah, unto Whom belongeth whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth. Do not all things reach Allah at last?

        Muhammad went out to his relatives and to their people with the call to believe in the one God, Allah. They rejected his Message and sought to turn him away from it. They suspected him, branded him a magician, a soothsayer, a mad man, and sought to bribe him with wealth, authority, and rank that he might renounce his Message, but he would not. They then resisted him, persecuted him, and harmed him, but he would only say, as he said to Abu-Talib, "May God be my witness, if they were to place the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left, I would not renounce my Message but would rather perish instead." He would let himself be swayed neither from this faith, which had filled his soul with contentment and to which his God had commanded him, nor from his summons to it, whether he would rule the day and the night or not! His major concern was that people should come together through the worship of the omnipotent Creator, Who has no partner (sharik) in His worship.

        Since the dawn of time, man has been puzzled. Intuitively
He has sought security in a supernatural force. From such a force he drew inspiration and succor, welcoming its blessings and evils. He offered his prayers to this force out of fear and out of greed. He lavished upon it offerings and worship. He Found through his belief in this intangible force support and Refuge from the dreaded physical forces of the universe as Well as consolation and comfort in the hardships and pains Of everyday life.

        Strong intuitive feelings impel human beings to worship Force. This is clearly expressed in the revelation of the Koran in the chapter called "Cattle" (al-An'am), which narrates the Story of Abraham's recognition of God:
        Thus did We show Abraham the kingdom of the heavens and The earth that he might be of those possessing certainty: When The night grew dark upon him he beheld a star. He said: This is My Lord. But when it set, he said: I love not things that set. And When he saw the moon uprising, he exclaimed: This is my Lord.

But when it set; he said: Unless my Lord guide me, I surely shall Become one of the folk who are astray. And when he saw the sun uprising, he cried: This is my Lord! This is greater! And when It set he exclaimed O my people! Lo! I am free from all that ye associate [with Him]. Lo! I have turned my face toward Him Who created the heavens and the earth, as one by nature upright And I am not of the idolaters.

         Thus did Abraham's mind gradually move toward finding God through perception and awe of God's manifestations Of power and glory in the stars, moon, and sun. His Unblemished natural powers forced him to accept the fact that these Astral bodies which rise, set, and are surrounded with Impediments, are subjects, or subordinates, not masters. Therefore, He turned away from their worship and, guided by his in telligence, sought the path to a chosen, perpetual, and unlimited force, the force that created and subdued the heavens And earth. Through his exercise of intelligence, the inspiration and guidance of God came to his rescue.

       Man has worshiped many forces, either through sincere Belief or as a means of drawing nearer that great, all-con- quering force which he perceives by his native intelligence.

He has worshiped ghosts and spirits, minerals and animals, Stars and planets, water and fire, lightning and thunder. He Has not doubted that these possessed, represented, or constituted a manifestation of power. Man has even worshiped man whenever man has  displayed supernatural powers, and then has slain him when he has fallen  short of the powers he was supposed to possess.

       In my experience, one  of the most peculiar examples of  Man’s worship of man occurred over thirty years ago when I sat in the company of one of the gods of the Negroes of the Nuba hills in  the extreme south of Kordofan, in the Sudan. We sat on the ground in the shade of a huge tropical tree while a group of naked men and women danced and sang Before al-Kujur.  This al-Kujur, whether they believed him to be the god himself or his symbol, was customarily the object of worship, to whom invocations were raised and sacrifices offered. He was the lord over the concerns of this world, and to him belonged every sanctification. His subjects would feed him, offer him gifts, and draw near him in return for his granting them rain for their crops and flocks, for  pointing out the appropriate times to hunt and to make war, and for  warding off calamities and diseases.

        I was never able to judge whether in their eyes he was the perfect god  or, like the idols of pre-Islamic (Jahiliyah) Arabia, was worshiped In lieu of  something greater.

       The wife of al-Kujur approached me and began to con verse through  an interpreter, pointing out bruises on her leg. According to the interpreter,  she had been beaten by a commoner and was at present voicing her  complaint to me, sup posing that I represented the proper authorities.  Taken by surprise, I asked how the beating could have occurred, since  her husband, al-Kujur, was the god depicting omnipotence!  I Learned from the interpreter, however, that the god's sanctity was  personal and did not include members of his family, who were regarded  as ordinary people. Thereupon, I said to my companion that  notwithstanding their simple mindedness and confused religious beliefs,  these people set an excellent example of democracy!

       Al-Kujur, although possessing rights, also possessed obligations; if he  were to have faltered in fulfilling them, they would have put an end to him.  Here is an example: if the earth should suffer from drought and vegetation  should wilt, they would ask him to send rain. If he should refuse or delay,  they would attempt to appease him with offers and sup plication. If the  year passed and drought persisted without their being able to persuade  their al-Kujur to command rain for their mercy, the might continue to wait  through a few more seasons and then do away with him; or they might  stone him immediately and replace him with someone whom, through  good heritage and experience, they regarded as capable of unraveling mysteries and performing certain extraordinary feats.

       One of the strangest tales I was told about these people concerns a complaint  they filed with their government against one of their gods for refusing to send  down rain. They were not to be conciliated until they had compelled the government official to imprison the god. They then continued to wait for days. Suddenly al-Kujur asked the governor to re lease him, promising to bring rain in a hurry. As soon as he was released, and while he was marching with his people to the hills, rain began to fall in torrents. In other words, they did not question his abilities, nor did they consider him handicapped; they simply suspected his intentions.

       There we have an example of the human mind in its simplicity. The mind of man,  even when cultured, is not usually on a much higher plane. Man has worshiped  spirits, matter, animals, water, fire, certain human beings, and a variety of objects.

       Muhammad's call to belief in the unity of God (wahdaniyah)12was foreign to the Arabs, though it may appear obvious and simple today. There had been a great  need for someone to propagate the doctrine of belief in the unity of God so that  the human mind would become receptive to an understanding of the universe and  creation and able to direct itself toward the omnipotent Creator, thereby attaining  addi tional force and the inspiration of wisdom.

       If we were to analyze the life of Muhammad in Mecca and contemplate the  contents of his Message, we would discover that Muhammad devoted his heart  and efforts and offered his life and the lives of his followers to the crystallization of the first fundamental, belief in the unity of God. He fought his enemies and made peace with them; he shunned and then forgave them, and he appealed to  peoples of other religions (Christians and Jews) to join with him in one common belief: worship of the one God, a worship which would admit no partners.

       Say: O People of the Scripture! Come to an agreement between us and you: that we shall worship non (missing word) Allah, and that we shall. ascribe no partnerr unto Him, and that none of us shall take others for lords beside Allah. And if they turn away, then say: Bear witness  that we are they who have surrendered [unto Him].

       In his call to belief in the oneness of God, Muhammad displayed no forbearance or conciliation to the polytheists and idol worshipers with whom he contended.  He was, however, very tolerant with the People of the Scripture.! The Koran says, "And argue not with the People of the Scripture unless it be in [a way] that is  better..."As concerns Christians, it declares, "And thou wilt find the nearest  of them in affection to those who believe [that is, to the Muslims] [to be] those  who say: Lo! We are Christians," and it asserts in general, "Call unto the way  of thy Lord with wisdom and fair exhortation, and reason with them in the betterway." hristians  and  Jews  in  Muhammad's Message  reached a level unknown even to this age, which has witnessed the rise of  nonreligionists; and this tolerance has not been attained by a considerable number of those who adhere to other faiths and claim to be religious, for they  have not opened their hearts to the exercise of tolerance or displayed the mercy  of God toward others.

      Lo! those who believe [in that which is revealed unto thee, Muhammad], and  those' who are Jews, and Christians, and Sa baeans -whoever believeth in Allah  and the Last Day and doeth right-surely their reward is with their Lord, and there  [in the other world] shall no fear come upon them, neither shall they grieve.

       The noblest aim of Muhammad's Message is to secure belief in the one God Who  admits of no partners. All obstacles may be overcome in the attempt to achieve  this unity of belief.

All peoples, all nations, and even all religions would then  become equal in the words of the Almighty:
       Say [O Muslims]: We believe in Allah and that which is revealed unto us and that  which was revealed unto Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus  received, and that which the Prophets received from their Lord We make no  distinction between any of them, and unto Him we have surrendered.

       Thc Apostle of God considered the goal of his mission not to initiate new  religious laws and beliefs but to perfect those begun previously and to affirm true devotion in God's worship, this being the religion of Abraham, Noah, and Adam. There is no  substitute for that righteous religion based on the oneness of God on which  depends the unity of His creation.

       He hath ordained for you that religion which He commended Unto Noah, and  that which We revealed unto thee [Muhammad]. and that which We  commended unto Abraham and Moses and Jesus, saying: Establish the  religion,. and be not divided therein. Dreadful for the idolaters is that unto  which thou callest them.

       O ye messengers! Eat of the good things, and do right. Lo! I am Aware of  what ye do. And lo! this, your religion, is one religion, and I am your Lord, so  keep your duty unto Me.

      But when Jesus became conscious of their disbelief, he cried: Who will be  my helpers in the cause of Allah The disciples said: We will be Allah's  helpers. We believe in Allah, and bear thou witness that we have surrendered [unto Him].

       The Prophet differed with the People of the Scripture only on the question of the perfection (tanzih) of the Creator; he debated with and opposed others in  matters concerning both God's oneness and His perfection. He would  conclude neither truce nor peace at the expense of compromising his  Message because belief in the oneness of God was the basis of his mission,  its object, and the object of existence.

       I created the jinn and humankind only that they might worship Me. I seek no livelihood from them, nor do I ask that they should feed Me.

       All that is in the heavens and the earth glorifieth Allah; and He is the Mighty, the Wise. His is theSovereignty of the heavens and the earth; He quickeneth and He giveth death; and He is Able to do all things He is the First and the Last, and the Out ward and the  Inward; and He is Knower of all things.

       Aside from its consequential broadening of human intelligence, the  monotheism which Muhammad preached is the source of bounty (khayr) and the  foundation of happiness (sa'adah) and of proper upbringing (adab), as we shall  see in the next chapters.

The Consequences of Belief in the Unity of God
      We have seen how belief in the one supreme God is the ultimate goal of the Islamic Message. God-may He be glorified considers the believer in Him alone a Muslim.

      If we were to read through the Koran verse by verse, we would find the call to  belief in God's oneness and perfection in every chapter; there is hardly a page  that does not expound on or refer to these attributes.

     The wisdom of this is clear:
from belief in the one God stems all that is righteous;  it makes for righteousness in the Message. It is the bond that unites all the  component parts of the Message and strengthens them, for its position is com  parable to the relationship of the soul to the body, which falls slack, deteriorates,  and vanishes once the soul departs from it. Religious laws devoid of faith are like  ordinary laws that fall with those who sustain them and disappear with the  circumstances that produced them.

       For this reason, belief in the one  supreme God constitutes the dividing  line between people, andnot creeds  and races or adherence or lack of  adherence to the Muslim religion itself.  The religion of Islam establishes itself  as the protector of the Christian  Church and honors its own  commitments to Jews when peoples of  these faiths seek and are granted  protection. Muslims are even enjoined  to do battle in order that the protected  religious sects may enjoy the freedorn  of their beliefs. "For had it not been for  Allah's repelling some men by means of others, cloisters and churches and synagogues and  mosques, wherein the name of Allah is oft mentioned, would assuredly have been  pulled down."

Islam differentiates between believers in the one God and idolaters, who receive a  different kind of treatment and are accorded no respect. However, Muslims honor  agreements and ties concluded with nonbelievers, provided the latter do not attempt  to hamper the extension of the truth or resort to tyrannical action. In this regard, we  refer to the historical case of the Prophet's pledge to Khuza'ah and his Truce of al- Hudaybiyah. The struggle against idol worshipers is perpetual.

       On the other hand, Islam admits People of the book into the Islamic family by sanctioning marriages with Christian and Jewish women. Such kinship is not permitted with polytheists (mushrikun) who are denied this distinction. "Wed not  idolatresses till they believe; for lo! a believing bonds-woman is better than an idolatress, though she please you; and give not your daughters in marriage to idolaters till they believe, for lo! a believing slave is better than an idolater, though he  please you." Islam even goes so far as to consider it defiling to do so: "The idolaters... are unclean. So let them not come near the Inviolable Place of Worship [the  Mosque] after this their year."

       This intolerance of idol worshipers and of their gods who are made partners with  Allah in worship is not due to blind obstinacy or indulgence in bigotry, for if that were  the case, Islam would have treated equally members of all other faiths. Islam met with  a great deal of insolence and evil from People of the Scripture, but this did not prevent  the Islamic Message from differentiating between them and polytheists. This may be  explained in terms of the Islamic attitude that belief in the oneness of God is the  ultimate goal of human endeavor and the path to perfection. Once the servant realizes  that he is the creation of the great Creator, he admits by the same token that his ties  with the Creator are those of a personal relationship, as between father and son; he  realizes that he is but one of the endless products of the only Creator, and that the only acknowledged tie uniting Creator and created is that of faith. Bonds  of faith are unseverable, furthering the cause of progress, righteousness, and  charity by one accord; the source of faith is surrender to the one Will. With  this, our existence in this world becomes related in principle and united in  aim.

       If all men could open their souls to this belief, their tasks would become easy.  And if we could depict man as possessing perfect faith in God's oneness and  fulfilling his duties in accordance with this faith, it would be possible to  picture that creation most capable of wickedness, man, as becoming the finest  creation of God, because then he would no longer need to be coerced and  guided by anything but his faith. This would enable us to conceive of this  world under the government of conscience.

       For this reason, belief in the one supreme God was the whole object of  Muhammad's devotion, the true reason for the success and clarity of the  Message. The abolition of the concept of polytheism is accompanied by the  destruction of its sources of corruption. The Message of Muhammad claims  that all were born under faith to worship God alone; then they deviated. If they  were to return to this worship, they would be on the right path.

       On probing into the history of the religions of mankind, we discover that  association or partnership of other subjects with God for worship was often  the result of innovations introduced by man, who multiplied and diversified  his gods. Innovators and corrupters set themselves up as representatives of?these gods, as their supporters and guardians and as their trustees and  deputies, usurping for themselves the power of the gods. Then these men of  unworthy aims conspired and cooperated in their endeavors to pervert the  masses, and ended up by imprisoning them in a jumble of nonsense and  frivolity. Priests and the like, trustees and leaders of the people, who had set  themselves up as guardians of the mysteries of religion were themselves in  reality the gods who directed the destiny of the captivated masses.

      The first  trace of association in worship (al-shirk) appearing in history is the  transformation from idol worship to man worship, or the worship of those who  were the servants of the idol. Periods of such despotism in Egypt and  Mesopotamia lasted thousands of years. Not a part of the world has been free  from this worship, from the dawn of history until the present. Whatever may have happened to change the forms of worship, polytheism and the despotism of the priesthood went hand  in hand.

       As for unity of belief, it is accompanied and attended by a sense of fair play, like man's shadow; for the God to Whose worship the  prophets, including Muhammad, summoned the faithful is free from passions and selfish aims. He requests no property and no sustenance  from His creation. He needs no trustees, no deputies, and no mediators; He ordains, "Ask and it shall be granted unto you." He is closer to them than their jugular veins; He is most merciful and most capable; He is the Creator and Molder, the Bountiful and the For- giver, the Giver  and Withholder, the just Ruler and great Avenger, the Omniscient and All-Informed, the Master of His bondsmen's destinies, the Cherished  and the Wise.

 Such qualities and virtues have paced Godhood in a position above and beyond any limitation, and have rendered creation under Him equal  in His judgment, with the most pious being favored of God and those most just to God's bondsmen the closest to Him.

       Just as tyranny and selfishness accompany al-shirk, so are justice and equity associated with the belief in the unity of God (tawhid). For that  reason, the ultimate goal of Muhammad's Message is belief in God alone. To Islam, He is above everything. The glorious Koran declares,  "Lo! Allah forgiveth not that a partner should be ascribed unto Him. He forgiveth [all] save that to whom He will."

       A faith free from impurities and emanating from the heart is served eventually by all the munificence known to it. The faithful man discovers  that his account with God is to he settled directly with God. Thus he places this account before God only, and commits neither major nor  minor sins deliberately. Once faith finds this man, it will have found the perfect man.

        If a society were composed of such men, it would be sustained by mercy and charity, for among the traditional in junctions of Islam we find,  “Truly, none of you believes if he does not desire for his brother what he desires for him self,” “The merciful are shown mercy by the  Merciful,” and “Grant mercy to those on earth, and He Who is in Heaven will grant you mercy.” These, therefore, are the conditions for a  happy society.

       It was not peculiar that some of the Kharijites, during the period of civil war  between `Ali and Mu'awiyah, preached the abolition of human government;  they con tended that there is no rule other than the rule of God. If the rule of God  were to materialize, conscience would be its king, justice its law, and common tradition its admonisher.

      Because of its truthful concepts and its recognition of  human nature, the Message of Muhammad undertook to achieve reform through  faith and law. Leadership was granted to those whom the faithful selected to  execute what the Message had legislated, thereby insuring the proper conduct of  human affairs.

       We have seen how belief in one God is necessarily accompanied by the triumph  of all virtues in the believer, who no longer exists for himself but for all his brethren in God's creation. It erases from the believing soul every evil. In this cleansed soul, excellence flourishes and the will to sacrifice for the common  welfare prevails.

       The believer cannot be tyrannical, because he would be acting contrary to an  important characteristic of God: justice. He cannot be a hardened brute, because  his Lord is most merciful. He cannot be a liar, a deceiver, or a hypocrite, because  his account is with the omniscient God Who "knows the stealthy looks and that  which the breast conceals." He cannot be weak or cowardly, because he realizes  that this would not benefit him so long as the decision rests in the hands of God.

       If we should thus continue to enumerate human short- comings, we would see  how the faithful are shielded from them by faith. We would also discover that all noble traits are welcome to the believing and confident soul who enters the worship of God, and thereby His Kingdom of mercy, once it has answered the  call: "But ah! thou soul at peace! Return unto thy Lord, content in His good pleasure! Enter thou among My  bondsmen! Enter thou My Garden!"

       This soul, serene in its faith, lives in a happiness enjoyed only by  believers in the unity of God. It is possible for those of us who dwell  on the margin of faith and who ask God for guidance to visualize the  confident soul actually in a paradise on earth, for the spiritual  happiness which it would then en joy is the sweetest that Paradise  can provide.

       This faith in the one God and the virtues inevitably at tending it purify the soul from evil and wickedness and elevate the human  mind. Atheism and partnership in worship or polytheism occupy the  mind with the world of the senses and surround it with a cordon of  falsehoods, falsehoods which emanate from the preachings of magicians, soothsayers, and the sects that dwell upon the worship  of personified gods who are divided and whose authority is  distributed and disputed. Such worship serves only to imprint on the human mind a picture of the nature of humans or the absurdities  into which they have fallen. Belief in the unity of God and perfection  do just the opposite. They induce the mind to think, contemplate,  and act wisely. For the God Whom Islam preaches brings together  authority and virtue. He is with man wherever he may be. There is no  need for an intercessor to reach Him; and He cannot be reached with  the senses. He must therefore be approached by the exercise of  intelligence. A way to Him is to be sought through His vestiges; hence, human intelligence must ponder His creation.

       That the Message of Muhammad took pains to stress this point may be  deduced from the sayings and deeds of the Prophet. The verses of the  holy Koran reiterate time and again the call to contemplation and the  exercise of intelligence. They scorn the imitators, the self-glorifiers, the re  canters, and the unmoved with stinging and pinching words. At the same  time, they praise the thinkers, the searchers, and those who put their  talents to good use in search of truth in the vestiges and monuments of  the universe.

       It is worthy to note that the abolition of al-shirk in the Arabian peninsula by the Message during and following the days of the Prophet and the triumph of the virtues attending belief in the one  supreme God was not as simple as commonly has been alleged. It was accompanied, rather, by violent hostilities and bitter feelings.

      The Almighty declares, "And they marvel that a warner
  from among themselves hath come unto them, and the disbelievers say: This is a  wizard, a charlatan. Maketh he the gods One God... Lo! This is a thing designed. We have not heard of this in later religion. This is naught but an invention."

       The Message of Muhammad triumphed over nonbelief and removed the foremost  obstacle in the way of elevating the human soul. It liberated man's mind from the  petrifaction encasing it. Unhampered, man's mind could then inquire and  contemplate freely, with such results that the Message itself almost became  jeopardized. Scholars and learned men have agreed that in his Message Muhammad achieved unprecedented success. The annals of mankind admit no success similar  to that attained by the Prophet.

       That his Message at first was strange and repulsive in the eyes of his people has also been universally acknowledged. To them it was heretical and unprecedented.  Therefore, it was met with obstinacy, ridicule, and rejection. The events of the twenty  years the Prophet spent in propagating his Message-which he had to conceal in the  beginning-amply attest to this.

       If the call to belief in the oneness of God was unique, then the effect of this call on  man in terms of innovations introduced in his life and into the world as a whole  was of still greater uniqueness. For the Arabs who once buried their infant  daughters alive and gloried in the shedding of blood and in plunder now put on  the garb of humility and knelt to invoke the blessings and approval of God. The  family in which the son once had the right to inherit the wives of his father  became the purified family. The tribe which acknowledged no right other than that  dictated by the blood relationship of its members now produced one (Khalid ibn- al Wal-id) who returned to the Christians of Homs (Emesa) their taxes because he had failed to protect them.

       Those who once enslaved people now began to revere God; and, in their  championing of truth, they feared the blame of no one. Out of the most hardened  brutes there would now emerge a caliph who, when confronted by a woman in a gathering of the faithful, would reply, "A woman speaks the truth, and I, `Umar, am mistaken." This is the same `Umar who, in a letter, strongly admonished one of the greatest of his conquering gener!s, whose son had brought harm upon a Christian member of a conquered people, the Egyptians: "O `Amr, would you enslave a human being born to be free!"

      If one should ask why corruption has captured the world today while believers fill the earth, we would reply with the words of God, "And most of them believe not in Allah except that they attribute partners [unto Him]," and with the words of  the Prophet, "Truly, he does not believe, no, he does not believe, he does not believe, he whose neighbor is not safe from his injustices."

      Can the People of the Book, in the East or in the West, boast of individuals who have secured their neighbors from injustice And, by the same token, has a Muslim wished for his brother what he has wished for himself?

      Humanity will persist in experiencing misfortunes, wars, and dissension among nations and among classes until the principles underlying belief in the unity of God fill the hearts of mankind.

Right-Doing: The Practice Of Mercy
      In my opinion, right-doing (ihsan), the second fundamental of the Message, consists of acts of righteousness. Almost every chapter of the Koran refers to right-doing as the concomitant of faith.

      The entire Islamic law (Shari'ah) does no more than elucidate, sanction, order, or prohibit that which does or does not constitute righteous action. Islam is a way of life, unique among religions in defining the roots and derivations of right-doing Islamic law has provided in detail the bases and modes of life which the Muslim should follow in all matters pertaining to man's relationships to God and to the creations of God, including the servant's ties with his Lord f through praying, fasting, and undertaking the pilgrimage as acts of worship (`ibadat).

      These acts of worship, which enrich the soul and purify the body, thereby influencing the personality of the Muslim, are likewise a collection of rules which in turn help improve the relationship between the individual and society. My emphasizing discipline and proper conduct, they facilitate the achievement of social solidarity (takalul), which is indispensable for the righteous community and which encourages cooperation among human beings in every circumstance as the foundation of progress.

      There is no better indication of how effective acts of worship have been than the changes wrought on Arabs and similar nomadic peoples who had previously been removed from a life of intimate relationships and cooperation with others because of their proclivities for egotism and evil. Within a few years, these harsh men who had shunned worship began to worship God in the manner prescribed by the propagator of the Message: they began to show discipline and Piousness, they knelt and praised God, one of their number led them in prayer five times a day, and they fulfilled their duties with promptness and regularity. Thus did they become accustomed to order, obedience, and responsibility. They became brothers to each other, the least worthy of whom felt no malice from the rest.

      The Arabs who did not acknowledge the oneness of God were actually amazed at the discipline displayed by their cousins among the believers when they met them at Badr.

The forces of the believers formed well-arranged lines, a phenomenon formerly unknown to the Arabs in warfare. In their ranks were to be found side by side slaves and freed men, whites and blacks, who had been united by their belief in God and the brotherhood of man.

      Along with binding the servant to the Creator, acts of worship conducted according to procedures prescribed by Islam have several other effects on the soul, on the life of man, and on his relationship with his fellow man. Because of Right-Doing: The their importance, the Prophet took great care in dealing with them.

      Recognizing that of the five foundation stones  of Islam three pertained specifically to acts of worship (praying, fast mg, and making the pilgrimage), the jurists of Islam took special pains to weigh meticulously the merits of each act and to describe elaborately the various steps in prayer. It is regrettable that most Muslims do not know much of their religion beyond its formal attributes; for this reason, it would be worthwhile and beneficial to elaborate on other aspects of right-doing, of the acts of righteousness. The bedouin would come from the remotest parts of the Arabian desert, seat him self in the presence of the Prophet, receive the essence of the Message, and then rise and depart, knowing more about it than those who are reared today in the bosom of Islam and who grow up in the houses of religion. This was not due to the Prophet's personal merits or to the fact that Arabs of yesteryear differed from their progenies of today. The reason for this was the simplicity of the Message at that time, since it was founded on common and plain principles, readily comprehensible to the ordinary people to whom it was delivered. Men therefore acted according to its precepts, proceeded in its spirit, and wove upon its loom. They did not pay mere lip service to the Message, nor did they satisfy themselves with the outward expressions while overlooking the core and essence.

      The Koran on this point indicates the ease with which the Message was propounded and disseminated. In the words of almighty God, “Of every troop of  them, a party only should go forth, that they [who are left behind] may gain  sound knowledge in religion, and that they may warn their folk when they return to them, so that they may beware.”

      The Message is simple because it is rooted in faith and right-doing. As we have seen, right-doing comprises acts of righteousness, which in turn have established readily comprehensible principles and acts of worship. These principles are rooted in mercy (rahmah) and brotherhood ( ikha’ ). Mercy is a characteristic of God; and in the early days of the Message, the Muslims referred to Allah by the title "the Merciful" (al Rahman) to such an extent that the common folk claimed Muhammad was worshiping a god caIled al-Rahman. Muslims initiate every act, every little move, in the name of “the most Merciful,” and greet one another with the formula, “May peace and the mercy of God be upon you.”

      The verses of the Koran are a testimony to the fact that mercy is the characteristic closest to the Prophet's heart: Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. And those with him are hard against the disbelievers and merciful among themselves. and lower thy wing [in tenderness] for the believers. And say: Lo! I, even I, am a plain warner. And We reveal of the Koran that which is a healing and a mercy for believers... It was by the mercy of Allah that thou wast lenient  with them [O Muliammad]

     There hath come unto you a messenger. [one] of yourselves, unto whom aught that ye are overburdened is grievous, full of Concern for you, for the believers full of pity, merciful.

     The prophetic traditions alluding to mercy are plentiful: “The merciful are shown mercy by the Merciful”; “Grant mercy to those on earth, and He Who is in Heaven will grant you mercy.”

     This fundamental precept of legislation in Muhammad's Message-"We have not sent thee [O Muhammad] but as a mercy to the world"! is the foundation of progress. If mercy is removed from the heart of man, he is destroyed; and if it is removed from a people, they become a plague on earth. History relates the barbarity of peoples who were devoid of mercy and who left behind them monuments to their destructiveness that have lasted throughout centuries. 

Take, for example, the Mongol waves under Genghis Khan and his successors: today, seven centuries later, one can still find traces of their destruction in Central and Western Asia. I have myself seen some in Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq. It is quite likely that these traces will endure many centuries more. The Mongols were followed by similar peoples, including Muslims, even Muslim Arabs, who, knowing no mercy, spread destruction on earth; and this! destruction, perpetrated by Arabs themselves, can still be seen after hundreds of years in North Africa.

       Mercy, the foundation of all progress, was preached by Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad; it is, moreover, the message of all the apostles and righteous men of  God. No nation rose to significance without being founded on mercy.

      Certain people believe, through the exchange of stories and anecdotes concerning certain periods of the Ottoman state, that it was a great state but that a display of mercy was not among its distinguished practices. This is a popular mistake which would not withstand careful scrutiny, for in the days of their glory, the Ottoman Turks inherited the mercy God had removed from the hearts of the Arabs. The Arabs had fallen behind, and the Ottomans inherited the lands of the Arabs, dominating them as they dominated large areas of Central and Eastern Europe.

      Stories of Ottoman acts of mercy in Bessarabia on the Dniester River can still be heard today. The proverbs of the peasants in these parts, which were formerly in the Ottoman realm, still refer to the mercy and justice of the Turks; some even identify the departure of justice with the departure of the Turks. My attention has been attracted throughout my travels in Poland, Romania, and the Balkan states to numerous examples and fables that still point to the respect which individuals in these Christian nations hold for the Muslim Turk as a merciful and just person.

      In 1917, while in Vienna, I was told that the Poles hoped for the arrival of Ottoman soldiers to reinforce the Austrian troops in Galicia at that time. Upon inquiry, I was told that the Poles have preserved a prophecy, handed down from their venerated men, that the herald of Polish glory and the resurgence of their national state is contingent on the reappearance of Muslim troops north of the Danube. Strangely enough, although these troops appeared as allies of the subjugators and partitioners of Poland, a year did not pass after the crossing of the Danube by Ottoman soldiery before Poland became once more a truly independent and unified state.

      Such fables, stories, and proverbs that I heard in the Balkan states led me to seek a broader knowledge of Muslim history in the Balkans. I concluded from my readings and observations that the Muslim exercise of justice and display of mercy had made the Ottoman hold in Europe possible. Under the banner of justice and mercy, the Balkan nations emerged from the slumbers of despotic rule and discovered for themselves the meaning of equality and equity. It sufflices to note that despotic enslavement had been a practice commonly accepted in Central and Southern Europe until it was abolished by the Ottomans. The Moldavians, Poles, and Magyars had concluded interstate agreements with each other to extradite every peasant who fled the estate of his boyar. Also, when land was sold, the peasants living on it were incorporated in the sale.

      The Ottomans came to Europe bearing in their hearts the sentiment of mercy ordained by the Koran. The Turks were not superior either in equipment or in numbers to the nations they dominated. They fought and conquered to the gates of Vienna with justice and mercy paving the way through mountains, seas, and valleys, as these qualities had once paved the way for their Arab predecessors through Africa and Asia.

      The Turks had a powerful ruler in Sultan Scum I (1512- 1521), who was known for his cruelty, having massacred many of his household members. The Turks themselves referred to him as Selim the Grim. He conceived the notion of uniting the religion and language of the state, but he met strong opposition from the jurists and their head, the supreme religious spokesman of Islam, the Shaykh (Sheik) al Islam. Consequently, the Sultan buried his notion out of deference to the tenets of Islam, which provide for respect for the rights of Christian subjects and the display of mercy toward them. This was the effect of that mercy which God had planted in the heart of the propagator of the Message, Muhammad, and of his followers. Mercy is a pillar of Islam and an attribute of God. If it is uprooted, the state withers and disorder rules until God designates those fit to be called the people of mercy (ahl al-rahmah).

      If one gazes at the world today, he is bound to notice that mercy has been removed from the hearts of men. Have not men turned more beastly than the fiercest of beasts Have not those who consider themselves civilized surpassed Genghis Khan in cruelty Are not air raids on city dwellers the worst form of barbarity Are these not, moreover, signs of imminent universal destruction.

       Mercy, the sine qua non of Muhammad's mission, is not the preserve of man alone. Certain tenets of the religious law relate to the humane treatment of animals as well. This indicates the extent of the Prophet's concern with mercy in disseminating his Message. Islam came forth and abrogated many of the practices of the Arabs. It had been customary for an Arab to torture animals, for instance, by slicing the ears of beasts of burden and tying a camel to the tomb of its dead master that it might die with him. The religious law forbade the torturing or killing of birds for pleasure and the pitting of animals against each other, as in bull and cock fights. It prohibited the overloading of beasts and rendered obligatory the careful tending of flocks. If the law goes unheeded, Muslim judges are empowered to dispossess the owners of suffering animals.

       These ordinances had a great effect on the bedouin and the uncivilized. It has been alleged that `Adiy ibn-Hatim, a very devout Muslim, was often seen breaking and distributing little crumbs of bread to ants; he asserted that they were neighbors and therefore entitled to rights. It is also said that Sheik Abu-Ishaq al-Shirazi was walking along a road one day accompanied by several friends. A dog came upon them, and one of the companions sought to drive him away. The professor scolded him, saying, "Do you not see that we share the road with him"

       According to a saying of the Prophet (hadith), "If you behold three mounting an animal, stone them until one descends." Works on law (fiqh) abound with prescribed practices in dealing humanely with animals, revealing the extent to which Muslim law is concerned with extending mercy to the creatures of God.

      Mercy, therefore, is one of the basic principles of Muhammad's Message. Moreover, it constitutes the cornerstone of the organized state. It is deemed preferable that a person occupy himself with endeavors other than praying, fasting, and making the pilgrimage and that he even do without his mosque, synagogue, or church if mercy is removed from his heart. A religion or a state shorn of mercy turns to deceit and oppression.

      The second precept of right-doing is brotherhood, which has become a world cry, cherished by all the people of this age.

      Arabian society was divided by tribal prejudices and uncurbed individualism and human society was dominated by racial bigotry and pride in lineage when the Prophet appeared with his call to brotherhood, echoing the cry of God: "O mankind! Lo! We have created you male and female, and have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one another [and be friends]. 

Lo! the noblest of you, in the sight of Allah, is the best in conduct." His preaching of brotherhood was part and parcel of his preaching of mercy, for he had determined that through the observance of both, obstacles would be overcome, and people would achieve happiness and thus discover Paradise.

      But he hath not attempted the Ascent. Ah, what will convey unto thee what the Ascent is! [It is] to free a slave, and to feed in the day of hunger an orphan near of kin, or some poor wretch in misery, and to be of those who believe and exhort one another to perseverance and exhort one another to pity.

      According to a certain prophetic tradition, God attends to His worshipers in every instance and situation, and beneficence toward man is considered beneficence toward God. Although He needs not man's beneficence, God is pleased when this beneficence is practiced between men as though it were being rendered to Himself. For this reason, it is Unlikely that anyone would dispute the fact that brotherhood and mercy are at the root of the principles pertaining to right-doing in the Message of Muhammad, as they constitute its ultimate goal. The Message has not overlooked a single approach while endeavoring to interest and encourage people In the exercise of brotherhood and mercy, whereby man shuns selfishness and egotism.

       Nay, but ye [for your part] honor not the orphan, nor do ye urge the feeding of the poor; and ye devour heritages with devouring greed and love wealth with abounding love. Nay, but when the earth is ground to atoms, grinding, grinding, and thy Lord shall come with angels, rank on rank, and Hell is brought near that day; on that day man will remember, but how will the remembrance [then avail him He will say: Ah, would that I had sent before me [some provision] for my life! None punisheth as He will punish on that day! None bindeth as He then will bind.

       The call to brotherhood was as foreign to the Arabs as the call to belief in the unity of Cod and the command to disseminate this belief. Glorifying only in chauvinistic clannishness, the Arabs at first rejected the call and would not fraternize with those whom they considered inferior to them selves, that is, slaves and the weak. The use of compulsion was inevitable, therefore, because brotherhood was essential to the success of the Message. But how was this to be accomplished when the Arabs derided the followers of Muhammad, who consisted then mainly of slaves and the poor These early converts had become brethren in God to the lords and the nobility, in a brotherhood so all-encompassing that the proud were heard to say, as had been said to Noah, "Thou art followed only by the contemptible and degraded people who do not think."

       The Koran has emphasized this noble principle, enlarging it to include the brotherhood of all humanity: "O ye messengers! Eat of the good things, and do right. Lo! I am Aware of what ye do. And lo! This, your religion [nation], is one religion [nation], and I am your Lord, so keep your duty unto Me."

       Once the call to brotherhood was firmly established in the believer, God generously lavished upon the faithful His greatest blessing, declaring, "And remember Allah's favor unto you: how ye were enemies and He made friendship between your hearts so that ye became as brothers….”

Call to brotherhood was not confined to the Muhajirun and the Ansar only, but was universal:
       Say: O People of the Scripture! Come to an agreement between Us and you: that we shall worship none but Allah, and that we shall ascribe no partner unto Him, and that none of us shall take others for lords beside Allah.

      He hath ordained for you that religion which He commanded unto Noah, and that which We revealed unto thee (Muhammad), and that which We commended unto Abraham and Moses and Jesus, saying: Establish the religion, and be not divided therein.

Say [O Muslims]: We believe in Allah and that which is revealed unto us and that which was revealed unto Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus received, and that which the Prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them. And unto Him we have surrendered.

        Muhammad's Message is a call for all peoples to worship God only and to form one nation under Cod. The brotherhood it preaches is one of belief; it makes no distinction between nations, between races, between conquerors and conquered. It preaches a brotherhood so vast in scope as to Encompass the outermost fringes of humanity. It condemns aggression and preaches the ways of God with wisdom and fair exhortation. The Message advocates that the ways of God be observed particularly in times of war against aggressors, and most particularly when the aggressor is being defeated. For in the view of the Message, the concept of human brotherhood is like a lantern that guides the faithful in the dark- ness of war. The faithful fight not to lay upon lands or to plunder or to conquer and humiliate peoples, but for freedom of belief. "There is no compulsion in religion. The right direction is henceforth distinct from error. "And if they incline to peace, incline thou also to it, and trust in Allah."

        Even when Muslims war against pagans, Islam considers human brotherhood the most important principle. In the eyes of the faithful, paganism is the worst form of nonbelief; the believer's soul, intelligence, and destiny are linked with saving the unbelieving pagan from God's anger. While He acknowledges a common brotherhood with the pagan, the believer nevertheless presses him as an act of mercy until he renounces his unbelief.

         Once the pagan surrenders to God, he becomes fully equal to the believer and deserving of equal rights with him. War-ring on the unbeliever, therefore, is an act of mercy resulting in a more perfect brotherhood. At no time does the believer question the right of the unbeliever to mercy and brotherhood.

        We may assert, therefore, that mercy and brotherhood are two fundamental precepts of Muhammad's Message, venerated both as means and as ends in themselves, even in the severest stages of disagreement and war, and that universal brotherhood is the ultimate aim of Islam, contrary to the Allegations of non-Muslims and ill wishers that Islam is the religion of the sword.

       Right doing, or acting righteously, requires that man strive for universal brotherhood with mercy as his banner and guide in every time and place. In this respect, the Message of Muhammad achieved its greatest effect. But one of its greater miracles was the brotherhood it brought about among certain segments of mankind that were at greatest variance and far thest apart. From a perusal of the history of mankind prior to the advent of Islam, and a study of the circumstances engulfing those nations extending from the Himalayas in the east to the Pyrenees in the west which later acknowledged Islam, we can readily comprehend the magnitude of change wrought by this call to brotherhood and mercy in the souls of hundreds of millions of people over the centuries.

       The brotherhood which Muhammad preached remains the finest quality that dwells in the hearts of present-day Muslims even though they may be somewhat removed from the spirit of Islam. This is as readily discernible to modern-day travelers in Muslim lands as it was to Ibn-Battutah seven centuries ago.

       I became conscious of it for the first time as a young man in 1913, while visiting Albania during the Balkan wars.

     I Knew no one in that country. Arriving by way of the Adriatic and disembarking at Kotor, I proceeded to Cetinje, the old capital of Montenegro when the inhabitants of the Mountain were at war with the Ottoman State. I posed as a correspondent for a British newspaper, but actually I was trying to enlist on the side of the Turkish and Albanian defenders of Shkoder. Noticing an Islamic name on a shop in the city, I introduced myself to the owner and immediately received a warm welcome that seemed almost prearranged, notwith standing the fact that we could converse only by signs. Before long, the owner introduced a khojah (faqih) who knew a little Arabic, and we began to understand each other. The shopkeeper looked after all my affairs until I arrived in Shkoder. Throughout my journeys from north to south, I was passed on from band to hand as each person entrusted my care to the next. It is doubtful that so much attention would have been lavished upon me had I been among my own kinfolk. This was a tribute to the brotherhood of Islam in the trying days of the Balkan wars.

        I encountered this very same spirit in North Africa from Egypt to Algiers during the First World War. I experienced it again in India in the welcome accorded me by those who delighted in the knowledge that Egypt had become an Independent nation and that I was its envoy to Afghanistan.

        This spirit, engendered by the call of Muhammad's Message to brotherhood, I have also observed in Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and other lands where Muslims reside. In this spirit the Afghan in the East or the Fulani from West Africa takes pride; to this spirit he entrusts him self when he covers thousands of miles on his way to Mecca, for he moves on from relative to relative, from friend to friend, until he arrives in Arabia, where Muhammad first sent Out the call to this universal brotherhood.

        Once, on the second day of a five-day journey by car in 1938 from Riyad, the capital of the Najd, to Mecca, I saw two men proceeding on foot. When I inquired as to their points of origin and their destination, I discovered that they could not understand Arabic, for they were foreigners Hailing from Kandahar in Afghanistan. Since the pilgrimage Season was approaching, I surmised that they were en route to Mecca, and offered them a ride. During the nights spent on the way and despite the fact that we did not understand each other's language, the spirit of brotherhood manifested itself in every expression. 

These men had traveled from afar with no possessions in this world other than the brotherhood bequeathed by Muhammad in his Message that related them with the Baluchis, Persians, and Arabs whose countries they had crossed on their way to Mecca.

        Undoubtedly, the manifestations of brotherhood decline In those Muslim lands where the observance of Islamic religious tenets is weak owing to the emergence of racial barriers and particularly to the triumph of materialism over the soul of man, which greatly damages the bonds of brotherhood even in the home and within the family.

        The impact of Muhammad's call to brotherhood and mercy on the history of the Muslims has been of greater consequence than any corresponding call in the history of mankind. Some authorities might disagree and cite Jewish solidarity as an example. However, this solidarity is rather the prod uct of an exceptional set of circumstances derived from persistent persecution of the Jews and their subsequent dispersal in many lands where they had to accept the status of a minority; what unites them is a set of religious and racial ties based on blood, not the belief that calls to human brotherhood. As for the brotherhood which Muhammad preached and which Islam planted in the heart of man, it’s most exalted days were days of past glory. The Ottomans carried this concept into Eastern Europe, as the Arabs before them had carried it into Western Europe and unknown parts of Africa and Asia. Peoples under their banner were as equal as the teeth of a comb: no preference was shown for an Arab over a non-Arab except in regard to his piety and love of peace, and a Muslim claimed no more authority over a non-Muslim than what God had decreed.

       As non-Muslim citizens, peoples belonging to other religious sects in Islamic domains were regarded as Ahl al dhimmah, enjoying rights and obligations not unlike those of the Muslims. They were entitled to what is decreed by justice and mercy, and were obligated to observe the tenets of brotherhood.