Islam: A necessity to good life
Islam: A necessity to good life
Religion has been
defined as a “private affair” dealing with only the spiritual development of
man. Durkheim defined religion “as unified system of beliefs and practices
relative to sacred things i.e. things set apart and forbidden, beliefs and
practices which unites one single moral community called a church and all those
who adhere to them. In case of several authorities, philosophical interests
lead to a description rather than the definition of religion as the
preservation of permanent, especially social values.
Unlike other religion,
Islam is not simply a religion in that parochial sense as it is understood to
the unbelievers and their associates. Islam is a complete way of life, not only
a complete way of life but a total and absolute submission or surrender to the
laws of Allah. Moreover, while Islam is a complete way of life with distinct
characteristics, it is also an ideology per excellence which exceeds all
ideologies conceived and developed by human efforts that is every well known
for its limited perceptional foresight.
Angel Gabriel one day
came in form of an Arab and sat near the prophet Muhammad and said: O messenger
of God, what is Islam? The prophet replied:
“Islam is to believe in God and his
prophet, to say the prescribed prayers, to give alms, to observe the fast of
Ramadan and to make the pilgrimage to Mecca”
Angel Gabriel replied
that he had spoken the truth, and then asked the prophet what iman(faith) was.
He replied that it was to believe in Allah, His angels, books, prophets, the
last day and the predestination. Again angel Gabriel admitted the correctness
of the definition and inquired what ihsan meant, the prophet replied: “To
worship God as if thou sees Him, for if thou seest Him not, He sees thee.
Islam covers our
sociopolitical, economic, legislative, educational, cultural and spiritual
aspects of life to mention just a few.
Having iman(faith)
which is one of the fundamental principles of Islam upon which all Islamic
structures are built, a believer is thus well equipped to follow the teachings
of Islam as entrenched in the holy Qur'an and the sunnah of the prophet.
Iman(faith) plays a
very crucial role in making life purposeful to a believer. It cements human
solidarity and foster a feeling of oneness and brotherhood among all believers
regardless of racial, tribal, ethnic and national or international differences.
In addition to the
above iman(faith) disciplines our mind not to overstep the boundaries set to us
by our lord and creator Allah. It exercises control on us and checks our
behavior and even thinking so that we do not involve ourselves in doing any
unlawful act because we have already believed that if no one sees us, Allah is
all seeing, all knowing.
Furthermore iman(faith)
influences our attitudes to life and dictates our behavior in the discharge of
public responsibilities without fear or favor, fear of higher authorities or
favor to blood relatives.
Iman also gives us a
spiritual inner fear and hope in our creator Allah. An inner fear of getting
punishments and hope of getting reward.
Spiritually, it gives
the believer the energy or power to observe his Islamic obligations with all
sincerity, sense of devotion and sense of duty.
Apart from putting a
believer into the right track, iman can emphatically be said to be a motivating
factor for the observance of other pillars of Islam and the general conduct.
It is obligatory for a
believer to worship Almighty Allah, for Allah says :
I do not create man and jinns but
to worship me(Qur'an51:56).
Thus the main duty of a
believer who embraces Islam is to first worship his creator Allah and take non
as His equal and must not compare Him with His creations for:
There is non
comparable to Him(Qur'an112:4).
Salat(prayer) plays a
very significant role in the life of the believer. It inculcates in the
believer that he has an inner satisfaction that he has observe one of the
fundamental principles of Islam which he has been created for. It therefore
gives the believer some spiritual satisfaction that he has fulfilled the purpose.
Before one takes a prayer, he has to ensure that his body, cloth and the place
of the prayer are all clean, thus the habit of cleanliness is built, in which
Muslims are required to wash their hands, face, feet and rub their hair with
water.
The mosque in which
Muslims pray serves as a barrack where Muslim assemble as soldiers in total
readiness for war against Satan(devil).
The next pillar of
Islam which is zakat or charity which means purification of wealth. The zakat
purifies the hearts of the rich people and reduces their great haste for wealth
thus preventing them from engaging in prohibited ways of acquiring wealth.
Zakat spiritually and
socially serve as a principal feature which distinguishes a believers(Muslims)
from a non believer. To this end Allah says in the Qur'an:
“You will find friends
only in God and his apostles and in
the believers who
observe prayers and pay the poor due
and the devout” (Qur'an5:55).
It is with zakat that
social welfare services and community development projects could be undertaken
and the total economic emancipation of the poor realized.
Fasting which is
another pillar of Islam makes the believer to be self disciplined, it
translates the believer's faith into action so that he never allow himself to
become the servant of his evil desires. Indeed fasting helps a man to become a
superman in that he controls his eating, drinking habits and any evil
practices.
Pilgrimage to Mecca
which is one of the pillars of Islam brings together all the Muslims from
various parts of the world thus uniting them inspite of their tribal, racial,
and class differences. A pilgrim feels well contented while visiting various
places of historical significance to Islam at both Mecca and Medina.
For everybody to enjoy
a good life, Allah who created us has justified the kind of political system
that his believers should follow, that political system is the one based on the
guidance of Allah who created us. The Islamic political system is aimed at
establishing an ideal people where social justice, equity, moral righteousness,
protection of life, honor, intellect and the sanctity of family wealth as well
as the practical establishment of the social and spiritual teachings learnt in
salat and zakat. Good deeds are main purpose of political system in Islam and
prohibition of bad deeds.
The political system
furthermore seeks to protect the weak, the minority and the poor from
exploitation and oppression of the strong among them. An example of this
political system could be drawn from that of Abubakar who is one the Caliph of
prophet Muhammad. When Abubakar was appointed the first Caliph, he said:
“the weak among you is the strong
in my eyes, until I get his right
share back to him if Allah wills
and the strong among you is the weak
in my eyes until I take back the
shares of other from him if Allah wills
and above all, judgment should be
based in accordance with the Qur'an
and hadith”
The politics of Islam
treats everyone as equal to the other thus can solve all human problems and weaknesses
and guide Muslims to live honestly with themselves and others.
Economically Islam
prohibits hoarding, bribery, corruption, riba(interest), gambling and other
forms of economic atrocities currently prevailing in our society.
In the right of individual,
human are required by shariah to abstain from anything that might lower his
personality and honor. The shariah forbids those things which are injurious to
man's physical, mental, or ,moral existence. It forbids the consumption of
blood, intoxicating drugs, flesh of pig, beasts of prey, poisonous, unclean
animals and the carcass, for all these have undesirable effects upon the
physical, moral, intellectual and spiritual life of man. The Islamic religion
forbids suicide and impresses on human that life belongs to God and that it is
like a trust which God has bestowed upon human for a certain period of time so
that human may make the best use of it.
The law of inheritance
is so formulated in Islam that property left by the deceased cannot become
concentrated in one hand,it is
distributed in such a way that all near relatives get their shares, son,
daughter, wife, husband, father, mother, brother and sister, Allah has given
women so many rights, before the coming of Islam women were denied their rights
even in inheritance, until till this day some communities deny women their
inheritance, Islam uplifts women, while some religious people call women the
root cause of evil, Islam teaches that
“paradise lies under the feet of a woman” it shows that women are important in
Islam. It is also the shariah that endorsed upon man to look after the orphans
or other children of such deceased person.
In the rights of other
men, shariah aims at the welfare of all humanities and foundation of an ideal
society. It is from the provision of this, a man is required not to transgress
upon rights of others. It totally forbids theft, robbery, bribery, forgery,
cheating, interest, usury, adultery, fornication and unnatural intercourse. It
also forbids killing of innocent people because Allah says in the Qur'an that
“if someone murders an innocent human it is as if he has murdered the whole of
mankind”. All this are unIslamic or practices that damage and lower the honor
of society. These also spread corruption, immorality, spread diseases,
disturbance and destruction of society.
Since Allah created
everything fro His service and allow human to use some of his creations for
their service, Islam rejects the harming or unnecessary killing or destruction
of things, Islam also forbids the harming of animals, or unnecessary cutting of
trees, it also forbids over stressing animals like over-loading a donkey, horse
or camel and beating it up to work harder.
The religion of Islam
is a law which regulates the life of mankind and particularly the life of the
believer in Allah and His messengers. It is Allah alone who is qualified to
provide us with law that we should govern our lives with, Allah alone performs
the function of principal legislator. His decrees, orders, injunctions in form
of fundamental legislative provisions are contained in His book( the holy
Qur'an), then the Qur'an is followed by the sunna of the prophet, then the
consensus of opinions of devoted Muslim scholars, if the opinion of a Muslim
scholar contradicts what the Qur'an and hadith teaches, then his opinion should
not be followed.
Indeed Islam is the utmost necessity to good life.
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