My Concept of Religious Duties
In light of my limited study of the
Qur’an and Sunnah and of the insights into faith flowing from it (all
blessings are due to God), and which I strictly follow according to my capacity
and understanding, I will narrate my understanding of the duties of a
Muslim. By so doing I do not rule out
the possibility that my understanding is imperfect. What is presented here is my understanding of
our religious duties, which I have learnt from my study of the Qur’an, Seerah
and Sunnah, account of the companions, and our history in
general.
- Usually the
term religion is limited to the private affairs of the people. But here
(and other places in this book) it includes the private as well as the
public. Islam includes dogma, rituals and social customs at the private
level as well as the political, social and economic system at the Public
level. Therefore, in common use we describe Islam as a complete way of
life. The arabic term for this is Deen which has no direct
equivalent in English.
There are three fundamental duties of a
Muslim, and three prerequisites for fulfilling them (which will be discussed
later on). While entering into our
study, we must recognize that terminology has its own value and any real
understanding of a branch of learning is obtained only through its own
terminology. Islam has its specific
terminology and we will approach the subject at hand with reference to this
terminology.
The first and foremost obligation of a
Muslim to God is to submit to His commands at a personal level. The second obligation is to disseminate the
message of Islam to others, and the third and final obligation is to strive to
establish Islam as a complete socio-politico-economic system. We shall discuss each of these three duties
one by one.
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