Obligations to God - The Second Pre-Requisite – To Join an Organization / Party

The Second Pre-Requisite – To Join an Organization/Party

In addition to Jihad, another pre-requisite for fulfilling our Islamic duties is that one should join an organization that is working towards the establishment of Islam.  No one can dare claim that fulfilling the three duties completely is possible by individual or personal struggle alone.  It is beyond any doubt that these duties can be performed only provided there is an organized movement. Since worshipping God, obeying Him, acting as witnesses unto mankind, enjoining good and forbidding evil, enforcing Islam and making the obedience wholly for God’s sake is obligatory, the pre-requisites are equally obligatory.  Whatever is required for performing an Islamic duty is an equally important duty in itself.  

For example, offering the prayer is a duty and performing wudu is its pre-requisite, as described earlier in the beginning of this segment of our discussion.  Just like wudu becomes a duty in order to fulfill the obligation of prayer, being in an organized collective endeavor becomes a duty in order to fulfill the obligation of establishing Islam.  Another instance is of the Ihram for performing Hajj and Umrah, which is elevated into the genre of duties being the pre-requisite of religious obligations.  Thus, if we agree in the overall framework of religious duties presented in this treatise, it is obligatory on each of us to join an appropriate group for discharging them.  On the authority of Harith Al `Ashari (RAA), it is reported that the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said: 

I declare obligatory upon you five things.  They are: organization, listening, obeying, making Hijrah, and making Jihad for the cause of Allah.

 Hijrah, in essence, is to leave everything that is not approved by God. This is mentioned in one of the Hadith of the Prophet (SAW):

Once the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was asked as to which form of Hijrah is most excellent, to which he replied: “That you give up whatever displeases your Lord.”  

Hence, one is obliged to leave all habits and practices that are disliked by his Lord, to the point of leaving his home and country of origin, which will then represent the highest degree of Hijrah, in the same sense as fighting in Allah’s cause stands for the highest degree of Jihad.  As for Jihad, we have already taken note of the point that Jihad in God’s cause commences with the fighting against one’s self and culminates with the actual fighting in the battlefield.  According to the above Hadith, both Hijrah and Jihad are obligatory on every believer, and it is apparent from the wordings in the narration that these must be performed not only as individuals but in an organized and collective manner.  It is for every individual to assess whether he is a member of an organized collective effort working towards establishing Islam and taking its message to all of mankind.  If one is a member of an organization working for public welfare, social service, mass education or professional interests, it does not qualify as an organization in the above sense, for Islam demands that Muslims join a group working actively and specifically for the ascendancy of Islam.  As Iqbal says:

                We live so that thy name remain in the land

                  How can the cup remain without the cup-bearer?

And,

The aim of my life is the dominance of Your Religion

For this I’m a Muslim, for this I’m one who prays

 Let it also be realized that this organization should run on the Islamic principles of obedience to the leader, a point eloquently made in the above-quoted Prophetic saying.  If one is not a member of such an organization, I must say that he betrays lack of concern for fulfilling his religious duties.  Let it be pointed out that if one is not able to place his confidence in any group or leader because he finds none worthy of such a claim, it by no means absolves him of his obligations to God.  He must, then, make a call to others to join hands with him in the grand task of establishing Islam and taking its light to all peoples.  If he does not find himself worthy or qualified to make such a call, then there is no justification for him to live in society, since ultimately his obedience will be of a system that is not in obedience to the Divine.  This is a difficult point to swallow, but it is the only logical conclusion to what I have come across by way of the teachings of Islam, and it conforms to a Hadith in which the

Prophet (SAW) advises those who do not find an appropriate organization with a leader to leave civilization and live the rest of their lives without participating in the institutions of society.

Source: Obligations to God (Book by Dr Israr Ahmad)

Obligations to God - The First Pre-Requisite – Jihad

The First Pre-Requisite – Jihad

          In order to fulfill our obligations to God, it is essential to strive in His cause (which is the literal meaning of Jihad). This is the starting point and also the culminating point.  Nothing can be accomplished without making sincere and concerted effort.  Likewise, Muslims are supposed to strive in the light of their faith.  
The clashes that take place as a result of this striving (which might be of multiple natures such as personal and internal, psychological, ideological or even physical) are called “Jihad”.  
Let us discuss the term Jihad with reference to its three basic and fundamental demands.

1. Striving Against One’s Own Self (jihad ma`a an-nafs)

 This Jihad relates to our first obligation of personal submission.  The question arises that what can possibly the Jihad be when one is submitting to God as an individual?  The obvious answer is that one has to wage Jihad, a fierce battle, against one’s own self.  One will have to strive hard to make his/her self sub-servant to the commands of God.  The human self is vulnerable and prone to transgressing on the basis of the uncontrollable desires of his material existence:

The (human) soul is certainly prone to evil. (Yousuf  12:53)

First of all one has to bring these desires under the control of his/her real self, the soul that was breathed into each and every one of us by God himself.  For example, at dawn, there is Adhan signifying God’s call to Prayer, but the self desires the sweet sleep of the early morning hours.  If one has control over one’s self, one will be able to overcome this physical desire in favor of a spiritual one and will rise to pray.  A failure to do so might ultimately lead to total disregard of one’s duties in favor of this-worldly pursuits of wealth, luxuries and personal gratification at the material level.  The struggle against the self is, in fact, the foremost and perhaps most vital stage of Jihad.  The following Hadith demonstrates the importance of the struggle against one’s own self:

The real mujahid is one who strives against the desires of his/her material existence.

It is therefore evident from the above Hadith that the primary level of Jihad and its starting point is to fight against one’s own material self and try to control and subjugate it.

2. Jihad Through Qur’an (Jihad Bil Qur’an)

This Jihad corresponds to our second religious obligation, that of taking the message of Islam to others.  When one enters the field of inviting others to faith, countless obstacles come in the path to spread the word of truth.  Striving against these obstacles is Jihad, but more at the conceptual level.  Many ideologies such as atheism, materialism, fascism, communism and other faith and belief systems are poised to confront every effort of yours. 

Forces representing unbelief are very well entrenched throughout society - a reality that truly dawns only when one enters the struggle to confront them with the pristine light of Islam.  However this confrontation is purely on an ideological and philosophical level.  Our wealth and energy must be invested in this battle.  When Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was calling towards monotheism, Abu Jahl and his followers were defending polytheism and idolatry.  This eventually led to a bitter encounter between them.  

Do you honestly think that if there is a struggle to preach faith, invite others to the path of Islam, enjoin good and forbid evil, and act as a witnesses of God unto mankind, that atheism and disbelief will fold in their cards all at once without offering any resistance?  It is a folly to assume that the forces of falsehood will vanish into thin air.  It should be known clearly that there will ensue a long drawn out ideological battle whenever there is a call for Islam in the real sense.  Thus this represents a more difficult or advanced stage in Jihad than the first one.  In the first stage man engages in a Jihad against his own self, but at this stage he must confront the forces outside of himself – forces of falsehood, atheism, permissiveness and wrong ideologies.

                                                    

Note that the first struggle (against one’s own self) intensifies as these challenges are confronted.  As to the instrument to be employed in this Jihad, God guides Muslims to wage this Jihad with the help of the Qur’an:  

But strive against them with this (Qur’an) a truly great struggle! (Al-Furqan 25:52)

God makes plain that the Qur’an stands out as a sword that is capable of rooting out each and every false ‘ism’.  The Qur’an is described here in terms of a weapon.  Iqbal voices the same view when he says that with the sword of the Qur’an Satan himself can be conquered:

Since in the battle against the self, Satan is your baser self’s ally and he whispers in the depths of the heart, if a real sword is used, one will end up killing oneself rather than Satan. Therefore, in order to defeat him, a special sword needs to be used that slices through the heart, killing Satan whereas leaving the heart intact and pure, and this is the sword of Qur’an!  God has blessed the Muslims with this mighty and effective sword, which represents the greatest miracle granted to Prophet Muhammad (SAW).  It is a pity that we treat the Qur’an as a mere object around which we can perform our rituals rather than making it a living entity to be used in this dynamic fashion.

 

Therefore, in this stage of Jihad, Muslims should equip themselves intellectually and ideologically by means of the Qur’an.  They are supposed to uphold and establish truth and in so doing they should expend their money and physical resources to spread the light of Qur’an. They will have to use both the tongue and the pen in order to fulfill the requirements of taking the message of Islam to others. They have to employ all the modern mediums of communication and the facilities of the mass media in order to promote and circulate the Qur’anic call and teachings.

3. To Fight in the Cause of Allah (Jihad Bis-Saif)

The third and final level of Jihad corresponds to the third and final religious obligation of establishing Islam as a socio-politico-economic reality.  At this stage, Jihad reaches its zenith, for it stands for an open conflict in the battlefield against the forces that represent other ideologies. At the stage of calling and inviting people to the path of Islam, one is faced with an ideological and intellectual battle. However, in the stage of enforcing Islam at the collective level, there is a conflict with the forces of immorality.  They will naturally obstruct, rather obliterate, the efforts for enforcing Islam in public life in a desperate effort to maintain the status quo in which they have their vested interests.  They will not easily bear with a situation in which Islam gains ascendancy. 

There are privileged classes in every system based upon a false ideology.  They govern public life and reap the benefits of power and authority, and they will never take kindly to the efforts for depriving them of their sway.  Therefore, confrontation is inevitable at the physical level, in spite of winning the battle at the ideological level.  This final confrontation will be in multiple stages.  The first level is of passive resistance, the second of active resistance (agitation or challenging the system in the form of civil disobedience) and the third one is physical confrontation (which today might take the form of unarmed revolt against the system). 

If people of faith lack the material resources (human or otherwise), they should restrain themselves to passively resisting persecution and slander as they wage their ideological battle. As a strategic move they should not initiate any physical revolt against the system.  We find that this was the policy that was followed by the Prophet (SAW) and his companions during the Makkan period. The believers were directed to bear all kinds of persecution, violence and oppression.  They were not allowed to retaliate in the same coin, but were asked to bear it patiently.  Their example is perhaps the highest representation of passive resistance witnessed in human history.  However, after gaining enough strength and resources, the believers are obliged to launch an offensive against the status quo.  Those who were forbidden from taking an initiative in Makkah were permitted in Madinah to wage war according to the following ayahof the Qur’an: 

To those against whom war is made, permission is given to fight, because they have been wronged.  And verily, Allah is most powerful for the aid.  (Al-Hajj 22:39) 

Armed conflict is the final stage of this struggle and in the fulfillment of our ultimate obligation to God – to make a society whose principles are based on His commands – a society based on justice and fair play.  It has already been pointed out with reference to Surah As-Saff that fighting in the cause of Allah is the highest obligation that is worthy of God’s highest pleasure and approval.  The Qur’an says:  

Truly Allah loves those who fight in His cause in battle array, as if they were a solid structure.  (As-Saff  61:4)  

Let us take note of the following Hadith cited in Sahih Muslim and narrated on the authority of Abu Hurairah, who said that the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said:

One who dies in a state that he did not fight in Allah’s cause and he did not even wish that he should do so, he suffers from a sort of hypocrisy. .

It is possible that some of the people participating in the struggle pass away to their eternal abode before the final stage of armed confrontation arrives.  Nevertheless, they should at least entertain this desire in their heart.  If one has genuine faith, he should all along nurse the desire that he will lay down his life for establishing the system of Islam.  Those devoid of this desire suffer from at least a shade of hypocrisy according to the teachings of our beloved Messenger (SAW).

Source: Obligations to God (Book by Dr Israr Ahmad)

Obligations to God - Three Pre-Requisites for our Islamic Duties

Three Pre-Requisites for our Islamic Duties

 Just as there are three levels of obligations to God, there are three pre-requisites to fulfilling these obligations.  A pre-requisite is not an obligation in itself, but it is something in the absence of which an obligation is impossible to fulfill, thereby making it an indirect obligation.  This is easily understood by drawing an analogy to the prayer.  Since ablution (wudu) is essential for prayer, it is an indirect obligation in Islam, but only so because prayer is the real obligation, without which there would be no need for the ablution per say.

The First Pre-Requisite – Jihad

          In order to fulfill our obligations to God, it is essential to strive in His cause (which is the literal meaning of Jihad). This is the starting point and also the culminating point.  Nothing can be accomplished without making sincere and concerted effort.  Likewise, Muslims are supposed to strive in the light of their faith.  The clashes that take place as a result of this striving (which might be of multiple natures such as personal and internal, psychological, ideological or even physical) are called “Jihad”.  Let us discuss the term Jihad with reference to its three basic and fundamental demands. 

Source: Obligations to God (Book by Dr Israr Ahmad)

Obligations to God - A Summary of Our Religious Obligations

A Summary of Our Religious Obligations

 Let us not be overwhelmed or distracted by the increasing number of the terms in our discussion.  Our attempt has been to present the message in as simple, concise and plain a manner as possible.  

To recap, our first and the foremost religious obligation is that we practice faith ourselves.  
The second is that we should preach and spread the message to others, and 
the third is that we strive to establish the teachings of this message as a collective reality and politico-socio-economic system.  These are the three Islamic duties that are binding on us.

Let us now visualize these obligations in the form of a three-storied building.  The creedal statement (to testify oneness of God and Muhammad (SAW) as His messenger) is like the visible part of the foundation, above ground , while Prayer, Zakah, Hajj and Fasting are four pillars upon which the actual structure of the building rests.  The building has three floors represented by each one of the three duties defined above.  A pictorial representation of the building summarizing our religious duties is shown on the inside cover of this booklet.   
                                                  

If one appreciates this concept of our duties, his understanding of Islam is sound and clear. Contrarily, if one thinks of duties in the traditional narrow and restricted sense of Prayers, Zakah, Hajj and Fasting only , he/she is concerned only with the pillars, having no idea that these are merely the supports upon which the essence of Islam stands.  These are means, not ends in themselves.  

Furthermore, let us not miss the obvious point that a structure having only pillars can at best be regarded as ruins of a bygone era.  One important point here is that the foundation has two parts, a visible part and an invisible part.  The visible part is the testification with the tongue, whereas the invisible part goes deep into the ground.  Without a deep foundation, the building will be unstable and a minor earthquake or wind will be able to knock it down.  The invisible part of the foundation is conviction of the heart.

 

As for the floors, the first floor is that of personal submission.  Unless one personally submits to God and His Messenger (SAW), how can he be expected to preach God’s message to others?  After personal submission, one can rise to the second floor of taking the message of Islam to others.  Finally, when enough people are convinced of the just system of Islam, they can join together to strive to establish its teachings at the collective level of human life, which is the third and the final floor of the building of Islam.  Let us now turn towards some prerequisites to fulfilling these religious obligations.

Source: Obligations to God (Book by Dr Israr Ahmad)