The Islamic Movement: Conditions for Success
Those who truly wish to establish an Islamic society—
must first understand clearly that there is certainly no lack among our people of a desire to establish an ideal Islamic society. What is actually lacking is interest and initiative, and even more than that, competence. Most people lack the fundamental qualities required for this work.
The second matter to which we must keep a sharp eye is that most of the influential section of our nation is, in most cases, vocal in creating corruption and disintegration in society. And those who are not engaged in corruption and disintegration are likewise free of concern for creation and organization. The number of people striving for social reform and construction is very small.
The third matter of which we must not remain heedless is that, in the present age, the greatest force for shaping and dismantling social life is the government. And wherever a democratic system is established, the suitability or unsuitability of the government depends entirely on whether the people are fit or unfit to entrust governing power to individuals. Those engaged in dismantling society expend no less energy in inciting the people so that they may never become capable of making sound choices than they expend on any other activity.
The combination of these three matters creates a terrifying picture which initially produces discouragement in people’s minds, and amid the despair all around, one begins to wonder: Is success in any undertaking possible here? But there are also several matters which, when kept before us, cause the clouds of despair to disperse and every direction to become illuminated by flashes of hope.
The first is that our society is not merely a dwelling place of dishonest people; there are also some honest people here. They do not merely harbor a desire for reform and character-building; they also possess interest and ability. And even if they are somewhat deficient in these qualities, they can be developed through a little care and effort.
The second is that our nation is not, as a whole, inclined toward dishonesty. Through illiteracy and ignorance, they may be deceived—and have been deceived—but they are not satisfied with the corruption to which the deceivers subject them. With wise, organized, and continuous effort, public opinion in the country can eventually be turned into a supporter of the forces striving for reform. It would certainly be a cause for despair if the greater part of the nation itself supported all the evils created by the influence of dishonest forces in society. But that is not the actual situation.
The third point is that those working for corruption have obtained every kind of opportunity and advantage, but they have failed to acquire two advantages: first, moral strength; second, the strength of unity.
The final and most important point is that establishing the din is Allah’s own work. Therefore, those who strive for it receive Allah’s support, but on the condition that they work with patience and sincerity and do not abandon wisdom and prudence. No matter how few such people may be, and no matter how meager their equipment and resources, ultimately Allah’s help and support make up for all their deficiencies.
This flash of hope behind apparent despair opens not only the prospect of an ideal Islamic society but also the horizon of its successful establishment. What is needed, however, is for those who genuinely desire this work to move beyond the stage of hope and desire and advance toward action, proceeding according to the method Allah has prescribed for success. It is not Allah’s way that you merely continue criticizing evil deeds and faults and that they will be corrected solely through the force of your words. Until you use the strength of your hands and feet, not even a thorn in the jungle or a stone in the road will move. How, then, can the long-standing faults of society be removed merely through the force of your words? Not a single ear of rice is produced without the farmer’s labor. How, then, can one hope, through mere supplication and hope, to produce in society the lush green crop of honesty and inclination toward good? Criticism becomes effective only when we enter the field, work, and pray to Allah for success. Undoubtedly, angels come. But they do not come to fight themselves; rather, they come to help those steadfast people who continue fighting to sacrifice their lives in the path of God. Therefore, those who are eager to work should abandon the path of false hopes and desires and, with sound minds, understand all the demands and requirements of this work. Then they should think carefully and decide whether they will truly undertake this work, or merely shed tears at society’s corruption and be content with harboring a desire to build society. Whoever decides to work should do so not under the influence of excitement, but after thoughtful consideration with a sound mind. Under the influence of temporary excitement, a person may expose his chest to a gun and give his life; but under such excitement, he cannot spend his entire life striving to reach an objective and goal, nor can he even remain, for four days, away from an evil deed or steadfast in a good deed. Only those who are prepared, through a well-considered decision, to devote their entire lives constructively to the work can undertake it.
As soon as people become interested in working and adopt an objective, they generally raise the question of a program of action. But they forget that between the decision to act and the program of action, the worker’s own self is the true foundation and support of the work. It is not right to discuss the work and its program while leaving this matter aside. It is mistaken to think that resolve alone is sufficient for undertaking the work and that afterward only the question of a program remains. Because of this mistaken notion, many major undertakings have begun here, only to fail later to reach their ultimate goal. Thus, the program and plan are not the real thing; what is real are the people engaged in implementing them, their moral qualities, and the individual and collective qualities of each person. This is the true operative force at the root of the success or failure of a program and plan. Every weakness in an individual affects the outcome of the work, while every quality he possesses adorns it. If he possesses elevated and excellent qualities, he can raise even a defective plan and a poor program to the ultimate goal through such successful direction that people are amazed. Conversely, if he lacks ability, even excellent work is ruined. Indeed, when an incompetent person undertakes a task, people begin to doubt even its soundness. Therefore, before considering practical plans for reform and construction, we must properly examine what kind of competence the people who will come forward for this work must possess, what qualities they must embody, what faults they must be free from, and, moreover, what means and methods can be used to develop such people.
In the discussion that follows, we shall describe this subject in the following order—
1) The personal qualities that each of those who work for this objective should possess.
2) The qualities they should possess collectively.
3) The qualities they should possess in order to achieve success in propagating Islam, expanding the Islamic da’wah, and striving to establish the din.
4) The major faults from which they should remain free, individually and collectively.
5) The means that may be adopted to develop the desired qualities and to keep individuals and the collective free from undesirable qualities.
After Allah’s help, the second key to success in establishing the Islamic way of life in the world in practice is the personal qualities of those striving to carry out this work. Certain qualities must be present in each of them individually. Certain qualities need to be present among them collectively. Certain qualities must be present in them for the expansion of reformative and constructive work. And if they do not keep themselves free from certain faults, all their efforts may end in failure. These matters must be understood first of all. As a result, those inspired by genuine devotion to this service will be able to make special efforts to cultivate the desired qualities in themselves and to keep themselves free from undesirable qualities. In this way, building individuals is the first condition for building society. For whoever cannot equip and organize himself can do nothing about equipping and organizing others.
Personal Qualities
Sound Knowledge of Islam
The first of the personal qualities is sound knowledge of Islam. Whoever wishes to establish the Islamic way of life must first know and understand the thing he wishes to establish. A mere brief knowledge of Islam is not sufficient for this work; rather, a more or less detailed knowledge is necessary. Its extent will depend on a person’s ability. It is not necessary, therefore, for every traveler on this path and every worker in the movement to become a mufti or a mujtahid. But each of them must certainly know how to distinguish the beliefs of Islam from jahili ideas and conceptions, Islamic methods of action from the principles and methods of jahiliyyah, and must know the guidance Islam has given humanity in the various departments of life. Without this knowledge and awareness, a person cannot walk on the right path himself, cannot guide others, and cannot work along the proper lines for shaping society. Among ordinary workers, this knowledge must be at a level that enables them to explain matters of the din simply and plainly to people in villages and cities. But workers endowed with superior intellectual ability must possess this knowledge to a greater degree. They must influence the intellectual class, remove every kind of doubt and misgiving from educated people, give reasoned and satisfactory answers to opponents’ questions, and solve the various problems of life in the light of Islam. From an Islamic perspective, they must recast and organize education and the arts in a new mold. Upon the timeless and eternal foundations of Islam, they must build the edifice of a new civilization and culture. They must possess the critical ability to distinguish the defective parts of modern thought and action from the sound parts. At the same time, they must possess the constructive ability and strength to demolish whatever must be demolished and build something superior in its place, while preserving whatever should be retained and using it within a better and more advanced system.
Steadfast Faith in Islam
The second indispensable quality, after knowledge, in a person dedicated to this objective is that he must have unwavering faith in the din upon which he wishes to build the way of life. His own mind must be free of doubt regarding the truth and correctness of that way of life. A person cannot undertake this work in a state of doubt, uncertainty, or indecision. It is not possible to complete this work with mental uncertainty and disorder in one’s thought and outlook. A person whose mind is wavering, whose thought is not focused, and whom different paths of thought and action confuse or could confuse cannot be suitable for this work. Whoever is to undertake it must believe in God with an unquestioning heart and have unwavering faith in the attributes, power, and rights of God described in the Quran. He must maintain firm belief in the Hereafter and believe in it exactly as the Quran describes it. He must believe that the path shown by Muhammad Rasulullah (peace be upon him) is the only true path, and that every path opposed to it or incompatible with it is false. He must believe that there is only one standard by which any human thought or method can be judged: the Book of God and the Sunnah of His Messenger. Whatever passes this standard is true and free from error; whatever does not pass it is false and misguided. To shape the Islamic way of life, one must establish firm faith in these truths and attain complete concentration of thought. Anyone who remains even slightly wavering in this matter, or who is still attracted to other paths, must remedy this weakness before advancing as a builder of this edifice.
Character and Action
The third indispensable quality is that one’s actions must accord with one’s words. He must follow what he considers true, withdraw from what he regards as false, turn the din he declares his own into the din of his character and conduct, and be the first to obey what he calls believers to. For obedience in good deeds and abstention from evil deeds, he should not depend on any external pressure or influence. If an action brings the pleasure of God, that alone should be sufficient reason for him to perform it with sincere interest and willingness. Likewise, he should refrain from an action simply because it is displeasing to God. This characteristic should not be confined to ordinary circumstances; rather, his moral strength must be so highly developed that, in an abnormally corrupt environment, he remains steadfast on the path of truth while confronting every kind of fear and temptation and struggling against all opposition and adversity. A person without this quality may assist in the work of reforming and shaping society, but he cannot be a true worker. Anyone who has even the slightest devotion, respect, and concern for Islam can assist in this work. Even a person who denies Islam and opposes it, but is not active in obstructing its path, can be of some assistance. But even if there are millions upon millions of such helpers, the Islamic system cannot in practice be introduced, nor can the advance and consolidation of jahiliyyah be halted. In practice, this work can be accomplished only when a group of people comes forward who combine knowledge and faith with character and strength of action, and whose faith and conscience contain such immense vitality that, without any external prompting, they continue, through their own inner compulsion, to fulfill the needs and demands of their din. If such workers enter the field, the presence of the vast number of supporters and helpers found everywhere in Muslim and even non-Muslim society can also become fruitful.
The Din as the Purpose of Life
Along with these three qualities, workers dedicated to reforming and shaping society must possess one more quality. They must raise the word of God and establish the din; this must not remain merely one of their life’s desires, but must become the purpose of their lives. There are people who know about the din, have faith in it, and act accordingly, but striving and struggling to establish it is not regarded as the goal of their lives; instead, they perform honest and righteous deeds while also engaging in their worldly affairs. Undoubtedly, these are good people. If the Islamic way of life has already been established in practice, they may also be good citizens. But where a jahili way of life envelops everything and the question arises of removing it and establishing the Islamic way of life in its place, the mere presence of such good people is of no use. What is needed there are people for whom this work is regarded as the purpose of life. They will certainly undertake other worldly activities, but their lives will revolve solely around this objective. They will be firmly resolved to accomplish it. For this, they will be prepared to devote all their time and resources, wealth and possessions, bodily and physical strength, and the full capacity of their minds and intellects. Even if the need arises to sacrifice their lives, they will not shrink from it. Only such people can cut away the weeds of jahiliyyah and clear the path of Islam.
Correct and sound knowledge of the din, steadfast faith in it, shaping one’s character accordingly, and making its establishment the purpose of life are fundamental qualities that every individual striving to build the Islamic way of life should possess. Their importance is immense. In other words, without gathering people who possess these qualities, it is impossible even to imagine carrying out this work.
Needless to say, if such people genuinely wish to accomplish something, they must necessarily work as part of a group. It does not matter which group they belong to or under what name they work. Every person of sound conscience and reason knows that no change can be brought about in the social system through purely individual effort. Therefore, organized effort, not scattered effort, is needed. Taking this as a universally accepted truth, we shall now discuss the group qualities that such a group must necessarily possess.
Group Qualities
Brotherhood and Love
The first quality that such a group must possess is that every person belonging to it must be prepared to sacrifice for the others. A palace is strong only when each of its bricks is firmly joined to the others. Cement holds those bricks together. Likewise, the hearts of a group’s members become a wall of steel only when they are bound together by a single thread. Sincere love, mutual goodwill, sympathy, and sacrifice for one another can bind these hearts together. Hateful hearts can never live together in harmony. Hypocritical association can never create genuine unity. Self-interested unity paves the way for hypocrisy. And a merely dry, lifeless business relationship can never become a foundation for fellowship and cooperation. Even if some worldly interest brings such unrelated people together, they come together only to scatter, and instead of accomplishing any noble work, they end by fighting among themselves. A strong and powerful group can arise only when people who possess selfless thought and profound devotion to the purpose of life come together, and this selflessness of thought and devotion to the objective create sincerity and love among them. Such a group is truly unbreakable, like a wall of steel. Satan finds no way to create a crack in it. Even if storms of opposition are brought against it from outside, they cannot dislodge it.
Mutual Consultation
The second necessary quality is that this group must work on the basis of mutual consultation and fully follow the rules and principles of consultation. A group in which every person acts according to his own will is not really a group at all, but merely a crowd. Such a crowd cannot accomplish any task. Similarly, a group in which one person or a small group of influential people assumes absolute power and everyone else is directed by their signals cannot survive for long. Through consultation alone, the good and bad aspects of every matter can be examined and a sound decision reached; moreover, two further benefits are gained through it.
1. When the entire group’s consultation, directly or indirectly, stands behind a task, the whole group tries to carry it out with peace of mind; no one then thinks that something has been imposed on them from above.
2. In this way, the entire group learns to understand problems and events. Each person takes an interest in the group and its work and regards the decisions adopted by it as his own decisions. But this requires adherence to the rules of consultation. The rules of consultation are these: each person must present his opinion honestly and conceal nothing in his heart. He must not resort to stubbornness, obstinacy, or hostility in the discussion. And once a decision has been adopted by majority vote, those who held a different opinion must gladly advance to implement the group’s decision, even if they do not change their own views. If these three matters are not observed, all the benefits of consultation are destroyed. Indeed, this ultimately creates division within the group.
Organization and Discipline
The third important quality is organization, discipline, obedience to rules, mutual cooperation, and working like a team. A group may fail, despite possessing all kinds of qualities, simply because it is unable to implement its own decisions and plans. This is the result of a lack of organization, discipline, and cooperation. Destructive work can be accomplished through mere tumult and disorder. But no constructive work can be completed without organized effort. The name for the entire group acting together in accordance with the rules and principles adopted by the group is collective effort. The instructions of whoever is given authority at any level within the group must be obeyed. Every member of the group must be dutiful and must strive to discharge, faithfully and on time, the responsibility assigned to him. Those workers entrusted collectively with a task must have complete cooperation among themselves. The group’s machinery must be so active that, as soon as a decision is made, all its mechanisms come into operation to implement it. Only such groups can accomplish anything in the world. Otherwise, groups that collect the machinery but do not assemble it in its proper place and arrange for it to operate properly like a machine are as good as nonexistent.
Criticism for the Purpose of Reform
The final and most important quality is that the group must also possess the ability to criticize for the purpose of reform. However correctly blind followers and simple-hearted devotees may begin their work, and however accurately they may proceed with sound aims and objectives before them, in the end they continue to distort the entire work. This is because the manifestation of weakness in human work is natural. But where no one keeps watch over weakness—that is, where identifying it is not regarded as blameworthy—all kinds of weakness gradually become a refuge for negligence or incapacity because of complete silence and unconcern, and slowly increase twofold and fourfold. Nothing is more harmful to the group’s healthy, vigorous form and disease-free body than the absence of criticism. And nothing can be more disastrous for the group than suppressing critical thought. Through this criticism, faults and shortcomings come to light in due time, and efforts can be made to correct them. But the essential condition of criticism is that it must not be intended merely to point out faults; rather, it must be undertaken with complete sincerity for the purpose of reform. Alongside this, a second equally important condition is that the critic must criticize according to the proper method of criticism. The rude, improper, untimely, and useless criticism of a fault-finding critic motivated by good intentions can expose the group to exactly the same degree of harm.
Qualities That Complete the Work
So far we have discussed the essential qualities of an organization formed by bringing together the people necessary for reforming society and establishing the Islamic way of life. The matters mentioned in this connection belong merely to the category of preliminary and basic qualities. Just as a minimum amount of capital is needed to start any business, without which that business cannot even be started, these qualities are the minimum moral capital of an individual; without them, the work of reforming society and establishing the Islamic way of life cannot even begin. Needless to say, it is inconceivable that an Islamic way of life could be established by people who are not themselves acquainted with Islam, who have not attained mental reassurance and concentration regarding it, who have not been able to make it the religion of their character, actions, and practical life, or who have not made the struggle to establish Islam the purpose of their lives. Similarly, if there is merely an assembly of people possessing the desired qualities, but their hearts are not connected with one another, if there is no cooperation, discipline, or organization among them, if they are not accustomed to working together harmoniously, and if they are ignorant of the proper method of mutual consultation and criticism, then their mere assembly cannot produce any result. It should therefore be clearly understood that the four individual and four collective qualities I have mentioned earlier are the initial capital for beginning this work, and they are important only in this context. But the notion that merely this amount of moral and spiritual capital is sufficient for the development and success of this work is not correct. We shall now discuss the essential qualities.
Relationship with God and Sincerity
The first noteworthy of these qualities is a relationship with God and sincerity. Other worldly activities may be undertaken for the sake of an individual, family, tribe, nation, or country; every aspect of personal interest and gain may be pursued; they may be undertaken not only while believing in God but even while denying Him—and all kinds of worldly success may be possible through them. But establishing the Islamic way of life is an entirely different kind of work. Until a person’s relationship with God becomes truly strong and deep, and until he resolves to work solely for God, no success in this work is possible. For here a person seeks to establish God’s religion. Therefore, everything must be done for God. In this work, only God’s pleasure must be sought. Love of God alone must be the basic motivation for this endeavor. There must be complete trust in His help and support. Hope for reward must be placed only in Him. And the whole mind must remain filled with fear of being answerable to Him. Any other fear, greed, desire, mixture of affection and loyalty, or inclusion of any other interest will divert this work from the right path; as a result, something else may be established, but God’s religion cannot be established.
Concern for the Hereafter
The second quality, closely related to the first-mentioned quality, is concern for the Hereafter. Although this world is the field of the believer’s action and he must do everything here, nevertheless he does not work for this world; rather, he works for the Hereafter. His attention is not directed toward worldly results; rather, it is directed toward the results of the Hereafter. He must do those things that will be beneficial in the Hereafter and abandon those whose result will bring no benefit there. He must accept the worldly losses that are beneficial in the Hereafter, and he must accept the worldly losses that are beneficial in the Hereafter. He must think only of punishment and reward in the Hereafter. No worldly punishment or reward should have importance in his eyes. Whether his effort in this world bears fruit or not, whether he encounters success or failure, whether he receives a reward or is put through a trial, in all circumstances he should work with the conviction that nothing is hidden from the sight of the God for whom he is laboring, that he will in no way be deprived of the eternal reward of the Hereafter from Him, and that success there is the real success. Without this mentality, it is impossible for a person on this path to advance even one step toward the true objective. If the slightest worldly interest is mixed into it, there is no alternative here but to stumble. A person who advances by making worldly success his ultimate goal loses heart after one or two blows, or at most a few blows, on God’s path. Any success on this path changes the outlook, at some level, of the person whose heart has made room for worldly interests.
Excellence of Character
Excellence of character practically transforms the influence of the foregoing quality into a great conquering force. Those who work in God’s path must possess generous hearts and great courage; they must be compassionate toward creation and deeply concerned for humanity. They must be courteous and gentle-natured, self-reliant and enduring, soft-spoken and amiable. No one should be able even to imagine that any harm will come from them, and everyone should expect goodness and benefit from them. They will remain content with less than what is due to them and be ready to give others more than what is due to them. They will answer evil with good, or at least will not answer it with evil. They will acknowledge their own faults and shortcomings and appreciate the qualities of others. They will possess hearts so broad that they will not dwell on the weaknesses of others; they will forgive others’ faults, shortcomings, and excesses, and will take revenge on no one for their own sake. They will take pleasure not in receiving service from others but in serving others. They will work not for their own interests but for the good of others. Without waiting for praise or caring about condemnation, they will continue to fulfill their responsibilities. They will look for reward from no one except God. They cannot be subdued by force. They cannot be bought in exchange for wealth and property, but they will bow without hesitation before truth and justice. Even their enemies will trust that under no circumstances will they do anything contrary to courtesy and justice. These qualities of character win people’s hearts. They are sharper than swords and more valuable than diamonds, gems, and pearls. Whoever acquires such qualities of character conquers the settlements around him. When a group fully possessing these qualities makes an organized effort to accomplish some noble objective, country after country comes under its control, and no power in the world can defeat it.
Patience
Another quality is connected with this, and it may be called the key to success. It is patience. Patience has many meanings, and those who work in God’s path must be patient in each of these senses.
One meaning of patience is not to be hasty, not to become restless for the immediate results of one’s efforts, and not to lose heart when there is delay. A patient person continues working tirelessly throughout his life to accomplish an objective and does not stop working even after facing one failure after another. The work of reforming people and shaping their lives depends on boundless patience. No one can accomplish this work without immense patience. This is not a child’s play.
A second meaning of patience is not to be afflicted by a bitter temperament, weak judgment, or indecisiveness. Once a patient person adopts a course after careful thought, he remains steadfast upon it and continues forward with the full strength of focused will and determination.
Another meaning of patience is to confront obstacles and difficulties courageously and to endure all the suffering and hardship on the way to achieving the goal with a calm mind. A patient person does not lose heart under the mountain-like waves of any storm or tempest.
Not becoming grief-stricken, overwhelmed, or angered, and remaining forbearing, is also one meaning of patience. A person who must undertake some necessary work of dismantling for the sake of reforming and shaping society—especially when he must perform this duty in a society distorted over a long period—will certainly face extremely low, mean, and ugly opposition. If he does not have the capacity to laugh after being abused and to swallow condemnation, and if he cannot calmly ignore accusations and false propaganda and remain engaged in his work with a steady mind and cool head, it is better for him not to set foot on this path, because this path is strewn with thorns. Each of its thorns stands erect with the firm resolve that a person may advance unhindered in any other direction, but he will not be allowed to advance even an inch in this direction. How can a person advance if he remains busy removing every thorn from his clothes? This path needs people who, when a thorn pricks their clothing, tear off that portion of the garment, leave it on the thornbush, and continue along their way. Patience is needed not only in confronting opponents; often the traveler on this path is also pierced by the bitter and irritating arrows of words from his own associates, and if he does not show patience and forbearance toward them, the entire caravan may go astray.
One meaning of patience is to remain steadfast on the right path in the face of every kind of fear and temptation, and to fulfill one’s duty against Satan’s encouragement and the desires of the nafs. It means staying away from what is haram and remaining within the limits prescribed by God, rejecting every comfort and gain along the path of sin, and gladly accepting every kind of loss and deprivation on the path of piety and honesty. It means not coveting the comforts and luxuries of those devoted to the world even after seeing them with one’s own eyes, and not yearning for them in the slightest. Even after seeing the way to worldly gain made broad and the opportunities and advantages of success within one’s grasp, being content, with complete peace of mind, with what is obtained solely on the way to achieving one’s objective—that is patience.
In all the senses mentioned above, patience is the key to success. Therefore, if impatience appears in our work in any respect, we must inevitably face its harmful consequences.
Wisdom
Alongside these qualities, another important quality is wisdom. Greater success in the work depends on it. The systems of life established in the world are being run by highly educated and thoughtful people. Behind them, along with personal means and resources, operate intelligence, powers of thought, and the capacities of knowledge and science. Establishing another system of life in opposition to these and advancing it successfully is by no means child’s play. This work cannot be accomplished by those who live merely in the dome of “Bismillah.” However honest and pure-hearted simpletons may be, lacking thought and sharp intelligence, they are unlikely to accomplish this work. It requires deep insight, powers of thought, intelligence, and judgment. This work can be accomplished only by those who are aware of circumstances, possess the ability to judge and make decisions, and are capable of understanding and solving the problems of life. All these qualities may be called wisdom in a single word. The term is used for the various branches and manifestations of intelligence and knowledge.
The manifestation of wisdom is to understand human psychology and deal with people accordingly, and to know how to make one’s da‘wah influence people’s hearts and engage them in achieving the objective. Rather than giving every person the same patent medicine, one should diagnose each person’s temperament and illness and treat him accordingly. Rather than driving everyone with the same stick, one should understand the particular condition of each individual, class, and group and deal with them accordingly.
Knowing one’s work and the method of carrying it out, and confronting all the obstacles, impediments, and opposition that arise along its path, are also manifestations of wisdom. One must know precisely what must be done, how it must be done, and how each kind of obstacle must be removed in order to make successful the objective for which one is striving.
Keeping watch over circumstances, recognizing the time and opportunity, and knowing what measure to adopt at what time are also signs of wisdom. Stepping forward blindly without understanding the situation, acting at an unsuitable time, and making mistakes while working are the actions of careless and unintelligent people. However honestly and sincerely such people may work to accomplish their objectives, they can never succeed.
The greatest sign of wisdom is subtle insight into the truths of the Din and sharp foresight in worldly affairs. Merely knowing the injunctions and details of the Shariah and judging current events in that light may be sufficient for a mufti. But it is not sufficient for reforming a corrupted society and uprooting the system of life from the foundations of jahiliyyah and reestablishing it upon the foundation of the Din. To accomplish this objective, one must keep in view, alongside the detailed aspects of the injunctions, their fundamental aspects—or rather, the complete religious system. In addition to the injunctions, one must also understand their causes, rationale, and consequences, as well as the temporary circumstances and problems that must be judged in their light.
At first sight, people become frightened when they see this long list of desired qualities and think that this work can be done by no one except a perfect servant of Allah. How can such a varied and vast collection of qualities be found in ordinary people? To dispel this mistaken notion, it is necessary to know that it is not possible for every quality to be found in perfect form in every individual, nor is it necessary for any person to possess all of them in fully developed form at the very first step. What I mean is that those who come forward to undertake this work should not proceed in the conventional manner, merely regarding it as an act of national service. Rather, they should examine their own inner world and try to determine whether they possess the elements of the qualities needed to accomplish the work. If the elements are present, that is sufficient to begin the work. Nurturing them and developing them as far as possible according to one’s ability belongs to the later stages. A small sapling sprouting from a seed, after sending its roots deep into the soil, gradually gathers nourishment and becomes a mighty tree. But if the seed itself does not exist, nothing can grow there. Similarly, if the elements of the desired qualities exist in a person, they can gradually reach perfection through appropriate effort and striving. But if the elements are absent from the outset, no qualities can be created through effort and striving.
The summary of all that has been said so far is that, for reform and reconstruction, workers possessing the moral qualities suited to this work are needed several times more than a flawless program is needed. For ultimately, it is not the clauses of any program but the individual and collective character of those who come forward to work in the field that is tested in conflict with society and the community and in the effort to establish the Din. Therefore, before fixing any program or plan, we must remain alert to what kind of workers are needed for the work, what qualities they must possess and what defects they must be free from, and what means can be used to produce such workers. Having explained this matter clearly, I wish to discuss the desired qualities in three parts. First, as the foundation of the work, the qualities that should be present in every individual participating in it are:
1) Accurate knowledge of the Din;
2) Unshakeable faith in it;
3) Shaping one’s character and carrying out one’s actions accordingly;
4) Making its establishment the purpose of one’s life.
Second, the qualities that should be present in the group that advances to accomplish this work are:
1) Mutual love, a good opinion of one another, sincerity, sympathy, wishing one another well, and making sacrifices for one another.
2) Organization, discipline, coordination, obedience to rules, cooperation, and team spirit;
3) Criticism for the purpose of reform; this criticism must be conducted courteously and by a reasonable method, so that the evil qualities arising within the group can be removed in due time rather than increased.
Third, the qualities essential for guiding the struggle to establish the Din along the right path and bringing it to the destination of success are:
1) Establishing a deep relationship with Allah and working for His pleasure;
2) Remembering accountability in the Hereafter and looking toward nothing besides the reward of the Hereafter;
3) Excellence of character;
4) Patience;
5) Wisdom.
I shall now discuss the evil qualities from which those devoted to accomplishing this noble objective should be free.
Fundamental Evil Qualities
Pride and Arrogance
The foremost and most dangerous evil quality that uproots all good qualities is pride, arrogance, self-conceit, and the display of one’s superiority. This is a satanic impulse and can serve only satanic work. Superiority belongs exclusively to Allah. (Therefore, no good work can be done while possessing this evil quality.) Superiority and arrogance in a servant are nothing but a blatant falsehood. Any person or group involved in this false pride and arrogance is deprived of every kind of support from God. For God dislikes this quality more than anything else in His servants. Consequently, a person afflicted with this disease can never attain the right path. He continues to display ignorance and stupidity and ultimately faces failure. Thus, the more he displays pride and arrogance in dealing with people, the more an atmosphere of hatred develops against him. Eventually he becomes so detested in people’s eyes that he reaches a point where he has no moral influence over them.
This disease enters by various paths among those who work to establish truth and justice. In the minds of narrow-minded people, it enters by a particular route. When, compared with the religious and moral condition around them, their condition becomes somewhat better, and they perform some noteworthy public-service activities, so that they hear others acknowledge them as well, Satan begins to cast whispers into their hearts: “Indeed, you have become great saints.” Under Satan’s prompting, they begin to display their superiority through their own words and their own actions. Thus, the work that began with the inspiration to do good gradually proceeds along the wrong path. The second route by which this disease enters is that those who sincerely strive to reform themselves and others inevitably develop some good qualities; at some stage they become distinguished within the general condition of their society, and some of their public-service activities are mentioned. Since these take place openly in broad social arenas, in broad daylight, they naturally cannot escape people’s notice. Their becoming visible is natural and unavoidable. But as soon as the reins of the heart become even slightly slack, Satan’s successful temptation turns this into pride, self-admiration, and conceit. At times, circumstances also arise in which, when their opponents obstruct their work and try to uncover faults in their personal character, they are compelled, in self-defence, to say something about themselves. What they say may be factual and true, but it necessarily contains a display of their own virtues. The slightest imbalance carries this matter beyond its legitimate limits to the borders of pride. This is a dangerous thing. Every individual and group must remain alert to it.
The Way of Salvation
The Feeling of Servitude
Those who advance sincerely with the aim of reform and correction should, both individually and collectively, not merely possess a feeling of servitude, but keep it alive and fresh. They should never forget this plain truth: the manifestation of pride and superiority belongs exclusively to Allah. Compared with God, a servant has no identity except helplessness, humility, and incapacity. If a good quality truly develops in any servant, it is by God’s grace; it is not a matter of pride and arrogance, but of gratitude. Therefore, he should display even greater humility before God and employ this small capital in the service of righteous action. As a result, God will show still greater grace, and this capital will flourish. To become intoxicated with pride after acquiring a good quality is, in reality, to transform it into a bad quality. This is not the path of progress, but the path of decline.
Self-Examination
After the feeling of servitude, the second thing that can protect a person from the tendency toward pride is self-examination. A person who, while recognizing his own virtues, also sees his weaknesses, faults, and shortcomings can never fall prey to self-admiration and conceit. One who keeps his sins and faults in view has no time to think of pride while constantly seeking forgiveness.
Looking to Great Individuals
Another thing can restrain this harmful tendency. One should not look only downward, at those whom one has regarded oneself as superior and more elevated than. Rather, one should look toward the outstanding and living embodiments of religious devotion and morality, compared with whom one still stands at a much lower level. Just as progress in morality and spirituality is limitless, so too is decline. Even the most wicked person, if he looks downward, may see someone more wicked and dishonest than himself and take pride in his improved condition. As a result of this pride, he becomes satisfied with his present state and stops striving to improve himself. Indeed, advancing still further in this direction, satanic impulses assure him that there is still room to descend somewhat lower. Only those who are enemies of their own improvement can adopt this outlook. Those who genuinely desire improvement always look upward instead of downward. At every stage of progress they reach, a further stage of progress appears before them. When they see those stages, the feeling of their own decline pierces their hearts like a thorn instead of making them proud. The pain of this thorn inspires them to ascend to still higher levels of progress.
Collective Effort
At the same time, the group must remain constantly vigilant in this matter and, becoming aware throughout its entire sphere of every manifestation of pride, arrogance, and conceit, take timely measures against it. But, in adopting these measures, it must not use a method that produces in people the dangerous disease of displaying artificial humility and insignificance. There is no more dangerous arrogance than covering conceit with a veil of artificial humility and self-effacement.
Desire for Display
Another bad quality eats away at good works even more destructively than pride: the desire for display. That is, when a person or group performs a good deed to be seen by people or to earn their praise, it reaches this stage. This is opposed not only to sincerity but, in reality, to faith as well; for this reason it has been regarded as hidden shirk. The essential demand of faith in God and the Hereafter is that a person work solely for God’s pleasure, hope for reward only from Him, and look to the results of the Hereafter instead of the world. But the person who desires display makes winning people’s approval his objective and seeks reward from them. This means that he has made people partners and rivals of God. Needless to say, in such a state, however much and at whatever level a person serves God’s religion, it will in no way be for God and for the religion, nor will God ever accept it as a good deed.
This harmful tendency does not merely ruin an action in terms of its results; it also makes it impossible to perform any genuine work with this tendency. One natural feature of this tendency is that a person thinks more about advertising his work than about the work itself. He considers only that to be work which is trumpeted in the world and earns people’s praise. Silent work, of which no one except God is aware, does not seem like work to him. Thus, the sphere of a person’s activity remains confined to work that can be publicized, and once the purpose of publicity has been achieved, he has no further attraction to those works. However sincerely practical work may have begun, as soon as this disease takes hold, a person’s sincerity begins to disappear just as tuberculosis wastes away one’s vital strength. Thereafter, he can no longer live righteously even outside people’s sight or perform any work as his duty. He judges everything by the standard of public recognition and verbal praise. In every action he considers what people like. Even if his conscience, in faithfulness to his faith, approves an action, if he sees that it will destroy his popularity in the world, he becomes incapable even of considering doing such a thing.
For those who sit in a corner of their homes invoking Allah, remaining free of this trial is comparatively easy. But those who enter the wider social arena and engage in reform, public service, and constructive social work constantly face this danger. At any time, the germs of this moral tuberculosis may enter them. They have to undertake many activities that are made public, appeal to the people, and seek to influence them. Because of these, people begin moving toward them and praising them loudly. They also face opposition and, despite themselves, are compelled, for the sake of self-defence, to present their good works before the public. In such circumstances, remaining free from the fascination of fame despite being famous, remaining free from the desire for display despite displaying one’s work, not making popularity one’s goal despite being popular, and not thinking about or desiring people’s praise despite receiving it, is no simple matter. It requires hard work, effort, and spiritual discipline. The slightest negligence in this regard can provide a path for the germs of the disease of the desire for display to enter.
To be saved from this disease, both individual and collective efforts are necessary.
Individual Effort
The method of effort required at the individual level is that every person should arrange, in the utmost secrecy and privately, to perform some good deeds, and should analyze his inner world to see which he feels more attracted to: those secret good deeds or those good deeds made public. If he feels more attracted to the latter, he must immediately become aware that the desire for display has entered him. He must then seek refuge with God and, with firm resolve, try to change this condition of his mind.
Collective Effort
The method of collective effort is that the group must not give the desire for display any place within its sphere. It must limit the disclosure and publicity of its work to what is genuinely necessary. Wherever even the slightest influence of the desire for display is felt, it must immediately block its path. The group’s counsel and discussions must never flow in such a direction as: “If we do such-and-such a work, we will gain popularity, so we should do it,” or, “People like such-and-such a work, so it is necessary to do it.” The group’s internal environment must create a mindset in which people work without caring about praise or blame, and must not cultivate a mindset of collapsing under blame or advancing with renewed energy upon hearing praise. Even so, if some people with a mentality of displaying their work are found within the group, instead of encouraging them, proper treatment for their disease should be arranged.
Defective Intention
The third fundamental fault is a defect in intention. No good work can be founded upon it. Good work can take place in the world only through a sincere intention, free of worldly interests, to spread good works and strive for them in order to attain success before God. No personal or group interest should be connected with this intention. No worldly interest may be mixed with it. Even with any qualification, no hope of personal gain may be attached to this purpose of good work. Such self-interest will not merely destroy a person’s due before God; with this mentality, no genuine work can be done in the world either. A defective intention necessarily affects the work, and it is impossible to succeed in any effort undertaken with defective work when its true purpose is to eradicate evil and establish good.
Here too we face the difficulty I mentioned earlier. For example, when performing partial good works, it is not very difficult to keep one’s intention free of defects. A small degree of connection with God and genuine motivation may be sufficient for this. But those who have undertaken the responsibility of reforming the entire life-system of the country and establishing it as a whole upon the foundations prescribed by Islam cannot rely merely on the reconstruction of thought, publicity and propaganda, or efforts to reform character in order to accomplish their objective. Alongside this, they must necessarily strive, directly or indirectly, to turn the country’s political system toward their objective. In this way, power either comes directly into their hands or is transferred to a group that receives their support and patronage. In either of these two situations, power cannot be considered without political change. The matter now reaches the point of remaining submerged in the sea while trying not to get water on one’s body. For a group to devote all its strength to this work and yet for the personal intentions of its members and the collective intention of the entire group to remain free of the desire for power requires arduous spiritual effort and self-purification.
To develop a correct outlook on this matter, one must grasp the subtle difference between two apparently compatible things. Needless to say, along with other changes, political change naturally transfers power to those striving to change the entire life-system, or to people of their choosing. But there is a vast difference between those who seek power for themselves and those who seek power for their ideals and objectives. Although the authority of principles and ideals is, in practice, the authority of those who bear them, seeking authority for the principles and ideals and seeking authority for their bearers themselves are actually two different things. There is a vast difference between the two in terms of motivation and inner substance. The defect in intention exists in the second, not in the first. Even while striving to the death for the first, one must undertake rigorous spiritual effort so that the slightest scent of the second does not enter the mind. The example of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and the noble Companions is before us. They strove to change the entire life-system and establish it upon Islamic principles and ideals. Political victory and authority were necessary for this, because without them it was impossible to make the religion completely victorious. Although authority and power did in fact come into their hands as a result of this effort, no believer can entertain the suspicion that acquiring power was their objective. On the other hand, examples of those who sought authority for themselves are also found in the pages of history. There is no need even to turn the pages of history to look for such examples; many of them are moving about before our eyes. If the attainment of authority is judged merely as an event, no difference will be seen between the two groups. But in terms of intention, the work, effort, and struggle of both groups, as well as the work of their period of struggle and the work of their period of success, all provide unequivocal testimony.
Those who sincerely seek comprehensive authority over the life-system according to Islamic principles and ideals should personally understand this distinction properly and keep their intentions sound. Their group, too, should make every effort collectively so that the expectation of power and authority for itself can never enter even the remotest boundary of this matter.
Human Weakness
There are also certain faults and shortcomings that, even if they do not demolish the foundation, distort the work through their effects and become destructive if they continue to be nurtured through negligence. Armed with all these weapons, Satan blocks the path of good works, takes human effort from good toward evil, and creates disorder in society. For the health of the social body, the way of these faults must always be blocked. In particular, individuals and groups devoted to the great objective of reforming society and establishing the true religion must remain completely free of them.
A meticulous analysis of these faults reveals that their roots lie in certain human weaknesses, each of which gives birth to countless faults. To understand the matter simply, one must discuss each weakness and understand its significance. Then one must comprehend how it gradually gives birth to evil actions and, by developing and nourishing them, produces various faults and shortcomings. In this way, we will learn the source of each fault and be able to determine what measures must be taken, and where, for its correction.
Self-Worship
Among all human weaknesses, the greatest and most destructive weakness is “self-interest worship.” At its root lies the natural impulse of self-love. This impulse is not blameworthy in its proper measure; within its prescribed limits, it is necessary and beneficial. Allah Most High has kept this impulse alive in human nature for its good. As a result, a person can strive for his own preservation, welfare, and development. But when, at Satan’s prompting, this impulse is transformed into self-worship and self-centredness, it becomes a source of evil instead of good. Thereafter, at every stage of its progress, it continues to give birth to new faults.
Self-Love
When a person considers himself faultless and the repository of all virtues, conceals the awareness of his faults and weaknesses, explains away each of his shortcomings, and finds peace of mind by considering himself good in every respect, the impulse of this self-love raises its head and continues to advance in a winding course. At its very first step, this self-love closes, with his own hand, the door to his reform and improvement.
Then, when a person enters social life with the feeling, “How good I am,” he begins to desire that others should regard him as he has come to regard himself. He wants to hear praise alone. He dislikes criticism. Any word of advice offered for his own welfare wounds his ego. Thus, along with blocking the inner means of his reform, this person also blocks its outer means.
But it is impossible for anyone in the world to attain, in every respect, a situation in social life that suits his hopes and desires. The self-loving and self-worshipping person especially encounters obstacles everywhere. His ego creates within him causes and conditions that make conflict with the countless virtues of society inevitable. On the other hand, society’s overall condition also comes into conflict with his hopes and desires. This situation not only deprives that person of the inner and outer means of reforming himself; the pain of conflict with others and the defeat of his hopes and desires also continue to throw his wounded and agitated ego into one serious evil action after another. In life he sees many people better than himself. He thinks that society values many people more highly than it values him. Many people do not give him the status he desires. Many people obstruct his path to the status he considers himself entitled to. Many people criticize him and damage his reputation. Such varied circumstances kindle in his heart the fire of envy, hostility, and hatred toward different people. He investigates the conditions of others, searches for their faults, backbites, enjoys listening to backbiting, carries tales, whispers, and plots. If the restraints of his morality are already loose, or become loose through constant involvement in such activities, he advances another step and commits serious offences such as making false accusations and spreading malicious propaganda. By continuing these evil deeds, he reaches the lowest level of morality. However, if at some stage he can recognize the initial error of his own that brought him to this point, he can be saved from this fall.
When a single person faces this condition, no social disaster occurs; at most, its effect reaches a few people and stops there. But if many victims of the disease of self-worship exist in society, their harmful influence throws the whole of social life into disorder. Needless to say, where a long chain of mutual suspicion, a spying mentality, fault-finding, backbiting, and tale-bearing continues, many people nurture evil feelings toward one another in their hearts and strive to envy and humiliate one another. Where many wounded egos are filled with a spirit of resistance, nothing can prevent the formation of groups. There, constructive cooperation is out of the question, and even the possibility of cordial relations disappears. In such an environment, conflict and confrontation become inevitable. This conflict and confrontation do not remain confined to those suffering from self-worship; gradually, even good and righteous people become afflicted by this disease. A righteous person can tolerate not only justified criticism to his face but also unjustified criticism, yet backbiting cannot fail to create resentment in his heart. At the very least, it has the effect of making it impossible for him to place trust in the backbiter. Thus, a righteous person may forgive all the excesses committed against him out of envy and hostility. He may disregard abuse, accusations, false propaganda, and oppression even more painful than these. But he cannot confidently conduct dealings with people who have become personally known to him for possessing such evil qualities. From this one can estimate how the social environment in which these evil qualities develop becomes Satan’s favourite field of activity. Even a thoroughly upright person may remain free of confrontation in this matter, but cannot remain free of conflict.
It goes without saying that those who wish to make a collective effort for the reform and reconstruction of society must ensure that their group is completely free of such immoral people. In fact, self-worship is far more harmful to such a group than the germs of cholera and smallpox. In its presence, no good work or reform can even be contemplated.
The Way of Deliverance
Repentance and Seeking Forgiveness
Islamic law begins treating this disease as soon as it starts. Thereafter, at every stage, it continues to give instructions for blocking its path. In various places in the Qur’an and Hadith, believers have been advised to repent and seek forgiveness. The purpose is that a believer should never be afflicted by the disease of self-worship and self-love, should never indulge in vanity, should remain conscious of his weaknesses and faults and acknowledge his mistakes, and, even after accomplishing a great task, should instead of proudly puffing out his chest humbly plead before his Lord that the shortcomings remaining in his service may be forgiven. Who could possess greater perfection than the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him)? Who has accomplished a greater task in the world than he did? Yet after he had accomplished the greatest and noblest task in history, the command issued from the court of Allah Almighty was:
اذا جاء نصر الله والفتح- ورايت الناس يدخلون فى دين الله افواجا- فسبِّح بحمد ربك واستغفره انه كان تواباً –
“When the help of Allah and victory come, and you see people entering Allah’s religion in multitudes, then glorify your Lord with His praise and seek His forgiveness. Indeed, He is ever Accepting of repentance.”
In other words, know that for the great task you have accomplished, praise is due not to you but to your Lord. For it is through His grace that you have succeeded in accomplishing this great task, and you should feel that the task you have performed was not carried out properly and perfectly. Therefore, instead of asking for a reward, pray to your Lord to forgive whatever shortcomings and defects remain in the work. A Hadith narrated from Hazrat Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) in Bukhari Sharif states:
كان رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم يكثر ان يقول قبل موته سبحان الله وبحمده استغفرو الله واتوب اليه –
“Before his death, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) would often say, ‘I glorify Allah with His praise, seek forgiveness from Allah, and repent to Him.’”
(Musnad Ahmad)
The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) would always repent and seek forgiveness. A Hadith narrated from Hazrat Abu Huraira (may Allah be pleased with him) in Bukhari Sharif states that he heard the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) say:
والله انى استغفروالله واتوب اليه فى اليوم اكثر من سبعين مرَّةً –
“By Allah, I seek Allah’s forgiveness and repent to Him more than seventy times every day.”
(Bukhari)
After absorbing the essence of this teaching, the seed of self-worship cannot sprout in anyone’s heart, nor can it grow into a poisonous tree capable of causing ruin.
The Manifestation of Truth
If this defect nevertheless appears in someone, Islamic law blocks its development and manifestation at every step and at every stage of character and conduct, and gives strict instructions in this regard. Its first manifestation, for example, is that a person considers himself above criticism and tries to secure acceptance of his own words and opinions. He cannot tolerate another person criticizing his mistakes. In contrast, Islamic law has made commanding good and forbidding evil obligatory for all believers. In particular, it has regarded speaking the truth before oppressive rulers as the greatest jihad. Thus, an environment is created in Muslim society conducive to forbidding evil and commanding good, in which self-worship cannot find a place.
Envy and Malice
The second manifestation of self-worship is envy and malice. A person develops envy and malice toward the very one who wounds his self-love and self-admiration. His relationship with that person then begins to deteriorate. Islamic law regards this as a sin and has announced severe punishment for those who commit it. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: “Beware! Do not envy one another, for envy consumes good deeds just as fire burns dry wood to ashes.”
The Hadith quotes this stern command in various wordings: “Do not harbor malice toward one another, do not envy one another, and do not stop speaking to one another. It is not lawful for a Muslim to sever relations with his Muslim brother for more than three days.”
Evil Suspicion
The third manifestation of self-worship is through evil suspicion. Once evil suspicion arises, a person goes about searching for others’ faults with a detective’s mindset. Evil suspicion means that, concerning everyone except himself, a person initially assumes that they are all bad and, instead of giving a good explanation for matters that outwardly appear objectionable, always gives them a bad interpretation. He feels no need to investigate the matter in any way. Spying is a product of this evil suspicion. A person first forms a bad opinion about someone else, then begins investigating that person’s circumstances in order to gather evidence in support of it. The Qur’an has counted both these things as sins. Allah says in Surah al-Hujurat:
اجتنبوا كثيرا من الظنِّ اِنَّ بعض الظنَِ اثمٌ ولا تجسَّسوا –
“Stay away from much suspicion, for some suspicion is sinful, and do not spy.”
(Surah al-Hujurat: 12)
The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: “Beware! Do not entertain evil suspicion, for evil suspicion is the gravest form of falsehood.” Hazrat Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated: “We were forbidden to spy and to search for the faults of others. However, if something becomes manifest before us, we will take it to account.” Hazrat Muawiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) said that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: “If you investigate the private affairs of Muslims, you will corrupt them.”
Backbiting
After all these stages comes the stage of backbiting. Whether it is founded on evil suspicion or on genuine truth, backbiting means speaking ill of a person in his absence in order to humiliate and disgrace him, to take pleasure in seeing him disgraced, or to benefit oneself from it. Regarding its definition, the Hadith says: “To speak of your brother in his absence in a manner that he would dislike if he came to know of it.” The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was asked: “What if the fault mentioned actually exists in my brother—would that still be backbiting?” He replied: “If the fault exists in him and you mention it, then you have backbitten him. But if the fault does not exist in him, then you have gone a step beyond backbiting and falsely accused him.” The Qur’an has declared it unlawful. It says in Surah al-Hujurat:
ولا يغتب بَّعضكم بعضاً يحب احدكم ان يّاكل لحم اخيه ميتاً فكرهتموهُ-
“And do not backbite one another. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? Surely you would detest it.”
(Surah al-Hujurat: 12)
The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: “The life, property, and honor of every Muslim are sacred to another Muslim.” The only exception is when there is no intention to defame anyone—for example, when an oppressed person makes a complaint against his oppressor. The Qur’an permits this:
لا يحب الله الجهر بالسوء من القول الا مَنْ ظُلِمَ –
“Allah does not like the public mention of evil, except by one who has been wronged.”
(Surah al-Nisa: 148)
Or consider the example of someone who wishes to marry his daughter to another person or enter into a business transaction with him, and asks an acquaintance for advice. If he knows of a genuine fault in that person, then mentioning it, prompted by the desire for the other’s welfare, is not merely permissible but obligatory. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) himself mentioned faults in such circumstances. It is mentioned in a Hadith that when two men sent marriage proposals to Fatimah bint Qays, she consulted the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) about them. He warned her that one of them was destitute and the other was accustomed to beating his wife. Likewise, the scholars have unanimously declared it permissible to mention the faults of unreliable narrators in order to protect people from their reports, and the Imams of Hadith sciences actually carried out this duty, because it was necessary for the religion. It is also permissible to backbite those who openly oppress people, spread immoral and sinful practices, and openly commit evil. Evidence for this is also found in the conduct of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). Thus, apart from a few exceptions, backbiting is unlawful in every circumstance, and listening to it is also a sin. The listener’s duty is to stop the backbiter; otherwise, to defend the person being backbitten; and, failing that, ultimately to leave the gathering where the flesh of his dead brother is being eaten.
Tale-bearing
The fire kindled by backbiting is spread far and wide by tale-bearing. Self-interest is its real driving force. A tale-bearer cannot wish anyone well. He does not desire the welfare of either of the two people he maligns. He pretends to be a friend to both, while wishing them harm. Thus he listens attentively to both sides without objecting to either, and then conveys the information to one friend. In this way, he helps spread a fire lit in one place to another. Islamic law has declared this practice unlawful, because its destructive power is even greater than that of backbiting. The Qur’an identifies tale-bearing as one of the most despicable human faults. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said:
لا يدخل الجنة نمَّامٌ—meaning:
“No tale-bearer will enter Paradise.”
(Muslim)
He also said: “The worst among you is the one with two faces. He comes to one group with one face and to another group with the other face.” The proper Islamic approach in this matter is that whenever one hears someone being backbitten, one must immediately object, or raise the matter in the presence of both parties and resolve it in such a way that neither side has an opportunity to assume that the other had spoken ill of him in his absence. If the backbiting concerned a fault that actually exists in the person, then on the one hand the backbiter must be warned about his sin, and on the other hand he must be advised to correct the fault.
Whispering and Secret Consultation
The most dangerous of these is whispering into one another’s ears and holding secret consultations. This can lead to widespread conspiracies and factionalism, until mutually opposed and conflicting groups come into existence. Islamic law has issued a strict prohibition against it. The Qur’an identifies it as a satanic act:
انَّما النَّجواى من الِشَّيطان-
Meaning: “Secret whispering is the work of Satan.”
(Surah al-Mujadalah: 11)
The following principled guidance has been given in this regard:
اذا تنجيتم فلا تتناجوا بالاثم والعدوان ومعصيت الرسول وتناجوا بالبرِّ والتَّقواى –
“When you converse privately, do not converse about sin, aggression, and disobedience to the Messenger; rather, converse about righteousness and piety.”
(Surah al-Mujadalah: 12)
In other words, if two or several people converse privately with good intentions and within the bounds of piety, that does not fall under prohibited secret whispering. However, secretly discussing plans for evil while evading the group’s attention, taking action against another group or individual, or resolving to disobey the instructions and rules of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) certainly falls within its scope. Disagreement conducted with faith and sincerity never encourages secret whispering. All relevant discussions should be held openly and before the group. They should aim, through argument, to secure the opposing side’s acceptance. Even if disagreement remains after the discussion, it never becomes a cause of ruin. Secret whispering becomes necessary only when, after separating from the group, people engage in disagreements that, even if not wholly self-interested, contain at least an element of self-interest. The outcome of such whispering is never good. However pure these discussions may seem at first, gradually the entire group becomes a victim of evil suspicion, factionalism, and mutual conflict as a result. When some people emerge as a group through continued secret discussions among themselves, others, observing them, develop the tendency to form groups through similar secret consultations. This initiates a distortion that breaks even the group of the finest righteous people into pieces and involves them in factional conflict with one another. Ultimately, this distortion manifests itself in practice in everyone. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) repeatedly warned the Muslims about this, instilled fear of it, and instructed them to make vigorous efforts to avoid it. He said:
“Satan has despaired of causing those in Arabia who have begun praying to worship him again. Therefore, all his hopes and aspirations are now tied to creating corruption among them and making them clash with one another.”
He even said: “After me, do not become disbelievers by turning against one another, and do not engage in killing one another.” When such a situation arises, the method taught to believers is as follows:
First, they will refrain from taking part in the discord themselves. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said:
“Blessed are those who keep away from discord, and the farther a person stays from it, the better.” In such circumstances, the sleeping person is better than the one who is awake, the one who is awake is better than the one who is standing, and the one who is standing is better than the one who is walking. On the other hand, if they do participate in the discord, they may do so not as a faction but as sincere people striving for reform. Clear instructions regarding this have been given in the first section of Surah al-Hujurat.
It is absolutely essential for those who unite to cultivate virtue and righteousness to understand these rulings of Islamic law concerning the meaning of self-interest and its various stages of manifestation and development. They must make every effort to protect themselves from the diseases of self-love and vanity, and must understand the moral and spiritual harms that appear after one becomes afflicted by them. Their group must also remain collectively vigilant so that the germs of self-interest do not enter it and get an opportunity to multiply. Within their circle, they should not encourage anyone who becomes enraged upon hearing criticism and displays arrogance instead of acknowledging his mistakes. Every person whose words carry the scent of envy, malice, and hostility, or whose conduct shows that he harbors personal animosity toward someone, must be restrained. Action must also be taken against those who harbor evil suspicion about others or spy on their circumstances in an attempt to find their faults. They should block the paths of backbiting and tale-bearing within their society, and wherever discord raises its head, they should immediately adopt the straightforward Islamic principles and method described above. They should be especially alert to the danger of secret whispering, because it initiates division within the group. No one should ever agree when someone tries, through secret whispering about a contentious matter, to make a sincere person his supporter. Whenever there is any indication that some people in the group are adopting such a method, the group must undertake to reform them or uproot the problem. Despite all these efforts, if the discord of factionalism does arise within the group, even sincere people may sit in a corner and begin secret whispering and conspire to form a group. Such activity must never be permitted within the group. Rather, they should themselves stay away from this discord and make personal efforts to stop its progress; if they fail, they should present the matter openly before the group. A group with a majority of sincere people will, upon becoming aware of such discord, immediately resist it. But a group with a majority of people who are afflicted by discord or are complacently heedless will fall victim to the discord and be overwhelmed.
Imbalance of Temperament
The harms of the second category may be summed up in the phrase “imbalance of temperament.” At first glance, in comparison with self-interest, it appears to be a minor weakness. This is because it contains no trace of an evil intention, corrupt motive, or impure desire. Yet when judged by its capacity to produce harm, it ranks immediately after self-interest, and at times the destructive power of its effects and consequences reaches the same level as that of self-interest.
It is the result of imbalance in thought, outlook, action, and effort. It comes into direct conflict with many truths of life. Human life is formed through the reconciliation of countless opposing elements and the combined operation of many diverse causes. The world in which human beings live is likewise constituted. Human beings have been created in this way, and the structures that emerge when people unite are also like this. To work in this world requires such balance in thought and outlook, and such equilibrium in action and effort, as is most compatible with the equilibrium and balance of the natural world. Attention must be given to every current of circumstances, every aspect of action must be observed, every necessary department of life must be given its due, and every demand of nature must be considered. Although complete mental balance may not be achieved in this matter, the balance necessary for success here is indispensable. The closer it comes to the prescribed standard, the more beneficial it will be; and the farther it departs from it, the more it will conflict with the truth of life and become a cause of harm. All the calamities that have arisen in the world to this day, and continue to arise, are caused by people with unbalanced thinking adopting a one-sided approach to seeing and understanding human problems, devising unbalanced plans to solve them, and employing uneven methods to implement them. This is the real cause of distortion. Therefore, constructive work can be made possible only by creating balance in thought and outlook and equilibrium in the method of action.
This quality is especially necessary for implementing the plan Islam has given us for constructing and reforming society. For this plan is, from beginning to end, a practical model of balance and equilibrium. To transfer it from the pages of books into the real world, the most suitable workers are those whose outlook is as balanced as Islam’s plan of construction and whose temperament is as harmonious as Islam’s method of reform. Extremists afflicted by the disease of marginality may distort this work; they cannot carry it out properly.
Imbalance generally manifests itself as failure. To implement any plan for reform and change, it is not enough merely to be convinced of its truth oneself; one must also convince the ordinary people of society of its truth, soundness, usefulness, and effectiveness, and bring one’s movement to such a level and conduct it in such a manner that people’s hopes, aspirations, and interest gradually become connected with it. Only a movement possessing balance in thought, outlook, and method of action can enjoy this good fortune. To implement an extremist plan, extremist methods are adopted, which, instead of attracting and inspiring ordinary people, make them doubtful. This weakness destroys its power of publicity, influence, and penetration. Even if some extremist people come together to lead it, it is not easy to turn the whole of society into extremists like themselves and throw dust in the eyes of the entire world. For any group advancing with a plan for building and reforming society, this is like poison.
Obstinacy
The foremost manifestation of an unbalanced temperament is a person’s obstinacy. After falling prey to this illness, a person generally sees only one side of everything and not the other. He gives importance to one aspect of every matter and disregards the other. Once his mind turns in a particular direction, he continues advancing only in that direction and is unwilling to pay attention to the other. In understanding different matters, he continually becomes a victim of imbalance. He also inclines to one side when forming an opinion. He clings to whatever he considers important. Matters of equal, or even greater, importance become insignificant to him. He deploys all his strength against whatever he considers bad. Yet he does not say a word, even inadvertently, against other bad things of the same degree—or things even worse than it. After adopting a principled stance, he reaches the farthest limit of rigidity in this regard and therefore pays no attention whatsoever to practical demands. On the other hand, after plunging into the field of action, he becomes devoid of principles and, making success his real objective, sets out to employ every means, right or wrong.
One-sidedness
If this condition does not stop at this point, it advances further and assumes the form of extreme one-sidedness. A person then begins to place excessive emphasis on his own opinion. He adopts a harsh attitude toward differences of opinion. He does not view the thoughts and outlook of others fairly, nor does he try to understand them. Rather, he interprets every opposing opinion in the worst possible way and seeks to disparage and reject it. As a result, day by day he becomes unbearable to others, and others become unbearable to him.
Collective Imbalance
If one person adopts this principle, at worst he will become detached from the group and be deprived of fulfilling the purpose for which he joined it; this will cause no collective harm. But when many imbalanced minds and temperaments come together in an organization, every kind of imbalance gives birth to a separate group. One extremism gives birth to another in response. Differences of opinion become increasingly harsh. The organization begins to fracture and splits into different groups. The work for which some people had gathered, motivated by good intentions, is destroyed after being caught in the whirlpool of this conflict and confrontation.
Indeed, work that cannot be accomplished through individual effort, but is by its nature collective, requires many people to work together. Each person must explain his own views and understand those of others. Despite differences in temperament, ability, and personal characteristics, they must create harmony among themselves; without it, no cooperation is possible. Humility is essential for this harmony. Such humility can exist only among people with balanced temperaments, whose thoughts and temperaments are both characterized by equilibrium. Even if imbalanced people come together, their unity does not last long. Their group breaks into pieces, and those afflicted by different forms of imbalance divide into separate groups. Then further divisions appear among them. Eventually, one may find only the imams standing, with no followers behind them.
Those who work for Islam and whom the desire and resolve to reform and reconstruct the system of life on the basis of the Islamic ideal have brought together must examine themselves, protect themselves from all the problems arising from this imbalance, and take measures to prevent this disease from raising its head within the bounds of their group. The Qur’anic and Sunnah directives that strongly oppose extremism should remain before them in this matter. The Qur’an has regarded excessive exaggeration in matters of religion as the fundamental error of the People of the Book: “O People of the Book, do not go to excess in your religion.” And the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), seeking to spare his followers from this, emphatically instructed them in the following words:اِيَّاكم والغلوَّ فانَّما هلك من كان قبلكم بالغلوِّ فى الدين-
“Beware! Do not adopt one-sidedness and extremism, for those before you were destroyed precisely because they adopted extremism.” (Musnad Ahmad)
Hazrat Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said three times in a sermon: “The extremists have perished”—that is, those who adopt harshness and follow the path of excess have perished. In describing the characteristic of his da‘wah, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: “I was sent with the upright, easy way”—that is, he brought, amid the extremism of the earlier communities, a balanced system encompassing breadth and attention to every aspect of the way of life. The first caller to this da‘wah taught those who convey it the method in which they must work in the following words:يسِّروا ولا تعسِّروا وبشِّروا ولا تنفروا-
“Make things easy and do not make them difficult; give glad tidings and do not repel people.” (Bukhari)
انَّما بعثت ميسِّرين ولم تبعثوا معسِّرين –
“You have been sent to make things easy, not to make them difficult.” (Tirmidhi)
ما خيِّر رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم بين امرين قطٌّ الا اخذ اَيْسرَهما مالم يكن اثماً –
“Whenever the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was given a choice between two matters, he always chose the easier of them, so long as it did not involve sin.” (Bukhari and Muslim)
ان الله رفيق يحب الرفق فى الامر كلِّه –
“Allah is gentle and loves gentleness in all matters.” (Bukhari and Muslim)
من يحرم الرفق يحرم الخير كلِّه –
“Whoever is deprived of gentleness is deprived of all goodness.” (Muslim)
ان الله رفيق يحب الرفيق فى ويعطى على الرفق مالا يعطى على العنف ومالا يعطى على ما سواه –
“Allah is gentle and loves the one who is gentle. Through gentleness He grants what He does not grant through harshness or through any other manner.” (Muslim)
If those engaged in establishing the Islamic way of life, keeping these comprehensive directives before them, make a habit not of selecting from the Qur’an and Sunnah whatever suits their own wishes, but of molding their own character and outlook according to them, then the balanced and even-tempered moral qualities needed to resolve the conditions and problems of the world according to the principles given by the Qur’an and Sunnah will arise spontaneously within them.
Narrow-mindedness
Another weakness consistent with an unbalanced temperament is also found in people. It may be called narrow-mindedness. The Qur’an calls it “the selfish greed of the soul.” Concerning it, the Qur’an says, “Whoever is protected from the selfish greed of his soul—it is they who will be successful,” and it regards it, instead of taqwa and ihsan, as a misguided inclination: “The souls are prone to selfish greed; and if you do good and remain mindful of Allah, surely Allah is All-Aware of what you do.” A person afflicted with this disease wishes to leave very little room for others in his living environment. However expansive he may himself be, the space available to him appears extremely narrow from his own standpoint. And however much other people may contract themselves for his sake, he feels as though they are spread out everywhere. He wants every kind of facility and advantage for himself but does not want to offer any facility or advantage to others. He regards his own good deeds as having occurred merely by chance. His own faults appear forgivable in his eyes, but he cannot forgive any fault of another. He regards his own difficulties as genuine difficulties, while in his eyes the difficulties of others are merely excuses. He is unwilling to give others the concessions he seeks because of his own weakness. Without considering others’ incapacity, he makes extreme demands of them, but when he himself is incapable, he is unwilling to fulfill those same demands. He tries to impose his own standards of likes and dislikes and his own tastes on others, but makes no effort at all to respect their tastes and preferences. As this evil quality grows, it reaches such a stage of tale-bearing and fault-finding that he criticizes the slightest fault of others but leaps up angrily when his own faults are criticized. Another form of this narrow-mindedness is becoming quickly enraged, acting arrogantly, and being unable to tolerate one another. In social life, a person afflicted with such a disease is a danger to everyone who associates with him.
The entry of this disease into any group is essentially a sign of danger. Collective effort and striving require mutual love and cooperation. Without these, even four people cannot work together harmoniously. But narrow-mindedness reduces the possibility of creating love and cooperation and often destroys them altogether. Its inevitable result is bitterness in relationships and mutual hatred. It breaks people’s hearts and causes co-workers to engage in conflict with one another. Those afflicted with this disease cannot be useful even for ordinary social life, let alone for accomplishing any great purpose. In particular, this quality is completely contrary to the qualities useful in the struggle to establish the Islamic way of life, where generosity is needed instead of narrow-mindedness, charity instead of miserliness, forgiveness instead of punishment, and gentleness instead of harshness. Therefore, patient and tolerant people are needed. This responsibility can be fulfilled only by those who possess generous hearts; who are strict with themselves and gentle with others; who seek the minimum for themselves and the maximum for others; who see their own faults but the virtues of others; who are more accustomed to enduring pain than causing it; and who have the ability to take the hand of those who are falling and pull them up, rather than pushing aside those who are moving forward. A group composed of such people will not merely keep its own various parts firmly connected; it will also continue to organize the scattered elements of the society around it and connect them with itself. In contrast, a group of narrow-minded people will itself become scattered and, by filling the minds of all outsiders who come into contact with it with hatred, drive them away.
Weakness of Resolve
This disease is very common among people. Its meaning is that a person responds from the heart to the call of a movement and initially shows considerable enthusiasm, but as time passes his enthusiasm wanes. Eventually, he no longer has any genuine connection with the purpose for which he had advanced, nor any real relationship with the group he had joined with deep interest. He remains convinced of the arguments on the basis of which he had accepted this movement as true. He continues to declare it true verbally, and his mind continues to say that the work must be done and certainly ought to be done. But his emotions begin to cool and his capacity for action becomes listless. No trace of an evil intention takes root in him. He does not turn away from the objective, nor does he change his ideal. Therefore, he does not contemplate leaving the group. But after his initial emotion and enthusiasm have cooled, this weakness of resolve begins to manifest itself in various forms.
Because of weakness of resolve, a person initially begins to shirk his work. He hesitates to accept responsibility. He becomes reluctant to spend time, effort, and money for achieving the objective. He begins to give priority to every worldly task over the work that he had regarded as the purpose and goal of his life when he came forward. The share of that supposed purpose of life in his time, effort, and resources keeps diminishing, and he maintains only a mechanical and formal relationship with the group he had joined because he believed it to be true. He has no concern for that group’s welfare or setbacks and shows no interest in its various affairs.
This condition develops gradually, just as old age follows youth. Unless a person becomes aware of his own condition, or someone else makes him aware of it, he never feels the need to consider what he is now doing in relation to the thing he had regarded as the purpose of his life and for which he had resolved to sacrifice his wealth and life. Thus, through mere heedlessness and ignorance, a person’s interest and relationship become lifeless, until one day, ultimately and without realizing it, they suffer a natural death.
If, in the life of a group, people are not warned at the outset about the appearance of this condition and no thought is given to preventing its development, those whose resolve is only beginning to show slight weakness will catch the contagion from the weak-willed person. Thus, even a good and active worker will become inactive upon seeing others inactive. None of them will think that he came not for the sake of others, but to fulfill the purpose of his own life; so why should he deviate from it merely because others have deviated from their purpose and goal? They may be compared to a group of people who abandon the path to Paradise by imitating their companions. It is as though Paradise had not been their own final destination, or as though they wished to enter Paradise only on the condition that their companions went there too. Perhaps, seeing their companions heading toward Hell, they will even resolve to go to Hell with them. For they have no purpose of their own; another person’s purpose is their purpose. Those who move within this mental condition always take inactive people as their examples. Among active people they find no example worthy of following.
Even so, it is far better for a person simply to become inactive because of weakness of resolve. But once a person falls prey to weakness, many other weaknesses also begin to raise their heads, and very few people have the ability to prevent other weaknesses from emerging with the help of one weakness. Generally, people feel ashamed to reveal themselves as weak. They are unwilling to tolerate others considering them weak. They do not openly admit that weakness of resolve has made them inactive. To conceal it, they adopt various methods, and each of these methods is worse than the last.
For example, he makes various excuses for not working and tries to deceive his companions every day by presenting one false pretext or another. He wants to make it appear that the real cause of his inactivity is not his weak connection with, or lack of interest in, the objective, but that there are genuinely many obstacles and difficulties in his way. Thus, falsehood is summoned to assist inactivity. The person who initially merely avoided attaining the highest level of excellence begins his moral decline at this point.
When this excuse becomes stale and proves useless, and there is a fear that the secret of his real weakness will now be exposed, the person tries to make it appear that he did not actually become inactive because of his own weakness; rather, certain faults and shortcomings in the group helped him become mentally paralyzed. In other words, he himself wanted to do many things, but the deviations and errors of his companions broke his spirit. Thus, when a person descending toward ruin can no longer stand even slightly, he sinks lower and, to conceal his own weakness, becomes engaged in trying to destroy the work he was unable to accomplish.
At the initial stage, this mental paralysis remains hidden and indistinct. No trace of this person’s mental illness can be detected. Only vague, suppressed complaints arise against shortcomings, but no detailed account of them is known. If his companions show wisdom, understand the actual illness, and arrange treatment for it, the decline of this falling person may perhaps be halted and he may even be raised up. But most foolish friends, out of excessive enthusiasm and astonishment, begin investigating the matter and compel him to provide details. He then looks around in order to prove that his mental resentment is justified. He selects and gathers various personal weaknesses. He discovers defects in the organization’s arrangements and its work, compiles a list of all these things, and places it before others. He wants to say that seeing these faults has turned him against the group. His argument is, in effect, that he, a perfect man free from every kind of weakness, cannot possibly continue with such weak companions and a group full of defects. When accepting this argument, Satan makes him forget that if it were true, he should have become more active rather than inactive. If others, because of their own defects, had become engaged in distorting the work that he had undertaken as the purpose of his life, he should have devoted himself to accomplishing it with even greater enthusiasm and emotion, and compensated for the faults of others through his own virtues. If your house catches fire and the other people in the house are negligent about extinguishing it, will you sit down in despair, or will you become more active than the negligent ones in saving the burning house?
The most grievous aspect of this matter is that, in order to conceal his own mistakes and prove himself a follower of truth, a person transfers the entire account of his own record of deeds onto the record of another. In doing so, he forgets that the record of deeds contains an account that cannot be increased even slightly through any strategy or deception. He points out many weaknesses in another person’s record, even though he himself is involved in them. He identifies many defects in the group’s work in whose creation his own role is no less than that of others—in fact, it is often greater. He prepares a long list of accusations against the very actions he himself has performed, and when he says that seeing and hearing these things has broken his spirit, the clear meaning is that he is completely free of all these accusations.
No human group is free of weakness. No human work is free of defects. The gathering of angels to reform and reconstruct human society, with all work carried out according to perfect standards, has never been seen in this world and never can be. If one searches for weaknesses, where can one claim that none exist? If one looks for defects, what place is there where they will not be found? Human work is carried out with weaknesses and defects, and despite every effort to reach perfection, at least in this world there is no possibility of reaching a state in which human beings and their work become completely free of defects and flawless.
In this situation, if weaknesses and faults are identified in order to remove them or to continue further effort and struggle to reach the standard of perfection, there is no better work than this. It is through this path that all reform and improvement in human work becomes possible. Negligence in this matter amounts to destruction. But if personal weaknesses and collective faults are sought in order to fabricate excuses for not working and sitting down in despair, this may be called pure satanic whispering and a deceitful stratagem of the lower self. An excuse-maker can resort to this pretext in any promising situation; this excuse-making will not end until some band of angels comes and replaces human beings. It is wholly unbecoming for a person who has not demonstrated freedom from his own weaknesses and faults to resort to this excuse. Such activities never remove any weakness or defect; rather, they pave the way for increasing them. As a result, by following this path a person sets a bad example for other weak-minded people around him. He shows everyone how to acknowledge one’s weakness, avoid becoming an object of ridicule in society, and deceive one’s own mind into feeling at ease. Every inactive person follows his path and begins pretending to be mentally afflicted, compiling a list of the weaknesses of his companions and the faults of the group to substantiate his grief and suffering. From this begins a chain of evil actions. On the one hand, the disease of searching for faults within the group, accusation, and counteraccusation becomes contagious. This destroys its moral character. On the other hand, even good, active, and sincere workers—who had never before allowed weakness of resolve to enter them—gradually become affected by this weakness and mentally paralyzed as a result of dwelling on these weaknesses and faults. Then, when steps are taken to treat this disease, a bloc of resentful people begins to form. Mental resentment takes the shape of a method and a movement. Creating resentment and gathering evidence in support of it becomes an established activity. Those who have become inactive in accomplishing the real objective begin displaying great activity in this work. Thus their dead interest comes to life, but it receives life in such a way that its living is far more grievous than its death.
Every group formed to struggle for the reform and reconstruction of society must remain alert to this danger. Its workers and leaders need to be well aware of the harm arising from weakness of resolve, the difference between its individual and composite forms, and the influence and consequences of each; and as soon as its initial signs appear, it must be corrected.
The fundamental form of weakness of resolve is that a member of the group, while acknowledging his work as right and the group responsible for carrying it out as legitimate, begins in practice to show inactivity and reluctance. As soon as this condition arises, several remedial measures should be taken.
One. The condition of a person afflicted with this disease must be investigated to determine the real cause of his inactivity: is he being kept inactive by a genuine weakness of resolve, or is some real difficulty supplying him with an excuse for becoming inactive? If a genuine difficulty is found, the group should be informed of it. In that case, the companion must be helped to remove it. We should not misinterpret his inactivity, nor should it appear as an example for others. But if weakness of resolve proves to be the real cause, then, rather than proceeding along irrelevant paths, the matter of such a person should be presented intelligently before the group, distinguishing him from those who are unable to be active because of genuine difficulties.
Two. Whenever the condition of a person who has become inactive because of weakness of resolve comes before the group, efforts should be made to remove his weakness through discussion and counsel. In particular, the better members of the group should pay attention to him. His almost lifeless motivation must be revived, and efforts must be made to activate him by keeping him practically engaged alongside them.
Three. Such a person should continue to be criticized. His inactivity and negligence must not become an ordinary matter within the group. Others must not simply sit back relying on one another. From time to time, the group should discuss and review how much of their time, labor, and resources its members can spend in Allah’s path, how much they are actually spending, and what their rate of activity is in relation to their abilities. Then it is natural for the person who appears light on the scales of criticism to feel ashamed. This shame will protect others from inactivity. But the criticism must not be conducted in such a way that a person possessing an individual weakness of resolve becomes afflicted with its composite form. Even when a weakness that arises in someone cannot be removed, the rational course is at least not to let it increase. Excessive zeal born of ignorance can pave the way for a person engaged in wrongdoing to advance toward even greater falsehood. The composite form of weakness of resolve is that a person tries to coat his own weakness with falsehood and deception and, as he proceeds, tries to prove that he has no defect; the defect, he claims, lies within the group. This is not merely a weakness; it is also an expression of bad character. A group that seeks to reform the world on the basis of honesty and morality must not allow any such tendency to develop or be nurtured within it.
In its first stage, a person offers false excuses and baseless pretexts for not working. Ignoring this is tantamount to betraying the person in whom this moral defect is seen to have appeared, and it is also tantamount to betraying the Jamaat with which many people have joined themselves and pledged to sacrifice their lives and possessions for the fulfillment of a great purpose. Every person participating in such a group must possess at least enough moral courage and an active conscience that, even if he does not work because of weakness in his motivation, he gives an unambiguous acknowledgment of his own weakness. Rather than resorting once to lies to conceal this weakness, it is far better for a person to remain immersed in it throughout his life while acknowledging his error. As soon as this error becomes apparent, it should be criticized and never encouraged. If, after being criticized privately, he does not abandon this course, he must be criticized publicly within the group, and the true nature of the excuses he has presented as arguments must be exposed. Showing any weakness or negligence in this matter means opening the door for the very defects previously discussed in detail to enter the group.
In its second stage, the heedless and inactive person blames the weakness of the group’s members and the defects in the group’s work and administration for his condition, regarding these as the cause of his aversion. In reality, this is a danger signal. It reveals that the person is moving toward creating fitnah. At this stage, it is wrong to ask him for the detailed reasons for his aversion. The result of asking him this question would be to help guide him along the path of fitnah, at whose entrance he has already arrived. Instead of granting him broad permission to cast blame, his friends should remind him to fear Allah and shame him by asking how he dares criticize others while his own actions and character are defective. If hardworking, active, and energetic people, and those who have made great sacrifices of money and time, regard his inactivity as the cause of their aversion, that would be reasonable. But when his own share in creating the aversion-causing defects is greater than that of others, and his own conduct in damaging the work is becoming an example for others, how can he feel aversion? There is no doubt that the group must be fully informed of all its defects and weaknesses, and it must never delay learning of them or refrain from trying to correct them. But it is the workers who are most active in the group’s work and who work with all their heart and soul who should state these matters. Moreover, they can criticize sincerely. Those who shirk work, show laxity, and perform defective work cannot come forward to describe the group’s defects and weaknesses. In a moral movement, they can only acknowledge their own shame and defects; they do not possess the ability to criticize and reform. If they themselves are recognized as possessing this ability, it will be regarded as a sign of a grave moral defect. And if this ability is recognized within the group, it will mean that the group has become morally bankrupt.
A principle should be remembered in this connection. There is a clear difference between the perceptions of the healthy organs of a dynamic group and those of its unhealthy organs. Its healthy organs are always absorbed in their work. To make this work successful, they devote all their wealth, minds, and lives to it. Their reports show that they have exerted every effort to accomplish the work and have shown no weakness or negligence in this regard. The unhealthy organs, however, either never work according to their ability or, after remaining active for some time, fall prey to inactivity. Their reports clearly demonstrate their negligence. The difference between these two kinds of perception is like the difference between the eyesight of a healthy eye and that of a diseased eye. A group can gain sound knowledge of its weaknesses and defects only through the perceptions of its healthy organs. An organ that has become inactive and expresses an aversion to remaining involved in the work can never be a reliable medium for it. Even if its perception is not one hundred percent mistaken, it will be eighty or ninety percent misleading. A group that does not wish to commit suicide can never base its conclusions on such perceptions. Whatever defects and weaknesses are brought forward should immediately be met with repentance and istighfar in a tearful voice. Thereafter, to base our judgment of our capacity or incapacity for the work on this would perhaps be an act of piety, but it would not be the piety of a wise person; it would be the piety of a fool. Such pious people have been unable to accomplish anything in the world in the past, and they will not be able to do so in the future. It is great ignorance to hold an inflated opinion of one’s own ability and competence; but it is no less ignorant to estimate one’s defects and capacity for work on the basis of anyone’s comment without examining how accurately the commentator understands the circumstances and how qualified he is to comment correctly on them.
At this stage, another matter should also be properly understood. If a group seeks to implement an ideal, it has two different standards before it for capacity to work and morality. One is the desired standard—that is, the highest standard toward which it must continually strive and labor. The second is the minimum standard for being fit for work, on the basis of which the work can continue and below which it is intolerable to fall. People of different dispositions adopt different methods of action regarding these two standards. One kind of person does not attach particular importance to working for the real objective. Even while remaining connected with the work, he can participate in it in such a way that not the slightest amount of his wealth, time, or strength is expended. This disposition often roams across the sky of morality as a deceptive excuse for intellectual indulgence and attempts at escape, and it cannot be satisfied with anything less than the desired standard. Whatever he sees as falling below it provokes immense agitation and aversion in him. Yet this agitation and aversion arise not to inspire greater commitment to the work, but to escape from it, consciously or unconsciously, in one way or another.
Although a person of the second kind places very great—indeed, complete—importance on working for the objective, because he falls prey to idealism he fails to understand the proper distinction between the desired standard and the minimum standard for being fit for work. He repeatedly finds himself in a dilemma. Moreover, he easily becomes infected by the mentality of the first kind. Thus he troubles himself and becomes a considerable source of trouble for those who work.
People of the third kind genuinely work for the objective. They feel that full responsibility for the success or failure of this work has been placed upon them. Because of this condition and sense of responsibility, they are compelled always to maintain the proper distinction between the two standards and to ensure that progress toward the objective is not affected without a reasonable cause. They never forget the desired standard. They are not heedless for a moment of the need to reach it. They express deep concern about everything that falls below it. Yet they continue the work through the minimum standard for being fit for work, and when people fall below even this standard, they consider it far better to remove and cast them away than to change their plans because of them. For them, it is essential to make a proper assessment of their strength, expand their work accordingly, and increase or decrease its pace as needed. If they err in this, they harm their objective. But a person who seeks guidance for making this assessment through the mentalities of the first and second kinds will demonstrate grave ignorance. Only this third kind of mentality can support and assist him, and it is this mentality that must be developed.
— End —