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The
religion of Islam is a comprehensive system of life, completed by Allah through the medium of
sending the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) to all mankind. The philosophy that
underlines the legislation of Islam is that of perfect balance between individual and collective
responsibility. In other words, there are individual duties and there are societal duties, and the
two go hand in hand. Humans are social beings by nature, and as such must be integrated into
societies. For this reason, scholars of old have said that rectification of the world lies in two
important elements: a system that governs society as a whole, and components of the same system that
result in individual peace.
Islam
is based on principles that address both the individual and the society, as can be derived from the
Qur’an and the example of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). The primary goal
of Islam is the establishment of a society based on peace, security, and justice, so that humanity
can fulfill the purpose for which they were created: to worship God (Allah) in al that they do. In
order to fulfill this noble goal, and thereby ensure the success of society, there are a number of
fundamental principles.
Islam
aims to awaken the heart of the believer and to free him or her from the worship of base desires and
created things, leaving only the worship of the Creator. A believer who experiences this freedom
purifies himself of all subservience to created beings, i.e., everything other than Allah. He learns
that death, affliction, poverty, and debasement all occur with the permission of Allah.
Islam
is the only system that can produce such absolute freedom. The true believer is left independent of
anything save Allah; he calls upon Allah to solve his problems, and even more so, he is content with
his lot at all times.
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Mankind
has a single origin and was created for a single purpose
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Islam
came to finalize the equality of all humans. It came to a people who worshipped many gods, during a
time when the blood of the nobility was considered far superior to that of the common man, to a
mindset that based society on all-pervasive social strata that could never be breached. Under this
modus operandi, the poor would always be poor and subservient to the rich until their deaths.
Contemporaneously, some were debating the true nature of women: did they have souls, and if so, were
they pure evil?
In
such a dismal time to such an unenlightened people did Islam preach its message of equality: mankind
had a single origin, was created for a single purpose, had a single destination, and was in absolute
servitude to and in need of a single God (Allah). It also taught that the only meaningful difference
in rank between Arab and non-Arab, woman and man, poor and rich, educated and unlettered, black and
white was based solely on taqwa (God-consciousness). Finally, Islam insisted that the only things
that would benefit mankind on the Day of Judgment are sound belief and good deeds done solely for
the sake of Allah.
Such
are the essential elements of any society that hopes to achieve true success and happiness. The
hearts of the members of such a society must be linked by a sense of brotherhood – each person
must want for one’s ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ in this society what one wants for oneself.
Second, the society must be governed by a series of clearly defined and recorded rules, which each
citizen must abide by and enforce without exceptions or biases based on social strata. Finally, each
member of society must be and feel completely equal before the law and before Allah. All divisions
between people based on injustice must be immediately eradication.
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Taken with permission with a few editorial changes from Introducing Islam |
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