Islam awakens in man the faculty of reason and exhorts him, to use his intellect. The Quran advised man to pray; O, my Lord! Advance me in knowledge’ (202114). It asserts that those who have no knowledge are not equal to those who have (39:9). That those who do not observe and understand are worse than cattle (7:179); that the meaning of revelation become manifest to those who have’knowledge’ (6:97) and who have ‘understanding’.
Islam is a principal religion and does not indulge in empty and futile theorizing. It says that faith is not a mere profession of beliefs; it is the very mainspring of life. Righteous conduct must follow belief in Allah. Religion is something to be lived and not an object of mere Un-service. The Quran says:’Those who believe and act righteously, joy is for them, and a blissful home to return to’.
A unique feature of Islam is that it does not divide life into water-tight compartments of matter and spirit. It stands not for life-fulfillment. Islam does not believe in asceticism. It holds that spiritual elevation is to be achieved by living piously in the rough and tumble of life and not by renouncing the world.
Thus, Islam does not admit any separation between ‘material’ and ‘moral’, ‘mundane’ and ‘spiritual’ life and enjoins man to devote all his energies to the reconstruction of life on healthy moral foundations. It teaches him that moral and material powers must be welded together and spiritual salvation can be achieved by using material resources for the good of man in the service of just ends, and not by living a life of asceticism or by running away from the challenges of life.
On the other hand, materialistic ideologies have totally ignored the spiritual and moral side of life and have dismissed it as factions and imaginary. Both these attitudes have spelt disaster, they have robbed mankind of peace, contentment and tranquility. Even today the imbalance is manifest in one or the other direction.
The dimensions of morality in Islam are numerous, far-reaching, and comprehensive. The Islamic morals deal with the relationship between man and God, man and his fellow men, man and the other elements and creatures of the universe, man and his innermost self. A Muslim has to guard his external behavior and has manifest deeds, in words and its thoughts, his feelings and intentions. In a general sense, his role is to champion what is right and fight what is going wrong, seek what is time and abandon that is false, cherish what is beautiful and wholesome and avoid what is indecent. Truth and virtue are his goals. Humbleness and simplicity, courtesy and compassion, are his second nature. To him, arrogance and vanity, harshness and difference, are distasteful, offensive, and displeasing to God.
Another unique feature of Islam is that it establishes a balancebetween individualism and collectivism. It believes in the individual personality of man and holds everyone personally accountable to God. It guarantees the fundamental rights of the individual and does not permit any one to tamper with diem. It makes the proper development of the personality of man one of the objectives of its educational policy and does not subscribe to the view that man must lost his individuality in society or in the state.
“Man shall have nothing but what lie strives for”: The Quran.
Deeper reflection reveals that life has within its elements of permanence and change neither is it too rigid and inflexible that it cannot admit of any change even in mattress of detail not is it so flexible and fluid that even its distinctive traits have no permanent character of their own in the human body; every tissue of the body changes a number of times in one’s life, but the person remains the same and fruits of a tree change, but the character of the tree remains unchanged. It is a law of life that elements of permanence and change must co-exist in a harmonious equation.
Last, but not the least, is the fact that the teachings of Islam have been preserved in their original form and God’s guidance is available without adulteration of any kind. The Quran is the revealed book of God which has been in existence for the last fourteen hundred years.
