toxic
12-03-05, 07:36 PM
God is the sole authority
It should be noted that worship in Islam is not limited only to those moments when one is performing ritual acts of worship. Rather, it has a wide and comprehensive meaning that includes all the aspects of life, and as ‘a way of life’ covers the entire scope of life. ‘Worship’ in the ordinary sense, as well as thought, perception and the daily mattes of life-all are included in worship so long as God is one’s goal and end. In other words, worship is the principal basis on which rest all the norms and regulations of life; for brief moments of worship and fleeting rites by themselves do not have a very considerable value in life. They are of significance only when one’s behaviour and conduct and all the affairs of one’s life are clearly and unambiguously based on this principle, and when man bears witness, not merely verbally, but in actual practice that no power and entity is worthy of being worshipped except the sacred Essence of the Creator.
Similarly, ‘worship’ in the teachings of Islam does not mean that one’s heart should be filled with piety and God fearing only when one is performing ritual duties; that once they are over, impiety and vices should dominate one’s soul, divesting him of all goodness and making him shun justice and righteousness. One’s heart does not commune with God in such worship, and such a person is like a lost traveler who cannot advance towards his goal and destination with the hope of the light that illuminates the path in the dark of the night.
The Qur’an declares:
It is not piety that you turn your faces to the East and to the West. True piety is this: to have faith in God and the Last Day, the angles, the Book, and the prophets, to give of one’s substance, however cherished, to kinsmen, and orphans, the needy, the traveler, beggars, and to ransom the slave, to perform the prayer, to pay the alms. And they who fulfil their covenant when they have engaged in a covenant, and endure with fortitude misfortune, hardship and peril, they are they who are true in their faith: these are the truly God-fearing. (2:177)
The basic principle of Islamic education is that there be a perpetual, comprehensive and unbreakable bond between man and God. His object of love and fear, hope and reliance, is God. God is the sole authority to whom he must make recourse in every matter and observe His ordinances, laws and commands in all moments of his life.
(Ethics and Spiritual Growth)
It should be noted that worship in Islam is not limited only to those moments when one is performing ritual acts of worship. Rather, it has a wide and comprehensive meaning that includes all the aspects of life, and as ‘a way of life’ covers the entire scope of life. ‘Worship’ in the ordinary sense, as well as thought, perception and the daily mattes of life-all are included in worship so long as God is one’s goal and end. In other words, worship is the principal basis on which rest all the norms and regulations of life; for brief moments of worship and fleeting rites by themselves do not have a very considerable value in life. They are of significance only when one’s behaviour and conduct and all the affairs of one’s life are clearly and unambiguously based on this principle, and when man bears witness, not merely verbally, but in actual practice that no power and entity is worthy of being worshipped except the sacred Essence of the Creator.
Similarly, ‘worship’ in the teachings of Islam does not mean that one’s heart should be filled with piety and God fearing only when one is performing ritual duties; that once they are over, impiety and vices should dominate one’s soul, divesting him of all goodness and making him shun justice and righteousness. One’s heart does not commune with God in such worship, and such a person is like a lost traveler who cannot advance towards his goal and destination with the hope of the light that illuminates the path in the dark of the night.
The Qur’an declares:
It is not piety that you turn your faces to the East and to the West. True piety is this: to have faith in God and the Last Day, the angles, the Book, and the prophets, to give of one’s substance, however cherished, to kinsmen, and orphans, the needy, the traveler, beggars, and to ransom the slave, to perform the prayer, to pay the alms. And they who fulfil their covenant when they have engaged in a covenant, and endure with fortitude misfortune, hardship and peril, they are they who are true in their faith: these are the truly God-fearing. (2:177)
The basic principle of Islamic education is that there be a perpetual, comprehensive and unbreakable bond between man and God. His object of love and fear, hope and reliance, is God. God is the sole authority to whom he must make recourse in every matter and observe His ordinances, laws and commands in all moments of his life.
(Ethics and Spiritual Growth)