Witness Unto Mankind
(Shahadat-e-Haq) �شہادت
حق�
By Abul A'la Maududi
Translated and
Edited by Khurram Murad
1. Praise and Salutations -
Our Message --- 2.
2. The Purpose and Duty of the Muslim Ummah --- 4
3. How Should We Witness to the Truth? --- 18
4. Where Do we Stand?
--- 21
5. And With What Consequences! --- 25
6. What is Our Real Problem? --- 38
2 / 41
1. Praise and Salutations -
Our Message
Praise and Salutations All praise be to God who alone is the Creator, Master and
Sovereign
of the universe. It is He who rules over it
with perfect wisdom,
absolute power and infinite mercy. He who has created man,
endowed him with knowledge and reason, made him His vicegerent
on earth, and has sent His Books and Messengers to guide him. May
God bless all those righteous and noble servants of His who
were appointed to teach man how to live as true human beings and
who made man aware of the real purpose of his life, and showed
him the right way to live in this world. Whatever measure of true
guidance, morality, piety, and selflessness that the world possesses
today, it owes to the teachings of these servants of God, peace be
upon them. This is a debt that can never be sufficiently repaid. Our
Message Brothers and friends, we usually divide our meetings into two
parts.
In one part, we review,
among ourselves, our activities and discuss
plans for their advancement. The other part we devote to conveying
our message to the people of the area where we hold our meeting.
We have, thus, asked you to
join us in this meeting so that we may
explain our message to you. On the one hand our message is addressed to
Muslims, and on the
other hand to all those human beings who are outside the fold of
Islam. It is unfortunate, however, that I do not see here today
people belonging to the second category. Our past mistakes and
present errors are responsible for alienating a great many people
from us. Therefore, we hardly ever find the opportunity either to
draw them near to us or draw near to them, so that we may
communicate to them the message sent by God, in whom we all
believe, through His Messengers for the guidance of us all. Since we
do not have any non-Muslims present amongst us, I shall only 3 / 41
concentrate upon that part of our message which is meant for
Muslims. 4 / 41
2. The Purpose and Duty of
the Muslim Ummah
Responsibilities and Duties
To the Muslims we have only one very simple
thing to say:
Understand and fulfil the responsibilities and duties that fall upon
you by virtue of your being Muslims. You cannot get away with
merely affirming that you are Muslims and that you have accepted
God as
your only God and Islam as your religion. Rather,
as soon as
you acknowledge Allah as your only Lord and His guidance as your
way of life, you take upon yourselves certain obligations and duties.
These obligations you must
always remain conscious of, these
duties you must always endeavour to discharge.
If you evade them,
you shall not escape the evil consequences of your conduct in this
world or in the Hereafter. What are these duties? They are not merely
confined to the
affirmation of faith in Allah, His Angels, His Books, His Messengers,
and the Day of Judgement. Nor are they
confined to performing the
Prayers, observing the
Fasts, going on the Pilgrimage, and paying
the Alms. Nor are these duties exhausted by observing the
injunctions of Islam relating to marriage, divorce and inheritance.
Over and above all these
duties, there is one which is the most
important: that your lives bear witness to the Truth that you have
been given by God before all mankind, the Truth which you believe
to be true. The Only Purpose of Existence The Qur'an clearly
states that witnessing to the Truth in a manner
that would leave mankind with no justifiable ground to deny it is the
only purpose behind constituting you as a distinct Ummah
(community),
named Muslims. And thus We have made you a community
of the middle way, so
that you may be witnesses [to the Truth] before all mankind, and
the Messenger may be witness [to it] before you (al-Baqarah 2:
143). 5 / 41
This mission is the sole
objective for which your Ummah has been
brought into being, it is the raison d'etre of
its existence as a
society of human beings. Unless you fulfil it
you are squandering
your life. For this is no ordinary duty; it is a duty enjoined on you
by
God. It is a Divine command and a Divine call: O believers, be ever
steadfast in standing up, for the sake of God,
bearing witness to justice (al-Ma'idah 5: 8) .
It is not a mere trifle but an emphatic and grave mandate, for Allah
also says: And who is a greater wrong-doer than he who suppresses a
witness
entrusted to him by God (al-Baqarah 2: 140). You
have been warned of the consequences of evading this duty.
Look at the history of the
people of Israel. They too were appointed
to stand in the witness-box; but sometimes they suppressed the
Truth, and sometimes they
witnessed against it. By their conduct,
they, in fact, became witnesses to falsehood rather than witnesses
to the Truth. The consequence was that God forsook them and a
curse fell upon them. And so, humiliation and powerlessness afflicted
them, and they
earned God's anger (al-Baqarah 2: 61). Witness
to the Truth What does this duty of witness imply? Consider it carefully:
You
have been given Divine guidance, you have been shown the Truth.
You must, therefore,
establish by your testimony and witness its
authenticity and truthfulness before all mankind. This is a testimony
that will make the authenticity and truthfulness of Divine guidance
self-evident, for all to see, and a witness that will make it clear and
indisputable for all people. For this very purpose all the Messengers were
sent to the world;
this was their primary duty. After them, their followers were
entrusted with the same duty. And now the Muslim Ummah,
as the 6 / 41
successor to the Last Prophet, blessings and peace be on him, is
charged with this very mission, just as he was charged with it
during his lifetime. Nature and Importance What is the importance
of this witness? You will know its importance
only when you understand that man has been made accountable for
his conduct and will be rewarded and punished in the Hereafter
under the Divine Law which rests entirely on this witness. God is All-
wise, All-merciful, and All just. His mercy, justice and wisdom are
not such that He should punish people for living against His will
while they had no knowledge of it, that He should take people to
task for deviating from the right path of which they were ignorant,
that He should hold people accountable for things of which they
were unaware. [1] It was as a provision against this that the first
man He created was a Messenger, and that after him many more
were sent from time to time. [2] They were all to be witnesses to
mankind, to make it understand and remember the will of God.
They were all to teach
human beings the proper way of conducting
their lives, the code of behaviour that they
should adopt to win
God's favour,
the acts that they should perform, the acts that they
should avoid, and the things for which they will be brought to
account. [3] This witness was given by Allah's Messengers so that the
people
may not be in a position to say to God: How can we be punished for
things of which we were not warned? The Qur'an says: [We sent] all
Messengers as heralds of glad tidings and as warners,
so that men may not have any argument against God, after [the
coming of] these Messengers; God is indeed All-mighty, All-wise (al-
Nisa' 4: 165). In this manner God made His Messengers bear the crucial
responsibility for guiding man on His behalf. They were thus
charged with a very delicate and grave responsibility: if they bore
witness to the Truth properly, the people would be accountable for
their own actions, but if they failed in their duty, they themselves 7 / 41
would be called to account for their people going astray. In other
words, unless the Messengers made people responsible for their
conduct by giving them conclusive and indisputable testimony to the
Truth, the people would
hold the Messengers responsible for their
own misdeeds, saying: 'The knowledge that God gave you, that you
did not communicate to us; the way of life that He showed you, that
you did not show US.' [4] That is why all
the Messengers always
remained acutely conscious of the burden of this responsibility, and
that is why they endeavoured so hard to bear
witness before the
people to the Truth entrusted to them. [5] Responsibility of the Ummah All those who were led by the Messengers to the
knowledge of the
Truth and Divine guidance
were formed into a community, an
Ummah. Every Ummah
was charged with the same mission as the
Messengers
of witnessing to the Truth. As
successors to the
Messengers, every Ummah has the same crucial role and
responsibility as they had. Thus, if an Ummah properly
fulfils its
duty of witnessing to the Truth and yet the people do not pay heed,
it will be rewarded and the people will be brought to account.
However, if the Ummah neglects its duty, or if it gives false witness,
it will deserve to be punished more severely than the people. The
Ummah shall be accountable not only for its own misdeeds, but also
for the misdeeds of those who went astray or turned to error and
wickedness because the testimony given to them by the Ummah
was misleading or false. This, brothers, is the nature and logic of
that grave and crucial duty
which lies upon me, you and all those who consider themselves part
of the Muslim Ummah, or those who have
become sufficiently aware
of God's Book and the guidance brought by His Messengers. Notes by Khurram Murad
1. Law of God for Judgement: The
Qur'an has explained in considerable detail the law under which
man's accountability on the Day of Judgement
depends upon the 8 / 41
witness to the Truth rendered by its bearers before him. It is
important to understand what the Qur'an says in this regard. Firstly, why
has man been placed on earth? So that he may use his
full and enormous potential to conduct himself in that right manner
which will fulfil the meaning in his life.
And He it is who has created the heavens and the earth in six days,
and His throne was upon the waters, so that He might test you
which of you is best in conduct (Hud 11: 7).
He who has created death and life, so that He might test you, which
of you is best in conduct (al-Mulk 67: 2).
We have made all that is on earth an adornment for it, and so that
we might test which of them is best in conduct (al-Kahf 18: 7). Secondly, what is the meaning and purpose of
man's life? That he
lives as his Creator desires him to live: in surrender and worship to
Him
alone. Not because God in any way
needs his worship, but
because man needs to worship only his Creator and none else so
that his own nature is not perverted and corrupted, and so that he
does not live in opposition to its intrinsic character. Also, only by
so
living, will his earthly life be set on the right path and will prosper,
bringing him peace and happiness (all of which the Qur'an calls
falah). And I
have not created Jinn and mankind except to serve and
worship Me. I desire of them no provision, neither do I desire that
they should feed Me (al-Dhariyat 51: 5S7).
Thirdly, and consequently, man's earthly life must be judged. He
must give an account of his conduct, and he must face the
consequences of how he lives his life. Obviously, to be judged fairly,
this judgement must be made only after his
earthly life has come to
an end, and only by the One who gave this life, who knows
everything, and who is All-Powerful and All-Just. Only then can he
be judged fairly, and duly rewarded and punished, for everything
from the most hidden innermost thoughts to the consequences of 9 / 41
his conduct that extend far and wide, and beyond life for
generations to come. The judge, in other words, must be the King
and Master of the Day of Judgement. What,
did you think that We created you in mere idle play,
and that
you would not be returned to Us? But, high exalted is God, the King,
the True! There is no god but He, the Lord
of the Noble Throne (alMu'minun
23: 115-16). And We have not created the heavens and the earth and all that
is
between them in mere idle play; We have not created them but with
truth [meaning and purpose], but most of them understand it not
(al-Dukhan 44: 38-9). Or, do those who commit evil deeds
think that We shall place them
on an equal footing with those who believe and do righteous deeds,
both in their life and their death? How bad is their judgement! God
has created the heavens and the earth with truth [meaning and
purpose], so that every human being shall be recompensed for what
he has earned, and they shall not be wronged (al-Jathiyah
45: 212).
Every human being shall
taste death; and you shall surely be
paid in full your wages on the Day of Resurrection; whosoever
[then]
is saved from the Fire and admitted to Paradise, he indeed
wins the triumph; worldly life is nothing but enjoyment of delusion
(Al 'Imran
3: 185). And We shall set up just balance-scales on Resurrectlon Day, and
no human being shall be wronged anything; even if it be the weight
of a mustard-seed, We shall bring it forth, and sufficient are We as
reckoners (al-Anbiya' 21: 47). He knows the [most]
stealthy glance, and what the hearts conceal
(Ghafir
40: 19). Fourthly, therefore, man's ultimate destiny lies in the life to come,
in the Akhirah. Equally important is the
fact that the account of the
Akhirah as given in the Qur'an clearly
demonstrates, and repeatedly
emphasizes, that one will be judged there by due process of justice,
fairly and equitably, mercifully and kindly. Also, no one will be 10 / 41
wronged or dealt with unjustly even by an atom's weight. And vie with one
another, hastening to forgiveness from your Lord,
and to Paradise as vast as the heavens and the earth, which has
been prepared for the God-conscious (Al 'Imran
3: 133). O my people, surely this worldly life is but a brief enjoyment; surely
the world to come is the home abiding. [There] whosoever does an
evil deed shall be recompensed only with the like of it, but
whosoever does righteous deeds be it man or woman, and is a
believer those shall enter Paradise, therein provided [with blessings]
beyond all reckoning (Ghafir 40: 39-40).
Surely God shall not wrong so much as an atoms weight (al-Nisa'
4:
40). Fifthly,
in all fairness, therefore, man must be made aware of how
he should live his earthly life. In other words, he should know of
his
Creator and Lord, of what
He desires of him, of how He wants him
to worship Him and surrender to Him. Unless man knows all this, he
cannot be held fully responsible and accountable if he pursues a
wrong way of life. Such knowledge has been given to him in his own
nature, in the universe around him, and in the revelations sent
through God's Messengers. And when your Lord brought forth from the
Children of Adam, from
their loins, their descendants, and made them bear witness about
themselves: Am I not your Lord? They said: Yes, we bear witness
lest you say on the Day of Resurrection: We were unaware of this.
Or lest you say: Our
fathers ascribed partners [to God] aforetime,
and we were but their descendants after them. What, wilt Thou then
destroy us for the deeds of the vain-doers? (al-A'raf 7: 172-3) . How many a sign there is in the
heavens and on earth which they
pass by [unthinkingly], and on which they turn their backs! And
most of them do not believe in God, but they ascribe partners [to
Him]
(Yusuf 12: 105-6). [And God will say:] O
community of jinn and men, did not 11 / 41
Messengers come unto you
from among you, who conveyed unto
you My revelations and warned you of the meeting of this your day?
. . . That is because your
Lord would not destroy communities
unjustly, while their people are ignorant (al-An'am
6: 130-1). Sixthly, for a number of reasons, all of which it is not possible to
discuss here, only God, and no one else, can provide man with the
knowledge of the right guidance. Firstly and primarily, because only
He can tell how man should
relate to Him. Secondly, because only
the Creator can tell him how he should relate to himself, to other
human beings, and to all other things in the universe. And, finally,
because only God can give man a guidance which will be applicable
universally, and for all times. Say: Is there any of those you associate
[with God] who guides to
the Truth? Say: Only God guides to the Truth. Thus, then, He who
guides to the Truth deserves more to be followed or He who cannot
guide unless he be guided? What ails you? How judge you? And
most of them follow nothing but conjecture, and conjecture can
never take the place of truth (Yunus 10:
35-6). Say: Shall we call, apart from God, on that which neither benefits
us nor harms us, and shall we be turned back on our heels after
God has guided us aright? Like one lured to bewilderment on the
earth by Satans, and he has friends who call
him to guidance: Come
to us! Say: God's guidance is the only [true] guidance; and so we
have been commanded to surrender to the Lord of all the worlds
(al-An'am 6: 71). This, then, is the Divine law for the judgement of man. Central to
this law is that the Truth be witnessed before mankind fully,
faithfully, and by all possible means. For without guidance from
God, man's earthly life,
both individual and collective, will result in
misery and suffering. But, more importantly, without that guidance
man will never be in a position to make his ultimate destiny
glorious. 12 / 41
2. God's promise to guide: Adam, according to the Qur'an, is neither a mythical figure nor
merely a symbol of the human race. He is mentioned, as a
Messenger,
along with Noah and Abraham. God
chose Adam, and Noah, and the House of Abraham and the
House of Imran above all mankind, offspring of one another (Al
'Imran
3: 33). He was given knowledge and guidance (2: 31-5); when he erred
and his weaknesses became known to him, God turned towards him
in mercy, exhalted him, guided him and
promised him and his
progeny continuing guidance (20: 115-27, 2: 3S9). Adam disobeyed his
Lord, and so he erred. Thereafter his Lord
chose him, and so He turned towards him, and He guided him. He
said: Get you down, both of you, from here, each of you an enemy
to each. Nonetheless, there shall most certainly come unto you
guidance from Me; and he who follows My guidance shall not go
astray, neither shall he be unprosperous. But
whosoever turns away
from My remembrance, his shall be a life of narrow scope; and on
the Resurrection Day, We shall raise him blind. He shall say: O my
Lord, why has Thou raised
me blind, whereas I was given sight?
God shall say: Thus it is.
Our revelations came unto you and you did
forget them; and so today you are forgotten (Ta Ha 20: 121-6). 3.
Messengers and their mission: It was in fulfilment
of this promise to mankind that, firstly, God sent
His Messengers with His
guidance, with the Truth, to every people
some of them the Qur'an has named, some it has not. We have sent you
[O Prophet] with the Truth, as a bearer of glad
tidings and a warner; not a community there is,
but there has
passed away in it a warner (al-Fatir 35: 24). We have revealed to you [O Prophet] as We revealed to Noah and
the Prophets after him, as We revealed to Abraham and Ishmael 13 / 41
and Isaac and Jacob and their descendants, including Jesus and Job
and Jonah and Aaron and Solomon, and as We gave to David
Psalms; and Messengers We
have mentioned to you before, and
Messengers We have not mentioned to you; and as God spoke His
word unto Moses. Messengers [We sent] as heralds of glad tidings
and as warners, so that mankind might have
no excuse before God
after [the coming of] the Messengers; and God is All-mighty, All-
wise (al-Nisa' 4: 163-5). Secondly, He
charged all of them with this mission and duty: to
communicate the Truth, to invite people to worship the One God
alone and surrender to Him as their only Lord by word and example.
In other words, to witness
to the Truth before men and women to
whom they were sent, so that they could have no plea to make
before God, so that they could be questioned as to how they lived
their lives, so that those who lived by the Truth could be rewarded,
and those who did not could be punished. And We
never sent, before you, any Messenger except that We
revealed to him: There is no god but I; so serve and worship only
Me (al-Anbiya' 21: 25). And this
was Our argument, which We gave to Abraham as against
his people. We raise up in degrees whom We
will; surely your Lord
is All-wise, All-knowing. And We gave Isaac
and Jacob, and both of
them We guided and Noah We
guided beforeand [We guided] of his
descendants: David, and Solomon, and Job, and Joseph, and Moses,
and Aaron and thes do We reward the doers
of good Zachariah and
John, and Jesus, and
Elijah, each was of the righteous; and
Ishmael,
and Elisha, and Jonah, and Lut. And every one of them did
We favour
above other people. And [likewise We guided] some of
their forefathers and their descendants and their brethren. And We
elected them, and guided them onto the straight path. That is God's
guidance; He guides by it whomsoever He wills of His servants. And
had they ascribed partners [to God], in vain would have been all
that they ever did. Those are they to whom We
gave the Book, and
the Judgement, and the Prophethood.
So if these deny this [Our
guidance], We have entrusted it to people who do not disbelieve in
it. Those [Messengers] are they whom God has guided; follow, 14 / 41
then, their guidance. Say: I ask of you no reward for it; it is but a
reminder unto all mankind (al-An'am 6: 83-90).
Indeed We sent forth Our Messengers with clear
revelations and We
sent down with them the Book and the Balance, so that mankind
may establish justice (al-Hadld 57: 25).
The Prophet Muhammad was the last of them. He did not bring any
new Truth, message or guidance; he came with the same Truth,
and was entrusted with the same mission and duty as were all the
Messengers
preceding him. This duty and mission has
been
expressed in a number of ways: warning (indhar),
bringing glad
tidings (tabshir), inviting and calling (da'wah), communicating
(tabligh), reminding (dhikr),
teaching (ta'lim), conveying and
propagating (tilawah), enjoining and promoting what
is good and
right and forbidding and eradicating what is wrong and bad (amr bi
'l-ma'ruf
wa nahl 'ani 'l-munkar), establishing Din
(iqamah),
establishing justice (qist), making the Divine
guidance and Din
prevail (izhar), or witnessing (shahadah). All these expressions
pertain to the same mission, though from different perspectives and
with different emphases. O Prophet, We have sent you as a witness [to
the Truth], and as a
herald of glad tidings and a warner, and as
one who calls to God, by
His
leave, and as a light-giving lamp (al-Ahzab 33:
45-6). O Messenger, deliver that
which has been sent down to you from
your Lord; for if you do not, you will not have delivered His
message (al-Ma'idah 5: 67). Even so We have sent among you, of yourselves, a Messenger, to
convey unto you Our revelations, and to purify you, and to teach
you the Book and wisdom, and to teach you that which you knew
not (al-Baqarah 2: 151). It is He who has
sent forth His Messenger with the guidance and the
way of the Truth, so that he makes it prevail over all other ways of
life; and God suffices as a witness (al-Fath
48: 28; also 9: 33, 61:
9). 15 / 41
. . . and
those [among the followers of Moses] who follow the
Messenger, the unlettered
Prophet, whom they find written down
with them in the Torah and the Gospel, who will enjoin upon them
the right and forbid them the wrong, and make lawful to them the
good things and make unlawful for them the bad things, and lift
from them their burdens and the shackles that were upon them.
Those who believe in him
and succour him and help him, and follow
the light that has been sent down with him it is they who are the
prosperous (al-A'raf 7: 157). 4. Man's
accountability and the witness: The witness given by the Messengers, and by
all those who are
charged with the same duty, is the basis for man's accountability in
the Akhirah, and his consequent reward and
punishment. The Truth
is witnessed before them so that they are left with no argument
against God; they will be charged because they received it: this
position has been stated in the Qur'an in many places and from
many different perspectives, as we have seen before. Whoever follows
the right path, follows it for his own good, and
whoever goes astray, goes astray to his own loss; and no bearer of
burdens shall bear the burden of another. We never chastise, until
we have sent forth a Messenger (al-Isra'
17:15) So, [on Judgement Day,] We shall most
certainly call to account all
those unto whom [Our] message was sent, and We shall most
certainly call to account the Message-bearers and thereupon We
shall most certainly relate unto them [their account] with
knowledge, for We were never absent (al-A'raf 7:
6-7). And when
We took a pledge from all
the Prophets from you [O Prophet], and
from Noah, and Abraham, and Moses, and Jesus, the son of Mary
We took from them a solemn
pledge, so that He might question the
truthful concerning their truthfulness, and He has prepared for
those who deny the truth a painful punishment (al-Ahzab
33: 7-8). The day when God shall assemble all the Messengers, and say:
What answer were you given?
They shall say: We have no 16 / 41
knowledge; Thou art the Knower of the things unseen (al-Ma'idah
5:
109). [And God will say:] O
community of jinn and men, did not
Messengers come unto you
from among you, who conveyed unto
you My revelations and warned you of the meeting of this your day?
They shall say: We bear
witness against ourselves. They were
deluded by the life of this world, and they bear witness against
themselves that they had been disbelievers (al-An'am
6: 130). Then the disbelievers shall be driven in companies into Jahannam
till, when they reach it, its
gates will be opened, and its keepers will
say to them: Did not Messengers come to you, from among
yourselves, who conveyed unto you your Lord's revelations, and
warn you against the meeting of this your Day? They shall say: Yes,
indeed! But the word of punishment will have fallen due upon the
disbelievers; and it shall be said to them: Enter the gates of
Jahannam, to dwell therein forever. How evil
is the abode of those
who are arrogant! (al-Zumar
39: 71-2). Surely We shall help Our Messengers and
those who have believed,
in this world's life and on the Day when all the witnesses shall
stand
up the day when their excuses shall not profit the evil-doers, and
theirs shall be the curse, and theirs the evil abode (Ghafir 40: 1-2). 5. Sense of responsibility: The
Qur'an gives a very moving account of how God's Messengers
devoted themselves in all earnestness to their mission, how they
laboured hard to fulfil their duty, how they suffered heavily in their
cause. Their history is ample testimony of this. But here two
examples should suffice: firstly, that of the Prophet Noah and
secondly, that of the Prophet Muhammad, blessings and peace be
on them. Indeed, We sent Noah unto his
people, and he dwelt among them a
thousand years, all but fifty . . . (al-'Ankabut
29: 14) . He [Noah] said: My Lord, I have been calling my people night and 17 / 41
day, but my call has only caused them to flee farther away. And
whenever I called them, that Thou mightest
forgive them, they put
their fingers in their ears, and wrapped themselves in their
garments, and persisted, and became arrogant in their pride. Then
indeed I called them openly, then indeed I spoke publicly unto
them, and I spoke unto them in private (Nuh.
71: 5-9). Would you [O Prophet], perhaps, torment yourself to death because
they refuse to believe? (al-Shuiara'
26: 3). 18 / 41
3. How Should We Witness to
the Truth?
Let us now see in what
manner we should discharge our duty of
witnessing to the Truth. Witnessing is of two types: one, witness by
words, or the word-witness; the other, witness by acts and deeds,
or the act-witness. [6] Word-witness In what way should our
words witness to the Truth? Through our
speech and writing, we should proclaim and explain to the world the
guidance that has come to us through God's Messengers. This, in
sum, is the word-witness. Employing all possible methods of
education, using all possible means of communication and
propagation, mastering all knowledge provided by the contemporary
arts and sciences, we should inform mankind of the way of life that
God has laid down for man.
The guidance that Islam gives to
humanity in thought and belief, in morality and behaviour,
in culture
and civilization, in economics and business, in jurisprudence and
judiciary, in politics and civil administration that is, in all aspects of
inter-human relations we should clearly and fully expound before
mankind. By rational discourse and convincing evidence, we should
establish its truth and soundness. By soundly reasoned critique, we
should rebut all that is contrary to the guidance given by God. The task
is enormous. Full justice cannot be done to it unless the
thought of guiding man to the right path seizes the whole Ummah
as completely as it did each Messenger personally. It is essential,
too, that this task should become the central objective of all our
collective endeavours, that we should commit all
our hearts and
minds, all of our resources, to this cause. Uppermost in all our
actions should be this objective. Under no circumstances should we
allow any voice within ourselves to bear witness against the Truth
and Divine guidance that we have. Act-witness In what way
should our acts and deeds witness to the Truth? For 19 / 41
this purpose, the guidance that we hold to be true we must put into
practice. Our actions should demonstrate the principles we profess
to believe in. Put simply: let our lives speak the truth, and let
the world hear it
not merely from our lips but also from our deeds; let mankind
witness all the blessings that the Divine guidance brings to human
life. Let the world taste in our conduct, individual and collective,
that sweetness and flavour which only the
faith in One God can
impart to character and morality. Let the world see what fine
examples of humanity are fashioned by Islam, what a just society is
established, what a sound social order emerges, what a clean and
noble civilization arises, how science, literature, and art flourish
and
develop on sound lines, what a just economy compassionate and
free from conflict is brought about. Indeed, how every aspect of life
is set right, developed and enriched. We shall not be doing our duty
to this task unless our lives,
individual and collective, become a living embodiment of Islam:
unless our personal characters are a living proof of its truth, our
homes are fragrant with its teachings, our businesses and factories
are illuminated by its rules and laws, our schools and institutions
are shaped by its ideas and norms, and our literature and media
reflect its principles. Indeed until our entire national policy and
public life make its truth manifest and self-evident. In short, wherever
and whenever any individual or people come in
contact with us it is our duty to convince them, by our example,
that the principles and teachings which Islam proclaims to be true
are indeed true, and that they do improve the quality of human life
and raise it to better and higher levels. The Islamic State Finally,
I should state one more important thing. This witness of
ours would not be complete unless we establish a state based on
the principles and teachings of Islam. By translating its ideals and
practices, its norms and values, its rules and laws, into public
policies and programmes, such a state would
demonstrate how the 20 / 41
Divine guidance leads to
equity and justice, reform and upliftment,
caring and efficient administration, social welfare, peace and order,
high standards of morality in public servants, virtue and
righteousness in internal policies, honesty in foreign policies,
civilized conduct in war, integrity and loyalty in peace. Such public
conduct would be a living testimony for all mankind that Islam is
indeed the true guarantor of human well-being, that only following
its tenets can ensure the good of mankind. Only when the Truth is
witnessed in this manner, by both words and
actions, will the crucial responsibility laid upon the Muslim Ummah
be fully discharged. Only then will no ground remain for mankind to
deny or turn away from the Divine guidance. Only then, in the
Hereafter, will the Muslim Ummah be in a position to take the
witness-stand after the Prophet, blessings and peace be on him,
and declare that: Whatever truth and guidance we were given by
this Prophet, that we conveyed to mankind; those who did not
follow it are themselves to blame for going astray, not us. This is the
real meaning and scope of the witness that we as
Muslims ought to have been
giving to the world, both by our words
and our deeds. But now let us turn to the actual state of affairs and
examine the witness that we in fact are giving in favour
of the
Divine
guidance. Notes
by Khurram Murad 6.
Types of witness: The witness by word may be taken to be broadly subsumed
under
the Quranic terminology of warning (indhar), bringing glad tidings
(tabshir), inviting and calling (da'wah),
communicating (tabligh),
teaching and instructing (ta'lim), conveying and
propagating
(tilawah). The terminology for the witness by actions
includes
establishing Islam (iqamatu 'd-din), making God's
guidance and
way of life prevail over all others (izhar),
establishing justice (qist),
enjoining right and forbidding wrong, and Jihad. 21 / 41
4. Where Do
we Stand?
Our Word
-Witness First, look at the
testimony that is being given by our word-witness.
There are few people
amongst us who are using their tongues and
pens to witness to the truth of Islam. Still fewer in number are
those who are doing so in an appropriate and adequate manner.
Otherwise, in almost every
respect Muslims, on the whole, are
giving their witness against Islam and not in its favour
as they
should. What is the witness of our landlords? That the Islamic law of
inheritance is wrong and that the customs which came down from
the pre-Islamic days are correct. What is the witness of our lawyers
and judges? That all the laws of Islam are bad laws, and that their
very basis the sovereignty of God is unacceptable. They tell us that
only the man-made laws, which have come to us through the
British, are good laws. What is the witness of our teachers and
educational institutions?
That in philosophy and
science, history and sociology, economics
and politics, law and ethics, the only true and valid knowledge and
thought is that derived from the Western secular world-view. That
in all these disciplines the Islamic approach is not even worthy of
consideration. What is the witness of our writers? That their
literature has the same message to impart as that of the godless
writers of the secular West. They demonstrate that as Muslims they
have no distinctive literary approach of their own. What is the
witness of our press and media? That the only issues and debates
that they consider important and which preoccupy them, and the
only methods and standards of communication that they consider fit
to employ, are those which bear the hallmark of the non-Muslim
media. What is the witness of our businessmen and industrialists? That
the
rules laid down by Islam for economic transactions are
impracticable, that business can be conducted only by the methods 22 / 41
devised by Kafirs.* What is the witness of our leaders and rulers?
That they have the same
slogans of nationalism and motherland to
mobilize people, the same goals to pursue on national levels, the
same methods of solving national problems, the same principles of
politics and constitution-makingv as are practised by Kafirs. They
declare that Islam has no guidance to offer in this respect. And what is
the witness of our masses? They testify that they have
nothing to speak about except worldly matters, that they have no
such Din which desires to be propagated or which demands that
they spend part of their time for this purpose. This, then, is the
state of witness being given by our whole Ummah
by means of its
words. This is the case not only in this country but throughout the
whole world. Our Act -Witness Now let
us turn to our act-witness and look at the witness being
given by our actions and deeds. Here our conduct is even more
scandalous than that in respect of our witness by words. No doubt
there are a few good Muslims whose lives are a true example of
Islam. But consider how the overwhelming majority of the Ummah,
the society at large, is conducting itself. What is the witness being
given by the life of a typical, ordinary
Muslim? That the persons shaped and moulded by
Islam are in no
way better than, or different from, those prepared by Kufr. If
anything, the former are worse than the latter: for instance, it is
more likely that a Muslim would speak a lie, that he would betray
and breach a trust placed in him, that he would oppress people and
do wrong to them, that he would abandon his promise, that he
would steal and rob, that he would engage himself in disorderly and
violent conduct, that he would indulge in all sorts of indecent acts.
Indeed, in respect of all
these immoral actions the level of Muslim
'performance'
is no less than that of any Kafir people. What is the
witness of our social life? Look at our life-styles, our
customs and ceremonies, our festivities, our fairs and religious
gatherings, our meetings and processions: in no aspect do we truly 23 / 41
represent Islam. Indeed, on the contrary, our social life is a pathetic
testimony that the followers of Islam consider the un-Islamic ways
to be better and preferable than the Islamic. Similar is the
testimony of our other social institutions and collective
pursuits. When we set up educational institutions, we import
everything from Kafirs our knowledge, our
educational system, our
philosophy, our spirit and objective. When we form parties and
associations, we model everything on the patterns set by Kafirs
our
ideals and goals, our structures and constitutions, our policies and
methods. When we, as a people, launch a struggle, our cause, our
slogans and demands, our issues and debates, our programmes
and
procedures, our resolutions, statements, and speeches, are all true
replicas of the practices of Kafir communities
and nations. Things have come to such a pass that even our independent states,
where they exist, have borrowed their constitutions, their codes of
law, and their guiding policies and principles from Kafirs. In some
states, the Islamic law has been reduced to a mere personal law; in
some others even this personal law has been altered. An English
writer tauntingly remarks: In view of the many charges levelled by Indians at the British
administration, it is important to realize that the British were
extraordinarily slow to introduce any innovations in the law . . .
[Indeed] as far as Islam is
concerned the result of the British
connexion with
India has been to establish on a firmer basis the
Muslim personal and
religious law . . . while all the rest of the
shari'a has been
abolished . . . On the other hand Albania and Turkey have both become secular
states [adopting European penal and civil codes, even altering
Muslim penal law] . . .
[Thus, it can be said, as Lindsay says, that]
'The Muslim doctrine that
legislation is not within the competence of
an earthly sovereign was never, indeed, anything more than a pious
fiction . . .' This, then, is the witness being given by the actions of
almost all
Muslims. This witness, too, goes against Islam. It is not in its 24 / 41
favour.
Whatever lip-service we might pay to Islam, our public
conduct proves that there is no aspect of Islam that we approve of,
that we do not consider its laws to be good and conducive to our
well-being. 25 / 41
5. And With What
Consequences!
Our Punishment In view of our conduct, we are guilty of giving false witness, of
perjury and concealing the Truth. As a consequence, we are facing
precisely the same punishment that has been prescribed in the Law
of God for such grave and heinous crimes. What is this law? When a
people reject and turn away from God's
guidance, when they are guilty of perjury and disloyalty to their
Creator, and when they turn
traitors to Him, then God punishes
them severely in this world as well as in the world-to-come. [7] This
law was applied to the Children of Israel. [8] Now it is we, the
Muslim Ummah,
who stand in the dock. God had no personal
vendetta against the Jews that He should have punished only them.
Nor does He have any
kinship or special relationship with Muslims
that He should set us free even though we are now committing the
same crime as they did then. [9] In This World The punishment meted out to Muslims for their crimes in this
world
is there for all to see. Indeed, the extent and pace of our decline
has been in true proportion to the extent and pace of our negligence
and failure to do our duty to witness to the Truth and our 'progress'
in witnessing to falsehood. During the last one hundred years, from
Morocco to Indonesia,
country after country has been lost by us to
alien subjugation; one Muslim people after another have fallen
under the yoke of colonial rule and domination. No longer does the
word 'Muslim' stand for dignity, no longer does it command respect;
rather it has become a mark of degradation, humiliation, gross
backwardness, and utter powerlessness. How powerless have we become? We have
lost all honour and
respect in the eyes of the world. In some places, our blood has
flowed like water and we have been subjected to large-scale
massacres; in other places, we have been driven out of our homes; 26 / 41
in others, we have been tortured and persecuted; in still others, we
have been reduced to living as serfs. If in some places Muslim
states have survived, they have suffered defeat after defeat until
they have been reduced to positions of fear and impotency in the
face of foreign powers. If only they had witnessed to Islam by their
words and deeds, the secular powers would have stood in awe of
them. Why go so far afield? Just look at your situation in India. +
Because
you evaded your duty of bearing witness to the truth of Islam,
indeed because you went further and gave false witness against it
both by your words and deeds, the entire country was wrested from
your control. First, you were vanquished by the Marathas and Sikhs,
and later, servitude to the British rule became your fate. And now
still greater calamities stare you in the face. Today your minority
status has become your greatest anxiety; you
live in fear of the Hindu majority lest it subjugates you and you
meet the same fate as did the untouchables. But, for God's sake,
tell me: Could a majority have threatened you if you had only been
true witnesses of Islam? Will not this problem of majority and
minority vanish within a few years if today your words and actions
bear true witnesses to Islam? In Arabia, an extremely hostile and
oppressive majority set out to
exterminate an insignificant minority of about one in one hundred
thousand. With what result? Within ten years,
this minority, by its
truthful and trustworthy witness in favour of
Islam, turned into a
one hundred per cent majority. Later, when these witnesses of
Islam emerged from Arabia,
within twenty-five years, from
Turkistan to Morocco,
people after people trusted the probity of
their witness and joined them in their faith. Where no one but
Zoroastrians, Christians
and pagans once lived, now only Muslims
live. No intransigence, no chauvinism, no religious bigotry, proved
strong enough to resist the living, true witness of the Divine
guidance that Muslims gave. If you are being trampled upon today, if you
fear greater
catastrophes tomorrow, is this not but the punishment for your false 27 / 41
witness and concealment of the Truth? Punishment in the World-to-Come This is the
punishment you are receiving in this world; but a more
severe punishment is likely to be meted out to you in the world-tocome.
How can you be absolved of
the blame for every evil and
every wrong to which man has been subjected only because you
failed to do your duty as witnesses of the Truth? Unless you do your
duty, whatever oppression and corruption is perpetrated in the
world and whatever immorality and wickedness prevails, there is no
reason why you should not be held accountable for it. You may not
be responsible for originating them yourselves, but you are
certainly
responsible, because of your false witness, for maintaining and
perpetuating them, for their origination by others, and for allowing
them to spread. Notes by Khurram
Murad 7. Consequences of failure and
neglect: The mission to witness the Truth and invite mankind to surrender
to
its Creator has the status of a covenant with God. Those who give
up this mission, or fail to fulfil it or
neglect it, are guilty of breaching
their covenant. Hence they are cursed by God, and deprived of His
blessings. They are cursed by angels, too, because the light brought
by them has been extinguished by such people while mankind
gropes in darkness; and by mankind as well, for its sufferings and
miseries are due mainly to the conduct of those who were entrusted
with that light. Those who conceal the clear messages and the guidance
that We
have sent down, after We have made them clear, for mankind, in
the Book they shall be cursed by God and the cursers; but such as
repent and put themselves right, and make [the Book] known
towards them I shall turn, I am the Accepter of repentance, the
Mercy-giving. But those who remain [in the state of] denial and die
denying upon them shall be the curse of God, and the angels, and
of all mankind . . . (al-Baqarah 2:
159-61). 28 / 41
And, humiliation and
powerlessness afflicted them, and they earned
God's anger; all this,
because they persisted in denying God's
messages and in slaying the Prophets against all right; all this,
because they rebelled [against God], and persisted in transgressing
[the
bounds of God] (al-Baqarah
2: 61). The duty, obviously, is neglected or given up for the sake of worldly
gains. These gains the Qur'an describes as a trifle, which earn God's
anger for the defaulters. The punishment for this crime which the
Qur'an mentions, is indeed
the only one of its kind, for such
punishment is not mentioned for any other crime. Indeed, those who conceal
what God has sent down in the Book,
and barter it away for a trifle price they eat nothing but fire in
their
bellies. And God shall not speak unto them on the Day of
Resurrection, nor purify
them; and for them is painful punishment.
It is they who have bought
error at the price of guidance, and
punishment at the price of forgiveness. How patiently have they
accepted the Fire! All that, because God has sent down the Book
with the Truth, those who differ in the matter of the Book are most
deeply in the wrong (al-Baqarah 2: 174-6; also
3: 77-8). 8. The Jewish example: The history of the people of Israel is
narrated by the Qur'an in
considerable detail. It provides the most instructive example of a
people who were guided by some of the greatest Messengers of
God. They made a covenant with God that they will be only His
servants and obey only Him and be His witnesses. They rose to
great heights and contributed much to the good of mankind by
fulfilling their covenant. But, finally, they broke their covenant,
suffered grievously, and thus became an object lesson in how
people chosen by God to be witnesses to His guidance may go
astray and how they may earn God's anger. The purpose of narrating their
history is neither to create hatred
against any particular religion and people nor to take pleasure and
comfort in their suffering and humiliation. This becomes evident 29 / 41
from the fact that, despite very severe strictures against the people
of Israel by the Qur'an, the most peaceful and glorious days of
Jewish history, in the last
two thousand years, have been lived
under Islamic rule. In fact their history is meant to act like a mirror
which the Qur'an holds to the Muslims so that they may recognize
themselves when they go astray and may remain aware of the
painful consequences of such conduct. Another purpose, of course,
was to awaken the Jews at the time of the Prophet, blessings and
peace be on him, and to invite them to believe in the Last Prophet
and support him, as their own mission demanded. The Quranic
account is similar to the Biblical account; if anything, much milder in
tone and language. Firstly, the Qur'an shows that great blessings were
conferred by
God on the people of
Israel, the greatest of them being the Book
and guidance from Him, and that they were chosen to be His special
servants. Children of Israel, remember My
blessing with which I blessed you,
and how I favoured you above all other
people (al-Baqarah 2: 47). And when Moses said unto
his people: O my people, remember
God's blessing upon you,
when He appointed among you Prophets,
and made you kings, and gave you such as He had not given to any
beings (al-Ma'idah 5: 20). And when We made a covenant with the Children of Israel: You
shall serve and worship none but God; and to be good to parents,
and the near kinsman, and to the orphan, and to the needy; and
speak good to man, and perform the prayer, and give the alms (al-
Baqarah 2: 83). And when We made covenant with
you [O Children of Israel], and
raised above you the Mount: hold fast with [all your] strength unto
what We have given you, and remember what is in it, so that you
might remain conscious of God. Then you turned away after that . .
. (al-Baqarah 2: 63-4). Surely We
sent down the Torah, wherein
was guidance and light; thereby the Prophets, who had surrendered
themselves [to God], gave judgement for those who
were Jews; and 30 / 41
so did the men of God and the rabbis, following such portion of
God's Book as they were
given to keep; and they bore witness to its
truth (al-Ma'idah 5: 44). The Bible gives a
similar account: Do this because you belong to the Lord your God. From all the
peoples on earth, He chose you to be His own special people. The
Lord did not love you and
choose you because you outnumbered
other peoples; you were the smallest nation on earth (Deut. 7: 67).
At Mount Sinai the Lord our
God made a covenant, not only with our
fathers, but with all of us who are living today. There on the
mountain the Lord spoke to you face-to-face from the Fire . . . The
Lord said, 'I am the Lord
your God, who rescued you from Egypt,
where you were slaves. Worship no god but Me'
(Deut. 5: 2-7). Israel, remember this! The Lord and the Lord alone is our God.
Love
the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with
all
your strength. Never forget these commands that I am giving you
today. Teach them to your children. Repeat them when you are at
home and when you are away, when you are resting and when you
are working. Tie them on your arms and wear them on your
foreheads as a reminder. Write them on the door-posts of your
houses and on your gates (Deut. 6: 4-9). [This is a very good
exegesis of the Quranic words 'and remember'.]
Never forget the Lord your God or turn to other gods to worship and
serve them. If you do, then I warn you today that you will certainly
be destroyed (Deut. 8: 19). People of Israel, you are My witnesses; I chose you to be My
servant, so that you would know Me and believe in Me and
understand that I am the only God. Beside Me there
is no other
god; there never was and never will be (Isa. 43: 10). Secondly, the
Qur'an exhorts and invites the people of Israel, as
does the Bible, to fulfil their covenant
with God, to believe in His 31 / 41
last message, and to bear witness to its truth, reminding them of
the promise and threat that were made to them. Children of Israel,
remember My blessing with which I blessed you, and fulfil
My
covenant [with you], and I shall fulfil your
covenant [with Me]; and
of Me alone stand in awe! (al-Baqarah
2: 40). Remember that the Lord your God is the only God and that He is
faithful. He will keep His covenant and show His constant love to a
thousand generations of those who love Him and obey His
commands, but He will not hesitate to punish those who hate Him
(Deut. 7: 9-10). If you
obey the Lord your God and do everything He commands, He
will make you His own people, as He has promised . . . The Lord
your God will make you the leader among the nations and not a
follower; you will always prosper and never fail . . . But if you
disobey the Lord your God and do not faithfully keep all His
commandments and laws that I am giving you today, all these evil
things will happen to you . . . the Lord will curse everything you do .
. . (Deut. 28: 9-19). I
will be your God, and you will be My people (Lev. 26: 12) .
Thirdly, the Qur'an indicts the people of Israel for breaking their
covenant and neglecting their duty to worship and obey only God
and to be His witnesses. Not only did they themselves turn away
from the message of their Lord, they also prevented others from
accepting and following it. People of the Book, why do you disbelieve God's
revelations while
you yourselves witness [their truth]? People of the Book, why do
you cloak the truth with falsehood and conceal the truth, and that
knowingly (Al 'Imran 3: 70-1). Say: People of the
book, why do you bar from the path of God those
who believe, trying to make it appear crooked, you yourselves being
witnesses to its truth? (Al 'Imran 3: 99) . Indeed, God made covenant with the Children of Israel,
when We 32 / 41
raised from among them twelve of their leaders, and God said: I am
with you. Surely, if you perform the prayer, and pay the alms, and
believe in My Messengers, and succour them and
lend to God a
good loan, I will surely efface your evil deeds and I will admit you
to
gardens through which running waters flow. But whosoever of you
thereafter disbelieves, surely he has gone astray from the right
way. Then, for their breaking their covenant We
cursed them and
made their hearts hard . . . (al-Ma'idah 5:
12-13). Indeed, We made covenant with the Children of
Israel, and We sent
Messengers to them;
whenever there came to them a Messenger
with what they did not like [they rebelled], to some they gave the
lie, while others they slayed (al-Ma'idah 5: 70). The People of the Book will ask you to
bring down upon them a
Book from heaven; and they
asked Moses for greater than that, for
they said: Make us see God face to face whereupon the thunderbolt
overtook them for their evil doing. Then, they took to [worshipping]
the calf and this after the clear Truth had come to them; yet We
pardoned them that, and We bestowed upon Moses a clear authority
[for
the Truth]. And We raised above them the Mount making
covenant with them; and We said to them: Enter the gate,
prostrating; and We said to them: Transgress not the Sabbath; and
We made a solemn covenant
with them. So [We cursed them] for
their breaking the covenant, and their denying the revelations of
God, and their slaying the
Prophets without right, and for their
saying, 'Our hearts are closed [to false guidance]' nay, but God
sealed them for their disbelief so they believe not, except a few and
for their disbelief and their uttering against Mary an awesome
calumny, and for their saying, 'We killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of
Mary, the
Messenger of God' (al-Nisa' 4: 153-7). Cursed were the disbelievers among the Children of Israel by the
tongue of David, and Jesus, the son of Mary; this, because they
rebelled [against God] and persisted in transgression. They did not
prevent one another from the wrongs they committed. Surely evil
were the things they did (al-Ma'idah 5:
78-9). The Bible speaks in the same vein. Its indictment is no different 33 / 41
from that which the Qur'an says, although it is said more harshly
and with severer strictures. In addition, the leaders of Judah, the
priests, and the people
followed the sinful example of the nations round them in
worshipping idols, and so they defiled the Temple, which the Lord
Himself had made holy. The Lord, the God of their ancestors, had
continued to send prophets to warn His people, because He wanted
to spare them and the Temple. But they ridiculed God's Messengers,
ignoring His words and laughing at His prophets, until at last the
Lord's anger against His
people was so great that there was no
escape (2 Chr. 36: 14-16). God told me to write down in a Book what the
people are like, so
that there would be a permanent record of how evil they are. They
are always rebelling against God, always Iying,
always refusing to
listen to the Lord's teachings. They tell the prophets to keep quiet.
They say: 'Don't talk to us about what's right. Tell us what we want
to hear. Let us keep our illusions. Get out of our way and stop
blocking our path. We don't want to hear about your holy God of
Israel'
(Isa. 30: 8-11). But Your
people rebelled and disobeyed You; they turned their
backs on Your law. They killed the prophets who warned them, who
told them to turn back to You. They insulted You
time after time, so
You let their enemies
conquer and rule them (Neh. 9: 26-7). The Children I brought up have rebelled
against Me. Cattle know
who owns them, and donkeys know where their master feeds them.
But that is more than my
people Israel know. They don't understand
at all . . . The city that once was faithful is behaving like a
whore! At
one time it was filled with righteous men, but now only murderers
remain. Jerusalem, you were once like silver, but now you are
worthless; . . . Your leaders are rebels and friends of thieves; they
are always accepting gifts and bribes. They never defend orphans in
court or listen when widows present their case (Isa. 1: 2-23). And this
is how Jesus censures the people of Israel. 34 / 41
Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You
kill the prophets and stone the
Messengers God has sent
you! . . . And so your temple will be
abandoned and empty (Mt. 23: 37-8). They tie on to people's backs loads
that are heavy and are hard to
carry, yet they aren't willing even to lift a finger to help them carry
those loads. They do everything so that people will see them. Look
at the straps with Scripture verses on them which they wear on
their foreheads and arms, and notice how large they are! Notice
also how long are the tassels on their cloaks! They love the best
places at feasts and the reserved seats in the synagogues; they
love to be greeted with respect in the market places and to be
called 'Teacher' . . . You hypocrites! You lock the door to the
Kingdom of heaven in
people's faces, and you yourselves don't go
in, nor do you allow in those who are trying to enter! . . . You
clean
the outside of your cup and plate, while the inside is full of what
you
have obtained by violence and selfishness . . . You are like
whitewashed tombs, which look fine on the outside but are full of
bones and decaying corpses on the inside . . . So you actually admit
that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets!
Go on, then, and finish
what your ancestors started! You snakes and
sons of snakes! How do you expect to escape from being
condemned to hell? And so I tell you that I will send you prophets
and wise men and teachers; you will kill some of them, crucify
others, and whip others in the synagogues and chase them from
town to town (Mt. 23: 4-34). Perhaps the most moving account of the
fate of Israel is in the
lamentations of the Prophet Isaiah, peace be upon him. Describing
Israel as a vineyard
planted by God, he first describes how He
blessed it with every bounty, then goes on to describe how it
produced sour fruits, and how God punished it something very
similar to what Sayyid Mawdudi
has said about the Muslims. My friend had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He
dug the soil and
cleared it of stones; he planted the finest vines. He built a tower to
guard them, dug a pit for treading the grapes. He waited for the
grapes to ripen, but every grape was sour. 35 / 41
So now my friend says: 'You people who live in Jerusalem and
Judah,
judge, between my vineyard and me. Is there
anything I
failed to do for it? Then why did it produce sour grapes and not the
good grapes I expected? This is what I am going to do to my vineyard;
I will take away the
hedge round it, break down the wall that protects it, and let wild
animals eat it and trample it down. I will let it be overgrown with
weeds. I will not prune the vines or hoe the ground; instead I will
let briers and thorns cover it. I will even forbid the clouds to let
rain
fall upon it (Isa. 5: 14). Finally, the Qur'an also makes it clear
that, after Israel, it is the
Muslims who have been
appointed to fulfil the same mission as was
granted to Israel. Indeed, We gave the Children
of Israel the Book, the Judgement,
and the Prophethood; and We provided them
with good things, and
We favoured
them above all other people. And We gave them clear
revelations pertaining to the affair [of their Din]; so they did not
take to different ways after the knowledge had come to themexcept
for the sake of mutual transgression . . . then We set you [O
Muhammad] on the Way [Shari'ah] pertaining to the affair [of your
Din]; therefore follow it,
and follow not the likes ahd dislikes of
those who do not know (al-Jathiyah 45: 1S18)
. 9. Illusions and excuses: When a faith as total, pervasive, deep and
dynamic as Islam living
in surrender to the One God which is a calling and a commitrnent,
becomes transformed into a religion, hereditary and sectarian, its
followers invent certain popular beliefs to calm and quieten
their
conscience. On the basis of such illusions and excuses, they are able
to live peacefully while failing in their total commitment to God.
They neglect the mission
that He has entrusted to them, as well as
refuse to accept any summons to renew their faith and take up their
duty. The Qur'an mentions some such popular notions which had
become part of the Jewish faith, and categorically rejects them.
Again, the objective is
neither to condemn a certain faith and people 36 / 41
for all times to come nor to nurture hatred against them, but to
induce them to correct their wrong beliefs, and more importantly, to
warn the Muslims to beware of such notions. It is ironic that one
would find all such popular beliefs to be part of the Muslims' faith as
well today; for example, that our Ummah is
the beloved of God,
that Muslims, whatever the state of their belief and conduct, have a
monopoly over Paradise, that God's mercies and rewards are
reserved exclusively for them, that, even if they are punished, their
punishment will last only a few days And the Jews and Christians say: We are
God's children, and His
beloved ones. Say: Why then does He punish you for your sins?
Nay, you are but human
beings of His creating. He forgives whom
He wills, and He punishes
whom He wills (al-Ma'idah 5: 18). And that they say:
None shall enter Paradise unless he be a Jew or
a Christian. Such are their wishful beliefs! Say: Produce your
proof,
if what you say is true! Nay, whosoever surrenders his whole being
unto God, attaining to excellence, his reward shall be with his Lord,
and no fear shall be on them, neither shall they sorrow (al-Baqarah
2: 111-12). And they say:
The Fire shall not touch us save a number of days.
Say: Have you made with God
a covenant then God will not fail in
His covenant or you
attribute to God some thing of which you know
nothing? Not so; whoso earns evil, and is engulfed by his
transgressions those are the inhabitants of the Fire . . . (al-Baqarah
2: 81). And when they are
told: Believe in what God has sent down, they
say: We believe in what was sent down on us; and they disbelieve
what is beyond that, yet it is the truth confirming what is with them.
Say: Why then did you kill
God's Prophets in former times, if you
were believers? (al-Baqarah
2: 91). Say: If the abode in the life-to-come is to be for you alone, to the
exclusion of all other people, then long for that if what you say is
true! But never will they long for it, because of what their hands 37 / 41
have sent ahead; God knows the evil-doers; . . . (al-Baqarah 2:
95). 38 / 41
6. What is Our Real
Problem?
Pseudo Problems By now, brothers, you must have understood how we, as Muslims,
ought to have been living and behaving, and how we in fact are
living and behaving. You must also have realized what grave
consequences we are suffering because of our conduct. You should,
therefore, have no difficulty in seeing that the problems which
Muslims consider crucial
for their societies and which they are doing
their utmost to solve by various devices some of them invented by
them, but mostly copied from others are not their real problem. The
time, energy and resources that they spend on solving these
problems are simply being wasted. For example, we look upon ourselves as a
minority engulfed by an
overwhelming alien majority, or as a majority deprived of its
sovereignty within its own territory, or as a nation subjugated and
exploited by a foreign power, or as a people suffering from
backwardness and poverty. Then we devote all our efforts to
achieving objectives which emanate from these conceptions and
images of ourselves. For instance, to objectives such as
safeguarding and securing our status in a country as a minority, or
to achieving sovereignty within our territorial boundaries, or to
winning freedom from foreign domination, or to achieving the same
levels of economic progress and development as those of the
advanced nations. These and other similar issues may be the foremost
concerns of
those who are not Muslims, who do not accept God as their Lord
and Guide, and may form the central objects of their endeavours.
But for us Muslims they are
not the primary problems; we face
them only because we have been,
and still are, neglecting to do our
duty. Had we been true witnesses of Islam, we would not have
found ourselves lost in such a dense jungle of complex and
inextricable problems. If we now direct all our attention and
endeavours to doing
our duty instead of dissipating our energies on
clearing the woods, they will clear in no time, and not only for
ourselves but for all mankind. For, keeping the world clean and 39 / 41
improving it is our responsibility; as we have forsaken our
appointed duty, the world has become infested with thorny woods.
And no wonder that the most thorny part has fallen to our lot. Unfortunately, our
religious and political leaders do not try to
understand this simple but crucial reality. Everywhere they continue
to convince the Muslims that their problems are the problems of a
minority as against a majority, of material progress, of national
security, of winning freedom and independence as a nation state.
Furthermore, even the
solutions that they recommend have been
borrowed from non-Muslims. But just as I believe in God, so I
believe that you are being misled, and that by following such paths
you will never achieve your well-being and destiny. Our Real
Problem What, then, is our real problem? If I do not tell you that clearly,
without any reservation, I shall be doing you a great disservice. To
my mind, your destiny, now and ever, depends on one issue only:
How do you conduct
yourselves in respect of God's guidance that
has come to you through His Messenger, blessings and peace be on
him? Because of this guidance you are Muslims. Because of this
guidance,
whether you like it or not, you have agreed to become ambassadors
of Islam to the entire world. Therefore, only if you follow Islam
totally and devotedly, if your words and actions bear true witness to
its teachings, if your social and public conduct faithfully
represents
every aspect of Islam, will you rise from glory to glory in this world,
and receive highest honours in the
world-to-come. Then, in no time,
the dark clouds of fear and anxiety, of disgrace and humiliation, of
subjugation and slavery will disperse. Then, the truth of your
message and the virtue of your character will capture mind after
mind and heart after heart. Then, your prestige and reputation,
your influence and authority, will hold sway over the world. Hopes
of securing justice will be pinned on you, trust will be placed in
your
integrity and honesty, prospects of virtue will be confided in you,
and authority will be accorded to your world. 40 / 41
In contrast, the leaders of
secularism will lose all credibility and
authority. Their philosophy and world-view, their economic and
political ideologies, will prove fake and spurious when confronted by
your truth and right conduct. The forces that today belong to the
secular camp will, one by one, break away and join the camp of
Islam. A time will, then, come when communism will live in fear of
its very survival in Moscow
itself, when capitalist democracy will
shudder at the thought of defending itself even in Washington and
New York, when materialist
secularism will be unable to find a place
even in the universities of London and Paris, when racialism and
nationalism will not win even one devotee even among the
Brahmans
and Germans. The present era of abject
humiliation will, then, become consigned
to the pages of history. It will only serve to remind us of the days
when the followers of a faith as universal and powerful as Islam
were reduced to such stupidity that they trembled in the face of
sticks and ropes while they held the staff of Moses under their arm.
This future is yours! But only if you follow Islam sincerely and
exclusively and serve as its faithful witnesses. Your present conduct,
however, is entirely contrary. You have been blessed with the Divine
guidance, but, like a snake guarding treasure, you neither benefit
from it yourselves nor allow others to benefit from it. By calling
yourselves Muslims, you have assumed for yourselves the position
of Islam's representatives, but the combined witness of your words
and deeds is being given mostly in favour
of Ignorance (Jahillyah),
idolatry, materialism, and immorality. You have the Book of God
with you, but you have put it on the shelf and, to seek guidance,
you turn to all sorts of persons who lead to Kufr,
and to sources
which lead you astray. You claim to be the servants of the One God,
but in fact you are serving every false god, every Satan, and every
power in rebellion against God. You have friends and enemies, but it
is always your personal, selfish interests that determine your
friendship and enmity. In both cases you use Islam as a party to
your cause. Thus, your conduct has, on the one hand, deprived your
lives of the
blessings that Islam has to offer you, and, on the other, you are 41 / 41
alienating mankind rather than attracting it to Islam. If you continue
to behave in this manner, you can attain no good, either in this
world or in the world-to-come. Its outcome, according to the Law of
God, is that miserable situation in which you find yourselves. What
the future holds for you may be much worse. To be truthful, perhaps,
if you remove the label of Islam from
yourselves and follow Kufr openly and sincerely,
then you might at
least make as much worldly progress as America, Russia and Britain
have made. But, claiming to be Muslims and yet behaving as non-
Muslims, closing the door
of Divine guidance to mankind by
representing Islam falsely before it, is such a heinous crime that it
will never allow you to prosper in this world. There is no way you
can avert the punishment prescribed by the Qur'an for this crime.
Jewish history provides a
living proof of this reality. You may turn to
secular nationalism as a lesser evil, you may get yourself accepted
as a separate nation and achieve whatever Muslim nationalism
seeks to achieve. But none of this will help you. There is only one way
to ward off the punishment of God. Turn back
from your sin, and repent.