TO be a Muslim is to live in accordance with the will and pleasure of God. Muslims often say, with joy and pride, that it is easy to be a Muslim since Islam is “the straight path” leading to paradise.
What this means, in other words, is that the principles of Islam are simple and straightforward, free of ambiguities, confusion, inconsistencies or mysteries, and that comprehending them or living in accordance with them is not difficult.
The assumption here is that if one somehow comes to “the straightforward path” by accepting Islam, which is God’s last and final revelation to humanity, one will fairly effortlessly arrive at the destination which is a state of eternal blessedness in the presence of God.
In my view, however, in order to be a Muslim one has constantly to face the challenge, first of knowing what God wills or desires not only for humanity in general but also for oneself in particular, and then of doing what one believes to be God’s will and pleasure each moment of one’s life.
To be a Muslim means, first and foremost, to believe in God, who is the Rabb al-alameen: Creator and Sustainer of all peoples and universes. The Quran, which is the primary source of normative Islam, states in Surah 15, verse 85 that God’s creation is “for just ends”, and in 21:16 that this was not done in “mere idle play”. Surah 95:4 points out that humanity has been fashioned “in the best of moulds” and Surah 51:56 states that humanity has been created in order to serve God.
Commenting on the last-mentioned verse, Muhammad Asad observes, “The innermost purpose of the creation of all rational beings is their cognition (marifah) of the existence of God and, hence, their conscious willingness to conform their own existence to whatever they may perceive of God’s will and plan: and it is this twofold concept of cognition and willingness that gives the deepest meaning to what the Quran describes as worship (ibadah).”
According to Quranic teaching, service of God cannot be separated from service to humankind or, in Islamic terms, believers in God must honour both Haquq Allah (rights of God) and Haquq al-ibad (rights of creatures). Fulfillment of one’s duties to God and humankind constitutes righteousness, as stated in Surah 2:177, which reads as follows:
“True piety does not consist in turning your faces towards the east or the west — but truly pious is one who believes in God, and in the Last Day, and the angels, and revelation, and the prophets; and spends his substance —however much he himself may cherish it — upon his near of kin, and the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer, and the beggars, and for the freeing of human beings from bondage; and is constant in prayer, and renders the purifying dues; and (truly pious are) they who keep their promises whenever they promise, and are patient in misfortune and hardship and in time of peril: it is they that have proved themselves true, and it is they who are conscious of God.” (Translation by Muhammad Asad)
Reflecting upon the passage, as well as many others in the Quran, one is struck deeply by the integrated vision of the Quran, which does not separate belief in God and God’s revelation (iman) from righteous action (amal), or regular remembrance of God (salat) from the regular discharge of one’s financial and moral obligations to God’s creatures (zakat). Thus, to be a Muslim means in a fundamental way to be both God-conscious and creature-conscious, and to understand the interconnectedness of all aspects of one’s life; of the life of all creation and of our life in this transient world to eternal life.
For Muslims, the Quranic notion of righteousness has been actualised in the life of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), known in the Islamic mystic tradition as Insan al-kamil or the complete human being. Through his God-centeredness, the Prophet of Islam attained the highest degree of ubudiyat (service of God) and became a model of righteous living not only as the spiritual and political leader of the Muslim ummah, but also as a businessman, citizen, husband, father, friend and a human being.
Following him, there have been individual Muslims — recorded and unrecorded — through the ages who have known that being a Muslim means more than seeking or worshipping God. Allama lqbal speaks for them when he proclaims: “There are many who love God and wander in the wilderness, I will follow the one who loves the persons made by God.”
Considering the emphasis placed upon the interrelatedness of Haquq Allah and Haquq al-ibad both in the Quranic teachings and in the life of the Prophet of Islam, the exemplar par excellence of His teaching, compartmentalisation of the two rights in the minds and lives of many present-day Muslims requires serious scrutiny.
The writer is professor emerita at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, US, and president of the Iqbal International Leadership Institute.
