Unity through diversity the Shar‘i Vision

Abstract

Islam: Faith, Submission and Action
Islam emerged as a moral challenge to humanity to respond to the call
of the faith and create an ethically just public order that would reflect the
‘active submission’ (the term, Islam signifies this sense) to the Divine Will.
Accordingly, creation of the just public order was viewed as the direct
consequence of faith in the Islamic revelation where mere profession of faith
without moral and religious commitment to create an Islamic order was
considered hypocritical. In fact, the Qur’an views faith ('Iman) as generating
moral social behavior which ought to be translated in the creation of a morally
just order on earth. Consequently, the term Islam should never be defined
as mere ‘submission’ without the understanding that the necessary consequence
of that ‘submission’ results in the transformance of the individual into a
‘righteous’ person, and the society into an ideal public order.
The Qur’an, however, also took note of the weaknesses in human nature
and prescribed solutions for humanity to rise above these mostly self-cultivated
weaknesses when confronted by ‘glitterings’ of the worldly, material life. The
Qur’anic prescription consisted of creating a system whereby humanity, having
responded to the Divine call, was thus held responsible in two areas of its
relationship. First, in the area of its relationship to Allah (SWT) by virtue
of being created by Him; and, second, in the area of interpersonal relationship
by virtue of its composition of individual human beings.
In the first area, where religious prescriptions directed the human life
towards an existence of devotion and commitment, the purpose of Divine
guidance was to endow humanity with volition and cognition to realize the
necessity of showing gratitude to the Creator. It, therefore, proceeded with
an exercise of choice, even when the faith was declared as a Divine gift.
The reason was that humanity could not be held responsible for ignoring
the call of the faith if there was compulsion involved in the initial offer of
faith. After all, becoming a faithful person, according to the Qur‘an, is to ...