Unity through diversity

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 pu...

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Autor principal: Abdul Aziz Sachedina
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: International Institute of Islamic Thought 1988
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/cfe384393db849af9a84d5d1df88b3d7
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:cfe384393db849af9a84d5d1df88b3d72021-12-02T19:40:08ZUnity through diversity10.35632/ajis.v5i1.28802690-37332690-3741https://doaj.org/article/cfe384393db849af9a84d5d1df88b3d71988-09-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/2880https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3733https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3741 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 ... Abdul Aziz SachedinaInternational Institute of Islamic ThoughtarticleIslamBP1-253ENAmerican Journal of Islam and Society, Vol 5, Iss 1 (1988)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Islam
BP1-253
spellingShingle Islam
BP1-253
Abdul Aziz Sachedina
Unity through diversity
description 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 ...
format article
author Abdul Aziz Sachedina
author_facet Abdul Aziz Sachedina
author_sort Abdul Aziz Sachedina
title Unity through diversity
title_short Unity through diversity
title_full Unity through diversity
title_fullStr Unity through diversity
title_full_unstemmed Unity through diversity
title_sort unity through diversity
publisher International Institute of Islamic Thought
publishDate 1988
url https://doaj.org/article/cfe384393db849af9a84d5d1df88b3d7
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