What is Islam

The above description has made it clear that ISLAM is the name of leading life in harmony with Allah's Laws pertaining to the physical world and the revealed permanent values and principles of life. In other words it can be said that conquering the forces of nature and then utilizing them for the benefit of mankind in accordance with Laws of Allah Almighty as revealed by Him, and thereby developing one's own self is ISLAM. This and this alone, can ensure a beautiful heavenly life in this as well as in the Hereafter. This way of life is called system of Islam.

Now in the light of the above mentioned descriptions, we have three groups of the people:

1. The group of the people who achieve the conquest of the nature, (which are called the physical sciences) but use their power for purposes opposed to the revealed permanent values is rewarded with success in this world for the time being, but have nothing to hope for in the future. They get material gains but their society is hellish. Those who live hellish life in this world will have hell in their future.

2. People engaged in understanding and controlling the forces of nature, (which are called the physical sciences) and shaping their lives according to permanent values enjoy happiness in this world and will enjoy it in the next stage of life.

3. Those who turn away from nature and make no attempt to understand and conquer it, cannot attain human stature. They live a life of hardship and misery in this world and will find the way to progress blocked in the next world. For the means of nourishment, they will depend upon the other nations.

» The World and the Hereafter

All this gives rise to one important question: If the people of the above mentioned group 3 claim that they believe in God Almighty, Revelation, and the Hereafter, will their future life be a success? Its answer is evident. The meanings of belief in God, Revelation, Hereafter, or Permanent Values etc. are conquering the forces of nature and then utilizing them for the benefit of mankind in accordance with Permanent Values as revealed by Allah Almighty, and thereby developing one's own self. If any nation remains deprived of the forces of nature, how can it utilize these forces? The question of making use of these forces does not arise. Therefore its belief in God, Revelation, Hereafter, or Permanent Values etc. is just verbal, which does never translate into actions. How will this belief bring its results?

The notion of ‘simply believing verbally and doing nothing accordingly' is the idea of mysticism, that mysticism which is merely the creation of the human mind. This idea keeps the man in deception. And the deception is that the destruction and misery of this world has nothing to do with the life hereafter. On the contrary, the more a person lives a miserable life in this world, the more prosperous and lucky he will be in the hereafter. The teachings of the Quran oppose it openly. The Quran says the nation not well off in getting the means of nourishment of life in this world, will never find its future prosperous.

It, in Surah Taahaa, Verse 124, openly says: At the same time it was also explained to him that means (of subsistence) will be restricted, for whoever turns away from Divine Laws. Furthermore on the Day of Judgment, We shall raise him as if he was blind. This is the miserable condition in this world.

Its cause is self-explanatory; The Laws of Nature are Allah's prescribed Laws. The result of either moving against these laws or moving away from these laws is destruction and misery. A major portion of the Quran emphasizes the importance of these laws. If we refuse this portion of the Quran, the verbal belief on the second portion can be of no use for us. In the words of the Quran in Surah Al-Baqara, Verse 85, it is like this: Do you want to accept one part of Allah's code of laws and deny another? If you intend to act like this, then remember whosoever does it, its result would be nothing but suffering of failure and disgrace in this world and commitment to the most grievous suffering in the hereafter.

You have seen that the result of ‘denying one part of the Divine Laws and believing in the second' is not only the ignominy and disgrace in this world, but also destruction and misery of the hereafter. It is because (as has been described above) the belief in the second part (Permanent Values) means that these Values are enforced, acted upon practically in the society of the human world. The laws and the principles of the Quran are for transforming the life of this world in tone and tenor of Divine Revelation, which is in the Quran only. It also includes Salaat, which is for making this reality afresh in the heart that we will obey the Divine Laws in every walk of our life; we'll follow His Laws. Therefore thinking that this life is worthless and we are obeying the Divine Laws is a self deception. It may always be remembered that whosoever does not enjoy the pleasant things of this world, or he does not try to achieve them, he does not follow the Laws of Allah Almighty. That is why he cannot get the pleasant things of this world. It is for this purpose that we have a beautiful proportional thinking in the Quran. It is in the form of supplication. The Quran in Surah Al-Baqara, Verse 201 mentions it for the right way of life of the Momin; Our Nourisher! Give us in the world that which is good and in the hereafter that which is good.

This supplication of the Momin makes it clear that these people yearn not only for the bliss in this world but also to be protected from disaster in the hereafter. This is the right way of living of the Momin. If the way of living does not conform to it, it is not Islam; it is something else. It is because the result of conviction translated into action is prestige and honour. It is governance and dignity in this world. That is why the Quran in Surah Al-Noor, Verse 55 says: Allah Almighty has promised such of you as believe and do good that He will surely make them to succeed in the earth even as He caused those, who were before them to succeed. This verse of the Quran makes it very clear that Allah's firm promise is that ‘the one whose world is bad, and does not try to remove this badness, has the hereafter also wrecked and miserable'.