Overview (Verses 65- 66)

Advance Results of Implementing Divine Law
 
The passage is concluded with a statement of a basic rule that people’s implementation of faith in their lives ensures the achievement of goodness and prosperity in the life of believers in this world as well as the next. Faith provides a single code of living which looks after the material and the spiritual aspects of life. This rule is stated in connection with the discussion of the deviation of the people of earlier revelations from proper Divine faith, to their devouring unlawful gains, and their distortion of God’s words in order to achieve immediate gain. Had they followed the Divine faith, they would have benefited in this world as well as in the world to come.
 
If only the people of earlier revelations would believe and be God- fearing, We should indeed efface their [past] bad deeds, and bring them into gardens of bliss. If they would observe the Torah and the Gospel and all that has been revealed to them by their Lord, they would indeed be given abundance from above and from beneath. Some of them do pursue a right course, but many of them are of evil conduct. (Verses 65-66)
 
This is a major concept in Islamic philosophy. Hence, the two verses that state this reflect a great truth of human life. In view of the great confusion which engulfs the human mind, human standards and situations, and the numerous doctrines that compete to influence man’s thinking, the need to explain this concept properly and lucidly has never been greater.
 
God says to the people of earlier revelations — and His words apply to every community that has received Divine revelations — that if they would believe and be God-fearing, He would forgive them their sins and admit them into gardens of bliss. This is the reward of the Hereafter. Had they implemented in their lives God’s law embodied in the Torah and the Gospel and what He had revealed to them, without distortion, they would have enjoyed a good life as well as one of prosperity and affluence. But they neither believe nor implement God’s law and are not God-fearing. Apart from a small group of them, who have pursued a right course in their long history, the majority of them are of evil conduct.
 
These two verses then tell us that to believe and to be God-fearing, to implement God’s law in human life ensures more than the reward of the Hereafter, which is certainly the better and longer-lasting reward. To take such a course also ensures a healthy type of life and a good reward in this present world in the shape of prosperity and affluence. This is described in a tangible form, bringing the meaning of affluence before our eyes: “They would indeed be given abundance from above and from beneath.” (Verse 66) This shows that ensuring a good reward in the Hereafter does not have a special way, separate or independent from that which ensures a good, prosperous life in this world. It is the same way, giving the best results in both this life and the life to come. If it is abandoned, then life in this world becomes corrupt and the life to come is lost. This single way is that of faith, being God-fearing and implementing Divine law.
 
This approach is not merely a spiritual one, concerned only with beliefs. It is also a code for practical human life, the implementation of which, together with a strong faith and fear of God, ensure a good, prosperous and affluent life. All people will enjoy this abundance and its fair distribution. The code of living that is formulated by faith does not make religion a substitute for this world. Nor does it make happiness in the Hereafter a substitute for happiness in this life. Nor does it set one way for heaven and one for earth. It is sad that this principle has been clouded in people’s minds and thoughts.
 
In most people’s minds and in their practical lives, the way leading to Heaven is different from that which brings about the benefits of this life. Ordinary people, and indeed the general human outlook, visualise no meeting place between the two. Hence, people tend to choose this world and abandon the Hereafter, or choose the road that ensures a good life in the Hereafter and, in consequence, abandon everything to do with this world. This is because everything in people’s lives at this point in time tends to support this view.
 
It is true that all situations in this ignorant way of life, which is totally removed from God and the code He has revealed for human life, tend to widen the gulf between working for the benefits of this world and working for those of the Hereafter. It is inevitable that those who wish to achieve prominence in their communities and good worldly gains sacrifice their moral values and religious teachings as also their clean behaviour which religion encourages. It is also inevitable that those who wish to achieve a good life in the Hereafter steer away from the main current of this life and its dirty and corrupt situations.
 
But is this truly inevitable? Is there no meeting ground between the road to doing well in this life and the road to Heaven? No, there is nothing inevitable in this. The conflict between this life and the life to come, or between the material and spiritual is not the ultimate, unchangeable truth. Indeed, it is not part of the nature of this life at all. It is an accidental situation which is the consequence of temporary deviation. It is inherent in the nature of human life that the roads to prosperity in this life and to success in the next should meet and be united. This means that good productivity, affluence and hard work in this world, will be the very things which ensure prosperity in this life and reward in the Hereafter. Similarly, faith, fearing God, and good actions are the means to build human life on earth and guarantee God’s reward in the Hereafter. This is what is inherent in the nature of human life but it does not demonstrate itself in reality unless human beings conduct their lives on the basis of the code God has chosen for mankind. This code makes work and action a part of worship. It also makes the building of a human civilisation on the basis of the Divine method man’s duty. It is this which ensures prosperity and abundance for all human beings.
 
Development and Faith Go Hand in Hand
 
According to Islamic concepts, man’s role on earth is to be in charge of it, by God’s will and permission and according to the conditions God has set. Hence, productive work and ensuring prosperity through the utilisation of all potentials and resources on earth, as well as universal resources, is the proper way for fulfilling man’s duty. Such fulfilment, on the basis of the Divine code, is a demonstration of obedience to God, to be rewarded in the Hereafter. At the same time, it ensures enjoyment of all the riches of this world, or the enjoyment of abundance from above and from beneath’; as the Qur’ān puts it in its inimitable style.
 
According to Islamic principles, a man who does not tap the resources of the earth and the universe is a disobedient servant of God; he does not work for the purpose for which he has been created. This purpose is defined in God’s statement to the angels: “I am appointing a vicegerent on earth.” (2: 30) We should also mention here God’s statement, as He addresses mankind: “He has made all that is in heaven and on earth subservient to you, as a bounty from Him.” (45: 13) Such a man wastes God’s bounty, which has been gifted to mankind. As such, he is an absolute loser both in this life and in the life to come.
 
As such, the Islamic way of life combines, in absolute coherence, work for this world and work for the Hereafter. Hence, man does not need to waste his life on earth in order to win a better life in the world to come, nor does he waste the latter in order to fulfil the former. Reaping the best of the two is by no way contradictory.
 
This applies to mankind in general and to Muslim communities, wherever they exist on earth, and as long as they want to implement the Divine method. As for individuals, matters are not different. According to Islam, the goals of the individual and the community are not in conflict. The Islamic method makes it incumbent on the individual to use all his physical and mental abilities in his work to ensure maximum productivity and to make his purpose in all that the earning of God’s pleasure. Hence, he neither commits injustice, cheating or betrayal, nor does he allow himself to take unlawful gain or to retain something he owns when it is needed by his brother in the community.
 
Islam fully recognises, however, the right of the individual to own what his work produces and the right of the community to have a share of what its individuals own, in accordance with what God has legislated. The Islamic method also considers an individual’s work within these limits and according to these considerations, a sort of worship for which he is rewarded with blessings in this life and with Heaven in the Hereafter. An individual’s link with his Lord is enhanced with obligatory worship. This requires man to remind himself of his link with His Lord five times every day through prayers and for 30 days every year during fasting, and on a special occasion which is obligatory at least once in his lifetime, namely, pilgrimage, and in every season or year when he pays his zakāt.
 
This explains to us the importance of obligatory Islamic worship. Such worship, in all its different aspects, serves as a renewal of man’s pledge to God to implement the way of life He has chosen for man. Islamic worship is, at the same time, a set of actions drawing man closer to God as he resorts to fulfil all his obligations under this complete system for life. Through them, man feels afresh that God helps him fulfil his obligations and overcome his desires, as also people’s opposition and their deviant practices which stand in his way.
 
These obligatory acts of worship are not separate from ordinary matters such as work, productivity, fair distribution, government, justice, and striving to implement the Divine method to establish God’s authority in human life (i.e. jihād). To have faith, to be God-fearing, and to discharge obligatory worship are all one part of the system which enables man to fulfil the other part. In this way, to be a believer, to be God-fearing, and to work for the establishment of the Divine law in human life, means to achieve abundance just as God promises in these two verses. In Islamic philosophy, and the Islamic systems based on it, the world to come is not offered as a substitute for this life, nor is the latter to be preferred to the former. Both can be achieved in the same effort. The two cannot co-exist in human life, however, unless man follows only the Divine way of life without introducing into it amendments that are borrowed from man-made situations or formulated according to man’s own thoughts.
 
Islamic principles and the Islamic way of life do not offer belief, worship and a high standard of piety and morality as a substitute for work, productivity, and development in man’s material world. It is not a method which promises people a latter-day paradise and shows them the way to it, while leaving them to make their own way towards a worldly paradise, as some naïve people tend to think. Work, productivity and development represent, according to Islamic principles, man’s way to fulfil his task as vicegerent on earth. Faith, worship and fearing God represent, on the other hand, the constraints, motives and incentives to implement the Divine way of life. The two together lead to the achievement of paradise in this life and in the life to come. The same way leads to both and there is no schism between the spiritual and the material sides of human life, as it is the case in all non-Islamic situations we see today.
 
This depressing split between what relates to this world and what relates to the Hereafter, between spiritual worship and material creativity, between success in this life and success in the life to come is not inevitable. It is simply a depressing tax man has imposed on himself as he abandoned God’s constitution in order to adopt a variety of constitutions that are in conflict with what God has chosen for man. It is a tax people pay with their blood and their whole constitution.
 
What they pay for it in the life to come is much worse. In this world, it manifests itself in worry, misery and confusion because they lack the reassurance and peacefulness of faith. This is the result of abandoning their religion as a whole, alleging that such an abandonment is the only way to increase their productivity, knowledge and experience and to achieve individual and communal success. The net outcome of this state of affairs is that they put themselves in conflict with their own nature and try to suppress their natural hunger to have a faith that brings self- fulfilment into their lives. No social, philosophical or artistic doctrine can satisfy such hunger, because it is a hunger to know the Divine Being.
 
People’s worry, misery and confusion cannot be dispelled if they try to maintain their faith in God and at the same time be part of the international community which adopts a system, concepts, methods of work and standards of success that are in conflict with faith and with the moral standards and practices acceptable to faith. Humanity will continue to suffer this misery if it adopts materialistic creeds, be they atheistic or ones that try to retain religion as a faith, provided it has nothing to do with practical life. The enemies of man try to depict a deceptive picture showing that religion is a matter between man and God while human life belongs to man alone. They claim that religion is faith, feeling, worship and morals while life is a system, legal code, work, and productivity.
 
Humanity has to pay this hefty tax of worry, misery, confusion, and emptiness because it cannot see the benefit of implementing God’s method. It is a method that does not separate this life from the life to come, but rather combines them both. It does not see affluence in this world to be contradictory with success in the second world, rather it sees them both as mutually complementary.
 
We must not be deluded by false appearances when we see that nations which do not believe or implement the Divine method are enjoying abundance and affluence. It is all a temporary prosperity which lasts until the natural laws have produced their effects, allowing the consequences of the miserable split between material excellence and spiritual fulfilment to appear in full. We see some of these consequences surface in a variety of ways.
 
We see first mal-distribution within these nations, which allows hatred, grudges, misery and fear of the unexpected to take root. This is, indeed, an ominous state of affairs, despite prosperity. We also see suppression and fear dominant in those nations which have tried to ensure at least a partially fair distribution. To achieve this, they have resorted to destruction, suppression, and terror in order to enforce their measures of redistribution. In this terrible state of affairs, man is always in fear, never reassured.
 
We also see the weakening of moral values which leads, sooner or later, to the destruction of material prosperity. Work, productivity and fair distribution need to be guaranteed by high moral standards. Manmade laws cannot on their own provide such guarantees, as human experience has shown throughout the world.
 
We also see all types of worry spreading throughout the world, particularly in the most affluent of societies. This inevitably makes people less intelligent and reduces their tolerance. It then leads to lowering standards of work and productivity and eventually helps destroy material prosperity. Very clear indications of this impending development can easily be recognised at the present time.
 
We see the fear, which engulfs all humanity, of the total ruin which threatens the whole world at any moment, as risks of all-out war continue to be in the air. Such fear places great strain on people’s minds, whether they realise it or not. It leads to a whole range of nervous disorders. Is it not significant that death through heart failure, mental disease and suicide are at their highest rate in affluent societies?
 
The clearest example today is the French. But their case is only an example of the ultimate effect of a continuous split between the material and spiritual aspects of human existence, a split between this life and the life to come, religion and human life. Or, to put it another way, by treating the method given by God as the one to ensure success in the Hereafter while success in this life comes through the following of a different, man-made method.
 
Worship Gives a New Face to Human Life
 
Before we conclude our comment on this very important truth, we would like to emphasise that it is most important to achieve harmony between faith, piety and implementation of the Divine method in practical life on the one hand and work, productivity and the fulfilment of man’s mission on earth on the other. It is this harmony which ensures the fulfilment of God’s promise to the people of earlier revelations, and indeed to all communities, that they will have abundance from above and from beneath, and that they will be forgiven their sins and admitted into gardens of bliss in the Hereafter. Thus, they have paradise on earth and paradise in Heaven. We must not forget, however, that the fundamental principle and the mainstay of the whole system is faith, piety and the implementation of the Divine way of life. This indeed implies hard work, better productivity and development. Moreover, when man maintains a constant link with God, all aspects of life will bring about better enjoyment, to enhance man’s values and correct his standards. This is the starting point from which everything else follows.
 
We should also mention that faith, piety, worship and the establishment of God’s law in human life yield all their fruits in human life and give their benefits to man himself. God is in no need of anyone. It is true that Islam lays strong emphasis on these fundamental principles and makes them the basis of all actions and activities. Any action which is not based on them is rejected. The reason for this is not that God gains anything from people’s worship and piety; He does not. But He knows that their life and their affairs cannot be established on the right footing unless His method is followed. It is in this light that we should read the sacred ĥadīth in which the Prophet relates God’s own words:
 
My servants, I have forbidden oppression for Myself and have made it forbidden among you, so do not oppress one another. My servants, all of you are astray except for those I have guided, so seek guidance from Me and I shall guide you. My servants, all of you are hungry except for those I have fed, so seek food from Me and I shall feed you. My servants, all of you are naked, except for those I have clothed, so seek clothing from Me and I shall clothe you. My servants, you sin by night and by day and I forgive all sins, so seek forgiveness from Me and I shall forgive you. My servants, you will never be able to harm Me and you will never be able to bring Me benefit. My servants, were the first of you and the last of you, the human of you and the jinn of you to be as pious as the most pious heart of any one of you, that would not increase My kingdom in any thing. My servants, were the first of you and the last of you, the human of you and the jinn of you to be as wicked as the most wicked heart of any one of you, that would not decrease My kingdom in anything. My servants, were the first of you and the last of you, the human of you and the jinn of you to rise up in one place and make a request of Me, and were I to give everyone what he requested, that would not decrease what I have, anymore than a needle decreases the sea if put into it. My servants, it is but your deeds that I reckon up for you and then recompense you for. So let him who finds good praise God and let him who finds other than that blame no one but himself. (Related by Muslim.)
 
It is on this basis that we should understand the purpose of having a strong faith, being pious and devoted and working for the implementation of the code of living God has revealed. All these qualities work in our favour, in this life and in the life to come. They are essential for the welfare of humanity.
 
Needless to say, this condition made by God to the people of earlier revelations is not exclusive to them. It is even more applicable to those who have been favoured with the revelation of the Qur’ān; those who claim to be Muslims. It is these whose faith requires them to believe in what has been revealed to them and what has been revealed earlier and to implement all that has been sent down to them, as well as those parts of the laws of earlier nations which God has retained in their faith. After all, theirs is the only religion that is acceptable to God. All religions have been incorporated into it. Hence, they are the ones to have God’s pledge with all its terms and conditions. It goes without saying that they should accept what God has given them and enjoy what He has promised them of forgiveness of their sins and admission into Heaven, and having abundance from above and from beneath. This is much more preferable to hunger, disease, fear and poverty which they suffer throughout the Muslim world, or more accurately, throughout the world which was Islamic. God’s pledge with its conditions is still operative. The way to enjoy its benefits is still there, if only we would follow it.

Overview (Verses 65- 66)

Advance Results of Implementing Divine Law
 
The passage is concluded with a statement of a basic rule that people’s implementation of faith in their lives ensures the achievement of goodness and prosperity in the life of believers in this world as well as the next. Faith provides a single code of living which looks after the material and the spiritual aspects of life. This rule is stated in connection with the discussion of the deviation of the people of earlier revelations from proper Divine faith, to their devouring unlawful gains, and their distortion of God’s words in order to achieve immediate gain. Had they followed the Divine faith, they would have benefited in this world as well as in the world to come.
 
If only the people of earlier revelations would believe and be God- fearing, We should indeed efface their [past] bad deeds, and bring them into gardens of bliss. If they would observe the Torah and the Gospel and all that has been revealed to them by their Lord, they would indeed be given abundance from above and from beneath. Some of them do pursue a right course, but many of them are of evil conduct. (Verses 65-66)
 
This is a major concept in Islamic philosophy. Hence, the two verses that state this reflect a great truth of human life. In view of the great confusion which engulfs the human mind, human standards and situations, and the numerous doctrines that compete to influence man’s thinking, the need to explain this concept properly and lucidly has never been greater.
 
God says to the people of earlier revelations — and His words apply to every community that has received Divine revelations — that if they would believe and be God-fearing, He would forgive them their sins and admit them into gardens of bliss. This is the reward of the Hereafter. Had they implemented in their lives God’s law embodied in the Torah and the Gospel and what He had revealed to them, without distortion, they would have enjoyed a good life as well as one of prosperity and affluence. But they neither believe nor implement God’s law and are not God-fearing. Apart from a small group of them, who have pursued a right course in their long history, the majority of them are of evil conduct.
 
These two verses then tell us that to believe and to be God-fearing, to implement God’s law in human life ensures more than the reward of the Hereafter, which is certainly the better and longer-lasting reward. To take such a course also ensures a healthy type of life and a good reward in this present world in the shape of prosperity and affluence. This is described in a tangible form, bringing the meaning of affluence before our eyes: “They would indeed be given abundance from above and from beneath.” (Verse 66) This shows that ensuring a good reward in the Hereafter does not have a special way, separate or independent from that which ensures a good, prosperous life in this world. It is the same way, giving the best results in both this life and the life to come. If it is abandoned, then life in this world becomes corrupt and the life to come is lost. This single way is that of faith, being God-fearing and implementing Divine law.
 
This approach is not merely a spiritual one, concerned only with beliefs. It is also a code for practical human life, the implementation of which, together with a strong faith and fear of God, ensure a good, prosperous and affluent life. All people will enjoy this abundance and its fair distribution. The code of living that is formulated by faith does not make religion a substitute for this world. Nor does it make happiness in the Hereafter a substitute for happiness in this life. Nor does it set one way for heaven and one for earth. It is sad that this principle has been clouded in people’s minds and thoughts.
 
In most people’s minds and in their practical lives, the way leading to Heaven is different from that which brings about the benefits of this life. Ordinary people, and indeed the general human outlook, visualise no meeting place between the two. Hence, people tend to choose this world and abandon the Hereafter, or choose the road that ensures a good life in the Hereafter and, in consequence, abandon everything to do with this world. This is because everything in people’s lives at this point in time tends to support this view.
 
It is true that all situations in this ignorant way of life, which is totally removed from God and the code He has revealed for human life, tend to widen the gulf between working for the benefits of this world and working for those of the Hereafter. It is inevitable that those who wish to achieve prominence in their communities and good worldly gains sacrifice their moral values and religious teachings as also their clean behaviour which religion encourages. It is also inevitable that those who wish to achieve a good life in the Hereafter steer away from the main current of this life and its dirty and corrupt situations.
 
But is this truly inevitable? Is there no meeting ground between the road to doing well in this life and the road to Heaven? No, there is nothing inevitable in this. The conflict between this life and the life to come, or between the material and spiritual is not the ultimate, unchangeable truth. Indeed, it is not part of the nature of this life at all. It is an accidental situation which is the consequence of temporary deviation. It is inherent in the nature of human life that the roads to prosperity in this life and to success in the next should meet and be united. This means that good productivity, affluence and hard work in this world, will be the very things which ensure prosperity in this life and reward in the Hereafter. Similarly, faith, fearing God, and good actions are the means to build human life on earth and guarantee God’s reward in the Hereafter. This is what is inherent in the nature of human life but it does not demonstrate itself in reality unless human beings conduct their lives on the basis of the code God has chosen for mankind. This code makes work and action a part of worship. It also makes the building of a human civilisation on the basis of the Divine method man’s duty. It is this which ensures prosperity and abundance for all human beings.
 
Development and Faith Go Hand in Hand
 
According to Islamic concepts, man’s role on earth is to be in charge of it, by God’s will and permission and according to the conditions God has set. Hence, productive work and ensuring prosperity through the utilisation of all potentials and resources on earth, as well as universal resources, is the proper way for fulfilling man’s duty. Such fulfilment, on the basis of the Divine code, is a demonstration of obedience to God, to be rewarded in the Hereafter. At the same time, it ensures enjoyment of all the riches of this world, or the enjoyment of abundance from above and from beneath’; as the Qur’ān puts it in its inimitable style.
 
According to Islamic principles, a man who does not tap the resources of the earth and the universe is a disobedient servant of God; he does not work for the purpose for which he has been created. This purpose is defined in God’s statement to the angels: “I am appointing a vicegerent on earth.” (2: 30) We should also mention here God’s statement, as He addresses mankind: “He has made all that is in heaven and on earth subservient to you, as a bounty from Him.” (45: 13) Such a man wastes God’s bounty, which has been gifted to mankind. As such, he is an absolute loser both in this life and in the life to come.
 
As such, the Islamic way of life combines, in absolute coherence, work for this world and work for the Hereafter. Hence, man does not need to waste his life on earth in order to win a better life in the world to come, nor does he waste the latter in order to fulfil the former. Reaping the best of the two is by no way contradictory.
 
This applies to mankind in general and to Muslim communities, wherever they exist on earth, and as long as they want to implement the Divine method. As for individuals, matters are not different. According to Islam, the goals of the individual and the community are not in conflict. The Islamic method makes it incumbent on the individual to use all his physical and mental abilities in his work to ensure maximum productivity and to make his purpose in all that the earning of God’s pleasure. Hence, he neither commits injustice, cheating or betrayal, nor does he allow himself to take unlawful gain or to retain something he owns when it is needed by his brother in the community.
 
Islam fully recognises, however, the right of the individual to own what his work produces and the right of the community to have a share of what its individuals own, in accordance with what God has legislated. The Islamic method also considers an individual’s work within these limits and according to these considerations, a sort of worship for which he is rewarded with blessings in this life and with Heaven in the Hereafter. An individual’s link with his Lord is enhanced with obligatory worship. This requires man to remind himself of his link with His Lord five times every day through prayers and for 30 days every year during fasting, and on a special occasion which is obligatory at least once in his lifetime, namely, pilgrimage, and in every season or year when he pays his zakāt.
 
This explains to us the importance of obligatory Islamic worship. Such worship, in all its different aspects, serves as a renewal of man’s pledge to God to implement the way of life He has chosen for man. Islamic worship is, at the same time, a set of actions drawing man closer to God as he resorts to fulfil all his obligations under this complete system for life. Through them, man feels afresh that God helps him fulfil his obligations and overcome his desires, as also people’s opposition and their deviant practices which stand in his way.
 
These obligatory acts of worship are not separate from ordinary matters such as work, productivity, fair distribution, government, justice, and striving to implement the Divine method to establish God’s authority in human life (i.e. jihād). To have faith, to be God-fearing, and to discharge obligatory worship are all one part of the system which enables man to fulfil the other part. In this way, to be a believer, to be God-fearing, and to work for the establishment of the Divine law in human life, means to achieve abundance just as God promises in these two verses. In Islamic philosophy, and the Islamic systems based on it, the world to come is not offered as a substitute for this life, nor is the latter to be preferred to the former. Both can be achieved in the same effort. The two cannot co-exist in human life, however, unless man follows only the Divine way of life without introducing into it amendments that are borrowed from man-made situations or formulated according to man’s own thoughts.
 
Islamic principles and the Islamic way of life do not offer belief, worship and a high standard of piety and morality as a substitute for work, productivity, and development in man’s material world. It is not a method which promises people a latter-day paradise and shows them the way to it, while leaving them to make their own way towards a worldly paradise, as some naïve people tend to think. Work, productivity and development represent, according to Islamic principles, man’s way to fulfil his task as vicegerent on earth. Faith, worship and fearing God represent, on the other hand, the constraints, motives and incentives to implement the Divine way of life. The two together lead to the achievement of paradise in this life and in the life to come. The same way leads to both and there is no schism between the spiritual and the material sides of human life, as it is the case in all non-Islamic situations we see today.
 
This depressing split between what relates to this world and what relates to the Hereafter, between spiritual worship and material creativity, between success in this life and success in the life to come is not inevitable. It is simply a depressing tax man has imposed on himself as he abandoned God’s constitution in order to adopt a variety of constitutions that are in conflict with what God has chosen for man. It is a tax people pay with their blood and their whole constitution.
 
What they pay for it in the life to come is much worse. In this world, it manifests itself in worry, misery and confusion because they lack the reassurance and peacefulness of faith. This is the result of abandoning their religion as a whole, alleging that such an abandonment is the only way to increase their productivity, knowledge and experience and to achieve individual and communal success. The net outcome of this state of affairs is that they put themselves in conflict with their own nature and try to suppress their natural hunger to have a faith that brings self- fulfilment into their lives. No social, philosophical or artistic doctrine can satisfy such hunger, because it is a hunger to know the Divine Being.
 
People’s worry, misery and confusion cannot be dispelled if they try to maintain their faith in God and at the same time be part of the international community which adopts a system, concepts, methods of work and standards of success that are in conflict with faith and with the moral standards and practices acceptable to faith. Humanity will continue to suffer this misery if it adopts materialistic creeds, be they atheistic or ones that try to retain religion as a faith, provided it has nothing to do with practical life. The enemies of man try to depict a deceptive picture showing that religion is a matter between man and God while human life belongs to man alone. They claim that religion is faith, feeling, worship and morals while life is a system, legal code, work, and productivity.
 
Humanity has to pay this hefty tax of worry, misery, confusion, and emptiness because it cannot see the benefit of implementing God’s method. It is a method that does not separate this life from the life to come, but rather combines them both. It does not see affluence in this world to be contradictory with success in the second world, rather it sees them both as mutually complementary.
 
We must not be deluded by false appearances when we see that nations which do not believe or implement the Divine method are enjoying abundance and affluence. It is all a temporary prosperity which lasts until the natural laws have produced their effects, allowing the consequences of the miserable split between material excellence and spiritual fulfilment to appear in full. We see some of these consequences surface in a variety of ways.
 
We see first mal-distribution within these nations, which allows hatred, grudges, misery and fear of the unexpected to take root. This is, indeed, an ominous state of affairs, despite prosperity. We also see suppression and fear dominant in those nations which have tried to ensure at least a partially fair distribution. To achieve this, they have resorted to destruction, suppression, and terror in order to enforce their measures of redistribution. In this terrible state of affairs, man is always in fear, never reassured.
 
We also see the weakening of moral values which leads, sooner or later, to the destruction of material prosperity. Work, productivity and fair distribution need to be guaranteed by high moral standards. Manmade laws cannot on their own provide such guarantees, as human experience has shown throughout the world.
 
We also see all types of worry spreading throughout the world, particularly in the most affluent of societies. This inevitably makes people less intelligent and reduces their tolerance. It then leads to lowering standards of work and productivity and eventually helps destroy material prosperity. Very clear indications of this impending development can easily be recognised at the present time.
 
We see the fear, which engulfs all humanity, of the total ruin which threatens the whole world at any moment, as risks of all-out war continue to be in the air. Such fear places great strain on people’s minds, whether they realise it or not. It leads to a whole range of nervous disorders. Is it not significant that death through heart failure, mental disease and suicide are at their highest rate in affluent societies?
 
The clearest example today is the French. But their case is only an example of the ultimate effect of a continuous split between the material and spiritual aspects of human existence, a split between this life and the life to come, religion and human life. Or, to put it another way, by treating the method given by God as the one to ensure success in the Hereafter while success in this life comes through the following of a different, man-made method.
 
Worship Gives a New Face to Human Life
 
Before we conclude our comment on this very important truth, we would like to emphasise that it is most important to achieve harmony between faith, piety and implementation of the Divine method in practical life on the one hand and work, productivity and the fulfilment of man’s mission on earth on the other. It is this harmony which ensures the fulfilment of God’s promise to the people of earlier revelations, and indeed to all communities, that they will have abundance from above and from beneath, and that they will be forgiven their sins and admitted into gardens of bliss in the Hereafter. Thus, they have paradise on earth and paradise in Heaven. We must not forget, however, that the fundamental principle and the mainstay of the whole system is faith, piety and the implementation of the Divine way of life. This indeed implies hard work, better productivity and development. Moreover, when man maintains a constant link with God, all aspects of life will bring about better enjoyment, to enhance man’s values and correct his standards. This is the starting point from which everything else follows.
 
We should also mention that faith, piety, worship and the establishment of God’s law in human life yield all their fruits in human life and give their benefits to man himself. God is in no need of anyone. It is true that Islam lays strong emphasis on these fundamental principles and makes them the basis of all actions and activities. Any action which is not based on them is rejected. The reason for this is not that God gains anything from people’s worship and piety; He does not. But He knows that their life and their affairs cannot be established on the right footing unless His method is followed. It is in this light that we should read the sacred ĥadīth in which the Prophet relates God’s own words:
 
My servants, I have forbidden oppression for Myself and have made it forbidden among you, so do not oppress one another. My servants, all of you are astray except for those I have guided, so seek guidance from Me and I shall guide you. My servants, all of you are hungry except for those I have fed, so seek food from Me and I shall feed you. My servants, all of you are naked, except for those I have clothed, so seek clothing from Me and I shall clothe you. My servants, you sin by night and by day and I forgive all sins, so seek forgiveness from Me and I shall forgive you. My servants, you will never be able to harm Me and you will never be able to bring Me benefit. My servants, were the first of you and the last of you, the human of you and the jinn of you to be as pious as the most pious heart of any one of you, that would not increase My kingdom in any thing. My servants, were the first of you and the last of you, the human of you and the jinn of you to be as wicked as the most wicked heart of any one of you, that would not decrease My kingdom in anything. My servants, were the first of you and the last of you, the human of you and the jinn of you to rise up in one place and make a request of Me, and were I to give everyone what he requested, that would not decrease what I have, anymore than a needle decreases the sea if put into it. My servants, it is but your deeds that I reckon up for you and then recompense you for. So let him who finds good praise God and let him who finds other than that blame no one but himself. (Related by Muslim.)
 
It is on this basis that we should understand the purpose of having a strong faith, being pious and devoted and working for the implementation of the code of living God has revealed. All these qualities work in our favour, in this life and in the life to come. They are essential for the welfare of humanity.
 
Needless to say, this condition made by God to the people of earlier revelations is not exclusive to them. It is even more applicable to those who have been favoured with the revelation of the Qur’ān; those who claim to be Muslims. It is these whose faith requires them to believe in what has been revealed to them and what has been revealed earlier and to implement all that has been sent down to them, as well as those parts of the laws of earlier nations which God has retained in their faith. After all, theirs is the only religion that is acceptable to God. All religions have been incorporated into it. Hence, they are the ones to have God’s pledge with all its terms and conditions. It goes without saying that they should accept what God has given them and enjoy what He has promised them of forgiveness of their sins and admission into Heaven, and having abundance from above and from beneath. This is much more preferable to hunger, disease, fear and poverty which they suffer throughout the Muslim world, or more accurately, throughout the world which was Islamic. God’s pledge with its conditions is still operative. The way to enjoy its benefits is still there, if only we would follow it.