But not having a Divine Law to govern the external life of man as well as the spiritual domain, Christianity facilitated this secularization of political and social life and its divorce from revealed principles which in turn brought about the major upheavals of modern times.
Ideals and realities of Islam On page 37 November 5, 2012
Only a false idealism could criticize the pro- found realism of Islam, which, instead of envisaging all men as saints and then having difficulty with the many who are far from the saintly life, bases itself on the real nature of man in both his spiritual and worldly aspirations which it tries to channel towards a spiritual direction by comprehending all things in its total scheme based on Unity.
Ideals and realities of Islam On page 37 November 5, 2012
A stone has no choice but to fall. The force of gravitation is an expression of the Divine Will on the physical plane which the stone obeys absolutely so that in this sense it is 'muslim'. It is the Will of the Creator that expresses itself in what is called 'laws of nature' in Western thought, and everything in the Universe is in a profound sense Muslim except for man who, because of this free choice given to him as a trust to bear, can refuse to submit to His Will.
Ideals and realities of Islam On page 33 November 5, 2012
To accept the Divine covenant brings up the question of living according to the Divine Will. The very name of Islam is intimately connected with this cardinal idea. The root 'salama' in Arabic, from which Islam is derived, has two meanings, one peace and the other surrender. He who surrenders himself to the Divine Will gains peace. The very idea of Islam is that through the use of intelligence which discerns between the Absolute and the relative one should come to surrender to the Will of the Absolute. This is the meaning of Muslim: one who has accepted through free choice to conform his will to the Divine Will.
Ideals and realities of Islam On page 32 November 5, 2012
Man is presented with a unique opportunity by being born in the human state and it is a tragedy for him to fret away and waste his life in pursuits which distract him from the essential goal of his life which is to save his immortal soul.
Ideals and realities of Islam On page 31 November 5, 2012
This means that God gave man the possibility of dominating over all things for to possess the 'name' of a thing means to exercise power over it. Man has the right to breathe the air about him, to eat and drink to satiate his bodily desires, to walk upon the earth.
Ideals and realities of Islam On page 31 November 5, 2012
This story demonstrates the Islamic conception of man according to which man participates fully in the human state, not through the many activities with which he usually identifies himself but by remembering his theomorphic nature. And be- cause he is always in the process of forgetting this nature he is always in need of revelation. In Christianity man has sinned, having sinned his nature has become warped; it having become warped he needs a miracle to save him. Through baptism and the sacraments this wound in his soul is healed and by participa- tion in the life and sacrifice of Christ he is saved. In Islam, however, there is no original sin. There is no single act which has warped and distorted human will, ftather, man by being man is imperfect, only God being perfection as such. Being imperfect man has the tendency to forget and so is in constant need of being reminded through revelation of his real nature. Therefore, although the starting point of the conception of man in Christianity and Islam is different the end result is in this sense the same, in that both believe in the necessity of revelation to save man.
Ideals and realities of Islam On page 29 November 5, 2012
The most profound reason for the need of revelation is the presence of obstacles before the intelligence which prevent its correct functioning, or more directly the fact that although man is made in the 'image of God' and has a theomorphic being he is always in the process of forgetting it. He has in himself the possibility of being God-like but he is always in the state of neglecting this possibility. That is why the cardinal sin in Islam is forgetfulness. It is negligence (ghaflah) of what we really are.
Ideals and realities of Islam On page 28 November 5, 2012
This is a problem that needs much explanation especially since certain modern Muslim apologists, wanting to answer Christian charges against Islam and at the same time not being intellectually strong enough to state the case of Islam in its true perspective, have claimed that indeed Islam has no need of mysteries, miracles, original sin, and just about everything else which is 'supernatural' from the Christian point of view. Islam is presented as if its conception of man is the Cartesian rational man left to his own reason who, however, instead of becoming a ddst or agnostic as in the West somehow becomes a Muslim. This view, however, is not at all true because although Islam is based on the primordial nature of man and his intelligence rather than will which has become warped after his fall on earth, it nevertheless believes that revelation is absolutely necessary. Without the aid of God man cannot discover by himself the way of salvation, the 'Straight Path'.
Ideals and realities of Islam On page 27 November 5, 2012
Man needs revelation because although a theomorphic being he is by nature negligent and forgetful; he is by nature imper-fect. Therefore he needs to be reminded. Adam, the first man, was also the first of prophets.
Ideals and realities of Islam On page 27 November 5, 2012
The Quran calls those who have gone astray from religion as those who cannot intellect, 'la ya'qilun', those who cannot use their intelligence correctly. It is very significant that the loss of faith is equated in Quranic language not with the corruption of the will but with the improper functioning of intelligence.
Ideals and realities of Islam On page 26 November 5, 2012
The Word of God in Islam is the Quran; in Christianity it isChrist. The vehicle of the Divine Message in Christianity is the Virgin Mary; in Islam it is the soul of the Prophet. The Prophet must be unlettered for the same reason that the Virgin Mary must be virgin. The human vehicle of a Divine Message must be pure and untainted.
Ideals and realities of Islam On page 48 January 1, 1970
