MAN’S NEED FOR RELIGION
Man’s need for religion is greater than his need for other necessities of life. For, man must know the things that please Allah as well as those that displease Him. He must also carry out activities that can bring him benefits and others that can avert from him harm. So, it is the Divine Law that distinguishes between the deeds that benefit and those that bring harm. That is Allah’s justice in His creation and His Light among His servants and it is not possible for people to live without Divine Law with which they can differentiate between what they should do and what they should not do.
If man actually has a will, he must then know what he wants. Does he want what will benefit him or what will harm him? Does he want what will reform him or what will corrupt him? Some people know this naturally, some know it through application of their sense of reasoning and some yet do not know it except through explanation by the Messengers and their guidance. (See At-Tadmuriyyah by Sheikhul-Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah p. 213-214; and Miftaahu daaris-Sa ‘adah 2 / 383.)
However, the atheistic and materialistic thoughts may be widespread and adorned; and ideologies and theories thrive, individuals and societies will never do without true religion. For these ideologies can never provide for man’s spiritual and physical needs. And the more man goes deeper in them, the more he is convinced that they cannot give him security nor satiate his thirst and that the true religion is unavoidable.
Ernest Rinan said, “All things that we hold dear can dwindle, and freedom of using one’s intelligence, knowledge and expertise can become worthless. But it is impossible for religion to be effaced. It will rather remain a living proof on the futility of material ideology that wants to restrict man into despicable narrows of the earthly life.” (See Ad-Deen by Muhammad Abdullah Daraaz p. 87.)
Muhammad Fareed Wajdee said: “It is impossible for religious thinking to vanish, for it is the highest and noblest of human mind’s inclinations, not to mention the fact that it is an inclination that elevates man. Rather than dwindle, this inclination shall be increasing. Religious nature of man will always pursue him as long as he can discern what is beautiful and what is ugly and this nature shall continue to increase in him according to sublimity of his mental faculties and progress in his knowledge.” (Ibid. 88.)
So, if man keeps away from his Lord, it is through the sublimity of his mental faculties and wideness of his knowledge that he recognizes the greatness of his ignorance about his Lord and what is due to Him, and his ignorance of his own self, what is good for him and what is harmful to him; what gives him happiness and what will cause him misery. He will also recognise his ignorance of scientific details like astronomy, science of galaxies, reckoning, nuclear sciences and so forth. It is then that the world will abandon the stage of delusion and arrogance to that of humility and submission and then believe that there is behind these sciences a knowledgeable and Wise One and that there is behind the nature an Able Creator. This reality will then force the impartial scholar to believe in the unseen, to surrender to the upright religion and to respond to the call of natural instinct. But when man withdraws from this path, his nature will relapse and he will come down to the level of dumb animals.
We conclude from all the above, that the true religiosity – that depends on belief in the Oneness of Allah and performing acts of worship according to His injunctions – is a necessary element of life, so that man actualizes through that, his servitude to Allah, Lord of all the worlds and attain through that, happiness and safety from destruction, hardship and misery. It is also necessary for perfecting the theoretical aptitude in man. It is only through it that the intellectual hunger can be satiated, and its highest goals attained.
Equally, religion is a necessary element for purification of the soul and refinement of emotional power, for noble sentiments find in the religion an abundant space and a spring whose water does not dry up where noble sentiments find their goals attained.
It is a necessary element for the perfection of will power because of the support it gives it through great impetus and major means of resisting elements of despair.
In view of this, if there are some who say that man is civil by nature, we must also say: “Man is religious by nature”, for man has two powers: scientific speculative power and will power. His complete happiness depends on perfecting his scientific and will power and the perfection of his scientific power cannot take place except by knowing the following:
1. Knowing the True Lord Who is the Creator and the Provider; Who created man from nothingness and bestowed on him favours.
2. Knowing His Names and Attributes and all that is due to Him; and the impacts of these Names on His slaves.
3. Knowing the way that leads to Him, may He be glorified.
4. Knowing the hindrances and harms that prevent man from knowing the way and the great bliss that the way leads to.
5. Having a real cognisance of your own soul, its needs, recognising what is good for it and what is harm to it, and knowing its qualities and defects.
It is by knowing these five things that man can perfect his scientific power. And perfection of his scientific and will power can not occur except by respecting the rights of Allah upon His slaves and carrying out these rights sincerely, truthfully, according to the Sunnah of the Prophet and as a testimony of His favour on him. There is no way to perfection of these two powers except by His help. He therefore needs to be guided to the Straight Path which Allah guided His friends. (Al-Fawaaid 18,19.)
After we have known that the True Religion is the Divine support for different powers of the soul, we should also know that religion is the protective shield for the society. This is because human life cannot be alright except through mutual cooperation and this cooperation cannot take place except through a system that regulates human relationships, defines their obligations and guarantees their rights. This system is also in need of a curbing and restraining authority that can prevent the soul from violating the system, encourage it to preserve it, guarantees its relevance and prevents men from desecrating it. What then is this power?
There is not on the face of this earth any power that can match the power of religiosity or even close to that in guaranteeing the respect for order, societal cohesion, stability of its system and harmonising the means of comfort and tranquillity in the society.
The underlying reason for this is that, man is distinguished from other living things in that, all his voluntary movements and actions are controlled by an inaudible and invincible element. That element is faith which refines the soul and purifies the limbs. Man, is therefore, always controlled by a true or false belief. If his belief is correct, everything in him will be correct, but if his belief is corrupt, everything in him will be corrupt.
Faith is a spontaneous watcher over man; and it is – as noticed in all men – of two types:
– Belief in the value of moral excellence, human dignity and other ordinary concepts that high-minded people will feel shy to violate even if they were free from external consequences and material recompense.
– Belief in Allah – may He be Glorified and Exalted – and the fact that He is Ever-Watchful of the secrets and knows all that is hidden; from Whose Commandments and prohibitions the Islamic Law derives its power and before Whom the senses profusely feel mortified out of love for Him or fear of Him or both. There is no doubt that this type of faith is the stronger of both in exerting authority over human mind. It is also the stronger in resisting the tornadoes of whims and inconsistency of sentiments and quicker in leaving impacts on the minds of people and their leaders.
It is because of this that religion is the best guarantor for the establishment of relationships among people on the basis of justice and impartiality which is a necessity in any society. There is no wonder then that religion occupies in the human society the position of the heart in human body. (See: Ad-deen p. 98, 102.)
If this is the position of religion generally – and what we see in today’s world is multiplicity of religions and creeds, where each group rejoices in its belief and holds tenaciously to it – what then is the true religion that can achieve for the human mind what it yearns for? And what are the general criteria of the True Religion?
By Dr. Muhammad bin Abdullah As-Suhaym
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