Islam
is an Arabic word and the people residing in Western countries
may not know the exact meaning and exact denotation of
Islam. So I would like to talk on: "What is Islam?" The
beautiful world, which we see around us, carries in its
bosom the testimony that it is the creation of a great
creator. The existence of order and design in the universe
which modern science teaches us to the belief in the existence
of a supreme power and a supreme intelligence who is responsible
for this complex but orderly design of a supreme being
who brought it into existence and supplied its with all
that it needed for its life and growth.
The
universe as describes in science is an organic whole all
of whose parts are beautifully and harmoniously interrelated.
It is further a domain law in which every particle exists
and moves in subjection to a prescribed and immutable
course of law. Neither the huge planets that swim in the
space nor the tiny particles of sand that lie scattered
on the sea-shore can deviate even slightly from that course.
Their life is a complete life of submission to the laws
of nature in the language of science, and to the laws
of god in the language of religion. So really speaking
their life is the life of Islam, which means submission
and obedience to divine commands. Submission is acceptance
of god’s commands. Obedience means putting Allah’s (God)
commands into practice.
These
both bring peace. That is why Islam also means peace.
The holy Quran mentions this truth in the following words:
And
to him submits what ever is in the heaven and the earth
willingly or unwillingly and unto him they will be returned.
The
sole exception to the general rule is man. He is unique
in the whole domain of creation in as much as he possesses
not only the faculty of reasoning but also his free will.
This makes his course of action and the pattern of his
behaviour unpredictable. You can predict the action of
the sun because it functions under an immutable law and
possess no freedom to deviate from it but you cannot do
this same thing in the case of man. The activity of all
the things of the universe is mechanical but not so that
of man. He can choose his ends and he can prescribe the
means. For that purpose he relies on his reason. But in
that way, he commits mistakes. Side by side he is achieving
great things and ultimately lends himself in confusion.
The same faculty, which is his asset, becomes the instrument
of his undoing solely because of its wrong use. The human
intellect can guide him only to certain limits because
it works on the basis of unknown things. It can serve
efficiently to some extent in the domain of the physical
reality but when it enters the realm of fundamental truth
where the first requirement is the possession of a comprehensive
knowledge of the past, the present and the future, it
can give us only conjectures and inference. In its very
nature it is incapable of discovering ultimate truths
of life. The human soul is however in dead earnest to
know those ultimate truths because with out them the real
meaning of life remains unexplained and the true code
of human endeavour remain unfixed.
Science
cannot supply us with that, because it deals only with
the immediate physical reality; philosophy cannot give
it because it works on postulates and inference.
