We all know that being a Muslim requires the performance of the five Pillars of Islam (Shahaadah or declaration of faith, prayers, charity, fasting and pilgrimage) and belief in the six Pillars of Faith (Allah, the Books, the Messengers, the Angels, the Last Day, and Al-Qadar or Pre-ordainment). Although we have all performed the five Pillars of Islam (except for Pilgrimage for some of us) and all believe in the six Pillars of Faith, many of us behave in a way that does not reflect true belief in these 11 Pillars; that is, our behaviour sometimes reflects lack of true faith or religiousness.
In other words, though it seems that performing the five Pillars of Islam makes us Muslims, and belief in the six Pillars of Faith makes us believers, this does not necessarily make us truly religious or righteous, and so the question arises as to what constitutes true religiousness. We will discuss this issue and argue that true religiousness mainly requires accepting Allah’s and His Messenger’s (pbuh) word (decision/ruling/will) willingly, especially when it goes against our own desires.
To illustrate, while it is very easy for us to perform the Friday prayers in the mosque, very few of us care to perform the Fajr/Dawn prayers in the mosque, simply because it is very inconvenient for us to wake up early in the morning to go (walk or drive) to the mosque to catch the prayers with the Imam. Now, willingly accepting to do what is inconvenient for us when it is the ruling of Allah and His Messenger shows how religious we are. In what follows, we will discuss similar examples.
Being religious requires resisting taking one’s wife’s money when she is richer, resisting monopoly and selling goods for a higher price, resisting taking advantage of miscalculation in our favour and includes being fair to everyone, even our own dependents and opponents, and never assuming that it is fine to wrong them. It also requires resisting taking advantage of customers’ ignorance of the qualities of work that we perform or services that we provide, as electricians, car mechanics, plumbers, painters, house-building contractors, food caterers, dry-cleaners, barbers, etc… and their ignorance of their costs.
Being religious requires confession when we are guilty, testimony even against our parents, relatives and friends, and following rules even when there is no one to hold us accountable and subject to fines, as well as resisting lying when the listeners trust us, resisting committing sins when the penalty is not eminent, like watching porn on TV or the Internet when we are alone. Being religious requires resisting cheating in exams and course assignments even when we can, resisting plagiarism when conducting research, resisting punishing students by lowering their grades and resisting evaluating instructors based on the grades we get in their courses.
Being religious requires resisting taking public property when we are in power, resisting corruption when we are the decision makers, resisting manipulation of situations for our own benefit and the disadvantage of others, resisting favouring relatives and friends when deciding on public issues (using wasta), resisting using personal assets and talents to get special treatment at work and school (like getting to work late and leaving early, higher pay, promotion, recommendation, etc…) and resisting manipulating and interpreting rules in our favour as well as resisting being unfair to foreigners who cannot defend themselves.
Being religious also requires accepting polygamy as the ruling/sharia of Allah and practice/sunnah of His Messenger. Rejecting polygamy in principle (without good reasons) means that we reject a term in the Islam contract between us and Allah, and that we do not accept the whole deal of Islam, which means that our faith is incomplete, and so insufficient. Accepting polygamy, though very hard for women, indicates a high level of religiousness, basically accepting the will of Allah when it is in conflict with their desires, in consideration of the longer life in the hereafter, compared to this mortal worldly life.
Being religious also requires giving money (though we cherish it) away in the way of Allah, to the poor and needy.
The concept of “resistance” has been extensively used in this article because, as human beings, we need to control our desires, and always behave in the way that pleases Allah and His Messenger, even if it is against our desires. This is the case because Allah says “It is not for a believing man or a believing woman, when Allah and His Messenger (pbuh) have decided a matter, that they should [thereafter] have any choice about their affair. And whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly strayed into clear error” (33:36). Likewise, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) says “Jannah [paradise] is surrounded by hardships and the Hell-Fire is surrounded by desires”. This indicates that a true Muslim should be prepared for hardships (in the aforementioned sense) if he or she truly desires Jannah. Basically, a truly religious Muslim is one who would do good even when he/she does not have to (by choice) and would abstain from committing sins even when he/she knows they will not be caught.
Dr Rashid Al-Balushi
Asst Professor of Linguistics
Sultan Qaboos University
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