No Extremism

concealment has been permitted in order to protect life. Prayer and fasting, remembrance and recitation of the Quran, are all desirable acts. However, excess in these acts is not desirable. Enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong are undoubtedly necessary duties, but when this is taken to the level of violence, it ceases to be correct. The same principle applies to moral values. Selfconfidence is a high moral quality. But if it leads a person to unwise actions, it no longer remains commendable. Self-respect and self-reliance are also desirable qualities. But if self-respect reaches the point where it prevents a person from admitting his mistake, it turns from a virtue into a vice. Similarly, it is a good quality that a person does not seek help from others, does not like to accept favours, and wishes to support himself. But if this attitude generates feelings of pride and superiority, it becomes a bad habit rather than a good one. A human weakness is that when a person notices a distinctive aspect in something, he forms an exaggerated notion about it and goes beyond limits in determining its status. This is what is called ghulu. All forms of shirk and personality-worship are, in reality, products of this very ghulu.