THE FIVE PILLARS OF ISLAM

The Five Pillars of Islam ~ 84 ~ and Master, one is entering, as it were, into a ‘contract’ with God, a covenant which excludes all other beings and makes Him all in all. Then it is around Him alone that all one’s thoughts and emotions will revolve; it is in Him alone that one will place complete trust. With the passage of time it will be to no one but the Almighty that all one’s hopes, fears and supplications will be addressed. There is no one—great or small—who does not have a focus of attention and activity in his life. For some, the household and family hold the central position, while for others it is business and moneymaking. For yet others, the preoccupations of political leadership are all that matter. Many base their entire lives on dreams of power and prestige. But, whatever the sources of human satisfaction, if a man does not live in his Lord, his life will be one of the most abysmal ignorance and vacuity. He will have built himself a house of straw, to be carried away by the merest puff of wind. It is only when he strenuously pulls himself out of his mundane existence, and begins to live in his Creator that he will discover what in essence his true life ought to be. It is only then that he will understand his