Al-Risala (English), August 1984

The Jews were favoured by God. He selected them for a special task: They were to receive God’s Scriptures and pass His commandments on the rest of mankind. In relation to this office, they were granted many other blessings and facilities: victory over their enemies, forgiveness of their sins, special help in times of peril, divine provision for their physical needs and so on. This misled later generations of Jews into thinking that they were God’s chosen people, and were assured of salvation in the next world. But salvation is a matter between the individual and God; such matters are not hereditary. Later generations are not judged individually. On the Day of judgement people will be judged according to their actions. To think that anything other than good deeds will avail one then is to underestimate the rigours of that day. True piety is to worship God alone, to believe in Him though one has not seen Him, to live in fear of Judgement Day, to subsist on the pure things of the earth, to prevent whomsoever one can from falling into sin. It is those who adopt this way of life who will be successful in the next world. □ A perfectionist is never satisfied with his work George Orwell was the author of 1984, a projection of ominous trends he perceived in the world of 1948. Within one year the book had sold 400,000 copies and was being hailed as one of the classics of modern literature. Sales have not dipped since. 1984 has achieved a mass popularity that few books can claim. The New American Library paperback edition alone totals 10 million copies in print. But Orwell was not satisfied with this, his final and most monumental effort. “I am not pleased with the book,” he wrote to his publisher. In the 16 years between 1932 and 1948, Orwell had written a dozen books and 700 essays and newspaper articles. During that time, he said, there was “not one day in which I did not feel like I was idling.” Thoughts of the torments of the next world make one disinterested in everything Abu Darda was a merchant before accepting Islam. He gave up his trade after becoming a Muslim. “By the One who possesses Abu Darda’s soul,” he once said, “I would not even like to have a shop at the gate of the mosque, not to be missing even one prayer, and to be giving the 40 dirhams that I earn every day to charity for God’s cause.” “What has made you feel this way?” he was asked, “The torment of the Day of Judgement,” he replied.