Enter into Islam ‘in its totality’

Everyone has been endowed with a conscience, which favours justice and despises injustice and cruelty. Life in accordance with reality, then, is one of kindness and justice. Death is bound to come one day. It will deprive everyone of his worldly possessions, so one who lives in accordance with reality will look at the ups and downs of life as transitory and insignificant; he will regard everybody as God’s servant, irrespective of worldly status. When one comes upon the truth one might be disposed to reject it. But one should remember that one day everyone will have to accept truth and falsehood for what they are. One should willingly accept today what one will be forced to accept tomorrow. The position that Islam occupies in relation to our lives should be an integral, not a supplementary one: “Take on God’s own dye. And who has better dye than God’s?” (Quran, 2:138) Here is an example to illustrate this point. When a stone is dropped in water it descends to the bottom and settles there. It is in the water but separate from it. On the other hand, if dye is put into the same glass, the dye and water combine. The water is not separate from the dye. Both have intermingled in such a way that no one can detect any difference between the two. The relationship between Islam and a true believer should be like that of dye and water, not of stone and water. Islam should not be just an accessory to a Muslim’s life; it should merge with his whole being; as the Quran says, Islam should be entered into ‘in its totality’ (2:208). When a person adopts Islam in this manner, it becomes the throb of his heart as it permeates his emotions. It enters his thoughts, moulding his intellect in its own fashion. It becomes the eye with which he sees, the tongue with which he speaks, the hands and feet with which he performs his day to day functions. It takes possession of a person, to the exclusion of everything else. His every statement bears the stamp of Islam and his every action becomes dyed in Islamic colours. If Islam is like a stone in water then it is not Islam at all. Faith should be absorbed in a person like dye is dissolved in water. Just as the emotions of love and hate are felt by the whole body so, when one adopts Islam in the real sense of the word, it becomes an issue affecting one’s whole existence. The Muslim and Islam become inseparably attached to one another.