The Man Islam Builds

and let there be no alteration in God’s Creation. That is the right religion, although most men may not know it. (30:30) This means that every human being is created by God to be capable—as a matter of his natural constitution—of accepting the religion of truth. The Unity God is a truth, arrived at intuitively, and is plain to every man of common sense, unless he perverts himself by the different prejudices which he receives from his environment. Islam is thus the natural religion that a child left to itself would develop. A western writer, Lady Cobbold, has rightly described it: Islam is the religion of common sense. When this potential is realized, it results in the emergence of a new man. What kind of character is possessed by this new man is made clear by the following hadith: Nine things the Lord has commanded me: Fear of God in private and in public; Justness, whether in anger or in calmness; Moderation in both poverty and affluence; Joining hands with those who break away from me; and giving to those who deprive me; and forgiving those who wrong me; and making of my silence meditation; and my words remembrance of God; and taking a lesson from my observation. (Razin) This hadith gives a complete picture of the man Islam wants to build. □