SPIRITUAL UNITY — Man's Greatest Need

In reality, the various sets of circumstances that confront man in this world lead to drawing of different veils over man’s natural propensities. For instance, the veil of material greed produces self-centredness; the veil of jealousy causes him to see himself as being separate from others; the veil of prejudice makes him discriminate between human beings, and so on. These veils, in fact, tend to block man’s natural urge towards spiritual unity. What is required is to remove these artificial veils so that the true, inner reality of humaneness can be brought into focus. All human beings are God’s family. The aim of all religions, basically, is to encourage this spiritual unity within man, and between man and man. No religion is at variance with another so far as this goal is concerned. The language in which this is set forth may vary from one religion to another, but, without doubt, the main concern of all religions is to produce spiritual unity within and between all human beings. Without spiritual unity, there is little hope of creating peace and harmony throughout the world. And where there is no peace and harmony, the dream of human progress will forever remain elusive. Now, what is Islam’s contribution to spiritual unity? The subject is too vast for more than just a few basic points to be briefly touched on. The Unity of God The most important factor in Islam’s contribution is its concept of monotheism—of there being only one God (THE QURAN 2: 163). According to Islam, God, or the ultimate reality of this universe is only one — called Allah in Islam. It is implicit in the concept of the oneness of Godhead that differences and multiplicity would appear to exist in reality, yet there is an underlying unity. In this way the concept of divine unity engenders spiritual unity. All human beings are one, because they are the servants of one God. All human beings are God’s family. God is indeed the greatest reality of the universe. And when it is acknowledged that there is only one greatest reality, it is but natural that all other creatures should acquire the character of unity.