ISLAM AND THE MODERN MAN - PART II

God takes away a person’s ego and haughtiness. The believer is totally sincere and is a realist in the true sense. This is the secret of all kinds of reform. If a man is sincere and realistic, he will perform all tasks in the most proper way, but if he lacks these qualities, he will mar everything that he undertakes. The Islamic concept of God produces this sincerity and realism in man. All human beings in our world are not equal. Here some are weak, others strong; this difference is the cause of all the injustice prevalent in the world. Those who feel powerful tend to exploit those who appear weaker than themselves. Belief in God roots out this evil from man. Belief in God tells man that the actual issue is not between man and man, but between God and man. Here, on the one hand is God, the allpowerful, and, on the other is man who has no power as compared to God. It is as if the division here is not between the less powerful and the more powerful, but between power and powerlessness. (THE QURAN 35: 15) Belief in God transforms man’s thinking. He begins to look at things not in relation to human beings but in relation to God. This is because he knows he has to face his Maker. Ultimately this causes the disappearance of a tyrannical mentality that had artificially surfaced as a result of seeing everything, not in relation to God but in relation to man. The believer thus comes down to his actual level. He becomes a man cut to size. In a controversy arising between two persons or two nations, both in most cases, are at fault. In such a state of affairs, if one party admits its mistakes the other party too follows suit. On the contrary if one party remains adamant, the other party becomes equally unwilling to admit its own faults. This leads to an escalation of the strife, until it reaches a point of no return. In all such cases, the actual problem is that no sooner does a quarrel start both the groups turn it into an issue of prestige. Each group knows that it shares the blame, yet it refrains from saying so, for any such outright admission would be humiliating in the extreme. To believe in God is to believe in an Almighty being who has access to the innermost recesses of the human mind, and who will take an account of all acts done openly or covertly.