A question often
asked is: What is Piety?
Muslims are
required to fear God. But fear does not seem to be a good reason to worship
God. Some people, it is said, worship God because of fear of punishment in
Hell. Other worship Him because of the desire for Paradise.
These appear to be selfish reasons. But in Hinduism and Buddhism there seems to
be only the Law of Karma, no Paradise or Hell.
There do appear
to be several naive ideas and misconceptions on this subject which also lead to
unnecessary controversies. There are, in fact several levels of worship:-
(1) It is true
that the Quran speaks about fearing Allah, and appears to threaten with Hell or
bribe with Paradise.
(2) It appears
to provide an incentive by the promises of Paradise.
(3) But these
could be regarded as statement of facts about consequences for action which
require us to make intelligent decision. The Quran speaks about doing right and
avoiding error.
"Say: O mankind! There has come to you the
Truth from your Lord, and he who is guided by it, his guidance is only for his
own soul; and he who errs, errs only against it; and I am not a warder over
you." 10:109
"He who accepts guidance (or does right),
accepts it only for his own soul: and he who errs, errs only against it; nor
shall one burdened soul bear the burden of another. " 17:15
"Say: O mankind! There has come to you the
Truth from your Lord, and he who is guided by it, his guidance is only for his
own soul; and he who errs, errs only against it; and I am not a warder over you."
10:109
(4) The Quran
also asks those who love Allah to follow the Messenger.
"Say: If ye love Allah then follow me, and
Allah will love you and forgive you your sins, for Allah is Forgiving and
Merciful. " 3:31
"Yet are there some amongst mankind who
take to themselves (for worship) peers other than Allah; they love them as they
should love Allah. But those who have faith are overflowing with love for
Allah. O that those who are unjust could only see, they would see the Penalty
(or Consequence) that all power belongs to Allah, and He will strongly enforce
the Penalty." 2:165
(5) And we are
asked to do all things for Allah's sake, because we recognize Him as the one
deserving our service.
"We only feed you for Allah's sake; we
desire from you neither reward nor thanks:" 76:9
"Say, "I exhort you only to one thing
that ye awake for Allah's sake in twos or singly, then ponder: " 34:46
(6) We are also
told that we ought to behave according to our inherent nature as made by Allah.
"And, set thy purpose resolutely for
religion as a "Hanif" (a man upright by nature); and be not of the
idolaters; " 10:106
"Then set your purpose for religion as a
man upright by nature - the nature made by Allah in which He has made men;
there is no altering (the laws of) Allah's creation; that is the right
religion, but most people do not know - turning to Him only, and be careful of
your duty to Him and keep up prayer and be not of those who ascribe partners to
Him (polytheists), of those who split their religion and became schismatic,
every sect rejoicing in its own tenets." 30:30
(7) The highest
form of worship is a state of Surrender or identification with Allah.
"Say: Verily, my worship and my sacrifice,
and my living and my dying belong to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. " 6:163
Five things
should be considered:-
(1) People who
accept God regard Him as the creator and controller of the Universe and all
forces in it. God, therefore, represents Reality both inner and outer.
(2) Worship
means recognition of something greater than oneself on which one is dependent
and to which one subordinates oneself. It involves three things:- recognition,
devotion and service which refer to the three human faculties for thought,
feeling and action. Recognition includes awareness, acceptance, faith,
faithfulness, loyalty, gratitude, trust and reliance. (2:139, 2:152, 3:122,
159, 14:11, 31:12, 33:3, 58:10 etc.)
(3) Human beings
as all organisms have to adjust to reality or else they will suffer and be
destroyed.
(4) Human beings
have an inbuilt capacity for fear (repulsion), love (or desire) and cognition
(of truth). It is these that govern their behaviour, development and adjustment
to reality.
(5) All actions
have causes and consequences both on the things in the environment, and on the
person who does them. The environmental things react and this also produces
effects on the person. The person modified by the effects on him also acts and
produces effects on the things in the environment This is according to the law
of cause and effect.
So, we see that
worship of God can be the result of fear, love or cognition. This will modify
behaviour and produce consequences according to the law of cause and effect.
These three,
fear, love and cognition, are not mutually exclusive, but inter-dependent. You
cannot fear or love without cognition and love and fear lead to cognition. When
something is loved one fears to offend it or loose, and if one fear something
because one recognizes its power then one also loves to associate with it. It
is because one recognizes the law of cause and effect an sees that certain
actions have certain consequences which may be beneficial or harmful that we
fear the one and avoid it and love the other and do it.
There are
different aspects and degrees of each. Fear, for instance, may refer to a
repulsion from pain or injury, or to anxiety or to respect or to awe of the
power of something. It may refer to the desire not to do what is harmful or
what will offend someone one loves. It may refer to the intelligent action that
considers causes and effects. One can fear injury, for one's life, for losses
of food, security, livelihood, wealth or power or love or respect (if one loves
these) or friends, social position or dignity. One can fear for one's sanity,
knowledge, ability or for one's soul.
Piety means
devotion, respect, dedication, dutifulness, reverence, and veneration. It
includes fear, love and cognition. It refers to the degree of the intimacy or
strength of the relationship between a person and God. Piety is, therefore,
proportional to the cognition (awareness), love and fear of God or Reality. A
person whose relationship with existence is superficial or frivolous is not a
pious person.
The greater the
piety the better is the relationship or adjustment of a person to reality, the
more is he in inner and outer harmony, self-fulfilled and at peace owing to the
cessation of conflicts. This state is known as being closer to God and is Paradise. The less the piety the less is the adjustment
and the greater is the disharmony and conflict and the greater the suffering.
This state is known as being far from Allah and is Hell.
Another word for
Piety is Righteousness - It refers to a state of Being and is described in
Islam as god-consciousness. It is also described in the following verse which
gives us the essence of Islam.
"Righteousness is not that ye turn your
faces towards the East or the West, but it is righteousness to believe in
Allah, and the Last Day, and the Angels, and the Book, and the Messengers, and
to spend of your wealth for love of Him, for your kindred, and orphans, and the
needy, and the wayfarer, for those who ask, and to ransom those in captivity;
and to be steadfast in prayer, and practice regular charity; to fulfill the
covenant (contracts) which ye have made; and to be firm in patience in times of
pain (poverty and deprivation), and adversity, and in periods of panic (or
violence); these are the people who are true, and these are those who are
Allah-fearing. " Quran 2:177
Piety
should, therefore, be distinguished from dogmatism, ritualism, acts of habit
and automatism, mechanicalness, impulsiveness, legalism, formalism, and
institutionalism. It should also be distinguished from sentimentality,
emotionalism, obsession and hysterical behaviour in which people work themselves
into a frenzy and irrational and often bizarre states. Nor is it what some
people consider to be lofty and esoteric talk and thoughts. Nor is it
paranormal experiences such a mediumship, clairvoyance, communication with the
spirit of the dead and other psychic phenomena. Some people think that it
consists of experiences induced in acts of "meditation", but here
suggestion may play a major part and people experience or think they experience
whatever they want or have been told by their "gurus" or sect.
Altered states of consciousness may also be induced by drugs, diseases,
streses, exhaustion, lack of sleep and various kinds of deprivation. True piety
requires sobriety and manifests in good and useful actions.
Piety leads to
great efforts and of various kinds. These efforts may be done for three
reasons:-
(1) In obedience
to God. They take various form in accordance with faith in different teachings
or experiences, ideas about who God is and what He requires of them. These may
be misinterpretations, misapprehensions, illusions, superstitions or obsessions
to various degrees. However, the actions may be effective though the
interpretation of experiences may differ according to the ideas and culture in
which a person is brought up or has accepted. From the point of view of the
members of any one sect the beliefs of the other sects will be regarded as
false or mistaken to various degrees. It is, however, much more likely that if
the interpretation of these teachings and experiences is closer to what is objectively
true, good or more effective because it provides a comprehensive system in
which all experiences can be interpreted in a self-consistent manner then it
will also be much more beneficial to the individual and the society of which he
is part, and also to the world he acts on.
(2) In order to
get closer to God. This requires that the efforts be appropriate and effective
for the nature of the people and their conditions of life. Actions vary in
these respects. Effectiveness and appropriateness can sometimes, but not
always, be compensated for by the amount and intensity of effort. Some people
practice great austerities and look for great hardships to overcome. Some even
undertake various forms of self-mutilation and self-mutilation in order to get
rid of their sins or indulge in certain purification rituals obsessively. Islam
does require effort, but is not in favour of any kind of excesses.
"Allah desires for you ease; He desires
not hardship for you; and (He desires) that ye should complete the period, and
that ye should magnify Allah for having guided you, and that peradventure ye
may be thankful. " 2:185
"O ye who believe! Forbid not the good
things which Allah has made lawful for you, nor transgress (or commit excess);
verily, Allah loves not the transgressors." 5:87
"And strive in the cause of Allah, with
the effort which is His due. He has chosen you, and has not laid upon you any
hardship (or hindrance) in religion - the faith of your father Abraham."
22:78
"Verily, with difficulty comes ease!
Verily, with difficulty comes ease! So when thou art at relieved, then still
toil, and to thy Lord turn all thy yearning (or attention)!" 94:5-8
"And We will ease thy way into the simple
(path); " 87:8
(3) In order to
serve God. Some people feel they have been called to serve God in certain ways.
But this may be wishful thinking or fantasy. A certain degree of closeness to
God has to be achieved before it becomes possible to distinguish between the
real and the illusory. In the meantime basic general duties have been outlined
in the revealed Scriptures.
"Do not make the revelations of Allah into
a jest; but remember Allah's favours to you, and what He has sent down to you
in the Book and Wisdom, to admonish you thereby; and observe your duty to
Allah, and know that Allah is Aware of all things." 2:231
"O ye who believe! Observe your duty to
Allah with the right observance, and die not save as those who have surrendered
." 3:102
"O mankind! Be careful of your duty to
your Lord, who created you from one soul, and created there from its mate, and
scattered from the twain a multitude of men and women. Be careful of your duty
towards Allah, in whose name ye claim rights of one another, and the wombs that
bore you; verily, Allah is Watcher over you." 4:1
"He it is who made you Vicegerents
(Agents, Successors, Inheritors) of the earth, and raised some of you above
others in degree (or rank, virtue, power, wealth, ability etc.), to try you by
that which he has given you; " 6:166
"Work not confusion (chaos, mischief) in
the earth after it has been rightly ordered, and call upon Him with fear and
hope; for, verily, the mercy of Allah is nigh unto those who do well."
7:56
From the Islamic
point of view these three aspect of effort are inter-dependent.
Acts of Piety
may be (1) Rituals and rites with fixed or flexible forms. (2) Based on faith,
love and hope. (3) Based on knowledge, understanding and awareness.
These three are
not completely separate. Rituals may be performed because of faith or love of
God or hope, because He has commanded them. Whereas it is always better to do
that which one understands, rituals have been established through revelation
and through higher consciousness and their effects may not be known. Human
beings are only conscious of a small part of all the things that influence
them, their effects and even of their own reactions. Rituals tend to be
symbolic - the outer actions, postures and expressions have equivalents inner
emotional and intellectual states, attitude and mental sets that produce
certain possibilities of reception, processing of data and action. Conversely,
inner states have external manifestations. A life within which certain kinds of
ritual are incorporate will gradually modify the person and the society.
Great efforts
are made on the basis of faith, love and hope, but owing to lack of knowledge,
understanding or awareness and the lack of capacity or these, people may be led
by their enthusiasm into ineffective, counter-productive, and sometimes bizarre
and even harmful activities. Many invent their own rituals or change
established ones based on partial knowledge, misinformation, fantasy, wishful
thinking and rationalization. It would be better if they had tuck to what was
more certain.
Some people make
great physical effort such as sadhus and fakirs, some make great emotional
efforts in devotion and works of compassion, some make great intellectual
efforts to study and understand, and still others make great conscious efforts
in various kinds of meditation, observing, controlling and directing attention,
self-awareness and remembering. Islam prefer a combination of these. Islam is
the Balanced Way,
and human beings are a unity in which these three aspects interact. A one-sided
development may produce an unbalanced person who might have capability without
motivation and knowledge, or good motivation without knowledge and ability, or
knowledge without motivation and capability. It is also certain that, owing to
the inter-dependence, the development of each of these faculties will be
hampered and limited by the neglect of the others. Islam requires the
development of a Balanced Man.
It can also be
argued that though it could well be that a man who carries out his vow to keep
his arm outstretched or never to sit or lie down for the sake of God is
strengthening his Will, it would be better if he directed his efforts to things
which might be beneficial to others, to the community and to the environment.
Similar remarks can be made about the other forms of effort. Purely self-centred
efforts may even be harmful to the individual as they may arise from the false
self or ego and strengthen it.
Islam is not in
favour of withdrawal from the world, monasticism and celibacy. The world was
created by Allah for a purpose and man is part of it and has a function with
respect to it. The world itself contains all the opportunities, facilities and
challenges, required for human development.
"But monasticism, they invented it - We
did not prescribe it for them - (We commanded) only the seeking of Allah's
pleasure, but they did not observe it with its due observance;" 57:27
"We will try you with something of fear,
and hunger and loss of wealth, and lives and fruits (of toil); but give good
tidings to those who patiently persevere, who, when there falls on them a calamity
say: Verily, we are Allah's and, verily, to Him is our return." 2:155-156
"And most certainly We will try you until
We have tested those among you who strive hard, and the steadfast, and made
your case manifest. " 47:31
Eastern
religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism appear to be mainly concerned
with personal spiritual development and escape from the world, while Hebrewism,
Christianity and Confucianism concentrate their attention on good social
interactions. Islam includes both and in addition, is also concerned with the
environment and regards man as having a Cosmic function.