The Foundations And Concepts of Islam

1.               Knowing the True Lord Who is the Creator and the Provider; Who created man from nothingness and bestowed on him favours.

2.               Knowing His Names and Attributes and all that is due to Him; and the impacts of these Names on His slaves.

3.               Knowing the way that leads to Him, may He be glorified.

4.               Knowing the hindrances and harms that prevent man from knowing the way and the great bliss that the way leads to.

5.               Having a real cognisance of your own soul, its needs, recognising what is good for it and what is harm to it, and knowing its qualities and defects.

It is by knowing these five things that man can perfect his scientific power. And perfection of his scientific and will power can not occur except by respecting the rights of Allaah upon His slaves and carrying out these rights sincerely, truthfully, according to the Sunnah of the Prophet and as a testimony of His favour on him. There is no way to perfection of these two powers except by His help. He therefore needs to be guided to the Straight Path which Allaah guided His friends.[69]

After we have known that the True Religion is the Divine support for different powers of the soul, we should also know that religion is the protective shield for the society. This is because human life cannot be alright except through mutual cooperation and this cooperation cannot take place except through a system that regulates human relationships, defines their obligations and guarantees their rights. This system is also in need of a curbing and restraining authority that can prevent the soul from violating the system, encourage it to preserve it, guarantees its relevance and prevents men from desecrating it. What then is this power?

There is not on the face of this earth any power that can match the power of religiosity or even close to that in guaranteeing the respect for order, societal cohesion, stability of it’s system and harmonising the means of comfort and tranquillity in the society.

The underlying reason for this is that, man is distinguished from other living things in that, all his voluntary movements and actions are controlled by an inaudible and invincible element. That element is faith which refines the soul and purifies the limbs. Man, is therefore, always controlled by a true or false belief. If his belief is correct, everything in him will be correct, but if his belief is corrupt, everything in him will be corrupt.

Faith is a spontaneous watcher over man; and it is – as noticed in all men – of two types: