Islamic Civilization. Sayyid Abul A'la Mawdudi
ethnicity or one living within certain geographic boundaries.3 On this account, in the view of such religions, salvation is limited to that special ethnic group or nation. Such an ideal can undoubtedly serve as a successful collective ideal in the early stages of a civilization, but since it does not meet the standards of true intellect – the fundamental premise of restricting salvation to a certain race is something that any sane person will reject – the followers of such faiths themselves rebel against their ideal after moving only a few steps on the road to progress. While exorcizing such an ideal from their minds, they adopt some other ideal.
Thirdly, howsoever pure the salvation ideal may be from a religious or spiritual viewpoint, it does not have any substance within it that could, from a temporal point of view, elevate a group as a nation, and energize it with a force that is essential for mobilizing it to achieve national progress. It is because of this that no progressive nation has ever made salvation its collective ideal. Even amongst those nations whose religions have presented salvation as an ideal, its status has been relegated to that of an individual ideal.
These are the reasons because of which both material and spiritual ideals do not equate with the true measure of success. Let us now see as to what the Islamic civilization has declared to be its ideal and what those qualities are that make it a correct ideal.
The Ideal of Islamic Civilization and its Characteristics
At the very start of this discussion, it should be evident that the whole issue of an ideal is deeply linked with the subject of a worldview or Weltanschauung. Whatever view we maintain about the temporal world – and whatever view we have about our role in that temporal world and the place of the corporeal world in our lives – naturally generates an ideal for life. Accordingly, we begin to spend all our energies towards the establishment of that ideal. If we consider the world to be a pasture, and our view of life defines it as a time period granted us for eating, drinking and being merry, then this animalistic concept will necessarily inculcate within our beings a primeval and corporeal ideal. We will then spend all our lives in efforts to obtain the materials that impart sensual pleasure.
On the contrary, if we consider ourselves to be natural wrongdoers and instinctive sinners, and our view about this world is that of a place of torment in which we have been thrown for suffering the punishment of our inborn delinquency, then, naturally this concept produces in us a desire for release from this affliction, and upon this basis we consider salvation to be our ideal.
However, if our concept about the temporal world is beyond that of either a pasture or a torture chamber, and, as human beings, we consider ourselves to be above and superior to both animals and criminals, we will certainly look for an ideal that is loftier than the mere pursuit of physical pleasures or the attainment of salvation. Our insightfulness, then, does not stop at any inferior and lowly standpoint.
Keeping this principle before us, when we see that Islam has declared man to be God’s viceroy and His representative on earth, then the intellect necessarily reaches the one ideal that can and should naturally arise from this worldview. By virtue of being a viceroy what else can the ideal of the subordinate representative be other than attaining the approval and pleasure of the power that he represents and that he be considered a good, loyal, and conscientious employee. If a person is a truly straightforward and well-intentioned individual, can he make his ideal anything else except service to the superior and attainment of his pleasure? Would such a person fulfil his duty only because of a longing for an increase in his payment, an incentive for promotion or reward, or a desire for enhancement in rank or status? It would be altogether a different matter that upon being pleased, this superior grants him all these, or holds out the promise of granting all these in return for superior performance. Moreover, there would be no harm in bearing the self-knowledge that if the person were to carry out his duties in the best manner possible and please the superior then the said rewards would be his. On the other hand, if he were to make the rewards his goal, and perform his duties only because of the expectation of gain, would any wise person call such a servant dutiful?
Based upon this illustration, we may reflect on the subject of God and His viceroy. If man is considered to be God’s viceroy on earth, can the ideal of his life be anything but the seeking of His approval and pleasure? This is the ideal that the intellect and innate disposition create out of the said worldview. Without any omission, this is precisely the ideal that Islam has presented to humankind. By following the statements of the Qur’ān given below we can see that the whole endeavour is directed towards placing this one ideal in the hearts and minds of people and towards internalizing it by employing different forms of address. Simultaneously, there is also a forceful negation of all other viewpoints. The Qur’ān states:
Say: ‘Surely my Prayer, all my acts of worship, and my living and my dying are only for Allah, the Lord of the whole Universe. He has no associate. Thus have I been bidden, and I am the foremost of those who submit themselves (to Allah).’
[al-Anʿām 6: 162-163]
Surely Allah has purchased of the believers their lives and their belongings and in return has promised that they shall have Paradise. They fight in the Way of Allah, and slay and are slain. … Rejoice, then, in the bargain you have made with Him. That indeed is the mighty triumph.
[al-Tawbah 9: 111]
In Sūrah al-Baqarah, while distinguishing the obedient person from the disobedient, the former is described as:
Among men there is a kind who dedicates his life seeking to please Allah; Allah is Immensely Kind to such devoted servants.
[al-Baqarah 2: 207]
In Sūrah al-Fatḥ Muslims have been described as a people whose friendship and enmity, whose devotions and prostrations, are all for Allah:
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