not too much

A piece by Safdar Hasan Siddiqi, author of The role of Islam in the twenty-first century: A journey towards peace, amity, progress. Ferozsons, 1997. Pakistan Times, 21 Jun 06.

God belongs to all human beings and is not exclusive for any religious group or section of humanity. Love for God, in effect, means love for human beings that is, serving one another. This concept leads to the radical change in a human being, and in the society, a totally new approach to life and a new and better life style. Such belief gives a deeper understanding of life, and brings integration, wholeness and purpose to it. We truly love God (our creator and Sustainer) then we will surely love each other because God dwells in each one of us. He is directly accessible to us. He is real, alive and near, guiding and comforting those who look up to Him for help. God transforms one inwardly by a complete change of heart and mind. But, for this to happen we have to approach Him for guidance in all sincerity and total honesty, just as we are, with all our faults, our intellectual doubts and concerns; He does not want a sham. Thus faith in God does move mountains. God says to us "Go forth in my strength and I will be with you". One thing is certain: when we truly take God at His word He abundantly invokes happiness on us.

The Torah and Bible both impart the same concept of "Oneness of God" as the Quran. The basic idea underlying the teachings of these Holy Books is that all human beings are essentially "adherents of the same faith". Thus to quote Dennis Wrigley from his book One Lord One People, "Faith is a gift from God, equally for all human beings. Our good works are sign of our faith in God because faith, if it has not works accompanying it, is dead. Walking in faith changes our approach to decision making. It leads us to associate directly with the poor, the downtrodden and the oppressed, and to prepare them mentally and physically for a better life and to work in the way of God. To the hopeless, the recognition that God has a purpose for them and they are precious in His sight, and the full knowledge that to God nothing is impossible, generates hope and confidence, and is a great turning point in their lives. Such recognition brings men and women to full maturity by increasing their self-respect, discovering for them a new worth and a new purpose in their personal lives, changing their ways and enabling them to tread new paths and, above all, facilitating them to recognize that God knows everything about them and hence they should develop and repose full trust in Him. Thus they grow in faith and in knowledge of God and His ways of doing things and bringing about change in the world society. In a thousand different ways today, and son (sic) a global scale, God seems to be calling His people to change their ways, to take new initiatives, to explore new ways, to take risks and to see new and often bewildering horizons. A new experience of the reality of God's presence in our lives in whatever we are doing inevitably generates vitality and creativity; we come to see the way to peace and reconciliation in a divided world, and understand the root causes of aggression and alienation. Of course we do not fully understand what God is doing but the evidence of His presence is undeniable.

Such awareness of God's presence in our lives can be experienced by us only when we develop in ourselves oneness with the hungry and the poor, the exploited and the oppressed, and be sensitive to their needs and feelings, when we experience the freshness and simplicity of love for them and a real sense of belonging to them and a real sense of belonging to them, when we struggle on their side against the exploiting classes of jagirdars, sardars, big absentee-land-lords, the filthy rich and the religious elite, against autocratic and demonic rulers and authorities, against cosmic world powers and against spiritual forces of evil. We cannot comprehend God without facing these challenges, God calls upon us to live dangerously. That is why Jesus proclaims: "I have come to set the world ablaze." (Luke 12.49).