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The Spiritual Path of Islam

By Abul Ala Maududi

What is the spiritual path in Islam and what is its place in the life as a whole? To answer this it is necessary to study carefully the difference between the Islamic concept of spirituality and that of other religions and ideologies. Without a clear understanding of this difference it often happens that, when talking about the spirituality in Islam, many of the vague notions associated with the word ‘spiritual’ unconsciously come to mind; it then becomes difficult for one to comprehend that this spirituality of Islam not only transcends the dualism of spirit and matter but is the nucleus of its integrated and unified concept of life.

Body-Soul Conflict

The idea which has influenced most the climate of philosophical and religious thought is that body and soul are mutually antagonistic, and can develop only at each other’s expense. For the soul, the body is a prison and the activities of daily life are the shackles which keep it in bondage and arrest its growth. This has inevitably led to the universe being divided into the spiritual and the secular.

Those who chose the secular path were convinced that they could not meet the demands of spirituality, and thus they led highly material and hedonistic lives. All spheres of worldly activity, whether social, political, economic or cultural, were deprived of the light of spirituality; injustice and tyranny were the result.

Conversely, those who wanted to tread the path of spiritual excellence came to see themselves as ‘noble outcasts’ from the world. They believed that it was impossible for spiritual growth to be compatible with a ‘normal’ life. In their view physical self-denial and mortification of the flesh were necessary for the development and perfection of the spirit. They invented spiritual exercises and ascetic practices which killed physical desires and dulled the body’s senses. They regarded forests, mountains and other solitary places as ideal for spiritual development because the hustle and bustle of life would not interfere with their meditations. They could not conceive of spiritual development except through withdrawal from the world.

This conflict of body and soul resulted in the evolution of two different ideals for the perfection of man. One was that man should be surrounded by all possible material comforts and regard himself as nothing but an animal. Men learnt to fly like birds, swim like fish, run like horses and even terrorize and destroy like wolves ¾ but they did not learn how to live like noble human beings. The other was that the senses should be not only subdued and conquered but extra-sensory powers awakened and the limitations of the sensory world done away with. With these new conquests men would be able to hear distant voices like powerful wireless sets, see remote objects as one does with a telescope, and develop powers through which the mere touch of their hand or a passing glance would heal the unhealable.

The Islamic viewpoint differs radically from these approaches. According to Islam, Allah has appointed the human soul as His Khalifah (vicegerent) in this world. He has invested it with a certain authority, and given it certain responsibilities and obligations for the fulfillment of which He has endowed it with the best and most suitable physical frame. The body has been created with the sole object of allowing the soul to use it in the exercise of its authority and the fulfillment of its duties and responsibilities. The body is not a prison for the soul, but its workshop or factory; and if the soul is to grow and develop, it is only through this workshop. Consequently, this world is not a place of punishment in which the human soul unfortunately finds itself, but a field in which Allah has sent it to work and do its duty towards Him.

So spiritual development should not take the form of a man turning away from this workshop and retreating into a corner. Rather, man should live and work in it, and give the best account of himself that he can. It is in the nature of an examination for him; every aspect and sphere of life is, as it were, a question paper: the home, the family, the neighborhood, the society, the market-place, the office, the factory, the school, the law courts, the police station, the parliament, the peace conference and the battlefield, all represent question papers which man has been called upon to answer. If he leaves most of the answer-book blank, he is bound to fail the examination. Success and development are only possible if man devotes his whole life to this examination and attempts to answer all the question papers he can.

Islam rejects and condemns the ascetic view of life, and proposes a set of methods and processes for the spiritual development of man, not outside this world but inside it. the real place for the growth of the spirit is in the midst of life and not in solitary places of spiritual hibernation.

Criterion of Spiritual Development

We shall now discuss how Islam judges the development or decay of the soul. In his capacity as the vicegerent (Khalifah) of God, man is answerable to Him for all his activities. It is his duty to use all the powers which he has been given in accordance with the Divine will. He should utilize to the fullest extent all the faculties and potentialities bestowed upon him for seeking Allah’s approval. In his dealings with other people he should behave in such a way as to try to please Allah. In brief, all his energies should be directed towards regulating the affairs of this world in the way in which Allah wants them to be regulated. The better a man does this, with a sense of responsibility, obedience and humility, and with the object of seeking the pleasure of the Lord, the nearer will he be to Allah. In Islam, spiritual development is synonymous with nearness to Allah. Similarly, he will not be able to get near to Allah if he is lazy and disobedient. And distance from Allah signifies, in Islam, the spiritual fall and decay of man.

From the Islamic point of view, therefore, the sphere of activity of the religious man and the secular man is the same. Not only will both work in the same spheres; the religious man will work with greater enthusiasm than the secular man. The man of religion will be as active as the man of the world ¾ indeed, more active ¾ in his domestic and social life, which extends from the confines of the household to the market square, and even to international conferences.

What will distinguish their actions will be the nature of their relationship with Allah and the aims behind their actions. Whatever a religious man does, will be done with the feeling that he is answerable to Allah, that he must try to secure Divine pleasure, that his actions must be in accordance with Allah’s laws. A secular person will be indifferent towards Allah and will be guided in his actions only by his personal motives. This difference makes the whole of the material life of a man of religion a totally spiritual venture, and the whole of the life of a secular person an existence devoid of the spark of spirituality.

The Road to Spirituality

The first necessity for progression along the path of spiritual development is MAN (faith). The mind and heart of a man should always be aware: Allah alone is His Master, Sovereign and Deity; seeking His pleasure is the aim of all his endeavors; and His commands alone are the commands that are to be obeyed. This should be a firm conviction, based not merely on the intellect, but also on acceptance by the will. The stronger and deeper this conviction, the more profound a man’s faith will be.

The second stage is that of obedience (it~ ’at), meaning that man gives up his independence and accepts subservience to Allah. This subservience is called § slam (submission) in the language of the Qur’~ n. Thus, man should not only acknowledge Allah as his Lord and Sovereign but should actually submit before Him and fashion his entire life in obedience to Him.

The third stage is that of taqw~ (Allah-consciousness). It consists in a practical manifestation of one’s faith in Allah in one’s daily life. Taqw~ also means desisting from everything which Allah has forbidden or has disapproved of; man must be in a state of readiness to undertake all that Allah has commanded and to observe the distinctions between lawful and unlawful, right and wrong, and good and bad in life.

The last and the highest stage is that of ihs~ n (godliness) It signifies that man has attained highest excellence in words, deeds and thoughts, identifying his will with the will of Allah and harmonizing it, to the best of his knowledge and ability, with the Divine will. He thus begins to like what is liked by the Lord and to dislike what He dislikes. Man should then not only avoid evil, for it displeases his Lord, but should use all his powers to eradicate it from the face of the earth; he should not be content with adorning himself with the good which Allah wants to flourish but should also strive to attain and propagate it in the world, even at the cost of his life. A man who reaches this stage attains the highest pinnacle of spirituality and is nearest to Allah.

This path of spiritual development is not meant for individuals only but for communities and nations as well. Like individuals, a community, after passing through the various stages of spiritual elevation may reach the ultimate stage of ihs~ n a state also, through all its administrative machinery, may become mu’min (faithful), muslim (obedient), muttaq§ (God-conscious) and muhsin (godly). In fact, the ideals aimed at by Islam are fully achieved only when the whole community accepts them and a muttaq§ and muhsin state comes into existence. The highest form of civilization, based on goodness, is then reached.

Let us now look at the mechanism of spiritual training which Islam has laid down to prepare individuals and society for this process.

The methods that Islam lays down for spiritual development rest, in addition, obviously, to faith (Im~ n), on five pillars.

The first is the Prayer (Salat), which brings man into communion with Allah five times a day, reviving his remembrance, reiterating his fear, developing his love, reminding him of this Divine commands again, and thus preparing him for obedience to Allah. It is obligatory to offer some of these Prayers in Congregation as well so that the whole community and society may be prepared to journey on the path of spiritual development.

The second is the Fast (Sawm), which for a full month every year trains each man individually, and the Muslim community as a whole, in righteousness and self-restraint,; it enables society, the rich and the poor alike, to experience hunger, and prepares people to undergo any hardships in their search to please Allah.

The third is the Almsgiving (Zakat), which develops the sense of monetary sacrifice, sympathy and co-operation among Muslims. There are people who wrongly interpret Zakat as a tax; in fact, the spirit underlying Zakat is entirely different from that of a tax. The real meaning of Zakat is sublimity and purification. By using this word, Islam seeks to impress on man the fact that, inspired by a true love of Allah, the monetary help which he renders to his brethren will uplift and purify his soul.

The fourth is the Pilgrimage (Hajj), which aims at fostering that universal brotherhood of the faithful which is based on the worship of Allah, and which results in a worldwide movement that has been responding to the call of Truth throughout the centuries and will, Allah willing, go on answering this call till eternity.

The last is Jihad, that is, exerting oneself to the utmost to disseminate the word of Allah and to make it supreme, and to remove all the impediments to Islam ¾ through tongue or pen or sword. the aim is to live a life of dedication to the cause of Allah and, if necessary, to sacrifice one’s life in the discharge of this mission. This is the highest spirituality, rooted in the real world, which Islam wants to cultivate. Life-affirmation based on goodness and piety, and not life-denial, is what Islam stands for. And this lends a unique character to Islam.