editorial  

Silence of the Ocean

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

The Message of Islam as propagated by the chains of the prophets throughout the ages is a recognition of the Truth that human beings should bear witness to and a call to the Way to lead their lives in accordance with. The Balance had been missing from most part of the history of human civilizations so the peace through justice is missing from the large part of the world. It is only with the Truth and the Guidance from the Creator of human beings the Balance can be brought back and the human life can be given an elevation, a meaning and a purpose of its existence.

Looking back at our major civilizations, we, human beings should not fail to realize that we always had faced difficulties in integrating the major creative human forces with a dynamic balance. Many civilizations had failed to integrate the longings of the mind and the longings of the body so the spiritual and the material had to be separated. Development of the rational and scientific endeavors within the recognition of its limits – a creative and constructive human force could not go at par with some religious thoughts.  The individual perfectionist attitudes had led to the break down of the social fabric in other systems. The ethnocentric dogmatic nationalism had choked many cosmopolitan liberalist attempts.

The overall outcome had been extreme extremism - either you are a monk secluded in a cave or an egotistical materialist glutton, either you are a super-humble person unable to stand upright on your back and speak up against injustice or an ignorant arrogant spreading injustice and corruption around the world, either you are a blind-faithed religious fanatic or an arrogant rationalist scientist, either you are a dogmatic clergy-man or a parochially diplomatic nationalist politician or in most cases nonchalant ignorant unable to look beyond.

The grand dynamic integration of all the creative human forces in a properly balanced way not only actualizes the optimized human potentials at the individual level but also resonates the possible achievements of the human civilizations at the collective level. Qur'an talks about this momentous event of identity by declaring the golden balanced Middle:

"Thus, have We made of you an Ummat justly balanced, that ye might be
witnesses over the nations, and the Apostle a witness over yourselves; and
We appointed the Qibla to which thou wast used,only to test those who
followed the Apostle from those who would turn on their heels (from the faith).
Indeed it was (a change) momentous, except to those guided by God. And
never would God Make your faith of no effect. For God is to all people
Most surely full of kindness, Most Merciful."

                                                               Al-Qur'an 2 : 143

The Middle Path (avoidance of all extremism) a Muslim seeks after is a part of this grand integration. It is not to be understood as the trivial mediocrisy. In fact, this grand unification and the consequent resonance of human potentials are just a part of the philosophical implications of Tawheed - The Monotheism - any Muslim intellect gets 'indoctrinated' with. Our Creator had sent His Messengers to all the nations to inculcate the Tawheed and its manifold relevance to human life.

The chain of the Messages propagated by the prophets (Prophet Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jesus - Peace be upon them all) throughout the ages had reached its perfection and completion by Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) calling for a complete submission to the Will of Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) - the Creator of All the Worlds – for proper guidance to the Truth - Al-Haqq - through living a balanced life and by establishing sociopoliticoeconomic justice around the world as a way to the global peace. It is indeed a complete but balanced Way of life as revealed to humanity through the Qur'an.

As a Muslim individual tunes him/herself to the grand "Trust" bestowed upon, he/she learns the meaning of his/her existence and the coexistence of the rest of the universe at large. This ultimate self-discovery and its relation to the other worlds of cognition elevates the status of a Muslim to the true devotee of Allaah SWT - the One True God. Qur'an talks about this pinnacle of success:

(To the righteous soul will be said:)
" O (thou) soul, in (complete) rest and satisfaction!
Come back thou to thy Lord, - well pleased (thyself),
and well-pleasing unto Him!
Enter thou, then, among My devotees!
Yea, enter thou My Heaven!"

                                                                                 Al-Qur'an 89 : 27 – 30

The relevance of Islam is not only as the complete natural well-balanced Way of life that recognizes and integrates all the creative and good forces of human endeavors and resonates all such potentials in a collective human effort but also on the amazingly self-consistent theology. In fact this Weltanschauung or the worldview emanates from the theology itself. A careful reader of the Qur'an is unlikely to miss this crucial point.

In the context of the history of human civilizations the relevance of the Message is so clear that the Qur'an calls itself Al-Baiyyinah- the Clear Evidence, the self-evident truth.

We are an organized small group of Muslim individuals striving to become true devotees of our Creator and invite people to the Truth and to the balanced balanced middle Way based on the authentic sources of Islam - in its originality. The organizational form is only to facilitate our work and not to give us a separate "We" identity. Most of us are also working with local Muslim organizations that reflects the true dynamic spirit of Islam. Our efforts are to share the magnificent beauty and love of the Message of Islam with the rest of the humanity and this is the best gift we can share with our fellow human beings.

Al-Baiyyinah is our first publication. We thank to Allah SWT for giving us the opportunity to contribute to the propagation of His Message. I would like to thank those who have contributed to make Al-Baiyyinah a reality. May Allah SWT reward them all for their efforts. Most of the titles of major sections have been chosen in such a way so that there is some relevant Qur’anic connotations to them.

We have included some articles from free-access web-sites found relevant (with proper references and credits) without prior permissions from some author (some of whom could not be reached or traced). We hope that they forgive us for the sake of Allah SWT since it is only for the sake of spreading the Message not for any other benefits. We would highly appreciate constructive comments, criticisms and suggestions (addressed to the publications committee at wp-pub@makelist.com) on our work. We hope for the forgiveness for our unintentional mistakes. May Allah SWT - the God of Compassion and Mercy accept our work and guide us all to the Straightest Path - the one best for humanity at large.

   P.S 

 

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