Page 29 - The Courage of the Faithful

The Difference Between Courage According to the Qur'an and Courage
According to Society
ing the risk of being caught by the authorities while doing so, as
courage. They believe that being able to commit several crimes si-
multaneously and becoming rich without being caught is courage.
They perceive involving themselves fearlessly in such immorality,
not hesitating to trample on others for the sake of their own gain,
and recognizing no authority whatsoever as a mark of their superi-

ority over others. In fact, fomenting conflict, oppressing others,
trampling on other people's rights, and other acts of a similar nature,
all re p resent wicked behavior which is forbidden by Allah in the
verses of the Qur'an, and for which they will be unable to answer for
in the Hereafter. Courage only has real meaning when it is combined
with superior morality. Courage demonstrated against society's
rules is an ugly form of courage, and cannot be reconciled with the

superior morality and the Muslim model of which Allah informs us
in the Qur'an.
Courage is behavior which is adopted in order to earn A l l a h ' s
good pleasure. The faithful sacrifice their lives and their goods for
the purpose of obtaining Allah's goodwill. At bottom, this is not a
decision taken at some late stage by people of faith. Believers take
this decision the moment they say, "I believe":
Allah has bought from the believers their selves and their
wealth in return for the Garden. They fight in the Way of

Allah and they kill and are killed. It is a promise binding
on Him in the Torah, the Gospel and the Qur'an and who
is truer to his contract than Allah? Rejoice then in the bar-
gain you have made. That is the great victory. (Surat at-
Tawba, 111)
For those who make this decision from the outset, all that re-

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