Page 40 - Passivity in Religion

PASSIVITY IN RELIGION

his loyalty, faith in destiny, gratitude and modesty. On the contrary,
the passive base their thinking on entirely other criteria. The foremost
among these criteria are their own personal interests. They will
gladly consider one from whom they can derive some benefit as a be-
liever, even though this person shows none of the above-mentioned
traits. Furthermore, they attempt to impose this opinion on the other
Muslims. They have their own criteria for determining goodness and
badness. According to these invalid criteria, they may deem someone
"promising," in terms of the benefits he will provide them in the fu-
ture, as a "good person," without considering his level of morality. On
the other hand, they may readily say someone is corrupt, simply be-
cause that person is an impediment to their own future gain. For this
reason, they see no reason why they should not make friends with or
protect those who do not observe Allah's limits.
For instance, they do not admit that someone who says "he is
Muslim," but gambles, or someone who says he has faith, but fails to
observe his prayers, is on the wrong path. They do not believe that
one who establishes his prayers, but is in pursuit of illicit gain, or
someone who fasts, but fails to help those in need and is greedy for
material goods, are errant. Rather, they try to defend such people. A
person may well fail to embrace or show forth the morality ex-
pounded in the Qur'an in its true sense, because of lack of knowledge,
or because he or she fails to exercise her conscience. But, once he or
she is properly reminded, he will reform himself. A sincere person
abandons his mistaken perspective or practices as soon as he sees the
right. What is meant here are not those who are sincere and make
mistakes. Those who are defended by the passive are those who do
not comply with what is right, although they know it, or those who
do not change their way of thinking, although they have a good com-
prehension of Allah's commands, but claim that they are Muslims.
One frequently encounters such people in societies of ignorance.

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