| Answer:
Faith and religion guide man’s spiritual being. It has to do with his
relationship with God, and the resultant attitude adopted by him in his
dealings with fellow human beings. To be grateful to the Lord Almighty for
His Providence and His Mercy, to observe the blessings that surround us, and
thanking and acknowledging the Creator behind them contributes to the
spirituality of a person. The direct implication of such a submissive
attitude will help maintain a human being’s contact with his Lord through
His prescribed forms of worship.
Seek the bounty of God, and worship Him. Give thanks to Him, for to Him
you shall return. (29:17)
The best
of all kinds of worship being the prayer.
The
spiritual aspect of a human being, therefore, directly refers to his
relationship with Allah, the resultant self-purification and dealings with
others. For a Muslim, this will imply the greater Jihād, the one against the
nafs. This is a constant, on-going battle against Satan, in order to protect
oneself from the evil that lurks around us, and remain conscious of God
Almighty at all times and under all circumstances.
The
moral aspect is innate in man. His ability to decipher between good and bad,
right and wrong, evil and pious, is God-given: man’s conscience. Morality is
a universal concept by nature. However, in the secular world today, it has
been distorted into a very relative concept. ‘Nurture’ is falsely being
proclaimed as the winning end in the ‘nature’ versus ‘nurture’ debate. With
every society defining its own morals, what may be considered a highly moral
thing to do in one society, may be proclaimed something morally corrupt in
another.
In
Islam, man’s moral aspect refers to his obedience to Allah, his
selflessness, kindness, consideration, chastity, piety, charity, etc. Thus,
for a Muslim whose life is governed by belief in Allah, and the beliefs and
laws enacted by Him, both these concepts of the spiritual being and the
moral being, will inevitably overlap. One would promote the other.
For
example, the offering of prayers – a spiritual act – will reprimand man on
any immoral act he may have committed. It should follow then that he ought
to repent for his mistakes, correct himself and continue to answer the call
of his conscience – the moral aspect. |