THE QURAN: A BOOK OF GUIDANCE
Spirit versus Form
IN earlier times, the Quran was a book of guidance for people, but now it has been turned into a book of pride. Today we need to once again make the Quran a book of guidance for ourselves. This requires Muslims to revise the policies and activities in which they are currently engaged.
In the madarasas and mosques, sermons given are generally centred on the form of religion. In Muslim congregations, it is only the form or the outward aspects of religion that is discussed. We have to return to the original spirit of Islam. This can be understood from a saying of the Prophet. The Prophet is reported to have said that in later times, mosques would be full of worshippers but devoid of guidance.
This means in the later period of Islam, people will perform all rituals associated with religion, but their worship would lack inner spirit. Instead of focusing on reviving the spirit of Islam in individual believers, present day Muslims only speak about working towards gaining political power, which they think is the solution for bringing about a change.
Peace and tolerance are important lessons learnt in prayer. But the real test of the worshipper lies in the application of these lessons in society when he is actually living in the midst of people.
As an example, consider the obligatory prayer which Muslims are required to observe five times a day. Towards the end of every prayer, the worshipper turns to his right and his left and utters the words: ‘Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullah’. It means: ‘May the peace and blessings of God be upon you.’ In other words, by doing this, a worshipper is in effect addressing all of humanity and telling people that they are safe from him. He is making a pledge to live in society as a peaceful person.
Thus peace and tolerance are important lessons learnt in prayer. But the real test of the worshipper lies in the application of these lessons in society when he is actually living in the midst of people. Although we see people meticulously performing prayer, when they return to society it appears they have not imbibed the spirit of prayer—they would get provoked, enter into conflict and even resort to violence.
Here it can be seen how the spirit of prayer is as essential as the form of prayer—without the former, the latter is merely a robotic act.