world are interdependent; they need each other and help each other.
This is still more true of the self of man. The self can develop only
in a social environment, through interaction with other free selves.
It needs a society in which there is internal harmony and concord. It
burgeons in the context of friendly relations with kindred beings.
Their sympathy and co-operation are essential to its growth. The
sense of participation in social activities directed to a noble end adds
a new dimension to the self. Self-realisation is possible for man only
in society, a society which is based on justice and respect for human
personality, a society which is dedicated to the acquisition of higher
values. The society which favours the growth of the self, is that in
which every man gladly helps others and gratefully receives help
from them. In a society torn by dissension, the demands of the
physical self become imperative. In such a society, every man will be
thinking of himself and his personal interests. His mind will be
engrossed with the problem of protecting his life, property and
children from other men. Biological motives will dominate the mind
and the urge for a higher life will be relegated to the background. In
a society of this kind the pursuit of the good is not possible. Man
needs a society in which all the members are bound to each other by
ties of friendship and animated by the spirit of comradeship. Belief
in these values is the first commitment of belief in God. The Qur'an
exhorts man to build up a society in which men are united by such an
Eiman in God for the purpose of collating a society which is not
wrought-up by internal tensions:
And hold fast by the cord of God, all of you, and be not divided; but
remember the favour of God towards you, when you were enemies
and He united your hearts so that you became, by His favour, as
brothers (3:103).
The society so cultivated and congenial is the Ummah of the
Qur’an. "This is how He has raised an Ummah – community – from
among you" (2:143). This is the reason for the Qur’an’s emphasis on
corporate life and for its disapproval of monasticism. Goethe once
remarked that character is formed not in solitude, but in the hurly-
burly of life. The self shrinks and contracts in solitude, while it
grows and expands through active and continuous participation in
group activities.
A harmonious, well-knit and integrated personality can take
Islam: A Challenge to Religion 178