“There is no compulsion in the matter of deen.” Asserts the Qur’an
(2:256). If this command is accepted and obeyed in good faith, it
will certainly put an end to all fanaticism and religious disputes.
Understood rightly, this injunction is the charter of freedom of
thought and expression even to those who do not believe in it. Deen,
therefore, leaves the power to choose and act in man’s hands. It is
through his personal initiative, strength of character, courage,
fortitude, determination and ceaseless efforts that man can shape
his destiny and can win for himself a future which must necessarily
belong to him if he accepts and follows the Divine revelation in all
sincerity.
VI. IslamThe Qur’anic concept of deen has been elucidated in the
foregoing section. Obviously, Islam fulfils all the requirements of
deen. Islam, as Iqbal puts it, “is neither dogma, nor priesthood, nor
ritual.”(8) It is much more than any of these or all of these. It is the
vivid sense of God’s directive force and unflinching working of His
laws. It is absolute eiman in God’s wisdom and His purpose. It is
hearty participation in the upward progressive trend and movement
of life and the world viewed as the expression of God’s creative
force. Islam stands for life-fulfilment and rejects life-denial as
unworthy of man. It commands us to face facts and not to shrink
from them and take refuge in fantasy, and requires us to control and
harness natural forces for achieving our ends. Asceticism, quietism
and monasticism are all repugnant to Islam. Islam lays stress on
social life and on its value for man, and does not regard the body as
an evil and as an impediment to “spiritual” progress. It wants man to
respect the rights of the body as well as the rights of the self. For this
reason, Islam does not approve of self-abnegation and self-
mortification. There is nothing mysterious in it and it has no place
for mysticism. It aims at the establishment of a social order based
on permanent values in which all its members act as free agents
striving for a higher and noble cause of making man’s abode on this
earth more beautiful, and making him fit for further evolutionary
stages of life.
Islam, as a living force, will continue to play a vital role in the
Islam: A Challenge to Religion 68