Religion A Spiritual Need

‘And when thy Lord said unto the angels: Lo! I am about to place a viceroy in the earth, they said: Wilt thou place therein one who will do harm therein and will shed blood, while we, we hymn Thy praise and sanctify Thee? He said: Surely I know that which ye know not.’ (Al-Baqarah:30)

Human beings have a great spiritual thirst and they always seek ways of quenching it. Studies show that even the people who lived in pre-historical times practiced some particular set of beliefs in their individual as well as collective lives. Indeed, they had to fill the vacuum which they felt in their spirit, by worshipping and praying to a strong and perfect being. It is also a known fact now that when natural disasters struck, people found themselves weak and vulnerable. Therefore, they came to the understanding that the disasters were sent by a powerful creator and some construed disasters as the rage of God. They had to search for a strong being to protect them. Sometimes, they offered sacrifices to save themselves from the wrath of the nature. Thus, a feeling for worship and reverence was all but natural.

It is aptly said by the Buddha, ‘Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.’

Naturally, human beings develop a strong appetite for religion and moral values. In other words, our souls feel hunger the same way as our body does, and religion seems the only satiating source.

Broadly speaking, religious life may be divided into three periods: Faith, Thought, and Discovery. In the first period, religious life appears as a form of discipline which must be accepted as an unconditional command without any rational understanding of the ultimate meaning and purpose thereupon. This attitude may be of great consequence in social and political history of a people, but is not of much consequence insofar as the individual’s inner growth and expansion are concerned.

Perfect submission to discipline is followed by a rational understanding of the discipline and the ultimate source of its authority. In this period, religious life seeks its foundation in a kind of metaphysics ‘a logically consistent view of the world with God as a part of that view.

In the third period, metaphysics is displaced by psychology, and religious life develops the ambition to come into direct contact with the Ultimate Reality. It is here that religion becomes a matter of personal amalgamation  of life and power; and the individual achieves a free personality, not by freeing himself from the fetters of the law, but by discovering the ultimate source of the law within the depths of his own consciousness.

Undoubtedly, when we imagine of a society devoid of moral values, our mind jumps centuries back to the ancient times or Pre-Islam Arab Peninsula.

Let us just think of a society where morality was absent. In the later years of the Roman Republic, the center of public spectacle was the gladiator. In the words of historians, gladiator games, which pitched warriors against wild animals, convicted criminals or slaves, provided the organizers with great opportunities for self-promotion while providing cheap and exhilarating entertainment to the public.

Gladiator contests were common as a means of garnering support for election campaigns and for pleasing clients. The trainers and organizers of the games were entrepreneurs, and the contests, many of which were fought until death, were big business that concerned many livelihoods.

In addition, before the emergence of Islam, Arabian Peninsula was deep plunged into the darkness of barbarity, cruelty and bloodshed. The tribal tension was at all but soaring and the language of the tribesmen was the spur and sword. The rulers oppressed and tortured their slaves, for even a minor mistake, in the worst possible way and the lords exploited the poor. The poorer you were, the more would you suffer. Being poor led to the bitter fate of slavery and torments.

The Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) came to humanize our societies and imbue people with moral standards and religious values. He stood against the cruelties inflicted upon the deprived individuals who lacked property and social status. At a time when Arab society shrouded in the darkness of violence and aggression, the Prophet (PBUH) challenged the filthy system with all vigour and fervour. As a divine messenger, the Prophet (PBUH) had to fulfil his sacred mission of unchaining slaves and of abolishing tyranny from the human society. When freedom and human rights were missing among the Arab aristocrats, he proposed changes boldly.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) challenged the social status of Arab lords who were selfish and who exploited the poor. He questioned the humanity of the masters who felt no mercy for their hardworking slaves.

Challenging the status quo of his time, Prophet (PBUH) came with the most sublimate religious ideology. He advocated justice, equality and morality. The Prophet (PBUH) laid down the foundations of a society where the humans were treated with dignity, and were provided due social rights and freedom.