MARCH 21 — Come this March 25/Ramadan 24, tens of thousands of souls from all over the globe but mainly in Malaysia will observe an hour (11.30 am to 12.30 pm Malaysian Time) of reflection on the Quran, God’s last global message for humanity. Co-organised by International Islamic University Malaysia ((IIUM) and Yayasan Warisan Ummah Ikhlas (WUIF), the primary location of the event will be at the Sultan Ahmad Shah Mosque, IIUM. The selected Quranic theme of the event is its chapter 61 titled al-Saff, an Arabic word meaning “arranged in rows”. This short article is an attempt to provide a glimpse of some of the key messages of the chapter.
The chapter title evokes the idea of exemplary discipline which is associated with either the Muslim congregational prayer or the battle array. The verse 61:4 reads: “Verily God loves those who fight in His path in battle array as if they are a fortified building”. In other words, God loves discipline of the highest order when Muslims struggle in His path, which is the path of truth and justice, not only for themselves but for the whole humanity. This is jihad in its true sense. It is not a sectarian but an inclusive struggle.
God demands the best of discipline from the believers because He wants them to build a strong and exemplary society. Indeed, He wants them to emerge as the best community as made more clearly by another verse of the Quran: “You are the best community (khayra ummah) evolved for humankind. You plead to what is good and you forbid what is evil. And you believe in God” (Chapter 3, Verse 110). It is this attainment of the best community that I call ummatic excellence, which is now adopted as IIUM’s abiding mission. This verse thus provides three fundamental indicators of ummatic excellence, namely the flourishing of good things in life, the impoverishment of things destructive to life, and enlightened belief in God.
The issue of discipline, both individual and societal, is very pertinent to these three main criteria of ummatic excellence and the issue of their fulfilment. It is the observance of a comprehensive discipline in all aspects of individual and societal life that would help facilitate the community to fulfil these criteria and hence attain the goal of the best community. Lack of discipline on the other hand would only go to undermine the fulfilment of the criteria in question. Interestingly, the chapter al-Saff brings up the issue of discipline (61:4) immediately after calling on the believers to avoid what amounts to hypocrisy thus suggesting a causal relationship between hypocritical behaviour and the lack of discipline. The verses 61: 2-3 warn the believers by questioning their behaviour: “O you who believe! Why do you say what you do not do? A grave matter in the sight of God that you say what you do not do”. The implied hypocrisy in these verses is the act of saying what one does not do.
It seems that God in the Quran takes very seriously at this form of hypocrisy for several main reasons. First, this hypocrisy is likely to breed negative human qualities, particularly dishonesty and insincerity that are contrary to the moral character of the believers as described in the various parts of the Quran. Hence, God calls on the believers not to indulge in this kind of hypocrisy. Otherwise, their moral standing as men and women of God, that is, as believers, would be open to public criticism. Second, God wants the believers to be the leaders of humanity through good examples. Exemplary leadership is central to the political teachings of Islam. But exemplary leadership cannot thrive in a community where inconsistency and contradictions between speech and action are rampant. Moreover, religious authority itself could easily be undermined in such a community.
Exemplary leadership in its best form was provided by the prophets of God. In the case of the Prophet Muhammad there is zero inconsistency between his saying and his action. This trait in his moral character is absolutely necessary for the kind of exemplary leadership that is required of a prophet as the founder of a new religion. A true religion cannot be established without exemplary leadership. Thus, throughout his struggle to establish the new religion of Islam, the Prophet clearly demonstrated the characteristics, pattern and style of exemplary leadership. Significantly, it was with such kind of effective leadership that he founded and nurtured an enlightened culture of followership that is unparalleled in human history. After the Prophet’s death his companions and followers emerged as accomplished leaders in various fields who brought more than half of the world under the rule of Islam and created a new global civilisation.
A man recites the Quran during the holy month of Ramadan at the Putra Mosque in Putrajaya March 28, 2024. Picture by Shafwan Zaidon
And third, God wants to see the Muslim community as witnesses of the ummatic discipline that characterises the best community as envisaged in the Quran. But ummatic discipline demands human qualities that are the very opposite of qualities associated with hypocrisy. In the Quran there are more than eighty verses beginning with the divine call to the believers. Each of these verses may be described as a divine prescription in the form of an ummatic program for the believers to build an exemplary society. The verse 61:2 already discussed is one of them, which addresses the program of ummatic discipline.
In the same chapter there are two other verses that begin with “O you who believe!” namely verse 61:10 and verse 61:14. The verse 61:10 invites the believers to participate in a spiritual-moral trade that promises salvation in this world and the next. The substance of the trade is deepening faith in God and His Messenger and jihad in God’s path with his wealth and soul. The verse 61:14 calls on the believers to become God’s helpers (ansarallah). As in the verse prescribing a collective program on ummatic discipline, the latter two verses respectively prescribe an ummatic enterprise in faith empowerment and of spending in God’s path and an ummatic fellowship of God’s helpers. The three ummatic programs just identified may be viewed as some of the key teachings of the chapter al-Saff.
* Osman Bakar is the rector of International Islamic University Malaysia
* This is the personal opinion of the writers or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
