The Poor-Man's Guide to Modernity - Independent Media Center

apathy, vile servitude to the harbingers of inequity and injustices, and wild revolutions and
further injustices in the name of redressing injustices. Notice what's stated and what's omitted
in this self-sufficient tiny Surah. There is no reference to Muslims, or to Islam, or to any
particular people or religion. It is directly addressed to man ( الانسان‏ ) , “insaan”, to every
people of all religions, and to people of no religion, the overarching context for which has
already been elucidated above:
By the declining day, (1)
Lo! man is in a state of loss (2)
Save those who believe,
and do good works,
and strive for “haq”,
and are patient (3)
والعصر‏‎M‎
انالانسانلفىخسر‏‎M‎
الاالذيناZمنوا
وعملواالصZoلحZت‏
وتواصوابالحق‎4‎
وتواصوابالصبر‏M
Caption Surah Al-Asr, Chapter 103 of the Holy Qur'an (see exposition [7] )
The aforementioned few words of the author of the Holy Qur'an, as straightforward as they
appear to be, still do require plenty of reflection and context to grasp the full import of its
message towards an equitable and mutually beneficial multicultural co-existence without the
imposition of anyone's values and/or “facile views” upon another.
It is important to re-emphasize for the first of the four clauses of verse 3 of Surah Asr quoted
above, even at the risk of being repetitious once gain, that on theological matters of belief,
including no belief, when one disagrees with another, the dispute is not up to man to decide. It
is for some abstract entity called “God” to decide, as already quoted from the author of the
Qur'an in the preceding discussion. It is not the business of man what another's beliefs are.
That business is God's, and is defined as being among the Rights of God upon man, the
“haquq-Allah”. No mortal may interfere in that Right even if, due to their own natural
socialization and/or self-ascribed learnedness, they perceive that some Right of God is being
violated by others holding a facile view. This clear demarcation of respective Rights in Islam
between the Rights of God (beliefs) and the Rights of man (moral law), ends for all times, at
least from Islam's point of view, all arguments of the type: whose conception of god is better; is
there a god or isn't there; etc.
The Poor-Man's Guide to Modernity 182 / 334 Zahir Ebrahim