Man-God Relationship

To understand the essence of the Shari’ah, one must understand the relationship between man and God that Islam lays down.

There is no god but One God; Muhammad is the Prophet of God: this simple sentence is the bedrock of the Islamic creed.

God is the Creator; to Him Alone therefore belongs the kingdom and He is the only Sovereign:

‘Surely Your only Lord is God who has created the heaven and the earth....verily to Him belong the creation and the sovereignty.’ (Surat al-A’raf: 54)

And:

‘He has created the heavens and the earth with a purpose. He wraps night about day and He wraps day about night..He has created you from one being... That then is God, your only Lord; His is the kingdom. There is no god but He.’ (Surat al-Zumar: 5-6)

God is the Creator. To Him Alone, therefore, as his Only Lord and Master, man must submit his entire being:

‘Your God is One God, so only to Him submit.’ (Surat al-Hajj 22:34)

‘That then is God, your only Lord; there is no god but He, the Creator of everything. So Him Alone serve.’ (Surat al-An’am:102)

God is the only true Provider. It is He who has bestowed on man such faculties and capabilities as seeing, hearing, thinking and articulating - attributes which man cannot live without, but which he cannot create for himself.

It is He who has made available the resources of the external world which man may discover, exploit and develop but, again, cannot create.

Yet surely man’s greatest need is to know how to live his life so as to fulfil successfully the purpose of his creation; how to relate himself to his Creator, to his own self, to his fellow human beings and to everything around him. To Him alone he must therefore turn to seek guidance.

For there is no one apart from or beside Him who can truly provide answers to man’s eternal questions or is capable of guiding him. All else can only be speculation and conjecture.

And why should the One who has provided even for man’s most trivial material needs not also have provided for his more important moral and spiritual needs?

The Qur’an says:

‘Say: Is there any of those you associate (with God) who guides to the Truth? Say: only God guides to the Truth. Does then, He who guides to the Truth deserve more to be followed or he who can guide not unless he be guided? What ails you? How judge you? And most of them follow naught but speculation, and speculation can never take the place of truth’ (Surat Yunus: 35-36)

And further:

‘Or, do they (claim to) have associates who have laid down for them the Way for which God gave not leave.’ (Surat ash-Shura: 21)

It was to provide for this greatest human need that God sent His Prophets from amongst men in all ages and to all nations, bringing them the light of the divine guidance revealed to them.

Among them were Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus. And Muhammad was the last of them, in no way different or new. May God bless all of them.

‘He has laid down for you the Way that He entrusted to Noah, and that We have revealed to you, and that We entrusted to Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Establish fully the way and follow not different ways.’ (Surat ash-Shura: 13)

Man’s relationship to God is expressed by the very word ‘Islam’ submitting to Him by following His will and guidance as brought by His prophets. But this submission must be total and all-embracing. A Muslim submits his entire ‘person’ to his Creator as his only Lord and Master. No part of his life can be exempt from the need of divine guidance or from the writ of divine sovereignty.

God and His lordship and sovereignty are indivisible; and so is man’s life in its submission to Him.

It would indeed be an imperfect God who could only be experienced or related to in the realm of the spirit or the provision of material needs like one’s daily bread – a God unconcerned, uncaring or incompetent to help man in the more arduous and complex task of living his life.

Him he worships; Him he invokes; Him he depends upon; Him he trusts; Him he seeks; and, equally important, Him he obeys.

Man has been given the freedom to reject God; but, once having accepted Him, he must follow His guidance. He is not free to follow one part of it and ignore another, nor to seek guidance from sources other than God. Denial of part is denial of the whole.

‘What, believe you in part of the Book and deny part thereof? And what is the reward of those who do so except ignominy in the present life, and on the Day of Resurrection to be returned unto most grievous punishment.’

(Surat al-Baqarah 2:85)

‘What, do they seek another way other than God’s Way; whereas unto Him submits whoso is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly.’

(Surat Ale-’Imran: 83)

‘And who seeks a way other than Islam, it shall not be accepted from him’ (Surat Ale-’Imran: 85)

In its fullest sense, the Shari’ah is therefore virtually synonymous, and can be used interchangeably, with the word Din, which can only inadequately be translated as ‘religion’. Din literally means ‘way of life’, ‘submission’, ‘following’ or the ‘Way’. Though the word Shari’ah in its various derivative forms is found in five places in the Qur’an1, its extensive use only came into vogue much later; for the words Islam and Din were more commonly employed to express the same meaning in the early days of Islam.

The Shari’ah includes both faith and practice. It embraces worship, individual attitude and conduct as well as social norms and laws, whether political, economic, familial, criminal or civil.

It may also sometimes be used to imply, in a more restricted sense, do’s and don’ts - the rules and regulations for conduct and behaviour.

Lastly, it is also used as the equivalent of the Islamic laws.

The Shari’ah is thus nothing less than the divinely ordained way of life for man. To realise the divine will, man must follow the Shari’ah. To live in Islam is to live according to the Shari’ah.

To give up the Shari’ah or any part of it knowingly, willfully or deliberately is to give up Islam.

A Muslim must therefore do his utmost to observe and to implement the whole of it, wherever and in whatever situation he finds himself.

Hence the Muslim insistence, persistence, commitment and passion for it.