Submission to God:by Alija Ali Izetbegovic
mohammad
and West.
Alija Izetbegovic (8 August,1925 - 19 October, 2003) , the venerable
lawyer, politician and author from Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Izetbegovic died in hospital in October 2003 after becoming ill
following a fall at his home in September. His funeral was attended by
over 150,000 Bosnians.
"Our goal: the Islamisation of Muslims. Our methods: to believe and to
struggle."
The following essay is from Izetbegovic's 'Islam Between East and
West':
Nature has determinism, man has destiny. The acceptance of this destiny
is the supreme and final idea of Islam. Destiny -- does it exist and
what form does it take? Let us look at our own lives and see what has
remained of our most precious plans and the dreams of our youth? Do we
not come helplessly into the world faced with our own personality, with
higher or lower intelligence, with attractive or repulsive looks, with
an athletic or dwarfish stature, in a king's place or in a beggar's
hut, in a tumultuous or peaceful time, under the reign of a tyrant or a
noble prince, and generally in geographical and historical
circumstances about which we have not been consulted? How limited is
what we call our will, how tremendous and unlimited is our destiny!
Man has been cast down upon this world and made dependent on many facts
over which he has no power. His life is influenced by both very remote
and very near factors. During the Allied invasion of Europe in 1944,
there was, for a moment, a general disturbance in radio communications
which could have been fatal for the operations under way. Many years
later, the disturbance was explained as a huge explosion in the
Andromeda constellation, several million light years away form our
planet. One type of catastrophic earthquake on the earth is due to
changes on the sun's surface. As our knowledge of the world grows, so
does our realization that we will never be complete masters of our
fate. Even supposing the greatest possible progress of science, the
amount of factors under our control will always be insignificant
compared to the amount of those beyond it. Man is not proportional to
the world. He and his lifetime me not the measuring units of the pace
of things. This is the cause of man's eternal insecurity, which is
psychologically reflected in pessimism, revolt, despair, apathy, or in
submission to God's will.
Islam arranges the world by means of upbringing, education, and laws.
That is its narrower scope; submission to God is the broader one.
Individual justice can never be fully satisfied within the conditions
of existence. We can follow all Islamic rules which, in their ultimate
result, should provide us with the "happiness in both worlds";
moreover, we can follow all other norms, medical, social and moral but,
because of the terrific entanglement of destinies, desires and
accidents, we can still suffer in body and soul. What can console a
mother who has lost her only son? Is there any solace for a man who has
been disabled in an accident?
We ought to become conscious of our human condition. We are immersed in
situation. I can work to change my situation, but there are situations
which are essentially unchangeable, even when their appearance takes a
new look, and when their victorious power is veiled: l must die; I must
suffer; I must fight; I am a victim of chance; I get inevitably
entangled in guilt. These basic conditions of our existence are
referred to as "the border situations."[1] Sure, "man is bound to
improve everything that can be improved in this world. After that,
children will still go on dying unjustly even in the most perfect of
societies. Man, at best, can only give himself the task of reducing
arithmetically the sufferings of this world. Still, injustice and pain
will continue and, however limited, they will never cease to be
blasphemy."[2]
Submission to God or revolt -- these are two different answers to the
same dilemma.
In submission to God, there is some of every (human) wisdom except one:
shallow optimism. Submission is the story of human destiny, and that is
why it is inevitably permeated with pessimism: for "every destiny is
tragic and dramatic if we come down to its bottom."[3]
Recognition of destiny is a moving reply to the great human theme of
inevitable suffering. It is the recognition of life as it is and a
conscious decision to bear and to endure. In this point, Islam differs
radically from the superficial idealism and optimism of European
philosophy and its naive story about "the best of all possible worlds."
Submission to God is a mellow light coming from beyond pessimism.
As a result of one's recognition of his impotence and insecurity,
submission to God itself becomes a new potency and a new security.
Belief in God and His providence offers a feeling of security which
cannot be made up for with anything else. Submission to God does not
imply passivity as many people wrongly believe. In fact, "all heroic
races have believed in destiny."[4] Obedience to God excludes obedience
to man. It is a new relation between man and God and, therefore,
between man and man.
It is also a freedom which is attained by following through with one's
own destiny. Our involvement and our struggle are human and reasonable
and have the token of moderation and serenity only through the belief
that the ultimate result is not in our hands. It is up to us to work,
the rest is in the hands of God.
Therefore, to properly understand our position in the world means to
submit to God, to find peace, not to start making a more positive
effort to encompass and to overcome everything, but rather a negative
effort to accept the place and the time of our birth, the place and the
time that are our destiny and God's will. Submission to God is the only
human and dignified way out of the unsolvable senselessness of life, a
way out without revolt, despair, nihilism, or suicide. It is a heroic
feeling not of a hero, but of an ordinary man who has done his duty and
accepted his destiny.
Islam does not get its name from its laws, orders, or prohibitions, nor
from the efforts of the body and soul it claims, but from something
that encompasses and surmounts all that: from a moment of cognition,
from the strength of the soul to face the times, from the readiness to
endure everything that an existence can offer, from the truth of
submission to God. Submission to God, thy name is Islam!
[1] Karl Jaspers, An Introduction to Philosophy
[2] Albert Camus
[3] Gasset
[4] Emerson
026.083 "O my Lord! bestow wisdom on me,and join me with
the righteous;
026.085 And place me among the inheritors of the Garden of
Delight," (THE HOLY QUR'AN) ameen