Good, Evil and Faith
Given the turmoil in the country and across the world, we are well advised to ground ourselves in some basic tenets of human conduct and our accountability to God. In this vein a particular verse from the Qur’an had guided generations of faithful and good people and it behooves us to renew our pledge to do the same.
Chapter 3 (Women) and Verse 110 states: You are the best community drawn out for humanity such that you participate in and enjoin what is right, you avoid and prohibit what is wrong and you establish belief in God. If the people of scriptures had also believed, it would have been good for them. While some of them do believe, most of them are corrupt and make mischief.
Muslim traditionally have thought of themselves as the community selected by God to shoulder this immense responsibility to do good, to prevent evil and to keep their faith from any blemish. However, there are ample reasons to believe that every faith community, especially the Abrahamic faith communities, can and do rise on different occasions to such commitments in their own unique ways.
The Qur’an also says (Chapter 5 (The last Supper) and verse 48): For each (such faith groups) God had assigned their own rules and practices. If God had willed, He could have made all of them into a single community. Therefore, vie for goodness and (remember) that you all will be gathered back to God and He will inform you about the affairs in which you differed.
Each one of us can comfort and directions in these verses and commit to spreading goodness, constraining from evil and strengthening our shared faith in God and human goodness. The world is in dire need of these in the 21st century and we need a critical mass of conscientious people to commit to such ideals, even in the face of difficulties and unforeseen challenges.
A related Hadith of the Prophet Mohammad adds clarity on how we can face injustice. He said – if you see an act of injustice, try to stop it if you can. If not, speak against it (publicly and privately). If you cannot even do that, then at least have strong distaste for such injustice. This last condition is the weakest expression of faith.
Among these verses and the Hadith mentioned above, there is actionable guidance for all of us, even though we may subscribe to different faith groups. We need to form alliances based on faith and goodness, above all else and collectively engage to suppress evil in our world.
Lasting goodness cannot be achieved without our enduring and collective commitment to goodness and opposition to evil while being anchored by a shared and common faith in God.
