Strategy of Islam
The “Strategy” means a plan designed for a particular purpose. Climbing to the climax of the human happiness inevitably implies an exact strategy. The strategy that Islam has suggested, terminates at the ideals which the effort and sacrifice of all the divine leaders and their followers have been oriented to realize them. According to this strategy and its subsequent hierarchy of systems and methods, every Muslim precisely knows how to direct suitably his individual , familial, organizational , local , international and universal relations and operations. The leading elements of the strategy of Islam are as follows:
1. Islam invites the people of the world to try to recognize the Lord of the Universe, to believe in Him and to feel the greatest love and admiration for Him as well as to worship Him and to consider His law as the best one. The Muslim should seriously set this invitation as the most important objective in his social environment and his own administrated system. He has also to stop every procedure which makes the people inattentive to worshipping Allah. The Holy Qur’an states:
" For We assuredly sent among every People a Messenger (with the Command),
“Serve Allah and eschew Evil”
ولقد بعثنا في كل أمة رسولا أن اعبدواا لله واجتنبوا الطاغوت (النحل - 16)
Even though Allah’s Signs are everywhere in Nature and in men’s own conscience, yet in addition Allah has sent human Messengers to every People to call their attention to the good and turn them from Evil. So they cannot pretend that Allah has abandoned them or that He does not care what they do . His divine Grace always invites their will to choose the right. While some people accept the guidance of the divine Grace, others so surrender themselves to Evil that it must necessarily follow that Evil obtains a grip over them. They have only to travel through Time or Space to see the end of those who abandoned their lights and surrendered to Evil and Error.
2. Islam prevails against the Evil and his satanic systems and methods. It prevents the people from the cooperation with the tyrants, despots, from the belief in the false philosophies and theories and from the allegiance to the unjust leaders and evil stars and champions. The Muslim should make his individual, familial and organizational policy so honest that any inclination to the despotism and any dependence to the oppressors do not result from it. The affairs which distract the people from the presence of Allah should be decisively investigated and refused very soon.
“ Did I not enjoin on you , O ye children of Adam , that ye should not worship Satan ; for that he was to you an enemy avowed? And that ye should worship Me, (for that) this was the Straight Way ?
ألم اعهد إليكم يا بني آدم أن لاتعبدواالشيطان انه لكم عدو مبين * و أن اعبدوني هذا صراط مستقيم*
3. Because the mental and moral decline of the people frequently results from their unawareness and ignorance, Islam enjoins them to learn and to teach the purport of Revelation and the principles of Wisdom. The sobriety and scientific development of the people pave the way for their reasonable service and guarantees their stability in the Right Path. Meanwhile the evil and tyrant governments clearly try to make the people stupefied and confused through the media means and the audio-visual techniques. Because their persistence depends upon the weakness and ignorance of the people and their deviation and escape from the Truth and Justice criteria.
4. One of the permanent goal of the divine prophets through the History has been to purify the souls from the sin and the mental and moral vice by which the people are impelled to the swamp of corruption. They have been tried to remove the invisible obstacles hindering the fast progress of the children of God towards their happiness. The Almighty Allah says: “It is Who has sent amongst the unlettered a Messenger from among themselves, to rehearse to them His Signs , to purify them , and to instruct them in the Book and Wisdom,- although they had been , before , in manifest error.”
هو الذي بعث في الأميين رسولا منهم عليهم اياته و يزكيهم و يعلمهم الكتاب و الحكمة و إن كانوا من قبل لفي ضلال مبين (الجمعة - 2)
Allah is full Sovereign, and therefore cares for all His subjects , including the meanest and the most ignorant , and sends His Prophets or messengers to them. He is the Holy One , and therefore purifies and sanctifies those who were steeped in superstition and wickedness.
5. Islam enjoins the people of the world to spread the justice worldwide. From the Islam’s point of view, the justice is a permanent ideal which should be pursued and realized by the continuous effort of the majority of people. Everyone should suppose himself the responsible of performing the justice. Everyone with any particularity is respectable when he is following it and every position ever high without that has no value. The Almighty Allah says: “ O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for Allah, as witnesses to fair dealing , and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from Justice. Be just: that is next to Piety: and fear (love and revere) Allah. For Allah is well- acquainted with all that ye do.”
يا أيها الذين آمنوا كونوا قوامين لله شهداء بالقسط و لا يجرمنكم شنئان قوم علي ألا تعدلوا اعدلوا هو اقرب للتقوي و اتقوا الله إن الله خبير بما تعملون ( المائدة - 8)
“O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for Justice , as witnesses to Allah , even against yourselves , or your parents , or your kin , and whether it be against rich or poor: For Allah can best protected both. Follow not the lusts of your hearts , lest ye swerve, and if ye distort (justice) or decline to do justice , verily Allah is well-acquainted with all that ye do.”
ياليها الذين آمنوا كونوا قوامين بالقسط شهداء لله و لو علي أنفسكم أو الوالدين و الاقربين إن يكن غنيا أو فقيرا فالله أولي بهما فلا تتبعوا الهوي لن تعدلوا و ان تلووا أو تعرضوا فان الله كان بما تعملون خبير ( النساء 135)
Justice is Allah’s attribute, and stand firm for justice is to be a witness to Allah , even if it is detrimental to our own interests (as we conceive them) or the interests of those who are near and dear to us. Islamic justice is something higher than the formal justice of Roman Law or any other human Law. It is even more penetrative than the subtler justice in the speculations of the Greek philosophers. It searches out the innermost motives, because we are to act as in the presence of Allah , to whom all things , acts and motives are known. To do justice and act righteously in a favorable or neutral atmosphere is meritorious enough , but the real test comes when you have to do justice to people who hate you or to whom you have an aversion. But no less is required of you by the higher moral law.
These constitute the axis of the message of all the divine prophets and the core of Islam. They have top priority over all the goals and programs. All the movements should be so managed that do not strongly disagree with these elements. If an effective opposition between a program and these was sensed, it would be decisively removed or refused : in the case that a program or an operation leads the people to the infidelity , paganism, atheism, polytheism , despotism, tyranny, ignorance, corruption, vice , etc. it should be confronted as the exposition of the non-divine authority or management.
Following the mentioned elements of strategy , the principal purpose of the divine prophets in the world has been to pave the way for the intentional selection between the Truth and the Evil and the deliberate (not compulsory) progress of the human beings in the Right Path and to establish a worldwide faithful family based on the divine Values and Law. That is why, they have, theoretically as well as practically, invited the people of the world to the comprehensive unity and widespread cooperation and to establish again their worldwide family through the greatest love for the Plain Truth and His service. Their Hereafter aim has been to guide the people in the way of the permanent paradise , the ideal and perfect place where their utmost and profound desires will be satisfied.
The first aspect of the purpose of the Almighty Allah’s prophets has been completely realized: “the background is always favorable for the people’s deliberate choice and progress and in the Hereafter they will be accordingly rewarded for their selected direction and made efforts”. It remains the second aspect : “the establishment of a just worldwide government or family ruled according to the divine law”. It is certainly reasonable to believe in the participation of all the right members of mankind in a worldwide society based on a divine culture and system of values. From the point of view of the Holy Qur’an, there is no doubt about a coming period in the human history when the people of the world will be unified in a society under the flag of Truth, Justice, sympathy, kindness and understanding. It means that the past, present and future sad experiences will prepare the people of the world for leaving the satanic and tyrant systems and methods and for believing in the Religion of Truth (Islam) and practicing its routine. We believe this period is the time when Mahdi will appear to inaugurate a long period in which the world will be filled with justice and righteousness. Hence the Muslim should try to participate in the process of the Imam Mahdi’s worldwide revolution.
In brief, the Muslim’s leading goal and happiness in his life is to serve God, to respect the Islamic Law, to follow the divine prophets’ values and guidelines in order to make the background favorable for the deliberate choice of the people between the divine and satanic systems and methods and finally to participate in establishing the human worldwide family under the leadership of Imam Mahdi (A.S.).
The Almighty Allah says : “ Before this We wrote in the Psalms , after the Message (given to Moses) My servants the righteous shall inherit the earth,”
و لقد كتبنا في الزبور من بعد الذكر أن الأرض يرثها عبادي الصالحون (الأنبياء 105)
The same promise occurs in the Pentateuch, Exod. xxxii. 13 and quoted by Jesus in Matt. v.3. and xxxvii. 29. in Psalms xxv. 13. xxxvi. 11.