YOU and YOUR CONDITION

 

As an individual, what are your duties you owe to yourself, the rights your body and mind have upon you.

 

·         You have been created as a single being, in a state of nature, pure and free from sin.

·         You have been blessed with the gifts of body and mind, with talents and resources. You will be raised up as a single being to account for the use of these talents and resources – resources such as time and health and wealth.

·         You are unique and have an identity or personality of your own. While your roles and obligations may be different from those of others, your main purpose is the same as that of everyone else: to live life fully and to make the best use of the resources and talents which God has given you.

·         You may have more resources than others and there are many who have hardly enough to live on. The more you have the more you have to account for. God does not place a burden greater than it can bear, the Qur’an assure us:

‘And now indeed you have come to Us in a lonely state, even as We created you in the first instance; and you have left behind you all that We have bestowed on you (in your lifetime)’ (6: 94)

‘Leave Me alone (to deal with him whom I have created alone and to whom I have granted resources vast… and to whose life I gave so wide a scope and yet, he greedily desires that I give him yet more’ (74: 11-15)

·         You are not created by God in vain, without aim or purpose. God has placed a trust on the human being. This trust requires you to respect and fulfill the needs of your own body, mind and soul; as well as the needs and the rights of other creation – human being, animals and the environments as a whole. As an individual, you are involves to ensure living in total harmony with God’s laws. How do you go about fulfilling the trust which God has placed on you? What are your duties?

 

Contains:

 

·         ON BECOMING MUKALLAF

 

·         KNOWLEDGE

Categories of knowledge; Sources of knowledge; ‘Ilm; Knowledge, worship and ethics; Fundamental Knowledge and Professional Knowledge; The Quran; The Sunnah; The Hadith

·         THE SHARI’AH

Sources of the Shari’ah; The purposes of the Shari’ah; Specific guidance and basic principles

·         The LAWFUL AND THE PROHIBITED

Categories of Halaal; Haraam and the principles governing it; Doubtful areas; More basic principles; The search for knowledge; Professional Knowledge; Intellectual Pursuits.

·         YOUR PHYSICAL NEEDS

Eating and drinking; Exercise, work and activity; Proper sleep and rest; Cleanliness and personal hygiene

·         MORAL AND SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT

Salaat; Fasting; Other forms of Tazkiyyah (Purification and Personal Development; Personal qualities and habits.