Absolute Justice, Kindness and Kinship — Page 216
Justice (‘ Adl ), Benevolence ( Ihsan ) & Kinship ( Ita’i Dhil-Qurba ) in Worship 211 …and lower your voice; verily, the most disagreeable of voices is the voice of the donkey. (S u rah Luqm a n; Ch. 31: V. 20) It is said that Ha fi z Sa‘d i Sh i r a z i , a prominent Muslim sufi, once came across a man who was reciting the Holy Quran loudly. Unfortunately he had the most unpleasant voice. Sa‘d i suggested to him that he should recite the Quran in a gentler tone and low voice. The man replied, 'I recite loudly for the sake of Allah, who are you to interfere!' Sa‘d i ’s response was, 'For the sake of Allah, do not recite loudly, or the people will turn against Allah and His Holy Word!' Islam proclaims to be universal. It follows, therefore, that its mode of worship should evince a universality of its Divine origin. It would have been contrary to the requirement of justice if the new mode of worship imposed on them should have totally rejected their past traditions, so that they could not find any similarity between their customary mode and the one proposed by Islam. In some religions we find that people remember God while sitting with their legs folded beneath them. In some other religions they prefer to kneel down before Him. Practices vary from people to people. There are those who keep standing with their arms hanging by their sides, and there are those who fold their arms before them while they stand in the presence of their Lord. In some religions bowing