The Essence of Islam – Volume I — Page 21
Islam the True and Living Faith 21 ous righteous ones, and bounties that were bestowed upon them have been bestowed upon the Muslims. [Lecture Lāhore, Rūḥānī Khazā'in, Vol. 20, pp. 160-161]. A person can be held to be a Muslim when the whole of his being together with all his faculties, physical and spiritual, is devoted to God Almighty, and the trusts that are committed to him by God Almighty are rendered back to the True Giver. He should demonstrate his being a Muslim not only doctrinally but also in practice. In other words, a person claiming to be a Muslim should prove that his hands and feet, heart and mind, reason and understanding, anger and compassion, meekness and knowledge, all his physical and spiritual faculties, honour and property, comfort and delight, and whatever pertains to him from the top of his head to the soles of his feet together with his motives, fears and passions, have all been subordinated to Almighty God as a person's limbs are subordinated to him. It should be proved that his sincerity has reached a stage in which whatever is his does not belong to him but to God Almighty, and that all his limbs and faculties have become so devoted to the service of God as if they had become the limbs of the Divine. . Reflection on these verses 14 shows clearly that devoting one's life to the cause of God Almighty, which is the essence of Islām, has two aspects. . First, that God Almighty should become one's object of worship and true goal and love, and that worship, love, fear and hope should be for God alone, to the exclusion of all others. All the commandments related to His holiness, glory and worship, all the limits set by Him, and all 14 The reference is to verse al-Baqarah, 2:113 [Translator]