Islam and Modern Life — Page 32
32 Principles for Beneficent Progress As I began by saying, God doesn’t force it. God is not forced by authority. God leaves it to man. Man takes the consequences. The beneficent consequences are destructive consequences. As I said, I’ll compress it into two or three minutes. The fundamental t hing which Islam says in such things would ensure beneficent progress is, first, faith on the basis of reasoned conviction, firm faith on the basis of reasoned conviction in the existence and the unity of God, and that man has communion with God all the ti me. God is not merely the first cause in the sense that he gave a push to the universe and then is sitting back looking at the fun. The Quran says so that those who think so, they deny the existence of God and the beneficence of God. God did not create the universe in sport or in fun. God created, he recreates, all his attributes are in constant operation. That he has a relationship with man and the universe, a live relationship. Some of us turn our backs on that relationship. We have only got to turn our f aces and take it up. And secondly, the belief in the life after death. That is to say, in the full accountability of one’s actions. As I have said, God has created man as his vicegerent upon earth. It is a most exalted and majestic station that God has bes towed upon his creatures. If we will be true to that, if we will be true to our stewardship and hold ourselves accountable to God for all that he has put under our authority, whether it is property, whether it is money, whether it is knowledge, whether it is power, any kind of