The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 87
87 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN accord with the values inculcated by Islam, which are: universal brotherhood, upholding of peace and the service of one's fellow beings. For instance, after the early centuries of Islam, it was not always kept in mind that the Qur’an says expressly: You are the best people for you have been raised for the service of mankind. The service of mankind concept has slowly, during the centuries, been overloaded with nationalism and sectionalism, whereas it should be the chief characteristic of Muslims. Again the very clear and emphatic verse of the Qur’an that God has created mankind and divided them into nations and tribes for the greater facility of human intercourse, but that the most honoured in the sight of God is one whose life is most righteous is not always kept in mind as furnishing the only standard for judging a person's worth. Neither family, nor rank, nor office, nor wealth can procure any privilege for anybody, and there should be no discrimination between mankind on any of these grounds. The badge of honour in the sight of God is righteousness. He alone can appraise it. A person would not be truly righteous if he should claim to be such, because that would be self- righteousness for none of us can know whether in the eyes of God he is righteous or not. It is this activating of the inner values so that they should appear in conduct and action, that is the chief aim of this Movement. I do not claim that I can in any way be taken as a model member of the Movement or as a model Muslim, but one tries, one goes on striving, one hopes that one might travel a certain distance along that way. Islam is a religion which inculcates the acceptance of life, not the rejection of it. Monasticism and asceticism are prohibited in Islam. The attitude of Islam in that respect is: you have to live in the world but not to be of the world and therefore you have to carry on in beneficent co- operation with each other. That is what I meant when I said that religion permeates all spheres of life so far as Islam is concerned. I try, like many others, that when we approach any problem, we should keep those values in mind which are of permanent beneficence rather than any immediate advantage. One often falls short of that, but we constantly remind ourselves and try to correct our faults and shortcomings. That perhaps may have influenced my career, but it is difficult to say.