Our God — Page 173
Great Benefits ofBelief in God 173 ِّٰ تَخَلَّقُوْا بِاَخْلَق ِ الل That is, O people! Model your morals on the attributes of Allah. Islam teaches that Allah, the Exalted, created man in the image of His own attributes, and the seeds of all His attributes (except those that are specific to God) have been sown in human nature, albeit in smaller and limited form. To nurture these natural seeds, He reveals a code of conduct—the Shariah—to His pious people from time to time. Shariah is the moral code that creates real ref- ormation and progress in the world. Searching for an alternative is a wasted effort. No proper moral standard can be established unless it pro- poses acquiring the attributes of the Creator and Master. In prac- tical terms, it requires natural instincts—which argue for the existence of God, inasmuch as they reflect Divine attributes—be used properly, according to the Shariah, to take on Divine colours. For instance, love, loyalty, mercy, anger, and a sense of self-respect and honour are all natural instincts and when exercised properly they become high moral qualities. Likewise, there are many nat- ural instincts that when exercised properly become high moral qualities. All these instincts are instilled in human nature as an image of their Creator’s attributes. These instincts are simply nat- ural impulses and, in themselves, are neither good nor bad. It is their use that makes them one or the other. The criterion for their use being proper or improper is that these natural instincts be exercised in conformity with Divine attributes as manifested by the acts of God, meaning nature, and His Words, meaning the