Origin of all sin

By NIK ROSKIMAN ABDUL SAMAD
Fellow, IKIM

The purpose of our presence in this world is not simply to enjoy its pleasures, but to fashion it for worshipping God.

We often hear people say “money is not everything, but everything needs money.” However, it is hard to deny that we are in a materialistic world.

Naturally, in this type of world, religion has almost no significant role to play in guiding our daily actions.

It looks as if all religious or virtuous values passed on by our forefathers based on the noble traditions of the East or the West appear to be too antiquated to be practised in this modern age — an age of pursuing one’s self-interest.

Profit-maximising and wealth accumulation supercede everything else. All this seems to be the sole motive of almost every 21st-century man.

When wealth is the prime objective of one’s life in this world, then all would eventually be of little importance and perhaps in vain.

Truth, justice and honesty could now be compromised and “traded” at a very cheap price between the parties concerned.

Virtuous values will sooner or later erode before the great tide of man’s avarice, while evils might then eventually be “justifiable” and possibly exalted, provided that they come coated with worldly gains and rewards.

At the end of the day, sin and corruption are widely spread and set to be an epidemic like the A(H1N1) disease!

It is clear that corruption sprouts from man’s avarice and greed for pleasures of various forms: money, wealth, power, prestige, and others.

How truly is the Holy Prophet’s saying when he utters: “Love of this world is the origin of all sin” (Bayhaqi, Shu’ab al-iman).

But a word of caution here though; the world in itself is not blameworthy, but man’s extreme greed of the world and putting the world as one’s sole objective in life is that which is forbidden in Islam.

Man is created not to worship the world, and neither is he created to accumulate as much wealth as possible.

Rather, a man’s role is to worship God alone (al-Dzariyyat 51:56), while this world is supposed to be subservient to him in exercising his duties to worship God.

However, if man is heedless of the reality of the world and his approach towards it, then surely the wrath of God and the Prophet would befall him. In this connection, the Prophet warns the slave dinar and the dirham (Bukhari, Tirmidhi).

A Muslim must also realise that this world is merely a transit phase for him in his voyage towards God.

His eternal life and perfect bliss would come only after his death, and not in this world.

He is hence encouraged to lead his worldly life as though he is travelling for a long voyage, as mentioned in one of the Prophetic traditions: “Be in the world as though were a stranger or a wayfarer” (Bukhari).

In commenting on this hadith, the great Muslim jurist Imam Nawawi (d. 676 /1278) says: “Do not become attached to this world and take it up as a long-time residence. Instead, live in it as does a stranger or traveller in a foreign place.”

Love of the world can come in various forms. Craving to accumulate wealth as much as possible is surely one of the main ones.

Others can include the greed for power to rule, seeking prestige and noble status, deep affection towards luxury items, and so on. All corruption in this world in reality is ultimately traceable to man’s avarice.

If man is unable to control his craving for the world, then he would be willing to do anything, not only breaking the laws of the land but even at the expense of defying God’s prohibitions and commandments.

Having said all this, it does not mean that Islam is anti-progressive or condones extreme forms of asceticism.

It is not the question of wealth itself that matters, but rather it is our attitude towards it.

Wealth, when in the hands of godly and pious people, poses no problem whatsoever to them or to the Ummah, as the Prophetic hadith puts it: “no harm of wealth in the hands of pious people.”

Today, due to the influence of Western secular ideas and cultures, Muslims also tend to have a wrong perception of their mission in this world and of the purpose of their existence.

The world of the Hereafter was gradually removed from the Muslims’ mindsets and hearts and they became too obsessed with worldly pleasures.

Their love for the world increases unimaginably, unlike pious people in the first few generations of Islam.

The Muslims of today have forgotten the covenant (mithaq) that they had taken before Almighty God in their spiritual world before they were born.

Due to that forgetfulness, man is called “insan” in Arabic, which means “he who forgets.”

As said, man is sent to this world to worship God alone.

Worshipping is not in its restricted and ritualistic sense of performing activities like counting one’s rosary alone as misunderstood by some deviant groups, but also includes maintaining the world and governing it with justice and right cause in the manner enshrined by the commandments of God.

Man, however, has mostly been swayed and “dissolved” in the pleasures of the world, indulging himself in accumulating wealth without limit, seeking high status and rank, and so on at the expense of God’s commandments and prohibitions.

How many times do we see a person living beyond his income, driving a luxury car and living in a posh area?

And then it is revealed that he had been taking bribes, involved in all kinds of corruption.

Likewise cases involving abuses of power, mismanagement of public funds, money politics and so on, all originating in one and the same root cause: avarice.

To handle the problem of corruption anywhere, the issue must begin from elevating the spiritual quality of our workforce to the highest standards possible, preferably to the level of Ihsan (excellence).

It is inadequate for an organisation to concentrate only on improving management techniques, or to upgrade the organisational skills of their staff when their spiritual aspect is left impure.

Man, as the vital component of any organisation, should first be made to realise his real purpose of existence in this temporal world.

He should be exposed to the correct understanding of the Islamic worldview, and he is ultimately accountable before the Mighty Majesty on the Day of Judgment for all actions he had committed during his temporal life.

For one who attains this station would not only be an excellent staff or a loyal citizen, but also more importantly a good man (insan kamil).

This is ultimately the real purpose of education, which is not merely to make one a good citizen as erroneously believed by the West and others among Muslim educationists, but to make a person a good person.

When a man is a good man, he is also at the same time a good citizen.

The good man then has no need for rules and regulations to govern him to be honest, trustworthy, hardworking, diligent and so on, for he knows that his real “chief executive officer” (CEO) or chairman is not the person sitting on the top floor of his company, but He is The One and Alone, though Unseen, who watches him at every moment.

This “CEO” will surely bring forth every action that the man has done in this world, good or evil, for judgment and accountability in the Next World of al-Akhirah – to the extent that not even the minutest part of his action would be left uncounted, whether punished or rewarded.

- THE STAR