APRIL 19
God and Man
Abu Mas‘ud Ansari, a Madinan Muslim, once became angry at his slave and started beating him with a rod. Just at that moment the Prophet passed by his house. Seeing him beat his slave he warned him: ‘O, Abu Mas‘ud, you must know that God has more power over you than you have over this slave.’ At these words, the rod fell from his hand, and he declared that this slave would be set free that very day.
So far Abu Mas‘ud had regarded human relations in such a way that it appeared to him that he was the master and the other person was the slave. He thought himself on a higher plane and the slave on a lower plane. But after the Prophet’s warning, he found that all matter was one before God. Now he appeared to be on a par with his slave. Both were equally helpless before God. This was reason the rod fell from his hand.
The truth is that in social life all evils are traceable to the fact that man looks at matters from his own instead of God’s point of view. If a man comes to possess wealth, he starts thinking himself superior to those who lack it. But if he were to look at his condition from the angle of God he would find himself just as poor as anyone else. If someone comes to occupy a high post, he begins to regard himself as superior to others. But if he were to look at the matter in relation to God he would find himself just as humble as others were. One who castigates his supposed inferiors in derogatory terms should look at his own superiority and others’ inferiority in relation to God. He will then see that he is as powerless as the next man and that having innumerable wounding phrases at his command is of no avail.
Islam’s aim is to form such a man as will see all matters not as being between man and man, but between man and God,’ a man for whom God will be the final arbiter. Once this attitude prevails all evil is nipped in the bud. Such thinking leaves no room for arrogance, jealousy, and injustice, or love of honour and power. The “rod” then falls from a man’s hand instead of hitting another on the head.
