Compete with One Another
in Doing Good Works

Life progresses on the principle of competition. One should compete to do good deeds like pursuing knowledge, calling people to God and social service.

Chapter 2 of the Quran has this to say: “Each community has its own direction in which it turns: vie, then, with one another in doing good works.” (2:148)

This verse refers to the direction of prayer but it is the way of the Quran to convey a fundamental truth relating to the entire human life. “Vie with one another in doing good works,” although revealed in a particular, immediate sense in its Quranic context, in respect of the vaster picture, it gives us a general command which provides every human being with a basic guidance which is valid at all times.

Life progresses on the principle of competition. It is only human to want to make progress. Due to this natural urge, we find that every person is struggling to advance himself and, in vying with others, is expending all of his energy.

This urge to compete generally takes one in the direction of one’s desires. Just as this urge is there in every individual, so also are material desires a powerful driving force in everyone. As such, it often happens that the urge for fulfilment of material desires takes a person’s spirit of competition in the wrong direction. In this world, most people are bent on acquiring more and more wealth. This is why their inner urge to compete takes them in the wrong direction of greater and greater gain.

But the Quran teaches us that a person should direct his urge to compete towards the doing of good deeds. Instead of pursuing material desires he should make his target the doing of good, as God has told us. Good refers to knowledge as well, for it is the source of a person’s intellectual progress. Similarly, it may also refer to calling people to God. This area of activity is so vast that it knows no bounds. Another field of competing in goodness can be found in social service.