The true purpose of Islam is to bring what the Quran calls ‘devoted servants of God’ (Rabbaniyun) (3:79) into existence. Rabbani means one whose thinking, and whose actions are God-oriented, who has placed God at the centre of his attention. When an individual attains spirituality, his state becomes like a lamp lit all of a sudden. He undergoes spiritual experiences. His heart becomes an ocean of spiritual waves. He appears to live in this world, but he has found another far superior world for himself.

Islam seeks to imbue every single individual with love and fear of the Lord. The type of person that Islam seeks to form is one who fears God above all else, whose focus of attention is the next eternal world; one who subordinates all his actions and dealings to the will of God; who does not follow the dictates of the devil and his own desires but submits to one God alone.

Islamic faith is essentially a discovery—the discovery of God. Islam is for one to see beyond the superficial forms of things to the reality that lies beneath; it is for one to set one’s gaze beyond creation and fix it on the Creator. This is to see something that others have not seen, to discover something that others have yet to discover. When true Islam enters a person’s soul it is the most shattering of experiences. It brings one face-to-face with a reality that changes the very nature of one’s life. It is rebirth, the making of a new man.

Islam addresses itself to the individual, not to society as a whole, for only an individual can experience the psychological upheavals that Islam brings about. To seek to Islamize society, without individuals having undergone the inward transformation essential to Islam, does not serve to strengthen and consolidate God’s religion; it can only undermine it.

Source: Spirit of Islam December 2018