SACRIFICE - The Making of a Muslim
[continued]
By Khurram Murad
Introduction
Why Sacrifice?
What is Sacrifice?
How to Sacrifice?
Conclusion
What is Sacrifice?
Let us now look at what sacrifice means. What should we sacrifice? What sacrifices are more difficult to make? What sacrifices deserve to be called great?
The Two Types
Sacrifice, as we have seen, simply means to give up things which we love and hold dear, which in our eyes have some value for us. We may possess them now or hope and aspire to have them in future. The things may be tangible and concrete or intangible and abstract. Important among con crete things are time, money, worldly possessions, physical abilities, life. Important abstract things may include our ties of love and affection, especially familial, likes and dislikes, preferences and prejudices, views and opinions, desires and aspirations, pleasures and comforts, status and roles, or merely our ego.
Let me state here three basic principles which, in my view, are important to understand if we want to have a full understanding of sacrifice.
Firstly, giving up something deserves to be called a sacrifice only when we love and value it. Hence, it is difficult to draw a clear line of demarcation between the concrete and the abstract. In the final analysis, every sacrifice is a sacrifice of our love or value. When we give away money, or life, or a familial tie for the sake of Allah, what we realty give up, and that makes it a sacrifice, is our love for money, life or a relative, not the object itself.
Secondly, it is more difficult and more necessary to sacrifice abstract things rather than the concrete.
Thirdly, we can give up something we love and to which we attach value only for something we love more and to which we attach greater value.
Tangible Sacrifices
We need not dwell here for long upon the sacrifices of concrete things. We know, we realize and we recognize very well the need and importance of such sacrifices, even if we are at times unable or, quite often find it hard, to make them. But, once we dedicate ourselves to a cause, each one of them may be required to be given at its own time and place. Hence, we should pause to note certain of their more important characteristics.
Time
Time is our most precious commodity. Nothing we covet and desire in life can be obtained except by spending time, and spending it properly, in its pursuit. We maybe spending our time to seek pleasure, to earn money and worldly possessions, to work, to enjoy, or we may simply idle it away - doing nothing.
Time is the first thing that Allah demands of us. It takes time to fight in the way of Allah. It takes time to pray. It takes time to do Da'wah. It takes time to read the Qur'an. It takes time to visit the sick. Every moment should be spent in seeking His pleasure, in fulfilling our commitment to Him. But, if you reflect more deeply, you will realise that what you are really required to sacrifice is not your time. It is the things in whose pursuit your time is being spent, things which may be contradictory to your goals in life, meaningless, unimportant or less important compared to Allah's cause. Therefore to give your time for Islam, before anything else, you must be ready to sacrifice many other things which claim your time.
How can you bring yourself to sacrifice these things and devote your time to Allah?
Remember that time is one thing you cannot hold on to even for a moment. It must continuously slip away from you, in whatever way you choose to spend it. Its value to you is simply what you gain from it. Time will melt away, what you earn will stay.
Remain ever-conscious that every moment in time, depending on how you choose to spend it, will turn into either eternal bliss or an endless misery. Remembering this will strengthen you most in sacrificing your time. The moments you cannot hold on to today will return to you tomorrow, never to go away. Why should you not sacrifice earning something which you will only find turning into a never-ending misery and remorse?
So, while time passes by, reckon deeply: what are you gaining - something transient or something abiding? Will it be a remorse or a joy? What preference has Islam in your time? What proportion of it is devoted to Allah? "Let every person look to what he has forwarded for the morrow" (al-Hashr 59:18).
Sacrificing time for the sake of Allah is the essence of Islam: whenever summoned, you must respond. Hence you should continuously train yourself to give up everything by giving your time to the cause of Allah. Five times a day this quality is ingrained in your character. On Fridays, you have been instructed thus to respond: "O Believers! When the call to Prayer is sounded on the day of Congregation, hasten to God's remembrance and leave all worldly commerce. This is for your own good, if you but knew it" (al-Jumu'ah 62:9).
Worldly Possessions and Money
Most of your time is spent in the pursuit of money or worldly possessions obtained through money. Their desire and love is ingrained in our nature. "Alluring unto man is the love of worldly desires - women and children and heaped up treasures of gold and silver, and horses of high mark, and cattle, and lands" (al-Imran 3:14).
This love and desire of worldly things, let us remember, is neither condemnable nor even bad or evil. The world is not inherently evil; such is not the teaching of the Qur'an. Money and wealth are not despised; it is called the khayr (good). And quite logically. For the path to Allah, and to the other-worldly blessings, passes through this-world. If we abandon this-world, we have nothing left by which to gain those priceless treasures. Hence, indeed, it is the only source and basis of gaining Allah's pleasure and the other-world.
What makes this-world evil is when we forget that all this has been placed at our disposal for the duration of this-world only, as a means to real and eternal goals, which are better than anything whatever and everything this-world may have to offer. When means become ends, they bring misery by diverting us away from what is of real value to us. The above quoted Qur'anic verse, therefore, continues:
All this may be enjoyed in the life of this world; but God - with Him is the best of all goals. Say: Shall I tell you of something better than that? For the God-con scious there are, with their Lord, gardens through which running waters flow, therein to dwell forever, and spouses pure, and God's good pleasure . . . (al-Imran 3:14-15)
Worldly possessions are not easy things to give away in the way of Allah; so many falter and fail when confronted with real choices. What will help you to offer these difficult sacrifices is to constantly remember certain things.
Firstly, nothing belongs to you; everything belongs to Allah. When you sacrifice something in the way of Allah, you are only returning it to the rightful Owner. "To God belongs everything in the heavens and the earth."
Secondly, whatever great value you may attach to worldly possessions, these will become naught with your last breath.
All that is with you comes to an end; but what is with God is everlasting (al-Nahl 16:96)
And tell them the parable of the life of this world: it is like water which We send down from the skies, and the plants of the earth absorb it; but [in time] they turn into straw which the winds scatter; and God is Omnipotent over everything. [Remember] wealth and children are the adornment of this world's life . . (al-Kahf 18:45-6)
Thirdly, only by giving it away for Allah can you receive it back, increased manifold.
Lend unto God a goodly loan. Whatever good you shall forward on your own behalf, you shall find it with God, as better and richer in reward (al-Muzzammil 73:20)
The parable of those who spend their possessions in the way of God is that of a grain out of which grow seven ears, in every ear a hundred grains . . . (al-Baqarah 2:261)
Think for a while: What worth can your claims of committment to Islam have if you spend more money on meaningless pleasures, like smoking and eating, than on your cause? Of what value is your faith in the promises of Allah, when the slightest hope of profit in this world makes you invest all your savings in a business transaction, but the promise of at least seven hundred-fold return, never to be taken away, cannot force your purse-strings open? You may measure what place Islam occupies in your life by looking at what proportion of your wealth you spend in the way of Allah.
Sacrificing wealth has never been easy. But ours is an age when a better standard of living, enjoyment and pleasure, consumerism and material gains have become the only objects of life. Hence you should watch carefully lest you fail in this respect.
Life
A time may come when you will be required to sacrifice your life for the sake of Allah. To so lay down your life is the highest act of doing shahadah; you then deserve to be called shahid. Life is your most precious possession. To sacrifice it means you have to sacrifice everything which life gives or makes possible, all concrete and abstract things that have been mentioned earlier.
You can indeed become eager to die in the way of Allah as soon as you realize that your life does not belong to you but to Him, and you must render to Him what is His due. You should also remember that death you can never escape or avoid, that it will always come at the appointed hour and place, in the appointed manner (al-Imran 3:185, 144-5, 154-6 ; al-Nisaa 4:78). You should also know that those who die in the way of Allah attain a life, for themselves and their community and their mission, which transcends their death: "And say not of those slain in God's way, "They are dead"; Nay, they are alive but you perceive it not."(al-Baqarah 2:154)
Let there be no love of this world, let there be no fear death.
Only then can you attain the strength necessary to sacrifice your life. Only by being ready to die can you overwhelm hostile forces. Only then the door of success shall open. By dying you attain life, both for yourself and for the community. Unless you are prepared to die you forfeit the right to live especially as a community.
Not that everyone of us will be called upon to give away his life. But the yearning to do so must burn in every heart. "One who does not fight or even thinks of fighting in the way of Allah will die the death of a hypocrite", said the Prophet, blessings and peace be on him (Muslim). He also said: "By Him in whose hands is my life, I love that I die in the way of Allah and made alive, that I die again and again given life, I again die and once again given life, only to die again in the way of Allah." (Bukhari, Muslim)
Intangible Sacrifices
Time, money, life and other similar things are no doubt hard to sacrifice. But they have some aspects by virtue of being concrete and tangible, which ease the hardship in giving them up. You can objectify what you are required to sacrifice. You also have the satisfaction of seeing with your eyes what you have given away. Moreover, such sacrifices, when of some great magnitude, are usually called forth in moments of crises. A moment of crisis has its own logic and urgency, which inspires and compels one to bring out his best. At such a moment, you are conscious of the situation, you realize the urgency of need, you are emotively over-whelmed. Also such sacrifices are primarily of a personal nature, offered by personal choice, which does not usually involve a complex network of inter-personal relations.
It is the sacrifice of things which are intangible and abstract in their nature which is not only more difficult to make, more important for the individual and the collectivism, more necessary for success in a struggle, but also more likely to be overlooked or ignored. More often than not they are not even considered to be worth making a sacrifice of. Abstract things may be ignored as objects of sacrifice because they are rooted in heart and mind, they are not objectifiable, sacrificing them is not a visible act. They are to be sacrificed unobserved and unnoticed, in everyday life, and not in the heat of the moment.
Living together and undertaking struggle In the cause of Allah requires such sacrifices. They are of such a nature that hardly ever will you feel that you are required to make them that such objects are worth making a sacrifice. But without such sacrifices, no strong, cohesive collective life can come into being and no struggle can be made with some hope of success. For example, take your likes and dislikes. They cannot be weighed like money, but you have to sacrifice your likes and dislikes that you hold for persons, for objects, for opinions. Such intangible things in fact may require a greater spirit of sacrifice. In the cause of Allah one has to give up not only his life and money and time and resources, but also his inner likes and dislikes, his love and hatred. The Prophet said: "One who loves for the sake of Allah alone and makes enmity for the sake of Allah alone. . . he perfects his Iman" (Abu Dawood, Tirmidhi).
When we refer to the Sahabah we usually say: Allah was well-pleased with them, they well-pleased with Him (radiyallahu anhum wa radu anhu). Why? It means that they had submerged their entire personality in the Will of Allah, to the extent that they liked what Allah liked and they disliked what Allah disliked. They gave away not only their lives and their properties for the sake of Allah, but their whole personality.
This is one important type of sacrifice that we usually neglect and without which it is extremely difficult to form that united and bonded collectivism which alone can further the cause of Allah. Let us have a closer look at some of them. They include, as said earlier, things like love and hate relationships, likes and dislikes, preferences and prejudices, desires and motives, pleasures and comforts, hopes and expectations, habits and customs, values and attitudes, status and roles, or merely the ego.
Familial Love
Familial love is the strongest and the most predominant relationship that we have in this world. From childhood till death, love for parents and children, for husbands and wives, for brothers and sisters, even for other relations, remains at the centre of our lives, it dominates all our concerns. We usually live and work and acquire worldly possessions for the sake of love and responsibility to them.
It is quite normal for us to consider its claim upon our heart and mind, upon our attention and loyalty, upon our time and wealth as prior to every other claim. The familial bonds of affection bind us to themselves as no other bonds do. So often we hear someone saying 'my family has the first claim upon me' or someone taking pride in being 'totally devoted and loyal to his or her family'.
And for good reason. Family is the oldest and most important human institution. It is the bedrock of all civilization and culture that man has built up. Without such deep and pervasive love and such overriding loyalty it would never succeed in fulfilling the role of transmitting civilizational values, norms and mores, or making them secure and stable. Without family man, as man, will perish.
Why then, should you be required to sacrifice familial love in the way of Allah? For obvious reasons.
Firstly, you cannot bring your own self wholly under Allah unless His claim upon your life, love and loyalty becomes the most urgent and important. Hence familial love must be subordinated to God. Otherwise it is likely to force or tempt a believer to behave in a manner contrary to the demands of God.
Secondly, family is always the strongest bastion wherein lie entrenched the established values, beliefs, customs and way of life. Becoming Muslim means you begin to change yourselves and your society. You begin to challenge and overthrow the established way of life. That the first resistance to change and rebellion against the ways of forefathers should be offered within the precincts of family love is quite natural.
Thirdly, you commit yourselves to undertake Jihad with all that you possess. Its claim upon everything you have must override every other claim, including the claim of family love. Nothing should deflect you from the path of Jihad. Family love, even if it is not an impediment, you may have to sacrifice in many ways in order to fulfil your duty.
The Qur'an therefore tells us:
And know that your wealth and your children are but a trial, and that with God is a tremendous reward (al-Anfal 8:28).
And confronts us with a profound, fundamental question: Whom do you love more? Allah or . . . ?
Say: If your fathers and your sons and your brothers and your spouses and your clan and your possessions that you have acquired and the commerce that you fear may slacken, and the dwellings you love - if these are dearer to you than God and His Messenger and to struggle in His way, then wait till God brings (the fulfilment of) His Command; God guides not the rebellious people (al-Tawbah 9:24).
The sacrifice of familial love may take various shapes depending on how it stands in the way of obeying Allah and striving to seek His pleasure. In the first instance, familial love demands obedience to parents, to elders, to the ways of forefathers or customs and society. Such obedience, if contrary to the demands of obedience to Allah, you must give up. You must abide by your reason, your conscience, your faith, the guidance you have received from God.
And when it is said to them, 'Follow what God has sent down', they say 'No, but we will follow only that which we found our forefathers doing.' Why, even if their forefathers did not use their reason and if they were not guided? (al-Baqarah 2:170).
We have enjoined upon man goodness towards his parents, yet (even so) should they endeavour with you to make you associate with that whereof you have no knowledge, then do not obey them . . . (al-Ankabut 29:8).
Further, those whom you love may simply refuse to believe in what you believe. Or, they may embark upon open hostility to Allah and His cause. Such hostile relatives may strive to suppress the voice of truth, mock and ridicule you, persecute you, drive you away from your homes, eliminate you.
You should sacrifice all feelings and ties of love with such inimical and hostile family members. Love for Allah and love for His enemies cannot go together. Only by offering the maximum sacrifice of totally renunciating love for them can you have faith engraved on your heart, be counted among the 'Party of God' (Hizb-Allah), receive the rewards of Paradise and His good pleasure.
You shall not find any people who [truly] believe in God and the Last Day and who [at the same time] are loving anyone who opposes God and His Messenger - even though they were their fathers, or their sons, or their brothers, or their clan. Those - He has engraved faith upon their hearts, and He has strengthened them with inspiration from Himself; and He shall admit them into gardens through which running waters flow, therein to dwell forever. God is well pleased with them; and they are well-pleased with Him. They are God's party . . . (al-Mujadalah 58:22).
Like Ibrahim, that paragon of sacrifice in the way of Allah: First, he had to repudiate his father and even forgo his desire to seek Allah's forgiveness for him. Later, he had to demonstrate his willingness to sacrifice his son.
And Ibrahim's prayer that his father be forgiven was but due to a promise he had made to him, but when it became clear to him that he was an enemy of God, he disavowed him; Ibrahim was most tender-hearted, most clement (al-Tawbah 9:114).
Or, like Nuh: His heart cried out for his son who was drowned in front of his eyes: "O my Lord, my son was of my family, and Your promise is surely true?" But, once told that 'he was not of your family, it was a deed not righteous', he willingly agreed not even to make a plea in this regard (Hud 11:45-6).
Or, like Lot: He forsook his wife because her sympathies lay with the people who refused to heed his call to surrender to Allah alone.
Or, like the Companions of the Prophet, blessings and peace be on him: Fathers were arrayed against sons, and sons against fathers,even on battlegrounds, but flinch they did not.
Those who simply refuse to believe but are not actively hostile require a different sort of sacrifice. You should give up your friendship with them, but treat them with kindness and justice. Snapping all ties of love is an ultimate act, but the plunge has to be taken once only. Continually to live with relatives who disagree with you or dislike your ways and make no secret of it - may be more difficult, even greater sacrifice. For while your activities and beliefs may be disparaged, hurting you deeply, you are still to treat them with compassion.
Obey them not [your parents who strive to make you indulge in shirk]; but keep them company in this world with kindness (Luqman 31:15).
Not always will your family members be opposed or indifferent to your life-mission; they may be sympathetic. Even so demands made by their love may be in conflict with or different from the demands placed upon you by Allah. In situations like this, do not remain unmindful of the fact that love for even those who are good Muslims may some times tempt you away from the path of your love for Allah Hence the need for sacrifice may still be there.
Often you will be under subtle pressures of various sorts. Resisting them will require continuing sacrifices in man ways. Choices, in all cases,may not be that simple and obvious. Sometimes their dislike and disapproval will be made plain to you, explicitly or implicitly; you will have to disregard them. Sometimes pleas and demands will be made in the name of love, rights, or authority, all finding sanction in Islam; you will have to resist them in a proper manner. Wives and children will ask to be loved and cared for; you will have to strike a balance.
You will, then, have to subdue to your commitment to Allah your desire to please them, not to hurt them, not to disappoint them, not to fail their expectations. Or, you will have to forgo their support and approval, your need for warmth and affection. You will have to make complex choices as to the points beyond which your obligation to serve, to discharge your duties, to obey, will have to be abandoned, if they become an impediment in your way to Allah.
Friendships
Friendships constitute another major area of inter-personal relations of love and affection. Friendships are formed round common temperaments, interests, pursuits and goals. As Muslims you have only one goal and one pursuit: 'one who surrenders his whole being to God'. Hence many friendships you will have to sacrifice. Equally significantly, many enmities and dislikes you will have to put an end to. Conversely, you will have to make new friendships: someone you may have always disliked may find a place in your heart and become dear to you.
Whether they be familial relations or friendships, social relations serve a vital need. They provide you the necessary strength and reinforcement by their approval and support. You will have to sacrifice such vital social support as relations are disrupted, approval is withdrawn if not replaced by positive disapproval, long-standing friendships are broken. Muhammad, blessings and peace be on him, the respected leader and the Trustworthy, immediately became the 'mad- man', the 'fanatic', the 'enemy of people'.
Like friendship, your likes and dislikes, like your relations, dominate every part of your life. They extend to views and opinions, taste and temperament, feelings and emotions, attitudes and behaviours. Each in its own way needs to be sacrificed at times.
Views and Opinions
Your own views and opinions are always very dear to you. Your feelings of attachment to your views only grow stronger once you have become committed to a purpose in life, to a world-view. Then you develop a strong sense of right and wrong, truth and falsehood. More importantly, you often think that there can be only one way to look at things: either right or wrong, with your own view always being right. However, your own views - on a particular matter, strategy, way of doing things - may not find acceptance by others. You may then be required to forgo them, withdraw them, or even act against them. Unless you view something as a clear matter of violating Allah's injunction, you must sacrifice your views. This may be more important for strengthening collective life than the sacrifice of wealth.
Feelings and Emotions
Your feelings and emotions are equally dear to you. At times you must give up doing things you find you are not doing for the sake of Allah alone, even if you like them and find them attractive and useful; at other times, you must involve yourself in things you do not like doing, which are against your temperament, only because they please Allah.
At times you should suppress your urge to speak, and fall silent, even if that urge is compulsive; at times you may have to overcome your desire to remain silent, and speak up. You may feel anger rising up in you, an urge to revenge, to speak evil - yet you must hold your tongue.
At times you may prefer solitude and quiet, yet you may have to plunge into intense social activities and contacts; at others, you may very much want to mix socially, but you may have to withdraw into solitude.
You may aspire to be 'something' or 'somebody'; those aspirations may have to be totally abandoned. Your ambitions, your plans, may need to be scrapped.
Taste and Temperament
Even in very mundane affairs you will be required to sacrifice your taste and temperament. You will have to live, eat, sleep and dress in ways which may not be to your liking, to your taste or in harmony with your life-style and preferences. You must accept them, and accept them without grumbling, willingly, without hurting others, causing inconvenience or disruption.
Ego
And, finally, your ego, your self-esteem, your image of your own self, your love of this image. Sometimes hidden, sometimes open, it lies at the root of so many evils. To annihilate 'self' may be a desirable station on a mystic's path, but on the path of the prophets of God, the only thing required is to surrender your ego to the will of God. Our self-esteem becomes so important to us that it breeds obstinacy, stubbornness, obduracy, contempt of others. To sacrifice it becomes one of the most difficult acts in life, but it has to be done.
Continual Sacrifices
Some great sacrifices are such as are made once in life, like that of life. Some are very minor but must be made continuously. Their continuing nature makes them important because of many intangible aspects. Firstly, they require you to be ever-alert and watchful lest opportunities come and find you napping, indifferent, unmindful or unable to recognize them. Secondly, they require a steady and constant will, which requires a greater effort to maintain it. Thirdly, they are too small to qualify as acts of heroism. But they are no less effective for character-building, social organization and success. Even a drop of water falling steadily and persistently may make a hole in a rock. Fourthly, they are not called forth in moments of crisis; rather they must be made in the ordinary run of daily living. Despite being minor in nature, this makes them harder to offer. For faced with a great challenge, under an acute crisis, looking forward to an immense reward, it is always easier to summon all your inner resources, to summon the greatest will, to offer the best. Such is human nature.
In a way we are required to make small, very small, sacrifices every moment in life. For at every step and every moment we are faced with a choice - however small - to go one way or to go the other way. Every choice made to please Allah means taking a decision to sacrifice something. Even, as you choose to offer Fajr (morning) Prayer, you sacrifice your sleep and the warmth of your bed.
Driving on a road where there are high hills, deep ravines, steep slopes, sharp bends and twists, you are more likely to be cautious, to drive safely, to negotiate your way through all the difficulties. But on a road which is even and uneventful, with no bends and twists to negotiate, no obstacles to surmount, no slopes to climb up and down, you are more likely to become carefree and unmindful. Thus you are likely to involve yourself in an accident, or miss your opportunities, or lose your way, or be unheedful of what is required of you.
There are sacrifices to be made in regular day to day living - in home, in work place, in market, in social contact, in organizational work, even in privacy - which are likely to be missed. They are more difficult to make simply because they are not even recognized as suitable stuff for sacrifice.
Without Prospects of Success
Sacrifices made when prospects of worldly success are not in sight have an extra dimension to them. When your efforts seem likely to bear fruit, it is much easier to give time, money and life, to withdraw your opinion, to work with persons whom you dislike, much easier to adopt courses you person ally disapprove of. But when such prospects are bleak or non-existent, all these acts become extremely difficult. In moments of despondency, with no victory in sight, or with defeat looming large - one is more likely to cling to his time and money, to insist on his opinion and view, to make an issue of his dislike of certain persons and actions. Yet the reward for sacrifice made in such moments is much greater.
Not equal is he among you who spent, and who fought, before the victory; those are higher in rank than those who spent and fought afterwards (al-Hadid 57:10).
How to Sacrifice? - Continued
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