There are no practical injunctions or social laws and moreover...

There are no practical injunctions or social laws and moreover, philosophy and rational thought are looked upon with disfavour. The Divine Sacrifice and the remission of the sins of mankind are doctrines which reduce the relevance of injunctions concerned with this world. Other religions have either ceased to draw men to themselves, such as Sabianism and Manicheanism or else are limited to a particular race of people, such as Judaism.

Thus it is only Islam which gives first importance to rationally demonstrable beliefs and positive individual and social injunctions, as, it is hoped, the present paper will make clear. The Prime Importance of the Individual from the Point of View of Human Nature Human nature seeks no more than to perpetuate as far as possible its own existence and to achieve its instinctive desires.

If the first step man takes in his development is to form social groupings, and if he preserves these societies by acting in accordance with their laws-thus surrendering to the same extent a degree of his individual freedom-, it is in order that by depriving himself of one portion of his freedom he gain and benefit from another portion by being better able to provide for his innate requirements and his subsistence.

The first goal of creation is the happiness of the individual; the happiness of society follows this. In other words, the purpose of creation is the perfection of human nature, and this perfection is realized in the being of the individual, not in the shape and form of society. Thus, man is directed towards the formation of social groupings to preserve the individual.

For in order that he may realize the fundamental purpose of life happiness and well-being-it is necessary that he should follow an orderly system of living, a system which inevitably must be social. He must eat, drink, clothe himself, sleep, rest, wed, bear offspring, secure his needs, and through the use of his mind provide the means of his own subsistence.

The Effect of the World View of the Individual upon his Activity The form and characteristics of this orderly system which man follows in his life are dependent upon his conception of the nature of the Universe and of himself, who is an inseparable part of that Universe.

Thus we see that a group of men do not admit the existence of a creator for the world and imagine that the world came into being accidentally and that man is only this material form which comes into existence at birth and ceases to exist at death.