ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Heart of Islam: Enduring Values For Humanity CHAPTER FOUR: THE VISION OF COMMUNITY AND SOCIETY People were one community and God sent unto them prophets as bearers of good tidings and as warners, and revealed therein the scripture with the truth that it might judge between people concerning that wherein they differed. Quran 2:213 This community of yours is a single community.

Quran 21:92 THE CONCEPT OF COMMUNITY One of the key concepts of the Quran and of Islam as a religion is that of community*(ummah)* . There is no doubt that Islam meant to create a community based on justice, one in which the pursuit of the Divine Law was made possible, not just injunctions for private behavior.

In the debate between those who claim the primacy of society and those who emphasize the primal significance of the individual, Islam takes a middle course and believes that this polarization is in fact based on a false dichotomy. There is no society without the individual; nor can the individual survive without society.

The social nature of the human being is part of the wisdom of God’s creation, and the Quran asserts, “There is no secret conference of three but He is their fourth, nor of five but He is their sixth, nor of less that that or more but He is with them wheresoever they may be” (58: 7). This truth does not refer only to God’s omniscience, but also to the profound reality of God’s Presence in all human assembly. He is present in human community as He is within the heart or center of the individual.

Yet the role of religion is to save human souls, and on the Day of Judgment, according to Islam, human beings are judged individually and not collectively. The human community is judged in the Quran according to the degree to which it allows its members to live the good life, in the religious sense, based on moral principles.

It judges a community to be good to the degree that it reflects the constant presence of the Transcendent Dimension in human life and is based on spiritual and religious ideals. A community as a whole can be judged and punished by God in this world, but a whole community does not enter paradise or hell as a collectivity. Only individual souls do so. Hence our personal responsibility before God remains, in whichever community we happen to live.

Islam recognizes communities according to their religious affiliation.