Thursday, August 05, 2010

What is Righteousness ?

Many people wonder what is righteousness and come up with their own conceptions. But why should we live on conceptions when Quran clearly defines what is expected of a true Muslim ?

We all have become very mean people in this world. We have forgotten the teachings of Quran and Hadeeth. We try to twist religion to suit us. In fact, when you actually start reading the Quran with meaning, every little doubt is cleared with ease. Nothing in the Quran is not followable in today's world. The message is universal and for all times. But we follow what suits us and what we are already following. And we discard which does not suit us. In fact, at all times, our endeavour should be to learn, grow and correct where were wrong till now.

Coming back to point and main question - What is Righteousness ?

According to Surah Al- Baqarah (Verse No 177) :
''Righteousness is not that you turn your faces towards the east or the west, but (true) righteousness is (in) one who believes in Allah, the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the prophets and gives wealth, in spite of love for it, to relatives, orphans, the needy, the traveller, those who ask (for help), and for freeing slaves ; (and who) establishes prayer and gives zakat; (those who) fulfill their promise when they promise; and (those who) are patient in poverty and hardship and during battle. Those are the ones who have been true, and it is those who are the righteous.''

This is word to word from Quran. In this short verse Allah says everything that HE expects from humans in conduct.

May Allah guide us all on the right path.

2 comments:

sk said...

Shagufta, I totally agree with you.
Recently I was reading a book by Gurcharan Das (must have read his columns in TOI), "The Difficulty of being Good: On the subtle are of Dherma". Everyday we are in a dilemma over righteousness and morality. Things are so subtle at times that our one step can take us from heaven to hell. Everyday we are facing such dilemmas in our professional and personal lives.
But I believe that if we follow the guidance of the Holy Quran, then it can become very easy for us do the right things in our day-to-day life. But this can happen only when we read the Quran, try to understand the meaning and ponder over it.

Shagufta said...

''Things are so subtle at times that our one step can take us from heaven to hell'' - So very true, sk!