Mouood Mouood English Edition
2. Completing moral virtues
Elsewhere it has been said: “I was appointed as prophet in order to complete moral virtues.” 4 Again, this refers to the same points, namely purification of man, leading human beings towards wisdom, helping people out of ignorance and bringing them into a life of wisdom and understanding. This is the individual level.
3. Social justice
On the social level, the goal that has been specified is social justice.
“Certainly We sent Our messengers with clear arguments, and sent down with them the Book and the balance so that men may conduct themselves with equity.” 5
Equity is different from justice. Justice is a broad concept. Justice is the noble and outstanding concept that exists in the individual and social life of people and in the fabric of all events that happen in the world. Justice is an accurate act of balancing. Justice is balanced and appropriate behavior: remaining moderate and avoidance of drifting towards extremes. This is the meaning of justice. But our understanding of equity is the kind of justice that is related to social relationships, namely what we refer to as “social justice”.
This is different from justice in the broad sense of the word. Although divine prophets were generally moving towards the broad sense of justice, it has been mentioned that “the heavens and the earth were established with justice.” 6The heavens and the earth have been built on moderation, justice and the act of balancing, but equity is an urgent need and human beings are thirsty for it. They cannot live with anything less than equity. Equity means breaking down justice into social justice.
“So that men may conduct themselves with equity.” 7
This is the purpose of appointing prophets.
Man cannot live in the shade of injustice, oppressive behavior, aggression, transgression and reliance on bullying and coercion. This is not life: it is hell. Divine prophets came to build a paradise in this world. Of course, if we look at it carefully, divine prophets’ goal on the social level is a prelude to help human beings achieve the individual goal, namely inner transformation, improvement and perfection of man.
Anything that you see in this world is in its right place if it yields the desired benefits. Human beings were not created to hurt each other. They were not created to feel envious of each other. They were not created to appropriate everything at the cost of depriving each other. They were not created to fill the world with evil. They were not created to stick to trivial matters and disregard perfection and values. Human beings were not created for these purposes. They were created to do good deeds, to be helpful, to move forward, and to move towards perfection. If a person moves towards perfection, if the path he chooses proves to be beneficial for himself and for others, that person has achieved inner transformation and purification. These are the goals of Be’that.
The Urgent need for the message of Be’that among contemporary people
Today hundreds of people and authors throughout the world are sponsored by organizations affiliated with the arrogant powers to speak and write against spirituality, religion, Islam and all Islamic movements and they pretend that this materialistic order in the world and the current domineering system that prevails in the world are good and that Islam should not find fault with this domineering system. In these conditions, are human beings not in need of Be’that?
Do human beings not want to purify themselves any longer? Is it not a flaw that every human being is only thinking about his own comfort even at the cost of imposing sufferings on others? Is it not a flaw if respect for values no longer exists among human beings and everybody is satisfied with his conditions? Is it not a flaw if people try to safeguard the piece of bread that they are holding in their hands so that thugs do not take it away from them? Are the current conditions good? Is such an order and such an international system what has been promised to mankind? Is it not necessary to do anything to improve that system? Is it not necessary for human beings to start a movement and give rise to a Be’that? Is it not the case that the law of the jungle is the dominant system in the world or at least in a major portion of the world? Is there any sign of equity?
If you consider different parts of the world, you will notice that in different countries whose populations are in the millions, a number of people are killed by a number of other people, their homes are destroyed, female members of their families are assaulted, they do not have medicine, they do not have food, they do not have peace of mind, they do not have security, and yet the world makes no genuine move to resolve their problems. In the case of the tragic and bitter event that is happening in Bosnia-Herzegovina, why are they killing the people? Do they have any reason for what they are doing? If they have an ethnic reason, this is not the way they should act. If they have a religious reason, this is not the right way to act.
When an entire people are annihilated or forced to live in refugee camps in order to completely destroy their respect, does this not show the dominance of brutality and the law of the jungle? If there were serious reactions from different parts of the world, from Europe, from America, from Asia and from Islamic countries the day when the Serbs attacked Muslims of Bosnia, if the Serbs had been put in their place, this would have shown that although there is corruption in the world, there is also improvement and goodness. We see that such things do not happen in the world. 8
The importance of the Holy Prophet’s (S) birth
The birth of the Holy Prophet (S) is important and very significant to Muslims for several reasons. The first reason is that the Holy Prophet (S) was born at a time when humanity and not just a particular nation or the people of a particular country enjoyed two major characteristics.
One of the characteristics was that from scholarly and intellectual perspectives, the people of that era were far more advanced than the people who lived in previous eras. Philosophy had emerged and a number of scholars were living among them. There were great mathematicians, physicians and engineers among them. Civilizations had been built.
Those civilizations could not have been built in the absence of knowledge. Academies in the west and in the east, the Chinese civilization, the Egyptian civilization and other great civilizations had already emerged in the world. That is to say, humanity had improved. This was one of the characteristics.
The second characteristic was that humanity had declined in terms of ethics, or we might say humanity was at the peak of decadence at that time. It is very strange that humanity had these two characteristics at the same time. Although the people of that era were knowledgeable, they were also suffering from extreme prejudice, superstitions, selfishness and oppression and from anti-human governments that used to kill their own people. This was the situation of the world.
If you read history books, you will realize that the entire humanity had been enslaved at that time. As the Commander of the Faithful (a.s.) says, “Through them Satan’s emblems were flown and his standard was raised in vices which trampled the people under their hoofs, and treaded upon them with their feet. The vices stood on their toes (in full stature) and the people immersed in them were strayed, perplexed, ignorant and seduced as though in a good house with bad neighbors.
