THE QUR’ãNIC FOUNDATIONS & STRUCTURE OF MUSLIM SOCIETY VOLUME ONE
Prophet’s Personality is also vitally necessary, in order to build up the affinity for the Pursuit of that highest goal, as also to obtain the strength, through the blessings of the spiritual impact of the Holy Prophet’s Personality, for the pilgrimage to God. It is for this end that God has commanded the Muslims, as mentioned above, to engage in ÎalÉt and salÉm, wherein the greater the devotion the richer is the spiritual purification, and the richer the spiritual purification the sublimer is the purity of motive in moral action—of course, only when that exercise is combined with conscientious and wholehearted practical devotion to the Holy Prophet as Teacher and as Exemplar. Cultivation of love for and obedience to the Holy Prophet paves the way for the love of God and obedience to Him. Indeed, love and obedience develop simultaneously in both respects, not only because attention focussed on the Messenger of God gets concurrently fixed up on God, but more so because in the spiritual quest of a Muslim the remembrance of God forms the fundamental exercise with which the exercise of ÎalÉt and salÉm is combined as complimentary. Remembrance of God, as the fundamental exercise, is directed to seeking the Nearness to God (96:19), and cannot therefore be something formal. As such, firstly, it should be undertaken in a state of ‘withdrawal’ (73:8), withdrawing attention from everything else and concentrating it solely on God. Secondly, it should be undertaken abundantly (3:41; 8:45; 33:41; 62:10: etc,)—nay, under all conditions and at all times (3:191). Thirdly, it should be joined to contemplation of the Signs of God which pervade the entire universe (3:191, etc.). Fourthly, it should be combined with a study of Divine Guidance as 454