Reason may independently recognise the goodness or badness of actions at first sight or after reflection and deliberation. Minds differ in discerning good and bad, so that the same action may seem good to one mind and bad to another. Some actions may contain an aspect of goodness or badness that reason cannot uncover, remaining unaware of it or uncertain about it.

Because minds differ in discerning the goodness and badness of things, doctrines have differed and sects multiplied: worshippers of fire, celestial bodies, stones and certain animals. Opinions have differed over forms of worship, laws governing populations and customs. One person approves what another condemns.

Even supposing that minds agreed or approached agreement in perceiving truths and interests, there is a force in the soul that may oppose reason and often rebel against its authority: the will. A person may perceive something’s goodness while their will refuses to turn towards it, or perceive something’s badness while their will fixes upon it. Will may arise from sound knowledge, but it may also be driven by overpowering desires or entrenched habits.

People therefore need a force that sheds its rays upon minds, bringing them closer together in perceiving truths and interests, and directs the will towards what reason recognises as good or turns it away from what reason recognises as bad. This force is none other than true religion.

Religion guides minds to aspects of reform they overlook or cannot grasp, and trains the will to accompany reason in its sound direction.

Religion has another advantage in reforming society: the proofs that it is divinely instituted clothe its commands in reverence, so that they are received with obedience in private and public.

Another advantage is that those who obey its commands feel they are acting to seek the Creator’s pleasure. They hope for the greater reward in the next life, in addition to their good work being a building block in their community’s advancement or a link in the order of its peaceful life. This feeling strengthens their determination to undertake noble deeds and urges them to pursue the greatest excellence they can in their work.

If we see weak resolve, limited ambition or narrow effort among some who belong to the true religion, religion bears no responsibility for these shortcomings. Responsibility lies with those individuals if they know better, or with those entrusted with teaching who have failed to discharge it competently and faithfully.

Thus, seeking to know religions’ true nature from the condition of their adherents is a manifest error. Religion’s true nature is learned from its heavenly scripture or the sayings of the messenger sent with it, provided these have not undergone alteration or distortion.

God’s promise to religious people of honour in this world or victory over enemies is a promise to those who receive that religion with faith that moves them to obey its commands and avoid its prohibitions as far as they can. Do not doubt the truth of God’s promises of honour and leadership to those with certainty when you see a group or nation claiming that religion under an enemy’s dominion, suffering humiliating punishment morning and evening. God’s promise is true and addresses those who answer His call by obeying commands such as: “Prepare against them whatever strength you can” (al-Anfal 8:60), and: “Let there be among you a community calling to good, enjoining right and forbidding wrong” (Al ‘Imran 3:104); and by avoiding what He forbids, as in: “Do not dispute, lest you lose courage and your strength depart” (al-Anfal 8:46), and: “Do not incline towards those who do wrong, lest the Fire touch you” (Hud 11:113).

Since true religion orders the affairs of individuals and communities in ways human systems cannot attain, Islamic governments, whenever they seek their peoples’ good, lasting security in their homelands, pride in their courts’ justice and their soldiers’ courage, must devote their attention to spreading Islam’s teachings among every class and derive their laws from its wide-ranging legislation.

Muhammad al-Khidr Husayn

Encyclopaedia of the Complete Works, 5/59. Dar al-Nawadir.