Realization of Justice and How to Thank Allâhu Ta’âlâ

Justice is realized in three stages:

The first stage must be allocated to being a Believer obedient to Allâhu ta’âlâ. Blessings and favors of Allâhu ta’âlâ are coming to all creatures all the time. The most valuable among these blessings is His showing His human creatures how to attain eternal blessings. He created all of them in most beautiful guises and images and gave them eternal and countless blessings and goodnesses, none of which they could stake a claim to. Gratitude to such a Benefactor and Creator for all these blessings by way of worship is absolutely incumbent on all creatures. Justice in this respect means to observe the rights of one’s Owner. It is a must and a debt, therefore, for each creature to worship the Creator for all the goodness they receive from Him.

The second stage of justice is to observe the rights of human beings. Accomplishing this requires obeying the laws of the land and those who are in charge and paying respect to scholars and observing the rules of trade and keeping the given promises and being a trustworthy person.

The third stage of justice is to observe the rights of those who lived and passed away and left us wills to carry out or trusts and foundations to take care of. This will be accomplished by doing whatever they willed and by taking care of those trusts and foundations.

When a person receives a favor from another, if the former has the material means, he should respond with an equal favor. If he does not have the material means, then he should thank him by pronouncing a blessing over him, (i.e. by making duâ for him). If a person does not respond to a favor although he has the means, he will be mistreated by everybody because it is a duty for a human being to respond to a given favor with an equal favor. While this is the case, not responding to the favors of Allâhu ta’âlâ, Who created us out of nonexistence and gave us the best of shapes and necessary organs and powers and made them work coherently with each other and thereby provided us with health and gave us intelligence and wisdom, and Who continuously creates our necessities such as mates, children, housing, clothing, nutrition and all sorts of foods, would be a great fault and deficiency. He has infinite powers. He creates all these blessings without demanding anything in return from us, since He does not need anything. How surly an attitude, how vicious a crime and how blatant an injustice it would be not to pay gratitude to Allâhu ta’âlâ, the Almighty, and to disignore His rights as the Creator! Worse yet is the abominable denial of His existence and the obdurate and disgraceful touting for another source for all these infinite blessings in the desperate attempt to stave off the manifestation of the fact that Allâhu ta’âlâ is the sole Benefactor. Supposing all the needs of a person are ministered to and he is regularly paid, gratis, all his monthly pecuniary and nutritional requirements by a certain benefactor, imagine how that person will praise his benefactor on every occasion and in all sorts of company. Won’t he do his best to capture his sympathy and to win his heart? Won’t he try to protect him against cares and troubles? Won’t he expose himself to dangers to serve him? Won’t others blame him if he thoroughly ignores his benefactor instead of these natural impulses? In fact, won’t he be rebuked for dereliction of a humanistic duty? With all this natural sense of obligation towards a human benefactor, why should it not be necessary to thank Allâhu ta’âlâ, Who is the real Owner of all sorts of blessings and goodness, and the Creator and Sender of all, and to do the things He likes and commands? Allâhu ta’âlâ is certainly above all those who are entitled to being thanked, obeyed and adored. For, others’ favours, when compared to His blessings, are not even drops of water versus oceans. In fact, favours that seem to be coming from others are His sendings.

The question of how men should thank for the favors of Allâhu ta’âlâ is answered in various ways by different scholars.

According to some, the most important way of thanking Him is to think and contemplate about His existence.

According to others, men can thank Him by realizing that blessings come from Him and by acknowledging this fact through his speech.

According to some others, thanking Him could be done by practicing His commandments and avoiding the prohibited actions.

According to some, man should first cleanse himself and thereby be closer to Allâhu ta’âlâ.

According to others, man should try to give guidance (irshâd) to others who are in need of finding the correct way of living. He should try to help others so that they may become correct (sâlih) people.

According to some, there is no particular way of thanking Him. Everyone can follow different ways of thanking Him.

According to later scholars, man’s duty toward Allâhu ta’âlâ can be summarized in three groups: The first one is the worship he performs by using his body, i.e., “salât” and fasting; the second one is the duty he performs through his soul, i.e., having correct faith [having a belief agreeable with the prescription taught by the Ahl as-sunnat scholars]; and the third is the endeavour to get closer to Allâhu ta’âlâ by doing justice among human beings. This could be accomplished by being a trustworthy person and by giving advice to others and by teaching Islam to others.

We could summarize the acts of worship in three groups: Correct belief, correct speech and correct behaviour. The commandments which are not clearly stated in the last two categories could be modified, depending on times and places. Allâhu ta’âlâ is the only authority entitled to make this change, and He has done so through His Prophets. Human beings cannot change acts of worship by themselves according to their own understanding. Prophets, and the Ahl as-sunnat scholars, who are the inheritors of the Prophets, communicated in detail the kinds of worships and how they would be performed. Everyone should learn these properly and practice them.

It would be summarized all the aforesaid facts by saying that in a nutshell a Muslim’s duty toward Allâhu ta’âlâ is to hold the correct belief, to be a trustworthy person, and to perform good deeds (’amal-i sâliha).

Islamic scholars and great guides of tasawwuf stated that the most necessary thing for a human being is to have îmân (belief), perform good deeds (’amal) and do them with sincerity (ikhlâs). Happiness in this world and the next world can only be achieved by erecting these three pillars. “ ’Amal” means acts that can be accomplished through the spiritual heart, tongue, or body. Acts to be accomplished through the spiritual heart are ethics or morals. Sincerity (ikhlâs) means doing all the good deeds and worships for the sake of Allâhu ta’âlâ and for the purpose of obtaining His love and approval.

Mawlâna Calâladdin-i Rumî says his Matnawî:

Thanks be to Allâhu ta’âlâ, Who sends so many blessings,
First, He gave me the blessing of existence!
The Human power would fall short of tallying His blessings,
Power and all kinds of superiority belong to Him by rights.