Islam As It Is
The Five Pillars of Islam
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and Master, one is entering, as it were, into a
‘contract’ with God, a covenant which excludes all
other beings and makes Him all in all. Then it is
around Him alone that all one’s thoughts and
emotions will revolve; it is in Him alone that one
will place complete trust. With the passage of time
it will be to no one but the Almighty that all one’s
hopes, fears and supplications will be addressed.
There is no one—great or small—who does not
have a focus of attention and activity in his life. For
some, the household and family hold the central
position, while for others it is business and money-
making. For yet others, the preoccupations of
political leadership are all that matter. Many base
their entire lives on dreams of power and prestige.
But, whatever the sources of human satisfaction, if a
man does not live in his Lord, his life will be one of
the most abysmal ignorance and vacuity. He will
have built himself a house of straw, to be carried
away by the merest puff of wind. It is only when he
strenuously pulls himself out of his mundane
existence, and begins to live in his Creator that he
will discover what in essence his true life ought to
be. It is only then that he will understand his
