As all of we know this fact
that ALLAH has not created anything without any reason. He is the mastermind of
the universe and has made everything in the very favor of His most beautiful
creation; the man. He assigned us five basic duties as a Muslim and in fact not
assigned rather gifted these in order to get His blessings. Behind these duties
the basic concept was not only to let people perform these for the sake of
performance but behind every duty there was a concept and at the end which was
again for the benefit of mankind and not for ALLAH. All of us being Muslims are
well familiarized by these five basic duties, namely Oneness of ALLAH, salat,
fasting, hajj, zakat, since our childhood.
Now coming to the concepts behind these and how we are taking these now days.
The Oneness of ALLAH, a belief that is holding the complete faith and religion
of a person as a base. The concept behind this as a duty was to make people
realize that the supreme power is ALLAH and one can have fulfilled his desires
only by Him. No one else is there to help you in need. Belief in Him as the only
friend around you was the basic concept behind this duty. But how we are taking
it? We have completely changed the concept of this duty and faith. When we are
in desire to get our things done, we approach all our contacts and at the end
when we are unable to get any help from our public relationships then we ask
Him. We take His help at the last. We grade the supreme and ultimate power as
the least.
Second basic duty, the salat, was gifted to Muslims by ALLAH on mairaj of our
Holy prophet (P.B.U.H). The basic concept behind the salat in mosque was to make
people socialize. When people offer prayer in mosque five times a day, they get
to know about their neighbors, they get to know about the condition of the
person standing besides him that whether he has eaten something or not, whether
he is in need or not. But, what we have done for this concept? Firstly we don’t
even bother to go to mosques except Fridays and if we go then we are not even
aware of the person who is standing besides us. We are now that much busy in our
lives and businesses that we have no time for bowing before the Creator who has
bestowed us all of these things.
The third basic duty is fasting; to be hungry for whole day was not only the
concept behind it. The concept was to let us know that how a poor person feels
when he is in hunger, when he is thirsty, to make us know about the feelings of
a poor hungry person. Also the concept was to make ourselves morally and
ethically good because fasting is useless if we are unable to stop our hands and
tongues from bad deeds and vulgar language. We have completely modified the
concept. We eat in morning and in evening that very much, that we are not able
to even see any eatable before us. Secondly, we have no concerns about the
feelings of others and use the same routine language and same bad deeds in
fasting as before.
The fourth basic duty of Islam is hajj or the pilgrimage. The basic concept
behind this was to make yourself uneasy and let yourself engaged in journey for
ALLAH, who has given you power and all benefits. Then offer prayers in Mecca and
Medina. But what we use to do is that we need every luxury there. We need luxury
apartments, air conditioned cars and we want to enjoy every facility there.
The last basic duty of Islam is Zakat. This was a duty binding to every Muslim
who has got a certain extent of assets. He has to give a form of tax to
government every year. The basic concept was that by doing so we can circulate
the money in society, the main theme of economics, and help the poor people to
meet their requirements and also the benefit was that our money gets purified by
doing so. What we take it now days is a burden on our shoulders and as we try to
avoid other taxes, we engage auditors to avoid zakat also. We have no concern
about the lower class of our society who needs our help.
So, as we have seen what was the concept behind the duties assigned by Islam and
how we are taking these now days. There is an urgent need to make ourselves
realize that what we are behaving and reacting for our duties can never lead us
to the right path. These duties assigned are not burdens but are for our own
benefit as an individual, as a Muslim and as a nation.