Divine favors that are granted out of God’s will refer to favors that are not dependent upon human willpower and choice. In this respect, everything that we possess may be and should be considered divine favors. That we come into existence from non-existence, that we exist as humans rather than as animals or plants, that we are born into believing families and communities, that we are given a healthy body, etcetera – you can extend the list as long as you want. All these are favors granted to us in return for nothing.

As for its diverse dimensions, we have to consider belief in God Almighty the foremost favor. Belief is a Divine favor. For while there are those who cannot benefit from the most convenient contexts of belief, there are other people in the most unlikely contexts who happen to meet belief and embrace it sincerely. Many examples around us prove that belief or faith is a blessing that comes through as divine grace. Many smart people with brilliant minds live without a compass and without a purpose, for they cannot free themselves from the past baggage of misguided perspectives. It is even harder for those who are in a position to lead their communities, for now they have to speak to their people to tell them that the path they took so far was wrong.

Another dimension of Divine favor is to grow up in a community where one isn’t profiled for their associations or beliefs. If we happen to be in a community where individuals are welcomed regardless of their racial, cultural, or religious identities, where no one is discriminated against because of his family relations or social allegiances, then this is a manifest Divine favor as well. In such a community, other groups are not defamed for their way of life, but on the contrary they are praised for their respective methods of public service and engagement. The opposite would be to narrow down and shrink the otherwise expansive nature of faith that welcomes all and which does not segregate those who are different. Such exclusivist attitudes lead to misunderstandings and raise concerns about religious thought which by definition should be inclusive.

One more favor that is significant and must be mentioned is the feeling of contentment as opposed to seeking benefits and self-interest. Future conflicts that may possibly arise at times of new worldly opportunities can only be prevented when people take a step back in an altruistic spirit, just as in the example of Hasan, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.

Hasan (d. 669) had an opportunity to seek political leadership, and though he had an enormous amount of popular support, he did not wish to risk people’s lives or threaten social stability, and thus did not accept this opportunity. It is important to follow in his track and refuse any worldly gain when others are competing for such gains, and instead be prepared to even retreat into a cave, if this would be to the benefit of the community.

This attitude, which we may call contentment or abstinence, is a priceless virtue for a community. When, during a conflict, one party raises their hand to hit, they will not find a material form before them, for the contented party will already have vanished, avoiding any sort of fight whatsoever. The one who starts a fight is wrong, even if he is absolutely on the right side of the issue.

Perhaps the most important of all Divine favors is the consciousness that these gifts are divinely granted and that our willpower has nothing to do with them. Human willpower is a basic condition that is required for all matters, even for the most important ones. Yet, in the context of divine favors as described above, it is almost impossible to claim the intervention of human willpower. We have been created as human, the most honorable and superior of all creation in the universe. We are born into a world where we are given all opportunities to reveal our full potential to become “the perfect human” (al-insan al-kamil). In this life, we are given a whole infrastructure and the necessary dynamics to reach the horizons of being fully human as the giants of human history did. And these are no doubt “given” to us without us being involved.

What falls on our side is not to treat these favors as if we accidentally bumped into them, but as the most precious property entrusted to us and do our best to deserve their continuous bestowal. Each individual honored with these blessings should take all measures to keep them safe and to offer wholehearted thanks to the One in appreciation for all His favors.

Willpower is considered as one of the four basic elements of what we call the mechanism of conscience. As expressed by Bediuzzaman in a beautiful phrase, willpower is “one’s inclination or his or her practice in the direction of that inclination.” That is, it is a person’s resolution and performance when he or she is in a situation to prefer one of the alternatives they are presented. As a matter of fact, it is nothing more than an insignificant cause that was made a condition although it is not needed in the true sense of the word. And from this premise, it is disqualified from a connection one would seek between the cause and effect according to the principle of causality. It is no different than binding the enlightenment of all the world to a single touch on the button of an electric network, or that the destruction or construction of huge systems to be dependent on a breath of yours.

As clearly observed in the examples, there exists absoutely no association between the cause and effect. Indeed, under normal circumstances, that cause is impossible to bring about that effect. Accordingly, for Bediuzzaman the nature of willpower is relative and secondary, as other scholars of Islamic theology, kalam.

Then, how are we being tested with our willpower?

1. How does it come that such huge effects are reached by such a small entity (an inclination or a practice on that inclination)? A huge pine tree originates from a little seed and a brood comes out of an egg – or, more accurately, a tiny “organism of vitality.” All these are particular manifestations of God’s power or capability. The role our willpower has in effecting the deeds we have been performing, and the results of them – no matter how huge or grand they are – are identical to the role of the seed upon that huge tree, or of the tiny organism upon the brood. All these, in fact, are the indicators of the truth of “God is great.”

2. Whatever the essence of willpower is, we have to rely on it simply because God has built some particular affairs upon it. Indeed, God Almighty has built our future upon our willpower. That is, willpower, in a way, is like a plan or project in terms of our future. Due to this fact, it is important to maintain a balance regarding the true nature of willpower, by assigning no value to it, or by binding everything to its presence. Willpower is a relative entity. As God Almighty has built many things upon will power, we should not be deceived by looking at the smallness of willpower as opposed to the greatness of all the entities that are created and our willpower serves as an instrument to them. How we define our willpower, and thus conceptualize our future and especially our actions is a great test we sit for.

3. Using willpower within the reasonable limitations in the way God points out is also of great importance. If you do not give your willpower its full due, if you do not, or cannot use it properly, or if you do not cherish it by strengthening it – although you have been striving in the name of the values you defend, the probability of your falling into some mistakes will always be in question. To give an example, if you aim to serve your faith and in that direction you want to pour out to the streets, wage armed struggle, or get into political rivalry instead of good services, and fight with all the world, you have failed the test with your willpower. You will have failed because you do not take the template of the good example of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and his Age of Happiness; you disregard the circumstances of the age, the human condition, and the effect of willpower in all this.

We should utilize our willpower in the light of rationality and not forsake it to emotional traps; in contrast, we should always seek for means to consolidate our willpower. We should, for instance, unify it with our consciousness so that our heart is employed on behalf of our willpower. Thus, the test will be passed, particularly in matters pertaining to faith, worship, and charity work, for our willpower will be guided by the illuminating lights of divine knowledge.

4. We ought to accomplish the tasks falling upon our shoulders, and in no way interfere with manifestations of God’s Lordship. Yes, this is again a matter of willpower. Indeed, the fact that we apply to perform the deeds God shall actualize, is a matter exceeding our willpower. As another matter of fact, applying for things exceeding our power and abilities may lead us to fall into despair and fail the test, as a result. Bediuzzaman quotes aides of a great king who told him, on the way to battle, “You will win the victory!” The faithful king replied: “I am responsible for fighting against the enemy. To make me win or lose is God’s duty.” Actually, I do not know so well whether calling this a “duty” is right or not. But with Ustad top amongst them, many scholars of kalam have employed this term for God. But still, I prefer to use “manifestations of God’s Lordship.”

At that moment, such a question may come to your minds: “Are we not going to pass this test with our willpower again?” Yes, that is correct. Because of this, willpower should be ceaselessly strengthened. Prayer and appealing for pardon are two factors of vital importance. According to Bediuzzaman, “Asking forgiveness cuts off the root of one’s inclination to evil; prayer enhances one’s inclination to goodness.” Man essentially has been beset by an array of thoughts and by corporeal lust – such as eating, drinking, sleeping, getting up, and all other feelings. Humans are so surrounded by lust, that even just a single step could plunge a person into incredible depths of sin. In fact, to interpret the lust stated in the hadith merely as the attraction one feels for the opposite gender, as some people do, is not true. Here, lust bears a much more general and universal reference. In accordance with such a general and universal comment, gambling, drinking alcohol, and adultery are considered as varying dimensions of lust. If one is trapped by one of these variances of lust, he or she shall probably be hunted by his or her carnal soul, and one day he or she may totally become a slave to it. You see, begging for pardon against all of these shall become a spell cutting off any kind of evil and inclination towards evil.

To clarify a little bit further, we could say that the particular apology that shall cut off the inclination to evil requires a deep repentance for the sins of the past, preservation of the present legitimate path, a particular determined attitude towards the probable sins of the future, and resolution in that determination … Plus, one has to stress this resolution all the time; in other words, one ought to feel and sense his or her orientation towards God in his or her conscience to the fullest degree.

As of the prayer enhancing one’s inclination towards goodness, we may point out some verses from the Qur’an, like: “Your Lord has said: ‘Pray to Me, (and) I will answer you'” (40:60); “And when (O Messenger) My servants ask you about Me, then surely I am near: I answer the prayer of the suppliant when he prays to Me” (2:186).

In other words, God Almighty might mean something like, “my servants shall in no way fall in despair, as I am closer to them than their own carotid is; if they are not able to practice actual prayer, they may do it verbally; if they are still unable, they shall gravitate their hearts to Me; that is, if they are not satisfied with their verbal utterances, they may sail themselves away to the vastness of their consciences and recite something like, ‘O my beloved Lord! I have asked for Your help on that issue with 30–40 sentences. In fact, I am sure that I have not asked for so many things that must actually be asked from You, and that surely Prophets, the Purified souls, saints, the close and the distinguished ones have asked from You. I may have not known them, comprehended them, and asked for them. Now, I am taking all those holy wishes and prayers into consideration, and getting oriented towards You, with all my soul, one more time, touching the handle of Your Door of Mercy, and moaning.'”

Yes, we should keep our zeal as vast as possible, and should not go the door of our Lord as if going to someone lacking wealth or power. In contrast, we should go in with an air that we apply to the Owner of Infinite Wealth whose treasure would not be lessened even though He bestowed us a Paradise every day. Besides, as stated in a verse, “my Lord would not care for you were it not for your prayer” (25:77), one of the significant aspects of man is his or her orientation towards God by means of prayer.

Other practices of worship may not be as sincere as a sincere prayer or invocation, since they are open to hidden or apparent showing-off. And still some others may be practiced in a kind of compulsion within the frame of ostensible causes. A sincere prayer, indeed, is like a weapon man falls back on when all the causes in the physical world are exhausted. Causes are never appealed along prayers. In a way, it is closed to hidden or apparent kinds of showing-off. Thanks to prayer, man gets oriented to his or her beloved Lord in a particular place where no one else is present, opens his or her hands, lays him or herself flat for prostration, and keeps begging, and washing his or her prayer rug with tears. You see, it is this prayer said on this line that shall enhance the inclination to goodness; that is, that shall empower one’s will power in terms of doing good. In fact, God’s Messenger, peace and blessings be upon Him, begged forgiveness 70 or 100 times a day, according to varying reports. In all the phases of His blessed life, in different times and places, from the moment a rooster crowed to the time of putting on something new, He always prayed for each occasion.

Let us close with a poem by Yunus Emre:

So incapable has the cruel carnal soul made me,
It is unable to be saturated with joys of that world.
Its eyes are blinded by the shirt of unawareness,
It does not notice life is passing away.
O my Lord, how do you call those wearing the shirt of unawareness,
Do you indeed call those yielding to carnal soul as “believers”?
Those keeping earning but spending in vain
Unable to donate even a penny for God’s sake.
O my Lord, alert my eyes from unawareness,
so that I shall not be ashamed in your Divine Dwelling.
Yunus says, do listen to me and do what I say:
Those loving the world cannot find the Hereafter. 

A mysterious program
Far beyond our reasoning,
The ones open to mysteries
Never fall on their knees.
Do have the faith, then,
Never be felled by confusion!

Close not your eyes to the beauty
Do not be stuck in the ugly!
Behold Him as mountains do the sun!
Watch ever for His Holy Light,
Put the darkness aside!

Keep whirling within the phenomena
As the sage do!
Glimpse the good sides of both
pleasure and grief

Relinquish gloom and worry
If your willpower is bustling
Become the spring of hope for all,
If you can!

Till the seekers of a tranquil corner
Shall run to you;
And those joining your aura
Shall overflow with fervent happiness.

While the shahadah, the testimony of faith, detaches one from finite and false masters, the salat, the ritual prayers, detaches one from worldly affairs, zakat, charitable alms, detaches the worshipper from the pangs of material wealth, and hajj, the pilgrimage, is a means of detachment from the burden of sins and racism or nationalism, and sawm, fasting, detaches the worshipper from physical desires and emotional impulses.

What appears to be a self-inflicted ordeal to some is really a profound human experience. Fasting addresses a fundamental weakness in the human self-the tendency to act on impulse. The constant exercise of willpower to refrain from eating, drinking or having sexual relations, even though the body is constantly sending impulses to the human self, means that the will is in control. Fasting is not just about staying hungry or thirsty; it is also a struggle to refrain from any destructive impulses of the human self. Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, remarked, “If one does not abandon lies and acting on lies while fasting, then God has no need for him to give up food and drink.” So the main outcome of fasting is the curbing of all physical impulses that do not originate consciously from the person. In this way, one’s absolute dependence on these desires and impulses is detached and transformed into a relative dependence and one is guided only by God, which leads the worshipper closer to God.

Therefore, the fundamental spiritual benefit of fasting is to exercise the willpower and to attain the self-control that we need for success in every part of our lives. Fasting consecutively for 30 days truly sharpens the willpower and makes self-control a habit; this is true to such an extent that at the end of Ramadan most people feel as if they are still fasting. The benefit of attaining such a razor-sharp willpower extends its positive impact to every part of human life. It is important to maintain this newly gained ability throughout the year until the next Ramadan. The Holy Prophet used to fast on Mondays and Thursdays every week outside of Ramadan. He recommended Muslims to do the same or come up with other formulae for regular fasting, although this was not made compulsory.

An interesting experiment was done in the 1960s at a preschool on the Stanford University campus when the ability of four-year olds to resist temptation was tested. A marshmallow was placed in a room and the children were told that they could have the marshmallow immediately, or if they waited until the tester had run an errand and returned, then they could have two marshmallows. Some children waited for two marshmallows, while others ate one immediately. These same children were followed over 14 years to see how they managed in life.

Those who had resisted temptation at four were now, as adolescents, more socially competent, personally effective, self-assertive, and better able to cope with the frustrations of life. The third or so who grabbed the marshmallow, however, tended to have fewer of these qualities and shared instead a relatively more troubled psychological portrait. Even more surprising, those who had waited patiently at four were far superior as students to those who acted on whim. Most astonishingly, they had dramatically higher scores on their SAT tests. There is perhaps no physiological skill more fundamental than resisting impulse. It is the root of all emotional self-control, since all emotions, by their very nature, lead to one or another impulse to act.1

Naturally how one is raised in childhood has a great bearing on the skill of self-control. If our parents do everything we want and bring us everything we ask for our self-control will be low. Fortunately, Islam’s practice of fasting can break this negative childhood conditioning.

Mehmet Ozalp is the Executive Officer of the Affinity Intercultural Foundation, Auburn, Australia. He is the author of 101 Questions About Islam.

Note

1. Coleman, Daniel, Emotional Intelligence, London: Bloomsbury, 1996, pp. 81-82.

True civilization is based on refining one’s manners, thoughts, feelings, and strengthening one’s willpower. Some identify civilization with dazzling advances and innovations in sciences and technology-from trains to spaceships, broad streets and skyscrapers to dams and nuclear power stations, telecommunication systems to electronics. But these are no more than means of an easy, luxurious life. Modern facilities can help “modernize” life’s outward appearance, bul this does not mean that people of that society are civilized.

It also provides an environment that encourages people to develop their potentialities. And truly civilized people are those who serve their community, in particular, and humanity, in general, according to the thoughts, feelings, and abilities developed and refined within that environment. Thus civilization is not to be sought in riches, luxury, and a comfortable life in large, richly furnished houses, or in production techniques and amounts of goods consumed, for such things are no more than elements of material pleasure and physical well-being. Rather, true civilization is to be found in purified thinking, refined manners and feelings, and sound views and judgments.

Civilization lies in people’s spiritual evolution and continuous self-renewal toward true humanity and personal integrity-to realizing their full potential as the “best pattern of creation.” People must realize that civilization is not, as some blind imitators of the West believe, something to be bought from a store and worn. Rather, it is a final destination that can be reached only by following a rational way passing through time and circumstances.

Civilization differs from modernism. Civilization means changing and renewing people’s views, ways of thinking, and personal habits; modernism means changing their lifestyles, pursuing physical pleasure, and developing living facilities. But many people are not aware of this distinction, for their generations have been bewildered with misused concepts and misled in their way of thinking. As a result, their belief, language, national ihonghts, morals, and culture have been corrupted.

Western people who enjoy technical facilities more than others, as well as the so-called Muslim intellectuals who consider themselves civilized and view others as uncivilized, commit an unforgivable sin against civilization and culture. Such people should know that just as civilizalion does not mean modernism, being an intellectual is quite different from being a school graduate. The number of true intellectuals who have not studied at an educational facility is not insignificant when compared to the numbers of high school or university graduates. Misusing such fundamental concepts may cause a long-lasting deception characterized by people confusing white with black, justice with injustice, enlightenment with ignorance, being intellectual with being ignorant, and civilization with savagery.

A community’s enlightenment and freedom from confused thoughts, expressions, and convictions require the existence of a group of true intellectuals-not just school graduates. A community must have specialists in different branches of science, but such people cannot enlighten it. That task can be achieved only by those true intellectuals who, in the awareness of their age, live at the level of the spirit, are awake to existence in soul and intellecl, and use their willpower in accordance with the truth’s dictates. By combining scientific truths with the Unseen’s inspirations in order to form an inextinguishable source of light, their souls and intellects are revived and they are able to open the way to their community’s revival through the messages they disseminate. Only such intellectuals can bring a true civilization into existence.

Every new civilization is born through attempts based on a unique love and belief. Without these two elements, it is impossible to talk about civilization. If despotic pressure or intervention are added to this lack of love, belief and zeal, even conquering space and discovering subatomic worlds will not be enough to found a civilization.

A community whose ordinary people have no belief, love, zeal, or feeling of responsibility, whose ordinary people live aimless lives unconscious of their true identity and unaware of the age and environment in which they live, cannot be considered civilized. Even if they have changed all their institutions, achieved a high standard of life, and adopted a “modern” lifestyle, they are not civilized. Civilizalion is an intellectual and spiritual phenomenon that has nothing to do with technology, dress and finery, furniture and luxuries. The bloodshed, continued but disguised colonialism, unending massacres and conflicts, unchanging human attitudes, unrefined manners, unenlightened intellectual life, as well as materialism’s dominance in science and worldviews and other signs of savagery, prove that neither the “developed” peoples nor their “developing” imitators have founded a true civilization.

It is unfortunate that some members of the intelligentsia in developing countries have mislead their people by letting them believe that modernizing their lifestyles-or “becoming totally dependent on Western countries”-would make them civilized. Such indigenous Westernized modernists do not hesitate to carry out what some Western countries “inspire” in their minds.

We hope that the world will witness true civilization once more. The signs of this civilization, which will be founded on belief, love, knowledge, and universal moral values, are already on the horizon. This sacred cause can be realized if the new generations that have undertaken it continue on their way with a strong belief, willpower, and ever-deepening resolve.