1st Virtue: Companionship and Community
2nd Virtue: Being Present with God
3rd Virtue: Being True-hearted
4th Virtue: Giving
5th Virtue: Knowing
6th Virtue: Working
7th Virtue: Distinguished Presence
8th Virtue: Self-Discipline
9th Virtue: Economy
10th Virtue: Jihad
First Virtue: Companionship and Community
This virtue describes the general human atmosphere that must prevail in the Muslim society and that must direct the Islamic public and private code of conduct. It recommends the establishment of brotherly links between the Muslims, a brotherhood that is born from their love of God and His Messenger.
The permanent presence of the Prophet among his Companions distinguished them for two reasons: the living model of the Prophet was unique in its kind, and Revelation was there to support him. His heirs, the committed Scholars and Saints, took over his mission. From their sound minds and pure hearts shine the lights of imān and ihsān. Their pure sources are the inexhaustible reservoir from which the body of the umma draws through companionship and education. Their constant devotion and presence with God is the driving force of God’ s assistance to the umma. Their company must be sought for the umma’ s revival. Their paragon is the one who joins scholarship and sainthood, the one who has a revivalist project that combines at once the missions of the Call and the affairs of the State, the concerns of the individual (moral, spiritual) and those of the umma (social, economic, political). In short, the one who joins the claims of Justice and those of Spirituality.
The reverent Islamic personality [that is, the morally-and-spiritually-imbued personality] is the product of a particular education. However, any education begins with meeting a man [the spiritual master and guide], loving him, and seeking his companionship, then imitating his living model through psychological, affective, intellectual, moral, spiritual, and behavioral inspiration in the company of the fellow brothers and sisters who form the community of faith. The education of the mujahid’ s personality thus begins with meeting a virtuous company within a virtuous community in order to eventually attain the stage of jihad where the capabilities of jihad on the ground find expression. That explains why Companionship and Community is placed atop the list of the Ten Virtues while Jihad is listed in the end.
The Affluents of the First Virtue
1. Loving God and His Messenger
2. Loving men and women for the sake of God
3. Mixing with the mu’ mins and honoring them
4. Imitating the Messenger’ s moral conduct
5. Imitating the Messenger’ s conduct within his family
6. Honoring parents, relatives, and friends
7. Getting married according to Islamic manners
8. Assuming one’ s family duties
9. Honoring the neighbor and the guest
10. Protecting the rights of Muslims and being at the service of the people
11. Being good and well-mannered
Second Virtue: Being Present with God
The quintessence of the Islamic education is the purification of the soul by dhikr (Presence with and Remembrance of God). God-Exalted be He-said: Is it not thanks to the remembrance of God that hearts do find satisfaction and quietude? Uttering constantly the statement la ilāha illa Allāh [there is no god but God] must be a firmly entrenched habit, a way of life.
For us the remembrance of God is not confined to repeating the statement there is no god but God. It must be taken as an individual and collective behavior in all fields, namely where the positive law has supplanted the divine law. That is how the sovereignty of God is to be expressed on the ground.
The Affluents of the Second Virtue
12. Uttering the statement la ilāha illa Allāh [there is no god but God]
13. Establishing the Regular Prayer
14. Performing supererogatory prayers
15. Reciting the Holy Qur’ ān
16. Remembering God and seeking the impact of remembrance
17. Attending the sessions of imān
18. Imitating the dhikr [formulas of God’ s remembrance] of the Prophet
19. Invoking God with the appropriate manners
20. Imitating the Prophet’ s invocations
21. Invoking the blessing of God on the Prophet
22. Repenting and seeking God’ s forgiveness
23. Fearing God’ s wrath and seeking His love
24. Remembering death
Third Virtue: Being True-hearted
True-heartedness [sidq] manifests at once through verbal articulation, inner conviction, and tangible action. It is the product of a heart full of certitude, an idea striving to find expression through unrelenting, constructive action.
Hypocrisy and base sentiments hold a large position in the societies of jahiliya[1] and fitna.[2] Educating the Islamic personality distinguishes the true-hearted from the liars, the true from the false. Any muslim willing to join our ranks must furnish evidence of his true-heartedness before being considered as a true believer willing to serve the cause of the umma.
Any individual pretending to believe in God and the Hereafter must furnish, after associating with the mumins and participating in the sessions of Knowledge and imān, evidence of his good will, his loyalty, and his unshakeable readiness to serve the cause unconditionally in the ranks of the a true believer.
The Affluents of the Third Virtue
25. Believing in God and in the Unseen
26. Believing in the Hereafter
27. Having good intention and being true-hearted
28. Telling the truth
29. Being a vigilant advisor
30. Being trustworthy and keeping one’ s word
31. Being good-hearted
32. Answering the Call [al-Hijra]
33. Hosting and supporting the Call [an-Nusra]
34. Being courageous
35. Believing in true visions and interpreting them
Fourth Virtue: Giving
Justice is the law of God in the Muslim society even as brotherly giving and benevolence characterize the Islamic society.
We insist very much on justice and equity as socio-political objectives because many Muslim activists pass them over in silence as being something obvious in Islam. By failing to place those momentous issues on the top of their agendas, some Muslim activists leave the way open to communists and socialists who analyze the reality of Muslims with foreign tools, and use people’ s indignation against despotism and corruption to achieve their ends while we keep describing the illnesses of our umma without giving suitable remedies.
The equal distribution of the umma’ s revenues must not remain within the purview of individual, pious acts. It must rather be a major social, political claim of Muslims as national entities, and then as a global united community.
Vertical progress towards God will never be achieved in its most perfect form without horizontal progress towards man through serving him as an individual, a citizen of a society, and a member of the international community. Social equality, economic prosperity, and political stability are atop the priorities of the services to be rendered to him in order to facilitate his moral and spiritual ascension. Justice and Spirituality are thus two sides of the same coin.
The Affluents of the Fourth Virtue
36. Giving the alms-due [zakāt] and charity [sadaqa]
37. Being generous and giving for the sake of God
38. Giving relatives, the orphans, and the poor
39. Giving food
40. Sharing one’ s money
Fifth Virtue: Knowing
As far as education is concerned, the virtues of imān progress from a virtuous company [sohba] that fits the individual into the community [al-jamaa], enables him to be present with God [dhikr] and assimilate imān through emotional, intellectual, moral, and spiritual inspiration, qualifies him to demarcate from liars and hypocrites [sidq], and makes his soul altruistic, generous through boundless giving [badhl].
But Knowledge or Science [ ilm] is the light that shows the way. By Knowledge or Science is meant in the first place the Truth inspired from the Qur’ ān and the sunna before the universal sciences whose true worth and decisive role should be recognized in the equation of the umma’ s revival and survival.
We believe in the hadith of Abdullah ibn Umar (blessed be he and his father), who said: We acquired imān before we learned the Qur’ ān whereas you learned the Qur’ ān before you acquired imān. You thus read it [with no deliberateness, presence or humility] as if you were spitting palm dates of poor quality.
The Islamic community needs to marshal people who are competent intellectually and technically in order to undertake the incumbent responsibilities of the State at a subsequent stage in parallel with the objectives of education, reconstruction, and reunification.
Acquiring technology is a major objective for the umma, but the useful Knowledge is the Truth contained in the Qur’ ān and sunna. Such Knowledge describes man and his destiny after death, describes the path leading to God, to His satisfaction, to His Paradise and urges him to take that steep path, braving dauntlessly all obstacles on the way. The other sciences come in the second position of interest as the umma depends upon them to ensure its survival and to fulfil its mission on earth. Knowing only the Truth emanating from the Qur’ ān and the sunna amounts to having a soul without a body and muscles. Therefore, we must assemble the means of power by acquiring, mobilizing, and perfecting the universal sciences to serve our worldly and heavenly objectives.
The Affluents of the Fifth Virtue
41. Seeking Science/Knowledge and sharing it
42. Educating and getting educated according to Islamic manners
43. Learning the Qur’ ān and teaching it
44. Learning the hadith and following the sunna of the Prophet
45. Teaching by eloquent speeches
46. Teaching by edifying sermons and didactic stories
Sixth Virtue: Working
Jihad is a continous effort of reconstruction and reunification. The Islamic personality must be a conscientious, diligent, skilled worker. The success of the Islamic uprising [qawma] depends upon mobilizing people in order to take part in the effort of reconstruction in a committed and voluntary manner.
The repeated failures of the current illegitimate secular governments will lead them inevitably to material and moral bankruptcy. But the Islamic alternative will not save the situation unless it awakens in the umma unrelenting enthusiasm to put in place a new era and establish an economy in full interaction and harmony with the general march of the Islamic reawakening.
In an Islamic society in the process of building its edifice on solid foundations, the value of work and the dignity of workers must be restored. We must put an end to the capitalist exploitation of work even as we must check the socialist, communist pretenses that instigate the outrage of the exploited workers to achieve personal ends.
The Affluents of the Sixth Virtue
47. Working and earning one’ s living
48. Seeking licit gain
49. Being just and incorruptible
50. Clearing all inconveniences from public life
51. Recommending one other the Truth and firmness
52. Expecting God’ s assistance through miracles
53. Calling God’ s blessing on one’ s possessions
Seventh Virtue: Distinguished Presence
The reverent Islamic personality must be distinguished by its outward appearance and inward worth; the same applies to the Muslim society. The Muslim State must also be distinguished on earth, bearing testimony to the excellence of its model in its slogans, values, methods, conduct, activity, and all the outward manifestations of its civilization.
All the outer manifestations of the Islamic civilization, from individual manners to social behavior, must abide by the moral, spiritual standards of the Islamic Law.
The Affluents of the Seventh Virtue
54. Being clean
55. Being well dressed
56. Being joyful
57. Being modest
58. Being a good companion
59. Celebrating the Friday and the two Eids
60. Attending the mosque regularly
Eighth Virtue: Self-Discipline
There is no doubt that controlling the ego and keeping it from committing the unlawful is one of the objectives of the Islamic Law. Taming unbridled egoism is achieved by moral, spiritual education as well as by applying the rulings of the Islamic Law in society. The Appeal’ s mission of education coupled with the State’ s application of God’ s Law are respectively the hands of love and firmness extended to our umma, lost between the injustice of rulers and the betrayal of their hired religious scholars.
The Affluents of the Eighth Virtue
61. Fasting
62. Observing and upholding the limits set by God
63. Averting shedding blood and avoiding taking reprisals against Muslims
64. Keeping secrets and controlling one’ s words
65. Being quiet and meditative
66. Being steadfast and enduring adversities
67. Being kind, deliberate, and compassionate towards all creatures
68. Being humble
Ninth Virtue: Economy
The term economy used by the Prophet presupposes two meanings: the first, intended in the hadiths, means enjoying the goods of this world moderately and renewing constantly one’ s intention, dedication, and direction towards God and the Hereafter. The second refers to the modern concept of the word, that is, to run the affairs of material life.
There is no room here to talk of the concept of ownership and its position in the Islamic economy. We will talk here only of the need for a disciplined Islamic education susceptible to rescuing us from the spiral of jahiliyan economy that makes us turn endlessly in the vicious circle of production and consumption.
It is necessary to have self-sufficient production and liberated industry promoted by the cooperation of the Muslim nations while awaiting the formation of the global Islamic Union. The objective of education in this field is to prepare generations whose sole concern is God-Glorified be His Name-and who do not squander in the manner of the jahiliyians. As their concern is to earn Paradise in the Hereafter, the satisfaction of God and, the contemplation of His Face for eternity iHHHhnnnthey thrive economically and industrially, producing for the welfare of their umma and contributing to the construction of a self-sufficient economy for their umma on earth.
As to the economic, social, and political objectives in this field, they consist in modifying the composition of the existing economic and social structures-be they capitalist or socialist-to befit the Islamic vision drawn from the following Islamic concept: God entrusted to us monies and energies so that we do not behave unjustly towards each other. He wants us to be just, generous, and to gather the means of power represented in the modern sciences, technologies, and industries in order to have economic, financial self-sufficiency, and total independence from others.
The Affluents of the Ninth Virtue
69. Running one’ s assets reasonably
70. Being thrifty and sober
71. Being attentive to the temptations of this world
Tenth Virtue: Jihad
Having acquired the moral, spiritual virtues, and the requisite professional skills, we now move to action on the ground. The major jihad is to tame the ego continuously and enable it to abandon attachment to the superfluous pleasures of this world. The minor jihad is to fight the foreign enemy.
As for the comprehensive, multifaceted jihad the reverent, skilled Islamic personality is enjoined to work sedulously to assume power and run the affairs of society, economy, education, and all the particulars of daily life. Such undertaking is a jihad; coping with the issues and problems left by the regimes of disorder is a jihad-the greatest of jihad, indeed. The objective of the jihad of the men and women of the Call is the edification of the national Islamic State, and then the establishment of the global Caliphate according to the Method of the Prophets. To the Caliphate ends the march of the Islamic movement. Yet such Caliphate will not be an Islamic system established according to the Method of the Prophets if the reverent Islamic personality is not educated, organized, and mobilized according to the comprehensive Method-a method that joins all the affluents of imān.
The Affluents of the Tenth Virtue
72. Performing Hajj [Full Pilgrimage] and Umra [Lesser Pilgrimage]
73. Jihad for the sake of God
74. Imitating the Jihad of the Messenger and his Companions
75. Taking part in establishing the Islamic State and the Global Caliphate
76. Entering into the bay’ a[3] and observing its provisions
77. Calling people to God