Balance & Ihsan

Bismillah. It was hard to find a term to describe the reminder I'd like to share: "moderation/moderate" have been associated with "liberal" Islam, which wants to change our religion to suit the "modern" context. I considered a few others. The best word I could find is "balance" and better we could use the term ihsan (sometimes translated as excellence).

On occasion I find myself unbalanced. By this I mean that my focus, my time, my thinking and so forth have become overly focused upon one issue. Some examples: We need to make dawah to non-Muslims, and let us not forget that many children born as Muslims do not understand Islam either. We need to stand against injustice, and let us not forget that all our actions are also acts of dawah so let them be done with excellence. We dislike disbelief, and let us not forget the kindness we owe to our neighbors. We follow the straight-path and remind against bidah, and we give our brothers the benefit of the doubt while loving our brothers with ties stronger than blood.

I anticipate that this reminder might be viewed as "watering down" some of the passionate and driven efforts our brothers and sisters are making for various causes and challenges facing the Ummah. This is not the case and inshaAllah I'll offer a clarification: We are not an Ummah of doctors, nor are we an Ummah of scholars. Rather, our Ummah is a diverse group of people, with varying skills and talents. These skills and talents are all required and needed, and thus important. How quick we might be to say that a construction job is not as good as a teacher, but where would the teacher teach without the assistance of the construction worker?

Thus, by necessity we are an Ummah of diverse skills and talents. And, we embrace that diversity because it is for our betterment. This relates to my topic of Ihsan / balance in that I am not talking about balance of all worldly affairs. Instead, this reminder is referring to balance of the heart and balance of deed. For example, the Muslim is driven by the two wings of hope and fear. Without one wing, the bird would not fly. And what propels the bird forward is Love of Allah (this comes from Ibn Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on him). Thus the balance between hope and fear moves the Muslim toward ihsan in heart and deed.

wa'Allahu 'alem.