The Divine Presence

The Divine PresenceIf we are committed to Divine duty in all our choices, we should be extremely cautious in our ways, behaviour, tactics and strategies. You will acknowledge that this is an extremely difficult task that requires constant guidance from God and inspiration from our Divine school of thought. An individual holding a responsible position in a Divine society, must be perfectly conscious of God’s guidance while performing his duties: He is constantly in need of this Divine guidance and the Divine light through the source of Islam, to show him the right path and to guide him in a right way of performing his duties.

The Divine PresenceIf we are committed to Divine duty in all our choices, we should be extremely
cautious in our ways, behaviour, tactics and strategies. You will acknowledge
that this is an extremely difficult task that requires constant guidance from
God and inspiration from our Divine school of thought.

An individual holding a responsible position in a Divine society, must be
perfectly conscious of God’s guidance while performing his duties: He is
constantly in need of this Divine guidance and the Divine light through the
source of Islam, to show him the right path and to guide him in a right way of
performing his duties.

He is likely to be contacted regarding business matters
for various purposes by different people: a close friend or a neighbour may
approach him. From the point of view of ordinary prudence, his course of action
may be clear: he does a favour to a friend or a neighbour. But as an honest and
sincere Islamic administrator, he is expected to act in an equitable and
impartial manner. He should treat everyone equally. Equity and impartiality
should be his criterion. To him, friend or stranger, kin or alien, neighbours
and others, countrymen and foreigners, the people speaking the same language and
those. speaking other languages, the people sharing the same religious faith and
those having a different faith, all are equal and the same.

He should not
differentiate among them except in certain cases, and that too within the
framework of Islam. Man should always contemplate and judge his actions, not by
means of ordinary social norms, but through the Divine humanistic standards, in
order to fulfil the Divine ideal. We should always verify and judge ourselves
according to it. This is the Divine philosophy ruling over the lives of the
dedicated citizens of the Islamic Republic, who have aligned themselves with
this Revolution. Now we can see for ourselves how far we have succeeded in our
attempts and to what extent this philosophy has been actualized in our lives.
How far have our youths advanced in this direction of functioning according to
the will of God, and how far they still have to go?

A Caution

Here I have a word of caution for the young and the middle‑aged persons, who
constitute the bulk of the active generation, never to assume that you cannot
change yourselves on account of age. Accord­ing to the logic of the Quran, no
one is ever too old. One of the most sublime Islamic principles regards man as a
being who is always in the process of becoming. From the very first day of his
life to its last, a man is always in the process of development and change; a
state similar to that of an ever‑changing fluid. The Quran says in this regard:

Say, ‘O my servants! Who have been prodigal against yourselves, do not despair
of Allah’s mercy; surely Allah forgives the sins altogether, surely He is the
All‑forgiving and the All‑compassionate.’ (39:53)

Thus, it is desirous of all the middle‑aged and the elderly people to be active
and determined in the support of the cultural revolution, and resolved to
cultivate the manners and attitudes according to the Divine system. Their
behaviour and the relationship of the people with one another, everything,
should be according to the Divine spirit and con­genial to the sense of Divine
duty and God’s remembrance. And if it is felt that our condition has not
improved much, and old faults still persist here and there, we should admit that
our inner cultural revolu­tion has not progressed to the desired degree of
profundity.

Indeed, if the cultural revolution with its philosophical dimension, and its
dimensions of consciousness and world‑outlook as its basic elements, is expected
to advance, it should lead the individual and society, both, in the direction of
the Quranic and Islamic ideal. Instead of contemplating everything in the
selfish and narrow terms of personal conformity and discord, or dignity and
indignity, people should attune themselves to evaluate their life, choices and
deeds in the broader pers­pective of the Quran and Islam. They should erase such
imaginary pre­sumptions from their minds as were prevalent during the
pre‑revolution days.


Selected extract from

The Divine Cultural Revolution
by Shaheed Muhammad Husayni Beheshti

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