PRACTISING OR LIVING IN AL-ISLAM

[Idris]

If we take Al-Islam as a house, those who practice Al-Islam come to the house to pick something to apply in their life while those who live in Al-Islam live in the house.

Those who practice Al-Islam quote the sources in Al-Islam a lot while those who live in Al-Islam express Al-Islam in their practical life.

Those who live in Al-Islam are divided into ranks while those who practice Al-Islam are divided into sects.

A practicing Muslim carries Al-Islam as luggage or companion in journey and applies it anywhere he finds himself in life while a living Muslim is carried about by Al-Islam.

How does one stay outside Al-Islam and be deliberating or analyzing the teachings of al-Islam instead of entering into it to realize the practical reality of it?

To those practicing Al-Islam, it is 'What' that matters while for those living Al-Islam it is 'Why'.

While those practicing al-Islam take heavenly reward as the purpose of all their Islamic activities, a living Muslim seeks the reason for every activity. How would Allah command a person to do what he can not understand the meaning (wisdom) yet it is the nature of the heart to seek for it?

Those practicing Al-Islam are mostly traditionalists as they are cut away from the meanings and reality of life while those living in al-Islam are alive.

Practicing Al-Islam is 'shirk' and Ibrahim (عليه السلام) was not a Mushrik.

The best that practice of Al-Islam can offer is Ritual while living in Al-Islam is awareness.

A Muslim lives in al-Islam (not outside).

A Muslim adopts all Islam (not part). A person may be a sinner (like a nationalist that sins against the nation) but he or she remains actively a Muslim.

Muslims are rated in rank according to the level of at-Taqwa and not the percentage of adoption of al-Islam.

A person either adopts full al-Islam or he is a Mushrik.

Ayatullah Khamanai says:
?As regards religious thought, it is an urgent necessity to propound Islam as an ideology which benefits both integrative and consistent principles and sees to men?s social life as well.

?Before this, Islamic studies were mostly devoid of these two important characteristics. Hence, in comparing Islam with other schools of thought and ideologies of our time, these studies couldn?t lead the researchers to a fruitful conclusion and a crucial judgment. It means they have neither been able to show the integrity and uniformity of Islam as a whole; nor been able to define its relation to other schools of thought.

Furthermore, these studies have not considered the practical aspects of life and especially social influences. They have mainly been abstract rather than concrete. Hence, the result has been nothing more than an abstract knowledge. Regarding men?s social life, the structure of society, responsibility and duty, these studies have not offered any clear and special proposition.?
The General Pattern of Islamic Thought in the Qur'an ? The preface ? PP. 13-14