THE VOICE wYAQUB ISLAM & KHALEELAH ZIYAD

Divine Community

Allah must be the Guide, the Rule, and the Governor in all of our lives from dust to industry. He must be over flesh, over sentiments, over morality, over knowledge and over conscience that is related to the moral nature of the human society. When we speak of conscience we are speaking of moral disposition or moral attitudes. The result of this will be a peaceful, secured life always offering more room for progress. It will be the development of a community or "umma," An "umma" is not a nation in a political sense, but it is a community that strives and acts to preserve the natural order of the individual and the natural order of society. In that sense it will be a community of people united solidly on the sound, unshakeable principles of Islam. It will have a leadership that it promotes and protects. The leadership will also have relationships with every member in the community, the relationship of brothers and sisters to each other and the relationship of helpers and servants in the community.

Brother and Sister Muslims, by "umma" (which is translated by translators of the Holy Quran to mean "nation"! we mean more than a political nation or a physical nation. We mean  divine community, a community following the guidance of God. That kind of community is a nation on a higher plane, a nation in much broader sense. It is not only our duty to execute judgment on our subjects, to give direction and to regulate the life and the activities of the members of oar community — it is also our duty as members of an umma (a community following God's guidance) to share what we have to bring about relief in the community to those who cannot find relief by themselves. In fact, the mind in Islam is never a mind that should think of itself or of its members (brothers and sisters) as being individualists or isolated islands to themselves responsible only for themselves