Humanity in Islam: Service to Mankind is Service to God

We cannot despair of humanity, since we ourselves are human beings. -
Albert Einstein
Man is born with a heart of compassion which reacts in accordance to
the feelings of fellow humans. Compassion, love, affection and care
are the innate qualities which make a human. These qualities define
man. The development orsuppression of these qualities entirely depends
on man himself. From time to time, philosophers and religious scholars
have tried to encourage people to increase these innate qualities in
themselves. Humanity is one such aspect which has been stressed upon
in all parts of the world."Service to Mankind is service to God" is
the proverb highly prevalent all over the world. Serving and treating
fellow human beings with courtesy and kindness is an essential part of
a good moral conduct. All world religions share and support this
concept.
Humanity is what you sayto someone when you think no one's watching.
It's what you do when you are all by yourself. Humanity is what you
feel when you watch another person suffering and decide to either do
nothing or do something.Humanity is the ability to reach out and hug
someone. Humanity is being grateful for your family, your friends, and
your ability to do something in this world to your society.
Humanity is the ability to trust, the ability to connect, the ability
to touch. To be human means we can move, create, love, share and
laugh. One example to inculcate the ability to serve mankind in
humansis about the "Good Samaritan" who has helped a sick man and did
not even care to reveal his identity to the people.
Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them
humanity cannot survive. - Dalai Lama
Islamhas put much emphasis on serving humans, but providing merely
food and shelter to fellow humans cannot be considered as a service to
Allah (SWT) on the whole. It is inappropriate to think that we are
serving mankind as a whole by simply spending a huge amount in
charity.
Every human being is a problem in search of a solution. - Ashley Montagu
Service to Allah (SWT) is being obedient to Him in a way that He
expects humans to be. The first stage of this obedience isour
acceptance of Tawhid. Once we give our acceptance of the oneness of
Allah (SWT), we are expected to obey Him in a way that He has
prescribed to us. This is the stage where man fulfills all the
mandatory acts like prayers, charity, pilgrimage etc. It is the stage
where man develops the bondage between himself and Allah (SWT)
directly.
The third stage is serving the family and relations: fulfilling the
rights of his dependents and of people closely related to him. Here
again, man attains further closeness to Allah (SWT) through his
family, by pleasing them.
No matter what you've done for yourself or for humanity, if you can't
look back on having given love and attention to your own family,
whathave you really accomplished? - Lee Iacocca
Then comes the fourth stage, which is about service to human beings.
Man attains closeness to Allah (SWT) by serving hisfellow beings.
But the main question is, in what way should the fellow beings be
served, so that the service could be termed as service to Allah (SWT)
as a whole? Ayatullah Murtada Mutahhari in his book, The Perfect Man,
says:"Serving people is fine and we should serve them. But if we
provide them with food and clothes alone, we would be treating them
like animals, especially if we suppose no higher valuesexist for them.
If service is confined to this, what would be the difference between
Abu Dhar and Mu'awiya?" Definitely, mere provision of food and shelter
does not fulfill the purpose. There has to be an additional form of
service. Every Muslim is expected to render his duties towardsthe
society in which he lives. The actual service to human beings lies in
treating them as humans first. We need to help ourfellow human beings
in nurturing and growing their innate qualities which define them as
humans. Man is different from all the creatures of both the worlds and
so are his duties and responsibilities towards his Creator. Surely,
service to this special creature has to be by helping him understand
and render his responsibilities towards his Creator.
Man is born with the innate ability of learning and understanding. He
is capable of multiplying his knowledge through understanding and
analyzing what he has learnt. Man is not pre-programmed to obeyand
pray to Allah (SWT). He does so by his own free will. This makes him
different from the rest of creatures, and therefore heaven and hell
are made to reward and punish him accordingly. The method of serving
man is by grooming and molding him in accordance to the tenets of
Islam. This helps man to distinguish himself and highlight his
superiority towards other creatures. Education and awarenessare the
two methods thatcan be implemented to help man understand himself.
We find in Islamic history the best examples of loveand compassion for
fellow human beings. Sometimes we find the Prophet of Islam (peace be
upon him and his progeny) serving the needy and weak; sometimes we see
Imam Ali (peace be upon him) sitting with the sick and the poor,
attending to their needs affectionately; and sometimes we see other
members from our holy Ahlul Bayt (peace be upon them)giving the same
service to needy ones. Islam has laid great stress on helping the poor
and needy ones. Butwe know that man's needs are not confined to just
material aspects oflife; rather, he seeks to fulfill higher needs as
well, like guidance and seeking knowledge. Hence we find that along
with material needs, the Holy Prophet and Ahlul Bayt have quenched
humanity's spiritual thirstas well. Man is a creature who always longs
for company, love and compassion.
If Islam had given the world nothing but this one simple clarion
message, "Read!" (Noble Qur'an, 96:1) - and that too at the dawn of
the Seventh Century - the entire world would still be in its debt
forever. Butthe tragedy is that Non-Muslims don't know and Muslims
won't tell."