The point is that you have yourself explained. Already you have given the answer to yourself. You have mentioned that the Holy Quran tells us, or you didn’t say the Holy Quran, you said Islam tells us, that you should not adopt a way of life which should interfere with the fundamental responsibilities which are thrown on your shoulders, that is, saying prayers, you know, performing worships and other things which belong to the, which are considered as fundamental human responsibilities from the Islamic point of view.
So you should not adopt a way of life in any way to interfere with the fundamental responsibilities. And you have also mentioned that Hazrat Masih Maudula s.a.w. has also said the same thing. Now you ask the question, despite all this, should we adopt a way of life which should interfere with the fundamentals? What is the answer? No. As simple as that. You have yourself presented a case against your question so strongly that the answer is simply no. Now perhaps the question you wanted to ask was a different question. Perhaps you wanted to ask that in the present-day life, in the new style of life in this age, it is impossible to perform the fundamentals as required by the Holy Quran and Islam from us.
And in that clash, what we should do? The answer again would be, if there is such a clash, which I do not agree there is, you should adopt the orders of Allah, follow the orders of Allah and not the man-made rules and regulations or practices. So answer again is a simple. But to say that we cannot perform the fundamental responsibilities which Islam wants us to perform, that is wrong. In the modern life, more facilities are given to human beings and when more facilities are given to you, all your tasks are facilitated. Worship is made easier now than previously. In the previous days, in extreme cold conditions, where hot and cold water was not available, where there was no air conditioning, it was very hard to perform early morning worship, say for instance, and also sometimes you have to take bath in the early morning.
And all these things were very difficult and hardy for the people. So the modern amenities have helped you rather than stood in your way. You can apply this to every situation. So as far as the modern amenities and comforts which the science has provided us are concerned, there is no clash between religious responsibilities and obligations on one the one hand and these amenities on the other. There is one little thing perhaps which people generally confused and that is not the modern comforts and amenities, that is modern luxuries.
Luxuries without which you can lead an ordinary comfortable life all right, but they’re just extras and super extras and super extras. Tel Aviv for instance is one of the luxuries, but it is a luxury with a very broad spectrum. Part of the Tel Avivian lies in a low spectrum where it is an aid to your life, an aid to your responsibilities. It gives you fresh news, it brings you some very important interesting articles on scientific subjects and so on and so forth and serious discussions and all that and also occasional fiction as well which sometimes you require for relaxation. So to that extent it’s all right and also for instance nowadays cricket is being played, a cricket matches can also be televised and like Wimbledon was televised.
So these things are only to help you and they do not clash with your responsibilities. But then somebody, some people get like alcoholics, they become Tel Avivianics. Day and night Tel Avivian obsesses them and so much so that even in the ordinary responsibilities, day-to-day responsibilities of the families, they are negligent. They don’t pay their attention to their children, to their wives, to their home tasks and so on and so forth. So if they have gone under the influence of Tel Avivian to that respect, similarly they would also neglect their duties towards worship if they ever do worship Allah.
So that is interference of the modern facilities directly with your responsibilities. That is not permissible neither in religion nor in worldly affairs. I mean it should, it is not permissible anywhere. So if anybody is weak enough to go under these things, that is to be rectified. But that is not a must. I mean this is not a must that because of Tel Avivian your prayers must suffer. This is totally wrong. I go to the extent, in fact this I have, this is what I have been telling people in Rabbani as well even before, that this is a trial for us to judge us whether we are idolaters or whether we truly believe in one God and hold him supreme over all others.
Normally a Tel Avivian program, it may not be a filthy program, just a healthy program, can be watched without any scruples. It’s all right, you watch Tel Avivian and enjoy, but when the prayer time comes, when boys hear for instance Azaan and they know that they must go to the mosque for saying congregation prayer, but they are so deeply absorbed in a Tel Avivian program that they can’t leave. It is there that they begin to become idolaters of a sort. There are two types of idolatries, one is called Shirk-e-Jali and the other is called Shirk-e-Khafi. Shirk-e-Jali means that you apparently make a statue and start worshipping him or start worshipping a tree or a snake or any other animal or any other human being, demigods and things.
This is called Shirk-e-Jali and Shirk-e-Khafi which is much more difficult to guard against, much more difficult to pinpoint is the Shirk where Allah’s obligations stand in contradiction with other human obligations or interests and you reject Allah’s obligations and follow the other obligations. Particularly at such occasions when time for prayer is almost finishing and you can’t leave a Tel Aviv program or any other point of interest or say you’re in company with friends and you’re gossiping things and you like that so much that it’s impossible for you to dissociate yourself from that and say the prayer on time.
So these things then become a sort of Shirk which is called Shirk-e-Khafi, that is hidden idolatry. So we should abstain from these things but in the modern life I don’t find any situation where they should really interfere with the performance of your prayers etc.
