Re: Your religious state of mind
Islamset - Community Participation: Solidarity, Cooperation, Self-Sufficiency, Perfection or Ihsan and Basic Development needs
Islamic article on community participation …
**The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said that Allah Ta’ala commanded Jibreel to destroy a city because of the evildoers therein. Jibreel said, “O Allah, there is a person in the city who has never disobeyed you.” Allah said, “Destroy him as well, because he was not offended by their evildoing”. These Hadeeth are mentioned in Muslim, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah and Bahaiqi
**Further elaboration on this hadith suggests that whilst living amongst them he did not guide them or participate in society in order to show them a better example to live by … He could have been a light for the evildoers of his own city …
Piety does not mean being religious - Because being religious is a selfish endeavour, it is about moving away from harm … However piety is about being charitable and about being wise putting oneself to harm in order to move others away from harm.
So the point being made by Contrarian is true to the extent that a scientist will help society whereas a religious hermit will only be helping himself … However that is not to say he is better or worse until we utilise another factor of consideration …
Is his moving away from society stemming from a position of least harm to society or not? Is his intent truly selfish or is it out of love?
Secondly not all “facilitators for ease” are doing things philanthropically for society they have vested selfish interests and yet some may investigate science for discovery - to serve their personal curiosities, but others will do it to serve humans and not divulge all knowledge they stumble across in case it may bring harm to society - such as laziness or materialism …
So as long as a person engages in society in order to bring society towards its realisation to worship and discover God then this person is higher than all other possibilities …
However this fundamentally differs from the initial question … Yes, we should strive hard for dunya, but at the same time we must strive that it enters our hands and not our hearts … and hence if we manage to get dunya then we must give it away to where it is needed as much as possible.
The awliya who live today can handle thousands of dollars in a day but themselves own nothing, because they give it away as soon as they get it …