These Salah, fasting, Zakat and Hajj are in reality meant for this very preparation and training.
Just as the countries of the world first impart special training to their men for the army, police and civil service and then take work from them, in the same way the Deen of Allah (Islam) also first gives training in this manner to all those men who get themselves recruited in it for service.
Then it wants to take work from them for Jihad and Divine government. The difference, however, is that for the work the governments of the world take from their men no qualities of moral excellence, piety and fear of God are required.
Therefore, they just try to use these men as routine workers though they may be adulterers, drunkards, dishonest and wicked to any extent. But since the work to be taken from its men by Allah's Deen is wholly and solely of a moral character, it considers it much more important than the routine work to make its men God-fearing and virtuous.
In fact, it aims at developing so much strength in them that when they rise with the claim of establishing the caliphate of God on earth, they must prove true to their claim. If they fight, the aim should not be to acquire for themselves wealth, property and land but it must be proved by their deeds that their fight is purely for Allah's pleasure and for the benefit and well-being of His creation. If they are victorious they must not become proud and headstrong. On the other hand, their heads should be bowed before God.
If they become rulers, they should not enslave the people. In fact, by becoming themselves God's slaves they should not allow others to be slaves of anyone except God. If they take possession of earth's treasures, they should not fill their own pockets or the pockets of their kinsmen or community people but should judiciously distribute the God-given bounties among all His slaves, and, like a truthful trustee, should work with the consciousness that an eye is watching them in all situations and that there is someone above to whom they have to render account of every single pie.
There is no other method possible at all for this training except these 'Ibadaat. And when Islam prepares its men in this manner, then it tells them :
" Ye are the best community that has been raised up for the guidance and reformation of mankind. Ye enjoin righteousness and forbid evil; and ye believe in Allah." (Al-Qur'an 3:110)
Just as the countries of the world first impart special training to their men for the army, police and civil service and then take work from them, in the same way the Deen of Allah (Islam) also first gives training in this manner to all those men who get themselves recruited in it for service.
Then it wants to take work from them for Jihad and Divine government. The difference, however, is that for the work the governments of the world take from their men no qualities of moral excellence, piety and fear of God are required.
Therefore, they just try to use these men as routine workers though they may be adulterers, drunkards, dishonest and wicked to any extent. But since the work to be taken from its men by Allah's Deen is wholly and solely of a moral character, it considers it much more important than the routine work to make its men God-fearing and virtuous.
In fact, it aims at developing so much strength in them that when they rise with the claim of establishing the caliphate of God on earth, they must prove true to their claim. If they fight, the aim should not be to acquire for themselves wealth, property and land but it must be proved by their deeds that their fight is purely for Allah's pleasure and for the benefit and well-being of His creation. If they are victorious they must not become proud and headstrong. On the other hand, their heads should be bowed before God.
If they become rulers, they should not enslave the people. In fact, by becoming themselves God's slaves they should not allow others to be slaves of anyone except God. If they take possession of earth's treasures, they should not fill their own pockets or the pockets of their kinsmen or community people but should judiciously distribute the God-given bounties among all His slaves, and, like a truthful trustee, should work with the consciousness that an eye is watching them in all situations and that there is someone above to whom they have to render account of every single pie.
There is no other method possible at all for this training except these 'Ibadaat. And when Islam prepares its men in this manner, then it tells them :
" Ye are the best community that has been raised up for the guidance and reformation of mankind. Ye enjoin righteousness and forbid evil; and ye believe in Allah." (Al-Qur'an 3:110)
