Islam_in_Focus_text

Ummah, s o that you may be witnesses
over other people and the Messenger a wit-
ness over you."
Such a role of witnessing is both highly significant and
extreme!y demanding. It means that the Community of Islam
must be exemplary. It must set the highest standards of per-
formance and be the reference point for others. It must avoid
excesses and extrav agances, static rigidity and instant evapo-
ration. To strike a middle course of aetion, to be steadfast
and consistent to know what to accept and what to reject, to
have prineiples and at the same time remain adaptable is
probably the hardest test of the human charaeter and social
viability. But this i s the role of the Islamic Community and
the historic mission of Muslims. And it is this very eriterion
that qualifies the Muslim as the best human Community ever
to evolve.
The identity of the Islamic Community centers upon the
prineiples of consistent balance, exemplary conduet, unity of
purpose, reciprocity of feelings, solidarity, and equity. Nu-
merous are the statements of the Qur'an and Sunna to this ef~
fect (for example 4: 135, 21 :92, 23:52).
With regard to the continuity of the Islamic Community,
certain points are noteworthy. It is the duty of Muslims to do
everything within their means to insure that continuity. The
rules of maiTiage and inheritance, the duties of Zakah and
Hajj, the mutual rights and obligations of kin, the individual
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