One particular quality of true believers has been
pinpointed in the Qur’an. It is that when they are
with the Prophet—or in other words the person
responsible for Muslims’ affairs—“on a matter
requiring collective action, they do not depart until
they have asked for his leave ...” (Qur’an, 24:62).
Here collective action means any activity involving
a group of people working together. And the
“asking of leave” is indicative of the wider spirit in
which the work is done—a spirit of deep
commitment, like the commitment one feels to some
personal work.
A high degree of motivation is required for a person
to become so deeply involved in a task that he will
not leave it until the work in hand has been
accomplished. Such motivation is inherent in work
involving personal profit: it is in one’s own interest
to see the work through to the bitter end, and so one
does so. One is moved by a sense of personal
responsibility: if one does not accomplish the task
oneself, who will do it for one? With work
involving a group of people, on the other hand, one
tends to lay the onus on other people. If I don’t
carry on, one thinks, there are plenty of others who
will continue in my place. Seeing that there is no
personal profit to be gained from the work in hand,
one tends to see it as a burden best laid on others’
shoulders. Only when one has come to think of the
common good as one’s own good, of the profit of
society as one’s own profit, will one become fully
committed to collective work. Such commitment
requires, above all, a deep sense of social
consciousness; it requires one to be oriented
towards the needs of the community, as anyone
would normally be oriented to cater for his own
needs.
A Muslim is required to possess just such a sense of
social consciousness, moving him to throw himself
heart and soul into collective Islamic work,
whenever such work is required of him. Then,
when he has involved himself in it, he will see it
through to the final stage. When he takes leave from
the authority under whose direction he is working,
he does not do so in order to desert the cause to
which he is committed; rather, he has some valid
reason for going away, and will return as soon as
circumstances allow.
For this reason the Qur’an
says that, if possible, such requests should be
granted. But both the request, and the granting of it,
should be made in the correct spirit, with both
parties praying for the other, even as they part.
--Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
( Ref - The Moral Vision)
