THE Quran repeatedly says that on the right side of history are those who attain faith and do constructive deeds. Hence, one can see that there is an umbilical connection between faith and action as both are integral and indispensable to each other. Being symbiotically related and organically conjoined, both live and die together. So, faith divorced from action is not faith at all, as per the Quran (6:158).

Actions are transitory in nature yet their effects assume permanence as action, rather than inner states or dispositions, affects the human self, tenaciously clinging to the rational soul. Upon death, a person’s wealth and possessions go to his inheritors while his deeds are ‘inherited’ or passed on to God (19:80). So men are not what they think or know but what they do.

The early Islamic community was well aware of the inseparability of faith and action. They knew their duty lay in believing and in carrying out what they believed with sincerity of purpose. This sense of responsibility raised their behaviour from mechanical obedience to the law to a realm of moral activism, which turned their character into an epitome of transparency and excellence, where........

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