Freedom of choice necessitates polarity. The Promised Messiah refers to it as Qabz and Bast. Periods of contraction and expansion. High and low. The Chinese call it yin and yang. Some never rebound from the periods of low. They remain stuck in spiritual winter. The antidote to the pitfalls of polarity is repentance on our part and mercy on Allah’s part. The guiding principle is that all divine actions are rooted in Allah’s love and mercy. In this life when a human reaches the stage of dynamic spiritual sobriety and stability, he or she increasingly strives to excel in doing good deeds. Worshipping and remembering Allah becomes the axis of life.
Polarity is the divine design for human growth and evolution. This is the law that Allah has made. There is day and there is night. There is ease after hardship. Usran yusran. (Al-Inshirah 94:6) In life, we find that in our interactions we feed off each other. Fastabiqul Khairat (Al-Baqarah 2:149). Diversity of opinion and even friction is good. It facilitates competition and progress. Without friction or polarity there would be no real growth. If you win all the time you do not grow.
Allah, always and forever the Creator of all that is, has placed polarities in this world for our growth. All good flows from Allah. In Allah’s realm there is no polarity. Pure unipolar goodness. So why are we earthlings fighting a barrage of polarities. Pain and pleasure. Sin and virtue. Darkness and light. The answer lies in Allah’s design of this physical world as a testing ground. Here freedom of choice operates. We are invited to make choices that resonate with His divine intention. No more evil. No more darkness. No more pain. No more war. Allah facilitates this constantly. His mercy is infinite and leads a sinner to repentance and eternal life.
Surah ash Shams unveils the inner secret of this polarity. Wa nafsin wa ma sawwaha. By the soul and that which fashioned it. Fa allamaha fujooraha wa taqwaha (Ash-Shams 91:9). And He taught it what is its wrong and its right. This verse highlights the truth of the polarity of man’s inner self, the Nafs, between Fujur and Taqwa. Fujur is the realm of base desires. It tempts man to sin. It creates disorder and inequity. Taqwa is the watchdog against his base desires. It is the restraining impulse that guards the soul. Qad aflaha man zakkaha. He indeed succeeds who purifies it. Wa qad khaba man dassaha. And he fails who corrupts it (Ash-Shams 91:8–11). Other verses expand this inner map. Nafs al Ammarah, the self that commands evil (Yusuf 12:54). Nafs al Lawwama, the self reproaching soul (Al-Qiyamah 75:3). Nafs al Mutmainnah, the soul at peace, where regression is no longer possible after spiritual attainment (Al-Fajr 89:28). The journey of the Nafs through these stages is the story of polarity and ascent.
Man stands apart in the tapestry of creation as the only being endowed with true freedom of choice. Angels obey invariably. Animals act by instinct. Humans dissect options. They compare good with evil. Light with darkness. Truth with falsehood. This inner faculty is the battlefield of morality and the cradle of spiritual growth. The Qur’an reminds us. O ye who believe. Take care of your own selves. He who goes astray cannot harm you when you yourselves are rightly guided (Al-Ma’idah 5:106). Responsibility for the Nafs rests with each person. Friction, diversity of opinion and competition are not accidents. They are purposeful instruments. Fastabiqul Khairat (2:149). So race one another in good works. Without challenge, virtue would have no meaning. Without resistance, spiritual muscles would not form.
Allah’s intent in creating a world of polarities is inseparable from freedom of choice. He could have abolished choice. He could have enforced guidance. But He did not. The Qur’an affirms this again and again. Wa ‘ala Allahi qasdus sabeel wa minha ja’ir. And upon Allah rests the showing of the right way, and there are ways that deviate from the right course. Wa lau shaa la hadakum ajma‘een (An-Nahl 16:10). If He had enforced His will, He would have guided you all. Say. Allah’s is the argument that reaches home. Lau shaa la hadakum ajma‘een (Al-An`am 6:150). If He had enforced His will, He could surely have guided you all. And if thy Lord had enforced His will, surely all who are on the earth would have believed together. Wilt thou then force men to become believers (Yunus 10:100). And if thy Lord had enforced His will, He would have surely made mankind one people. But they will not cease to differ (Hud 11:119). These verses sketch the contours of the divine policy. Guidance is shown. Compulsion is withheld. Choice is preserved.
The Qur’an also reminds us of the historical dimension of this polarity. Mankind were one community. Then they differed among themselves. So Allah raised Prophets as bearers of good tidings and as warners. And He sent down with them the Book containing the truth. That He might judge between the people wherein they differed (Al-Baqarah 2:214). Before the advent of a Prophet all people are like one in the sense that they are all unbelievers. When a Prophet appears they, despite their mutual differences, unite in opposition. This too is polarity. The clash between faith and denial. The text points out that the expression “mankind were one community” appears at several places. Sometimes it hints at national unity. At other times at unity of ideas. Each advent of revelation creates a new polarity. Believers and rejectors. Submission and resistance. It is through this tension that truth shines and souls are sifted.
Without revelation man cannot truly see sin. He explains it away as merely psychological or social. He blames circumstance. He evades accountability. But sin is a conscious abuse of freedom granted by Allah. Prophets come to correct this vision. The Promised Messiah(as), for us is a living manifestation of this mercy. He calls us back from Fujur to Taqwa. From spiritual intoxication to spiritual sobriety. From chaos to dynamic stability. By their coming, the polarity is clarified. The path of darkness and the path of light are both laid out. The choice is ours.
Faith in this framework is not merely a metaphysical claim. It is a profound transaction. A covenant in which man surrenders his freedom of choice to Allah’s will in exchange for guidance, forgiveness and eternal life. Surah At Taubah proclaims. Allah has purchased of the believers their persons and their belongings in return for the promise that they shall have Paradise (At-Taubah 9:111). Allah already owns all that we possess. What we truly surrender is the autonomy of will. We offer our freedom of choice back to its Giver. We choose His pleasure over our impulses. In this bargain the believer becomes a trustee, not an owner. Every act of obedience becomes a signature on this covenant. Every sacrifice affirms this contract. The reward is the Gardens of enduring joy.
Polarity itself leads to dynamic stability. It compels us to adjust constantly to the changing outer and inner conditions while holding fast to the axis of guidance. Spiritual sobriety and stability is the quality of being staid, solemn and steadfast. Istiqamat is dynamic stability. It is not rigidness. It is poised movement. A tree firmly rooted yet swaying with the wind. Our efforts to achieve dynamic stability in all our endeavors are directly related to how we do justice to Salat. The purpose of Salat is to achieve nearness to Allah. To purify oneself. To attract God’s grace and mercy. The key is a Salat centric mindset. The conscious offering of mindful Salat. When Salat becomes the center of the day, polarity becomes the curriculum. Each hardship drives us to prayer. Each ease humbles us in gratitude.
In this rhythm Salat leads to dynamic stability and istiqamat and contentment of the heart. Polarity no longer overwhelms. It educates. It no longer throws us into despair. It invites us to seek Allah more deeply. Qabz and Bast become signs, not threats. Contraction becomes a call to repentance. Expansion becomes a call to gratitude. Thus polarity creates balance. It invokes gratitude. It leads man to seek God. It causes movement and striving and promotes greater awareness. For those who accept the call, the coming of prophets and, for us, the Promised Messiah, peace be upon him, is a manifestation of this mercy and this unipolarity of God. Through them we glimpse a world where only one pole remains. The pole of divine love and light.
Ultimately all the world’s polarities exist to test and refine human character. In Allah’s presence there is unipolarity. No opposition to goodness, mercy or light. As earthlings we are offered a journey. Through day and night. Ease and hardship. Sin and repentance. Fear and hope. Through each choice we move closer to that unity from which all creation sprang. Our capacity for choice is both gift and test. Every act of surrender brings us nearer to the source. Every mindful Salat strengthens dynamic stability. Every moment of Taqwa pushes back against Fujur.
In this way the human soul, navigating polarity with freedom and faith, becomes a polished mirror. Reflecting on earth a fragment of that eternal, unipolar mercy of Allah.