--- title: "Religion and Society Sermon: Faith and Community" description: "Religion and society sermon: Islam as the only divine religion, the indispensability of faith for the individual and the community, and the bond of brotherhood it forges." canonical: "https://getvaaz.com/en/blog/religion-and-society-sermon" locale: "en" published: "2026-05-15" updated: "2026-05-15" author: "VAAZ Team" source: "VAAZ — getvaaz.com" --- # Religion and Society Sermon: Faith and Community > **Quick answer:** Religion in Islam is the divine institution that guides those endowed with reason, of their own free will, to what is best, truest, and most beautiful. The Qur'an declares: 'Indeed, the religion in the sight of Allah is Islam' (Al-Imran 3:19) and that humanity was made into peoples and tribes 'that you may know one another' (Al-Hujurat 49:13). No truly godless society has ever existed; for the individual, religion is the source of inner peace, and for the community, the only solid foundation for justice and brotherhood. Religion has never separated from humanity in any era of history. From the most primitive societies to our own age, even under the heaviest pressure of atheistic regimes, the religious instinct has not been erased from the human heart. This sermon examines the definition of religion, its place in the life of the individual and the community, the unique bond of brotherhood Islam establishes, and the foundation that the belief in Allah provides for ethics — through verses of the Qur'an, prophetic traditions, and lived examples from the life of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). ## What Religion Is, and Why It Cannot Be Abandoned The most widely accepted definition among Islamic scholars is this: *religion is a divine institution that leads those endowed with reason, by their own free will, to what is best, truest, and most beautiful.* Five essentials sit within this definition: its founder is Allah; it addresses those with intellect; its rulings come from Allah; its aim is happiness in this world and the next; and it is embraced freely, never under coercion. Allah Himself declares the last point in plain command: > لَآ إِكۡرَاهَ فِي ٱلدِّينِ > There is no compulsion in religion. Surah Al-Baqarah 2:256 The Prophet (peace be upon him) makes the innate nature of religion explicit: "Every newborn child is born upon the natural disposition (*fitrah*); it is the parents who make him a Jew, a Christian, or a Magian." That regimes such as the Soviet Union, despite decades of force, could not strip the religious instinct from human hearts is history's confirmation of this hadith. The French theologian Auguste Sabatier's confession, *"I am religious because I am incapable of being otherwise,"* is the same truth glimpsed by a Western thinker. ## Religion in the Life of the Individual The human being is not merely flesh and bone; he is a distinguished creature composed of body and soul. To neglect the body's needs costs health; to neglect the soul's needs costs the very dignity of humanity. The soul longs for unlimited, eternal life — a longing that can only be answered through faith in Allah and the Hereafter. The Qur'an conveys the words of those who deny eternal life: > وَقَالُواْ مَا هِيَ إِلَّا حَيَاتُنَا ٱلدُّنۡيَا نَمُوتُ وَنَحۡيَا وَمَا يُهۡلِكُنَآ إِلَّا ٱلدَّهۡرُۚ وَمَا لَهُم بِذَٰلِكَ مِنۡ عِلۡمٍۖ إِنۡ هُمۡ إِلَّا يَظُنُّونَ > They say: 'There is nothing but our worldly life — we die and we live, and nothing destroys us except time.' But they have no knowledge of that; they are only conjecturing. Surah Al-Jathiyah 45:24 The great terror of death in the heart of the unbeliever springs from this denial: he believes that with death he will simply cease to exist. The believer, by contrast, sees death as a passage and faces eternity with confidence. Second, life is constant struggle. The one who does not believe in a power beyond his own collapses under hardship — sometimes to the point of taking his own life. The believer in an All-Powerful Lord never loses hope. The Prophet's reassurance to Abu Bakr in the cave during the *hijrah* — *"Do not grieve; indeed Allah is with us"* — is the summit of such trust. ## The Belief in Allah Is the Foundation of Ethics Religion provides a moral discipline that nothing else can replace. One who believes that Allah knows the seen and the unseen, and that every act will be answered for, is restrained from injustice, from harming the life or wealth of others, from cruelty toward people and creatures. The Turkish national poet Mehmet Akif Ersoy expressed the truth in lines that have never lost their force: > *"It is neither learning that bestows nobility upon ethics, nor conscience; / The sense of virtue in human beings is born of the fear of Allah. / Let the fear of the Divine be erased from hearts, / And neither learning nor conscience will retain the slightest power."* When the fear of Allah is gone, neither knowledge nor conscience alone can preserve human decency. The most recent witnesses to that truth are the atrocities of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. A person who believes that one day he will stand before Allah and answer for what he has done cannot commit such crimes against the innocent. Allah Himself defines the truly learned by this same fear: > إِنَّمَا يَخۡشَى ٱللَّهَ مِنۡ عِبَادِهِ ٱلۡعُلَمَٰٓؤُاْ > Among His servants, only those who have knowledge truly fear Allah. Surah Fatir 35:28 ## Religion in the Life of the Community The human being is social by nature; he lives in a community. No one can supply all his own needs alone — cooperation is a necessity. What makes communal life sound is a consciousness of rights and duties; what sustains that consciousness is religion. Allah explains the wisdom of human diversity not in terms of superiority, but in terms of *acquaintance* — and the only true measure of nobility is taqwa: > يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقۡنَٰكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ وَأُنثَىٰ وَجَعَلۡنَٰكُمۡ شُعُوبٗا وَقَبَآئِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوٓاْۚ إِنَّ أَكۡرَمَكُمۡ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ أَتۡقَىٰكُمۡ > O humanity! Indeed, We created you from a male and a female, and made you into peoples and tribes that you may know one another. The most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is the most God-conscious of you. Surah Al-Hujurat 49:13 In a community of believers, the bond between employer and worker stands on the firmest ground. The worker performs his duty fully so that his earnings remain lawful; the employer fulfils his obligations in turn. In government service, in commerce, in craft, the believer does not betray his trust, does not cheat, does not seek payment he has not earned. The drop in crime rates during Ramadan — observed even by secular authorities in Muslim societies — is an open testimony to this. Islam, beyond ethics for the individual, forges between believers a fraternity unmatched anywhere in the world: > إِنَّمَا ٱلۡمُؤۡمِنُونَ إِخۡوَةٞ > The believers are but brothers. Surah Al-Hujurat 49:10 Surah At-Tawbah makes the same point with the term *awliya'* — protector-allies of one another: > وَٱلۡمُؤۡمِنُونَ وَٱلۡمُؤۡمِنَٰتُ بَعۡضُهُمۡ أَوۡلِيَآءُ بَعۡضٖۚ يَأۡمُرُونَ بِٱلۡمَعۡرُوفِ وَيَنۡهَوۡنَ عَنِ ٱلۡمُنكَرِ > The believing men and the believing women are protectors of one another; they enjoin what is good and forbid what is evil. Surah At-Tawbah 9:71 ## Stories from the Tradition ### The Reconciliation of Aws and Khazraj In Madinah there lived two tribes — Aws and Khazraj — whose hostility had lasted generations, with blood feuds passing from father to son. No human treaty had ever produced a lasting peace. When the Prophet (peace be upon him) emigrated to Madinah, the bond of Islamic brotherhood reconciled what could not otherwise be reconciled. Allah describes their case in the Qur'an: *"Remember Allah's favour upon you when you were enemies and He united your hearts, so you became, by His grace, brothers"* (Al-Imran 3:103). Weapons were set down, and Aws and Khazraj together became known by a single name — *the Ansar*, the Helpers of the believers. ### Abu Bakr and the Secret of True Brotherhood In the discourse he delivered in his final illness, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: *"The one to whom I am most indebted in companionship and wealth is Abu Bakr. If I were to take a close friend from my Ummah in this world, it would surely be Abu Bakr. But the bond of Islam has made us brothers."* This single sentence places the bond of Islam above kinship, above chosen friendship, and even above the proximity between a Prophet and his closest Companion. ### Thabit ibn Qays and the Revelation of Al-Hujurat 13 The Companion Thabit ibn Qays, finding no seat opened for him in the Prophet's gathering, insulted the man who refused with the words "O son of such-and-such a woman." The Prophet turned to him and said: *"Look at the faces in this gathering."* Thabit looked and said: *"I see white, black, and red faces."* The Prophet replied: *"You cannot prefer them one over the other by saying, 'This is black, an Arab; this is white, a non-Arab.' You may only say that people are virtuous according to their religion and their God-consciousness."* Upon this came the verse Al-Hujurat 49:13 — the final ruling on race, colour, and lineage. ## Putting Religious Life Into Practice With VAAZ The [99 Beautiful Names of Allah collection](https://getvaaz.com/en/asma-al-husna) in the [VAAZ app](https://getvaaz.com/en) introduces the meanings of Allah's names one by one — *Al-Hadi*, *Al-Wadud*, and *As-Salam* in particular shape the foundations of communal ethics. To strengthen the daily structure of worship, the [supplication archive](https://getvaaz.com/en/dua) holds prayers themed around brotherhood and the unity of the Ummah. For a deeper look at faith's social effects, see [Sermon on Faith and Its Impact](https://getvaaz.com/en/blog/sermon-on-iman). When belief in Allah is gone, neither learning nor conscience alone is enough to raise human beings to virtue — as Mehmet Akif observed. Living the commandments of our religion preserves both the inner peace of the individual and the justice and brotherhood of the community. The Prophet's declaration at the Farewell Sermon — *"The Muslim is the brother of the Muslim"* — is as binding today as it was fourteen centuries ago. ## References 1. The Noble Qur'an, Surah Al-Baqarah 2:256. 2. The Noble Qur'an, Surah Al-Jathiyah 45:24. 3. The Noble Qur'an, Surah Fatir 35:28. 4. The Noble Qur'an, Surah Al-Hujurat 49:10 and 49:13. 5. The Noble Qur'an, Surah At-Tawbah 9:71. 6. The Noble Qur'an, Surah Al-Imran 3:103. 7. Sahih al-Bukhari, Book of Funerals, hadith no. 1358 (Every child is born upon the *fitrah*). 8. Sahih al-Bukhari, Book of the Companions of the Prophet, hadith no. 3654 (Abu Bakr's friendship). 9. M. Rahmi Balaban, *Knowledge, Ethics and Faith According to the Scholars of the Last Century*, Diyanet Publications, foreword by A. Hamdi Akseki. 10. Mehmet Akif Ersoy, *Safahat*, "On the Pulpit of Suleymaniye". ## Frequently Asked Questions --- Source: [VAAZ — getvaaz.com](https://getvaaz.com/en) · This is the agent-facing Markdown edition of the page; the canonical edition lives at the `canonical` URL above. Full index: https://getvaaz.com/llms.txt