ISLAM AND SOCIAL SERVICE

Source: http://www.aicmeu.org/Social.htm

Thanks to Islamic renaissance that has given impetus to the positive developments in the Muslim society, Islam as a complete code of life is increasingly emphasized. The present study is an attempt to find out correlation between social service and Islam the Godly Ordained Path. However, before we touch upon the Islamic concept of social service, its motives, the directives given and the measures required to be adopted, it would not be inapt to have a cursory view on the modern concept of social service.

Essentially social service is the beginning of an end to social problems which are the product of social living. A man prefers to live in groups due to socio-economic and psychological reasons. So long as mutual understanding, co-operation, love and respect among fellow beings perists, the collective living results in the formation of an ideal society. But as soon as ulterior motives, vicious designs, and cut-throat competition thwart the positive thinking and action, then the society gets engulfed with vices, ills and evils. The reign of ills and evils becomes a matter of social concern particularly to the conscious group of the society. The concern converts into action-social action. Social service or social work is thus a natural outcome of the awareness on the part of the people that a particular social situation is a threat and that the existing situation can be altered only by collective action.