Moderate in Everything

Eat and drink, but do not be extravagant. (7:31)
The Prophet said:
"A Muslim who lives in the midst of society and bears with patience the afflictions that come to him is better than the one who shuns society and cannot bear any wrong done to him."10

And:
"Keep fast and break it (at the proper time) and stand in prayer and devotion (in the night) and have sleep—for your body has its rights over you, and your eyes rights over you, and your wife has a claim upon you,and the person who pays a visit to you has a claim upon you."11
On another occasion he said:
"These three things are also enjoined upon the faithful: (a) to help others,even when one is economically hard-pressed, (b) to pray ardently for the peace of all mankind, and (c) to administer justice to one's own self."
Thus Islam does not admit any separation between "material" and "moral," "mundane" and "spiritual" life, and enjoins man to devote all of hisenergies to the reconstruction of life on healthy moral foundations. It teaches him that moral and material powers must be welded together and that spiritual salvation can be achieved by using material resources for the good of man in the service of just ends and not by living a life of asceticism or by running away from the challenges of life.
The world has suffered at the hands of the one-sidedness of many otherreligions and ideologies. Some have laid emphasis on the spiritual side of life but have ignored its material and mundane aspects. They have looked upon the world as an illusion, a deception, and a trap. On the other hand, materialistic ideologies have totally ignored the spiritual and moral side of life and have dismissed it as fictitious and imaginary. Both of these attitudes have resulted in disaster, for they have robbed mankind of peace, 10 This is reported by Ibn Majah, Tirmidhi, and al-Bukhari in Adab al Muirad Saheeh. See Silsilat al-Ahadeeth al-Saheehah, Al-Albani no. 939.
11 Reported by Bukhari and Muslim. See Riyod as-Saliheer', no. 150
(1:102). contentment, and tranquillity. Even today, the imbalance is manifested in one or the other direction. The French scientist Dr. De Brogbi rightly says: "The danger inherent in too intense a material civilization is to that civilization itself; it is the disequilibrium which would result if a parallel development, of the spiritual life were to fail to provide the needed
balance."
Christianity erred on one extreme, whereas modern western civilization, in both of its variants of secular capitalistic democracy and Marxist socialism, has erred on the other. According to Lord Snell:
"We have built a nobly-proportioned outer structure, but we have neglected the essential requirement of an inner order; we have carefully designed, decorated and made clean the outside of the cup; but the inside was full of extortion and excess; we used our increased knowledge and power to administer to the comforts of the body, but we left the spirit
impoverished .

Islam seeks to establish an equilibrium between these two aspects of life— the material and the spiritual. It says that everything in the world is forman, but man was created to serve a higher purpose: the establishment of a moral and just order that will fulfill the will of God. Its teachings cater to the spiritual as well as the temporal needs of man. Islam enjoins man to
purify his soul and to reform his daily life—both individual and collective—and to establish the supremacy of right over might and of virtue over vice. Thus Islam stands for the middle path and the goal of producing a moral man in the service of a just society.
A Complete Way of Life. Islam is not a religion in the common and distorted sense, for it does not confine its scope to one's private life. It is a complete way of life and is present in every field of human existence.

Islam provides guidance for all aspects of life—individual and social, material and moral, economic and political, legal and cultural, and national and international. The Qur'an enjoins man to embrace Islam without any reservation and to follow God's guidance in all areas of life.

In fact, it was an unfortunate day when the scope of religion was confined to the private life of man and its social and cultural role was reduced to naught, as has happened in this century. No other factor, perhaps, has been more important in causing the decline of religion in the modern age than its retreat into the realm of private life.