Open AccessThree Relationship (Continued)
Author(s) -
Eric Winkel
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
islam and civilisational renewal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2041-8728
pISSN - 2041-871X
DOI - 10.52282/icr.v2i2.658
Subject(s) - covenant , contrast (vision) , rest (music) , sociology , feature (linguistics) , history , law , theology , linguistics , political science , philosophy , medicine , artificial intelligence , computer science , cardiology
We continue from this feature in the previous issue of ICR, which posited three relationships, human beings to human beings, human beings to the rest of the creation, and finally to the Creator. The first relationship is one of contract, the second of taskhir (to be defined below), and the third of covenant.
For the second relationship, the description is no longer ‘contract’ but taskhir. The term ‘subjugation’ in English is more accurately the antonym of taskhir. This shows us how far we have strayed. We think we own a house, but the house owns us. We forget that the word ‘mortgage’ means ‘gripped until death’. The American author and leading transcendentalist of his time, Henry David Thoreau (d. 1862), saw a contrast between those who had been subjugated to their possessions and those who were unencumbered.