ABSTRACT
Religious faith consists of three essential dimensions: commitment, praxis and philosophy. These three dimensions, however, are not separate or independent operations of faith. Rather, they are aspects of one reality, and no one can exist without the others. When commitment is a mere formal and tepid identity, or when it is compromised, then it is shirk, or association of other beings or things in the worship of God. When it is blind, uncompromising and exclusivistic, then it is nifaq, or hypocrisy. Thus only when commitment is a sincere acceptance of faith in God as the one Eternal Sovereign Lord, Merciful Creator and Sustainer of His creation, can it be the basis of meaningful praxis and sound philosophy. Praxis would then be a true manifestation of the commitment of faith in worship and 'good works'. A philosophy of faith is a process of understanding and interiorization of commitment and worship which begins with birth and ends when the reality of faith is seen 'not through a glass darkly', but face to face, when the people of faith shall, with 'radiant faces, gaze upon their Lord'. 1 It is with these essential dimensions of Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi's faith that we shall be concerned in this and the following chapters.
