Introduction to Islam
(Submission to God)
"The only religion approved by God is Islam
(Submission)" 3:19
On first impression, many who read the above
statement will immediately say: hold on, what
about Judaism and Christianity? After all, these
religions were also authorised by God!
However, if we discard all labels (Judaism,
Christianity .... etc) and only look into:
- The meaning of the word Islam, which means
Submission to God
- Remind ourselves that all the prophets of God
submitted to God Almighty and called their
people to submit to the One and only God
then we can understand why the only true
religion as far as God is concerned is
Submission to God. The Arabic word for
Submission to God is Islam.
In this light, Islam is not the religion of the
Quran alone, nor is the religion brought by
the prophet Muhammad. It is written in the
Quran that Islam (Submission to God), is as old
as Abraham (22:78), and that all the practices
of Islam were first given to Abraham and his
sons long before Muhammad was born.
"He decreed for you the same religion decreed
for Noah, and what we inspired to you, and
what we decreed for Abraham, Moses, and Jesus:
"You shall uphold this one religion,and do not
divide it." 42:13
This Quranic verse, alongside numerous other
verses, confirm the truth that as far as God is
concerned there has always been one religion.
The one religion was decreed to Noah,
Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad.
All the Scripture revealed to mankind from
God advocate one and the same religion.
Submission to God alone is also described as
Monotheism (Hanifeyah) …. see 3:67, 6:79,
10:105, 98:5.
The principal command from God in all
Scripture is to worship God alone devoting all
the religion to Him and rejecting all other
gods/idols:
Old Testament:
"You shall have no other gods besides
Me" (Exodus 20:3)
New Testament:
"You shall worship the Lord your God. and Him
only you shall serve" (Luke 4:8)
The Quran:
"You shall know that: "There is no other god
beside God" 47:19
Submission to God is the religion whereby we
recognize God's absolute authority, and reach
an unshakeable conviction that God
alone possesses all power; no other entity
possesses any power that is independent of Him.
The natural result of such a realization is to
devote our lives and our worship absolutely
to God alone. As shown this is the message of
all Scripture.
The above Quranic verse (42:13) confirms that
the religion that was revealed to Muhammad
through the Quran is not different from what
was given to the previous prophets.
Within the religion of Islam God decreed
specific rituals and practices designed to teach
man to worship his Lord. These acts (Prayer,
pilgrimage .... etc.) were first taught to
Abraham.
This truth is given light in numerous verses
such as:
"We made them (Abraham and his sons) imams
who guided in accordance with our
commandments, and we taught them how to
work righteousness, and how to observe the
Contact Prayers (Salat) and the obligatory
charity (Zakat)" 21:73
From the above, we can see that it is a mistaken
belief among Muslims (and non Muslims alike)
that Islam is basically the religion of the
Quran and the religion of Muhammad.
Millions of Muslims today believe that it was
Muhammad who taught them how to pray and
conduct their other rituals. This belief is
erroneous since it violates the truth of the
Quran. In the Quran we read:
1- The practices of Islam were first given to
Abraham and his sons (Prayer, pilgrimage,
Zakat ... etc see 21:73, 22:26-29). This took place
long before the time of Muhammad.
2- Across the ages, as normally happens, many
of these rituals were corrupted and the
element of idolising human messengers and
saints crept in. All the practices were thus
restored to their pristine purity in the Quran.
God also promised that the Quran will never be
corrupted (15:9), thus all believers will always
have access to the pure way of worshipping
God.
3- Muhammad and all believers were
commanded to follow the creed of Abraham,
which is defined in all verses which have the
words "Millat Ibrahim" (creed of Abraham), as
Monotheism and refrain from associating
partners with God (16:123). See Millat Ibrahim.
4- God also tells Muhammad (and all believers)
in verse 5:48 that within each revelation there
are specific laws and rites that are specific to
the receivers of this particular revelation.
Hence the command is issued in 5:48 that
Muhammad should follow the rites given to
him in the Quran and not the rites of previous
people.
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Essentially, if there is only one religion decreed
by God there must be One "truth". Do we
conclude that there should be one revelation?
The answer to this question is that "truth" and
"revelation" are not absolutely equivalent
terms. Because "truth" is an absolute term it is
situated independent of form, whereas
revelations are relative to time, people and
place, and thus require a form. But to speak of
form is to speak of diversity and thus plurality.
The need for different revelations at different
times and for different people is justified by the
following factors:
1- Mankind has gone through enormous
development through the ages physically,
mentally and spiritually, that there was
always the need for various revelations at
different times and for different peoples.
Although the various revelations are united in
message and truth, yet we find that God never
addresses identical revelations to two
different people. This being so, it can be said
that the diverse revelation do not, and should
not contradict one another, for although
they differ in form, the religion decreed in all
of them (Monotheism) is one.
2- If there appears any apparent contradictions
between different revelations, they are in
human receptacles and not in the divine
message. This is a result of human inability to
interpret such revelations and more
importantly the failure to preserve the 'truth'
contained in the revelation, which always
tends to be impaired and altered with the
passing of time.
Ultimately, the apparent contradiction is no
more than one between corrupt scripts and
interpretations of the original revelations,
and not between the revelations themselves.
Inevitably, and through corruption in the
transfer and application of a Scripture,
together with the social and cultural factors
that always widen the gap between the
factions, we are left with a multitude of
corrupt religions. These sub-religions in many
ways hardly bare any resemblance to one
another, or to the original religion decreed by
God.
For that, there becomes a necessity for mankind
to receive another revelation that puts them
back on track with God's law that has been
badly corrupted.
3- We find that up until the advent of the
industrial revolution and the fast travel era,
the world was still a wide expanse of disjointed
lands and peoples. Many people would have not
even heard of those Scripture that have
already been revealed in various other parts of
the world. This is why a new scripture would be
revealed to new communities who have not
received the Scripture.
However, after the revelation of the Quran,
there became no need for any further
revelations. Not because the message of the
Quran is much different from the message of
the Torah or the Gospel, but because of the
following reasons:
a- A divine promise has been endorsed in the
Quran that it will not be corrupted like
previous Scripture. As a result, and if the
message would remain intact in one Scripture,
there becomes no need to reveal further
Scripture.
b- With the advent of the modern fast travel
means of today, the whole world became a
closer knit unit. People do not have to travel
to hear or receive information, it is brought
right up to them through the various media
channels that were not available a few
centuries ago
Why we are here?
The reason we were brought into this world is
given in the Quran. Although there is no one
Sura (chapter) that details all the information
regarding this subject in a chronological
sequence, yet various Quranic verses give pieces
of information. By putting all these pieces of
information together we are provided with a
complete picture of this subject.
The Quran confirms that we were all living in
God's Kingdom before we were brought into
this world. Although this is our first and only
life on planet earth yet it is not our first
existence. We were all living before the earth
was even created. We were put to death and
reborn into this life on earth:
"Most exalted is the One in whose hands is all
kingship, and He is Omnipotent. The One who
created death and life for the purpose of
distinguishing those among you who would do
better. He is the Almighty, the Forgiving" 67:1-2
Since nothing in the Quran is a coincidence,
and since God is the Most precise in expressing
and delivering any truth, we cannot overlook
the order in which the words "The One who
created death and life.....". The placing of the
word "death" before the word "life" indicates
that we were put to death before we were
brought to this life on earth, hence we must
have been alive before we came to this world.
Sometime, in this previous existence, a few
billion years ago, a feud arose in the Heavenly
Society:
"Say, "Here is awesome news. That you are
totally oblivious to. I had no knowledge
previously, about the feud in the High
Society." 38:67-69
One of the high-ranking creatures, Satan,
entertained supercilious thoughts that his
God-given powers qualified him to be a god
besides God. He thus challenged God's absolute
authority. Not only was Satan's idea
blasphemous, it was wrong - only God, and no
one else, possesses the qualifications and ability
to be a god. Consequent to Satan's blasphemy, a
division occurred in the Heavenly Society.
There were those who agreed with Satan (that
he is capable of being a god). There were also
those who were not sure, and then there were
those who were under no doubt that God
alone has the qualifications to be a god.
As a result, God gathered all those who sided
with Satan and also those who were not sure
and offered them a second chance to repent
and submit to His absolute authority:
"We have offered the responsibility (freedom of
choice) to the heavens and the earth, and the
mountains, but they refused to bear it, and
were afraid of it. But the human being accepted
it; he was transgressing, ignorant." 33:72
While the vast majority of the guilty creatures
took advantage of this opportunity, a
minuscule minority failed to take advantage of
this offer and arrogantly preferred to take the
responsibility of the test. According to 33:72,
we (humans) are among them!
As a result, all God's creatures were classified
into four categories:
1. Angels: Creatures who upheld God's absolute
authority.
2. Animals: Creatures who rebelled but then
accepted God's invitation to repent.
3. Jins: Creatures who agreed with Satan; that
he is capable of being a "god."
4. Humans: Creatures who did not make up
their minds; they failed to make a firm stand
with God's absolute authority, they also
rejected the second offer given to them.
The Most Merciful
The angels expected God to banish the
creatures who did not uphold His absolute
authority (2:30). But God is Most Merciful; He
decided to give us a chance to denounce our
mistake, and informed the angels that He knew
what they did not know (2:30). God knew that
some creatures deserved a chance to be
redeemed.
If you claim the ability to fly a plane, the best
way to test your claim is to give you a plane
and ask you to fly it. This is precisely what God
decided to do in response to Satan's claim. God
created seven vast universes, then informed the
angels that He was appointing Satan as a
"khalifa" (supreme ruler) on the tiny mote
called "Earth" (2:30).
God's plan called for creating death (67:1-2),
then bringing the humans and jins into this
world for the soul purpose of rectifying their
mistake and for worshipping God.
"I have not created the jins and the humans for
any purpose except to worship Me alone." 51:56
Thus, all humans and Jin start over without
any biases, and exercise full freedom to uphold
God's absolute authority or Satan's polytheistic
theory. To make this crucial decision, every
human being receives a message from God
advocating His absolute authority. This is
given to the human in the form of the
Scripture sent with guidance and way to
salvation. Whoever accepts the guidance and
submits to God will then be redeemed into God's
Kingdom. Those who refuse it will end up in
hell:
"We said, "Go down therefrom, all of you. When
guidance comes to you from Me, those who
follow My guidance will have no fear, nor will
they grieve.
"As for those who disbelieve and reject our
revelations, they will be dwellers of Hell,
wherein they abide forever." 2:38-39
The human being will also receive a message
from the devil pushing his polytheistic
principles. To give us a headstart, the Most
Merciful gathered all the human beings before
Him, prior to sending us to this world, and we
bore witness that He alone is our Lord and
Master:
"Recall that your Lord summoned all the
descendants of Adam, and had them bear
witness for themselves: "Am I not your Lord?"
They all said, "Yes. We bear witness." Thus, you
cannot say on the Day of Resurrection, "We
were not aware of this." 7:172
The reader is urged to ask himself/herself if
they ever remember making such a witness
directly to God? The fact that none of us
remembers any such event confirms the fact
that we had a previous existence and that we
are now oblivious of this existence. As a matter
of fact the moment we are brought into this
life on earth our memories are wiped clean of
our previous existence.
The fact that we all made such a pledge to God
is reflected in our natural instinct that is an
integral part of every human being. Our
instincts come to the fore when we are at the
danger of a near death situation. At that time,
which may be a split second, our survival
instinct takes over and we plead with God to
save us, at that time we know that He alone
can save us.
After putting the rebels to death, the souls of
humans and jins were placed in a special
depository. God then created the appropriate
bodies to house the souls of jinns and humans
during the test period. The first jinn body was
made from fire, and Satan was assigned to that
body (15:27). The first human body was created
from earthly material, clay (15:26), and God
assigned the first human soul to that body. The
divine plan called for the angels to serve the
humans on earth - guard them, drive the wind
and rain for them, distribute provisions, etc.
This fact is stated in the Quran allegorically:
"Your Lord said to the angels, `Fall prostrate
before Adam."" Satan of course refused to have
anything to do with serving the human race
(2:34, 7:11, 17:61, 18:50, 20:116).
While Adam's body remained on earth, the real
person, the soul, was admitted into Heaven in
the outermost universe. God gave Adam certain
commandments, represented by the forbidden
tree, and Satan was appointed as Adam's
companion to deliver to Adam his satanic
message. The rest is history.
Every time a human being is born, a human
person is assigned to the new baby from the
depository of souls. God assigns the souls in
accordance with His knowledge (28:68). Every
soul deserves to be assigned to a certain body,
and live under certain circumstances. God
alone knows which souls are good and which
souls are evil. Our children are assigned to our
homes in accordance with God"s plan.
An independent jinn soul is also assigned to
the new human being to represent Satan"s point
of view. While the physical body of any jinn is
reproduced from the parent jinns, the jinn soul
is that of an independent individual. Jinns are
descendants of Satan (7:27, 18:50).
The assigned jinn remains with the human
being from birth to death, and serves as the
main witness on the Day of Judgment (50:23). A
continuous debate takes place in our heads
between the human soul and the jinn soul
until both of them are convinced of one point
of view.
The Original Sin
Contrary to common belief, the "Original Sin"
was not Adam"s violation of God's law when he
ate from the forbidden tree. The original sin
was our failure to uphold God"s absolute
authority during the Great Feud.
If the human person convinces his or her jinn
companion to denounce that original sin, and
uphold God's absolute authority, both
creatures are redeemed to God's eternal
kingdom on the Day of Judgment. But if the
jinn companion convinces the human being to
uphold Satan's idolatrous views, then both
creatures are exiled forever from God's
kingdom.
To promote his point of view, Satan and his
representatives advocate the idolization of
such powerless creatures as Muhammad, Jesus,
Mary, and the saints. Since we are here due to
our polytheistic tendencies, most of us are easy
prey for Satan.
Satan"s incompetence as a "god" has already
been proven by the prevalence of chaos, disease,
accidents, misery, and war throughout his
dominion (36:66). On the other hand, the
human beings who denounce Satan, uphold
God"s absolute authority, and refrain from
idolizing powerless and dead creatures like
Jesus and Muhammad, are restored to God's
protection - they enjoy a perfect life here in
this world and forever.
Because our life in this world is a series of tests
designed to expose our polytheistic ideas, idol
worship is the only unforgivable offense (4:48,
116). The world is divinely designed to manifest
our decision to uphold either God's absolute
authority, or Satan's idolatrous views (67:1-2).
The day and the night change constantly to
test our willingness to uphold God's laws by
observing the Dawn Prayer and fasting during
the hottest and longest days. Only those who
are totally certain about God"s absolute
authority are redeemed (26:89).
Dear readers,
As I said below,
"I have not created the jins and the humans for
any purpose except to worship Me alone." 51:56
It means that what we THINK we are here for is
NOT what we all are here for. We are here for
the WORSHIP of ALLAH almighty and NOT for
our enjoyment. See to the fact that when a
child is born in this world, it CRIES and not
LAUGHS. But Allah says which means that
When a soul goes to heaven (or enters the
doors to heaven) it LAUGHS with PRIDE. This
clearly means that this life is NOT for
enjoyment as it is said many times in Quran:-
Aal-e-
Imran [3:197]
Little is it for enjoyment; their
ultimate abode is Hell: what an evil
bed (to lie on)!
Al-
Anaam [6:44]
But when they forget the warning
they had received, We opened to them
the gates of all (good) things, until, in
the midst of their enjoyment of Our
gifts, on a sudden, We called them to
account, when lo! they were plunged
in despair!
Yunus [10:70] A little enjoyment in this world! and
then to Us will be their return. Then
shall We make them taste the severest
Penalty for their blasphemies.
Questions arise in human mind:
1) So if THIS life is not for ENJOYMENT then
WHICH life will it be?
2) Why should we not enjoy our time as this
time will NOT come again?
ANSWERS given by some ULEMAS.
As you see, Islam teaches us patience. Question
is: what has PATIENCE linked with this
argument.
This life as said in Quran is temporary:
Ghafir [40:39] "O my people! This life of the
present is nothing but
(temporary) convenience: it is
the Hereafter that is the Home
that will last.
If LIFE is temporary then dear readers, that does NOT mean that HUMAN SOUL is
temporary too. It is permanent. Human soul will NOT end like life. IT will only die in
this world but dieing does not specifically mean FINISHING. But it means to finish from
THIS life. Yet there IS a life ahead of us that will come. And that life is eternal.
TODAY we think that maturity is from a person
who speaks something really effective. Effective
in a sense that he/she will have great financial
and moral benefit from the world because of
what we says and what he does. But do you
readers THINK that MATURITY is from a person
who worries of a 50 to 100 years life, or
someone who worries about this 50 to 100
years ALONG with the endless life ahead of him?
Readers, today we are confusing the term,
“mature” with someone who concerns with this
little life only.
Dear Readers, as I said earlier that we are here
to WORSHIP Allah Almighty. So this needs an
endless effort. But ON THE OTHER HAND, Allah
Almighty made this effort humanly possible. I
have seen A LOT of people saying how can we do
all this? Its so DIFFICULT but considering the
fact that every reaction needs some FACTORS to
make the reaction as quick and efficient as
possible. For instance, take The manufacture of
water as an example. Water is made from 2
different gases at very high temperatures,
Hydrogen and Oxygen. Here im talking about
TEMPERATURE as a factor. If we try to do the
reaction at room temperature, the reaction
would have been impossible and IMPRACTICAL.
But if we take the temperature to 100 degrees,
still it would be a VERY slow reaction. It will
NOT be impossible but still would have been
impractical. But if we give the temperature the
reaction needs, it would be a really fast
reaction.
Similarly the case is with our religion. To
practice our religion, we need some factors. As
some ulema claimed that religion is a MIXTURE
of factors, some other summarized the factors
into 7 factors. Furthermore, they reduced these
down to 6 factors. According to religion
experts, by having these 6 factors in our life,
one can practice religion quite easily.
DECLARANCE of ONENESS of ALLAH
The first and foremost factor of islam is the
declarance of ONENESS of Allah Almighty.
Romanization:
"la elaha ella Allahu, Muhammad ur-rasul
Allah"
English rendering:
There is none worthy of worship but Allah,
and Muhammad [peace be upon him] is the
messenger of Allah.
Importance:
Declaring the ONENESS of Allah is ONE
thing, ACCEPTING the fact is another. Even a
class 4 kid in a muslim country is taught its
meaning and pronunciation. The first part,
there is no God but Allah means that Allah
has the total control over EVERYTHING. All is
done by HIM and NONE is done by anything or
anyone OTHER than Him. ALLAH Almighty is the
one who is giving me the strength to write this
and the SAME ALLAH Almighty is the one who is
giving YOU the strength to READ this.
This ALSO means that we should believe
that our SUCCESS is in Allah’s hands and NOT
in our hands. Whatever bad thing Is happening
to us God forbid, Allah is secretly telling us a
message. Whatever Good thing is being done,
Allah is secretly telling us a message. Today we
think that our jobs, money, luxury, cars are
giving us this ease but no, it is ALLAH’s power
over everything that we are getting the ease.
There lived a wealthy king. He had this noble
who kept the keys of the treasury of the king.
One day, as always, he locked the door of the
treasury and left for hunting. Meanwhile the
king entered the treasury with this spare key
for something.
Allah Almighty put a thought in the noble’s
mind that the treasury has NOT been locked.
That he FORGOT to LOCK it. And he goes back to
the treasury and finds out it was open. He
locked that door and then left again for
hunting.
On the other hand, the KING who was in the
treasury got locked from inside and the keys
were useful OUTSIDE the treasury. He kept on
trying to open the door but failed.
Unfortunately, he died of thirst and hunger,
and wrote in his will, “Look at me, im DIEING in
my wealth”.
I wanted to say that our happiness is given by
God and NOT by our wealth.
Allah says is Quran:
Al-
Baqara [2:26]
allah disdains not to use the
similitude of things lowest as well
as highest. Those who believe know
that it is truth from their Lord; but
those who reject Faith say: "What
means allah by this similitude?" By
it He causes many to stray and
many He leads into the right path
but He causes not to stray, except
those who forsake (the path).
Hud [11:88] He said: "O my people! see ye whether
I have a Clear (Sign) from my Lord,
and He hath given me sustenance
(pure and) good as from Himself? I
wish not, in opposition to you, to
do that which I forbid you to do. I
only desire (your) betterment to the
best of my power; and my success (in
my task) can only come from allah:
in Him I trust and unto Him I look.
Al-Kahf [18:44] There, the (only) protection comes
from allah, the True One. He is the
Best to reward and the Best to
give success.
So conclusion is that we should seek help ONLY from
Allah and trust HIM alone.
Second Part of this Kalima says that Muhammad
(s.a.w) is the MESSENGER of Allah. This is something all
do not believe.
The previous messengers also stated the oneness of
Allah but did NOT tell about Muhammad as messenger
of Allah. Instead there message were different for
example:
Ibrahim (a.s) BROUGHT: THERE IS NO GOD BUT ALLAH
AND IBRAHIM IS THE FRIEND OF ALLAH
And so on but MUHAMMAD (s.a.w) is MUHAMMAD is
the MESSENGER OF ALLAH. Here Christians, and jews
come to disagree. They do not believe in the presence
of Muhammad (s.a.w)
This ALSO means that if we DECLARE THE
ONENESS OF ALLAH, we have OBEY His
commands, and for THAT we have to follow
the MESSENGER in a prescribed form known as
sunnah or hadith. Without one of these one
does not have faith. For instance, a person has
faith in Allah but does not follow sunnah is a
failiour like a person eats goat. Goat is allowed
in ISLAM. Whereas a person does NOT cut it the
way HOLY prophet (saw) did, the goal will
eventually be haraam (forbidden).
We nowadays forget the importance of sunnah
I our life. We say that do the fard and forget
the sunnah (God Forbid). Unfortunately, they
are wrong, because sunnah is also a necessary
thing and that IS why holy prophet (saw) was
sent down to this world. So we should obey
Allah AS WELL as holy prophet (saw)
PRAYER
After we said that Allah is ONE and
MUHAMMAD (saw) is HIS messenger, we only
turned muslims. But after we ACCEPT the fact as
I said earlier, one has to FOLLOW Allah. So let
us see the second factor of religion that is
salah (prayer).
According to Quran:
Al-
Baqara [2:153]
O ye who believe! Seek help
with patient perseverance
and prayer: for Allah is with
those who patiently
persevere.
Aal-e-Imran [3:43] "O Mary! worship thy Lord
devoutly; prostrate thyself,
and bow down (in prayer)
with those who bow down."
Prayer is one of the MOST IMPORTANT things in
islam. It is one of the PILLARS OF ISLAM. Without
prayer, the chance of glad tidings is horrifying.
We can NOT be successful without prayer. As I
gave the ayat of Surah AAL E IMRAN, Allah is
ordering MARYAM (a.s) to Pray.
This is ONE of the things Allah has not left
anyone at. All mature male and female are
ordered to observe prayers at correct timings.
Jibrael (a.s) says which meant that he can
count the droplets of RAIN but can NOT count
the blessings of ALLAH upon the person who
has prayed one fard namaaz with TAKBEER-e-
ULLAH. How unlucky will be one who could
not offer prayers in his life. Allah guarantees
jannah for those who are steadfast in their
prayers. Those who pray regularly will not
have their hisaab kitaab. Hisaab kitaab will be
a moment where all prophets (a.s) except
Muhammad (saw) will be worrying. Even
though their jannah is written, but that
moment will be so tough. Yet those who pray
regularly will NOT go through that phase
mashallah.
Another hadith explains that Prayer is the
visit of a person to God Almighty (miraaj)
Yet another says that a person is NEAREST to
ALLAH almighty when he/she is prostrating
before Allah Almighty.
After reading the above gifts, one should NOT
be foolish enough to leave prayers for this
world’s pleasures and commitments.
KNOWLEDGE AND REMEMBRANCE
Now that one KNOWS that prayer is important,
he should know the prescribed manner to do
so, too. It is said that there are some people
whose prayer are not even accepted before they
turn 60 years!
How unlucky would be those who spend their
lives praying and then in the end find out that
they have wasted their efforts.
It is obligatory upon EVERY muslim mature male
and female and they should KNOW the
difference between right and wrong, halaal
and haraam, good and bad, dirty and clean.
The correct ways to offer prayer, the correct
way to spend their lives. For that ALLAH
almighty gave us a source and ANOTHER
blessing named Quran, Hadith and SUNNAH.
These 3 materials provide us with EVERY thing
related to islam. ALL the matters (past, present
or future) are given here.
A person came to a sahabah and asked how
much time of day do you muslims spend in
worshipping Allah? The sahabah said that the
muslims spend 24 hours in that. He asked how
can you give SO much time for Allah? Don’t you
do any OTHER thing? Sahabah replied that they
spend their lives according to sunnah which is
why their smallest of acts for instance eating
food become ibaadat (worship).
With knowledge one should also remember
Allah at all times. Good or bad, happy or sad.
Allah has the RIGHT to be remembered.
Take a caring mother for instance. She bores a
child and suffers the pains of child birth for 9
whole months. Then she not only brings her
up, she cares for every single need of the child.
She feels proud to have the child. It is her
belonging. The pains of the child are the pains
of the mother. She cares for it MORE than
herself. She ignores the annoying attitude of
the child and acts it’s age. But when the child
grows up. When it is mature enough to handle
himself. Then if the child leaves her mother,
doesn’t even remember her by saying to his
friends, oh yes my mother did this for me. When
that child gets lost in the wonders of the
world then imagine yourself how disheartened
that mother will be. She will think that why
did she endure all the sufferings when she had
to live up to the day her own belonging threw
her away!
Keep this in notice that according to hadith
Allah Almighty loves His creation more than
70 mothers. And when His OWN believers
(muslims) start to ignore and NOT remember
Him, then IMAGINE the feeling Allah will have.
Remembering is not by repeating the recital
terms but even by looking at every thing and
remembering Allah and saying MASHALLAH
only Allah can do it. Whatever bad and good
things happen to us ALHAMDULILLAH Allah did
it for good. I thank Him for it. Not only I
THANK Him for it but I PRAISE Him for it. That
is what Alhamdulillah means, that ALL praises
are for ALLAH. It does NOT include the feeling
that if someone comes to you and says oh you
said a wonderful thing and you say In return
ALHAMDULILLAH I know. That is self praising.
That is only SAYING Alhamdulillah but not
MEANING it. You are praising yourself by saying
it. On the other hand Allah deserves all praises
then we should have THE attitude that
everything I AM is ONLY and ONLY because of
ALLAH Almighty.
According to a hadith which means that the
ones who REMEMBER Allah are the examples of
LIVE people and those who do NOT remember
Allah are the examples of DEAD. So no matter
how much we are lively in this life, if Allah is
NOT in us, then we are equal to dead people.
For Remembrance, ulema have issued a sunnah
way of doing it. The sunnah way to ask from
Allah Almighty is by first PRAISING Allah, then
Giving Salam and darood to Muhammad (saw)
and then asking Allah. Similarly, seeing THIS,
the ulema gave this way of zikr (remembrance)
by ATLEAST whispering 100 times 3rd kamila
tamjeed, 100 times 4th kalima tawheed, 100
times any darood and then 100 times
astaghfaar because constantly we are doing
sins in our life. But most importantly I think we
should have a sound KNOWLEDGE and
MEANING of what we are whispering about.
HUMAN RIGHTS
By praying, searching for knowledge and
remembering Allah Almighty, Allah is testing
our taqwaa (piety). But side by side, Human
Rights and our relationship (ikraam-e-muslim)
is according to me, the BIGGEST and the most
DIFFICULT chapter in religion. And
unfortunately, people miss this chapter out. On
of my friends told me that waking up at fajar
in the morning in freezing cold is easier than
to swallow the abuse and a nasty comment
given by someone. Surely, there are ahadith and
ayats upon prayer, and other things but there
are MUCH more serious terms used in the case
of human behavior.
We in our society talk A LOT behind people’s
backs. It is a COMMON problem in this society.
We FIND topics to talk about a specific person
and the EXCUSES we give are that we are only
trying to change that person and also that we
should know what type of person he/she is.
There are SEVERAL examples of Islamic history
that Allah has kept secrets of many people’s sins
even from prophets. Let us consider this case of
Prophet Musa’s (a.s) time:
At the time of Prophet Musa (AS) once a terrible
famine occurred. People came to the Prophet
(AS) and asked him to pray for rain. Prophet
Musa (AS) took thousand and thousands of
people with him and supplicated to Allah Taala
for rainfall. He sought the Help of Allah Tala
for the sake of infants, old pious men and four
footed animals. However, no rain came!
Allah Taala informed Prophet Musa (AM) : “O
Musa!The reason for no rain is that amongst
you there is one person who is disobeying my
commands for forty consecutive years. Tell
him to get out from your gathering; it is for
him I have terminated rainfall.”
Prophet Musa (AM) announced: “O the sinner!
Who had been committing sin for 40
consecutive years! Get out from our gathering!
It is for you the rain is not coming!”
Listening to this announcement, the sinner
looked around and saw that none got out of
the gathering! He thought, it is to me whom
this is being addressed. He further thought
that when I would get out of this gathering
people would definitely see me. Alas! What a
humiliation would that be! On the other hand,
if I do not get out from here, for me the rain
wouldn’t come !
Suddenly while pondering on these thoughts,
he covered his face with a cloth and started
weeping. With great repentance he prayed: “O
Rahmanur Raheem! I had been disobeying you
since 40 years! You gave me the opportunity to
come back, but I hadn’t utilize the chances.
Now I (sincerely) turn to You! Do accept me (my
Tawba)!” His prayer hadn’t even completed yet,
rain started pouring heavily!
Prophet Musa (AS) was quite astounded ! Being
surpised, he said to Allah Taala: “O Lord! Not a
single person had left this gathering. What is
the reason for rainfall then?”
Allah Taala’s reply was: “O Musa! It is for that
person now I descended the rain, for whom I
had previously stopped it.”
Prophet Musa (AS) asked Allah Taala: O Allah!
Do expose that person to me!
Reply from Allah Taala came: “I did not
humiliate him at the time he disobeyed me; why
would I humiliate him now – when he has come
under My Shelter?”
Here even ALLAH is not telling His messenger
about the person, how do WE have the right to
expose someone? When ALLAH loves them more
than 70 mothers? Allah never said that He
loves only the muslims, Allah says that He
loves ALL the creation.
Human Rights include the rights from the
person sitting right beside you to the person at
the other end of this world.
Every Son has a right over his parents that He
be dutiful to them. He should take care of the
parents when they grow older. He should not
waste his parents money.
Similarly, the parents have a right over their
children. They should give them food,
clothing, shelter. Even RELIGION is their right.
The parents should make them marry in
appropriate times with a perfect mate for
him/her.
The countries have rights. An AMERICAN
person should not abuse a PAKISTANI or vise
versa. A Punjani should not abuse a pathan. A
white should not taunt a black because we ALL
are equal infront of Allah Almighty. Racism is
NOT supported in the light of islam.
Friends have rights that they should not be
taunted which have personal effect to their
lives as I said in my previous essay.
The poor have a right over rich and rich have
a right over poor. The citizen has a right over
the president and the president has a right
over citizen.
Everyone in this world is meant for others and
when they start to think of themselves, they
develop an ego problem within themselves
which lead to a pharaoh-type characteristic
and this is ONE character is NOT accepted by
ALLAH Almighty.
INTENTION
The intention is a smaller topic yet equally
important as the rest. As I have said earlier and
as you all accept that No God but ALLAH. So it
is a natural fact that everything should be
done FOR Allah. Similarly, that does is not
accepted which is done for respect, fame, fear of
someone BESIDE Allah.
Whatever deeds we do in this world, they
SHOULD have right intention so as they go
WITH us in the day of judgment.
DAAWAH-o-TABLEEGH
This is the 6th factor of faith and one of the
most important one as it is linked with most
other factors. Allah states in Quran which
means that we are the CHOSEN and BEST ummah
from the ENTIRE mankind who spread
Goodness, STOPS badness and keeps FAITH in
Allah.
This is what I ALWAYS tell people.
First Allah ADDRESSES us. The CREATOR,
CHERISHER, SUSTAINER informs us that WE are
the BEST AMONG mankind. And we have been
sent for the BETTERMENT of mankind. SUCH a
HIGH status has been given to us by Lord, our
God ALMIGHTY.
Then Allah explains WHY are WE the best. Or in
other words Allah informs us WHO are the
best, And says who SPREAD Goodness and STOPS
badness (amar bil maaroof nahee anil munkar).
And in the end tells us that we have FAITH in
ALLAH. That WE should do OUR effort and tell
the person what is correct and LEAVE the rest
to ALLAH. Because ALLAH does not leave our
efforts without reward. He SOMEWHERE in this
world makes a non muslim a muslim the time
we put an effort for ALLAH. It is linked with
prayer also because according to hadith which
means that prayer is a complete dawah. It
means that the style of praying and when
everyone is so disciplined and EQUAL in front of
ALLAH ALMIGHTY then people turn into
muslims this way. And it is linked with ikraam e
muslim because our RELATIONSHIPS and
BEHAVIOUR is what tells the correct things.
Islam is NOT spread by sword but is spread by the
down to earth attitude of the rulers! Holy
Prophet (saw) said in his deathbed which means
that obey prayers and be nice with the poor
people in this ummah. When someone sees the
islam does not HAVE the concept of poor and
rich, he embraces the truth.
This is a difficult task to follow the 6 factors
with discipline so it is prescribed by ulema to
spend some time in tableegh. A lot of people
question me that in islam nowhere is it said to
leave homes.
My answer to this question is that we do not
actually LEAVE homes but we LEARN the sunnah
of prophet (saw). We go into an atmosphere
where practicing these things is relatively
easier, where the worldly obligations are not
hindering us and we develop a habit of
practicing these things daily.
"And whose words can be better than his, who calls
(people) towards Allah, and performs good deeds, and
says: " I am one of those who submit to Allah!"
Jazakallah Khair.
Asad Bhatti
Muslim Digest
www.iqrasearchtruth.blogspot.com
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