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We were talking about the sense of making a
simple syllabus for learning about Islam in practice and
becoming sensitive to the rights of human beings in Islam. We
started out with the First Kalima. Let us first consider the
meanings and compliance of “Surah Ikhlas”. Allah says to His
prophet (pbuh) say that He is ALLAH (the) One. The self
sufficient
Master, Whom all creatures need, He neither
eats nor drinks. He begets not, nor was He begotten, and there
is none co-equal and comparable unto Him. He is alone “
The event of revelation of these verses is
to remove misunderstanding infidel of Mecca. Since, all the gods
and goddesses other than Allah had families, so the residents of
Mecca asked the prophet (pbuh) as to whom of these did Allah
belong? It is known that in Greek mythology, Hindu mythology
and even in Christianity that there are multiple Gods.
Christianity has three concepts of God (trinity). However Islam
is a strictly monotheistic religion. So the people of Mecca
could not understand this and they were asking for the pedigree
of Allah. Allah is a singularity, so he revealed His nature in
these verses by telling that; He is not related to anyone, Has
no son, Has neither a wife nor any tribe. He alone is worth
worship, and that other gods are so helpless that they cannot
even defend themselves. He revealed the story of Abraham (pbuh)
to give the example. When Abraham (pbuh) was destroying the
idols, he put weapon in the hands of the biggest of the idols.
When people asked him (pbuh) that who had demolished these
idols? He replied, “Ask the big idol”. There is a great lesson
in this story. The people acknowledged that their idols could
not talk, and this showed the impotence of these idols. This
was to guide us with wisdom. We have been told in Islam that
preaching should be done with wisdom. The idols, which could
not help themselves, would not be able to help anybody else.
Also it is told in Quran that if there were more than one god,
they would kill each other fighting. Further more it has been
told in Quran that all the good and the bad lies in the hands of
Allah, and also that He has direct contact with everyone and
that He has no middlemen. He is closer to you than your jugular
vein, knows your thoughts and He does not get tired doing his
work .HE never sleeps. Every thing is in His control and He is
omnipotent Khabeer and Baseer. Only Allah can be untiring,
unlike some other’s gods which have all humanly needs. He
doesn’t need a day to rest after six days of work. He is devoid
of all weaknesses and does not need lieutenants who will run His
kingdom and if it were so, the world could not function as it
does, since lieutenants would have self interests.
We are not allowed to speculate on this, as
we have limited wisdom and vision. Allah has no limits. How a
limited vision could focus an unlimited thing. We need to
remember that He is always watching us. His attributes as All
Knowing and All Visionary are the most significant of all his 99
attributes. By remembering these we cannot commit sins. If we
can instill these things in the minds of students of Islam, then
they will be saved from committing any sin. Lots of people may
argue as an excuse that He is benevolent so He will forgive us.
However by this argument we are nullifying what we commit to in
the first Kalima. We accepted that Allah is our God and is
Supreme. How can we do things against the orders of our Supreme
and then expect forgiveness? And we keep on doing this and keep
expecting forgiveness. Once a person used to drink and would
say that Allah is Most Merciful, so He will forgive me. His
wife got worried of his drinking habit, so she went to a holly
man and asked him as to what she could do. He told her that
next time when he says this before drinking then say it loudly
to him that He is also avenging and omnipotent. When her
husband heard this, he lost hold on the cup which fell down and
he stopped drinking from then on. |
