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We were discussing the Surah Ikhlas and
point of discussion was that if we understood it and practiced
accordingly and particularly the two qualities of Allah as
All-knowing and All-Visionary, then we will not even think about
sinning. We should reflect and self-asses ourselves upon that
Allah is always watching us.
Moving along, let us now consider the
meanings of “Allah al Samad” part of these verses. Samad means
sublime or one who does not need any thing, so it would mean
that Allah does not need anything or anybody. This would imply
that we need Him; He does not need any of our prayers, or
anything else from us. If we do not accept Allah, we will hurt
only ourselves. Allah does not gain anything or is hurt by our
disobedience, so much so that His supremacy does not depend on
us. Let us take an example here. Suppose we do not accept the
elected leader of a country, it will not bother him and if we
tried to undermine his authority we may be considered rebels and
will be penalized for that. If such is the situation with the
leader of a country than Allah who is the supreme being of the
universe will definitely not be affected. Allah is beyond our
reproach and is an eternal force. If we do not accept Him, he
will not be affected and rather we will be in loss. Some one
asked Hazrat Alli (RA), what if we do not accept rule of Allah?
His reply was that we both would be at loss, as it will not
leave any law and order as we face these days for not obeying
the guidance of Allah.
When there is no fear of God, all the
ethical values are lost and that produces total chaos. These
days some people are proud to call themselves Atheists. This
was a fad created by communism. Now people are reverting back to
acceptance of Allah after the fall of communism.
I want to explain one more thing. Many
people give the reference that Allah says in Quran that, “Do not
make friends with non-Muslims”. Here they are committing a
collective mistake. There is no prohibition to making friends
with non-Muslims, rather it has been said that be kind with all
the living things. If this prohibition were there, then Islam
would not have spread all over the world. So to keep good
relations with non-Muslims is essential, so that with our good
character and examples we could influence them toward accepting
Islam. What is said is that; do not make non-Muslims your
guardians in qura’an used word “wali” .
We as human beings can not live with out a
society and thus have to interact with people. Let us assume
that you are the only Muslim in a city, would you be able to
survive in that situation? And would you be able to invite
others towards Islam? So there is no restriction on befriending
non-Muslims. Allah, in another verse, says, “They (non-Muslims)
can not be your guardians unless you leave monotheism and become
like them”. This should explain the limit matter of becoming
friends of non-Muslims.
I want to tell you a story of a non-Muslim
friend of mine. He asked me one day, “How do you do Mr. Jilani”.
I replied, “Fine, with the grace of Allah”. He said, “What
Allah, I do not believe in any Allah”. I told him that I could
prove that there is an Allah if he would answer only one
question of mine. He agreed to this. I asked him, “Who made
this universe?” He said, “What nonsense, this is an age old
question which has been asked so many times.” I told him that
after he answered my question, I would give such an argument
that he will not be able to refute. So he answered that, “this
universe was created by mother nature”. This is what I expected
him to say. So I told him that Allah says in Quran that, “what
ever (good) name you call me by, is my name”. He had no answer
to this and after that he never asked me such a question. So
this will explain why we should befriend non-Muslims to explain
to them virtues of Islam.
Let us carry on with the thought that if
Allah does not need anything from us why do we have to pray and
accept His supremacy. He has innumerable angles and living
beings to pray to Him. The easy answer to this is that we pray
for our own sake. We need to live our lives under the rule of
the One who is all-knowledgeable and all-visionary. The
consequences of not accepting a supreme being would be that
there will be no order in the personal lives and the government
will have nothing to do with religion. Resultantly it will be a
rule of jungle and the big fish will eat the smaller fish. The
poor will become poorer and the rich the richer. There would be
little justice left. Unless we accept the rule of universal
Supreme Being, we will be left with this law of jungle. Unless
we become God-fearing we will not be able to treat the world
with justice and without justice we will lose peace. When there
is no justice, people take the illegal routs to achieve what
they want. Quran clearly says that, “you were enemies of each
other and Allah has created love in your hearts”. If we revert
back, then we will fall in the same pitfalls. |
