Selected Course to Understand the Demands of Qur'an
Disclaimer
Whenever you want to pursue the truth and verify anything you hear about Islam, we urge you to please use the only valid and divine source of Islam, Qur'an.
On the authority of Masruq, who said: We
asked Abdullah (i.e. Ibn Masud) about this verse: And do not regard those who
have been killed in the cause of Allah as dead, rather are they
alive with their Lord, being provided for (Quran Chapter 3 Verse 169). He said:
We asked about that and the Prophet said:
Their souls are in the insides of green
birds having lanterns suspended from the Throne, roaming freely in Paradise
where they please, then taking shelter in those lanterns. So their Lord cast a
glance at them (1) and said:
Do
you wish for anything?
They said: What shall we wish for when we roam
freely in Paradise
where we please?
And thus did He do to them three times.
When they say that they would not be spared from being asked [again], they said:
O Lord, we would like for You to put back our souls into our bodies so that we
might fight for Your sake once again.
And when He saw that they were not in
need of anything they were let be.
(1) i.e. at those who had been killed
in the cause of Allah.
It was related by Muslim (also by
at-Tirmidhi, an-Nasa'i and Ibn Majah).
But Allah’s
Justice wanted to give man the freedom of choice in the course
<AlManhaj>. So with that freedom how do we say that He (SWT) leads whom
He wills to the right course and leads astray whom He wills? Before we discuss that
point we first need to know what is the meaning of the guidance <AlHoda>.
The guidance is the lead to the way, for when someone asks you about a specific
direction, you tell him to go to a specific place then to go right or left to
reach that direction as if you have guided him to it. And at the same time the
guidance is used in the sense of facilitating the way. When someone asks about
the way to go to a specific place and you tell him that there are two routes
leading to that place and you advise him to take the second route because it is
safe and illuminated while the first route is surrounded by danger and there is
a lot of burglars in it making it unsafe, then by that you have not only led
him to the way but you have also helped him to reach it safely.
The first type
of guidance, leading to the right way is from Allah to all His servants. The
prophets and messengers came to lead the people to the right path, the way to
Allah’s course <Al-Manhaj>. To convey the message to the people upon who
the messengers were sent, means to lead them to the way of guidance to Allah’s
course and to show them the way that pleases Allah and the way that leads to
Allah’s wrath and by clarifying that, the guidance reaches all the creatures.
After the last of the messengers, Muhammad (PBUH), came with the message of
Islam the nation of Muhammed was asked to lead the people to the way to Islam.
That is to talk to the people about it and to show them what Islam has brought
to them and if the Moslem nation does not do that then they will be accounted
for it.
Let us
consider the case when a man lives alone in a cave away from the whole world
and no one has conveyed the course of Heaven to him. That man will not be
accounted for on the day of Resurrection, yet the conveyance of Allah’s message
is still valid up till now and the evidence for that are the orients (westerners),
who try to find every possible way to defame the religion of Islam. This means
that those orients have attained some knowledge about a religion and a course
of Allah known to be the religion of Islam. But there are some people who know
that there is an Islamic course and religion but they never care to know or
read about that religion. Those people will be accounted for because man in
every aspect of his daily life when he hears about anything that interests him,
he starts asking and reading about it. If he wants to occupy a specific job, he
will be totally prepared for it by joining the college that will qualify him
for that position and he will start studying and reading from other references
to add to his knowledge about that position. And also if a man wants to buy
something, he will do a survey about all the competitor’s products in the
market and do a price comparison before he selects one.
Even in the
luxury events like the tourism for example, if a man would like to visit a
specific country, he will read about it to know the popular places to visit and
to choose a place to stay in during his visit. If that is the way with our
daily life interests, then should we not give some more attention towards the
most important aspect of our life, the religion of Allah, and towards
worshiping Allah more and in a better way.
Absolutely,
that should have been happening but some of us are interested in the most
trivial aspects of life and if they hear about the religion of Allah that leads
to the right path and that either sends man to lasting delights or enduring punishment,
they will not listen to it and that is why they are accounted for.
So the
guidance is the lead to Allah’s path so that the people know the religion of
Allah, worship Him and obey Him in what He orders. But there is another way to
Allah’s path and that is the help from Allah (SWT), which He made exclusive to
His faithful believers. If a man is sincere in his belief, Allah will help him
and will provide him with more guidance and in that Allah (SWT) says:
<<While as for those who accept guidance, he
increases their guidance and bestows on them their piety>>
Ayah 17 from surat Muhammad
And if you read what Al-Haqq (SWT) said
to His messenger (PBUH)
<< Verily you (O Muhammad PBUH) guide not whom you
like, but Allah guides whom He wills>>
Ayah 56 from surat Al-Qassas
And if you also read what Allah (Jalla
Jallaloh) says:
<<And verily, you (O Muhammad BPUH) are indeed
guiding mankind to the Straight Path (i.e. Allah’s Reilgion of Islamic
Monotheism)>>
Ayah 52 from suurat Al-Shurah
We find
that Al-Haqq (SWT) has affirmed the guidance to His messenger (PBUH) and that
He has also disapproved him the guidance. Then how come can the messenger of
Allah (PBUH) lead to the right path and still he cannot lead the people he
loves to the right path? When you ask this question we say that you have not
understood the meanings of the Qur’an. For the guidance that Al-Haqq (Jalla Jallaloh)
has approved to his messenger (PBUH) is the leading guidance. Muhammad (PBUH)
has led the people to the way of belief and to the way of obedience and he has
clarified to them what brings Allah’s wrath and punishment. But the other
guidance that Allah has disapproved from His messenger (PBUH) is the aiding
guide in the way Allah (SWT) adds more guidance to everyone walking in the
right path and how He facilitates their way and makes them more loving to their
Faith.
That is why Al-Haqq (TWT) says about
His Divine Entity:
<<But Allah has endeared the Faith to you and has
beautified it into your hearts, and has made disbelief, wickedness and
disobedience (to Allah and His Messenger PBUH) hateful to you. Such are they
who are the rightly guided>>
We should
be aware of an important point to which Allah (SWT) wanted to draw our
attention and that is the choice we are granted in life is with the power of Allah
and is according to His will. And if He wanted to deprive us that choice, He would
do it because it is granted to us with His own will. That is why Al-Haqq (SWT)
says about Abu Lahab, the uncle of Rasoul Allah (PBUH) and one of the chiefs of
infidelity who had vigorously fought the religion of Allah(SWT):
<<Perish the two hands of Abu Lahab (an uncle of the
Prophet) and perish he! His wealth and his children will not benefit him! He
will be burnt in a Fire of blazing flames! And his wife, too who carries wood
(thorns of Sa’dan which she used to put on the way of the Prophet (PBUH) or use
to slander him). In her neck is a twisted rope of Masad (palm fibre).>>
Surat Al-Masad
Al-Haqq
(SWT) announces in the Qur’an – which is never changed or replaced and that is
brought down upon His messenger (PBUH) to worship Allah by reading it till the
day of Resurrection - that Abu Lahab will die as an infidel and that he will go
to Hell.
So what
would be the case if Abu Lahab have gathered the people and said “Mohammed
mentions in the Qur’an - that he claims to be brought upon him from Allah -
that I will die as an infidel and will then go to hell and here I am saying in
front of you that I witness that there is no God but Allah and that Mohammed is
His messenger so that you all know that there is nothing sent to Mohammed from
Heaven. Abou Lahab could have said that even out of hypocrisy to destroy the
whole case of the religion.
But Allah
(SWT) defies Abu Lahab in something that is within the scope of choice. And yet
it never occurred to the mind of Abu Lahab, to use this defiance in destroying
the religion that he strongly hated and opposed. Actually a lot of the main
chiefs of infidelity like Abu Soufyan, Khaled ibn AlWaleed, Amro ibn Al’Aas
and others fought Islam strongly but after thatthey had strong faith in Islam, except for Abu Lahab who rejected Faith
till the last moment of his life.
Al-Haqq
(SWT) wants to draw our attention to the fact that He (Jalla Jallaloh) provided
man with choice and that if He wills to take it away, man will have no power of
choice. That is what happened with Abu Lahab, Allah (SWT) took away choice
partly from him and then placed in his hands a case by which he can destroy the
religion of Allah but he could not do it and it never hit his mind to use it
because in that specific point he did not own the choice.
And so we
find out with the definite proof that Allah gave man the freedom to choose in
what to do and what not to do and that if Allah wills, He can take it away
partly or fully from man.
By that we
reach the point that the deed is from Allah (SWT) nothing happens without His
consent and His will because He (Jalla Jallaloh) alone owns all the elements of
deed. Man’s choice is only in directing the energy that Allah created for him
to do the good or evil. Allah (SWT) gave man complete freedom within the scope
of “Takleef” to do and not to do. Man can be able to go for what Allah forbids
and he can get away from what Allah orders him to do and only within that scope
there is reckoning.Even that freedom of
choice is subject to the will of Allah (SWT), He can take it away fully or
partially whenever He wants. So we should understand that the freedom of choice
is from Allah not from man and that Allah (SWT) wanted to make man free to
choose.
