Yousuf M Islam
yislam@bracuniversity.net
Iman is the correct form of belief in the Creator. If you claim that you believe in the Creator, the sole Owner and Giver of Power, please read the following carefully, contemplate and implement in your day-to-day life.
Imagine that there is a large boat in the middle of the ocean or sea. On this boat there is one person from each and every religion. There is also a person who says he believes in the Creator, however, as he remains quite busy with day-to-day matters, he doesn’t have time for religion. There is also a person who says he doesn’t believe. A terrible storm arrives and the boat rocks as though it is about to capsize. Faced with this situation, what would each person on the boat do?
Significantly, what would the atheist do? Would he
at least say, “Creator, if you exist, please save me”?
The remaining people on the boat would also realize that it is the Creator alone
who can get them out of trouble and take them to safety. Regardless of
religion, each person would approach the Creator directly, without any
intermediaries. This implies that each person, regardless of religious belief,
inherently knows of the Power of the Creator. Is this forced admission by each
and every person correct belief in the Creator?
When the Creator puts the boat on the shore, it is
what each person says from his/her own free-will that defines “Iman” or correct belief. Some will say it was sheer luck
that they were saved; others will claim that it was their lucky charm (stones,
pendants, etc.); others will credit their intellect; still others will give
credits to intermediaries like prophets, ancestors, religious leaders, “pirs”, idols, etc. The person who thanks the Creator
directly for bringing them to safety is the only believer! The storm was
only a test given by the Creator to separate those who have correct belief from
those who don’t.
Allah,
our Creator, succinctly clarifies this in the Quran
in the following ayat:
“And when harm touches you upon the sea, those (others) that you call upon vanish from you except Him (Allah alone). But when He brings you safely to land, you turn away (from Him)……” [Sura Al-Isra:17, Ayat 67]
Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala) uses the sea as the location as at sea we clearly realize our limitations and dependency on the Creator. Such dependency extends to the land where we normally stay. As examples, the following situations demonstrate how we normally respond to our Creator.
Before exams, we sincerely pray to the Creator, asking His help. We know that without His help, we would not be able to achieve the desired results – no matter how good our teachers are. After the results are out, parents credit the achievements to their children. Children, in turn, credit the teacher or tutor who helped them, saying, “If you go to such-and-such tutor, you are sure to get an A”. We neglect to thank our Creator, whom we approached before the exams.
Before setting out to work for the day, we sometimes say our “Fajr” prayers – or at a minimum, we sincerely seek Allah’s help by saying “Bismillah”. During the course of the day, pressure of work keeps us away from praying “Zohr”, “Asr” and sometimes “Magrib”. We feel it is important to get our work done. We forget that we would be offering our Zohr, Asr and Magrib prayers to the same Creator whom we sincerely prayed to in the morning. On the other hand, had the Prime Minister, Queen or King of the land asked us to give him/her a call on a special mobile phone five times a day and ask for whatever we need during the day, would we neglect this duty? Would we feel that our work was important? Would we feel honoured? Our actions speak of the state of our belief. Our actions say that we believe that the Prime Minister, Queen or King is more powerful than the Creator!
If these examples resemble or are similar to
situations in our daily lives, we won’t be able to prove that we believe in
Allah when we meet Him on the Day of Judgment. Allah questions our logic after
having got what we want or when we feel that we are in a position of safety
in the following ayats:
“Do you then feel secure that He will not cause a side of the land to swallow you up or that he will not send against you a violent sandstorm? (In such a case) you will find no Wakil (helper)”. [Sura Al-Isra:17, Ayat 68]
“Or do you feel secure that He will not send you
back a second time to the sea and send against you a hurricane of wind and
drown you because of your disbelief? Then you will not find any
avenger therein against Us.” [Sura Al-Isra:17, Ayat 69]
Allah reminds us of the honour He has given each of us - He has given each of us a beautiful personality and made us unique - this means each of us is important to Him. In addition, He reminds us that He has created day-to-day systems for our benefit, in the following ayat:
“And indeed We have honoured the Children of Adam, and We have carried them on
land and sea, and have provided them with At-Tayebat
(good and lawful things), and have preferred them above many of those whom We
have created with a marked preferment”. [Sura Al-Isra:17, Ayat 70]
and
Allah tells Us who He is:
“Your Lord is He who drives the ship for you through the sea, in order that you may seek of His Bounty. Truly, He is ever Most Merciful towards you.”
[Sura Al-Isra:17, Ayat 66]
It is only if we have correct belief, i.e. Iman, that Allah will consider forgiveness of sins. He will
forgive our mountain of sins only if we demonstrate belief in Him and Him
ALONE. We sin against commandments given by Allah. As such, it is only He that
we need approach. We therefore need to ask forgiveness from Him directly.
Consider the case where we ask forgiveness from saints, ministers, religious leaders
or “pirs” – on the Day of Judgment, there is nothing
to stop Allah from saying, “Why come to Me; go to your pir
saheb, see if he can forgive you!” These people,
other beings or things from whom we ask forgiveness or give credit to for
events in our lives are what Allah calls His “partners” in the Quran. It is to warn against these partners that Allah has
sent His prophets through the ages. These partners are very much part of our
regular and daily lives.
“Verily,
Allah forgives not (the sin of) setting up partners with Him, but He forgives
whom He wills, sins other than that, and whosoever sets up partners in worship
with Allah, has indeed strayed far.” [Sura An-Nisa: 4, Ayat 116]
The first partner is our own self. If we feel that there are better ways to be grateful or worship than that given in the Quran and shown by our Prophet (peace be upon him), we place ourselves above Allah and His Prophet (pbuh). If we feel our daily work is more important, during the prescribed time of salat, as it provides for our daily bread, we make our daily work more important than Allah, the One who sustains Us and who gives us success in our daily work. Who are the other partners? Allah is the holder of all power and source of all power. He has created all effects, its causes and the links between each cause and its effect. When a person takes any action (cause), the link and the effect is provided by Allah. Anything other than Allah that we approach or give credit to is a potential partner.
The inexcusable fact is that we have not bothered to find out what guidance Allah has provided in the Quran. The Quran is Allah’s guidance to each of us individually. If a friend wrote us a letter in a language that we did not understand, would we put the letter on the top shelf or cabinet and forget about it? Would we assume that we already know the contents?
It is very important that we find out what Allah has said regarding our belief, our daily lives and our after-life. Allah has said that there is nothing that He has left out of the Quran. It is the primary source of all knowledge for us. It is only when we learn to apply this knowledge that we can make sense of the life of this world and get on top.
Allah has made available a translation in every language of the world. We have to get hold of a copy in our preferred language and establish regular reading of the meaning of the Quran at least at two levels:
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at home to all family members and
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support and fund a program to learn the meaning of the Quran at a Madrassa
Allah has said that there is no crookedness in the Quran. The obvious and most straightforward meaning is the one Allah has put forward for the person who is reading the Quran. To find the meaning of the Quran, one needs to be armed with:
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a sincerity to find out what Allah has said in the Qu’ran
and we have to
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seek Allah’s help and guidance when reading the Qu’ran
One of the best times to regularly read the Qur’an is when the entire family gets together for the evening meal. The head of the family should sequentially read a section (about two pages) of the Qur’an each day with its meaning to the rest of the family. The head should encourage questions and all should attempt to apply what has been read to day-to-day life.
At the same time, we should find a “madrassah” in our local village or community to support. We should ask the head of the madrassah regarding arrangements required to start a class on the meaning of the Qur’an. We should fund, support and follow-up the implementation of this class.
May Allah give us the motivation to find the meaning of the Qur’an, guide us to implement what He has given by following the example of His Prophet (pbuh).