What does Allah require from mankind?
Allah has revealed the Quraan as a source of guidance for mankind. It is for that reason that we should endeavour to understand what arethe commandments that Allah has put forth in the Quraan.
In the second surah of the noble Quraan, Surah Baqra Allah begins by describing the Believers. Five verses are dedicated to this. Thereafter two verses outline the qualities of the Dis-Believers. Their hearts have been stamped so there’s not much that can be said about them. The next thirteen verses focuses on the hypocrites. It is very difficult to identify them, therefore so many verses are dedicated to them. After addressing these three groups, Allah then speaks to mankind by and large and says to them:
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اعْبُدُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ وَالَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُون(21{
Oh the people worship your Lord who created you, and those from before you, perhaps you will become pious.
In this verse of the Quraan Allah instructs mankind to worship Him. The Ulama say that the instruction ‘to worship Allah’ has four meanings to it;
1 As in the literal sense, we are commanded to make the Ibadah of Allah-to worship Allah .i.e. Salaah, Fast, Hajj, reciting the Quraan. Etc. Umar Radiyallahu Anhu said: “From all your matters of Deen, Salaah is the most important. Whosesoever protects and preserves it then he will protect his entire Deen. And whoever is negligent about Salaah then negligence will be manifest in every aspect of his Deen.” From all the act of worship Salaah is the most important and we need to be particular in this regard.
2 On the second level we are being commanded to recognise Allah. Haaji Imdadullah Rahimullah said:
Oh Allah, there are many who accept You
But very few have truly recognise You
The Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhist etc all accept the presence of God But they all have not recognised the true qualities of Allah and have attributed false qualities to Allah. We are being instructed to attain this higher level of recognition.
3 The word Ibadah is derived from the word Abd which means slave. On the third level, we are being commanded to become true servants of Allah. This will be achieved by bring our entire lives in accordance to the Sunnah of Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. There is a common trend these days where people do Fatwaa shopping and try to find concessions and loopholes. Ali Radiyallahu said: “Do not practise on concessions as you will become compromising. Do not comprise for you will be deprived of practising on your religion.”
4 The fourth meaning of the instruction ‘worship Allah’ means to humble oneself before Allah. Wealth and confidence in our abilities have made us proud and haughty. Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said: “Any person that has an iota of pride in their heart will never enter Jannah.” Therefore, it is important for us to cleanse ourselves from this evil quality.
In conclusion, we have forgotten that we have been instructed to reflect over the verses of the noble Quraan. We need to reflect about this particular verse from Surah Baqra and ensure that we are practising on all the injunction that this verse contains.
Yusuf Moosagie
18th September