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Islam means obedience to Allah and His
Messenger. A man cannot at all become "Muslim" unless he eschews
subservience to everything such as his desires, the prevalent customs, and
the wishes of worldly people, and instead resorts to submission to Allah
and His Messenger only.
I want to explain why so much stress is laid on
obedience to Allah and His Messenger. One may ask: Is Allah hungry for our
subservience that He demands from us obedience to Himself and His
Messenger? Is Allah also ambitious, like the rulers of the world, to
impose His authority and demand just as they do, that He alone should be
obeyed? Below I give an answer to this question.
Well-Being
Lies in Obedience to Allah
The real fact is that Allah's demand for
obedience from man is intended for the well-being and betterment of man
himself. Allah is not like the rulers of the world, who try, for their own
benefit, to make the people submit themselves to their will. But Allah is
above all benefits. He is not in need of taxes from you. He does not
require to build mansions, buy cars, and amass articles of luxury from
your earnings. He is pure. He is not needy of anything. Everything in the
world belongs to Him alone and He alone is the Master of all treasures. He
demands obedience from you simply because He desires your welfare. He does
not want that man, whom He has made the noblest of creations, should be
the servant of Satan or bow his head before despicable beings. He does not
want that His vicegerent on earth should grope in the darkness of
ignorance and, like animals, become slaves to their own lust and thus
degrade themselves to the level of the lowest of the low. Therefore, He
affirms:
(There is no compulsion in religion. The
straight path of righteousness has been made clearly distinct from the
crooked path of ignorance. Now he who from amongst you discards false
deities and beguiling masters and believes in Allah, hath grasped a firm
handhold which will never break. Allah is Hearer and Knower of all
things. Allah is the Protecting Friend of those who believe. He brings
them out of darkness into light. As for those who disbelieve, their
patrons are false deities. They bring them out of light into darkness.
Such are rightful dwellers of Fire. They will abide therein.) (Al-Baqarah
2: 256-257)
Need for Guidance
WOur life is fettered with countless links. The
first link is with our own bodies. These hands, these feet, these eyes,
these ears, this tongue, this heart and brain, this stomach — all these
have been given to you by Allah for your service. You have to decide how
they should work. With what to feed the stomach and with what not? What
work to take from the hands and what not? On which path to make the feet
walk and from which to restrain them? What type of work to take from the
eyes and ears and what not? For which talk should the tongue be utilized?
Which type of thoughts are to be entertained and what problems should the
brain ponder over? You can take good as well as bad work from these
servants of yours. They can make you sublime or plunge you into a state
worse than that of animals.
Then you have ties with the members of your
household. There are father, mother, sister, brother, wife, children, and
other relatives with whom you have to deal continually. Here you have to
decide how to behave with these people. What rights have you over them,
and what rights have they over you? Your comfort, your happiness, and your
success in this world as well as in the hereafter depend on your correct
behavior with them. If you behave wrongly, you will make this world a hell
for yourself. And not only in this world; in the hereafter, too, you will
be strictly answerable to Allah.
You have also connections with innumerable
people in the world. Some are your neighbors, some friends, some enemies.
There are also many who render service to you. To some you have to give
something and from others you have to take something. You are an officer
over some people, and someone is officer over you. In short, you have to
deal continually with so many people that you cannot count them. Your
happiness, your honor, and your good name in this world — all depend
entirely on your ability to maintain these relations on a correct
basis.
Now you should consider that in order to
maintain correct relations with your own body, with the members of your
household, and with all other people, you need the light of knowledge at
every step. You have to know at every pace what is correct and what is
incorrect. What is equitable and what is false? What is justice and what
is oppression? Who has a right on you and how much, and what rights do you
have on others and to what extent? Where is real benefit and wherein lies
real harm?
If you endeavor to search out this knowledge in
your own self, you will not find it there because the human self (nafs)
is itself benighted. What else has it except corporal urges? It will
instigate drinking of wine, indulgence in adultery, and illicit earning
because there is great relish in these. It will incite you to usurp the
right of others and withhold what is due. It will also urge you to make
others serve your ends and you never be of service to anybody. If you
submit to such a benighted and perverted nafs, it will drag you
downward and ruin both your world and your hereafter.
On the other hand, you may prefer to rely on
other people in pursuit of such knowledge, submitting yourself to their
overall control and letting them drag you in whichever direction they
like. The danger involved here is that a selfish person may make you a
slave of his own desires; a benighted person, who has himself gone astray,
may mislead you; and an oppressor may turn you into an instrument for
perpetrating injustice on others. In short, here too you cannot get that
light of knowledge that can guide you to distinguish between what is
correct and what is incorrect so as to enable you to tread the right path
in the life of this world.
Real
Source of Guidance
Eventually there remains only that one Supreme
Being from Whom you can get the necessary light. Allah is the Ever-Knower
and Ever-Seer. He knows the reality of everything. He alone can tell you
precisely wherein lies your benefit and wherein is your real loss; which
work is really right for you and which is wrong. Besides, Allah is above
all needs. He need not secure any benefit by deception. Therefore,
whatever directions that Hallowed and Self-Subsisting Being will give you,
will be without any ulterior motive and will be intended exclusively for
your benefit. Allah is also dispenser of justice. There is not the
slightest touch of injustice in that Pure Being. As such, His commandments
will be based totally on truth and justice. In following His commandments
there is no danger of your doing any injustice to your own self or to
other people.
How
to Benefit From Divine Guidance?
Two things are necessary in order to derive
benefit from the light emanating from Allah:
First, to believe sincerely in Allah and His
Messenger, through whom this light has been transmitted. That is to say,
you should be completely certain that whatever guidance Allah's Messenger
has given under inspiration from Allah is absolutely right and true,
irrespective of whether or not you understand the wisdom behind it.
Second, after affirming your belief, you should
follow that guidance because without it nothing can be achieved. Supposing
a man tells you that a certain thing is poisonous and deadly, so do not
eat it. You say, "You are undoubtedly right. It is fatal
poison." But after knowing and admitting this fact, you eat that
thing. Obviously the result will be as same as if you had eaten it
unknowingly. So what is the use of this knowledge and admittance?
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