Total Submission
Verse 2.208:
208
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا ادْخُلُوا فِي السِّلْمِ كَافَّةً وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا خُطُوَاتِ
الشَّيْطَانِ ۚ إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ مُّبِينٌ
Transliteraion:
208. Ya ayyuha allatheena amanoo odkhuloo fee alssilmi kaffatan wala tattabiAAoo khutuwati alshshaytani innahu lakum AAaduwwun mubeenun
Translation:
208. O those who believe! Get into Islam thoroughly365, 366, and follow not Satan’s footsteps. He indeed is an open enemy to you.367
Comments:
365. The original Arabic phrase could also be translated as ‘Surrender yourselves completely to Allah’. Complete surrender to Allah would inter alia mean adherance to all applicable Qur’aanic commands.366. Once a cyber-friend told me that it wasn’t practical to do everything that the Qur’aan asks us to do. It was enough to adhere to as many Qur’aanic commands - from among those applicable - as it was practically possible. This view is a negation of this verse we are presently studying. The Satan it is that subtly induces man to entertain such views in order to lead him astray. That’s why the verse further advises man not to follow the Satan’s footsteps. He (the Satan) arrogantly (see Verse 7.12) thought it wasn’t possible for him to follow one of Allah’s commands to him - to bow before Adam!367. In Verse 2.168 there is a similar divine instruction not to follow Satan’s footsteps as ‘he is to you an open enemy.’ The instructions there were in the context of consuming lawful and wholesome things. One of the food items that are prohibited is ‘that which is consecrated to someone other than Allah’ [Verse 2.173]. This category of prohibited food could include items distributed as tabarruk from the shrine of a peer or saint. The association of the saint wih the food makes the latter consecrated to ’someone other than Allah’. Consumption of such food in the belief that it specially benefits the consumer, is a manifest sin of shirk. It (the belief) betrays the consumer’s blasphemous assumption that the peer or saint partners with Allah in granting special benefits in the act of eating the tabarruk. Satan, the avowed enemy of man, misleads the consumers in making them think that they are doing nothing wrong.
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Please offer your honest comments on the above extract from Qur’aanic Studies - Volume IV, which I have just republished on the regenerated website INVITATION TO SALVATION, in the space provided below.
December 6th, 2008 at 3:24 am
Salam Alaykum Wa Rahmat Ullah Wa Barakaatuh!
What I understand from the Above Verse of Quran Al Kareem!
Bismillahirrahmannirraheem.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا ادْخُلُوا فِي السِّلْمِ كَافَّةً وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا خُطُوَاتِ
الشَّيْطَانِ ۚ إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ مُّبِينٌ
Which means ” O ye who believe! Enter into Islam whole-heartedly; and follow not the footsteps of the evil one; for he is to you an avowed enemy”.
Allah SWT is calling to those who Beleived in the Mission and Message of the Blessed Prophet Peace Be Upon Him and obeyed him and followed his Judgement and agreed with him in the matters of Faith , Beleif, Righteousness and Judgement.
Entering whole heartedly into the folds of Islam means to make Rasul Allah SAW as the Ideal Personality not an Idol, to make Rasul Allah SAW as a Role Model till the Day of Judgement and follow in His footsteps in Righteous Judgement not our rational or logical or scietific conjectures but try to Understand and See the Quran in the Light of the Prophetic Interpretation and try to understand the Wisdom behind the Revelation of a particular Ayah under what circumstances.
Satan denied to accept the superiority of Adam for he found Adam nothing but a statue of clay and thus he denied to honour Adam on account of His Knowledge and Wisdom what Allah SWT imparted him when Allah breathed in Him the Spirit of Knowledge and Wisdom which gave him the status of Kaba of Angels. Angels were not commanded by Allah to worship Adam God forbid what we all the Muslims understand very well but the prostration was that of the Honour and Yeilding the status of Caliphate and an Imamate to Adam AS.
In the same way the Messengers were sent from the same Allah for the children of Adam to rightly guide them to the One who is Center of Focus of Truthful Beleivers Allah SWT but the Messengers were appointed to be the Beacons of the Way and like the shephered unto sheeps to lead them in Prayers in Ehsan.
Thus every prayer have to have an Imam otherwise every muslim can pray to Allah in any direction without an imam individually when we Muslims know that Allah is the creator of time and space and Allah is the Lord of East and West.
Thus the Principles and Foundation of Imamate which was laid down by Rasul Allah SAW by the Command of Allah SWT was a Divine Instruction and Advise to the Humanity to teach them that there are people in the sight of Allah who excel each other in terms of Knowledge and in Terms of Tazkiyyah, In Terms of Taqwa and In Terms of Righteousness . So that a man might realise the lack of his own abilities and so that he might honour his brothers in Islam those who are more Committed and More Knowing about the Seerah of the Blessed Prophet PBUH and those who try to immitate the Beautiful virtues and Beautiful Manners and the Inner Conscience of the Prophet PBUH inorder to integrate the Muslims on the Correct Methodology and Correct Way of Life.
This is what means Sunnah, that a man recognise the superiority of the Noble Prophet over the entire Creation and accept the Status of those who followed him in inwardly and outwardly to such and extent that Allah SWT revealed about them in His Word Al Quran, “They are Pleased of their Lord and Allah is Pleased of them” This verse is revealed regarding those who were living at the time of the Prophet PBUH for those who were yet to come from among this Ummah to make the standard of the Pious Predecessors outstanding from among the entire Ummah.
When we accept and recognise their Trust worthy and Honorable Status we accept and understand the meaning and wisdom behind the command of Allah to Angels of Prostrating Adam.
La Ilaha Illalahu means No One is worthy to be worshipped, Invoked, Beseeched and asked for Help except the True One Allah, And MUhmmad Ar Rasul Allah SAW means that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, not was the Messenger of Allah.
So the difference of is and was is to be understood thoroughly if we want to enter in the Religion of Islam wholeheartedly.
And Allah is the Source of Knowledge and Strength for his servants.
May Allah guide us all to the Right Path of our Noble Prophet SAW.
Aameen.
Brother in Islam
Mohammad Shafi respond:
The Brother seems to interpret the Qur’aanic Verse in question simply to mean that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is, and not was, the Messenger of Allah. Although he has not clearly spelt out the difference between ‘is’ and ‘was’ in his conclusion, from his prelude to this conclusion he appears to mean that besides the Qur’aan, the ahaadeeth are to be considered sacrosanct and followed unquestioningly. The Qur’aan undoubtedly asks the believers to obey the Messenger, and all the Messenger’s authentic orders are incorporated in the Qur’aan. It was when the last of such orders were thus incorporated that Allah declared, in Verse 5.3, that He perfected Islam as the Way of Life for mankind that day. And soon thereafter He took away the Messenger from this world. And there is no warrant, in this perfected Book of Allah Almighty, for any other Allah-approved source for Islam.