Allah Is My Guide

Qur’aanic Verse 16.35:

 

Transliteration:

 35. Waqala allatheena ashrakoo law shaa Allahu ma AAabadna min doonihi min shay-in nahnu wala abaona wala harramna min doonihi min shay-in kathalika faAAala allatheena min qablihim fahal AAala alrrusuli illa albalaghu almubeenu

Translation:

 35. And they who worship others besides Allah say, “Had Allah so willed, we would not have worshipped anything besides Him. Nor would our fathers do it. And we have not prohibited anything without His Command.” This is what those before them did. Are the Messengers then responsible for anything but the plain and clear conveyance of the divine Message? ⁵

Study Note:

5. It is the responsibility of the Messengers to convey the divine Message honestly and faithfully to the people. The Messengers were not given the responsibility of punishing those who do not then come to believe in Allah, His Messenger and the Message. It is for Allah to punish them for their intransigence in this regard. HE has made it clear that there is no compulsion in religion (Verse 2.256). Some people may then wonder as to why Prophet Muhammad (peace on him) did have all those armed conflicts with non-believers. It should be clearly borne in mind that the conflicts were not just because some people did not believe. The conflicts had occurred because the kuffar would not allow the believers to practice Islam in peace.

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The above is extracted from yet-to-be-published Qur’aanic Studies - Volume XXVII. It will be published, in due course, inshaAllah on the website INVITATION TO SALVATION, in continuation of Volumes I to XXVI already published and freely available thereon.

Mohammad Shafi
Author of ‘ISLAM & INTEREST‘

Qur’aanic Verse 12.40:

 

Transliteration:

 40. Ma taAAbudoona min doonihi illa asmaan sammaytumooha antum waabaokum ma anzala Allahu biha min sultanin ini alhukmu illa lillahi amara alla taAAbudoo illa iyyahu thalika alddeenu alqayyimu walakinna akthara alnnasi la yaAAlamoona

Translation:

40. “What you worship⁶ besides Him are but fictitious things to which you and your fathers have given names. Allah has not sent down any authority for them. The absolute authority is with Allah alone. He has commanded that you shall not worship anything or anybody but Him. This is the established way of life, but most people know not.”

Study note:

6. To worship is to obey unquestioningly all commands of the authority in question. As this Verse proclaims, this authority is none other than Allah, the one and only Creator and Sustainer of the entire universe and of everything therein. But by treating the ahaadeeth to be as sacrosanct as the Qur’aanic Verses, many Muslims are guilty of contravening the dictum of this Verse. Unlike for the Qur’aan, there is no divine guarantee of genuineness for the ahaadeeth. By following and thus obeying the ahaadeeth that are contradictory to Qur’aanic teachings, the Muslims are unquestioningly obeying and thus worshipping the narrators and writers of the ahaadeeth, besides Allah Almighty.

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The above is extracted from yet-to-be-published Qur’aanic Studies - Volume XXIV. It will be published, in due course, inshaAllah on the website INVITATION TO SALVATION, in continuation of Volumes I to XXIII already published and freely available thereon.

Mohammad Shafi
Author of ‘Why Do I Believe In Islam‘

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

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Translation:

208. O those who believe! Get into Islam thoroughly^{365, 366}, and follow not Satan’s footsteps. He indeed is an open enemy to you.³⁶⁷

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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.

Mohammad Shafi