يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اعْبُدُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ وَالَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ
O Mankind! Worship your Rabb Who created you and created those who came before you; by doing this you may expect to guard yourself against evil. {Surah Al-Baqarah, v:21}
كَذَٰلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ آيَاتِهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ
That's how Allah makes His Revelations clear to you so that you may understand. {Surah Baqarah, v:242}
'Takiloon' means to use our intellect and understand and ponder deeply. It means using 'aqal'. Allah wants to tell us that we need to understand and ponder over every miracle sent by Him. The biggest miracle that Allah s.w.t blessed us with is The Holy Quran. Alhamdulillah
So, let us ponder over a few verses that relate to "I&U and Allah". And, in case that you are wondering about "I&U", it is just something that involves first me because I want to remind myself first and then you. So, 'I' is for myself and 'U' for you all.
WHERE DID I&U BEGIN?
كَيْفَ تَكْفُرُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَكُنْتُمْ أَمْوَاتًا فَأَحْيَاكُمْ ۖ ثُمَّ يُمِيتُكُمْ ثُمَّ يُحْيِيكُمْ ثُمَّ إِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ
"How can you disbelieve in Allah when you were lifeless and He brought you to life; then He will cause you to die, then He will bring you [back] to life, and then to Him you will be returned."
{Surah Baqarah, v:28}
This ayah talks about 4 stages of life. The first stage when we were dead or lifeless, then brought back to life, then die again and life after death. Death is very close to sleep.
So, the first stage can also be said as when we were sleeping. We have all known something what is called as 'life after death'. Like, I&U are going to be raised after death and good people go to jannah and bad people go to jahannum and all of that. Here, this ayah focuses on life before we were born.
Allah says that you all were dead/sleeping. That's the first stage mentioned. This implies that for something to die has to have life before, right? This life is actually the life of our souls- Rooh. Rooh is a creation of Allah made of light. Rooh does not have any age or gender or any of that.
So, at one time I&U had life. Life before that we were born. We were not in any relation with each other. We did not even have any body yet. We were just souls all togethor, very well and alive before Allah. Imagine! We were in the company of Allah! We used to talk to Allah directly and Allah used to converse with us. Subhanallah.
Allah does not tell us much about this conversation except just a little bit. That in Surah Al-Araf, Allah asks us
"Am I not your Rabb?" أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ
and we all replied, or rather, our souls replied
بَلَىٰ ۛ شَهِدْنَا - "Offcourse, you are. We testify"
وَإِذْ أَخَذَ رَبُّكَ مِنْ بَنِي آدَمَ مِنْ ظُهُورِهِمْ ذُرِّيَّتَهُمْ وَأَشْهَدَهُمْ عَلَىٰ أَنْفُسِهِمْ أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ ۖ قَالُوا بَلَىٰ ۛ شَهِدْنَا ۛ أَنْ تَقُولُوا يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ إِنَّا كُنَّا عَنْ هَٰذَا غَافِلِينَ
"And [mention] when your Lord took from the children of Adam - from their loins - their descendants and made them testify of themselves, [saying to them], "Am I not your Lord?" They said, "Yes, we have testified." [This] - lest you should say on the day of Resurrection, "Indeed, we were of this unaware." {Surah Al-Araf, v:172}
Thus, our souls had already accepted that Allah is our Rabb. Then, later we were put to sleep, and when we were given life again, i.e, second time, our souls were blown into our bodies and we were born on this earth. Again, the rest is obvious, that we are going to be put to sleep again and brought back to life again.
Over time, our souls have forgotten the first life and forgotten this shahadah. We are designed that way. But Allah keeps reminding us through his messengers and his books.
Hence, I&U began in the company of Allah. This ayah explains the journey of life, where we began and where we are going to end up. Some scholars also suggest that it is because of this company that I&U are influenced by the attributes of Allah. Like showing mercy, forgiving, justice, desire to create stuff, etc.
We also miss being in the company of Allah. Nothing on this earth, new car, new home, or anything gets us satisfied. Because nothing can fill the void of being in the company of Allah a.w.j.
WHEN I&U SAY "LA ILAHA ILALLAH"
Now that we are born on this earth. Alhamdulillah, that Allah showed His mercy on us and we became Muslims. We said the shahadah.لآ اِلَهَ اِلّا اللّهُ
"La ilaha illallah" is commonly translated as "There is no god but Allah". Off course. But it has a much more beautiful meaning to it.
This word 'ilah' is commonly translated as 'God'. Nevertheless, it is one of the base meanings of it. There is another meaning to 'ilah' and it is actually a profound, deep and heavy word in Arabic language. 'Illah' actually means to worship and it is further translated as 'object of worship' or 'worthy of worship'.
Worship in its true nature is only really done when it is done for Allah. Nobody has actually truly even experienced what true worship means unless they have done for Allah.
Some scholars even argued that the word 'ilah' suggests a degree of love. It implies to be obsessively in love with someone. To rely on someone, to lean on someone, to find peace in someone, to find contentment in someone, to return to someone when you are sad or overwhelmed, to be amazed or to be in awe of someone.
It is a level of love, not just worship, but 'love' in which you feel no pain because that love fulfils you. This 'ilah' itself is enough for you. When everything else is going wrong, so long as you have this love, you will feel like you don't need anything else.
As long as you have this love, everything else is satisfied. Like a person doesn't feel hunger even if he is hungry, because that love itself becomes his appetite. That's what fulfils him.
فَسَيَكْفِيكَهُمُ اللَّهُ
Fa sayak fika humullah - Allah is enough for you
{Surah Al-Baqarah; v:137}
Allah says in the Quran, Allah is enough for I&U. There is no one worthy of worship, obedience, love except Allah. Allah is the only one who will provide us with anything and everything that we need. The divine peace and contentment with ibadah of Allah can be experienced nowhere else.
Allah is someone that is going to be there for I&U in the most desperate of times. Nothing in life will ever overwhelm you or put you in humility like Allah awj will.
When we translate 'la ilaha ilallah' as there is no god except Allah, we skip all these beautiful meanings.
'ILAH' AND 'INSAAN'
One thing understood, that Allah is our 'ilah'. Then, what are we? I can think of one beautiful ayah of a Surah which almost all of us have memorised,
إِلَٰهِ النَّاسِ
the 'ilah' of mankind,
{Surah An-Naas, v:3}
We are Insaan. 'Naas' comes from the word 'uns' means civilised, compassionate creatures. I&U are compassionate creatures and we are designed to love, to have mercy. We are made capable to show compassion like no other creatures. Alhamdulillah. We show compassion all around, not just with family and friends but also with neighbours, stranger, plants and animals.
Also, when a person moves a rock from the path, that is a part of him being 'Insaan'. Humanity is actually called humanity because they care about other people and when I&U stop caring about each other, we are not human anymore. I&U need to hold on to the core quality of 'Insaan'
'Insaan' also comes from the word 'nasiya' which means to forget or be forgetful. This explains why we forgot our conversation with Allah when we were souls and we said بَلَىٰ ۛ شَهِدْنَا - "bala shahidna". {Surah Al-Araf, v;172}
This explains that our relationship with Allah is based on our desire of love. The relation of I&U with Allah is that of 'ilah' with 'naas'.
RABB AND ABD
Besides the relation of 'Insaan' and 'Ilah', there is another relation between I&U and Allah. The first command for I&U in Quran is
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اعْبُدُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ وَالَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ
"O mankind, worship your Lord, who created you and those before you, that you may become righteous" {Surah Baqarah, v:21}
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اعْبُدُوا رَبَّكُمُ
Ya Ayyuhan naas U'budu Rabbukum
Who is Allah calling to? Allah is calling upon all mankind- O! Mankind! O Insaan! Why does Allah call us like that? Allah uses this term, 'Ya ayyuhan naas' because Allah wants to call upon humanity's compassion.
Allah commands us 'U'budu Rabbukum' which means 'enslave yourselves to your Rabb'. This is the mission statement for us Muslims. This is the purpose that we were created. Allah created us to worship him. To do 'ibadah' of Allah.
وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنْسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ
And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me.
{Surah Az-zariat, v:56}
'Ibadah' not only means to pray Salah, give zakah, fast, etc but it also means to live a life like the way Allah and Muhammad (s) taught us to. In fact, when we go to sleep like the way Prophet(s) taught us to (saying duas,etc), then that sleep also becomes a form of worship.
In Surah Baqarah, Allah says worship your Rabb. Now who is Rabb? Rabb is someone who created I&U, the one who created people before I&U. Rabb is someone who takes care of us, helps us grow. He not only feeds us 3 meals a day but He takes care of the billions and trillions of cells inside us which operate only on Allah's mercy. Allah feeds each and every cell of us every minute and every second.
Rabb is the cherisher, sustainer, provider of everything that we need. Our relation with Allah is that of a master and slave- Rabb and Abd. 'Ubudu' comes from the word 'Ibadah' which ocurred the second time in the Quran. The first time it was mentioned in Surah Fatiha, where we declare that we are going to be slaves of Allah.
إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ
O'Allah! You Alone we worship and You Alone we call on for help.
{Surah Al-Fatiha, v: 5}
This, infact, is the concept of 'ibadah' - to be slaves of Allah. It can also be said that this is the summary of the whole Quran- Accept Allah as your master and accept the fact that you are His slave. Quran is about the relationship between you and Allah.
The interesting thing is that every relationship has certain rights and resbonsibilities. Like for example the relation of a teacher and a student. A teacher has certain rights as in, to being obeyed, being respected and also he has the responsibility of teaching.
The student has the right to be taught in the best manner and also has the responsibility of studying. It is balanced.
On the contrary, our relationship with our Rabb is slightly different. The relationship of Rabb and Abd. Rabb has all rights and no responsibility. And Abd has all responsibility but no rights. Still, our Rabb continues to shower his blessings upon us. Whether we worship him or not, he still provides us oxygen, doesnt he? And many other countless blessings.
I&U must always remember this first command that comes in the Quran - enslave yourselves. Once we consider ourselves to be Allah's slave, all other commands become easier. And we start thanking Allah for all the blessings that he showered us with. Because our Rabb is Ar-rahman and Ar-raheem.
Ar-rahman means the one who is so much caring, loving and kind, the intensely merciful. And Ar-raheem is someone who continues to shower his blessings upon us, the continually merciful.
May Allah give I&U hidayah and guide I&U to become His abd, the same way that Prophet(s) was and he was His most beautiful abd.
Barakallahu feekum wa fiyya
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Reference: Greatest Verse Ayatul Kursi Webinar 2016 by Nouman Ali Khan
Tafsir: Surah al-Baqarah - Nouman Ali Khan - Day 8
Tafsir: Surah al-Baqarah - Nouman Ali Khan - Day 10
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