Guidance & Misguidance: Rewards & Punishments
'And Allah’s is the direction of the way, and some (paths) go not straight. And had He willed He would have led you all aright.' (An-Nahl, 16: 10)
As for those who turn their back to the Divine Messages and Messenger, they are those who fall prey to the mirages which the Satan make them see – of a world filled with success and power which are but flimsy and fake.
Had Allah wanted, He could have guided all people on the Straight Path. He has the power to do so. Apart from His Chosen Path, the Path of Righteousness, there are other paths which are crooked and misleading and which do not lead to Allah. This is the trial which He has set upon man, to seek the true path, tread on it and keep walking and striving, despite the great hurdles on the way so that they may accede to none but Allah.
Allah has promised Paradise for those who strive on
His path, but there are those people who also exist to whom Paradise [Heavenly
Paradise] is also a barrier for them for their true aim is to accede to Allah.
If by paradise, one understands eternal pleasure, peace and happiness, then their
true paradise is Allah. In the life of this world, a world of intense trials,
Allah has ensured that through good faith, goodness of heart and good intentions,
one can cross all fires of trials and persecutions, the true believer acceding
to Paradise on Earth.
The ideal of Islam repose on this blessed concept. To
bring Paradise on Earth, to revert the Earth to the Paradise it was once. Not a
paradise of sceneries only, but a paradise of submission to God Almighty –
Allah, a paradise of peace, and complete separation from all evils.
The trials may be in thousands, but the true believer
will reach his destination safe and sound. Despite the fires he is made to go
through, he will conquer the world to the true faith. That first believer is
the Messenger of Allah himself. He is the one who should believe firmly in his
own messages, that is, the Divine Messages he receives from Allah. Like in the
Holy Quran, Prophet Moses (as) is made to understand this crucial truth, and
said: “Glory be to You [O Allah], I turn to You
in repentance and I am the first of the believers.” (Al-Araf, 7:144)
All Messengers and Prophets of Allah are made to
understand this basic yet very essential part of their faith and mission. They
should be the first believers in their own mission, have faith in it, and be
certain that Allah has raised them and will always stand by them, come what
may! They should remain true to Allah, to themselves and the Divine Message
they have received, whether these revelations are revelations for guidance and
limited for a period or whether these revelations are eternal and are part and
parcel of a grand divine plan, forming the sacred laws of Allah, like the Holy
Quran.
The Word of Allah, His “Kun” is made to stand up and
proclaim the message He receives from Allah. He is from the essence of Allah,
of His Spirit and Light. He is the human element of His blessed existence,
without being God but having the essence of Allah in him, driving him, guiding
him to the best outcome in his mission on earth.
When there is spiritual progress, there are also
enemies who try their best to extinguish the light of Allah. While these people
try to hinder the mission of the Messenger of Allah and strive their best to
overcome him, but none can do so and be successful but only temporary.
Sometimes, their “Zulm” (atrocity/ injustice) is sugarcoated by false
semblance of faith to try to fool the Messenger of Allah, but Allah says:
Impossible!
Their evil plans are rendered clear before the
Messenger of Allah and He is made to see through their plots. When this
happens, prayer becomes the sole sure armament to defeat the enemies of Allah.
They are the same people who lay traps for the Messenger of Allah, and Allah
make them fall into the same traps they have tendered for him. Those people are
mostly those who have never believed in him, but there are also the hypocrites,
those who believed and renounced their beliefs or those who pretended to
believe when in fact they played an evil role to capsize the Divine Group or
Community of Allah and His Messenger and to reduce it to naught. But Allah says
again: Impossible!
The traps, the plans, the evil plots against the
Messenger of Allah are in fact direct attacks on Allah and Allah says that
these people cannot ever be victorious. True victory is always for the
truthful. It may seem for a limited time that the evil ones are victorious but
they are in fact trapping themselves a little more in hell. Such an abode is
reserved for them for they have traded faith for unfaith, truth for falsehood,
struggle in the path of Allah for the pleasures of this temporal world, thus…
paradise for hell! Allah says in the Holy Quran: “Those
who trade belief for disbelief will never harm Allah in the least, and they
will suffer a painful punishment.” (Al-Imran 3: 178)
That painful punishment begins on earth itself; that
painful punishment is given to them while they are at the heights of their
disobedience and thinking highly of themselves. They think that they can defeat
Allah and His Messenger, but Allah says: Impossible!
They may enjoy themselves in their false success for a
limited time, but when the decreed time for Divine Victory comes, when the “Kun”
of Allah comes, their every call shall be lamentations and cries of pains.
Such disobedient servants are classified in several
groups:
1.
Those
who are die-hard unbelievers and will not submit to the truth even if the truth
is staring at them in their face,
2.
Those
who are disbelieving servants and hypocrites and plot to trap the Messenger and
the believers and render them helpless and defeated.
3.
Those
of the hypocrites who despite receiving enough time from Allah to reform
themselves, yet they turn a deaf ear to the Divine Call, and continue on the
path of their delusions.
Among the disbelieving servants, there are some who
with time come to realize the truth and repent for the evils they committed and
come back to the fold of the Messenger of Allah and the Community of the
believers. These people become conscious of the truth and accept it before
their demise on earth. When such truth manifest before them, they become
light-bearers for Allah illumines their heart and keep them in a spiritually
revived condition, and forgive them for their past, for Allah is the Most
Forgiving Being, the Exalted in Mercy and Power.
Those who set traps for the Messenger and the
believers, the trap-setters are those who have despaired in the eternal life.
They trade truth for evil. They follow the lead of the Satan and his army and
become part of them. Those who are brothers of the Satan, Satan play mind games
with them and at the end will abandon them because Satan personally knows that
Allah is the Truth and fears Him. He knows that Allah is All-Powerful and will
submit to Him. The truth is that he has received the permission from Allah to
mislead His servants and those who truly follow him are like him and lose their
divine essence. Their light is transformed into darkness and they become a
shadow of themselves.
About the danger of this misguidance, even the
Prophets of Allah, especially the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) has received
clear warning from Allah: “And if We had not
strengthened you (O Prophet), you would have almost inclined to them a little.
Had you done so, We would certainly have made you face double punishment in
this life and after your death and you would have found none to help you.”
(Al-Isra, 17: 75-76)
In the context of this verse, the disbelievers tried
to beguile the Prophet of Allah and stop him from spreading his Message. They
promised him every kind wealth and women he may like so that greed may stop him
from continuing his mission, but those limited attractions did not fool him. He
did not trade Allah for the goods of this world. No worldly attraction was
attractive enough to make him change his mind. Allah was etched in his heart.
His Divine Voice gave him the confidence he needed to go on with life with
limited resources and believers till the time Allah blessed him with so many
believers and so much wealth that the unbelievers were dumbfounded into
silence.
Thus, the disbelievers and hypocrites who refuse every
helping hand in the Divine Cause are the true losers. They try to beguile
themselves and the believers but while they fall low in the esteem of Allah,
they are not successful in leading the true believers astray. They fall on
their face before the people and before Allah. When they try to make believe
that they have the Divine Power with them, just when they show-off that
make-believe power, just then Allah make them fall and raise the true believers
to the height of spiritual power and nearness to Him
Therefore, those believers who receive the Divine Boon
are promised felicity in this life and the life to come, and they are blessed with
miracles and signs of Allah; an Allah Who ensures that He realizes His promises
to them, be it in this life and the afterlife.
They receive the divine call and warning from the
mouth of the Messenger of Allah who in turn has received the same warning from
Allah. Indeed Allah says: He sends down His
angels with inspiration of His Command, to such of His servants as He pleases,
saying: “Warn mankind that there is no god save Me, so fear Me (only).”
(An-Nahl 16: 3)
The prophet is called first to fear Allah, and to
impart the same fear of Allah to His other servants, for only Taqwa
(fear of Allah) can move mountains, that is, can make the servants of Allah
amend their wayward ways and return to the Way of Allah.
Those are truly fortunate who are blessed with Taqwa
and let it rule their lives throughout, for that fear of Allah is so powerful
that it has the ability to make the most arrogant of creatures submit to Allah.
Had Taqwa truly ruled the hearts of man today, nobody would have led wayward lives, none would have taken deviating paths away from Allah and the true believers as well as the Messenger. In a life which is said to be full-blown modern and advanced, yet while technology and the life style of man has improved materially, but on the spiritual side, they have regressed to such a pitiful state. Thus, Allah has decreed His “Kun” to come and bring an associated world to the exclusive worship of Allah, to turn division into unity, to bring the people of the world to Allah alone, in His exclusive worship....
May Allah help this humble one, His Messenger and
Representative with His Blessed Spirit and Revelations to guide you all on the
Right Path and to impart to you the right values which will vouchsafe for you a
safe place in the Eternal World of Allah. Insha-Allah. Ameen.