Secure against the coming Divine Wrath

“This (Quran) is enlightenment for mankind and guidance and mercy for a people who have Faith with certainty. 

What! Do those who commit evils think that We shall hold them equal with those who believe and do righteous deeds - that equal will be their life and their death? Ill is the judgment that they make. 

And Allah created the heavens and earth with truth and so that every soul may be rewarded for what it has earned, and they will not be wronged.”
               ---(Surah Al Jathiya, 45: 21-23)

These are the same verses of Surah Al-Jathiya (Chapter 45) which I explained last week and my explanation is not yet completed. Thus, by the grace of Allah, I now continue my explanation of these three verses.

So Allah’s wrath is coming down on earth, and only those who make a complete repentance for their sins and come in the refuge of Allah, they are the ones who will be saved from the divine punishment. Certainly the life and death of the righteous people can at no time be like the life and death of those who are immersed in evil. If you want to come in the refuge of Allah, then you need to make Tawbah (repentance) sincerely for all your past sins and present yourself in the refuge of Allah. If you do this, then Allah will create such qualities in you, so that people can testify that there is really between you and them a clear distinction, and where then there will be no need to enter into debates on the subject. Everyone will clearly see the difference, especially those who really want to see that. Now, how will they find this difference, and what treatment has Allah reserved for such people?

JIHAD in Islam: Concept and Practice

Friday Sermon of 01 November 2013:

“O Prophet, fight against the disbelievers and the hypocrites and be harsh upon them.” (9: 73).

This verse is a clear call to Jihad, but does not mention the taking of arms. The Holy Prophet (pbuh) indeed engaged in defensive wars against the non-believers of Makkah, but never took up arms against the hypocrites of Medina, even after their betrayal in the battle of Uhud. It is therefore clear that the above mentioned jihad is not the armed jihad. The term jihad is derived from Jahada which means making intense efforts to the ultimate limit (29: 6). Jihad is an important injunction for Muslims; it is mentioned in no less than 36 places in the Holy Quran.

Jihad, as it is apparent from reading the Holy Quran denotes three types of battles:

1) The battle against the self (nafs).

2) The battle against evil in all its forms.

3) The armed battle against the visible enemy.

We can differentiate between the three types of jihad by respectively calling them Jihad-i-Akbar (the supreme jihad), Jihad-i-Kabir (the greater jihad) and jihad-i-Saghir (the lesser jihad). The Holy Prophet of Islam (pbuh) believed that the Jihad-i-Akbar is the ultimate battle, the noblest and he said, to his troops upon returning from the campaign of Tabuk: “We have returned from the lesser Jihad to the greater Jihad”. In which sense did he say that?