Our Islamic Faith- 4

  

Ashhadu alla ilaha illallahu 

wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan 

‘abduhu wa rasuluh.

 

I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah, 

and I bear witness that Muhammad (pbuh) is His servant and Messenger.

 

When we reflect upon the Deen of Allah [Islam], we realise that Allah has entrusted us, and even commanded us, to believe in everything He, our Creator, has instructed us to believe in. When He created us, He provided us with a place to reside. In this temporary world, He spread out the earth and placed within it an abundance of sustenance for our survival. He designed the skies as a canopy above us, serving as both protection and a source of water to quench our thirst, keeping both us and our environment clean. 

Thus, we recognise that Allah is immensely generous towards humanity. He tests us through various trials. There are periods of drought as well as times of overwhelming rainfall, where the sheer volume of rain can wreak havoc everywhere. We see this exemplified in the great flood during the time of Hazrat Nuh (as), when the entire land (of his nation) was submerged. Hence, a creation of Allah can be a blessing, but it may also act as a tool through which Allah imparts lessons to humanity.

Lessons from Nuh (as)

The Messengers of Allah

 

'The Messenger believes in what has been revealed to him from his Lord, and so do the believers. They believe in Allah, His angels, His Books, and His messengers. (They proclaim) 'We make no distinction between any of His messengers.' And they say, 'We hear and obey. (We seek) Your forgiveness, our Lord! And to You (alone) is the final return.' (Al-Baqara 2: 286)

 

All the prophets who preceded Muhammad (pbuh) were sent with a message of warning and guidance to a particular people. None of their messages was intended to be universal, including that of Jesus [Isa (as)], who was commissioned by Allah specifically as a prophet to the Children of Israel, Israel being another name given to Jacob [Yaqub (as)], until there came the last law-bearing prophet and messenger, i.e. Muhammad (pbuh) who was entrusted with the final and complete set of Allah’s laws as guidance for the whole of humanity for all times to come. So, who were some of those prophets of Allah?