On the Inner 'Shaytan'

 

Tawheed & Shirk- 3

Alhamdulillah, Summa Alhamdulillah, I continue the series of sermons which I began elaborating on the subject of Tawheed and Shirk.

 

Today, I want to draw your attention to something: every day we say we will do something but we end up not doing it. And Allah is not pleased at all that you do not do what you have said you will do. 

Whenever we start praying (Salat) and anytime we read the Holy Quran, we start by saying: Aouzubillahi Minash Shaytaan-ir-Rajim. This simply means that we seek protection with Allah against Satan the Cursed, the one whom Allah rejected. But many times people don’t reflect upon those words: What am I saying? Where is that Shaytan (Satan)? And where does he stay? They think: In what way will Satan come to me so that I can repel him?

Islam & Humans

 

Islam is a religion that is both temporal and spiritual. This is because this religion emanates from the One Who created the human being and Who knows, therefore, what suits him best. Allah, our Creator, knows, in particular, what is necessary for the relations of man with his fellows to be harmonious. For social relations to be good, they must be based on right principles; it is necessary that the individual does not feel attacked either in his physical person, or in his moral personality, so that a healthy and united society is achieved.

 

Allah honoured the descendants of Adam (as) by endowing them with reason, which should be able to lead man to faith in Allah: “Verily we have honoured the Children of Adam. We carry them on the land and the sea, and have made provision of good things for them, and have preferred them above many of those whom We created with a marked preferment.” (Bani Isra’il, 17: 71) 

This faith, this conviction, requires that we recognize Allah and accept His Laws. Obeying Allah and His Laws is the culmination of self-knowledge, as the Prophet (pbuh) said: “Whoever among you knows himself best, knows his Lord best!” He who is convinced that Allah is indeed the Creator and the Lord of the universe not only comes to have admiration for the laws of Allah, but also to want to respect them, because he knows that these laws are what is best for each individual and for society. 

Many of these laws relate to social relations without which there would be no human civilization. They govern the relationship of the individual with himself, with his fellows, and with the universe in general. 

General laws are useful; but, in everyday life, the rules of convenience and good manners, which relate to details, are just as necessary. One of the qualities of Islam is to contain both general laws and precise rules of life. 

Instincts exist in humans as in animals, it is true. But, unlike the animal whose destiny is to obey its instincts, the human being, who has been endowed with reason and a sense of responsibility, must be able to control his instincts. It is not a question of “suffocating” them, but only of making them speak wisely. Indeed, Man was not created solely to survive and reproduce. Allah has assigned him and the Jinn a higher purpose: “I created the jinn and humankind only that they might worship Me.” (Az-Zariyat 51: 57) 

Knowledge of God in Our Souls

'On earth there are signs for those with sure faith- and in yourselves too, do you not see?' (51:21) Regardless of our social and cultural background, each of us as humans are programmed as it were with inbuilt faculties for an innate recognition of the existence of a Higher Being. Whereas idolatry defy reason and logic and has no leg to stand on the rational disposition of any human being, God's Oneness and Lordship is intuitively understood by every human soul. Embedded in human nature is an original consciousness of God's Oneness; a natural disposition to recognizing and worshipping God and toward accepting the Prophets and the messages that they bring as 'reminders' of what they already intuitively 'know' to be the Truth in their latent consciousness. Being true to our inner disposition as a  sincere and morally uncorrupted soul, one can only adapt one's choices in tune with His ordinances in this world. Indeed, knowledge of God's Lordship enable us to care for the higher values of life, rather than incline towards selfish desires and worldly things- the greed for which debases man, turning him away from the path of God's messengers, and lead him to the misfortune of being held accountable as a disbeliever, or a hypocrite (God forbid). 

Recently, a Lady from Canada raised a question: 'How can people with diverse backgrounds, societies and cultures, believe in the one true God'? Based on Qur'anic teachings and Prophetic traditions, Imam- Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam Hazrat Khalifatullah Munir Ahmad Azim (aba) of Mauritius provides a considered response to the question. 

Reproduced below is the Extracts from the Response: 

'...So for people to be held responsible for worshipping the one true God, they all need to have access to knowledge of Him. The final revelation teaches that all human beings have the recognition of the one true God imprinted on their souls as a part of their very nature with which they are created.