Month: October 2019

It wasn’t as if the Pagan Arabs didn’t believe that Allah was the Creator of them and the universe… they did.

‘And if you ask them who created them, they will surely say: “Allah.” (43:87)

Say: ‘Whose is the earth and whosoever is therein if you know!’ They will say: ‘It is Allah’s!’ … (23:84-85)

It wasn’t as if in times of calamity they didn’t turn to Allah to save them… they did.

‘He it is Who enables you to travel through land and sea, till when you are in the ships, and they sail with them with a favorable wind, and they are glad therein, then comes a stormy wind and the waves come to them from all sides, and they think that they are encircled therein. Then they invoke Allah, making their faith pure for Him (alone), (saying): ‘If You (Allah) deliver us from this, we shall truly, be of the grateful.’ (10:22)

It wasn’t as though Mohammad (SAW) was a troublemaker, a sworn enemy with whom they had a vendetta …he wasn’t. Mohammad (SAW) belonged to the noblest clan; was loved, respected and highly thought of by his people.

The Quraysh called him Al Ameen (the trustworthy) and As Sadiq ( the truthful). The leaders of the Quraysh were happy for him to resolve the dispute over the black stone:  “Al-Ameen has come. We are content to abide by his decision.”

It wasn’t as though, he was calling them to war, bloodshed, looting and pillaging…no, he (SAW) called them to piety and righteousness

Heraclius said, ‘What does he order you to do?’

Abu Sufyan said, ‘He tells us to worship Allah alone, and not to worship others along with Him, and to leave all that our fore-fathers used to worship. He orders us to pray, give in charity, be chaste, keep promises and return what is entrusted to us.’

And it wasn’t as though the Prophet (SAW) proclaimed the call of La ila ha ilAllah aggressively, coming at the Quraysh wielding a sword. Just the opposite…

‘Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and fair preaching, and argue with them with that which is best.’ (16:125)

Yet the Quraysh met the call of Rasool Allah (SAW) with hostility, persecution, bribery, and attempted murder. Why?

Why did they feel so threatened by La ilaha ilAllah?

True, they were not unaware of the existence of Allah. They believed Allah (SWT) created them, sustained them, took back their lives; and, yes, they even called upon Him (SWT) in times of great distress.

But La ilaha ilAllah asked them to take Allah as the sole God. This they did not want to do.

‘Has he made the aliha (gods) (all) into One Ilah (God – Allah). Verily, this is a curious thing!’ (38:5)

For the Quraysh understood that if they took Allah as their sole ‘Ilah’, it would mean a loss of their power, wealth, and status. So they complained to Abu Talib, the Prophet’s uncle,

‘O Abu Talib! Your nephew curses our gods; finds fault with our way of life, mocks at our religion and degrades our forefathers.’

They liked their way of life. They didn’t want it to change. They understood that what Mohammad called to, involved more than merely giving up their idols and pagan gods. It demanded more than individual acceptance and personal conviction. It would mean the restructuring of the whole of society, and no longer would the scales be tipped in their favor.

They, the tribal leaders, the rich traders, would no longer be the ones to set the rules of society. Instead the whole of life would be organized according to Allah’s commands. They didn’t care that Mohammad’s message was one of truth and justice, for the life of wealth and privilege they had built, rested on the oppression of the people.

Alarmed by the Message and fearful of its spread in Makkah and among the neighbouring Arab tribes, the Quraysh mobilized a hostile campaign against the Muslims, which persisted even when they migrated to Madina. Allah (SWT) tells us that this battle between truth and falsehood, between Islam and disbelief, is inevitable:

‘They (the disbelievers and the People of the Book) want to extinguish Allah’s Light (with which Muhammad  has been sent – Islamic Monotheism) with their mouths, but Allah will not allow except that His Light should be perfected even though the disbelievers hate (it). It is He Who has sent His Messenger with guidance and the Deen of truth (Islam), to make it superior over all religions even though the disbelievers hate (it).’ (9:32-33)

And this battle is ongoing… today it’s the Western powers who understand the threat Islam poses to their way of life, and are relentless in their efforts to hinder the revival of Islam as a system for regulating all of life’s affairs. Allah (SWT) tells us,

‘Verily, those who disbelieve spend their wealth to hinder (men) from the Path of Allah, and so will they continue to spend it; but in the end it will become an anguish for them. Then they will be overcome. And those who disbelieve will be gathered unto Hell. (8:36)

On and off I keep dipping into Sayyid Abul A ‘la Mawdudi’s ‘Four Key Concepts of the Quran’. I find the book to be quite enlightening as Mawdudi goes to great lengths to explain the meaning of four key concepts found in the Quran: Ilah, Raab, Ibadah, and Deen.

He clarifies that over time a decline in interest in the Arabic language, has led to subtle changes in how these terms have come to be understood. So today we do not understand them in the same manner as the original Arabs did, rather our grasp is restricted and vague.

So today,

Ilah means false gods or idols

Rabb means the Provider and Sustainer

Ibadah means ritualistic worship

Deen means religion

Mawdudi demonstrates that the Arabs, to whom the Quran was revealed, who knew their language well, understood the correct and full implication of these words. Those who accepted the call understood the change it sought to bring in their lives and what they had to discard in order to embrace the call, while those who rejected the call knew full well the implications of their failure to defeat it.

In his book, Mawdudi, attempts, with the support of Quranic ayats, to convey the complete significance of these terms so that we can correctly understand the message of the Quran.

He explains that the Arabic dictionary defines Ilah as that which is worshipped, and carries a host of connotations such as the one who is all powerful and exalted, the one who is the provider, protector and comforter, the one who is concealed from the senses and has a mysterious presence.

Mawdudi maintains that the pagan Arabs and past nations mentioned in the Quran, believed in the existence of a Supreme Ilah whom they called ‘Allah’. Their deviation lay in the fact that they believed others – idols made of stone and wood, angels, jinn and saints- had some share in the Supreme God’s Divinity. So they would made dua and offerings to these false gods thinking them to be capable of interceding on their behalf with Allah. This intervention they believed could result in some worldly benefit or ward off some harm.

Mawdudi elaborates that the Quran also uses this same word ilah when it refers to the Pagan Arabs following the orders of their own selfish desires, or of other human beings, such as their tribal chiefs and family elders, without caring to ascertain God’s rule on the matter. These ilah’s are in no way divine; no prayers or sacrificial offerings were offered to them, but the Quran nevertheless imparts divinity to them. They are ‘ilahs’ in the sense that they were looked upon as having the right to decide what was halal and haram, and what they dictated was accepted.

The Quran challenges this whole concept of ilah and makes clear that Allah is the only ilah. It asserts that Godhead can not be split and distributed, and Allah must be regarded as the only ilah in all the different meanings of the word. ‘Take not two ilahs in worship; He is but one ilah…’ (16:51)

Mawdudi elaborates that the Quran makes clear that there is only One Being in the heavens and on earth who possesses all power and authority. All creation is His and is bound by laws made by Him. Thus He alone has the power to alleviate hardship, listen to our prayers, grant us good and protect us from harm. Moreover, since everything owes their existence to Him and He is the sustainer and manager of all life, than He alone has the right to dictate what is right and wrong, halal and haram for the whole of creation. This is all part of Godhead and no one, for they all owe their existence to Him, can lay claim to any part of it.

Likewise, he explains that the word Rabb too has a wide range of meanings. It signifies the one who is the owner and master, the one who nourishes, rears and sustains, the one responsible for improving a situation, the one who is the sovereign, whose word is obeyed, and the one who occupies a focal position.

Mawdudi again stresses that the past nations who strayed did not deny that Allah was the Rabb. But as they had done with regards to the concept of ‘ilah’, they split and distributed its various connotations among the creation of Allah. Consequently they believed others -angels, celestial bodies, man-made gods, spirits, saints, or prophets- shared in Allah’s Rububiyah (qualities and attributes of one who is Rabb) and hence had the power to grant and protect. They refused to discard these other false gods whom they had elevated to the status reserved only for Allah, and so they refused to accept Allah as the Ilah and Rabb who alone deserved worship. Moreover, they took their chiefs, tribal elders, or religious clergy, as lawmakers allowing them to decide what was good or bad for them; believing they had no need for Divine guidance in running their worldly affairs. Allah sent prophets to correct their understanding; prophets who all stressed that what they ascribed to others was the exclusive right of Allah. Mawdudi highlights repeatedly that rububiyah is not divisible, ‘The Quran projects al- Rabb as an Absolute Sovereign with none to share His ownership and governance.’

We than learn that the word ibadah also has several meanings: slavery, bondage, submission, obedience and to show gratitude to the master for his favors. The pre-Islamic nations were quilty of making ibadah to their false ilah’s, be it in the form of ritualistic worship such as supplicating or praying to them or offering them sacrifice, or of accepting these false ilah’s had the right to lay down laws for regulating society. The Quran proclaims all these objects of worship and their ibadat to be wrong. Allah alone is the Lord of all that exists, He alone deserves to be worshipped and so all ibadah must be reserved exclusively for Him.

Mawdudi asserts that Muslims must understand ibadah to encompass all aspects of life whether spiritual or societal, and not just in the ritualistic sense of performing the five daily prayers, fasting, giving Zakat and performing Hajj. It points to a Master and slave relationship, wherein the Master has to be consulted prior to any action.

Lastly, Mawdudi explains the word deen, which also had several connotations among the Arabs. It meant supreme authority, obedience to that authority, laws imposed by that authority, accountability and reward or punishment meted out by the authority. He, however, notes that the word had not attained the status of a formal term until the advent of the Quran.

The Quran makes use of the word in all the varied ways the Arabs employed it, but it also uses deen as a term that comprehensively encapsulate all these various meanings to convey a whole way of life. Mawdudi notes that the Quran equates deen with a system of life wherein man accepts someone as having the ultimate authority and agrees to live by the laws laid down by that authority, hopeful of receiving benefit for complying with the law while fearful of punishment for not. If the laws that man lives by are from Allah than they are in His deen; but if governance belongs to a man-made system, be it a monarch, a priest or a scholar, and people accept that authority than they are followers of that authority’s deen. The Quran makes clear that Islam is the only true deen. Allah is the sole Sovereign, the only One who has the right to lay down rules and laws by which humans live their lives. No other system is acceptable to the Lord of the Universe.

Mawdudi illustrates with ayats from the Quran that deen encompasses more than ritualistic worship. It is an all embracing life system that covers belief, thoughts, rituals, morals, as well as all social, financial, and political aspects of life. He observes that it is difficult to find a word in any language that captures all the meanings summed up by the word deen. According to him, the closest word to deen, would be ‘a state’ meaning a system of governance, and even this word fails to do full justice.

Mawdudi stresses that our corrupted understanding of these terms has made the ‘Quranic intent obscure and difficult to understand’, resulting in obvious flaws in our belief and practices. He warns a person ‘may continue saying la ilaha illAllah – there is none but Allah- and still elevate a multitude of people and philosophies to divinity’ and it is important that these ‘primary concepts’ be fully explained so that we correctly grasp the concept of tawheed and shun its opposite shirk.