The choice of obedience and rebelliousness Friday, 05 November 2010 04:46

slam tells man who he is, what his position and function in the universe is and where he is going. Man is a created being living in a created universe. He belongs to his Creator and Master. He is an abd or slave of Allah like everything else in the universe. But his Creator and Master has given this puny creature in the huge universe a special position, the position of the khalifah or steward on earth. And just as every faithful slave obeys his master and discharges the duties assigned to him, man as the slave of Allah must obey Him and discharge his assigned duties. Like every honest and sincere representative man must faithfully fulfill his trust. This is what worship is. The range and compass of worship is as vast as life itself. No region of man’s life is outside its domain.

However, man has been given the freedom to obey his Lord and fulfill his trust or not. In this, man is unlike the rest of creation. Every other creature obeys Allah and never deviates from the course set for it. Man has been given a choice, the choice to be obedient to his Lord or to be rebellious. But man has also been told that his freedom has stupendous implications for him. His life in this world is a test. His Lord wants to see whether man chooses to live a life of obedience or of rebellion and one day He will judge man for his choice.

To set the stage for this unique event the Lord of the universe has fixed a day to bring this familiar order of the universe to an end. He will then gather together in a vast assembly every human being that ever lived in this world. No man can avoid or delay the coming of that Momentous Day.

Death does not bring an end to man’s life. It only ushers him into another life in another world of a different order where he will stand face to face with his Lord. In that new world the little freedom man enjoyed in this life will be taken away. He will be entirely in the hands of his Lord. Then man will have to give him an account of the use he made of his life and the gifts and bounties of the world placed at his disposal by his Lord. The accounting will be absolutely thorough. Nothing that man has felt, thought or done will be left out. There will be no shortage of witnesses to testify for or against him. None will have the capacity to deny, distort or falsify evidence. It will be an unprecedented judgment on an unprecedented scale. It will be a grim day for man. Each person will then be either rewarded or punished by his Lord on the basis of the use he made of his freedom in this life - whether he chose to be obedient to his Lord or rebellious. Both the reward and the punishment will be great beyond anything he can imagine. Man will then find his final home, Jannah or Jahannam, whichever he deserves, to live for ever.

That will be the greatest day of truth and reality for man. The scales will fall from his eyes. That will be the day of his fullest awakening. He will know without the least doubt or confusion what he really was, what real success and true joy is, and what real failure and true misery is. He will know what truly is real and what is false and illusory. He will see what he built for himself throughout his whole life as his final abode, an abode of bliss or of misery. He will realize how all his life he was engaged in creating his own destiny he now finds.

Certainly it is true that Allah is also merciful and can forgive anyone. But that is His sole prerogative. He will forgive whom He pleases. No one knows who those fortunate ones will be.

There is nothing incredible about any of this. The Being who staged the creation of man and this universe can stage anything. He can create and recreate anything anytime in any form or manner. He only has to will it.

This is akhirah in Islam. It gives true sense and meaning to man’s life. It brings man full circle and puts together all the puzzles of his life. The picture is then complete.

All his life man desperately yearns for permanence, yearns for something he loves and cherishes to stay with him. But he finds instead that everything passes away; time devours everything. That yearning of man for permanence is fulfilled now, fulfilled in a way man could never conceive. He finds now that the hardships, the deprivations, the insults and humiliations he suffered, the sacrifices he made to remain on the path of virtue have all been miraculously stored and nourished and finally wonderfully transformed by his Lord to give him joy and satisfaction. Nothing has been lost.

Third, Islam clearly shows man how he can obey Allah and discharge his obligations as Allaha’s khalifah. His Lord has been most merciful and has not left man in darkness to puzzle over these tremendously crucial matters. He can proceed through the journey of his life with confidence and hope. He only needs to turn to the Quran, the Book of Guidance from Allah for man, and to Muhammad (PBUH), the final Messenger of Allah.

Together, the Quran and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) offer man a detailed programme for his life. What the Quran says in principle or briefly outlines, Prophet explained in detail and put into practice in his own life, inviting others to emulate him. As the Prophet was appointed by Allah he was fully qualified for this task. No one has read the Quran better than he, nor ever will. No one has lived by the guidance of the Quran better than he, nor ever will. There are chambers in the Quran that he alone had the key to open. No one comprehended the will of Allah better than he.

Thus to follow Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) examples is to obey the will of Allah in the best possible way. The Lord of man has been immeasurably kind in providing His Messenger as a perfect model for us to follow in love and gratitude, and preserving every detail of that model’s words and deeds. Man can follow him throughout the course of his daily life to its end, secure in the knowledge that he is on the path of obedience to his Lord, the path of His pleasure, and of his own success in this life and in the next.

The programme of life that Islam offers man is a comprehensive one of balance and harmony. It has mapped out the entire journey of man from birth to death, leading to the gate of eternity. It takes into account man’s relationship with his Creator and Master, his relationship with his teacher, the Messenger of Allah with himself, and with other human beings, and with all the rest of Allah’s creation, animate and inanimate, and shows him the practical and most effective way to maintain those relationships. It has ample space for the nourishment of his inner spirit as well as his outer life of action. By following this programme, man can cleanse himself of all impurities and elevate his life to its ideal essence. This is the means by which he can build his life of peace and hope.

To be continued

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