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The Islamic Bulletin
Issue 18
by
A
qil
A
bdul
B
aseer
Imagine your-
self
driving
along
the
road merely
truing to get
from point “A”
to point “B”:
You
notice,
with no more
than a curso-
ry glance, the
usual billboard
advertisements
offering you
n u m e r o u s
goods or ser-
vices in exchange for your well earned capital. Unmoved by the
many “meet or beat” pricing slogans or the “no interest or pay-
ments until next year” marketing schemes, you continue to drive
on. There is no large print offering you something free, until you
read the fine print and notice that there is a catch. This one offers
you much more than you ever dreamed or imagined. You say to
yourself, “Only a fool would refuse such a deal.” You then decide
learn more; in big, bold letters, the sign reads in part:
“O you who believe! Shall I lead you to a bargain that will
save you from a grievous chastisement?” (Holy Quran 61:10)
Dear Believers, although imagery is used to introduce our topic,
the offer is real. Allah praises and glorified is He, proposes a
“business deal,” of sorts, to the believers. Most, if not all of us,
have engaged in a business transaction of one kind or another
at some point in our lives. It may have been as simple as trading
baseball cards, buying some milk from a store, to negotiating a
car deal, yet and still these are all forms of “business deal”.
For many of us the impetus behind most of our “business
transactions” is to make a profit. We desire to get more for our
money. Unless we’re “impulse buying” we will shop around
for the best deal or some of us go after bargains with such a
zeal, that we are labeled as “bargain hunters”. Just what is a
“bargain”? A bargain is commonly understood as an advanta-
geous purchase. Webster’s 10th Edition Collegiate Dictionary
defines the word bargain as an agreement between parties
settling what each gives or receives in transaction between
them or what course of action or policy each pursues in re-
spect to the other. (Emphasis mine)
But what if one of the parties seeks to make no profit whatsoever.
He only wills to give the other patty the “better end of the stick”?
This is the case with Allah. No matter what He gives or re-
ceives neither increases decrease what he has. In a Hadith
Qudsi (Sacred Hadith) Allah says:
“O My servants, you can not seek to harm Me, and you can
not seek to benefit Me. O My servants, were the first of you
and the last of you, the human of you and the jinn of you,
to be as pious as the most pious heart of any one man of
you, that would not increase My Kingdom in anything. O
my servants, were the first of you and the last of you, the
human of you and the jinn of you to be as wicked as the
most wicked heart of any one man of you that would not
decrease My Kingdom in anything. O my servants, were the
first of you and the last of you, the human of you and the
jinn of you, to rise up in one place and make a request of
Me, and were I to give everyone what he requested. That
would not decrease what I have, any more than a needle
decrease the sea if put into it.”
So the benefit is entirely ours. As mentioned above, Allah says:
“O you who believe! Shall I lead you to a bargain that will
save you from a grievous chastisement?”
He says to the believers; “Hal adullukum alaa
tijaaratin…”
He puts it in the form of a question. He gives the individual
believer the choice whether or not to choose to be led to the
bargain - as with all choice.
As with all things in the lives of men, Allah does not compel us to
do anything. So He asks the believer, Shall I “adullukum,” lead
you, guide you, or point out to you a “tunjeekun,” save you,
rescue you and deliver you. Deliver us from what? “Adhaabin
aleem.” The Arabic word “aleem” means excruciating, painful,
grievous, and sad. The Arabic words “adhaabin” means: pain,
torment, suffering, agony, torture, punishment, etc. Allah implies
that acceptance and fulfillment of this bargain will save us from
an excruciating punishment. This is no ordinary deal.
So here we have it. Allah is proposing to us, a transaction that
will prove to be so beneficial for us that it will delivers from
the pain and suffering of the Hellfire. As with anyone faced
with a deal that seems too good to be true, we want to know,
“Where’s the catch?”
What must we do? Allah says that there are essentially two basic things
that we must do in order to reap the full measure of this deal. Allah says:
“That you believe in Allah and His Messenger, and that you
strive (you utmost) in the cause of Allah with your wealth and
your persons.”
Here Allah says: “tu’minuna billahi wa rasoolihi.” the Arabic
word “tu’minuna” is derived from the word “amuna” which
means: he was faithful, reliable, and trustworthy. In the above
context it means to place our complete faith, reliance, and trust
in the ability, strength, and truth of Allah. The belief in Allah is
to believe that strength, and truth of Allah. The belief in Allah is
to believe the He is one, having no partners. This is known in
Al-Islam as “Tawheed”. “Tawheed” is the most important aspect
of all the beliefs in Al-Islam. We must purify our hearts of any and
all other “gods” or objects of worship. Once we have done this,
faith in Allah can take root and blossom in our very souls.
Knowledge of Allah and belief in Him is the first and most import-
ant aspect in the edification of Al-Islam. To establish and strengthen
our faith in Allah we must learn and study His Attributes. We must
come to know Him as He describes Himself. We cannot truly know
Allah without becoming acquainted with His attributes. We must
place complete faith is His attributes. When we come to know that
He is all-seeing, all-hearing, all-knowing, and all-powerful, we must
place full confidence in the fact that this is true. We must not doubt.
Believing in Allah knows that all manners of worship and service are
to be directed to Him and Him alone.
Allah says, in this verse, that belief does not stop there. After saying:
“tu’minuna billahi,” He says: “warasoolihi.” That we must also be-
lieve in His Messenger (PBUH). Notice that Allah said that believe in
Allah and his messenger that means we must believe in Allah and his
messenger together not separately. To deny one is to deny the other.
This is not to say that Prophet (PBUH) has equal rank or status
with Allah, no, it is merely suggesting that belief in Prophet
Muhammad is so essential that disbelief in prophet, disbelief
in Allah’s veracity, and also His Book, the Holy Quran. It is
through His Holy Book that Allah tells us to believe in Proph-
et Muhammad (PBUH). Disbelief as well as obedience in the
Prophet (PBUH) amounts to rejecting faith. Allah says:
“But know by thy lord they can have no Faith until they
make thee judge in all disputes between them. And find in
their souls no resistance against thy decision, and accept
them with the fullest conviction.” (Holy Quran 4:65)
“O you who believe! Believe in Allah and his messenger and the scrip-
ture, which he has sent to His messenger, and the scripture which He
sent down to those before (him). And whosoever disbelieves in Allah,
His angles, His books, Hismessengers, and theDay of Judgment, then
indeed he has strayed far away.” (Holy Quran 4:136)
“O mankind! The messenger hath come to you in truth from
Allah: So believe in him, it is best for you. But if you disbelieve,
then certainly to Allah belong all things in the heavens and on
earth: and Allah is all-knowing, all-wise. (Holy Quran 4:170)
“It is not fitting for a believer, man or woman, when a
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