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Friday, 21 May 2021

Believers !! be not like those who forget Allah


Ask any believers "Do you remember Allah all the times?" and his instant reply would be  "Sure, why not." But the reality is just the opposite. Many of us forget Allah most of the time, specially when we are showered by bounties and blessings of Allah and we attribute our success to our hard work. Some even attribute this success to their worldly deities which the revere, even when some are dead. This happens specially for the Muslims of some countries of Middle East and India, Pakistan  to Bangladesh. It is only when a calamity or setback hits, do we remember Allah and invoke His infinite mercy to take us out of the mess we may be in.

Here it may be added that even one's children and families sometimes take one away from remembering Allah, which is reminded to man in the 9th verse of Surah 63 Al-Munafiqun, mentioned after the selected verse of the day.

By doing so, we forget that to forget Allah is to forget the only Eternal Reality. None other than He Who can avert any disaster or setback when it it hits it.  The following 19th verse of Surah. 59 Al Hashr reminds believers that if the forget Him, He will forget them and they will be treated as the defiantly disobedient:

وَلَا تَكُوۡنُوۡا كَالَّذِيۡنَ نَسُوا اللّٰهَ فَاَنۡسٰٮهُمۡ اَنۡفُسَهُمۡ​ؕ اُولٰٓـئِكَ هُمُ الۡفٰسِقُوۡنَ‏ 
( 19 )   And be not like those who forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves. Those are the defiantly disobedient.
That is, forgetfulness of God inevitably leads to forgetfulness of one's own self. When man forgets that he is slave to the Almighty, he will inevitably form a wrong view of his position in the world, and his whole life will go wrong because of this basic error. Likewise, when he forgets that he is slave to nobody except Allah, he does not serve the one whose slave actually he is not. This also is a grave and all-pervading misunderstanding, which corrupts his whole life. Man's real position in the world is that of a slave; he is not free and self-sufficient; and he is slave of only One God, and is no one else's slave beside Him. The person who, in not know this truth, does not in fact know himself. And the person who in spite of knowing this, forgets it at any moment, may commit an act at that very moment, which a disbeliever, or a polytheist or a man forgetful of God only would commit. Man's remaining firm and steadfast on the right path entirely depends on his remembering God at all times. For as soon as he, becomes heedless of Him. he becomes heedless of himself and this very heedlessness turns him into sinfulness. 
Yousaf Ali notes that Riches and human resources of all kinds are but fleeting sources of enjoyment. They should not turn away the good man from his devotion to Allah. "Remembrance of Allah" includes every act of service and goodness, every kind thought and kind deed, for this is the service and sacrifice which Allah requires of us. If we fail in this, the loss is our own, not any one else's: for it stunts our own spiritual growth.
Tafsir Ibn-Kathir: Do not forget the remembrance of Allah, the Exalted, otherwise, He will make you forget to perform the good deeds that benefit you in your return, because the recompense is equated with the action. 

This is why Allah the Exalted said, (أُولَـئِكَ هُمُ الْفَـسِقُونَ Those are the rebellious.) referring to those who rebel against obedience to Allah, who will earn destruction on the Day of Resurrection and failure upon their return. 

At another place, the same warning is aired in the 9th verse of Surah 63Al-Munafiqun:

يٰۤاَيُّهَا الَّذِيۡنَ اٰمَنُوۡا لَا تُلۡهِكُمۡ اَمۡوَالُكُمۡ وَلَاۤ اَوۡلَادُكُمۡ عَنۡ ذِكۡرِ اللّٰهِ​ۚ وَمَنۡ يَّفۡعَلۡ ذٰلِكَ فَاُولٰٓـئِكَ هُمُ الۡخٰسِرُوۡنَ‏  
(63:9) O you who have believed, let not your wealth and your children divert you from remembrance of Allah. And whoever does that - then those are the losers.
Now a word of admonition is being addressed to all those people, who have entered Islam, whether they are true and sincere believers, or those who profess the faith merely verbally. As we have explained at several places above. the words alladhina amanu in the Qur'an are sometimes used to address the true believers and sometimes to address the hypocrites, for they profess the faith only with the tongue, and sometimes to address the Muslims of all kinds in general The context itself shows which group is the audience at a particular place. 
The mention of the possessions and the children, in particular, has been made, for man mostly turns away from the demands of the faith for the sake of their well-being and interests and becomes involved in hypocrisy, weakness of faith, or wickedness and disobedience; otherwise it implies everything of the world that allures and absorbs man so completely that he becomes heedless of the remembrance of God. This heedlessness in respect of the remembrance of God is indeed the root cause of all evil. If man only remembers that he is not free but the servant of One God, and that God is fully aware of all his actions and deeds, and he will by held accountable one day before Him for all his actions and deeds, he would never be involved in any deviation and wickedness, and if ever he commits an error due to a human weakness, he will immediately rectify it as soon as he comes to realize his wrongdoing and repent. 
You may like to listen to prominent Muslim scholar Nouman Ali Khan explaining the above said ayah:

May Allah help us remember Him all the time and let not our worldly gains and success or love of our children divert our attention away from remembering Him. May Allah help us understand Qur'ān and help us to act upon the commandments of Allah contained therein. Aameen.

For more Selected Verses, please refer to our reference page: Selected Verses from the Qur'anYou may also refer to our Reference Pages for knowing more about Islam and Qur'ān.
Photo | Reference:  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
Reading the Qur'ān should be a daily obligation of a Muslim - Reading it with translation will make it meaningful. But reading its Exegesis / Tafsir will make you understand it fully.

An effort has been made to gather explanation / exegesis of the surahs of the Qur'ān from authentic sources and then present a least possible condensed explanation of the surah. In that:
  • The plain translation has been taken from the Qur'ān officially published by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. [1]
  • The exegesis of the chapters of the Quran is mainly based on the "Tafhim al-Qur'an - The Meaning of the Qur'an" by one of the most enlightened scholars of the Muslim World Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi. [2]  
In order to augment and add more explanation as already provided by [2], additional input has been interjected from following sources: 
  • Towards Understanding the Quran
  • Tafsir Ibn Khatir
  • Muhammad Asad Translation
  • Al-Quran, Yusuf Ali Translation
  • Javed Ahmad Ghamidi / Al Mawrid
  • Verse by Verse Qur'an Study Circle
In addition the references of  other sources which have been explored have also been given above. Those desirous of detailed explanations and tafsir (exegesis), may refer to these sites.

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1 comments:

Written with ease and eloquence. Most important issue which the blogger has taken into account. Informative and enlightening.

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