by The Right of Allah and The True Happiness
All praises be to Allah, Lord of the universe, peace and prayer of Allah be upon the leader of righteous men, our prophet, Muhammad, his family, and all of his companions.
Verily, there are plenty of Allah’s rights that must be fulfilled by His slaves, which are everything that He has ordered His slaves to do.
The greatest among Allah’s rights, in general, is tawheed, i.e., believing in the Oneness of Allah. As explained in Shahih Al Bukhari and Muslim.
From Mu’adz -may Allah be pleased with him-, he said, “When I was riding behind the Messenger of Allah – peace and prayer of Allah be upon him- on a camel named ‘ufair, the Messenger of Allah -peace and prayer of Allah be upon him- said, “O Mu’adz! Do you know the right of Allah that must be fulfilled by His slaves, and the right of His slave that must be fulfilled by Allah?”. I replied, “Allah and His messenger knows better.” He said, “Verily, the right of Allah that must be fulfilled by His slave is to worship Him and not associating any partner with Him (committing shirk). And the right of the slave that must be fulfilled by Allah is that He will not torture anyone who doesn’t commit shirk to Him.”
This great right is sincerity in worshipping Allah alone. This is the essence and the core of religion, which every matters sourced from it. In order to establish it, Allah sent down His messengers and His books. And to realize this aim either, that the messengers enjoined people, carried out jihad, and brought glad tidings. Allah the Glorified and Exalted decreed, which can be translated as,
“So serve only Allah, consecrating your devotion to Him. Lo, religion is exclusively devoted to Allah. Your religion is entirely consecrated to Him.” (QS Az-Zumar : 2-3)
“Yet all that they had been commanded was that they serve Allah, with utter sincerity, devoting themselves exclusively to Him, and that they establish Prayer and pay Zakah. That is the Right Faith.” (QS Al-Bayyinah : 5)
(By this explanation), then tawheed could be analogized as the foundation of a building.
Imam Ibn Al Qayyim -may Allah have mercy on him- said, “Whoever wants to build a tal building, then what he must do is to strengthen and reinforce together with a close supervision. Because the height of a building depends on the strength and robustness of the building’s foundation.
If the whole deeds and degrees are one building, then the foundation is the faith.. The knowledgeable one, will try to strengthen and reinforce the foundation of his building. Whereas the fool (will keep on) raising the height of his building without (paying attention) to its foundation. Thus what is very likely to happen is the crumbling down of his building.”
Then he explained about the principle (foundation), saying, “This principle (foundation) consists of two things: the first one is the correct knowledge about Allah, His orders, and all of His names and attributes, and the second one is the sincere obedience to Him and His messenger -peace and prayer of Allah be upon him-.
This is the very strong and robust foundation upon which a slave could construct his building. By this foundation, a slave could freely construct a building as high as he wants.
Therefore, strengthen the foundation, maintain its force, and keep watching it!..” (Refer to: “Al Fawaid” page 204).
As tawheed been analogized to a foundation of a building, then the first verse that could be found when someone recite the beginnings of the Qur’an is, (which can be translated as),
“O mankind, serve your Lord Who has created you as well as those before you; do so that you are saved. “ (QS Al-Baqarah : 21)
Then after that, Allah directly connected that verse with the verse that prohibits everything that goes against tawheed, which is shirk.
“Do not, then, set up rivals to Allah when you know (the truth).” (QS Al-Baqarah/The Cow : 22)
The Greatest Order from Allah is tawheed, and the severest prohibition is shirk
When our most evil of enemy, the cursed satan knew about this, he started to use all of his tricks and servants to turn Allah’s slaves; the preachers and whom they preached to, the scholars and the common people, away from tawheed, except those whom Allah bestow His mercy upon. Satan also turned them away from learning and practicing tawheed.
Satan and his servants tricked those slaves of Allah to think that they already knew about tawheed and persuaded them to leave the enjoin to tawheed with the reason that it loosen and break their unity. Or with the reason that men will not make any progress or improvement with it. Glorified be our Lord!
How could they hold on to these weak reasons which never be mentioned even once by the prophets and apostles of Allah?
It is because those prophets and apostles knew – by the knowledge that Allah bestowed upon them – that the meaning and the aim of their delegation to human being was so that they truly made their Lord The One.
The most prominent example for muslims is our own prophet, Muhammad -peace and prayer of Allah be upon him-. He never left tawheed whereas he himself practiced it devotedly. He never forgot tawheed although he was in the middle of the siege of the disbelievers of Mecca for three, very hard years.
He also never ceased to talk about it even though he already lived in Medina among his companions who always helped him.
He never closed the entrance to tawheed after the conquest of Mecca. He never, even the least, neglected it although he was in the middle of jihad against his enemies, or retreating (for the sake of war strategy, not to flee from it).
He never ceased to offer (to his companions) to perform tawheed and stay away from shirk at the time of their pledge before war. All of these examples are the indication
or the reason that points out the great importance and urgency of tawheed.
Even the prophets of Allah -peace be upon them- left the message of tawheed to people near the end of their lives, due to the importance of this order.
Indeed, the main focus of men during their lives are dissimilar. And it could only be known from them from the wills that they left for the living at the time their spirits are about to be taken out from their bodies.
Therefore, the prophets of Allah – peace be upon him- prioritized tawheed as their main focus. Allah the Glorified and Exalted decreed, which can be translated as,
“And Abraham enjoined the same upon his children, and so did Jacob: “My children! Behold, Allah has chosen this religion for you. Remain till death in submission (to Allah).” Why, were you witnesses when death came to Jacob? He asked his children: “Whom will you serve after me?” They said: “We shall serve your God, the God of your forefathers, Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac, the One God, and unto Him do we submit.”(QS Al-Baqarah/The Cow : 132-133)
The Most Excellent of A Person is the One Who preached monotheism and called people to it
It is because the enjoin of monotheism is the enjoin to the highest degree of faith. From Abu Huraira – may Allah be pleased with him-, the Prophet – peace and prayer of Allah be upon him- said, “The faith has 73 to 79 branches, or 63 to 69 branches. The most excellent of it is “Laa ilaaha illallaah” and the lowest in ranks of it is taking an obstacle away from a street, and bashfulness is a branch of faith.” (Narrated by Al Bukhari and Muslim).
Imam An Nawawi – may Allah have mercy on him- said, ” In this hadith, the Messenger of Allah – peace and prayer of Allah be upon him- warned us that indeed, the most excellent part is monotheism that exists within every human being, which other branches will not be valid until that greatest branch valid (the monotheism).” (Refer to: Shahih muslim bi syarhi an-nawawi (1/280)].
Monotheism is A Great Matter
It is suffice that the exaltation be offered to The Supreme in Exaltation alone, -Glorified be He.
Today, most of the muslims have suffered decadency and underestimated this matter (monotheism).
They thought that there are greater and more urgent things to focus on rather than this matter of monotheism. Thus we could find many of them took this matter lightly and didn’t position it as it deserved.
The people of today, upon encountering their brother who wore a bracelet charm to heal him from a disease, most of them wouldn’t deny that action.
But if they found their brother committing adultery or assassination, they would severely humiliate him, be harsh to him and greatly exaggerate it.
While it is true that adultery and assassination are major sins, and we are obliged to remember this fact, but the using of bracelet charm itself is a more severe and disgraced matter. Because in the creed of ahl sunnah wal jama’a, one who committed major sin but still believed in monotheism will not be tortured forever in hell. Instead, he will be under Allah’s wish. If Allah wished to forgive him, then He will forgive him. And if He wished to torture him, He will torture him.
Whereas the user of that bracelet charm for the treatment of his disease has committed shirk, whether it was minor or major shirk. If he wore it with a belief that it merely served as a causal to heal his disease, then this belief is considered as minor shirk. Whereas if he wore it with a belief that the bracelet itself that could cure him, then this belief is among the major shirk. One who committed it will forever be in hell, if he died still believing in this belief. We seek protection of Allah from it.
How could they put this most important matter behind anything, whereas the most among the important matters is monotheism, believing in the Oneness of The Lord of the universe, The Savior from the eternity in hell.
In one of the work of Ibn Abi Hatim, it was narrated from Hudzaifa -may Allah be pleased with him- that he saw a man wore a bracelet to heal his fever, then he cut it and recited the verse,
“And most of them believe in Allah only when they associate others with Him in His Divinity.” (Yusuf/Joseph: 106)
Then how could they assume that the matter of monotheism is a light and trivial one? How could the reason that monotheism is a natural tendency of human’s heart thus it doesn’t need further attention and learning, whereas today many who spreads slander directed to us from all directions and all corners, with the goal of destroying our creeds, the creeds of as-salafiyah (the follower of the pious predecessors, -ed).
Didn’t they hear a loud declaration of one of the leader of the sincere men, Abraham -peace be upon him- which reflected his great fear of being sunk into the brink of shirk.
” And call to mind when Abraham prayed: “My Lord! Make this city secure, and keep me and my sons away from worshipping the idols.” (Ibrahim/Abraham:35)
Ibrahim At Taimi said, “Then who else that could feel secure from the trial after the one dearest to Allah, Abraham, said,
“and keep me and my sons away from worshipping the idols.”?!”
Be careful and beware, O people of monotheism, from this incorrect assumption!
Verily, we could never feel enough in learning about monotheism and anything that goes against it, which is shirk.
The ignorance in shirk sometimes could sink a person in committing it, whether he knows about it or not.
As said by the leader of believers, Umar -may Allah be pleased with him-, “The knots of Islam will be untied one by one from the muslims if it is born in Islam, people who don’t know about matters of ignorance.”
When the knots of Islam has been untied from the muslims and they fall into the trap of shirk, then their worships will be rejected and they belong to the class of people who get a loss.
“(Tell them clearly that) it was revealed to you and to all Prophets before you: “If you associate any others with Allah in His Divinity, your works will surely come to naught and you will certainly be among the losers.” (Az Zumar:65)
Therefore, although this nation has reached perfection in the awareness of the Oneness of their Lord, there must be some shortages that’ll still left within human being.
The vilest of shortages is the shortage in sincerity and in underestimating monotheism. By this reason, the Messenger of Allah -peace and prayer of Allah be upon him- never ceased to warn people from the danger of shirk until the last days of his life. Whereas the muslims at that time had had reached the highest degree in making their Lord as The One (monotheism) and in unity among them.
Before his death, he -peace and prayer of Allah be upon him- said, “Remember! Verily, the nations before you had had made the grave of their prophets as mosque, and remember! Don’t you ever make any grave as mosque. Verily, I (Muhammad) prohibit you from that act.” (Narrated by Muslim).
This is the the most important of commands, so that his followers behind him wouldn’t neglect and forget about it.
Practice the monotheism, O people of it!
We should pay attention to the problem of monotheism with our earnest attention, by learning and teaching people about it, enjoining it and giving people warning regarding it.
By Allah, indeed, the faith, guidance, help, and happiness will never be achieved but by establishing monotheism and staying away from shirk.
“Those who believe and did not tarnish their faith with wrongdoing for them there is security, and it is they who have been guided to the right way.” (Al An’am/The Cattle:82)
It was narrated from Ibn Mas’ud -may Allah be pleased with him- that he said, “When the verse
‘Those who believe and did not tarnish their faith with wrongdoing for them there is security, and it is they who have been guided to the right way.”
was revealed (to the Prophet), the companions of the Messenger of Allah -peace and prayer of Allah be upon him- felt heavily burdened by it, thus they asked Allah’s apostle -peace and prayer of Allah be upon him-, “O Messenger of Allah! Who is among us that never commit any wrongdoing to himself?”. Thus the Messenger of Allah -peace and prayer of Allah be upon him- answered, “Indeed, the meaning of wrongdoing (in that verse) is not as you mean. Haven’t you read the saying of the pious servant of Allah (Luqman):
“My son, do not associate others with Allah in His Divinity. Surely, associating others with Allah in His Divinity is a mighty wrong.”
Indeed, the meaning of wrongdoing in that verse is shirk (associating others with Allah in His Divinity).” (Refer to: Musnad Imam Ahmad)
Author: Ustadz Abu Ahmad Said Yai, Lc.MA
(The first part of the book “‘Adzhdzhimuu Haqqallaahi Tuflihuu ‘Ibadallah‘” by Suha ‘Adil Hasan Da’waji, translated by Abu Ahmad Said Yai. May it be useful).
