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"ISLAM "
Brethren-in-Islam!
Today I shall describe to you the qualities of a Muslim. I shall
indicate the minimum conditions required to be fulfilled by a Muslim and what should a
man, at least do, to enable himself to be called a Muslim ?
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To understand the above point you should first of all know what is Kufr
and what is Islam. Kufr means refusal of man to carry out the commandments of God, and
Islam means obedience to God only and refusal to acknowledge all such systems, laws or
orders as are in contravention of the directions received from God. This contrast between
Islam and Kufr has been clearly described in the Qur'an. Allah says:
Whose judges not by that which Allah hath revealed: such are
unbelievers.
(Al-Qur'an 5:44)
Judging does not mean that only those cases which are brought before
the courts should be decided according to the Book of God. In fact, it means those
decisions which everybody arrives at in his life from time to time. So often does the
question arise before you whether to do a certain thing or not? In what manner should a
particular thing be done? Should this method be adopted in a certain affair or the other
method? For all such occasions, a method to come to a decision has been laid down in the
Book of God and in the Sunnah of His messenger, while the other opposite method is
indicated by selfish desires, ancestral customs or man-made systems and laws. Now if a
person sets aside the system propounded by God and decides to work according to some other
system, he, in reality, follows the path of Kufr. If he has been adopting the latter
course throughout his life, he is a complete Kafir. And if he obeys the directions of God
in some matters and, in some others, gives preference over these to selfish desires or
customs or man-made laws, then he is involved in Kufr to the extent he has rebelled
against the laws of God. Someone is half Kafir, someone fourth and someone one-tenth or
one-twentieth. In short, Kufr is there in proportion to the extent of rebellion against
the law of God. Islam is nothing except man's exclusive subservience to God. He is not at
all servant of his self, or his ancestors, or his family and tribe, or of the Maulvi Sahib
and Pir Sahib, or Zamidar Sahib, Tahsildar Sahib and Magistrate Sahib or of any other
person but of God alone. Allah says in the Qur'an : " O Prophet: Tell the people of
the scripture; Let us come to an agreement on a point which is identical between us and
you. That point is firstly that we shall worship none but Allah, secondly, we shall
ascribe no partner unto Him and, thirdly, none of us shall take a man as our Lord and
Master in the place of Allah. If they do not accept these three things then tell them to
bear witness that we are Muslims, i.e. we accept all these three things.:"
(Al-Qur'an 3:64)
" Do they want to be obedient to others than Allah when unto Him submitteth whosoever
is in the heavens and the earth, willingly, or unwillingly, and unto Him they will be
returned." (Al-Qur'an 3:83) In both these verses only one doctrine has been propounded, i.e.
the real religion consists of obedience and submission to God. Worshipping of God does not
mean simply to bow before Him five times a day. In fact, it means that His commandments
should be carried out at all times during day and night. You should abstain from what He
has forbidden and do as He has commanded. Check up in every matter as to what is the
commandment of God about it. Never take into account what your own heart desires, what
your intellect suggests, what your forefathers used to do, what your family and relations
prefer, what have the Maulvi Sahib and the Pir Sahib to say in the matter, what does this
person order and what would please the other person. If you followed any other person's
behest leaving aside God's commandments, it would amount to making him partner in Godhood.
It would mean you gave him that status which exclusively belongs to God. It is God alone
Who gives orders. " The giving of orders is for Allah only."
(Al-Qur'an 6:57). Worthy of
worship is He alone Who has created you and on whose support you are keeping alive.
Everything in the heavens and the earth obeys Him. No stone obeys another stone. No tree
obeys another tree. No animal obeys another animal. Then, are you worse than animals,
trees and stones that they obey only God and you obey human beings leaving aside God ?
This is the point which has been explained in the above two verses.
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Now I want to tell you wherefrom do Kufr and heresy actually emanate.
The Holy Qur'an tells us that this cursed evil raises its head through three sources :
The first source are the desires of man's own Self: " And who goes
farther astray than he who follows his lust in the place of guidance from Allah. Lo! Allah
guides not such oppressors." (Al-Qur'an
28:50) It means that the greatest factor to misguide man
are his own corporeal urges. It is quite impossible for one to become a slave of God while
he submits himself to his corporal urges. He will constantly be looking out as to which
work will fetch him money, which undertaking will bring fame and honour, which pursuits
will give him pleasure and gratification, and what will provide him with comfort and ease.
In short, he will adopt all those ways which will fulfil these objects, no matter if God
forbids these activities. And he will never do anything which will not achieve these
objects, though God may have ordered him to do that thing. So the God of such a person as
his own Self and not the Almighty Allah. As such, how can he get the benefit of guidance.
This point has been explained in the following verse at another place in the Qur'an:
"( O Prophet) Hast thou seen him who chooses for his god his own lust? Would thou be
guardian over him? Or deem thou that most of them hear or understand? They are but as the
cattle---nay, but they are farther astray." (Al-Qur'an
25:43&44) To be a servant of lust is
worse than to be a cattle is a fact which admits of no doubt. You will never find an
animals who will overstep the limits set out by God. Every animal eats whatever has been
fixed by God for it. It performs only those functions which are allotted to each and every
animal. But man is such an animal that when he becomes subservient to his lust, he commits
such acts as would make Satan shudder.
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The above is the first way of being led astray. The second way is to
become servile to the customs and usages, beliefs and notions, rites and ceremonies of
forefathers and regard these as superior to God's commandments. And when these
commandments are cited the transgressor would insist that he will only follow what his
forefather did, and will carry on the usages of his family and tribe. How can one who is
suffering from this disease be a servant of God? His gods are forefathers, family and
tribe. What right has he to make the false claim that he is a Muslim ? A severe admonition
has been given in this respect also in the Qur'an:- " And when it is said unto them:
Follow that which Allah has revealed, they say : We follow that wherein we found our
fathers. What! Even though their fathers were wholly unintelligent and had no guidance
?" (Al-Qur'an 2:170) At another place it is said : "
And when it is said unto them : Come
unto that which Allah has revealed and unto the messenger, they say : Enough for us is
that wherein we found our fathers. What ! Even though their fathers had no knowledge
whatsoever, and had no guidance? O ye who believe; ye have charge of your own souls. He
who errs cannot injure you if ye are rightly guided. Unto Allah ye will all return; and
then He will inform you of what ye used to do." (Al-Qur'an
5:104&105). This evil of going
astray is such that ignorant people of every age have been afflicted by it. It has always
prevented them from accepting the guidance of the messengers of God. When Moses had
invited people towards God's Shari’ah then also they had said : " Hast thou come
unto us to prevent us from that (faith) in which we found our fathers."
(Al-Qur'an 10 : 79)
When Abraham had dissuaded his tribesmen from polytheism, they too had said :"
We
found our fathers worshippers of these very gods." (Al-Qur'an
21 : 53) Thus people has put up
this same plea against every prophet : "What you say is contrary to the practice of
our forefathers and this is why we do not accept it". So it is said in the Qur'an:
" And even so We sent not a Warner before thee (Muhammad) into any township but its
luxurious ones said : We found our fathers following a religion, and we are following
their footprints. ( And the Warner ) said : What ! Even though I bring you better guidance
than that ye found your fathers following? They answered : Lo; in what ye bring we are
disbelievers. So We required them. Then see the nature of the consequence for the
rejecters." (Al-Qur'an 43:23-25 ). After stating all these facts the Almighty Allah says that
either follow your forefathers or carry out Our injunctions. Both these things cannot
co-exist. If you want to be Muslim you will have to give up all extraneous things and obey
what We have commanded. " And if it be said unto
them : Follow that which Allah hath revealed, they say: Nay, but we follow that
wherein we found our fathers. What ! Even though the devil were inviting them
unto the doom of flame? Whosever surrendereth his purpose to Allah while doing
good, he verily hath grasped the firm hand-hold. Unto Allah belongeth sequel of
all things. And whosoever disbelieveth, let not his belief afflict thee (O
Muhammad). Unto Us is their return, and We shall tell them what they did."
(Al-Qur'an 31:21-23)
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This was the second inroad of heresy. The third way, as stated in the
Qur'an, is that a man, leaving aside God's commandments, starts obeying orders of others
under various concepts, e.g. such and such a person is a big man, so his word will be
out-and-out good, or since my livelihood depends on that person, so I should carry out his
wishes, or because that person exercises great authority, so he should be obeyed, or
because that person will ruin me by his curses or will take me to Paradise with him, so
only what he says is correct, or because that particular nation is making great progress,
so its methods should be adopted. In such a case the door of Divine guidance is closed to
him. " If thou obeyedst most of those on earth they would mislead thee far from
Allah's way." (Al-Qur'an 6:117) This means that man can be on the right path only when he has
faith in one God. How can one find the correct path when he has contrived hundreds and
thousands of gods and has naturally to obey sometimes this god and sometimes that god. Now
you have come to know that there are three big reasons of going astray.
First: Servitude of Self.
Second: Servitude to the customs of forefathers, family and tribe.
Third: Servitude to the people in general in which are
included wealthy persons, rulers of the time, bogus religious leaders, nations gone astray and all other
such elements.
These are the three formidable idols who pose as deities. Whoso wants
to become a Muslim, he must first break these three idols. Then alone he will become a
genuine Muslim. Otherwise, whoever has stationed these three idols in his heart, it is
difficult for him to become a slave of God. By offering Salah fifty times a day, by
observing fasts for ostentation, and by putting on the face of a Muslim, he may deceive
his fellow-beings as also his ownself assuming to be a real Muslim, but he cannot deceive
God.
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Brethren ! To be a slave of the three idols I have spoken to you about
today is real Shirk. You have broken the idols of stone, demolished the temples built of
bricks and mortar, but paid little attention to the temples built within your breasts. To
break these idols is most essential, nay it is the foremost condition to become a Muslim.
Although I am addressing all the Muslims, and I am sure whatever loss the Muslims of the
world as well as those of India are suffering is the result of worshipping these
idols--but because Punjabi brethren are at present before me I have particularly to tell
them that the root of all their ruination, humiliation and calamity are these very three
things I have just mentioned. You are more than fifteen million in this land of the
Punjab. You are more than half of the population of this province and the rest belong to
other communities. But in spite of being such a big community you have no weight of your
own. Some numerically far smaller communities than you are weighty. Think over its reason?
Its only reason is that by being slave to Nafs, to family customs and to human beings,
leaving aside God, your strength has been sapped from within.
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You have amongst you Rajputs, Gakhars, Mughuls, Jats and many other
communities. Islam had asked all these communities to become one community, be a brother
unto each other and get cemented like a solidly built wall of compact bricks. But you are
still clinging to the old Hindu ideas. Just as there are separate castes among Hindus, in
the same manner you are still split into separate tribes. You do not intermarry like
Muslims. There is no relationship of brotherhood and fraternity between each other.
Verbally you call each other Muslim brothers but in reality you observe all those
distinctions which were prevalent before Islam. These distinctions have prevented you from
becoming a strong wall. Each and every brick of yours is disjointed. You can neither rise
together nor face a calamity together. If you are asked, in accordance with Islamic
teachings, to break these distinctions and become one again, what do you reply? Just the
same one point: " We cannot break the customs which have come down from our
forefathers". What answer is given by God to this retort? Only this : " You may
not break these customs and you may not give up following the rites of Hindus. We shall
also break you into pieces and shall put you to disgrace and dishonour in spite of your
numerical superiority."
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Allah had commanded you that your sons and daughters are all entitled
to inheritance. The answer you give to it is: " According to the law of our
forefathers only sons and not daughters are entitled and we recognise the law of our
forefathers in the place of the law of God." For God's sake tell me if this is Islam?
When you are asked to break this ancestral law, every body from amongst you says that when
all others will break it, you will also break it, as otherwise if others did not give a
share to their daughters and you gave it then your wealth will go to others and the wealth
of others will not come to your home. Just consider what does this reply mean? Will the
law of God be obeyed on this condition that when others will obey it then you will also
follow suit. Tomorrow you will say: "If others commit adultery, I shall also do it,
if others commit theft, I shall also steal. In short, till such time as others do not give
up sinning, I shall continue to commit all sins". The actual fact is that in this
matter all the three above-mentioned idols are being worshipped. There is servitude of
Self, servitude of forefathers, and servitude of polytheist nations. And along with all
these three evils, there is also the claim that you yet belong to Islam ! These are only
two examples. Otherwise if the situation is looked at with open eyes, countless diseases
like this will be found rampant within you. And in all these you will find that somewhere
there is worship of one idol, somewhere of two and somewhere of three. While these idols
are being worshipped and along with it Islam is also being claimed, then how do you expect
that Allah will shower His blessing on you which has been promised only to true Muslims?
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