Friday 20 March 2020

O Muslims - 6


In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

208. Ya ayyuha allatheena amanoo odkhuloo fee alssilmi kaffatan wala tattabiAAoo khutuwati alshshaytani innahu lakum AAaduwwun mubeenun

2:208. O those who believe! Get into Islam thoroughly365, 366, and follow not Satan's footsteps. He indeed is an open enemy to you.367

365. The original Arabic phrase could also be translated as 'Surrender yourselves completely to Allah'. Complete surrender to Allah would inter alia mean adherence to all applicable Qur'aanic commands.
366. Once a cyber-friend told me that it wasn't practical to do everything that the Qur'aan asks us to do. It was enough to adhere to as many Qur'aanic commands – from among those applicable – as it was practically possible. This view is a negation of this Verse we are presently studying. The Satan it is that subtly induces man to entertain such views to lead him astray. That's why the Verse further advises man not to follow the Satan's footsteps. He (the Satan) arrogantly (see Verse 7:12) thought it wasn't possible for him to follow one of Allah's commands to him – to bow before Adam!
367. In Verse 2:168 there is a similar divine instruction not to follow Satan's footsteps as 'he is to you an open enemy.' The instructions there were in the context of consuming lawful and wholesome things. One of the food items that are prohibited is 'that which is consecrated to someone other than Allah' [Verse 2:173]. This category of prohibited food could include items distributed as tabarruk from the shrine of a peer or saint. The association of the saint with the food makes the latter consecrated to 'someone other than Allah'. Consumption of such food in the belief that it specially benefits the consumer, is a manifest sin of shirk. It (the belief) betrays the consumer's blasphemous assumption that the peer or saint partners with Allah in granting special benefits in the act of eating the tabarruk. Satan, the avowed enemy of man, misleads the consumers in making them think that they are doing nothing wrong.

Friday, the 20th of March 2020.

No comments:

Post a Comment