The Organizing Thread In The Book Of God — Part 8
Maybe if you sit in one of the gatherings and ask people the definition of “good companionship”? Perhaps people’s definitions are going around the characteristics of success in life, especially after the glamorous Western perspective of the concept of (self-development) the physical standards in the view of life and success.
But the Qur’an is found in Surah Al-Kahf (Cave), a fantastic definition of a good companion; God says to his messenger Muhammad- peace be upon him:
And keep yourself patient [by being] with those who call upon their Lord in the morning and the evening, seeking His countenance. And let not your eyes pass beyond them, desiring adornments of the worldly life, and do not obey one whose heart We have made heedless of Our remembrance and who follows his desire and whose affair is ever [in] neglect. [Cave, 28]
I ask you; Do you find today in our intellectual books, conversations, and speeches which can distinguish personality in this definition?!
See how Surah Al-Kahf (Cave) determines the “characteristic” of the prestigious person.
He who “calls his Lord in the morning and evening”...
We have become at the time that we are away from the facts of the Qur’an!
And when God commanded Moses — peace be upon him — with the message, Moses asked God to appoint with him a minister; which is his brother Harun to carry with him the message and deliver it to the Egyptian pharaoh, but what is the farthest message than this cooperation among the brothers?
See how Moses explains the use of his brother Harun in Surah Taha:
( 29 ) And appoint for me a minister from my family — ( 30 ) Aaron, my brother. ( 31 ) Increase through him my strength. ( 32 ) And let him share my task. ( 33 ) That we may exalt You much. ( 34 ) And remember You much. [Taha, 29–34]
You will notice this fantastic attendance to (remembrance of God) in the structure of the message,
Moses says to his Lord, make me Harun to remember you so much! To praise and mention God!
Are we ended up at this point?
No, but God sends Moses and Harun to Pharaoh and assures them again not to stop their tongues in the remembrance of God.
Go, you and your brother, with My signs, and do not slacken in My remembrance. [Taha, 42]
Moussa wants to minister his brother to cooperate on the praise of God and mention him, and their Lord will send him and say don’t get enough, do not weaken, and do not stop remembering Me.
Note the gross task that will be to be able to face a tapered system in history by provoking his pride. However, God says to them, “don’t stop remembering your God”...
If today some preachers advised the revolutionaries against the Arab governments to increase their (remembrance of God), many of those surprised would count that as stubbornness and naivety!
Although Moses makes the remembrance of God an umbrella for his great mission, God, the Majestic, assures them that they do not abandon the remembrance.
What is the most contemporary evidence of the alienation of the concepts of the Qur’an, and the fact that many young Muslims have distanced themselves from it, except for those who God has guided…
Then the Qur’an speaks in Surat Al-Hajj about the way the believer receives the verses of revelation, and that what is required is not only the implementation of the provisions of the Qur’an but that another meaning must be established in the heart by which “the humiliation of slavery” appears to God Almighty, which is the heart’s tenderness upon receiving the Qur’an. God says:
And so those who were given knowledge may know that it is the truth from your Lord and [therefore] believe in it, and their hearts humbly submit to it. And indeed is Allah the Guide of those who have believed to a straight path. [Hajj, 54]
Some of the Qur’an interpreters have mentioned that the meaning of “humbly submit to” here is “that the Qur’an softened their hearts.”
Then the path moves us to Surat Al-Muminoon (The Believers), in which there is a beautiful scene of building souls with God because many people imagine that the believer must fear God in the case of (disobedience), as for the state of (obedience), many minds are astonished from the position of fear of God.
But the balance of the Qur’an differs radically. It wants the people of faith excited and anxious in all cases, attached to their Creator.
Consider how the Qur’an depicts the believer while he is at the moment of righteous deeds:
And they who give what they give while their hearts are fearful because they will be returning to their Lord. [The Believers, 60]
The Man extends his hand with charity, and his heart trembles from God!
By God, have you seen a turn to God and bewilderment at anything else more than that?!
If this is what the Qur’an requires, the state of (obedience), then what is the state of (sin)?!
And in Surat Al-Nur (Light), when God mentioned commercial activities, He did not talk about their importance or their arts, but rather a warning against distracting the heart from focusing on God.
[Are] men whom neither commerce nor sale distracts from the remembrance of Allah and performance of prayer and giving of zakah. They fear a Day in which the hearts and eyes will [fearfully] turn about — [Al-Nur, 37]
If this is their condition during exhausting trade, how will it be during free time?!
Among the Qur’anic meanings that alerted the heart’s attachment to God and its turning away from everything else is the concept of (establishing the face for religion) (and submitting the face to God).
These are expressions that have deep heartfelt connotations. Consider this group of verses: God says
(And set your face upright for the religion)
[Younes, 105]
So direct your face toward the religion, inclining to truth. [Adhere to] the fitrah of Allah upon which He has created [all] people. No change should there be in the creation of Allah. That is the correct religion, but most of the people do not know. [Al-Rum, 30]
Almighty says:
So direct your face toward the correct religion before a Day comes from Allah of which there is no repelling. That Day, they will be divided. [Al-Rum, 43]
He also says
And whoever submits his face to Allah while he is a doer of good — then he has grasped the most trustworthy handhold. And to Allah will be the outcome of [all] matters. [Luqman, 22]
I’m inviting you to listen to the below part of the Holy Qur’an, and then you judge by yourself: