By: Raya Shokatfard
In the first part, we explored the injustice done by humans in the name of religion. We began to differentiate between human’s actions and God’s role with humanity and asked: How did God impart guidance to humankind?
We find the answer easily! God chose prophets from among all nations to convey His guidance of essential issues like codes of conduct, worship and other elements, knowledge of which is necessary for humans to live a peaceful life and coexist with others. He further made the awareness of reward and punishment as a necessary part of one’s belief, not for the sake of control as stated above, but to show His justice. Man must know that his action will not go unchecked and that every action, thought and intention is recorded and compensated with reward and punishment, some in this life, but all in the afterlife.
One might say, anyone could impart certain codes of conduct that appeals to human logic, why should we believe it was God that gave it?
To answer this, we may have to pay attention to the first of God’s commandments. This is what sets His rules apart from that of Human beings with all the good intentions.
From the time of Prophet Noah (peace be upon him) which was approximately the tenth generation after the creation of Adam, people innovated the dogma of joining others in worship along with God. It was this time, according to history, that idol worshiping started and has continued ever since.
Thus, God has been sending Prophets and Messengers to humankind in order to invite them to the worship of Him alone; to order them not to ascribe partners unto Him and bring them out of the darkness of polytheism and into the light of Monotheism. This was their first task, followed by various codes of belief and conducts for successful and peaceful living as mentioned above.
Although the following verses are from the Quran, the Book of Muslims and non-Muslims may not be familiar with its authenticity, the general comparison of such messages with that of other prophets would prove accuracy of the nature of the message.
God reminds us in numerous verses in the Quran the similarity of His message preached by His prophets throughout ages: {Indeed, We sent Nooh (Noah) to his people and he said: ‘O my people! Worship Allah! You have no other Ilaah (God) but him. (Laa ilaaha ill Allaah, none has the right to be worshipped but Allah). Certainly, I fear for you the torment of a great Day!’} (Al-A’raf 7: 59)
{And to ‘Aad (people, We sent) their brother Hood. He said: ‘O my people! Worship Allah! You have no other Ilaah (God) but Him. (Laa ilaaha ill Allaah, none has the right to be worshipped but Allah). Will you not fear (Allah)?’} (Al-A’raf 7: 65)
{And to (the people of) Madyaan (Midian), (We sent) their brother Shu’ayb. He said: ‘O my People! Worship Allah! You have no other Ilaah (God) but Him. (Laa ilaaha ill Allaah, none has the right to be worshipped but Allah). Verily, a clear proof (sign) from your Lord has come unto you, so give full measure and full weight and wrong not men in their things, and do not make mischief on the earth after it has been set in order, that will be better for you, if you are believers.’} (Al-A’raf 7: 85)
{And to Thamood (people, We sent) their brother Saalih. He said: ‘O my people! Worship Allah! You have no other Ilaah (God) but Him. (Laa ilaaha ill Allaah, none has the right to be worshipped but Allah).’} (Al-A’raf 7: 73)
{And verily, We have sent among every Ummah (community, nation) a Messenger (proclaiming): Worship Allah (Alone) and avoid (or keep away from) Taaghoot (all false deities etc. do not worship Taaghoots besides Allah).} (An-Nahl 16: 36)
So the aim of sending these Prophets and Messengers to mankind and jinn was only that they should worship God alone, as God says: {And I (Allah) created not the jinn and men except they should worship Me (Alone)} (Adh-Dhariyat 51: 56)
Yet, every Prophet was sent unto his own nation for their guidance, but the Message of Prophet Muhammad, the last messenger, was general for all mankind and jinn (a being created from smokeless flames). {Say (O Muhammad) ‘O mankind! Verily, I am sent to you all as the Messenger of Allah.’} (Al-A’raf 7: 158)
And to worship God means to obey Him and to do all that He has ordained, and to fear Him by abstaining from all that He has forbidden. Then those who obey God will be rewarded with Paradise, and those who disobey Him will be punished in the Hell-fire.
There are those who say, why does God need to be worshiped? Is this not a sign of arrogance?
This will be answered in the next part.
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Published on Reading Islam Sunday, 19 December 2010
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