Day 38
The Highest Station for Humans
TLDR:
On day 38 of Be Qur'anic, we delve into ayah 23 of Surah al-Baqarah, exploring the title of 'abd (slave) as the highest human station, exemplified by Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
We discuss the significance of being a slave of Allah, freeing us from worldly enslavement and providing a firm grounding in distinguishing right from wrong.
This concept is contrasted with the pitfalls of following majority opinion or personal desires.
The importance of conscious choice in servitude, whether to Allah or worldly elements, is highlighted, emphasizing its profound impact on our lives and the hereafter.
Welcome to day 38 of Be Qur'anic, where we take short passages from the Qur'an daily, extracting practical lessons and applying them to our daily lives to become more Qur'anic.
InshaAllah, today we continue to unpack lessons and jewels from ayah 23 of Surah al-Baqarah. The ayah reads: "If you have doubt in what we have sent down to Our slave, that means to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, then produce a surah like it and call all your experts, all your helpers, apart from Allah, if you are truthful."
In the past few days, we've been looking into the first part of this ayah, wa 'in kuntum fi rayb, and if you have doubt in what we have sent down, if you have doubt in the Qur'an, why is the Qur'an the greatest miracle that Allah has ever sent down to any of the Prophets?
Today, we're going to look into the next phrase in this ayah, 'ala 'abedina, what we have sent down onto our 'abd, onto our slave. Here, Allah is calling Prophet Muhammad ﷺ with the title 'abd, slave. If you were to analyse the entire Qur'an, you will come to the conclusion that the highest station a human can achieve, when he or she has fulfilled his purpose of existence, is the title of 'abd, to be a full slave of Allah.
So here, in this ayah, Allah is talking about Prophet Muhammad being gifted with the greatest miracle ever, the Qur'an, and Allah used 'Abd. And when we look into another great miracle of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, which was the greatest personal miracle as a personal experience that he went through, was the journey of Isra' and Mi'raj, coincidentally which happened in the month of Rajab which we are currently in and happens on the 27th of Rajab according to the Mashur, the most popular opinion amongst scholars.
In telling us the story of this journey, Allah revealed Surah Al-Isra'. Allah says, Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, glory be to Him, the One that caused His 'abd, His slave, to travel at night from Masjid al-Haram to Masjid al-Aqsa that we have blessed its entire surroundings. And I think we cannot reflect on this ayah or commemorate Isra' and Mi'raj without remembering Palestine and the atrocities that are happening to our brothers and sisters in Palestine now, the genocide that has been happening, yet the superpowers of the world are turning a blind eye.
Let them turn a blind eye, make sure that our eyes are open, our hearts are alive, that we are thinking about our brothers and sisters in Palestine, we are speaking up for them, we become the voice for the voiceless, we are amplifying their voice, amplifying the news about Palestine through our social media and do not forget the most powerful weapon at our disposal, our Du'a, keep our Palestinian brothers and sisters always in our Du'a.
Now back to Surat al-Baqarah, Allah called the Prophet 'Abd, slave, when it comes to his personal greatest miracle, the journey of Isra and Mi'raj, and Allah also called the Prophet 'Abd, slave, when Allah is addressing the greatest miracle ever, which is the Qur'an.
Today, we might think that 'Abd, slave, it's not a politically correct word, we don't want to be slaves, we want to be independent, we want to be ourselves, we want to do what we want to do, we don't want to be tied to anyone or anything.
Unfortunately, this is a false aspiration; human beings, if we analyse our life, look into how we are today, very little of who we are today is essentially our own choice, the way we dress, we don't dress the way we actually want, we dress because we are born at a certain place, in a certain culture, we dress in such a way.
Our cultural conventions, what is good and what is wrong, what is appropriate and what is not appropriate, doesn't essentially come from us, we are shaped by our surroundings. In the words of Khair ibn Walid to the Persian commander, he said that Islam comes to liberate humans from enslavement towards other humans to enslavement towards the Lord, the God of humans.
So, human beings essentially ape others, we copy others. So Allah Zawajal is freeing us from following the whims and fancies of other humans, from following the whims and fancies of our own lower self, or demonic whims and fancies to following the command of God, following the command of Allah.
Now, let's unpack this a little bit more. If you do not believe in God, what will be your yardstick for right and wrong? How do you determine what is right and what is wrong? If you are going to say let's rule by majority. Majority is going to be right. Now remember, Hitler was voted, Bush was voted. All these evil people, they were voted into office. Majority voted for them. Yet look at the atrocities that they have done around the world, the number of deaths and sufferings that they have caused.
So, majority? Nah. We've seen the failure of a strictly majority-based system. Then what next? Pleasure? This is exactly what Allah criticises in the Qur'an. Don't you see those people that take their whims and fancies, their lower selves as their Lord?
They only obey what is pleasurable and anything that is pleasurable is going to be temporal. It's going to be immediate. So human being, stop being long-term focused. We are going to be short-sighted if we are going to rely only on pleasure.
So, believing in Allah, being a slave of Allah, frees us from all this entanglement, enslavement towards the world, enslavement towards our nafs, enslavement towards demons, towards Iblis. It gives us a strong grounding to what is right and what is wrong.
God gives us the foundation for us to grow and prosper based on the teachings of Allah Azzawajal. So that is the significance of being a slave of Allah. Without Allah, without God, nothing makes sense because everything else then becomes relative.
What we see in this world today might become right because those few countries in the world are strong. They can do whatever they want and they force their views on other countries. What is their justification?
It is greed. They are turning greed into their God. They are enslaved by petrodollars. So, you choose. You want to be the slave of God Almighty or you want to be the slave of this world. Essentially, a human being, like it or not, we are going to be a slave of something or someone.
Choose who your master is and choose wisely because our choice will have great consequences in this world and the hereafter.