We will begin with the first chapter of Kitab At Tawheed and unlike other books, the compiler of this book started and began immediately with going straight to the topic of Tawheed(The Oneness of Allah azza wa jal).
He (May Allah mercy on his soul) began this chapter with the number of the verses of the Quran. There are five different locations from the Quran and different verses all revolving around Tawheed, just to highlight to us the importance of Tawheed. After that, he followed it with a narration from the Prophetic Sunnah (salla Allahu ‘alaihi wa sallam). So he began with the Quran, he concluded with the sunnah of the Prophet (Salla Allahu ‘allaihai wa Sallam) and then he listed a number of bullet points that any person could find out from these verses of the Quran and from the Hadith of the Prophet (Salla Allahu ‘allaihai wa Sallam).
So, let us go through some of these Ayahs in this session, in sha Allah.
In the first Ayah (listed in this chapter), ALLAH The Almighty said:
“And I did not create the jinn and man except that they should worship Me.”
[Surat Adh-Dhariyat (51): verse 56]
This Ayah clearly defines the purpose of our creation. Allah did not create us to eat and drink and mate like animals. He created us for a very high purpose and reason and this reason is clearly identified. Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala said that He did not create us nor created the jinn except for the sole purpose of worshiping Him. Worshiping Allah ‘azza wa jal is definitely not isolated in Prayers, Fasting, Zakat etc. It has a wider scope and much bigger picture. So, in fact, your daily routine can be part of worshiping Allah ‘azza wa jal, it depends on your intention. It depends on how you perform it, why you perform it and if you have the good intention behind it.
Allah says in the second Ayah:
“And verily We sent into every nation (Ummah) a messenger, [proclaiming], “Worship Allah and avoid(or keep away from) Taghut….”
[Surat An-Nahl (16): verse 36]
‘Ummah’ (nation) has four meanings in the Quran:
- 1) one of them is a ‘group of people’
- 2) it can refer to a ‘period of time’
- 3) it can refer to a man who is one of a kind, like Ibrahim (Peace be upon him)
- 4) And it can also refer to ‘religion’
Taghut is a name of ‘anything’ that exceeds its limit. So the idols that the people worship are considered to be Taghut; shaitan is considered to be Taghut; and all those who call others to worship them like Pharon is also considered to be Taghut. Therefore, the essence of “verily, We have sent among every ummah a messenger” is the duty of messengers of Allah ‘azza wa jal to call people to Him alone and to avoid all types of Taghut.
In the third Ayah (listed in this chapter), Allah ‘azza wa jal says;
“And your Lord has decreed that you worship none except Him, and that you be dutiful to your parents. If one of them or both of them attain old age in your life, say not to them a word of disrespect (uff), nor shout at them but address them in terms of honor.”
[Surat Al-Isra (17): verse 23]
So this ayah of surat ul Al-Isra clearly states that Allah ‘azza wa jal has decreed to worship Him alone and He subhanahu wa ta’ala combines with worshiping Him alone without associating others with Him, alongside being dutiful to the parents (which highlights the importance of respecting the parents which combines these two great forms of worship together.) But the essence of the ayah that the compiler brought it in here is to highlight:
“Wa qada Rabbuka alla Ta’buda illa iyyah”
“And your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him”
These are three locations that we covered; there are two more locations and the Hadiths of Abdullah Ibn Mas’ood & Mu’ad Ibn Jabal that we will discuss in the following episodes in sha Allah.