December 16, 2010
I Too Have A Dream!
Section: WRITINGS | 246 reads
(9)
A Trust from God
As a result of being committed to the concept of La Ilaha Illa Allah!, Muslims don’t – they cannot – see themselves as owners – of anything.
Nor can anyone else who has any sense or understanding of how the world really works.
For, Allah is the maker and master of everything in the world.
He is the true owner.
The only owner there is.
Muslims, therefore, merely hold things in trust from Allah.
So does everyone else. It is just that Muslims acknowledge this fact most clearly and openly.
Without reservations of any kind.
As a result, Muslims are accountable to Allah for everything they have.
Large or small.
A little or a lot.
And for everything they do.
And so, indeed, is everyone else.
It is just that Muslims have a greater understanding of this onerous responsibility and a deeper and clearer commitment to it.
So the fact remains that Muslims hold things on trust from Allah – every single thing they have access to.
Whether it is health or wealth, and whether it is family or friends, whatever things they have, Muslims consider them blessings from Allah – part of the bounty that he showered on his creation, on his slaves.
For he is a bountiful and generous master – full of grace and mercy.
Therefore, Muslims know and believe – as should everyone else – that everything they have is a most important trust that God put in their hands. And which they are supposed to take care of.
And about which they are supposed to render a full account before God, explaining how well or how badly they did what they were supposed to do.
Muslims, therefore, consider themselves accountable – before God.
Furthermore, they also consider themselves accountable before their fellow humans – right here in this world, before God’s other slaves.
That is how God’s plantation works.
In the broadest and most inclusive sense, Muslims consider themselves accountable for all of earth and its many occupants.
And for all that the earth holds and contains.
That is because Muslims are Allah’s deputies and agents on earth. They are the stewards and keepers of the earth.
Their duty is to serve and protect Allah’s earth and all that lives, breathes and exists on Allah’s earth – Allah’s beautiful plantation.
Allah placed humans as slaves on his plantation. He made them the managers of his plantation. He made them his representatives on earth.
Muslims are the people who understand and accept the divine purpose of their creation and who understand the noble mission with which they were sent into this world.
They understand the purpose of their creation as Allah’s representatives on earth, and they embrace that noble purpose and that lofty mission.
As a result, Muslims are the ones who submit and surrender to Allah.
They are the ones who say to Allah:
“Yes! We accept you as our maker and master.”
“We know you are our owner – our Rabb. And we are your slaves – your Abd.”
“And we accept the role you have given us as your representative on this earthly plantation of yours.”
And in doing this the Muslims have made themselves part of the process of peace and tranquility and joy, hope and comfort in this world.
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A Message Called Salam
Muslims have, thus, become the people of peace.
They have become the holders of the key to peace in this world – in individual human lives as well as in entire human societies and the world as a whole.
Muslims have chosen the path of peace and submission.
Their Deen, their very culture and way of life, is Islam – a message of peace and joy and comfort and hope.
It is what many people in the world call religion. But Islam is not a religion in that sense.
Religion is far narrower a word than Islam is. For, Islam is more – much more – than what many people generally consider religion to be.
In some ways, Islam is quite different from a religion.
Islam is a full and complete Deen – an entire way of life, an entire culture, that covers every aspect of life.
That means, every aspect of life is lived either according to the will and directives of God or against them.
When you submit to God and live your life according to his laws and commands and wishes, you are a Muslim.
Your Deen in that case is Islam. You have submitted and surrendered to God.
Your reward is peace – peace in this world and in the next world.
All this is summed up in the way Muslims greet one another – and the world.
Muslims’ greeting is Salam.
It is a most comprehensive term one can think of. It means peace, joy, hope, comfort, love, health, wealth and all the good and wonderful things of this world – as well as the next world.
Once you have Salam, there is nothing else to ask or hope for. It covers everything you may ever want.
Right here in this world.
Or in the next world – after you die and are raised up from the dead.
Muslims fill the earth – and the universe – with this amazing message and gift of Salam no less than five times a day – all the millions upon millions upon millions of them around the world.
The Muslims do this when they perform their prayers – the Salah – which is a requirement of everyone – on a daily basis, five times a day, to say the least.
Otherwise, Muslims just fill the earth with the message of Salam hundreds of times a day in their daily encounters with one another – practically every one of them, practically every time they meet and greet each other.
They do so in every part of the world – in every nook and cranny of God’s plantation earth, of which they are the custodians and the stewards.
Wherever they are, and at every opportunity they get, Muslims sprinkle plantation earth with this potent mixture of fertilizer, pesticide and life-enhancer – Salam.
Muslims greet each other by saying Assalamu Alaikum!
This means Salam be on you, to you, within you, around you.
Based on this alone Muslims would appear to be the specially appointed and designated peace-givers and peace-makers in this world.
That they were people one of whose major preoccupations in life was to go about conferring upon God’s creation the blessings of Salam at every opportunity they get.
Muslims are thus an instrument through which God Almighty has chosen to fill his creation with his message and blessing of peace, hope, health, happiness and comfort – with his special grace he calls Salam.
For all people and for all of plantation earth.
If this is the role Muslims play in this world – spread Salam everywhere and to everyone all the time – there is more Salam in store for them after death.
For, upon death, Muslims hope to go to the ultimate and eternal abode of peace in paradise.
That place is called Darus Salam – the House of Salam.
Paradise, thus, is the home of real peace and joy and rejoicing in divine presence.
For, that is what life in paradise is for Muslims – Salam.
Salam is, thus, also the greeting of the people of paradise.
And more than everything else, Salam is the very name of the creator, the maker, the master and the owner, Allah Almighty, whose slaves Muslims are – and whose slave everyone else is.
And whose representatives on earth Muslims are.
As are all other human beings, if only they knew and accepted it – and acted upon it.
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