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Membership of the brotherhood of Islam (2)

Friday Khutba by Dr Zahid Aziz, for Lahore Ahmadiyya UK, 6 September 2024

“The dwellers of the desert say: ‘We believe’. Say: You do not believe, but say, ‘We submit’; and faith has not yet entered into your hearts. And if you obey Allah and His Messenger, He will not diminish anything of your deeds. Surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. The believers are those only who believe in Allah and His Messenger, then they do not doubt, and struggle hard with their wealth and their lives in the way of Allah. Such are the truthful ones.” — ch. 49, Al-Ḥujurāt, v. 14–15

قَالَتِ الۡاَعۡرَابُ اٰمَنَّا ؕ قُلۡ لَّمۡ تُؤۡمِنُوۡا وَ لٰکِنۡ قُوۡلُوۡۤا اَسۡلَمۡنَا وَ لَمَّا یَدۡخُلِ الۡاِیۡمَانُ فِیۡ قُلُوۡبِکُمۡ ؕ وَ اِنۡ تُطِیۡعُوا اللّٰہَ وَ رَسُوۡلَہٗ لَا یَلِتۡکُمۡ مِّنۡ اَعۡمَالِکُمۡ شَیۡئًا ؕ اِنَّ اللّٰہَ غَفُوۡرٌ رَّحِیۡمٌ ﴿۱۴﴾ اِنَّمَا الۡمُؤۡمِنُوۡنَ الَّذِیۡنَ اٰمَنُوۡا بِاللّٰہِ وَ رَسُوۡلِہٖ ثُمَّ لَمۡ یَرۡتَابُوۡا وَ جٰہَدُوۡا بِاَمۡوَالِہِمۡ وَ اَنۡفُسِہِمۡ فِیۡ سَبِیۡلِ اللّٰہِ ؕ اُولٰٓئِکَ ہُمُ الصّٰدِقُوۡنَ ﴿۱۵﴾

I am continuing with the subject of last week’s Khutba. Certain rural Arab tribes or Bedouins are mentioned here who had just then embraced Islam. Some of them claimed to be believers or mu’minīn. The Quran here tells the knowledgeable Muslims to say to them that they do not believe and cannot claim to be believers of a high degree because they are novices who do not yet have full faith established in their hearts. They are told that they should just say: We have become Muslims or submitted to the teachings of Islam. If they obey the commands of God and His Messenger, even superficially, in a formal way, like, let us say, a box-ticking exercise, then if they have some grain of sincerity in their hearts, although not full faith, still this obedience will lead them to higher stages and will not go to waste.

The verses go on to describe who are the true believers. They are those in whose hearts faith is established, so that “they do not doubt”, and because of their faith they sacrifice their wealth and lives in supporting the cause of Islam. But these verses allow those people to call themselves Muslims who have not yet developed an urge, attraction, longing or fondness in their hearts for carrying out the injunctions of Islam but they are prepared to do them just in obedience to God and His Messenger. On the other hand, the same word ‘submit’, which these people are allowed by the Quran to use about themselves, is mentioned about Abraham:

“When his Lord said to him, Submit, he said: I submit myself to the Lord of the worlds.” (2:131)

“And who is better in religion than he who submits himself entirely to Allah while doing good (to others) and follows the faith of Abraham, the upright one? And Allah took Abraham for a friend.” (4:125)

Now Abraham’s submission to God, by his saying “I submit” (aslam-tu), is of an incomparably high degree than the submission of these rural Arabs about whom the Quran directs that they ought to say: “We submit” (aslam-nā). The word in the Quran relating to someone’s submission to God or to becoming Muslim is the same, whether the submission is of the lowest degree or of the highest degree. This shows the great inclusivity of Islam, that the lowest and the highest bear the same title to indicate that they are followers of Islam.

This applies also to the word used in the Quran for believing (āmanū) or believers (mu’minīn). In the verses which I quoted in the beginning, stating “The believers are those only who believe in Allah and His Messenger, then they do not doubt, and struggle hard with their wealth and their lives in the way of Allah”, the highest grade of believer is meant. Yet elsewhere the Quran says:

“O you who believe, why do you say things which you do not do? It is most hateful in the sight of Allah that you say things which you do not do” (61:2–3).

Here obviously the highest grade of believer is not meant, because it mentions certain Muslims who said things which they did not do. Despite this, even they are addressed as “O you who believe”.

The Quran also says: “The believers are brethren” (49:10). Here all Muslims are meant, whether of little faith or of strong faith. In the last khutba, I dealt with how a person joins the brotherhood of Islam or is identified as a member of it. With regard to this the Quran says:

“O you who believe, believe in Allah and His Messenger and the Book which He has revealed to His Messenger and the Book which He revealed before. And whoever disbelieves in Allah and His angels and His Books and His messengers and the Last Day, he indeed strays far away” (4:136).

The points of belief listed here are the very fundamentals of faith or īmān in Islam. So why does this verse address “O you who believe”? They became Muslims in the first place by acknowledging belief in all these points. They already believe these things. The reason for addressing “those who believe” is that, whatever may be their present level or depth of belief or their commitment to it, they can always improve on it and advance in it. The Quran here calls all of them believers, whether they are the novices like the desert Arabs we mentioned before, about whom the Quran said “You do not believe”, or they are the believers of the highest commitment and rank.

So as with the word ‘Muslim’, the word ‘believer’ in the Quran is applied to everyone in the brotherhood of Islam, from those of little or superficial faith to those who feel motivated to make great sacrifices for Islam.

These fundamental points of belief are summarised in the Kalima:

أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللّٰهُ، وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا رَسُولُ اللّٰهِ

“I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.”

Sometimes, the second part is: “and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger — وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ

These are the words which were proclaimed by anyone who accepted Islam in the Holy Prophet Muhammad’s time to announce that he or she was now a Muslim after having belonged to another faith.

One example is of a well-known Companion Abu Dharr. He related his story himself. After hearing that a man in Makkah was claiming to be a prophet, Abu Dharr came to see the Holy Prophet and became a Muslim at his hand. Due to the persecution of Muslims at Makkah by the Quraish the Holy Prophet advised him to keep his acceptance secret. But he went out to the Ka‘bah and in front of the Quraish he declared:

“O people of Quraish! I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I testify that Muhammad is His servant and messenger.”

The Quraish rose up and Abu Dharr was beaten nearly to death (Bukhari, hadith 3522).

Another example is the conversion of the mother of the famous Companion Abu Hurairah. Again, he related his story himself. His mother was an idol-worshipper, and when he asked her to accept Islam she said something bad about the Holy Prophet. Abu Hurairah went to the Holy Prophet and asked him to pray for the guidance of his mother. The Holy Prophet did so, and Abu Hurairah left happily. When he returned home, he could hear from outside the sound of splashing water. His mother was having a bath and she called out to him to wait there. After dressing, she opened the door and said:

“O Abu Huraira! I testify that there is no god but Allah, and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger.”

Abu Hurairah rushed back to the Holy Prophet to give him this good news (Sahih Muslim, hadith 2491).

You will all have heard of the story that once the Holy Prophet, during a break in a journey, was asleep resting under a tree. A desert Arab came upon him, took the Holy Prophet’s sword, woke him up and said:

“Who can save you from me now?”

The Holy Prophet simply said: “Allah”. The sword fell from the man’s hand. The Holy Prophet picked it up and said:

“Who can save you from me now?”

The man said: “Be a better wielder of the sword” (the meaning is: Forgive me). The Holy Prophet said:

“Do you bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that I am the messenger of Allah?”

He said:

“No, but I promise that I shall not fight you nor side with those who fight you.”

So the Holy Prophet let him go. Here the Holy Prophet asked him to accept Islam by reciting the Kalima. The incident also shows that neither was the Holy Prophet vindictive, because he took no revenge on this man, nor did he convert people to Islam by the sword. He did not punish the man in any way, even though that man was so close to being able to kill him. The man didn’t accept the Kalima, so the Holy Prophet let him go. He went back to his people and said to them: “I have come to you from the one who is the best of mankind” (Mishkat, book: Riqāq, ch. 4, sec. 3).

We all know how much the Holy Prophet’s uncle Abu Talib protected him against his persecutors at Makkah for ten years, despite himself remaining an unbeliever and idol-worshipper. When Abu Talib was about to pass away from this world, the Holy Prophet went to see him. Two staunch opponents of Islam were already there. The Holy Prophet asked Abu Talib to say: La ilaha ill-Allah (‘There is no god but Allah’), but the two opponents of Islam said to Abu Talib:

“Will you turn away from the religion of (your father) Abdul Muttalib?”

The Holy Prophet kept on asking Abu Talib to say this Kalima, but the two opponents kept on repeating their question to Abu Talib. In the end, Abu Talib said that he followed his ancestral faith and he refused to say La ilaha ill-Allah (Bukhari, hadith 1360). In another hadith, which is in the book Mishkat, it is reported that Hazrat Abu Bakr asked the Holy Prophet:

“O messenger of Allah, what is salvation?”

The Holy Prophet replied:

“He who accepts from me the Kalima which I put before my uncle (Abu Talib), but which he rejected, that is the means of salvation.” (Mishkat, Book: Faith, ch. 1, sec. 3; Musnad Ahmad, hadith 20)

This shows that reciting this Kalima was a badge of Islam and of being a Muslim. No Muslim has the right to add extra conditions to this for the acceptance of Islam.

I am making this point because tomorrow, 7th September, is the 50th anniversary of that black day in the history of Islam and the history of Pakistan, 7th September 1974, when an amendment to the Constitution of the country was approved declaring Ahmadis as non-Muslim. This declaration is quite contrary to the teachings of Islam. Ahmadis profess and repeat the Kalima, and adhere to and practise all the fundamentals of Islam. Shame on those who approved this amendment, and on those who supported it, connived at it, and failed to stand up in opposition to it.

May Allah guide them to the right path, and guide us also to the right path, Ameen.

Website: www.aaiil.uk