Obedience

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum

Dear Friends

I pray that you are well.

Obedience is the heart of our religion, Islam. It is the key to the highest ranks that we can dream of.

وَمَن يُطِعِ اللَّـهَ وَالرَّسُولَ فَأُولَـٰئِكَ مَعَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمَ اللَّـهُ عَلَيْهِم مِّنَ النَّبِيِّينَ وَالصِّدِّيقِينَ وَالشُّهَدَاءِ وَالصَّالِحِينَ ۚ وَحَسُنَ أُولَـٰئِكَ رَفِيقًا ﴿٦٩

And whoever obeys Allah and the Messenger - those will be with the ones upon whom Allah has bestowed favor of the prophets, the steadfast affirmers of truth, the martyrs and the righteous. And excellent are those as companions. (69)

[Qur'an An-Nisaa 4:69]

On the converse, disobedience is the way to the lowest level we can imagine.

إِلَّا بَلَاغًا مِّنَ اللَّـهِ وَرِسَالَاتِهِ ۚ وَمَن يَعْصِ اللَّـهَ وَرَسُولَهُ فَإِنَّ لَهُ نَارَ جَهَنَّمَ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا أَبَدًا ﴿٢٣

(But [I have for you] only notification from Allah, and His messages." And whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger - then indeed, for him is the fire of Hell; they will abide therein forever. (23)

[Qur'an Al-Jinn 72:23]

The act of obeying Allah and His Messenger, Allah bless him and grant him peace, is the most important act for us to be concerned about in our lives. We cannot live life without obeying Allah. The substance what we need to be obeying in order to reach the high level of Paradise and save us from the pits of Hell is in the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Holding fast to the Qur'an and the Sunnah, following and obeying the Qur'an and the Sunnah is the way out of misguidance. In every instance of our lives, we want to know what is it that we should be doing and should not be doing. For every act of ours, there is a ruling from Allah and we need to know this ruling and apply it so we be of those who obey and not of those who disobey.

The whole relationship we have with Allah is that of slavehood. We must ask about what we don't know of what the Master wants. We can't assume that "I am a good person so I am going to make it to Paradise." You might make it to Paradise, out of Allah's mercy, but this is not guaranteed and this is not the process.

الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِي وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ الْإِسْلَامَ دِينًا

This day those who disbelieve have despaired of [defeating] your religion; so fear them not, but fear Me. This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as religion...

[Quran Al-Ma'ida 5:3]

We should learn our religion from scholars to avoid misguidance and destruction. We cannot just read the Qur'an and the Hadith books and think we know what Allah wants us to do. Just like when we see a wonderful giant tree, we see the tree as a big trunk with branches and leaves and we might marvel at its beauty but not to a very skilled carpenter who sees bookshelves or an ornate table because he is trained and has the tools and know how. Someone who has been properly trained as a scholar has a deeper understanding of the Qur'an and Sunnah.

May Allah make us His best servants and grant us righteous teachers who He is pleased with to teach us His religion. Ameen. Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.

And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam