[Shakir 1:5] Thee do we serve and Thee do we beseech for help. [Yusufali 1:5] Thee do we worship, and Thine aid we seek. [Pickthal 1:5] Thee (alone) we worship; Thee (alone) we ask for help. [Pooya/Ali Commentary 1:5] IYYAKA Aqa Mahdi Puya says: All creatures, irrespective of social position or authority, in like manner, must submit to His will, and obey and worship Him. They have to seek His help in every activity. No one, not being equal to Him, is left out or exempted from His service. All are His servants. He is the original creator and the supreme law-giver. Every thing is created by Him, therefore, it has to abide by the laws He has made. No finite being can claim the rank of a god nor anyone can worship any finite being as a god, and also there is no room for ta-addud, the numeration of the infinite. The infinite is absolute and the finite is composite (a creature). NA-BUDU Worship is not mere carrying out some ritual. In thought and action Thee alone we worship is an unconditional commitment to the service of Allah, and none else, in order to live and die as it would please the Lord-master. The devotee puts an obligation upon himself to serve only Allah and none else. It creates an essential spirit of faithfulness to the only real master, and sets him free from the fear and subjugation of all the false authorities. The faithful servant, consequently, invokes the masters pleasure to obtain the fulfilment of his needs and wants, because he expects nothing from anyone else except from the real master whom he serves exclusively. This declaration is also a source of total satisfaction, as the devotee vows to live and die as Allah wills, and not as he himself prefers. Aqa Mahdi Puya says: Man owes loyalty to none but Allah, and true loyalty demonstrates itself by making him do nothing but carry out the will and command of the master, abide by His instructions, and represent His pleasure. To pay homage to or bow down before even a stone by His order, or to seek help through the means approved and established by Him is, in fact, His worship, because it is in conformity with the loyalty a servant owes to his master. To employ ways and means, in contravention to His orders, even to worship Him, is disloyalty. So far Allah has been referred to as He, His, and Him, third person singular pronouns. Now one feels that one is standing in the presence of the absolute, so it is time to address Him in the second person singular by using the word iyyaka which means Thee alone and none else, the negation of everything else other than Him and the assertion of the Only One. The created being, as an individual, disappears, and makes an appearance as a member of the community of the fellow creatures, a unique characteristic of the religion of Islam which unites individual and collective behaviour in perfect harmony to promote the cause of humanity. No community or society of individuals can serve the Lord-master without an Imam (guide). It is also true that no one can be installed in this position except the person who represents His universal grace. Therefore the almighty Allah had sent the Holy Prophet as the mercy unto the worlds. The reach and scope of the Holy Prophets mission is as all-inclusive as Allahs rububiyat, which, of course, had established his finality (khatamiyat). According to some authentic traditions, the Holy Prophet, during the ascension (mi-raj), led the prayers attended by all the prophets and messengers of Allah, who had been sent, before him, as the representatives of the almighty Lord to guide mankind, together with the angels, which, again, had instituted his supreme leadership (imamat kubra). The institution of a supreme leader, to guide mankind in its collective obedience to and worship of the Lord of the worlds, is the basis of the essential Islamic form of government, approved by Allah. It means that absolute sovereignty is in the hands of Allah and it cannot be delegated to any one but to the person who represents His universal will and grace, who is in communion with Him, and who knows the relation of the infinite to the finite and the interrelationship between the finite beings. Seek they other than the religion of Allah, when unto Him submits whosoever is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly, and unto Him they shall be returned. (ALI IMRAN: 83) He is Allah, the creator, the master, the fashioner. His are the most beautiful names. All that is in the heavens and the earth glorifies Him, and He is the mighty, the wise. (HASHR: 24) There is none in the heavens and the earth but must come unto the beneficent as a servant. (MARYAM: 93) Keeping to the norm of the universal submission, man must also submit and surrender his will to Allahs will, and seek help from no one but Him. The Quran, in view of the execution and regulation of Allahs will, in the operation of creation, guides mankind to learn from the book of creation. This verse throws light on the doctrines of determinism and free-will, a controversial issue in philosophy, theology, ethics and jurisprudence. The act of obedience and seeking help prove that human being exercise freedom of choice, and, therefore, are responsible for their actions, because they are not passive targets of Allahs activity, but have been given free-will by Allah to make their own decisions and act upon them. Their free-will and its outcome are conditioned by Allahs will, order and providence. The will of Allah does not directly determine the deeds of creatures, making the creatures will entirely ineffective, in which case they would not be responsible for their actions, as the determinists say. It is true that the creatures cannot exercise absolute free-will because their actions and judgements have to abide by the laws created and enforced by the will of Allah as explained earlier while making clear the meaning of the word taqdir. As Imam Muhammad bin Ali al Baqir has said there is no predetermination as far as the activity of the created beings is concerned but every action is conditioned by the laws, made by Allah, operating the creation, so there can be no unbridled use of freedom. It is a conciliation between freedom of action and complying with the will of Allah. In the Quran the predominance of Allahs will is mentioned to point out the overall supremacy of the laws made and enforced by Allah; and also the freedom of choice granted to man is confirmed to make it clear that although living beings have the freedom to do what they will, shouldering the responsibility of their actions, they cannot do away with the will of Allah. In common terminology it is a via media. Allahs activity can be described as action, and the activity of the creature as reaction. There cannot be a reaction without an action. And if there is no reaction the action would be considered unproductive. In this sense Allahs action operates in the realm of creation to which the creatures, consciously or unconsciously, willingly or unwillingly, react. The action is conditioned by the nature of the actor. The divine action, the outcome of Allahs boundless grace, can be nothing but pure good, but the reaction of the finite creature may take a different course and produce evil for which the bad receptivity of the finite creature should be held responsible. The Quran says: Whatever good befalls you (O man) it is from Allah, and whatever of evil befalls you, it is from yourself; (NISA: 79) It is logical as well as profitable to seek help only from Allah whom the supplicant has accepted as his rabb, and has undertaken to serve Him only, because the infinite mercy of the merciful Lord will be available to the seeker of help in proportion to the sincerity of his commitment. Through this prayer, the pray-er, in all his prayers, invokes the divine mercy, and even if the desired relief is apparently delayed or withheld, he gets the satisfaction that petition has been put forward to the proper authority who alone knows what is best for the invoker, in his own interest. As only light, not darkness comes forth from the light, so the withholding of mercy of the merciful Lord should never be misunderstood as indifference or pitilessness, because inadequate and faulty conjectures cannot comprehend the infinite wisdom of the all-wise Lord.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Dec 2013 15:38:30 +0000
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