Say: Come, I will rehearse what God has (really) prohibited you from: Join not anything as equal with Him; be good to your parents; kill not your children on a plea of want. We provide sustenance for you and for them. Come not nigh to shameful deeds, whether open or secret; take not life, which God hath made sacred, except by way of justice and law: thus, does He command you, that you may learn wisdom. And come not nigh to the orphan’s property, except to improve it, until he attains the age of full strength; give measure and weight with (full) justice. No burden do We place on any soul, but that which it can bear. Whenever you speak, speak justly, even if a near relative is concerned; and fulfil the covenant of God: thus, does He command you, that you may remember. Verily, this is My way, leading straight, follow it; follow not (other) paths: they will scatter you about from His (great) path; thus, does He command you that you may be righteous. (Qur’an 6:151–53)
These verses provide us with ten commandments (of which nine are moral, and one a religious creed).
Although many people know these ten commandments by heart it will be worth listing them one by one in order to emphasize their importance for the religion.
They can be summarized as follows:
‘Join not anything as equal with Him’:
This religious creed refers to the witness of God’s Oneness expressed in the formula ‘there is no god but God’.
This is, as we saw above, the most important pillar of the Religion. It is the next step after accepting the existence of God and the Hereafter.
A person might believe in God and the Hereafter but still remain in a state where he / she violates God’s Oneness .
This pillar is so fundamental that its rejection would be an unforgivable sin.
This would turn a person into someone ‘who cut off his ties with God’, and into someone who denies the existence of God, the resurrection after death, the Day of Judgement, and the duty of ‘doing what is righteous’.
It is a heinous crime which actually, according to the Qur’an, is the only transgression for which no forgiveness can be expected from God.
What is also indeed ‘a sin most heinous’ is to make an image of God (to make Him anthropomorphic, which is to give God a concrete, temporal, spatial, and material dimension, forgetting that He is beyond any such dimension or description.
As we know, Prophet Noah was the first Prophet who prevented such a violation of God’s Oneness.
Other prophets followed suit, and Prophet Muhammad finally completed this prophetical mission, but be assured that no compulsion is allowed to achieve this goal.
What I read and love to share:
The following explanations are intended to clarify the nature of the universal ethical laws of the religion:
- These ethical guidelines are meant to restrain human behavior. One may call them our inner conscience, something we attain through education. They are essential, innate moral values that exist only within our human consciousness.
- One can easily transgress ethical rules and violate moral injunctions because they are, insofar, as they do not objectively exist, inherently weak. Therefore, every civilized society is compelled to firmly establish them as social rules by way of reward and sanction. Those who dare to undermine these values by reckless, unsocial behavior must be prosecuted without mercy.
- In principle, these guidelines do not need to be explained to people nor should they be imposed upon people by force, because they are part of a human’s innate disposition, and people therefore absorb these moral values naturally and instinctively. Thus, sincerity and honesty are natural virtues, while fraud and deceit are despicable. These things are neither culturally nor historically conditioned.
- These moral injunctions are social obligations that cannot be disputed or become the subject of public referenda. They are social facts whose content and meaning are unambiguous. Lies or disrespect of parents will always be seen as repulsive behavior and cannot be reinterpreted as honesty or respect. To establish these moral values as social norms does not imply a denial that immorality and evil exist in this world. The religion is realistic and pragmatic in which there is no room for beatified, unreal visions or fantasies. It knows how to accept both good and evil in this world, in the same way as it acknowledges the existence of death. We read:
Every soul shall have a taste of death; and We test you by evil and by good by way of trial. To Us must you return. (Quran 21:35)
- These guidelines reflect universal values that encompass all periods of human history. This means that their ethical truth is hidden beneath their explicit expressions in the Book. The vast potential of ethical truth is not exhausted by explicit expressions of moral guidelines. In other words, one may add other moral guidelines and expand on those that already exist. What is required is human wisdom, not divine revelation. Moral guidelines are formulated by the most astute people of a society who know how to harmonies ethical rules with the life experiences of the common people and how to link them to the accumulated wisdom of their cultural past. Undoubtedly, history offers people much wisdom and is, at the same time, their fiercest admonisher, since it relentlessly mirrors the real experiences that people have in their daily lives.
- All these moral guidelines are firmly interlinked, forming a holistic net of strings and connections; no partition or division is allowed, because there is only one, undividable path. The Book puts it like this:
Verily, this is My way, leading straight, follow it… (Quran 6:151–53)
To adhere to these moral guidelines does not depend on the individual’s strength and human capability.
To believe in God and to follow these moral commandments requires neither special skills nor high intelligence.
One does not need to be exceptionally gifted in order to know that the killing of other people is wrong. Such an aversion is engrained in human nature.
One may, perhaps, compare the pillars of Islam and its commandments to what we know from scoring goals in football: it is, for example, either 1 or 0 but never anything in between.
believers, fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims. (Quran3:102)
Morality is here understood as a socio spiritual law that lays the foundation of the relationship between the members of the human race. It distinguishes human beings from animals and it is effective, regardless of the economic structure in a society.
The morality of the religion is characterized by universal validity. It achieves its characteristic as ‘general ethics’ through its status as divine revelation. This morality differs from mere custom and tradition, which, although mentioned in the Qur’an , were neither stated as precise rules nor—because of their nature as constantly changing social practice— explicitly particular norms.
In contrast, social ethics were revealed in the form of commandments, the truth, from Noah onwards until Muhammad.
They are still valid at the present time and are shared by many different cultures in the world; they are enforced regardless of the nature of the economic system or social environment.
In sum, they are the common (human) denominator which unites cultures, political systems, race, class, and gender. They directly influence the individual’s social behavior once they have been institutionalized as a cultural norm or common practice.
Why Religion?
What I read and love to share as well: [1]
It was narrated that a man, who used to sin a lot, came to the wise and righteous man called Ibrahim ibn Adham. So, he tells him:
“I always sin against God, give me advice.”
- If You want to sin, don’t eat from His provision.
- Don’t sin in His land.
- Sin where He can’t see.
- Stop the Angel of death until you repent.
Then, the man said:
“Enough! Enough!”
We do that with God.
We live on his earth, breathe his air, eat his food, but many of usignore him and our relationship with him.
If we can live anywhere other than God’s earth; support us without the water and food, he created; live without breathing his air; pump our own hearts and control the production of our own enzymes, then we have the option to ignore him and his religion.
Even if we reject this need-based argument, we have to admit that the Creator has rights over his creation.
For example, when we get a pet, we want its obedience for its own good and protection, so we train it and expect obedience. We expect the template from the pet, although we didn’t create it, we just bought it.
How about the rights of the one who created us and everything we have?
Doesn’t He have rights to us? Do we owe him nothing for ours?
Existence; our sight; our beloved ones; This world; Etc.? Isn’t it the highlight?
In most aspects of life, we already submit to God: we don’t choose our parents; our genes; Don’t control our breathing. Don’t pump our own hearts; etc. Our Creator wants us to willingly submit to other aspects where He gave us free choice, i.e. H. in mind and heart.
However, God does not require submission based solely on our dependence.
His request that we worship him is not because he needs worship, he is completely independent and has no needs – but is for our own good. as our creator, he knows what’s best for us.
Our happiness in this and the next life can only come from the submission to the Creator and after his revelation.
A what I heared and liked (2):
When I visit a new place and ask a trusted resident for directions to a nearby attraction.
I have two choices:
I can either follow the instructions. or try to find my way by trial and error. If I choose the former, I won’t get lost. When I choose the latter, I open myself to need and possible failure to achieve the goal.
The most logical and efficient way to get to an unknown
The goal is to get instructions from a trusted source.
In the example above, if I choose to follow the local’s instructions, he could help me further by walking part of the way with me or even taking it there. But if I say no, I will find my own way, it will probably leave me to face the consequences of my persistence and I could get lost. Likewise, if we accept
God’s guidance will give us more help.
But if we turn away, He could make us wriggle in our ignorance.
Say, [O Muhammad], “Shall we [believers] inform you of the greatest losers as to [their] deeds? [They are] those whose effort is lost in worldly life, while they think that they are doing well in work.” (Quran 18: 103-104)
We previously defined the religion as a set of relationships, ethics, and values that connect a person with his Creator and the community around him.
The importance of religion on an individual, societal, and national level varies greatly, but there are a few reasons why it remains important overall. People often crave a better understanding of the world and religion seeks to answer our questions as well as assign purpose to give life greater meaning. Religion can also bind together societies and nations.
Religion helps to deal with the most stressful moments of our lives because it gives us hope to move on. It enables you to avoid depression, and so your life moves more smoothly and in a healthy manner. It provides a communication between the Creator and humans.
God said:
We have sent down the Book to you which manifests the truth about all things and as guidance and mercy and good news for Muslims. (Qur’an 16:89)
Why Religion?
Faten Sabri
[1] Atheism, a giant leap of faith. Dr. Raida Jarrar.
[2] Muhammad Mutwali Al Sha’rawy.