Having lost sight of the actual purpose of Tawheed and the struggle (Jehad) to implement it, we remain engrossed with petty issues such as the exterior of the car, which in our case is the beard, cap, mantle etc. that we are so concerned about. As a result of the distortion in the Aqida and imbalance in priority, Allah Himself has discarded us as His people and we have turned into objects of His wrath and curse. We, the Muslims all over the world today have turned into the lowliest of nations, bear the brunt of the collective hate of all other communities in this world. Mass killing, pogrom are carried out against this people, their dwellings and houses burnt to the ground, their women of the veil are publicly disrobed, raped and impregnated by the perpetrators, thousands and thousands of their Mosques razed. There must not be any other nation that has endured so much hate and humiliation at the hands of others than what this so called Muslim nation has been through over the last thousand years and continues to do so till date. Why? Does this question not plague the minds of this nation with individuals of high intelligence?
At the present, Iman and Aqida are thought of as one and the same, however, they are actually not. Firstly, Iman is a word, which literally means ‘faith’ whereas the root word of Aqida is ‘aqd’ a knot or joint, which is why it is used to denote marriage, an act of bonding two individuals together, hence ‘aqd’ or bonding. Therefore Iman and Aqida are two completely different topics with two different meaning altogether. Secondly, Iman itself loses its value if Aqida is incorrect; this alone is significant proof that these two are separate topics/subjects altogether. If one loses its value due to incorrect perception of the other, it is natural that they are not one and the same. Yet this idea is prevalent all over the world today. The correct Aqida, concept of Islam is lost to the world today, which is why it has been incorporated with Iman, whereas they are both separate entities by themselves.
The correct Aqida of this Deen is as follows:
1. The Almighty Allah has created this entire universe at His will and ordained innumerable Malayeks or Farishtas to care for and supervise it. Among this gigantic creation, there is not one that has any amount of free will–power; each carries out the job it has been entrusted with and ordained to without any derailment or hesitation.
2. Then Allah wished to create a being on whom He would bestow the gift of free will–power; with it, this creature would be able to decide whether to live by Allah’s ordain or disregard it.
3. He then created Adam e.g. Man, whom Allah breathed into from His soul (Sura Hejr 29) with which Adam came to possess all of Allah’s Sifats, His Attributes, as well as the will to do what he chose. For this, the special new creature was given the name of Allah’s vice–gerent, His Khalifa.
4. It is impossible to test any one without an opposing factor; for this Eblis (Shaitan) was thrown in as an opponent of this Khalifa with the permission to enter his mind and body and thus be able to influence him.(Sura Baqara 30)
5. Eblis challenged Allah saying he would entice His Khalifa e.g. to create Fasad meaning injustice and Safaquddima, meaning violence, blood–shed on earth. Allah accepted this challenge with the promise that He would guide mankind through His Nabis, Rasuls and Haadis – relating through them such way of life which when established in the collective, e.g. personal, social, economic and national life of people would enable them to live in peace e.g. Islam, shunning violence and Safaquddima. An important issue that arises from this challenge is that Eblis did not vow to deter mankind e.g. Allah’s Khalifa from praying in mosques, churches, pagodas, temples or synagogues – he did not promise to refrain them from Hajj, Zakat, charity or any other acts of piety – his challenge was to throw them into Fasad and Safaquddima, violence, turmoil, unrest and blood–shed – both collective issues that have remained a bane for mankind from the beginning till this date and the solution to which problems remain nowhere in sight.
6. Along with the guide lines, Deen sent from Him, Allah let mankind know that Eblis had vowed to derail them from His bidding, His way of life, be disobedient to Him. He would entice them to come up with ways of life contrary to the one sent by Him the implementation of which in their collective, social, economic and national lives would result in Fasad and Safaquddima. He warned them not to be guided by Eblis’ whisperings, to remain steadfast in accepting only Allah as their Law–giver and adhere to the law of life prescribed by Him, to implement those in their personal, social, national, economical and collectives lives in order to live in harmony and peace, in Islam. “If Allah willed, He could have brought them (mankind) all together to the guidance,” Allah affirmed (Sura An’am 35, Yunus 100). “And if Allah willed, He could have punished them, but thus it is ordained that He may try some of you by means of other” (Sura Mohammad 4). This is the gist of Allah’s creation of man to try and see what path mankind takes, whether they refrain from turning in to the lure of Eblis, accept Allah as the only Law–giver and implement the Deen sent by Him in order to live in peace and harmony on earth in Islam which in turn will bring them Paradise in the Hereafter as His obedient slaves. Their (mankind’s) personal sins will be forgiven for they will be instrumental in defeating Eblis in his challenge to Allah. On the other hand, if man were to reject the way of life prescribed by Allah, come up with alternative ways to live their lives by the inevitable result of this would be falling into the pits of turmoil injustice and unrest in this world and the never ending punishment of hell fire in the next. Personal acts of piety – be they in hundreds of thousands, will not be taken into account for the sole reason that instead of rejecting Eblis whispering, they gave into him thereby causing Allah to lose the challenge Eblis had meted out. This Allah has vowed to hold to.
