Aqidah
Aqidah
Now that we know that the Deen (wrongly taught to be religion and which is actually a system to conduct all affairs of life, i.e. a Way of life) we see being practiced to-day in the 'Muslim' majority Nation-States is not the real Deen-ul-Islam that was sent by Allah through His last Messenger, the question arises that then what is the real, True Islam?
I am neither a Messenger nor a Nabi. I am an ordinary man with little formal education with no particular brilliance in any particular field and certainly I do not know the real
Islam to the last detail. But, by His Grace I shall, ensh'Allah place before you the fundamentally important and vital matters of the true Islam, the matters that concern life and death of the Deen and the Ummah.
Before getting into the main subject I think I should discuss to some detail the importance of Aqidah. Allah has not mentioned 'Aqidah' by name in the Quran. Yet, it is considered so important by Ulema that it is mentioned along with Iman (Faith) itself as "Iman-Aqida" when speaking about Faith. Moreover, the Ulema are unanimous in the opinion that, if a person's Aqidah is not correct and right, his Iman and all his/her action (Amal) and worship (Ibadat) are in waste and futile. Though this population (Muslim) is divided in many Mazhabs (Factions), hundreds of Firqas (Sects), in Shia and Sunni etc and in thousands of opinions, they are unanimous in this. This makes Aqidah a very important matter. Aqidah appears more important in a sense than the Iman (Faith) itself when one considers that wrong Aqidah renders Iman itself and all works (Amal) based on the Iman futile. So, it is essential that we must understand what is meant by the Aqidah and its importance before going into the subject of true Islam.
The word Aqidah has originated from the word 'Aqd', which means a knot. We commonly use the word for wedding, meaning knotting together a man and a woman in marriage. Its plural is Aqaed i.e knots. To-day the prevailing idea of Aqidah is Iman (Faith). The reason Iman and Aqidah are mentioned together is that these two are the same thing. This wrong notion is one of the main reasons of Islam being perverted. The real meaning of the word is comprehensive concept, perception about a matter-to have the right, correct perception about a thing, why the thing has been created, what is its purpose and its goal and how.
For example, consider a car. The car has been manufactured with the basic purpose of carrying people from one place to another; this is the main reason for which the car has been created. Then, to make the journeys comfortable, soft seats, air conditioner, has are fitted into it, radio cassette players are fitted to enable the passengers to listen to news and music and finally the car is painted to make it look beautiful. The additional things are less important than the main purpose of the car, its mobility. If the mobility of it is lost for some reason then all the amenities and fittings and its beautiful looks are futile, useless.
To make it more clear: you present me a good car, you also supply me with a manual book in which there are instructions and advices to look after the car so that it gives me good service and doesn't cause me problems.
Let us take that car to be Islam and the maintenance and the manual book to be the Quran and Sahih (True, correct) Hadith. Now, for some reason, if I do not know what a car is for, do not understand that this machine has been manufactured to carry people from one place to another and that you have presented this car to make me mobile, then what will happen? Most probably, I shall think that the car has been made to sit comfortably in as there are comfortable seats in the car. Or it may be, if I am clever, that the car has been manufactured to get into in it during hot summer noon, sit on its soft seats, switch on the air conditioner, cassette player and enjoy music or listen to news from the radio in cool comfort. Since I greatly value your gift I shall very carefully read the maintenance book, follow its instructions meticulously and put the fuel of right octane in the tank, put oil of correct viscosity in the engine, pump air into the tires to the pressure advised in the maintenance book, even polish the paint according to the instruction, but I shall not go places. Though the maintenance book has detailed instructions and advises for the up keeping of the car, it has nowhere said that the purpose of the car is to make me mobile and for the same reason Allah has not used the word Aqidah in His Quran, though He has made the purpose, goal of Islam very clear in it.
Once the Aqidah is wrong, the sense of priority is gone and when sense of priority is topsy-turvy, you start believing that the comfortable seats are the most important thing in the car, and another person will believe no, the air conditioner is, and still another will be convinced the radio is as much more important as it updates you about what is going on around the world besides airing many kinds of knowledge, as some will even consider the color of the car more important than the engine. The correct Aqidah about Islam, its purpose, its goal the process to achieve that goal etc has gone wrong, resulting in this Ummah, rather this population being divided in many factions, some believe meticulous adherence to Shariah is the purpose of Islam. Some believe closeness to Allah by purifying their souls is the real purpose of Islam. Some believe beating their chests and bloodying themselves will bring them salvation, some believe that Islam wants us to be pious, not to commit any sin, perform much nafal Ibadah besides the farz etc. Now every 'Muslim' Nation-State has its own kinds of Islam.
Aqidah is like the rudder of a ship. A ship even with excellent sails or powerful engines, strong hull but with a broken rudder is a lost ship. It will float on the sea, every whiff of
wind will turn it to this way and that and it will never reach its port. Today the ship of Islam is floating on the sea ripples, turning this way and that buffeted by wind from different directions, its hull leaking, its engines stopped, its rudder broken into pieces or missing.
Aqidah can be stated in more ways. A garland is made of many flowers. A thread passed through many flowers and the two ends of the thread is knotted together, then it becomes a different thing, a garland. Without the knot (Aqida) its not a garland, without the knot the flowers will fall scattered. All the acts works (Amal) of Islam are the flowers. Allah wants the garland and without the knot there is no garland, only scattered flowers. Truly it has been stated that, without correct Aqidah, the knot, Iman, Amal (Faith and acts of piety) are futile.
Finally: an example to make clear how absence or wrong Aqida or Aqaeds can render a person's or a nation's all good works, piety useless. Write a figure, any figure, 1 or 2 or 5, or 9 then add a 0 to it. Surely the figure becomes ten times increased. Add another 0, it increased 100 times, add another 0 and surely it increases a thousand times. As you keep on adding 0s the original figure keeps on increasing. The figure is correct Aqida, the correct comprehensive concept, correct perception of Islam its, meaning, its purpose and process to achieve that purpose, and the 0s are good Amal (action) works. By adding hundreds of 0s you increase the figure thousandfolds. Now erase the figure, what remains? Many meaningless, valueless zeros. Or you replace the figure with a triangle △ or a square or a pentagon or drawing of a mountain, your all those zeros will avail you nothing. This is the relation of the Aqida and Amal.
Since the correct Aqida/Aqaed are lost there are almost as many kinds of Aqaeds in this populace as many people there are, and unfortunately all wrong. The Aqida of the Ulema is that proper observance of Islam is to meticulously follow the Shariah and follow the Messenger of Allah in his clothes, his personal habits. Aqida of the Pirs (spiritual guides) is that Shariah is not so important; cleansing Ruh (soul) by certain processes is the real observance, amal etc. Similarly there are hundreds of different Aqaed prevailing in this populace which believes and claims to be true Muslim and which is far from the thing they claim to be. The Shiah Aqida is that they do the best service to Islam by beating their chests and bloodying the bodies for a wrong done thirteen hundred years ago, something they can neither correct nor do anything about now.
Now, the question is what is Islam's true, correct Aqida? This book Insha'Allah, in its totality will place it before you.
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