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The question which arises here is, "How can all
people be expected to believe in Allah given their varying- backgrounds,
societies and cultures? For people to be responsible for worshipping
Allah they all have to have access to knowledge of Allah. The final
revelation teaches that all mankind have the recognition of Allah
imprinted on their souls, a part of their very nature with which they
are created.
In Soorah Al-A'raaf, Verses 172-173; Allah explained
that when He created Adam, He caused all of Adam's descendants to come
into existence and took a pledge from them saying, Am I not your Lord?
To which they all replied, " Yes, we testify to It:'
Allah then explained why He had all of mankind bear
witness that He is their creator and only true God worthy of worship. He
said, "That was In case you (mankind) should say on the day of
Resurrection, "Verily we were unaware of all this." That is to
say, we had no idea that You Allah, were our God. No one told us that we
were only supposed to worship You alone. Allah went on to explain That
it was also In case you should say, "Certainly It was our ancestors
who made partners (With Allah) and we are only their descendants; will
You then destroy us for what those liars did?" Thus, every child is
born with a natural belief in Allah and an inborn inclination to worship
Him alone called in Arabic the "Fitrah".
If the child were left alone, he would worship Allah
in his own way, but all children are affected by those things around
them, seen or unseen.
The Prophet (PBUH) reported that Allah said, "I
created my servants in the right religion but devils made them go
astray". The Prophet (PBUH) also said, "Each child is born in
a state of "Fitrah", then his parents make him a Jew,
Christian or a Zoroastrian, the way an animal gives birth to a normal
offspring. Have you noticed any that were born mutilated?"
(Collected by Al-Bukhaaree and Muslim).
So, just as the child submits to the physical laws
which Allah has put in nature, his soul also submits naturally to the
fact that Allah is his Lord and Creator. But, his parents try to make
him follow their own way and the child is not strong enough in the early
stages of his life to resist or oppose the will of his parents. The
religion which the child follows at this stage is one of custom and
upbringing and Allah does not hold him to account or punish him for this
religion.
Throughout people's lives from childhood until the
time they die, signs are shown to them in all regions of the earth and
in their own souls, until it becomes clear that there is only one true
God (Allah). If the people are honest with themselves, reject their
false gods and seek Allah, the way will be made easy for them but if
they continually reject Allah's signs and continue to worship creation,
the more difficult it will be for them to escape. For example, in the
South Eastern region of the Amazon jungle in Brazil, South America, a
primitive tribe erected a new hut to house their main idol Skwatch,
representing the supreme God of all creation. The homage to the God, and
while he was in prostration to what he had been taught was his Creator
and Sustainer, a mangy old flea-ridden dog walked into the hut, The
young man looked up in time to see the dog lift its hind leg and pass
urine on the idol. Outraged, the youth chased the dog out of the temple,
but when his rage died down he realized that the idol could not be the
Lordof the universe. Allah must be elsewhere. he now had a choice to act
on his knowledge and seek Allah, or to dishonestly go along with the
false beliefs of his tribe. As strange as it may seem, that was a sign
from Allah for that young man. It contained within it divine guidance
that what he was worshipping was false.
Prophets were sent, as was earlier mentioned, to
every nation and tribe to support man's natural belief in Allah and
man's inborn inclination to worship Him as well as to reinforce the
divine truth in the daily signs revealed by Allah. Although, in most
cases, much of the prophets' teachings became distorted, portions
remained which point out right and wrong. For example, the ten
commandments of the Torah, their confirmation in the Gospels and the
existence of laws against murder, stealing and adultery in most
societies. Consequently, every soul will be held to account for its
belief in Allah and its acceptance of the religion of Islam; the total
submission to the will of Allah.
We pray to Allah, the exalted, to keep us on the
right path to which He has guided us, and to bestow on us a blessing
from Him, He is indeed the Most Merciful. Praise and gratitude be to
Allah,the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be on prophet
Muhammed, his Family, his companions, and those who rightly follow them.
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