Such was Abraham that when his Lord said to him; “Submit,” he said: I have submitted to the Lord of the Universe”. (2:131) Prophet Abraham (unto him be peace) submitted to the one and only God of the universe about whose roles in his personal life he had specific and precise knowledge.
He expounds his knowledge of God to his countrymen after disowning the objects that they worshipped. He said to them, “The Lord of the Universe (is the One) Who created me and Who guides me, Who gives me food and drink, and Who, When I am ill, heals me, Who will cause me to die and then will again restore me to life, and Who, I hope, will forgive me my sins on the Day of Judgment.” (26:77-82)
The title Rabbul Aalameen is a macro concept. Prophet Abraham’s countrymen needed a less formidable concept to understand God and so the exalted Prophet enumerated the major functions of God in his own personal life so that every member of his audience could relate to God in the same way as he does. The micro details applicable to all people give the listeners a fair idea of the cosmic role and status of God as Rabbul Aalameen.
Allah creates every human being through the agency of a father and a mother. Allah guides through the agency of a Prophet and a scripture. Allah feeds through the interplay of the soil and the rain. Allah heals through the agency of a doctor and medicine. Allah takes away life through some fatal cause like a disease/accident/natural calamity etc., and the services of the angel of death without which a state of coma could be indefinitely prolonged. Allah will restore us to life through the interplay of a yellow-coloured mysterious rainfall and the soil containing the mortal remains. Allah will save and forgive us through His mercy and grace and the intercession of those whom He most favours.
The Prophets help us to see the real power behind the agency and the medium and warn us against Satan who distracts us from focusing and clinging to God and who keeps us engrossed in the passing show of life and in the visible phenomena.
Just as Prophet Abraham (unto him be peace) invited his countrymen to re-examine their religion and rituals, Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) is asked to invite his addressees to revisit their polytheistic creed. “Tell them, (O Prophet): Did you consider those whom you call upon besides Allah? Show me which part of the earth they created? Or do they have any share in creating the heavens?” (46:4) The Qur’ān insists that Allah is the only Creator. “He created the heavens without any pillars visible to you and He placed mountains in the earth as pegs lest it should turn topsy-turvy with you, and He dispersed all kinds of animals over the earth, and sent down water from the sky causing all kinds of excellent plants to grow on it.”(31:10)
“Allah created you from dust, then from a drop of sperm, then He made you into pairs. No female conceives nor delivers (a child) except with His knowledge.” (35:11) “He creates you in your mothers’ wombs, giving you one form after another in threefold depths of darkness. That, then, is Allah, your Lord. His is the kingdom. There is no (other) God but He. So, whence are you being turned astray?”(39:6) “Did they come into being without any Creator? Or were they their own creators?”(52:35) “I did not call them to witness the creation of the heavens and the earth, nor in their own creation.”(18:51)
After creating us, God feeds us. “It is Allah Who created you, then bestowed upon you your sustenance.” (30:40) But Prophet Abraham (unto him be peace) gives priority to guidance.” I totally disown all who you worship and serve except the One Who created me, and behold, it is He Who will direct me to the Right Way.” (43:26, 27)
Prophet Moses also combines guidance with creation. “Our Lord is He Who gave everything its form and then guided it.” (20:50) The sequence of creation and guidance is repeated in this verse too, “Glorify the name of your Lord, the Most High, Who created all things and fashioned them in good proportion, Who determined and guided them.”(87:1-3)
In the month of Ramadhan, the first instalment of the Qur’ān was revealed. This month was selected for the inauguration of divine guidance. The word of God is the bread of life. To demonstrate the truth of this statement, the month of Ramadhan was selected for fasting, an act of abstaining from nourishment and sex, for a particular duration during the daytime, each day of the month. By delaying and denying bread or nourishment in the month of Ramadhan we give priority to guidance with which the month is associated. “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”(Deuteronomy, 8:3, St.Matt.4:4)
It is Prophet Abraham’s pet belief that it is Allah Who will direct him to the Right Way. (43:27) Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) is directed to say, “It is Allah alone Who guides to the Truth.”(10:35) It is but proper that our Creator ought to be our Guide. He alone can tell us why He created us, what He expects of us, how we can come off with flying colours on the Day of Judgment, how we should make our personal lives a glowing tribute to Allah, how love of God and humanity should permeate our social, political and economic institutions, how education should enable us to conduct ourselves as true servants of God, fully accountable to Him, how we should make the earth a mosque and our lives a self-fulfilling submission to Allah. In the scheme of God’s guidance, His Book and His Messenger play a sterling role. Allegiance to them in a whole-hearted manner holds the key to success and prosperity in this world and the next.
Gratefulness to God impels us to receive with both hands His gift of guidance for our own self-improvement; we should realise that he who is guided by Allah is truly guided and there is no other source of guidance.
Prophets and Scriptures are sources of God’s guidance. “Indeed We sent Our Messengers with clear signs, and sent down with them the Book and the Balance that people may uphold justice.”(57:25)
Prophet Abraham (unto him be peace) makes it clear that the Lord of the Universe (Rabbul Aalameen) gives him food and drink. The Qur’ān elaborates this point. “There is not a single moving creature on earth except that Allah is responsible for providing its sustenance.” (11:6) “Is there any Creator, apart from Allah, Who provides you your sustenance out of the heavens and the earth?” (35:3) “We also sent down blessed water from the heaven.”(50:9) “Let the dead earth be a sign for them. We gave it life and produced from it grain whereof they eat. We caused springs to gush forth that they might eat of its fruits. It was not their hands that made them.” (36:33-35) “Who shall provide for you if He withholds His sustenance?”(67:21) “If all the water that you have (in the wells) were to sink down into the depths of the earth, who will produce for you clear, flowing water?” (67:30)
Each function of Allah is introduced with a relative pronoun ‘who’ (Arabic. allathi) and each verse refers to two functions. The first verse refers to two functions – creation and guidance. The second verse refers to the supply of food and of water. (verses 78&79) Verses 81 and 82 begin with the same relative pronoun and each refers to two pairs respectively – death and resurrection, sins and forgiveness. Verse 80 has a foregrounded feature and that feature is the omission of the relative pronoun. However all the five verses maintain the feature of the pairing of functions. Verse 80 is the central verse – two verses precede it and two verses succeed it.
The central verse has this meaning. “When I fall ill, it is He Who heals me.” In this verse illness and health are paired. Scholars have drawn attention to the caution and care with which Prophet Abraham (unto him be peace) has constructed the sentence. He does not want to put the blame on God for involving him in illness. At the same time he is eager to give the credit to God for the restoration of his health.
In our mundane experience health is usually restored through a therapeutic process in which the diagnostic and prescriptive and surgical skills of a doctor and the standardised preparation of medicines are indispensable. The role of God in equipping the doctor with the required skill and in endowing the ingredients of a medicine with therapeutic or prophylactic properties cannot be overlooked. It is only when Allah determines to grant health, the initial, the middle, and the final stages of the course of a disease are regulated and directed towards a full recovery. If it is a terminal illness, the end of life and the end of a disease synchronize. Sometimes a fervent prayer to God brings cure without the mediation of curative agencies.
Allah has provided the human body with abundant immunity and resistance to disease. A protective sheath is given to every part of the body. When the balance between the acidic and alkaline aspects of the body is disturbed, health is adversely affected. These aspects play a vital role in the digestion of food. It is significant that Prophet Abraham (unto him be peace) takes up the issue of health and illness immediately after mentioning the fact that it is Allah Who provides us with food and water. Hygienic and balanced diet can promote the cause of health and, when food and water are contaminated, they can bring illness.
Illness can result in the recovery of health through God’s mercy. The Bible says, “All healing is from God.” (Ecclesiasticus, 38:2) “Bless the Lord… Who healeth all thy diseases.” (Psalms, 103:3. The use of ‘Who’ in this Psalm is significant) The Qur’ān says, “If Allah afflicts you with any hardship, none other than He can remove it.”(10:107) Job prayed, “Behold, disease has struck me and You are the Most Merciful of those that are merciful.” (21:83) Allah removed his affliction. (38:41-44)
In this extract (26:78-82) Arabic ‘huwa’ for ‘He’ is used three times – in connection with guidance, with feeding and with healing. Shaykh Muhammad Mitwalli Al-Sharawi throws light on the rhetoric and eloquence of the Qur’ān in the use of ‘huwa’ for these three functions and not for the remaining four. He says, “As far as guidance is concerned, there are many people who pretend to possess this power or talent… It was therefore necessary to stress that guidance is in the hands of Allah and is bestowed upon mankind according to His will and design… The actions (of healing and curing) needed confirmation that Allah was behind these blessings. It is only by His will that we are able to attain them. Both sustenance and cure from sickness was made possible by His will and providence.” (The Miracles of the Qur’ān, pp. 39-40) The duties of creation, of taking life, of resurrection, and of granting forgiveness cannot be attributed to anyone else except God and so ‘huwa’ is not used with these functions.
Illness may lead to total recovery or to death. That is why, after mentioning that Allah cures him from disease, Prophet Abraham (unto him be peace) refers to the fact that ‘Allah causes me to die.’ A poet says, “Death walks on many feet” to lay stress upon the multiplicity of ways death finds its target. A prayer enumerates undesirable ways of dying. “O Allah, I seek thy protection from being buried under the debris of a building falling down and from my falling down from the roof of a building, from being drowned, and from being burnt, and from evil old age. I pray to be spared from the deceit of the Devil at the time of death, and I seek Thy shelter from being killed from behind during the battle waged in Thy Way, and I seek Thy shelter from death caused by poisonous animals.”(Mishkat) “Keep me alive so long as You know living is good for me and grant me death when You know dying is good for me.” “O Allah, protect me from death due to deep anxiety and from death due to extreme shock and sorrow.”
“O Allah, bless me in my death and in all situations thereafter.” To die in a state of Islam, total submission to Allah, is a source of perennial blessings.
One remains in coma until the angel of death or his deputies take charge of the soul. “Tell them: The angel of death who has been charged with your souls shall gather you, and then you shall be brought back to your Lord.”(32:11)
On Ash Wednesday, priests apply ash on the foreheads of the faithful and say, “Remember, thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return.” In contrast the Qur’ān records this statement of Allah’s, “From this very earth We created you and to the same earth We shall cause you to return and from it We shall bring you forth to life again.” (20:55) Physical resurrection is a magnificent demonstration of Allah’s power and a reassuring fulfilment of Allah’s promise.
The purpose of resurrection is to reward the believers who did good deeds and to punish others. (10:4) Repeating the creation is easy for Allah. (30:27) Allah says, “We know well what the earth takes away from them. With Us is a Record that preserves everything.” (50:4) “Then no sooner than He summons you out of the earth you will come forth.” (30:25) To create all of you or to resurrect all of you is to Him like (creating or resurrecting) a single person.” (31:28) “And thus do We bring the dead land back to earth with water. Such shall be the coming forth (of human beings from the earth.” (50:11) “On the Day when the earth will be rent asunder and people rising from it, will hasten forth. To assemble them all will be easy for Us.” (50:43)
“The true life is in the Abode of the Hereafter, if only they knew.” (29:64) To fill the true life with eternal bliss one has to lead a divinely guided life in this world to secure intercession from Allah’s angels and Messengers and to deserve Allah’s grace and mercy. Forgiveness of sins is Allah’s prerogative. Intercession belongs to Allah exclusively. (39:44) He has the sole authority to permit or disallow anyone to intercede. The Bible says, “Who forgives all thine iniquities. (Psalms, 103:3) Prophet Abraham (unto him be peace) has a positive attitude towards Allah and reposes his hope in Allah’s forgiveness and mercy. Such an attitude is made manifest by the converted magicians who say, “And we surely expect that our Lord will forgive us our sins for we are the first ones to believe.” (26:51) It is with such an attitude that we should look forward to the Day of Judgment. “He it is Who accepts repentance from His servants and forgives sins and knows all that you do.” (42:25)