Auron ka hai Payaam aur, mera Payaam aur hai, / Ishq key dardmand ka tarz-e-kalaam aur hai! (Iqbal)
Human boundaries are for some, whereas Allah’s boundaries are for all. Human boundaries are generally meant to protect some people, and often their privileges, against encroachment by the many. Allah’s boundaries, on the other hand, protect all human beings against all harm and evil. And often against their own worst nature as it were.
Human beings set up boundaries out of concern for their own claims, interests and possessions. Allah, on the other hand, sets up boundaries out of concern for the welfare of human beings – all human beings. What a magnificent difference!
Allah’s boundaries are there to protect people from what their creator knows will hurt and harm them and diminish the experience of life for them on this earth. Allah’s boundaries, therefore, are part of the unfolding of Allah’s Rahmat and love and mercy for his creation on his earth.
And it is a tremendous blessing from Almighty Allah that he defines his boundaries clearly and fairly. And that he openly warns human beings about them. Allah says in the Qur’an: “Those are Allah’s boundaries, don’t go near them.”
Tilka hudoodullahi fa-laa taqrabooha!
What a Loving, Caring, Doting God!
What a loving, caring God – a most doting God, as I have described him elsewhere. Himself Rahmaan and Raheem. Sends his man Muhammad, Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, as Rahmat.
So, what else do you expect to come out from the source of all Rahmat if not Rahmat?
And not just for this or that chosen or privileged part of his creation but for all his worlds, whatever and wherever they may be and in whatever form and shape they may be.
Where is the surprise then if Rahmatal lil’aalameen is how God Almighty describes his messenger of love, peace, mercy and blessings? What else do you expect from the master of all the worlds – Rabbul ‘Aalameen?
What a clear and powerful miracle, every Aayat of this Qur’an! How can an unlettered man, from an illiterate culture, sitting in a cave 1400 years ago, in a barren desert full of rock and sand, and an occasional palm tree, design a perfect equation like this?
Is this proof enough that this Qur’an is indeed from God Almighty? If it is not, then maybe you should work a bit more on learning the basics about the nature of proof in this world.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE BREAK ALLAH’S BOUNDARIES
So, Allah created his boundaries – Hudoodullah – out of his immense and abiding concern for your wellbeing and not because he wanted to protect something that belonged to him or to take away all fun from your life.
Below is a partial list of all the terrible things that happen to us when we break Allah’s boundaries. They are just a few of the problems that afflict human life today. Almost all of them are the product of human beings violating the boundaries of God Almighty on earth – Hudoodullah!
A punctured ozone layer.
Global warming.
Air and water pollution and toxification.
Many forms of cancer.
Heart and lung diseases.
Widespread poverty and hunger.
Famine and growing water shortages.
Drug and other harmful and dangerous substance abuse.
Alcoholism and its widespread corrosive effects on human life, family, workplace, society and the world in general.
Unsustainable weight gain and obesity in some parts of the world.
AIDS and other killer diseases – what the Hadith calls Sayyi-il Asqaam.
Wars, wars, even more wars and the devastation they cause.
You cap all that with Allah’s wrath and displeasure, you have a real disaster on your hands – in this world as well as in the next world.
How can we reverse the clock on many if not all of these problems? The answer: Hudoodullah!
That is the unfailing formula for building a better world. Respecting the laws and bounds of Allah in his creation.
Hudoodullah! is the answer to many of our problems.
You respect them, and Allah will respect you and give you a better life – both here in this world as well as after death in the next world.
EVERY AAYAT OF THE QUR’AN A MIRACLE
Governments of this world pursue, penalise and punish those who violate their boundaries: their laws and the legal boundaries they set up. God Almighty’s government issues warning notices – and often lightly punishes in this world itself – those who persistently disregard his laws and violate his boundaries – hudoodullah.
God Almighty’s forgiveness is great, his patience immense. But so is his wrath – and his punishment.
He says in the Qur’an: Nabbi’ ibaadee annee anal Ghafoorur Raheem. Wa anna ‘adhaabee huwal ‘adhaabul aleem. Paraphrase: Inform my slaves – (you and I and every other human being that is) – that I am indeed the most forgiving and the most merciful and loving, and that my punishment is indeed the most severe and painful punishment of all.
Now do we understand why after every Aayat – not verse, Muslims, Aayat – I feel like saying: Subhanallah, what a beautiful Aayat. What a miracle! Each single Aayat!
What a wonderful proof that this Qur’an can only be from Allah.
And now do we see why Allah himself refers to the passages of the Qur’an as Aayaat – miracles? And proofs? For, that is what they are – a miracle, each one of them.
And a standing proof each one of them that this Qur’an and this Deen and this prophet, Muhammad, Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, are all directly from Allah. And they could have emanated from anywhere else.
And that is what the Qur’an itself calls them – Aayaat: miacles.
Or proofs!
VERSIFICATION OF THE QUR’AN
Muslims, stop the poeticisation of the Qur’an.
The Urdu-speaking Muslims did a great job when they retained that almost untranslatable expression Aayaat in their own language. Thus they kept the original divine expression intact and in the process enriched the Urdu language and culture.
English translators of the Qur’an – Allah bless them – on the other hand, got carried away by what the Biblical tradition and standard English usage handed them. And what the earlier non-Muslim translators of the Qur’an handed them.
They naively borrowed from the West the expression “verses” to describe what the Urdu and Farsi translators would often describe as Aayaat-e-Kareemah of the Qur’an.
This unfortunately resulted in the “versification” of the Qur’an in English, rather than in highlighting the miraculous nature of the Aayaat of the Qur’an and the enrichment of the English language and Western culture.
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