attachment to God. This is the whole truth. To put it another way, tazkiyah enables one to focus so totally on God that one become free of all other considerations, save devotion to God. Tazkiyah enables

enables one to make God the centre of one’s attention in the complete sense. Making God one’s sole concern is no simple matter. It is akin to bringing about a total revolution in man’s psyche. One who experiences

a revolution takes God as the Giver in the full sense, and regards himself as the taker in the full sense. His thinking becomes God-oriented: his feelings are centred entirely on God. His words and deeds

DOMINION AS A TESTCreation Plan of God WILLIAM Penn was born in London in 1644 and died in 1718. A great advocate of religious tolerance, he took part in both: religious affairs and politics. One of his

in fact, a universal law of nature. It is established by God himself according to His own creation plan. This natural law set by the Almighty God has been described in these words in the Quran: We alternate

result-oriented actions. Loss of power is from God. Protesting against it is to protest against God. And is there anyone who can succeed in his protest against God?

GOD HAS A PLAN OF CREATIONAbide in Paradise GOD, according to His will, created a perfect world called Paradise. A world in accordance with all of our desires as human beings, in that it is free of all

achieve complete fulfilment. A perfect Paradise cannot be inhabited by less-than-perfect beings. So, God created perfection-seeking beings—us. He intended us to spend a period of trial on this present and

freedom to do evil, or we can use our freedom wisely, submit to God and qualify for Paradise. The test of man rests on the discovery of God, who is unseen. Before we can see Him, we should voluntarily surrender

members of a society come to accept the Islamic concept of God in their lives, a tremendous change takes place in social matters. This awareness that God is watching puts an end to double standards and hypocritical

that they will have to account for their deeds in God’s court. Their lives, instead of remaining self- oriented, become God-oriented. To believe in God is to believe in an Almighty being who has access

human mind, and who will take an account of all acts done openly or covertly. In this way belief in God takes away a person’s ego and haughtiness. The believer is totally sincere and is a realist in the

God and having the best moral character.” (Sunan alTirmidhi 2004) The greatest success for a person is that he should lead such a life in this world that when he dies he finds for himself a place in Paradise

the acceptance of the greatness of God, remaining ever mindful of Him and regarding oneself as accountable to Him; believing that one cannot save oneself from God’s chastisement, for all ones deeds, open

open or hidden, are in the knowledge of God, and that no strategy can save oneself from standing before God after death. The whole life of one who is convinced of this truth undergoes a change. The permissiveness

members of a society come to accept the Islamic concept of God in their lives, a tremendous change takes place in social matters. This awareness that God is watching puts an end to double standards and hypocritical

that they will have to account for their deeds in God’s court. Their lives, instead of remaining self- oriented, become God-oriented. To believe in God is to believe in an Almighty being who has access

human mind, and who will take an account of all acts done openly or covertly. In this way belief in God takes away a person’s ego and haughtiness. The believer is totally sincere and is a realist in the

spirit, his fasting will be considered insignificant in God’s eyes, as it will be merely hunger and thirst. (Sahih al-Bukhari) Apart from God’s rewards in the Hereafter, what are the immediate benefits

that by keeping fasts a person is enlisted by angels as a grateful servant of God. According to a teaching of the Prophet God says: “O people, all of you are hungry except the one whom I feed.” (Sahih Muslim)

is to be grateful to God (QURAN 2: 185). That is, a person must continuously acknowledge the food, drink and other lifesustaining commodities that one draws from nature created by God. One must discover

the created. God is the Creator and all of us are His creations. All of us are human beings. There is no third position. On the one hand, there is God, and on the other hand, there is God’s creation. This

This is a matter of fact. God is one and mankind also is one. Thus we have the Unity One has to differentiate between Islam and the followers of Islam. of God—monotheism—and the unity of mankind. This is

the family of God’. Therefore, as far as ethical values are concerned, there are no differences at all between religions. In daily life, we need to understand that all human beings are God’s family. One

BLAMING OTHERSUnacceptable to God MIKHAIL Kalashnikov, inventor of the well-known firearm AK-47 or Kalashnikov, died on December 23, 2013 at the age of 94 in Udmurtia, Russia. The AK-47 — Avtomat Kalashnikov

commits no wrongdoing, or when he commits a wrongdoing, he should repent and ask for forgiveness from God. The AK-47 assault rifle has killed more people than any other firearm. Even though it has wreaked

Quran, there is a story of Satan. At the time of the creation of Adam, a dialogue happened between God and Satan. During this dialogue, Satan said: “My Lord, since you have misguided me, I shall make the

of the year. In this way, he purifies his possessions. By giving a part of his wealth in the way of God, he legitimizes the use of the rest for his own purposes. The setting aside of a fixed amount from

or acknowledgement of the fact that the real giver is God. When God is the giver, His servant is obliged to spend from his wealth in the cause of God. The law of almsgiving prescribes the taking of wealth

becomes their well-wisher, rather than feel jealous of them. Since alms are given in the cause of God, that