love of God in this verse? Religious scholars generally hold that “loving God” means “obedience to God”. The Sufis take it in the sense of a strong love of God (ishq ilaahi). But neither of these interpretations

discovers God’s great, superior blessings at a conscious level. God created man when he had no existence (19:9). “God shaped you, formed you well” (40:64). God created man in His own image. God gave man

on where all his exceptional needs were available. God made a perfect world for man in the form of Paradise, where he can have total fulfilment. God gave man reason and intelligence which, according to

WHAT IS POLYTHEISM?God is man’s real goal. Monotheism means making God one’s sole concern, whereas polytheism means partly or totally including anyone or anything else in the godhead. Chapter two of the

thus on polytheism: “Yet there are some who set up equals with God and adore them with the adoration due to God, but those who believe love God most. If only the wrongdoers could see—as they will see when

punishment—that all power belongs to God, and that God is severe in punishment” (2:165). From this verse we learn what is meant by polytheism. It is to set up something equal to God, whether in a partial or total

PARADISEParadise is the name of God’s neighbourhood. Only those will find a place in Paradise who discover God while He is unseen and starts living in the vicinity of God in this world itself. Paradise

Paradise is a unique world created by God. All kinds of comfort and happiness of a high standard exist in Paradise to the fullest extent. Paradise is the place where man will gain every kind of everlasting fulfilment

for those who become truly divine or God-oriented. Man, who is apparently, far from God becomes closer to God at the level of realization. Paradise is the name of God’s neighbourhood. Only those will be

of God. Now, with regard to this mission, there was a major issue that he had to deal with. And this was that the Kabah, which is in Makkah and which the Prophet Abraham and his son Ishmael had built for

for the worship of the one God, had, in later times, been converted into a centre for polytheism. 360 idols had been installed therein. One might think that, given this situation, the first commandment

ONENESS OF GODThe concept of one God is the essence of Islam and the source of all of its teachings. God is one. God is an eternal, ever-living reality. He is all in all. Everything is from God. God is not

not from anything. God is the Creator of all things and He is managing the entire universe. The Quran puts it thus: “God: there is no deity save Him, the Living, the Eternal One. Neither slumber nor sleep

Almighty one!” (2:255) Then there is another chapter in the Quran which has this to say about God: “Say, ‘He is God, the One,

for freeing slaves, for those in debt, for spending for God’s cause, and for travellers in need. It is a legal obligation enjoined by God. God is all-knowing and wise.” (The Quran, 9:60) Of the eight

verse, ‘for the cause of God’ is directly related to dawah ilallah or calling people to God. Often ‘for the cause of God’ is related to jihad. Dawah ilallah or the call to God and the Quran has been termed

Quran entitled Tafseer Al-Manar that the words ‘for the cause of God’ are equally applicable to those who strive to spread the word of God. (Al-Risala English, June 1984, pp 6-7) In Tafseer Manar, Rasheed

OF GODLove of God, the Sustainer of the heavens and the earth, ushers a revolution within one’s personality producing positive thinking in oneself and well-wishing for others. Love of God is a part of

your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.’ (Matthew, 22:37; Deuteronomy, 6:5) Love of God is not something mysterious. It is the highest degree of acknowledgment of God. When

When a person discovers God, when he becomes consciously aware of God’s blessings, when he realizes that his existence and entire life are replete with God’s blessings, at that moment a strong affection

Lord. He is then in a position to see God without seeing Him, to experience God’s closeness in spite of the immeasurable distance separating them.THE OMNIPOTENT GOD AND HELPLESS MANOnly those men and woman

All-Powerful God. This helplessness leads to humility and the voluntary acknowledgement of the higher truth. The relation between God and man is not that God is the whole and man is a part of Him or God is the

are wholly baseless.The truth is that the relation between God and man is that God is everything and man, in relation to God, is nothing. God is self-existing,

Discovery of God God’s true servant is one who is thrown into such spiritual excitement by the discovery of God that he always has God in his thoughts. The beholding of God in all His majesty inspires

stands on end. One who finds God fears and loves Him above all else. His entire attention is focused on God alone. When he reads the Quran, he is overwhelmed with gratitude to God for having guided him, thus

ignorance. When he considers the life-pattern of the holy Prophet, his whole being is thankful to God for having provided man with such an impeccable example of how life should be lived, and having then

oneself from things other than God, one instantly feels that one has come close to one’s Creator. One begins to experience the presence of God. Man is the creation and God is his Creator. As such, it is

is human nature that he should come close to God to the ultimate extent. But various things, such as pride, negative thinking, etc., separate man from God. Tazkiyah aims at thoroughly purifying man of such

than God, one instantly feels that one has come as close to one’s Creator as it is humanly possible to come. One begins to experience the presence of God all around one. The level of nearness to God depends