The Holy Qur’an in chapter 16, verse 121 relates:
“Abraham was indeed a paragon of virtue, obedient to Allah, ever inclined to Him, and he was not one of those who set up equals with God”
This verse explains about the prophet Ibrahim (Abraham), may peace be upon him, that he was always obedient to Allah, the One God, and Haneef – inclined to Him and he was not a mushrikeen – one who set up equals to Allah. Of course, all prophets were the same and that should be the case of all Muslims. We should always be obedient to Allah, this is in fact what the word ‘Muslim‘ means ‘One who has submitted to Allah‘, ‘One who is always obedient to Allah‘. This is also why every prophet has been called a ‘Muslim’ in the Holy Qur’an, as every prophet, whether it was Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus etc., may peace be upon them all, always submitted to the one God and therefore was a ‘Muslim’ by their nature.
As a Muslim we should always be ‘inclined to Allah‘, ready to obey Allah and His messenger. The most important obedience is never to set up equals with Allah, which is call Shirk in Arabic. We must always put Allah first before everything and everyone. We must always be ready to submit ourselves totally to the will of Allah and strive to always win His pleasure.
This is a very clear message in the Holy Qur’an that stresses on obedience and ensuring that we never set up anything with Allah. Repeatedly, examples have been given in the Holy Qur’an of those who did set up partners with God, along with the warning of the result of such behaviour. We should not take it lightly, as this is a fundamental teaching in the Holy Qur’an that if you want to be a Muslim, then you have to submit to Allah, you have to be obedient to Him, to follow His teaches and you must always put Allah first before everything. Only then can you really call yourself a Muslim.
We are living in an unIslamic society, a very materialistic world, which is constantly encouraging us to turn to worldly things for comfort and pleasure. That is the real Jihad that we face, striving to put Allah first before these temptations. But it is the Jihad we must always be doing, if we really want to be a Muslim.
Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah and Imam Mahdi said:
Furthermore, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the fifth successor of the Promised Messiah has said:
In order to strengthen the administrative setup of the community of the Promised Messiah and the institution of Khilafat (successorship), we need to be constantly vigilant about our moral behaviour, for Satan is more powerful today than ever before. The unbridled advertisement of social evils, ease of travel, expansion of media networks, such as TV and Internet, have all contributed towards highlighting before the whole world the vices of individual boys and girls living in far off corners of the world. This has resulted in an irreparable damage to the morality of the youth.
Ahmadis Muslims need to wage a Jihad to protect themselves against this evil tide. Instead of involving ourselves in immoral acts and faithlessness and submitting ourselves to the wishes of the enemy, we need to make a positive use of modern inventions and utilize them for the propagation of the message of the Promised Messiah.
The Holy Qur’an teaches us to ‘keep firm to rope of Allah’ which means to be true submissive, obedient Muslim, if we do that then the blessings of Allah will rain upon us. This is the teaching that we should constantly be instilling into our children that Allah should always be first and develop that love of Allah in them and then they will become true Muslims, Insha’Allah (God willing).
The Holy Qur’an also teaches in Chapter 4, verse 60:
O ye who believe, obey Allah and His messenger and those in authority among you.
In this verse it informs believers, anyone who believes in the One God, that after obeying Allah, the One God, then next they should obey His messenger, the Holy Prophet Muhammad, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. Now why is there a need to obey the prophet of Islam, why not the prophets of Judaism, Christianity or any other prophet? The reason is that the One God had sent the Holy Prophet Muhammad, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, for all mankind, for all time. He brought the final message from God which fulfils all previous messages. Therefore, by accepting him, you are also accepting all the previous prophets that were sent to mankind, as he was sent as a fulfilment of all those previous messengers and their messages. This is something which is sometimes overlooked, and some people do not feel that it is important to accept and obey the prophet of Islam, but by rejecting him, then you are also rejecting the One God who has sent him for all mankind. Obedience to the One God means accepting whoever He has placed in authority.
The Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, has said:
He who obeys me, obeys Allah and he who disobeys me, disobeys Allah, and he who obeys my appointee, obeys me and he who disobeys my appointee, disobeys me. (Bukhari & Muslim)
The Holy Prophet understood the message of Islam better than anyone else and he demonstrated that message to us, to learn from. Likewise, it is vital that we too demonstrate that message to everyone we know. This is our duty, if we love Allah and His Messenger, then we must always strive to be the best Muslims we can be and ensure that everything we do, is obedient to Allah.