Whose Law to Follow

The story of Ibrahim's (pbuh) (Biblical name Abraham) sacrifice is known to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike- he was a prophet of God who was asked to take his beloved son to a valley and offer him in sacrifice. His and his son's example illustrates true submission to God where when a command came from Almighty, they are ready to fulfill it- they rose above their personal desires to fulfill the commandments of God. Quran illustrates Ibrahim's (pbuh) level of commitment in following words:

إِذْ قَالَ لَهُ رَبُّهُ أَسْلِمْ قَالَ أَسْلَمْتُ لِرَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

"When his Lord said to him, 'submit', he said: 'I submit myself to the Lord of the worlds.'" (Quran 2:131)

Not only was he himself willing to fulfill the command of sacrifice, his son, when he learnt of it from his father, also presented himself to God. The details of this story are not important for the lessons one can learn from this are clear enough for us. By submitting to the Almighty, Ibrahim (pbuh) chose to follow His law unconditionally.

On the other end is Satan whose aim is to try to deceive mankind so they are anything and everything but submissive to their Lord. Quran explains the loss of those who are led astray by Satan in the following words:

إِن يَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِهِ إِلاَّ إِنَاثًا وَإِن يَدْعُونَ إِلاَّ شَيْطَانًا مَّرِيدًا * لَّعَنَهُ اللّهُ وَقَالَ لَأَتَّخِذَنَّ مِنْ عِبَادِكَ نَصِيبًا مَّفْرُوضًا * وَلأُضِلَّنَّهُمْ وَلأُمَنِّيَنَّهُمْ وَلآمُرَنَّهُمْ فَلَيُبَتِّكُنَّ آذَانَ الأَنْعَامِ وَلآمُرَنَّهُمْ فَلَيُغَيِّرُنَّ خَلْقَ اللّهِ وَمَن يَتَّخِذِ الشَّيْطَانَ وَلِيًّا مِّن دُونِ اللّهِ فَقَدْ خَسِرَ خُسْرَانًا مُّبِينًا * يَعِدُهُمْ وَيُمَنِّيهِمْ وَمَا يَعِدُهُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ إِلاَّ غُرُورًا * أُوْلَـئِكَ مَأْوَاهُمْ جَهَنَّمُ وَلاَ يَجِدُونَ عَنْهَا مَحِيصًا

"They pray to none else than Satan, a rebel. God did curse him, but he said: 'I will take of Your servants an appointed portion 1; And surely I will lead them astray, and surely I will arouse desires 2 in them, and surely I will command 3 them and they will cut the cattle' ears, and surely I will command them and they will change God's creation 4.' Whoso chooses Satan for a patron 5 instead of God is verily a loser and his loss is manifest. Satan makes them promises, and creates in them false desires; but Satan's promises are nothing but deception. For such, their habitation will be hell 6, and they will find no refuge therefrom." (Quran 4:117-121)

1 Satan's sole objective is to lead at least a portion of mankind astray from the right path. As is clear from this verse the actual fight is between Satan and man whereby Satan is trying to allure man into wickedness while on the other hand man must strive to save himself from the fire. This is what Satan vouched for when he was being removed from Heaven:

قَالَ فَأَنظِرْنِي إِلَى يَوْمِ يُبْعَثُونَ * قَالَ إِنَّكَ مِنَ المُنظَرِينَ * قَالَ فَبِمَا أَغْوَيْتَنِي لأَقْعُدَنَّ لَهُمْ صِرَاطَكَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ * ثُمَّ لآتِيَنَّهُم مِّن بَيْنِ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ وَعَنْ أَيْمَانِهِمْ وَعَن شَمَآئِلِهِمْ وَلاَ تَجِدُ أَكْثَرَهُمْ شَاكِرِينَ * قَالَ اخْرُجْ مِنْهَا مَذْؤُومًا مَّدْحُورًا لَّمَن تَبِعَكَ مِنْهُمْ لأَمْلأنَّ جَهَنَّمَ مِنكُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ

"(Satan) said: 'Give me respite until the day they are raised up. (God) said: 'You are amongst those given respite' (Satan) said: 'Because you had sent me astray, verily I will sit in wait for them on your straight path: Then I shall come upon them from before them and behind them, from their right and their left, and You will not find most of them thankful.' (God) said: 'Get out of here, disgraced and expelled. If any of them follows you, I will fill Hell with you all.'" (Quran 7:14-18)

2 Arousing desires in humans is probably the most effective technique that Satan can employ in leading them astray from the straight path. It must be noted, however, that it is not the desires themselves that are problematic rather it is the extent to which the law of God is compromised in their fulfillment.

3 These desires can both be in material aspects as well as in the religious domain. In the material aspect, Satan causes one to justify and pursue those acts in this world which may otherwise not be allowed by the law of God, while on the religious end, he causes man to believe into concepts that compromise his understanding or practice of religion and take him further away from God. For instance, in general we do not accept a religious belief that is different from what we have inherited, or we do not accept it when it comes from someone we do not like. We do not try to understand God's commandments and we do not strive to fulfill them. And whatever deviation we take from God's law, we generally label it as 'not a big deal'!

A relevant example is that of Bani Israel, who used to drive a group from amongst themselves out of their homes, and when that group came as captives, they would ransom it and would use their religious Scriptures to justify it, even though driving them out of their homes in the first place was not allowed to them. Quran says in response to this event,

أَفَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِبَعْضِ الْكِتَابِ وَتَكْفُرُونَ بِبَعْضٍ فَمَا جَزَاء مَن يَفْعَلُ ذَلِكَ مِنكُمْ إِلاَّ خِزْيٌ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَيَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ يُرَدُّونَ إِلَى أَشَدِّ الْعَذَابِ وَمَا اللّهُ بِغَافِلٍ عَمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ

"Believe you in part of the Scripture and disbelieve you in part thereof? And what is the reward of those who do so save ignominy in the life of the world, and on the Day of Resurrection they will be consigned to the most grievous doom. For God is not unaware of what you do." (Quran 2:85)

Needless to say, they also regarded their complete Book as a Holy one and they also respected it more than any other Book. However, it is their actions due to which it has been said that practically they did not believe in a part of the Book because they did not take their teachings and accept them.

It is often found that people believe in those parts of the Book of God which they find easier to follow or which they have been brought up to follow from their childhoods. However, those aspects of the Book of God which are against the wishes of people or which require an extra effort are usually not followed. The reasons for not following Islam completely are numerous and most of them fall into the domain of 'desires'- these sometimes include social pressures, material gains or simply a lack of willingness to spend time and energy in the way of God. And it is such an attitude towards the law of God that has been condemned in the above verse.

4 Satan also causes people to deviate away from the nature they are built upon. Our nature is known to us and well-defined and our Creator wants us to behave according to the nature He has built us upon.

5 As is evident from the verse of Al-Nisa, those who do not follow the law of God actually take Satan as a patron. The reason is the fact that anyone who does not follow the law of the God is actually following some other law, and obviously this other law is not that of God's. This implies that the right of God is either shared or granted to an entity other than God, (by following that other law) and in this particular case to Satan. In addition, when one follows a law other than that of God, they usually believe that they are doing it according to the demands of wisdom. Quran states for people who ignore God's commandments and resolve issues through other channels:

وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ لاَ تُفْسِدُواْ فِي الأَرْضِ قَالُواْ إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُصْلِحُونَ * أَلا إِنَّهُمْ هُمُ الْمُفْسِدُونَ وَلَـكِن لاَّ يَشْعُرُونَ

"And when it is said to them, Do not make mischief in the land (by not following God's law), they say: 'We are but peace-makers.' Now surely they themselves are the mischief makers, but they do not perceive." (Quran 2:11-12)

6 Both Al-Nisa:121 and Al-A'raf:18 clearly state that those who continue to follow the path of Satan have their fate in the fire.

The verses of Al-Nisa quoted above continue to state:

وَمَنْ أَحْسَنُ دِينًا مِّمَّنْ أَسْلَمَ وَجْهَهُ لله وَهُوَ مُحْسِنٌ واتَّبَعَ مِلَّةَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ حَنِيفًا وَاتَّخَذَ اللّهُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ خَلِيلاً

"Who can be better in religion than one who submits his whole self to God, does good, and follows the way of Abraham the true in Faith? For God did take Abraham for a friend." (Quran 4:125)