بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
Surah al Ikhlas.
قُلْ هُوَ اللهُ أَحَدٌ
اللهُ الصَّمَدُ
لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ
وَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ
Subhanallah so many of us have memorized this surah. In fact there was a sahabi who would recite end the recitation of every rak'ah with this Surah because this Surah was dear to his heart.
Reciting this Surah carries the reward of reciting a third of the Quran.
It is a Surah that talks about tawheed.
Unfortunately I had never been able to have a close relationship with this surah and often I would wonder: what is the benefit in this for us, those who already believe in One God? I often wondered if I would ever be able to establish a relationship with it and if ever I would appreciate this Surah that it changes my life.
Alhamdulillah during maghrib today, I was thinking about Surah al ikhlaas. It struck me in its simplicity. It was the simplest form of da'wah. How to invite one to Islam in the fewest sentences were mentioned in this Surah. Then I realized it was not only da'wah to non-muslims but to muslims as well.
The first ayah says: Say: Allah is The Uniquely One. Subhanallah. This is stopping us from anthropomorphizing Allah. It is also establishing His separation from the creation in that He does not have a source that precedes Him or any successor to succeed Him(Ahad being different from waahid; waahid is preceded by sifr and succeeded by ithnayn). It also shows unlike us creation, who have a need for pairs to propagate or even just other organisms for various purposes or other physical matter for purposes of survival, Allah is too Majestic and Honorable to develop such needs.
Then the next ayah follows: Allah is As Samad. It is translated as Self Sufficient in Muhsin Khan's translation but I remember someone(I believe it was Shaykh Abu Omar) when he was explaining the meaning of that mentioned something that I remember was slightly different in meaning. Sahih Translation translates it as Eternal Refuge. Either way as I remember it, to explain the name the following was mentioned. Think if you live in a village, and you fall into some great difficulty, you will go seek the assistance of the strongest and most capable person of the village to help you out. The one who might be the most superior and will have no problems in helping you out. And each time you fall into the biggest problems, he helps you out. And he helps and helps without any decrease. So take that example and magnify it manifold and perhaps you will get a glimpse of what As Samad means. Allah gives and gives and requires no compensation to be able to give. And He is the Strongest to whom we should turn for help. So turn to Him for help.
The third ayah mentions: He does not beget nor was he born. This goes back to what is mentioned in the first ayah. He is far Glorified above to have desires of the pleasure and comfort the creation gets from the pair and the offspring. Moreover He is Uniquely One, so there is no one suitable to take any position equal to or just slightly inferior to Him. We are all lowly slaves who are but the creation of Allah and we seek only to please Him. Any pride or notions of superiority to the others that may arise in your heart is merely whisperings of the shaytan, for none but Allah knows the ranks of every single person and who is forgiven and who is punished. It also shows how other religions fall into great error by anthropomorphizing Him by saying He has daughters or a son or other such filth. Nay, but He is far Glorified above that which they ascribe to Him. Indeed He is the most High, the Supreme.
Finally the Surah ends with: And there is none in likeness unto Him. Now the interesting thing about this Surah is that when I was contemplating about this I was thinking about two things. One is in line with the rest of the Surah that is talking about His Uniqueness and His being Glorified above having equals or anything similar to Him(this is where a lot of heretics also went wrong when they denied the Most Glorious Attributes of Allah by likening it to His creation). The other things I was thinking is that there is nothing like Him as in He is the Creator and we are the creation. The Creator is not part of the creation, nor is the creation part of the Creator. Two separate entities: One with superlative qualities, the other with some good and some deficiencies but essentially existing for the Praise and Glorification of the Creator. Also because there is none in likeness unto Him, we do not have the capability to imagine or understand how He is. We do not have anything else that might inspire us to get even a gist, but rather we believe in what He reveals to us and do not go beyond the bounds. For the fortunate few, they will see Him in Jannah and inshAllah then we might be able to appreciate His Majesty and Beauty and Supremacy a little better. Finally, I will say that since there is none like unto Him, there is no point worshipping stuff that has contemporaries or equals. There is no point looking upto to anything in the creation, for there is something better than that. Only Allah who has no one/thing comparable to Him azza wa jal is worthy of directing our prayers to. In addition in everything that we do pertaining to our Lord subhanahu wa ta'ala we should realize He is perfect beyond our ability to understand, so we should show proper respect for Allah and His Deen. We should take strict countenance of ourselves when we are in a state of 'ibadah for we are facing the One who has no equal who deserves the best of worship. And even when we may have deficiencies in our worship, we should seek forgiveness and supplicate to Allah to grant us that which is best for us.
So I realized even for one who has been born and raised in tawheed, there are many lessons in Surah al Ikhlaas. I only hope that I learn more and will develop a closer relationship with Allah's Speech. Allahumma ihdina.
