"Assalamualaikum," Peacock greeted. "Waalaikumussalam!" the birds responded. "May I join?" said Peacock. Parrot happily answered. "Of course, please, come forward!" Peacock then came forward and said, "O my brothers and sisters, the first principle of 'aqeedah is belief in Allah. This is the most important principle of belief and action, and it is the focal point of Islam and the essence of the Qur'an.
We can say that belief in Allah is the basis of all other principles, the foundation of the religion. The more a person has faith in Allah, the more he is progressing in Islam. Therefore, one must examine the evidence that Allah Subhanahu wa-ta'Ala exists, and must know about Allah, which is achieved in two ways in the Qur'an: first, understanding the wonders in creation which point to the greatness of Allah's power and the perfection of His creation; second, studying the verses of the Qur'an which speak directly of Allah, His essence, His Names, His attributes and His actions. He must affirm that Allah alone is the only One to be worshipped, with no partner or associate, and reject anything else that is worshipped instead of Him.
The Qur'an does not discuss at length the matter of proving the existence of Allah, because it states that sound human instinct, and minds that are not contaminated with the filth of shirk, affirm His existence without any need for further evidence. Not only that, Tawheed or the affirmation of Divine Unity, is something which is natural and instinctive. It is called fitrah.
From a sahih (authentic) narration of Ibn 'Abbas, radhiyallahu 'anhu, collected by Ahmad, the Prophet (ﷺ) said, "When Allah created Adam, He took a covenant from him in a place called Na'man on the day of 'Arafah, then He extracted from him all of his descendants who would be born until the end of the world, generation after generation, and spread them out in front of Him in order to take a covenant from them also. He spoke to them face to face saying: 'Am I not your Lord?' and they all replied, 'Yes, we testify to it.' Allah then explained why He had all of mankind bear witness that He was their creator and only true God worthy of worship. He said, 'That was in case you (mankind) should say on the Day of Resurrection, 'Surely we were unaware of all this. We had no idea that Thee, Allah, were our God. No one told us that we were supposed to worship You alone." Allah went on to explain that it was also in case some people would say: 'It was our ancestors who made partners (with Allah) and we are only their descendants; will You, then destroy us for what those liars did?'
This was the Prophet's explanation of the Qur'anic verse in which Allah Subhanahu wa-ta'Ala said (Qur'an Surah Al-A'raf[7]:172-173): "When your Lord drew forth from the loins of the children of Adam their descendant and made them testify concerning themselves, [saying]: 'Am I not your Lord?" they said, 'Yes, we testify to it.' [This] in case you say should say on the Day of Judgement, ' We were unaware of this.' Or in case you should say, 'It was our ancestors who made partners [with Allah] and we are only their descendants. Will you then destroy us for what those liars did?'"
The verse and prophetic explanation confirm the fact that everyone is responsible for belief in God and on the Day of Judgement excuses will not be accepted. Every human being has the belief in God imprinted on his soul and Allah shows every idolator, during the course of his life, signs that his idol is not God. Hence, every sane human being is required to believe in God beyond His creation and not manifest in it.
From an authentic (sahih) narration of Abu Hurayrah, radhiyallahu 'anhu, collected by Tirmidhi, the Prophet (ﷺ) then went on to say, 'Allah then placed between the two eyes of every human a flash of light showing their Eeman and showed them all to Adam. Adam was awed by the sight of all these countless numbers of beings with flashes of light between their eyes so he asked Allah, 'O' Lord, who are they?' Allah told him that they were all of his descendants. Adam then began looking closely at one whose flash of light amazed him, then he asked who he was and Allah said, 'That is a man called Dawud from the last of the nations among your descendants.' Adam then asked how old he was and when Allah informed him that he was sixty, he said, 'O' Lord, increase his age by taking forty years from my age.' But when Adam's life span reached its end and the angel of death came, he said, 'Is there not forty more years of my life still remaining?' The Angel replied, 'Did you not give them to your descandant Dawud?' Adam denied that he had done so and his descandants denied their promise to Allah. Adam later forgot his covenant to Allah and so did his descendants and they all fell into error."
Adam ate from the forbidden tree due to his forgetting his promise to Allah and Satan's deceptive prodding, and most of mankind have ignored their responsibility to believe in Allah and worship Him alone, and have fallen into the worship of the creation.
Following that, the Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Allah then pointed to some of the descendants that He had extracted from Adam and his children and said, 'I have created these people for Paradise and they will do the deeds of the people of Paradise." He, Subhanahu wa-ta'Ala, then pointed to the rest and said, 'I have created these people for the Hellfire and they will do the deeds of the inhabitants of Hell.' When the Prophet (ﷺ) said that one of his Companions asked, 'O Messenger of Allah, what then is the point of doing good deeds?' The Prophet (ﷺ) replied, 'Verily, if Allah created one of His servants for Paradise, He helps him do the deeds of the people of Paradise until he dies doing one of their deeds; then He places him in Paradise because of it. But if He created a man for the Hell-fire, He helps him do the deeds of its inhabitants until he dies doing one of their deeds; then He puts him in the Fire because of it.'"
This statement of the Prophet (ﷺ) does not mean that people have no free will or choice between good and evil, for if that were so, the Judgement, reward and punishment would all be senseless. Allah's creation of a person for Paradise simply means that Allah knows full well before his creation that such a person will be among the people of Paradise due to his choice of faith over disbelief and good over evil.
If someone sincerely believes in Allah and tries to do good, Allah will give him many opportunities to improve his belief and increase his good deeds. Allah will never cause sincere belief to be wasted even if the believer falls off the path, He will help him get back on it. Allah may punish him in this life when he goes off the right track to remind him of his errors and wake him up to make amends. In fact, Allah Subhanahu wa-ta'Ala, will be so merciful as to take the life of the sincere believer while he is doing a good deed, thereby insuring that the believer will be among the fortunate dwellers of Paradise. If someone, on the other hand, disbelieves in Allah and rejects righteousness, Allah then makes evil deeds easy for him. Allah gives him success when he does bad and that encourages him to do more evil until he dies in such a sinful state and is flung into the everlasting Fire because of his evil deeds.
Since Allah made all human beings swear to His Godhood when He created Adam, this oath is printed on the human soul even before it enters the fetus in the fifth month of pregnancy. So when a child is born, it has with it a natural belief in Allah. This natural belief is called in Arabic the "fitrah." This fitrah, calls man to turn towards his Creator, but man is surrounded by many other influences which make him deviate towards the worship of other gods. If the child were left alone, it would grow up aware of Allah in His unity, but all children are affected by the pressures of their environment whether directly or indirectly. Parents, writers, teachers and others instil into children's minds ideas which change and contaminate this fifrah, placing a veil over the fitrah so that they are not able to turn towards the truth. However, because it has been imprinted in the soul of every human being, usually, this fitrah will appear when difficulty perceives. When a person feels trapped in calamity, he would scream for His name.
The Prophet (ﷺ) reported that Allah Subhanahu wa-ta'Ala said, "I created My servants in the right religion but the devils made them go astray." Al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated on the authority of Abu Hurayrah, thatThe Prophet (ﷺ) also said, "Each child is born in a state of "fitrah", but his parents make him a Jew or a Christian. It is like the way an animal gives birth to a normal offspring. Have you noticed any (young animal) born mutilated before you mutilate them?"
So just as the child's body submits to the physical laws which Allah has put in nature, its soul also submits naturally to the fact that Allah is its Lord and Creator. But, its parents try to make it follow their own way and the child is not strong enough in the early stages of its life to resist or oppose its parents. The religion which the child follows at this stage is one of custom and upbringing, and Allah does not hold it to account or punish it for this religion. When the child matures in youth and clear proofs of the falsehood of its religion are brought to it, the adult must now follow the religion of knowledge and reason. At this point the devils try their best to encourage him to stay as he is or to go further astray. Evils are made pleasing to him and he must now live in the midst of a struggle between his fitrah and his desires in order to find the right road. If he chooses his fitrah, Allah will help him overcome his desires, even though it may take most of his life to escape, for many people enter Islam in their old age, although most tend to do so before that.
Because of all these powerful forces fighting against the fitrah, Allah chose certain righteous men and revealed to them clearly the right path in life. These men, whom we call prophets, were sent to help our fitrah defeat its enemies. All the truths and good practices present in societies around the world today came from their teachings, and if it were not for their teachings, there would be no peace or safely in the world at all.
Thus, it is man's duty to follow the way of the Prophets since it is the only way which is truly in harmony with his nature. He should also be very careful not to do things simply because his parents and their parents did them, especially if knowledge reaches him that these practices are wrong. If he does not follow the truth, he will be like those misguided people.
The covenant which every man made to Allah during pre-creation was that he would recognize Allah, the Almighty, as his Lord and not direct any form of worship to others besides Him. This is the essential meaning of the shahadah (declaration of faith) which everyone must make in order to become a full-fledged Muslim; La ilaaha illallah (There is no god but Allah) also known as Kalimah at-Tawhid, the statement of Allah's Unity. Bearing witness to God's unity in this life is only a confirmation of the primordial declaration made in the spiritual state.
Those who are fortunate to be born in Muslim families must be aware that all such "Muslims" are not automatically guaranteed Paradise, because the Prophet (ﷺ) warned that a large part of the Muslim nation would follow those who have brought down wrath, and those who wander astray, so closely that if they entered a lizard hole, Muslim would climb in after them. He also said that before the Last Day some Muslims would actually worship idols. All of these people will have Muslim names and consider themselves Muslims, but it will be of no benefit to them on the Day of Judgement.
Cendrawasih, the bird-of-paradise, asked, "How is the covenant to be fulfilled?" Peacock said, "The covenant is fulfilled by sincerely believing in Tawhid and putting that belief into practice in daily life. Tawhid is put into practice by avoiding all the acts of shirk (setting up partners with Allah) and by closely following the last messenger (ﷺ) whom Allah sent as a practical and living example of life based on the principle of Tawhid. Because man has declared that Allah is his Lord, he must then consider righteous deeds to be only those defined by Allah and His Prophet as being righteous, and evil deeds likewise. In so doing, the principle of Tawhid is put into practice mentally. This method is important because a deed may seem good when it is in fact evil. For example, it has been said that when a poor man wants a king to do something for him, it is better for the poor man to get a prince or someone near to the king to speak on his behalf. Based on that it is further said that if one really wants Allah to answer his prayers, he should pray to the Prophet or a saint to ask Allah on his behalf, since he is dirty with the many sins he commits daily. This may seem logical, but both Allah and His Prophet (ﷺ) have clearly told man to pray directly to Allah without any intermediaries."
Then Peacock said, "O my brothers and sisters, belief in Allah, the One, the Only, the Supreme, is the very core of the Islamic Creed. All aspects of Islamic life, socio-economical, political, international relations, etc., revolve around the belief in One Illah, Allah, may He be praised and exalted. And Allah Knows best."
References :"Then did you think that We created you uselessly and that to Us you would not be returned?" - [QS.23:115]"
- Umar S. Al-Ashqar, Believe in Allah-In the Light of the Qur'an and Sunnah, IIPH
- Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips, The Fundamental of Tawheed, IIPH
