Islam - The Religion of Love

Surah al-Furqan Of Holy Quran starts in the 18th Chapter with these verses. The Gracious Lord says, Almighty Allah possesses all the blessings, He is the Most Blessed; He, Who revealed a Book that highlights the difference between right and wrong. It has separated truth from falsehood, like day from night. He revealed it on His beloved slave-saws, so that he may caution whole humanity about the disastrous consequences of following the untruth. Our Urdu translators, at times, casually translate ‘Nazeer’ as ‘Frightener - the one who frightens’. Here the holy Quran means, ‘revealed the Book on His slave so that he may guide those who pay heed’. I don’t understand how ‘Nazeer’ can be translated as ‘frightener’? Fright or fear can be of various types. One type of fear is that of a thief or mugger; other type may be fear of disease, it can also be fear of loss in business, yet another type may be fear of something harmful like a snake. Nazeer, however, denotes a person who informs you, in advance, about the consequences of your wrong actions; for example, if you are eating something and a person tells you that your food can cause you cholera in this season; he would be called Nazeer. It is exalted status of the holy Prophet-saws that he informs man of the damage and destruction that his disbelief, disobedience, ingratitude and cruelty will cause in this world, and also of the suffering and punishment that portray his deeds and await him, at the doorstep of his eternal life. He-saws advises man to repent and reform, else, he would be ruined by the natural consequence of his acts.

Almighty Allah says, ‘I have revealed a Book’. Translators have usually translated ‘Book’ as Quran, while the translation of ‘Furqan’ is not Quran. Furqan means something that differentiates, and here it refers to the holy Quran. Almighty Allah did not mention the name of the Book, but mentioned its attribute that it separates truth from falsehood. Whether someone believes or not, it clearly differentiates between right and wrong. It has been revealed for the worlds; not for just one world but for all the worlds. ‘Aalamin’ denotes everything in the universe except the Divine Being; so that it informs the ‘Aalamin’ of the hazardous consequences of staying away from Allah; and to Him belongs the sovereignty of the heavens and the earth. You fear governments and rulers, whose pomp and show is only a momentary and temporary; the real kingdom of the heavens and earth belongs to Allah; He is the real Sovereign. His rule extends over each particle, each whiff of breeze, every blade of grass, each ray of the sun and each leaf of every tree. You feel afraid of small, insignificant rulers and obey them; shouldn’t you fear and obey the Sole, Absolute Ruler? He has taken no son for Himself. The Jews say, ‘Uzair-as is the son of Allah’; the Christians claim, ‘Jesus is the son of Allah.’ But He says: ‘I have no son.’ He is the Absolute, the Single; there can be none like Him. A son necessarily belongs to the genre and species of his father. The son of a human being would be a human, the young of an elephant would be an elephant and that of a bird would essentially be a bird, inheriting the attributes of its father. If God had a son, he would have been another god. But, He neither has any son, nor any partner in His sovereignty; He is the Absolute Ruler, no one can interfere with His rule. It is He Who has created everything. He has created the earths, skies, sun, moon, stars, winds, rains, clouds, oceans, angels, jinns, human beings and all that we know and all that we don’t. Then, for everyone, He has defined a term that none can exceed. If someone has the government, it would end within a defined period. If someone is in power, it would also leave him at a defined time. Similarly, both life and health of a person would also end at a defined hour. One would have to leave wealth behind, at a given time, and none can predict that he would get a coffin and the burial. None can exceed the time set by Him and none can challenge His rule.

Quran is the Book that contains a Message of Mercy for the whole humanity. The holy Prophet-saws made incessant effort to save all human beings from eternal loss. Since that time, till the Last Day, each servant of the holy Prophet-saws will make a similar effort to save every member of human race from that distress. It means that Islam loves humanity and does not hate it. Islam does not hate any human being, religion or belief. Yes, it hates oppression and instructs to hate oppression; it hates evil and preaches to hate evil. It does not teach hate for any individual, person, nation or belief.

Our worthy President is visiting USA these days. He has had an exclusive meeting with US President Mr. George W Bush, whose details have not yet been revealed to the media. It was mentioned in yesterday’s paper that these details would gradually filter out. It was given in today’s paper that Mr. Bush has told President General Pervez Musharraf that ‘the religious institutions in Pakistan need a lot of reformation.’ Now, what is the problem and how can that be rectified. He has said that ‘these institutes teach hatred for the US. They should be advised to teach other subjects like Maths, English or History, instead of teaching hatred for the US.’ This impression is totally baseless that religious institutes teach hatred for US, UK, China or Japan. They teach hatred for none! On the contrary, they teach love for humanity and the human race. The reason for people’s hatred for US is not any Quranic injunction, but the tyranny initiated by Mr. Bush’s