Tuesday, August 21, 2007

ISLAM : THE RELIGION OF EASE

INTRODUCTION

The religion God chose for people, which best suits their temperament, is the religion of Islam. God has made His religion very easy for people to live by. Religion lifts all the burdens, and things that are limiting and restricting and that cause people hardship. It informs people that they should always seek God's approval, lean towards Him, and resign themselves to the fate that He has determined for them, for He is infinitely compassionate, kind and forgiving; He creates everything with a purpose for righteous people; He is the possessor of all power.

To trust and befriend God, Who is the possessor of all creatures and controller of all the events that take place, means to put an end to the fears, worries, troubles, and hardships in a human being's life. For one who lives by his religion, what is most important is the ease and beauty religion provides him. Moreover, God has made all His commands and decrees commensurate with people's dispositions and no hardship will ensue from any of them.

God, in the Qur'an, declares that religion is easy and that He will make things easier for those who follow their religion:

We will ease you to the Easy Way . (Qur'an, 87:8)

… He has selected you and not placed any constraint upon you in the observance of your religion—the religion of your forefather Abraham… (Qur'an, 22:78)

Our Prophet (saas), in the light of these verses, invites us in following our religion to declare: “Religion is easiness.” (Sahih Bukhari)

The practices and beliefs that people see as hardships have been added to religion and passed on as if they were a part of the real religion by polytheists or by people who deny religion and try to distance others from religion. Yet others have adopted an ostentatious manner in their observance of religion, thinking that if they perform harder things to show themselves as more pious, that will be more generally acceptable. However, our Prophet (saas) has always ordered Muslims around him to make religion “easier.” As a result, righteous Muslims should obey this command and should not suffer the consequences of representing easy things as hard. One of our Prophet's (saas) sayings on this matter is as follows:

"Make things easy for the people, and do not make it difficult for them, and make them calm (with glad tidings) and do not repulse (them)." (Sahih Bukhari)

In this book, in accordance with the advice of our Prophet (saas), we are reminded of how easy it is to live God's religion. Furthermore, it is explained that the religion of Islam encourages the lifestyle most suitable to a person's temperament, comfort, and happiness: a life lead by the morals of the Qur'an is the best possible life a person can live.

No comments: