OBJECTS OF OATHS
People usually take solemn oaths by calling upon God as a witness regarding the truth of their future words or deeds.
In Islam, a Muslim may only swear an oath by God. Swearing an oath by the sun, the graves of our loved ones, a totem, our ancestors, angels, prophets, saints, celestial bodies, statues, or anything else is prohibited and nugatory. Only God and nothing else in the cosmos is deserving of our oaths.
However, God can and does swear by His creation: ‘By the sun in its morning brightness’ [91:1].
Here, God takes an oath by the largest and most powerful object in our solar system. There are numerous objects of oaths in the Quran: The moon, stars, daybreak, night, even and odd, Makkah, time, male and female, amongst others.
The orthodox interpretation of oaths in the Quran illustrates the importance of the object of the oath and for taukīd (emphasis) of its magnificence.
One of the sun’s many critical functions is to keep orbital balance in the solar system through its gravitational force. Because the sun’s mass is 99.8 % of the solar system, it exerts an enormous gravitational pull on the rest of the objects in the system, almost acting like an invisible string that keeps the planets, moons and asteroids swimming within its lanes.
So, if you think the sun is great, know Allah is greater: ‘It is God who raised the heavens with no visible supports and then established Himself on the throne; He has subjected the sun and the moon each to pursue its course for an appointed time; He regulates all things, and makes the revelations clear so that you may be certain of meeting your Lord’ [13:2].
GOOD FRIENDS
As Muslims, we understand the worship of God to be the teleology of life.
Thus, we may postulate that if our lives are for worshipping and building a connection with God, the Eternal Good, our earthly relationships should be built on goodness, too.
Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics identifies three types of friendships: 1) Friendship built on utility, 2) Pleasure, and 3) Goodness, and values the third as the epitome. The former two cannot endure because it is relative, but goodness is an unchanging virtue and the bond of true friendship. When the nature of friendship is goodness, and two people spur each other to it, the parties may yet enjoy its benefits and pleasure.
Though Aristotle’s ethics of friendship is high, the Quranic and Prophetic standards are higher: ‘Let there arise out of you a band of people inviting to all that is good, enjoining what is right, and forbidding what is wrong: They are the ones to attain felicity’ [3:104].
The Quranic paradigm of friendship transcends this life and bears directly on the next: encouraging and guiding us to forge fellowships that advance God’s pleasure.
The Prophet (s) said, ‘A man follows the religion of his friend; so each one should consider whom he makes his friend’ [Sunan Abi Dawud 4833].
So, let us look at who the friends of the Prophet (s) were.
Ten of the Prophet’s companions received the glad tidings of Jannah—The Ultimate Felicity. The Prophet’s best friend, Abu Bakr, is one of the ten and was responsible for six of the remaining nine embracing Islam.
When Quraysh hunted the Prophet (s) to kill him, Abu Bakr volitionally accompanied him on the treacherous journey to Madinah. Abu Bakr was not only willing but reduced to tears of joy when the Prophet (s) chose him as his companion on the Hijrah.
It’s not normal for someone to be elated when death is a possibility. But Abu Bakr and the Prophet’s friendship was not rooted in the earth. It was one made for heaven.
‘Stand on the right side of history’ and ‘History will judge you’ are two slogans that have reverberated in the consciences of many.
However, in the rhetoric, we have missed some vital questions: Does the right side of history align with God’s Will? And: Am I more concerned with history’s judgement of me or God’s?
We can become swept up in the current of the dominant social discourse without giving it critical thought. The arguments may seem attractive and compelling, even correct, but when we fail to test them, we become like dead fish going with the flow.
To safeguard against the current, we turn towards God’s Will, not people’s: ‘God guides to the ways of peace those who follow what pleases Him, bringing them from darkness out into the light, by His will, and guiding them to a straight path’ [5:16].
Until next week, InshaAllah
Zaahied Sallie
Author of The Beloved Prophet – An Illustrated Biography in Rhyme
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