Showing Manners With God | Dr Adekunle Mikail

Showing Manners With God

After a soul has taken it upon himself to know his creator, the belief in the creator becomes more easier for him.

Since knowing God predates believing Him while believing Him comes before worshiping Him _ he who approaches God without these orders in contextualising Him, will find it difficult to really worship Him!

”Know that He(God) there is no god worthy of being worshipped except Him(God)”, is a verse and an order in the glorious Qur’an! And from this verse, the scholars in the science of knowing God ( Aqidah), have inferred the notion that knowing God is the first step before worshiping or servicing Him!

We have also read in the words of the scholars of science of religion that:” those who have arrived or accomplished their aims have not done so except by upholding the sacredness and good manners of the people of the past in their chosen ways likewise, those who are hiccupped and delayed in their ways to accomplish their aims, have not been hiccupped except by abandoning the nuances and good manners of the ancestors in their chosen professions !

No doubt, the Lord of the seven heavens and earths, who Has created everything between the duo, ought to be respected with all good manners that one can come up with especially the one He had specifically demanded Himself from His creatures!

Nay, man, even that who knows God, has not accorded God the manner and respect He deserves despite His power to create, decreate and recreate as He wills.

We read in Qur’an 39 vs 67 on the power of God over His creation as follows:

” No just estimate have they made of Allah, such as is due to Him; on the Day of judgement the whole of the earth will be but His handful, and the heavens will be rolled up in His right hand: Glory to Him! High is He above the partners they attribute to Him!”

It then follows from the above that if one will be just in the estimation he makes of God, he must:

– not just worship Him but worship Him according to what He wants and in accordance to how His apostle, Muhammad salawatu-llah alehi wasalam had worshipped Him or demonstrated how He should be worshipped for He had made the prophet salla-llahu alehi wasalam the standing mirror from which every true believer will measure his worship!

– must not put himself forward before Allah and His messenger according to Qur’an 49 vs 1 : ” O ye who believe! Put not yourselves forward before Allah and His messenger; but fear Allah : for Allah is He who hears and knows all things”
According to the exegetes of the Qur’an, the verse ” do not put yourselves forward before Allah and His messenger” is the basis for following Allah’s commandments and His apostles ordinances and it means among many other things:

(1 )do not make yourselves conspicuous in word or deed when in the presence of Allah( in Mosques, or at prayers or religious assemblies):

(2) do not precede, or in the market language, do not be too jumpy as to do something for God or His apostle except that they command it

(3) do not put words into God or His apostle’s mouths by anticipating what they may say or do on a matter,

( 4) do not be impatient ,trying to hasten things before the time is ripe, like praying the canonical prayer before their times, doing hajj in other lands other than Makkah or kill a soul without recourse into Allah’s ways and,

( 5), abandon not the Qur’an and the Sunnan of the prophet ( peace be on him) for guidance and let nothing else take precedence of them!

– Do not raise your voice or talk loudly before God. Some ill- mannered people raise their voices as to drown the voice of others in the mosques or when supplicating to God in their environments; they put up all manners of gadgets which enhanced their voices at residential areas so that the neighborhood will sleep not or rest well even at nights!

The above point, is what the second verse of Qur’an 49(suratul-hujurat ) is speaking against! We read the verse as follows:
” O ye who believe! Raise not your voices above the voice of the Prophet, nor speak aloud to him in talk ,as ye may speak aloud to one another ,lest your deeds become vain and you may know not”

It was reported that when the verse above was revealed, Umar Bn Khattab did not raise his voice again aloud in the presence of the prophet except that others struggled to hear and fathom his words, for fears of being accused of bad manner!

In addition, it is reported that when the prophet salla-llahu alehi wasalam saw his companions raising their voices in the mosques when they were extolling and exalting God, he warned them :

“O you men, mellow your minds, you are talking not unto a deaf nor whom is absent; indeed whom you are calling unto is ever present with you, He is oft-hearing and near, Exalted is His name and sublime is His suzerainty”

Part of good manner with God is to praise Him as He had praised himself or to praise Him with what He had praised himself with in the Qur’an and what the prophet had praised him with in his sayings!

Allah is Ar-Rahman, the most merciful, serenade him with it rather than extolling him with high- faluting adjective or phrase which illustrates mercy but which does not catch or embrace his mercifulness in local languages or which depicts him as someone else like Alagbada- ina etc!

Among the ahadith that discourage man from calling or extolling God with what He is not is an hadith narrated by Abu-Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him- the prophet salla-llahu alehi wasalam said that God said that:

” The son of Adam lies against me whereas the matter is not as he had pictured it, likewise the son of Adam has blasphemed me,whereas the matter is not as he had seen it! As for the lie he had lied against me, his words;

”God cannot resurrect me as He had created me,whereas the resurrection of the creature is more simpler for me than its first creation” , – as for his blasphemy, his words;

”God bears a child but I’m one, absolute who does not beget nor he is begotten and there is no partner whatsoever for me!”

Among bad manners with God is arguing with Him or His prophet or scholars who are the inheritors of God and the prophet’s knowledge without the knowledge, guidance or a book to enlighten one , on the matter one is disputing with the God, the prophet and the scholars!

Alas, the above is the rave of the moment everywhere in the world today! The one who is not properly grounded on a matter will want his opinion to be regarded as the fact of the matter!

Likewise, students of knowledge will want to superimpose his ideas on their teachers by force saying arrogantly that the knowledge of their teachers over some issues are excommunicated and fuddy duddy!

The one whose expertise is on a subject will want to have a stand on another subject entirely from where his expertise lies without firstly studying or deliberating deeply over the subject and make sure the pros and cons of the matters are exhausted!

Schools where Islam are being taught are being daily demonized as well as the scholars who do not join the fray of attacking others!

When a scholar does not involve himself in unnecessary disputation with others, you see some disgruntled elements having a shot at him asking questions such as we don’t even know where a so and so scholars are on a matter and what is the school of law or sect this and that scholars belong to!

The glorious Qur’an detests this in all its ramification, we read a verse from it as follows:

”Do you not see that Allah Has subjected to your use all things in the heavens and on earth, and Has made His bounties flow to you in exceeding measure, both seen and unseen, yet there are among men those who dispute about Allah, without guidance, and without a Book to enlighten them!”

” When they are told to follow the revelation that Allah Has sent down, they say: ”Nay,we shall follow the ways we found our fathers following. What if it is Satan beckoning them to the chastisement of the blazing Fire?”!
_ Qur’an 30:20-21

The way forward of this mess is to allow the scholars to settle the disputes between them without allowing the students who are still greenhorn or who lack the experience of life to temporise an hot water with cold one ,to venture to the issues!

It will be good, if the heads or scholars who are the leaders in various Islamic centers in the country can warn their students from poking nosing into the affairs between them and scholars from other schools!

It will equally be logical, if they can be weaned away from abusing others who have different opinions from their Sheiks! But this can be achieved, if their teachers and leaders themselves are away from abusing one another in the first place!

Opinion leaders, Suyuk, and scholars from different islamiyya schools in the country can clear this mess, if they have at the back of their minds, the good notion that the one who does not have a better understanding of a matter or an issue today can have it tomorrow!

But a situation whereby, abuse, mudslinging, petting others with untoward names are the order of today, tomorrow may be hard for those you had called unprintable names, to look at your reasons and reason with you and finally accept your stand!

Simply put, every human being,even an unbeliever, has his own dignity and if you had trampled upon his dignity today, tomorrow, he may not want to listen or reason with you and accept your fact in his way to be a believer!

And what is the essence of knowledge or good way, if others do not seek it from its owner; how can one earn the mercy of God with His knowledge if one do not honour Him with their listening ears and show manner while dealing with Him and His messenger ( salla-llahu alehi wasalam)