Page 37 - Faith: The Way to Happiness

The Unhappiness of the Society of the Ignorant

should be very carefully and strenuously avoided:
Allah does not forgive anything being associated with Him
but He forgives whoever He wills for anything other than
that. Anyone who associates something with Allah has
gone very far astray. (Surat an-Nisa': 116)
One of the returns people who ascribe partners to Allah receive
for this behavior in this life is unhappiness. Then, how does ascrib-
ing partners to Allah make one unhappy, or what happens if one di-
rects the emotions and thoughts which should be directed towards
Allah towards other beings instead?
The answer is clear. In such a situation thousands of false gods
intervene in a person's life. For instance, if a person is fearful of an-
other, he has attributed to that other a power and a will independent
of Allah. Since under such circumstances he believes that the other
person can harm him, he obeys him and in turn tries to gain his ap-
proval and goodwill. As can be seen, feeling such emotions towards
another individual instead of towards Allah means attributing cre-
ative powers to that other individual. This in turn means that the
person is making a god equivalent to Allah out of somebody no dif-
f e rent from himself. The fact is, however, it is Allah alone Who de-
serves fear and obedience. In a verse of the Qur'an, our Lord advises
us as follows:
Is Allah not enough for His servant? Yet they try to scare
you with others apart from Him. If Allah misguides some -
one, he has no guide. (Surat az-Zumar: 36)
So, a person should conform only to the instructions and prohi-
bitions of our Lord and should try to earn His approval. Otherwise
he will experience great discomfort and difficulty. The fear of Allah
is a "benevolent" fear which brings a person closer to Allah, brings

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