Page 52 - Devoted to Allah

DEVOTED TO ALLAH

This being the case, these attributes acquire great im-
portance in one’s evaluation of believers. To understand
whether a community is one of sincere believers, these cri-
teria, the immutable laws of Allah as explained in the
Qur’an, have to be taken into consideration.
While evaluating verbal oppression and slanders
against Muslims, the events that befell Muslims in the past
should be our reference point. In this sense, in the Qur’an
Allah gives an account of the difficulties and slanders en-
countered by the early Muslims:
Or did you suppose that you would enter the Garden
without facing the same as those who came before
you?... (Surat al-Baqara: 214)
In the verses in which “trials that came to those who
passed away in the past” are related, we come across a
noteworthy situation. The enemies of prophets and be-
lievers did not say: “These people believe in Allah and
seek His approval” or “These people are not immoral like
us, they possess noble values.” On the contrary, they fool-
ishly tried to slander believers and accused them in the
most unbecoming manner due to a rationale of their own
making.
Certainly, they would not dare to say: “We are rebel-
lious against Allah and we do not observe any moral lim-
its; we just want to oppress these people who do not serve
to benefit us.” It would be unwise to expect these people
to make confessions such as: “These are the people who
observe Allah’s commands, whereas we are transgres-
sors.” On the contrary, due to their distorted mentality,
they would strive to legitimize their slanders by malign-

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