Page 24 - Sincerity Described in the Qur'an

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SINCERITY DESCRIBED IN THE QUR’AN

turn their back on Allah until such time, not because they are
unaware of Allah’s power or they fail to understand that they
are liable to worship Allah, but because they grow arrogant.
Likewise, they forget how they took shelter in Allah and

sincerely and desperately begged for His assistance, and
return to their denial as soon as Allah removes the hardship
and difficulty. In other words, they act sincerely when faced
with problems and insincerely when the problems disappear.
The Qur’an provides the following example of such people:
It is He Who conveys you on both land and sea so that
when some of you are on a boat, running before a fair
wind, rejoicing at it, and then a violent squall comes
upon them and the waves come at them from every side
and they realise there is no way of escape, they call on
Allah, making their religion sincerely His: "If You
rescue us from this, we will truly be among the
thankful." But then, when He does rescue them, they
become rebellious in the earth without any right to do

so. Mankind, your rebelliousness is only against
yourselves. There is the enjoyment of the life of this
world and then you will return to Us and We will
inform you about what you did. (Surah Yunus: 22-23)
Clearly, these people, who could adopt a more sincere form
of behavior if they so wished, promise that they will surely
become true believers once Allah helps them. However, as
soon as they obtain His help, they turn their face away from
Him. Yet, Allah announces that this rebelliousness will be held
against them, and warns them of the grievous doom.
As for the purified ones, who turn to Allah with an open
heart, there is no difference in their behavior whether in