Page 65 - Sincerity Described in the Qur'an

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Ways To Attain Sincerity

to turn in opposition to you. Besides, Allah controls the
hearts of them all. If He so willed, then He makes them all to
agree with you.
On the other hand, if Allah does not give His assent, then
it is unimportant whether the whole world were to give

theirs. Any true believer knows with certainty that if he earns
only the assent of people it is not worth anything in Allah’s
presence, and that he will have acquired nothing on his way
to the next world, unless Allah willed otherwise. Those who
had assented may well be great in number, or powerful in
terms of wealth or authority. Yet, these beings are all weak,
and proceed through Allah’s permission, and will one day
lose their power and might after having decomposed in the
earth. For this reason, the support of even large groups will
not be beneficial in the hereafter. Only Allah is Everlasting
and worthy of granting consent. It is only by comprehending
this truth that one can acquire the understanding of lasting
sincerity. He should turn towards acquiring Allah’s assent by
freeing himself from the "opinions of others." In the Qur’an,
Allah describes this with a metaphor:
Allah has made a metaphor for them of a man owned by
several partners in dispute with one another and

another man wholly owned by a single man. Are they
the same? Praise be to Allah! The fact is that most of
them do not know. You will die and they too will die.
(Surat az-Zumar: 29-30)
In the Qur’an, seeking the consent of others besides Allah
is described as "idolatry (shirk)" or "ascribing partners to
Allah." In the above-mentioned verse, Allah compares the
one who seeks the consent of others and ascribes partners to