Page 142 - Quranic Wisdom - New.indd

Avoid Unnecessary Conflict

The fifth verse of this chapter reads: “Guide us to the straight
path.” This is also an automatic response from man to his God.
Man’s grasp of reality tells him that the greatest blessing that he
may ask from God is right guidance. Right guidance is a must for
man. And it is God alone who can set man’s foot on the right
path. Overwhelmed with his feelings of obligation to his Maker,
he says: “O God, show me the right path.”
The sixth verse of this chapter reads: “The path of those You
have blessed; not of those who have incurred Your wrath, nor of
those who have gone astray.” This verse is an elaboration of the
above verses of the chapter.

Avoid Unnecessary Conflict

he Prophet of Islam started his mission in Makkah in 610
TAD. At that time he used to pray by adopting the Kaaba as the
qiblah (prayer direction). Then in 622 he migrated to Madinah
where some Jewish tribes had settled. The Prophet then adopted
the Jewish qiblah for his prayers over a period of fifteen or sixteen
months. Then he again turned his face towards the Kaaba as the
qiblah for his prayers. This event is referred to in the Quran in the
chapter Al-Baqarah (The Heifer):

But even if you should produce every kind of sign for
those who have been given the Book, they would never
accept your prayer direction, nor would you accept
their prayer direction: nor would any of them accept
one another’s direction. If, after all the knowledge you
have been given, you yield to their desires, then, you
shall surely become a transgressor. (2:145)

This prophetic example embodies an important principle:

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