7- Quranic Gem

‘Total Submission’
‎اذ قاله ربه اسلم قال اسلمت لرب العالمين
“Remember when his (Ebrahim) lord told him ‘submit’ he said, I have submitted myself to the lord of the worlds.”

If we were to sum up the life of Ebrahim AS, it could be said in three words; Submit, Surrender, Sacrifice.
Whenever Allah commanded him to do something he immediately surrendered without any questions. This is اسلام to submit. Islam is a religion of submission. Follow the ‘does’ and stay away from the ‘donts’.

• Allah said leave your father, at a tender age he left his father.
• Allah said leave your wife and son in the open desert, where there’s no food or drink and no sign of population. He left them.
• Namrood told Ebrahim to give up preaching, Ebrahim AS refused and eventually he was thrown in to the fire. Allah made the fire peaceful and cool. Ebrahim AS use to say, “the best days of my life were those days spent in the fire because it became a garden for me”.
• Allah told him to sacrifice his son, he did it.
No ifs and buts from Ebrahim AS. Total servant and bondsman!

Success lies in ONLY total submission. Hazrat Umar RA would say,
‎نحن قوم اعزنا الله بالإسلام فمهما ابتغينا العزة بغير ما اعزنا الله به اذلنا الله
We are a nation to whom which Allah gave honour through Islam, whenever we looked for success in other avenues besides Islam, Allah disgraced us.

This is the tragedy of the ummah today. Looking for peace in materialistic things, it doesn’t matter if we disobey Allah or not.

‎و من يبتغ غير الاسلام دينا فلن يقبل منه
Whosoever looks for Allah’s pleasure in any other way besides submission (Islam) then it won’t be accepted.

‎و من يسلم وجهه لله و هو محسن فقد استمسك بالعروة الوثقي
Whosoever submits himself to Allah whilst he does good actions, has indeed held on to a strong rope.

Nowadays Islam is a religion of convenience, if you feel like it do it otherwise leave it, this is the case of salah.
We need to totally submit to the commands of Allah.

And there are those who want to try and modernise Islam according to their own whims. They say, the religion need to be updated because it’s too old fashion.
Look at this verse,
‎وَجَاوَزْنَا بِبَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ الْبَحْرَ فَأَتَوْا عَلَىٰ قَوْمٍ يَعْكُفُونَ عَلَىٰ أَصْنَامٍ لَّهُمْ ۚ قَالُوا يَا مُوسَى اجْعَل لَّنَا إِلَٰهًا كَمَا لَهُمْ آلِهَةٌ ۚ قَالَ إِنَّكُمْ قَوْمٌ تَجْهَلُونَ
Brief explanation: When Musa AS and the Israelites crossed the sea, they came upon people who were worshipping idols. So the Israelites said to Musa AS, can you make us an idol like theirs. Not that they didn’t believe in Allah, but they wanted something new like what they saw. Musa AS immediately said, you are people who are driven by emotions, today you want this, tomorrow you’ll want something else. In other words, what Allah has given you, should be enough.

What do we learn from this?
Theirs no evolution or update in religion. Don’t try to modernise Islam so it can match your desires. What ever Allah and his Rasul SAW have given us, is enough!