By Al-Hajj Khalil Champsi
(Toronto, Canada)
Allah tells us in the Quran to protect ourselves and our families: O you who believe! save yourselves and your families from a fire whose fuel is men and stones; over it are angels stern and strong, they do not disobey Allah in what He commands them, and do as they are commanded. (66:6)
This verse tells that a person’s responsibility is not confined to making effort to save himself from the punishment of God but it is also his responsibility that he should so educate and also train to the best of his ability members of his family to become Allah’s favorite servants, who have been entrusted to his care in the natural process of life; and if they might be following a path to Hell, he should try, as much as he can, to correct them. His concern should not only be that his children should lead a happy and prosperous life in the world but, more than that, he should be anxious to see that they do not become fuel of Hell in the Hereafter.
Prophet (peace be upon him) said: Each one of you is a herdsman and is accountable with regard to his herd. The ruler is a herdsman and is accountable with regard to his subjects. The man is a herdsman of his family and is accountable with regard to them. And the woman is a herdsman of her husband’s house and his children and is accountable with regard to them.
Someone enquired from the Holy Prophet (saw) as to how could salvation be attained on the Day of Judgement?
He replied, “It could only be possible if one does not deceive Allah. Certainly, if anyone tries to deceive Allah, he is himself deceived by Allah (i.e. he is repaid for his deceit) and Allah takes away belief from him. If he possesses reason, he should know that in trying to deceive Allah, he is only deceiving himself.”
“How can Allah be deceived and defrauded?” a person asked.
The Prophet (saw) continued, “The person fulfills all his religious obligations but his aim is to please someone other than Allah. Fear Allah and restrain from ‘Riyah’. On the Day of Judgement, the deceiver (Riyak?r) will be addressed by four titles, ‘O Kafir, O Sinful, O Crafty one, O Loser, your deeds are nullified and the reward of your deeds is lost. Today you have no worth whatsoever. Go and seek the reward of your deeds from those, to please whom you performed your act.
Human’s Intellect has the capacity to distinguish Good and Bad.
Allah says, Allah thus makes clear to you His communications that you may understand (2:242)
‘‘al-‘Aql’’ is ‘‘to tie’’,‘‘to shackle’’. Accordingly, the faculty of perception is called al-‘aql, because it holds fast the perceived picture; the perceived idea or picture is also called al-‘aql,as is the power by which man distinguishes between good and evil, and right and wrong. Its opposites, from various view-points, are insanity, idiocy, foolishness and ignorance.
al-‘aql is the faculty of perception which holds fast the perceived picture, according to the Creation of All?h. It knows truth and falsity in theoretical matters, and good and evil and the benefit and harm in the practical field. First it recognizes itself, then it perceives the sensual phenomena through the five senses, then it turns to the inner feelings and through them becomes connected to the outside world — like will, love, hate, hope, fear and similar emotions and sentiments. Then it analyses the perceived ideas and pictures, and re-arranges them, generalizing and particularizing them. Then it forms an opinion in theoretical matters and decides its own course of action in practical ones. This, in short, is al-‘aql that is, reason and its function.
But sometimes some forces overpower man by subduing all other powers. For example, lust and anger subjugate all the other faculties, either vanquishing them completely or weakening them. Thus man deviates from the middle path, straying to excess or deficiency in his moral and ethical life. In short, reason does not function as it should normally do, even though it seems to work.
Likewise, when a man chooses his course of action on the basis of wrong premises, he is not working reasonably, even though this exercise is tolerantly given the name of ‘‘reason’’. It is because the man by such an exercise goes against the dictates of healthy nature and right path.
A person who seeks alternative means such as so called ‘Walimus (so called Scholar)’, Jin and other means does not look a reasonable person and deviates from the Right Path and thus falls into committing an act of ‘Shirk’.
Unfortunately as extracted from Zanzibar blog, many naïve people in the East coast of Africa, utilise the services of unscrupulous ‘so called scholar’ or ‘Walimus’ or those practicing Black Magic who charge exorbitant amount of monies to many who are desperate seeking solution to their problems and unfortunately loose a fortune,thus diminishes one’s ability to function normally and are left in poverty.
