By Al-Hajj Khalil Champsi
(Toronto, Canada)
Similarly, In the Quran, God says I am always watching over you, means all our actions are being watched, recorded and preserved.
“O people! be careful of (your duty to) your Lord, Who created you from a single being and created its mate of the same (kind) and spread from these two, many men and women; and be careful of (your duty to) Allah, by Whom you demand one of another (your rights), and (to) the ties of relationship; surely Allah ever watches over you.” ( 4:1)
Surely Allah is vigilant over you: ‘‘ar-Raqib’’(guard;preserve); al-muraqabah(to watch; to keep an eye on); may be it is derived from ar-raqabah (neck) because they used to watch the necks of their slaves. Or it may be based on the fact that a watcher or guard usually stretches his neck for looking towards the object he is watching or guarding. However, this word does not imply mere watching or guarding; it means watching over activities of the watched person —all his acts of commission and omission — in order to reform the defects and make up the deficiencies, or just to keep the record; in other words, it implies guarding a thing with special concern towards it in knowledge and observation. That is why it is used for vigilance, observation, supervision, guarding, awaiting and controlling.
Allah is called ar-Raqab because He preserves the actions of the people in order to give them the irrecompense. In the following verses Quran calls to an attention of absolute Tawhid and God’s system of management and the authority of the Prophets and Imams and the pitfalls of Shirk.
“Say: Call upon those whom you assert besides Allah; they do not control the weight of an atom in the heavens or in the earth nor have they any partnership in either, nor has He among them any one to back (Him) up.” (34:22)
And intercession will not avail aught with Him save of him whom He permits. Until when fear shall be removed from their hearts, they shall say: What is it that your Lord said? They shall say: “The truth. And He is the Most High, the Great” (34:23)
According to the Islamic worldview, the universe has from Him-ness for its essence. In numerous verses, the Noble Qur’an ascribes miraculous acts to some of the prophets, such as raising the dead and curing congenital blindness. But it appends the phrase “by His permission” (bi idhnihi) to these ascriptions. This phrase reveals the essential from Him-ness of these acts so that no one might suppose the prophets have an independence.
Therefore, from Him-ness demarcates theoretical Tawhid from theoretical shirk. To believe something exists whose existence is not from Him is shirk. To believe that something has an influence that is not from Him is likewise shirk, whether that influence is supernatural, like the creation of the heavens and the earth, or is small and inconsequential, like the tumbling of a leaf. Tawhid is demarcated from shirk in practice by to Him-ness (inna ilayhi raji’un)
Whenever any being, whether it be outward or spiritual contemplation, is contemplated as being a road to God and not an end in itself, God himself is contemplated. In any undertaking or journey, to contemplate the road from the standpoint that it is the road, to attend to the signs, arrows, and indications of that road so as not to be lost or wander far from the destination, from the standpoint that these are signs, indications, and arrows, is to be headed toward the destination and to be going toward the destination.
The prophets and awliya ‘are roads to God-”You are the greatest road and the straightest road.” They are the signs and indications of the journey to God -” and guide posts to His servants, and a tower in His lands, and guides upon His path.” They are guides and show the way to the Truth –“’the summoners to God and the guides on the way of God’s satisfaction.”
