Transcend Beyond Your Ritual Worship in Surah Al-Nisaa'

A big mistake that I was not taught early on in my upbringing was that Islam is confined to ritual acts. A big mistake was that I was not told Islam is a system at large that works towards noble goals for all of mankind. I later learned that Islam aspires for the purification of the interior human soul as well as the exterior human body. Islam advocates justice against corruption, whether it's in one household or an entire nation. Islam facilitates to grow a beautiful relationship between us and our One Creator, as well as growing a courteous relationship between us and the rest of mankind. What you can easily notice, is that there seems to be a constant balance towards the interiors and the exteriors. The micro and the macro. The Creator of mankind and mankind. One complements the other, and plenty of our spiritual imbalances can easily occur if these concepts aren't properly understood in harmony. A very common one which admittedly we sometimes fall into is when we find a gap between the quality of our relationship with the people and our relationship with the God of the people. You might be finding yourself praying, fasting, making your occasional Umrah, and even reading a daily portion of the Quran. Yet, there is an issue lying still. You don't feel it. It feels redundant. Everything is just plain. Perhaps, there is something wrong. There could be many things wrong in fact, but for the sake of this post let's focus on one aspect that Allah highlighted Himself: Just like you focus on our main ritual duties to Allah, focus on how you ritually deal with the people. Surah Al-Nisaa' (4): Verse 86 A simple greeting of "Assalam alikum wa rahmatAllah wa barakatu" has been obliged for us to be responded with to someone with, either in the same way of courtesy or better than it. What's remarkable here is how Allah highlighted the phenomena of His meticulous accounting in this seemingly very simple act. A greeting of Salam. Why would Allah tell us that He takes careful over all things in this particular verse? To tell you, that everything you do matters. Even if it was slightly a bigger grin when you returned a Salam for someone. And of course, if we were to build on this, we realize every little act that you consider is weighed heavily in the sight of Allah. From facial expressions to the tones of our voice, to the choices of our words. It's a beautiful aya here. We are guided to raise the mundane acts of our day to acts of worship, to transcend beyond what's formally asked of us. To excel with those around us, and for that Allah will surely show you His appreciation. I wish I knew this teaching earlier because this would have made see that Islam is holistic. Everything matters. How we interact with people is a big deal to Allah, and perhaps when this part of the equation is missing we feel spiritually imbalanced. Perhaps we may feel like our worship isn't complete because the whole people aspect is missing. This is a reminder that we can't negate human beings from the equation when Allah is involved. They are very much interlinked. We can see this link strongly here. Allah emphasized that we excel in our greetings because if this were to take place it would be much more unlikely to have hostility in the actual interaction. In essence, Allah advised us to perfect the start of every interaction to keep our peace and social ties in the Muslim Ummah in place. You might not think you are able to change the state of the Ummah right away with a Salam, but by Allah's grace, this principle can go a long way. For one of Islam's greatest goals, after all, is establishing peace with oneself and mankind on Earth. إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ حَسِيبًا ​ Disclaimer: This is not a tafsir from me, but a reflection the already established meanings. submitted by /u/somemuslimkid [link] [comments]

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