Responsibility as a Muslim

Assalam-u-Alaikum

ALHAMDULILLAH there are approx 1.5 billion muslims in the world today and we remember ALLAH everyday in our salat, in our fast and in other forms of worship. But sadly we seem to have forgotten the real meaning of being a muslim. I'll try to just remind our muslim brother and sisters what the real meaning of muslim is as per Quran and Hadith.

First we should know the purpose of the coming of Prophet S.A.W; why did ALLAH sent him?

"It is HE who has sent his Rasool with guidance and true Deen to make it prevail over all other deens even though the mushrikin may hate it" (Surah Tauba, Ayah 33)

Now what exactly is DEEN? There is no one word in english language to describe it. Today the word "DEEN" is normally translated as "Religion", however "Religion" does not actually mean DEEN as it means in arabic language. "Religion" includes just some rituals, customs and forms of worhisp but "DEEN" is something more comprehensive. "DEEN" includes everything that governs our way of life, how we spend our life and what to do and what not to do, whether its our social events, our personal matters, the social and economic system, our relations to warfare. So everything is a part of DEEN and since ISLAM is our DEEN all those areas need to be governed as per Islam. But what the western influence has done is that we have lost the true meaning of DEEN and have started considering Islam as a religion and have restricted Islam to few rituals, few ceremonies and acts of worship. The non-muslims recognize religion as separate and their wordly affairs as a separate thing. If someone practices his religion only to a personal level but does not interfere in the society and try to implement it in the society, the world will not have a problem.

There is a common thinking mainly because of western influence "not to interfere in matters of other" and most of the muslims have started acting on it. But Islam teaches us "to enjoin good and to forbid evil", this is the quality of a muslim that ALLAH has told in Quran and as per a hadith of Prophet S.A.W, "if you see something bad stop it with your hand, if you can't do that say it with your tongue, if you can't even do that then atleast hate it in your heart and this is the least level of Imaan." Now this teaching of Quran and Hadith contradicts the common modern thinking of "not to interfere in matters of other." Most of the time we don't even think about the higher level and we just want to start with the least level but in doing that also we just remain quiet on the wrong things because of which we have slowly stopped hatting that act. This is where we have started going astray; if we hate something then we should also not support it with our actions. If we can't speak against it then we should atleast let it know with our actions that we don't approve of that thing and this is the least level of Imaan. If we can't do that, then we don't have any Imaan. If someone accepts and make compromise in his heart against a certain wrong thing, then he has accepted the act so he has lost his Imaan because as per Hadith, the lowest level of Imaan is to atleast hate that thing in our heart. So the lowest level of Imaan is to hate the wrong in our heart and atleast show it through our attitude and action. If we make the other person believe through our actions that we don't have a problem with a thing that is against Islamic teachings, we have actually accepted that and so we have fallen from the least level of Imaan, and there is nothing after the least level.

Now Prophet S.A.W was sent to establish the Deen of ALLAH over all other Deen. In his life Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alahe Wasallum showed this by establishing an islamic state in the whole of Arab and in the last sermon, Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alahe Wasallum said that "those who are here today should convey this message to those who are not here may be the later will understand it better".

This job of spreading the message of ALLAH has historically been the job of the messengers of but its the honour and privilage of muslims that his job has been handed over to us by Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alahe WasallumALLAH. However, this also gives us great responsibility. In Quran ALLAH says that i have chosen you muslims as the best among all the nations because you call people to truth, forbid and stop evil and believe in ALLAH. So the quality because of which ALLAH has raised us above other nations is because of those two things; calling to truth and forbidding evil. If we fail to do that in our life, then we have come down from that position
and we have failed to fulfill the responsibility that was handed over to us by our Prophet S.A.W. So from the time we start being a muslim and become mature enough to understand things, we have this heavy responsibility on us in exchange of this heavy responsibility ALLAH promises heaven to us but that depends if we fulfill the responsibility. As ALLAH says in Quran that
"I will raise you (O Prophet) as witness against the muslim and i will raise the muslims as witness against the rest of the mankind" (Surah Baqra, Ayah 143)

Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alahe Wasallum is gonna be witness against us and he is gonna say to ALLAH that i forwarded the message which you gave me to them so then it became our responsibility to spread that message to the rest of mankind. Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alahe Wasallum is gonna say to ALLAH on the day of judgement that i gave them whatever message you gave me and it was their responsibility then and for this in his last sermon, Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alahe Wasallum confirmed this from the people "have i forwarded to you whatever was revealed to me by ALLAH and fulfilled my responsibility?, and everyone of the people present said "yes you have fulfilled." then Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alahe Wasallum pointed his finger towards the sky and said thrice "O ALLAH, you also bear witness that they are accepting it." So the responsibility of spreading the word of ALLAH has been our responsibility and we have to do it whether we like it or not, we can't run away frm it and we have to be answerable for it.

ALLAH knows very well what circumstances each one of us had and what abilities HE gave to each one of us and ALLAH is gonna judge each of us accordingly. What did we do using our abilities and resources at our disposal to spread teh message of ALLAH. We human beings were appointed as a representatives of ALLAH on earth and if we think about any person representing a country or an organization, then he also has to represent its teachings and values. So we have been appointed as a representative of ALLAH on earth and its our responsibility to establish the rule of ALLAH in the earth. ALLAH says in Surah Mudassir "rise and warn and magnify your lord." The verses are initially addressed to Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alahe Wasallum but with that connection it is addressed to all of muslims. What exactly did ALLAH meant by magnifying him? ALLAH is already the greatest in the universe and the whole universe is an evidence of it, everything in the universe is acting as per the laws of ALLAH. we don't just have to make ALLAH great by saying "ALLAH o Akbar" in salat, we have to make ALLAH the greatest in our life, make it visible to the world that ALLAH is great in our life and we act as per him, and make ALLAH the greatest in the world by establish his laws that he sent down to us in Quran. By establishing the political, social and economic system as per the teachings of ALLAH starting from our ownself and then moving to our family, our relatives and our friends.

May ALLAH guide us and give us the strenght to fulfill our responsibility towards HIM and help him to face the problems that come in our path.

AMEEN