O You Who Believe

67)

"O you who have believed, if you support Allah, He will support you and plant firmly your feet."

[Al-Muhammad 47:7]

This verse from Surah Muhammad (salAllahu alayhi wasallam) is similar to another verse from Surah

"Indeed, Allah will surely support those who support Him (His cause)."

[Surah Hajj 22:40]

That is because the reward is comparable to the type of deed that is performed. Thus Allah, in return of us supporting His religion awards us by supporting the believers and making them firm i.e making their foothold strong.

At various places the Qur'an characterizes man's participation in the effort to establish the supremacy of Islam as 'helping God'. This needs a little explanation. God has endowed man with the freedom of will and choice, with the result that He does not resort to His omnipotent will to compel man either to do certain things or to refrain from others. He rather leaves man free to adopt the course that pleases him - be it that of either belief or unbelief, of either obedience or disobedience. God prefers to instruct man by means of persuasive argument and admonition, so as to bring home to him that even though he is free to disbelieve, disobey and defy the Will of God, his own interest and well-being lie in serving and obeying his Creator.

Hence, directing people to the right path by persuasion and admonition is of concern to God, He regards those who contribute to this cause as His allies and helpers. This is, in fact, the most exalted position attainable by man. When a man performs Prayers, keeps his fast and worships God in other ways, he is merely on the level of service and subjection to God. But when a man strives to spread God's true religion and to enthrone it in actual life, he is honoured with the status of God's ally and helper, which is the zenith of man's spiritual growth. Literally, 'and be our witness that we are Muslims.'

Allah describes Himself as being All-Strong and All-Mighty. By His strength He created everything and measured it exactly according to its due measurements; by His might nothing can overpower Him or overwhelm Him, rather everything is humbled before Him and is in need of Him. Whoever is supported by the All-Strong, the All-Mighty, is indeed supported and helped, and his enemy will be overpowered.

Supporting Allah's cause must also come with a purified intention, hence expecting no reward for it by anyone but Allah, hence expecting no satisfaction for it by anyone but Allah. If we want to plant a tree for Allah in our heart, we should create it's roots based on purified intention. When the roots are pure, the plant to evolve will also be full of ikhlaas (sincerity and pure intention).

Supporting Allah's cause, by definition, is to do something beyond that which is obligatory to do for example, praying obligatory prayers is a compulsory task for believers but if a believer goes beyond that and introduces prayer to other brothers and sisters and shares his knowledge with them so that they enjoin him on this task, that is supporting Allah's cause.

It can be done in many ways; building a masjid or precisely a place for worship where Allah can be remembered is also a part of it. Giving sadaqah is another example. Giving zakaat to a non-believer so that he would look at Islam from a new perspective is also an example. In other words, spreading Allah's religion to others in the dark is called supporting Allah's cause. Merely standing with the truth is also helping Allah's cause since Allah's cause i.e Islam is the truth.

Things we learnt:

> Allah confirms His Divine help for those who support His cause i.e Islam.

> Supporting Islam in anyway not only strengthens our faith but also earns us support from Allah in our affairs.

> Supporting Allah's cause may overtime bring bad intentions in our hearts as humans are prone to pride and boasting hence with every good deed, a believer must refresh his intentions and make sure he is struggling to gain Allah's i.e the Creator's approval and not the creations'.

> Supporting Allah's religion can be done as simply as passing a word of Allah to another as to share knowledge of Islam with others. But in case of sharing, one must make sure he himself is following that advice formerly and properly.

May Allah guide us to the right path.
Ameen.
Wama alayna illal balaghul mubeen.