O You Who Believe

74)

"O you who have believed, fear Allah and believe in His Messenger; He will [then] give you a double portion of His mercy and make for you a light by which you will walk and forgive you; and Allah is Forgiving and Merciful."

[Al-Hadid 57:28]

This verse highlights the rights of Allah and His Messenger over believers, also the rewards for fulfilling these duties.

The first command is to nurtute Taqwa in our hearts. Allah repeats this command of fearing Allah again and again so that believers know of it's importance. To fear Allah also means to be aware of Allah. At any moment, in any situation, a believer should be aware of Allah Who is the Creator and Sustainer of the whole world and between Who's fingers, a human heart lies and Who is closer to a human than his own jugular vein.

God awareness is asserted as a believer should be aware of Allah before accomplishing any task. Allah should be on his mind; he should contemplate whether this task is permissible in sight of Allah, whether this task will please Allah or displease Him, whether Allah's Messenger encouraged it and whether Qur'an allows it.

Taking these precautions is also necessary as mankind will be collected next to Allah on the Day of Ressurection and will be answerable to Him; He Who is the Witness of all the actions a person committed in life. Hence, it is important for believers to be aware of this Witness Who guards over us at all times.

Islamic commentators propose two different explanations for the next command which is to believe in Prophet Muhammad (salAllahu alayhi wasallam).

One group of commentators says that the address here is directed to the people who believed in the Prophet Isa (A.S). It is being said to them, "Believe in Holy Prophet Muhammad (salAllahu alayhi wasallam) now; for this you will be given a double reward, one reward for believing in the Prophet Jesus (A.S) and the other reward for believing in Prophet Muhammad (salAllahu alayhi wasallam).

The second group says that the followers of Holy Prophet Muhammad (salAllahu alayhi wasallam) are being addressed. They are being admonished to the effect: "Do not rest content with your verbal affirmation of the Faith only, but you should believe sincerely and truly For this you will be given a double reward: one reward for giving up disbelief and turning to Islam, and the second reward for believing sincerely in Islam and remaining steadfast to it."

In either case, the reward presented by Allah the Exalted is duplication of His mercy and illumination on those paths which Allah wants us to walk on. He will bless us with such a light of knowledge and vision in the world by which we will be able clearly distinguish at every step the straight way of Islam from the crooked paths of ignorance in different matters of life, and in the Hereafter He will grant us the light which will lead us to Jannah.

Another reward is complete forgiveness of sins. This is because sins all come when a person defies Allah i.e discards his Taqwa and doesn't follow the principles that Prophet Muhammad (salAllahu alayhi wasallam) taught us. Hence when these mistakes are corrected i.e Taqwa is established and belief in the Messenger of Allah develops, then Allah forgives all those sins which were previously committed because Allah looks at the state of the heart. If the heart is purely repentent, Allah, the Most Merciful forgives the sins and accepts the repentence. He will forgive all our errors that we may happen to commit due to human weaknesses in spite of our sincere efforts to fulfill the demands of the Faith, and will also forgive those sins of ours that we had committed in the pre-Islamic days of ignorance.