Ihyaaud Deen An Effort to Revive Deen in Totality
In the sight of Allah Ta‘ala, the greatest and most valuable thing in the world is deen. The purpose for Allah Ta‘ala creating this entire earth was to send this deen down to humanity so that they can uphold deen in their lives and make it their mission to propagate and preserve deen in the world.
For this most important and great task, Allah Ta‘ala selected the greatest of humanity, the Rasuls and Ambiyaa (‘alaihimus salaam), who were the most pure and chosen of the entire creation.
The medium which Allah Ta‘ala used to send down this deen to the Ambiyaa (‘alaihimus salaam) was wahi (divine revelation). Allah Ta‘ala would send the greatest of the angels – Hazrat Jibreel (‘alaihis salaam) – to the Ambiyaa (‘alaihimus salaam) with wahi. Such was the lofty position and great importance of wahi that at times, Hazrat Jibreel (‘alaihis salaam) would be escorted by an entourage of seventy thousand angels surrounding him from all sides in honour of the revelation and for divine protection from any evil influence of the shayaateen.
Just as every medium of honour and respect was afforded to the wahi prior to it coming down to the earth, then after it reached the earth, Allah Ta‘ala had commanded the Ambiyaa (‘alaihimus salaam) and their ummats to show it (the heavenly books and scriptures) the greatest level of respect, reverence and honour, as it is the divine word of Allah Ta‘ala and His divine constitution.
Hence, every believer should understand well that deen is the greatest and most valuable bounty he possesses in his life, and he should show it the greatest level of respect, reverence and honour at all times.
While this was the divine system of Allah Ta‘ala for the Ambiyaa and Rasuls (‘alaihimus salaam) in general, in regard to this ummah, Allah Ta‘ala blessed us with an honour higher and greater than the other ummats.
Allah Ta‘ala made our Nabi (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) the imaam of all the Ambiyaa and Rasuls (‘alaihimus salaam) of the past, and made His book, the Qur’aan Majeed, the greatest of all divine, heavenly scriptures. Hence, the Qur’aan Majeed is the only book of Allah Ta‘ala that will remain until Qiyaamah and will never be cancelled – compared to the divine scriptures of the other Ambiyaa (‘alaihimus salaam) which remained for a limited period and were then cancelled.
Apart from this, another honour blessed to this ummah is that the Qur’aan Majeed has been granted the special, divine protection of Allah Ta‘ala. Allah Ta‘ala says:
اِنَّا نَحۡنُ نَزَّلۡنَا الذِّکۡرَ وَ اِنَّا لَہٗ لَحٰفِظُوۡنَ ﴿۹﴾
Certainly, We are the Ones who revealed the Qur’aan and surely, We have taken the responsibility of safeguarding it. (Surah Hijr v. 9)
This special honour which was granted to this ummah was not granted to any other ummah. Therefore, it is witnessed that with the passage of time, distortions, changes and interpolations entered the books of the other nations, whereas more than a thousand years have passed from the blessed era of Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam), yet the Qur’aan Majeed remains perfectly preserved, without a single letter being changed. It is not only preserved in the pages, but is preserved in the hearts of the ummah of Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) – the young, the old and even the children have been divinely selected by Allah Ta‘ala to protect the Qur’aan Majeed within their hearts.
Below is an inspiring and thought-provoking incident which illustrates the divine protection of Allah Ta‘ala granted to the Qur’aan Majeed:
Incident of a Jew Embracing Islam Upon Seeing the Divine Protection of Allah Ta‘ala for the Qur’aan Majeed
Yahya bin Aktham (rahimahullah) narrates the following incident:
During the period of his rule, the Abbasid Khalifah, Ma’moon Ar-Rasheed, used to host ilmi seminars wherein Ulama would gather and discuss various academic topics. On one occasion, a Jew slipped into the gathering with the Ulama. The Jew was well dressed, had a handsome face and was fragrant with itr (perfume). Thereafter, when the seminar commenced, he even delivered a presentation, speaking in a most eloquent and impressive manner.
After the seminar ended, and the crowd dispersed, Ma’moon called the Jew as he had reservations regarding him being a Muslim. Ma’moon asked him, “Are you a Jew?” The man replied, “Yes.” Ma’moon next invited him to embrace Islam saying, “Embrace Islam! If you do so, I will honour you and bestow such-and-such favour upon you!” However, the Jew refused saying, “I cannot leave my religion and the religion of my forefathers.”
One year later, the man returned and had now accepted Islam! On this occasion when he joined the seminar, he delivered a presentation on Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence). When the presentation was over, Ma’moon perceived from the way in which he spoke on this occasion that he had now embraced Islam. Ma’moon thus asked him, “Are you not the same Jew who attended this seminar last year?” The man replied in the affirmative and explained that he had now embraced Islam, to which Ma’moon asked, “What caused you to embrace Islam?”
The man responded saying, “After leaving your gathering last year, I decided to embark on a study to test the truthfulness of the various religions. As I am a fine calligrapher, I wrote out three copies of the Towrah in which I added a few words and also deleted a few words. I then went to a synagogue in order to sell the three copies. The people saw the beautiful calligraphy and purchased all three copies from me (without even realizing the mistakes in them).
“I next wrote out three copies of the Injeel in which I added and deleted a few words. I took these three copies to a church and the people also purchased them from me (without even realizing the mistakes in them).
“Finally, I wrote out three copies of the Qur’aan Majeed in which I added a few words and deleted a few words. However, when I presented them to the Muslim booksellers, they insisted on examining them before purchasing them from me.
“On examining them, they immediately noticed the errors, the additions and omissions and thus rejected the copies. I then realized that the Qur’aan Majeed was divinely protected by Allah Ta‘ala. This led me to embrace Islam.”
Yahya bin Aktham (rahimahullah) thereafter mentions: “After this incident transpired, I went to Makkah Mukarramah to perform hajj. While in Makkah Mukarramah, I met Sufyaan bin Uyainah (rahimahullah) to whom I narrated the entire incident. After hearing the incident, Sufyaan (rahimahullah) remarked, ‘This is not something unusual, as the reality of this can be found in the Qur’aan Majeed (of the Qur’aan Majeed being divinely protected, compared to the other heavenly books).’
“I asked him, ‘Where in the Qur’aan can it be found?’ Hazrat Sufyaan (rahimahullah) explained, ‘Allah Ta‘ala mentions in reference to the Towraah and Injeel:
بِمَا اسۡتُحۡفِظُوۡا مِنۡ کِتٰبِ اللّٰہِ
They were entrusted with the protection of Allah’s book… (Surah Maa’idah v. 44)
Allah Ta‘ala entrusted them (i.e. the Jews and Christians) with the task of protecting His divine books and they neglected to protect them. However, in reference to the Qur’aan Majeed, Allah Ta‘ala mentions:
اِنَّا نَحۡنُ نَزَّلۡنَا الذِّکۡرَ وَ اِنَّا لَہٗ لَحٰفِظُوۡنَ ﴿۹﴾
Certainly, We are the Ones who revealed the Qur’aan, and surely, We have taken the responsibility of safeguarding it. (Surah Hijr v. 9)
When Allah Ta‘ala himself has protected the Qur’aan for us, it will definitely remain protected forever.’” (Tafseer Qurtubi 10/5)
