Hadith No. 39 – Sahih al-Bukhari

Salam,

Bismillah.

Immediate obedience. Take a minute to think what it actually is.

I’ll give you a practical example..

Volume 1, Book 2, Number 40:

Narrated Al-Bara’ (bin ‘Azib):

When the Prophet came to Medina, he stayed first with his grandfathers or maternal uncles from Ansar. He offered his prayers facing Baitul-Maqdis (Jerusalem) for sixteen or seventeen months, but he wished that he could pray facing the Ka’ba (at Mecca). The first prayer which he offered facing the Ka’ba was the ‘Asr prayer in the company of some people. Then one of those who had offered that prayer with him came out and passed by some people in a mosque who were bowing during their prayers (facing Jerusalem). He said addressing them, “By Allah, I testify that I have prayed with Allah’s Apostle facing Mecca (Ka’ba).’ Hearing that, those people changed their direction towards the Ka’ba immediately. Jews and the people of the scriptures used to be pleased to see the Prophet facing Jerusalem in prayers but when he changed his direction towards the Ka’ba, during the prayers, they disapproved of it.

Al-Bara’ added, “Before we changed our direction towards the Ka’ba (Mecca) in prayers, some Muslims had died or had been killed and we did not know what to say about them (regarding their prayers.) Allah then revealed: And Allah would never make your faith (prayers) to be lost (i.e. the prayers of those Muslims were valid).’ ” (2:143).

The people in the other Masjid were in the position of Ruku’ when they changed their direction. Changing direction in Medina meant an about turn (180 degrees) because Medina is between Jerusalem and Mecca when you draw a straight line on the map. (I suck at explaining maps and locations. Hope you understand. :P)

Anyway, the point I’m making here is: IMMEDIATE OBEDIENCE. No questions asked, not thinking twice, we need to obey Allah and His Messenger (SAW). But do we?

I’ll give my example. I’m a mathematical person. Firm belief in logic (the very reason I despise Chemistry). Everything should fit my logic, and then I’ll believe it. But studying Islam, I learnt that religion is not all logic. Most of the things might be easy to understand. But some things make you surrender your logic and intellect. You will never understand some things about Deen. And that’s a fact.

This is where ‘immediate obedience’ comes in. Even when you don’t understand why you need to obey a certain command of Allah, you give in with pleasure. For example, most people don’t ‘understand’ why Hijab is an obligation on Muslim women (although there are many strong logical explanations to it), so they question and eventually disobey.

Get my point? Questioning too much will lead to disobedience.

So, the lesson here is: IMMEDIATE OBEDIENCE. And for that, you might need to surrender your logic, sometimes. Don’t feel bad. Smile. :)

Wassalam.