The Sunnah of Allah
Allah’s method will never change. Allah has sunnan (precedent) or a fixed way of doing things:
[This is] the established way of Allah with those who passed on before; and you will not find in the way of Allah any change. (Al Qur’an 33:62)
But you will never find in the way of Allah any change, and you will never find in the way of Allah any alteration. (Al Qur’an 35:43)
For them are good tidings in the worldly life and in the Hereafter. No change is there in the words of Allah . That is what is the great attainment. (Al Qur’an 10:64)
From the above verses, we will discover that the way of Allah in His creation and His command, goes according to a fixed methodology of promises and ways. These promises and ways will never change. The lucky ones are the ones who Allah has bestowed the comprehension and allows him to slow down and readjust his course, if he is on the wrong path. If he is on the right path, he should still beg Allah to hold him tight in the right path until he meets Allah. May Allah make us amongst those.
If we accept the Almighty’s invitation to His message, He will accept our supplication and calling when we need Him.
Is He [not best] who responds to the desperate one when he calls upon Him and removes evil and makes you inheritors of the earth? Is there a deity with Allah ? Little do you remember. (Al Qur’an 27:62)
Our lives are always woven with difficult times, distress, injustice, disappointments and grief. Yet, Allah promises that He will accept the supplication of the one who is in dire need and desperate circumstances. This by itself is an element which we all need in every part of our lives, and more crucially, at the moment of death. After all, death will certainly take all of us, we just do not know when. The reality is that we will need Allah, our Lord and Creator, in that most difficult time of transition when we leave this world to face the next – the point where time has run out and there is no turning back.
And when they forgot that by which they had been reminded, We saved those who had forbidden evil and seized those who wronged, with a wretched punishment, because they were defiantly disobeying. (Al Qur’an 7:165)
The following is a very direct warning for those who stray from the path.
And it will be said, “Today We will forget you as you forgot the meeting of this Day of yours, and your refuge is the Fire, and for you there are no helpers. (Al Qur’an 45:34)
Imagine what a disgrace and humiliation and suffering if we forget the meeting with our Lord and He forgets us in this life, the moment of death and on the Day of Judgment.
We do not know when our good fortunes will come to an end. People meet with accidents, get older, or unexpectedly, they are in bed with a terminal illness, with no one to help them. Even if someone cares and has money, there is nothing anyone can do to keep death at bay. The journey from death onwards is even harder and nothing on earth can hold it back.
And it will be said, “Today We will forget you as you forgot the meeting of this Day of yours, and your refuge is the Fire, and for you there are no helpers. And We have already sent [messengers] to nations before you, [O Muhammad]; then We seized them with poverty and hardship that perhaps they might humble themselves [to Us]. Then why, when Our punishment came to them, did they not humble themselves? But their hearts became hardened, and Satan made attractive to them that which they were doing. So when they forgot that by which they had been reminded, We opened to them the doors of every [good] thing until, when they rejoiced in that which they were given, We seized them suddenly, and they were [then] in despair. So the people that committed wrong were eliminated. And praise to Allah, Lord of the worlds. Say, “Have you considered: if Allah should take away your hearing and your sight and set a seal upon your hearts, which deity other than Allah could bring them [back] to you?” Look how we diversify the verses; then they [still] turn away. Say, “Have you considered: if the punishment of Allah should come to you unexpectedly or manifestly, will any be destroyed but the wrongdoing people?”And We send not the messengers except as bringers of good tidings and warners. So whoever believes and reforms – there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve.” (Al Qur’an 6:41- 6:48)
