>THE TWO TRADITIONAL CONCEPTS OF ILAH:
Two meanings of ilah are most commonly accepted are ma’bood and divine/deity/god.
1) ILAH AS MA’BOOD
Ilah is usually misunderstood as “one who is worthy of ibadat” i.e mabood.
The above verses tell that Bani Israeel gave their ibadah to Firaun as Firaun and his chiefs called Bani Israeel their servants/slaves/aabidoon(plural of abd; the one who gives ibadah). But even though Firaun was their ma’bood, He was neither their ilah nor their rabb. They only regarded Allah as their rabb and ilah:
10/90: … (while about to be drowned)he(Firaun) said, ‘I believe that there is no ilah but He in whom the Children of Israeel believe, and I am of those who surrender’.
10/86: So they(Bani Isra’eel) said, ‘in God we put our trust; our Rabb, do not make us a temptation for az-zaalimeen/the unjust/oppressing people;
This show that ilah and ma’bood are two different concepts and mean two different things.
So even though they considered only Allah as their rabb and ilah, they were giving their ibadah to Firaun i.e. Firaun was their ma’bood. The meaning of ibadah as conveyed by these verse is that Firaun had enslaved the Bani Israeel. This is what the word ibadah has been used to mean throughout the Quran: Service, slavery, subservience, and NOT worship or paying homage to any deity.
Accepting Allah as one’s ilah does NOT make him free from the servitude/ibadah of others. One may accept Allah as his ilah and still be committing shirk in ibadah. That is , Allah may be his ilah, but his ma’bood may be someone else(like bani israeel’s example above).
Misunderstanding the meaning of ilah as ma’bood then, is a basic error in Muslims’ beliefs.
2) ILAH AS DIVINE
According to the Quran, an person’s ilah does not necessarily have to be divine. The rightful ilah, Allah, is Divine of course.
The meaning of the term ‘ilah’ can be best understood by the following verse. According to the verse there are those who take their ‘hawa’/desire/wishful thinking as their ilah. Now of course no one ascribes divinity to his desires. But they do uphold the authority of their ahwa/wishful thinking. This is referred to as taking one’s ahwa as his ilah, even while ascribing divinity to God/Allah alone.
25/43: Have you noticed the one who took his hawa/desires as his ilah?
Saying that ilah does not mean god is not same as saying Allah is not God. The word “Allah” by itself does not convey any meaning. We try to understand and recognize Allah’s divinity through His attributtes, as those attributes can only fit someone who is as unique, who is Absolute, who begets none nor is He begotten, and for Whom there is none even comparable.
They disregard Him as their ilah because instead of accepting His authority, His laws in the world for matters already dealt with in His book, they create laws and rules/regulations/ahkam according to their hawa/wishful-thinking:
Therefore a person’s ilah is someone/something that he regards as the ultimate authority or reference-point. The term ilah does not imply divinity. This clarifies that bearing witness to Tawheed, that God is the only ilah, is not merely accepting the sole divinity of God, but recognizing Him as the ultimate legislator, the ultimate authority, the ultimate point of reference, that His ilah-iat/authority/law/legislation extends to all realms, private and social, religious and political, heavenly/universal and earthly. It is unjust to confine His authority/ilah-iat to ritualistic and religious affairs only.
ONE ILAH FOR ALL REALMS OF LIFE
Those who distinguish between God’s law for the different realms, confine His ilahiat to certain realms and uphold the ilah-iat/authority of others in other realms. Those who accept the authority of Allah in some aspects of life while reject it in some, take two different ilahs i.e. when one recognizes Allah authority in the religious affairs but rejects it in the political ones and derives legislation from sources other than Allah’s book. which is always based upon someone’s hawa/wishful-thinking/desires. There should be no distinguishing between accepting God’s laws for the land and His laws for the rest of the universe since both laws come from the same source:
16/51: And God said: “Do not take two ilahs; He is only one ilah; …”
43/84: And He is the one who is the Ilah in the heaven and the Ilah in the earth; and He alone is the all-Wise, the all-Knowing
If there were any ilahs in the heavens and the earth other than God, there would have been fasaad/chaos in both. But while we see no fasaad in the heavens, we do see fasaad on earth. Because it is on earth that people are guilty of taking ilahs other than God by accepting their laws, which cause conflict with God’s laws decreed for earth and result in fasaad/chaos in the land:
21:22 If there were, in the heavens and the earth, other ilahs besides God, surely there would have been fasaad in both!…
Whenever one is taking ilah other than allah, it is only his or someone else’s wishful thinking and ideologies that he is upholding :23/71: And if the Truth had been in accordance with their ahwaa/desires, surely the heavens and the earth, and all beings therein would have been in fasaad!
Only when people accept God as their ilah (ilahinnaas) by accepting the Quranic law as the law of the land will it result in harmony like in the rest of the universe.
ALLAH’S AUTHORITY AND JUSTICE
3/18: God bears witness/shahaada surely that ‘‘la ilaha illa hua’/there is no ilah except Him, and so do the angels and those with the knowledge, established in Justice/al-qist. There is no god except He, The Mighty, The Wise.
Those who testify Allah as the only authority are those who stand with Justice.
4/135: O you who believe! Stand firmly with Justice, as witnesses/shuhada for God, even if it be against yourselves, or your parents, or your relatives, whether they be rich or poor: for God is the protector of both. Therefore follow not the desires (of your hearts), lest you swerve from being impartial, and if you deviate or turn away, surely God is well-acquainted with whatever you do.
5/8: O you who believe! Stand firmly for God, as witnesses/shuhada with Justice, and let not the hatred of any nation prevent you from being impartial(with them)…
The underlined parts in above two verses also show the equation between the Shahaadah and al-qist/Justice, i.e. taking a stand with Justice is taking a stand for God, and bearing witnessing to God is bearing witness with Justice. Proving that there is no Shahaadah without Justice and vice versa.
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Fahad Ali Khan
www.alikhlaas.blogspot.com
Takhlees 