The Covenant – A Promise to Allah

We praise Allah, the one who has created us from nothing and has brought us into existence, even though He is not in need of us. We also praise Him because He has made us Muslims, even though the majority of the people living on the Earth are not. According to Google, there are 1.7 billion Muslims in the world, making up 22.32% of the global population. Around 1 in 5 people are Muslim. Around 4 in 5 are not.

We are on a journey, this journey started off with a conversation and it will continue forever. What type of conversation was it? Who was it with? How many people were present? 

Before we all came to the Earth, Allah gathered all of our souls in one place. Allah spoke to us, and this conversation is recorded in the Quran:
وَإِذْ أَخَذَ رَبُّكَ مِن بَنِي آدَمَ مِن ظُهُورِهِمْ ذُرِّيَّتَهُمْ وَأَشْهَدَهُمْ عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ ۖ قَالُوا بَلَىٰ ۛ شَهِدْنَا ۛ أَن تَقُولُوا يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ إِنَّا كُنَّا عَنْ هَـٰذَا غَافِلِينَ

"And [mention] when your Lord took from the children of Adam - from their loins - their descendants and made them testify of themselves, [saying to them], "Am I not your Lord?" They said, "Yes, we have testified." [This] - lest you should say on the day of Resurrection, "Indeed, we were of this unaware." [7:172]

When Allah asked us, “Am I not your Lord?” we all replied that He was.
It is true that every now and then we forget about this conversation and covenant we made with Allah. That is why Allah has ordained many ways to remember Him and the covenant. Allah told us to pray five times a day, recite Quran as much as possible, fast in the month of Ramadan, and to keep the company of the pious. Now, you need to find more ways to remember this covenant and find more ways to live up to the covenant. Remember, Allah has chosen us to be Muslims, he has handpicked us. Out of the billions of people living today, Allah has chosen us to be Muslims. The majority of the people are not blessed enough to say “La ilaha illa-llah.”

A question, then, to myself and yourselves, is, what would you like to achieve in your religion by the end of this year? What kind of goals and targets have you set up that will help you live up to your covenant with Allah? What small actions can you do on a consistent basis that will help you be a better Muslim? Maybe your target should be to attend the Jumu’ah prayers in congregation and to pray all of the other prayers. If you’re consistent with prayer, then maybe your target should be to recite the Quran and read the meaning every day for 5 minutes only. If you do that, then maybe you need to read other Islamic books on various topics. As you progress, you might want to study other aspects of Islam.

If you have a plan, then you will move forward in your religion. Otherwise, you will be like those who, unfortunately, allow years to pass by and all they do is make money, have a family, and then, eventually, die. They don’t do anything significant and serious with their religion and, therefore, they don’t progress. As a result, they are just another number in a crowd, and they just come and go without the world ever noticing.

As Muslims, we should also plan the academic aspects of our lives. Some of you might want to become doctors, engineers, lawyers, and architects. Maybe some of you did not plan or actively think about the upcoming year and beyond. The question we should ask is, what skills and grades should I aim for to help me support my religion, my family, and those around me? What grades do I need to work towards to become a doctor, so that when I help cure people, people will associate my contribution with my religion? What grades do I need to get to be an accountant and be able to help people with their finance and remind them about zakah, a pillar of Islam? What grades do I need to get to become a lawyer and help defend all those who are victims of racism, Islamophobia, and other ills? Let this year be unique as a result of your ambitious plans, and let us work together to improve the situation of Muslims in our locality and the Ummah at large.

There are three types of people in this world: those that make things happen, those that watch things happen and those that don’t know what happened. Do you want to be among those who make things happen in 2022, or just watch things happen in 2022? And it would be utterly disappointing if we end up being among those who don’t even know what is happening as a result of not learning, progressing and contributing to our society.

We ask Allah to give us the tawfeeq to increase in worship and to live an ambitious and beneficent life. Ameen.