Act of Submitting

To God Alone

God tells us in the Quran in verse 51:56, “I did not create the jinns and the humans except to worship Me alone.” Simply put, that is our only real job in this life—to worship God Alone. Worshipping God involves more than just making a statement that we believe in One God. Instead, it encompasses all our worship practices, and influences every aspect of our life.

Submitters strive to make it to heaven by observing all of God’s commands. We “Seek to Please God” (beautifully pointed out in an article by that title in the July 1990 Submitters Perspective), and our actions in this life should be aimed solely to gain God’s approval. We should dedicate our striving to God

(6:162, 4:146, 16:52), and be mindful of the importance of avoiding anything that may even slightly displease God.

Of course we all make mistakes (and may God in His infinite mercy continue to forgive us in this respect), but we must make an effort to do better, and keep away from things that may not please God. Our actions and striving should be done conditional to their pleasing God. From 2:265 and 30:39 it appears that even a “good” action like giving to charity only benefits those who give it seeking “God’s pleasure.”

The importance of seeking God’s approval is reiterated in 5:2,16 and 48:29. In fact, possibly we can conclude from 9:72 that

attaining God’s approval and blessings is the real benefit of Paradise.

God narrates to us an incident about David in 38:21-26. In these verses we see the crucial importance of not allowing our personal opinions to sway our actions. Perhaps God is telling us something here. That even when something seems obvious, we must be God conscious and take care, rather, strive to gain God’s approval. David took extra care to eliminate the possibility of displeasing God.

Often, I find myself doing or saying things that may not please God.

Cont’d on page 2