What is it we all need from Allah? There are several answers to that question, but the Sign of Adam reminds us that our first and greatest need is righteousness. There we found Words addressed directly to us (The children of Adam).
O you Children of Adam! We have bestowed raiment upon you to cover your shame, as well as to be an adornment to you. But the raiment of righteousness – that is the best. Such are among the signs of Allah, that they may receive admonition. (Surat 7:26)
So what is ‘righteousness’? The Taurat (in Deuteronomy 32:4) tells us about Allah that
I will proclaim the name of the Lord.
Oh, praise the greatness of our God!
He is the Rock, his works are perfect,
and all his ways are just.
A faithful God who does no wrong,
upright and just is he.
This is the picture of the Righteousness of Allah given in the Taurat. Righteousness means that one is perfect; that all (not just some or most but all) one’s ways are just, that one does no (not even a little) wrong; that one is upright. This is righteousness and this is how the Taurat describes Allah. But why do we need righteousness? We jump ahead to a passage in the Zabur to give the answer. In Psalm 15 (written by Dawood) we read:
Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent?
Who may live on your holy mountain?2 The one whose walk is blameless,
who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from their heart;
3 whose tongue utters no slander,
who does no wrong to a neighbor,
and casts no slur on others;
4 who despises a vile person
but honors those who fear the Lord;
who keeps an oath even when it hurts,
and does not change their mind;
5 who lends money to the poor without interest;
who does not accept a bribe against the innocent…
When it is asked who may live on Allah’s ‘Holy Mountain’, that is another way of asking who may be with Allah in Paradise. And we can see from the answer that the one who is blameless and ‘righteous’ (v2) – that person can enter Paradise to be with Allah. This is why we need righteousness. Righteousness is required to be with Allah since He is perfect.
Now consider the second sign of Ibrahim (PBUH). Click here to open the passage from the Books. We see in the reading from the Taurat and Qur’an that Ibraham (PBUH) followed ‘his Way’ (Surat 37:83) and in so doing he obtained ‘righteousness’ (Genesis 15:6) – the very thing that the Sign of Adam told us we need. So the important question for us is: How did he get it?
Often I think that I get righteousness in one of two ways. In the first way (in my thinking) I get righteousness by believing in or acknowledging the existence of Allah. I ‘believe’ in Allah. And in support of this thinking, didn’t Ibrahim (PBUH) ‘believe the LORD’ in Genesis 15:6? But with more reflection I realized that this did not mean he only believed in the existence of one God. No Allah had given him a firm promise – that he would receive a son. And it was that promise that Ibrahim (PBUH) had to choose whether to believe or not. Think about it further, the devil (also known as Shaytan or Iblis) believes in the existence of Allah – and he certainly does not have righteousness. So simply believing in the existence of Allah is not what ‘the Way’ is about. That is not enough.
The second way I often think I can get righteousness is that I merit it or earn it from Allah by the good and religious things I do. Doing more good things than bad things, prayers, fasts, or doing a certain kind or amount of religious work allows me to deserve, earn or merit righteousness. But notice that is not what the Taurat says at all.
Abram believed the LORD, and he [i.e. Allah] credited it to him [i.e. Ibrahim] as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6)
Ibrahim did not ‘earn’ righteousness; it was ‘credited’ to him. So what is the difference? Well, if something is ‘earned’ you worked for it – you deserve it. It is like receiving wages for the work you do. But when something is credited to you, it is given to you. It is not earned or merited.
Ibrahim (PBUH) was a man who believed deeply in the existence of one Allah. And he was a man of prayer, devotion, and helping people (like helping and praying for his nephew Lut/Lot). It is not that we are to discard these things. But ‘the Way’ described of Ibrahim here is so simple that we can almost miss it. The Taurat tells us that Ibrahim (PBUH) was given righteousness because he believed in a Promise given to him by Allah. This overturns the common understandings that we have about obtaining righteousness either by thinking that belief in Allah’s existence is enough, or by doing enough good and religious activities (prayers, fastings etc.) that I can earn or merit righteousness. This is not the way that Ibrahim took. He simply chose to believe the promise.
Now choosing to believe in this promise of a son was perhaps simple but it definitely was not easy. Ibrahim (PBUH) could easily have disregarded the promise by reasoning that if Allah really had the desire as well as the power to grant him a son then He should have done so by now. Because at this point in his life, Ibrahim and Sarai (his wife) were old – well past the age of getting children. In the first Sign of Ibrahim that he was already 75 years old when he left his home country and went to Canaan. At that time Allah had promised him that he would get a ‘great nation’. And many years have passed since then so Ibrahim and his wife Sarai are now old indeed and have already waited a long time. And they still do not even have one child – and certainly not a ‘nation’. “Why has not Allah already given us a son if he could have done so”?, he would have wondered. In other words, he believed the promise of a coming son even though he probably had unanswered questions about the promise. He believed the promise because he trusted Allah who gave the promise – even though he did not understand everything about the promise. And to believe in that promise (a son coming past the age of child-bearing) would require believing that Allah would do a miracle for him and his wife.
Believing the promise would also demand active waiting. His whole life was, in a sense, interrupted while he was living in tents in the Promised Land of Canaan waiting (still many years) for the coming of the promised son. It would have been much easier to disregard the promise and return home to civilization in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) that he had left many years earlier where his brother and family still lived. So Ibrahim had to live with the difficulties of continuing to believe the promise – each and every day – for the many years while he waited for the promise to be given. His trust in the promise was so great that it took priority over normal goals for life – comfort and well-being. In a real sense, living in anticipation of the promise meant dying to normal goals of life. Believing the promise showed both his trust in and love for Allah.
Thus ‘believing’ the promise went far beyond just mental agreement to it. Ibrahim had to stake his life, reputation, safety, actions in the present and hopes for the future on this promise. Because he believed he actively and obediently waited.
This Sign is how Ibrahim (PBUH) believed the promise from Allah of a son, and in so doing he was also given, or credited, righteousness. In a real sense Ibrahim submitted himself to this promise. He could have chosen not to believe and returned back to the land he came from (modern-day Iraq). And he could have disregarded the promise while still believing in the existence of Allah and still continuing in his prayers,fastings, and helping other people. But then he would have only maintained his religion but not been credited ‘righteousness’. And as the Qur’an tells all us children of Adam – “the raiment of righteousness – that is the best”. This was the Way of Ibrahim.
We have learned much. Righteousness, the very thing we need for Paradise is not earned but credited to us. And it is credited to us by trusting the Promise of Allah. But who then pays for righteousness? We continue with Sign 3.