2.40. THE DAY OF ACCOUNTABILITY (to be continued)

God says

True piety does not consist in turning your faces towards east or the west* -- but truly pious is he who believes in God, and the Last Day, and the angels, and [divine] revelation, and the prophets; and spends his substance – however much he himself may cherish it – upon his near of kin, and the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer,** and the beggars, and the freeing of human beings from bondage;*** and is constant in prayer, and renders the purifying dues; and [truly constant are] they who keep their promises whenever they promise, and are patient in misfortune and hardship and in time of peril: it is they, they who are conscious of God. –Q.2:177

*Thus the Quran stresses the principle that mere compliance with outward forms does not fulfill the requirements of piety. The reference of turning one’s face in prayer in this or that direction flows from passages, earlier in this surah, with the question of qiblah.

***The expression ibn as-sabeel (lit., “son of the road”) denotes any person who is far from his home, and especially one who, because of this circumstance, does not have sufficient means of livelihood at his disposal.

****The expression fi ‘r-riqab denotes “in the cause of freeing human beings from bondage”. It applies to both ransoming of captives and the freeing of slaves. By including this kind of expenditure within the essential acts of piety, the Quran implies that the freeing of people from bondage – and, thus, the abolition of slavery which was, then, an established institution throughout the world – is one of the social objective of Islam.

Never shall you attain to true piety unless you spend on others out of what you cherish yourselves; -- Q.3: 92


Prophet said

“There is no wisdom like effort, no piety like self denial, and no goodness like self conduct” – H: Baihaqi. N: Abu Zarr.

Next Friday, inshaa’ Allah, will be the last of the “The Day Of Accountability”. There will be two verses: golden rules for our existence.