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‘Allah has promised to those from among you who believe and do righteous deeds, that He will certainly grant them succession in the land, as He granted it to those before them, and certainly He will establish their religion which He has chosen for them and He will change their fear into  peace or security. They will worship Allah alone and will not associate any one with Allah, but to those who disbelieve after this will be the reprobates’

[malay translation]
Allah menjanjikan orang-orang yang beriman dan beramal soleh dari kalangan kamu (wahai umat Muhammad) bahawa Allah akan menjadikan mereka khalifah-khalifah yang memegang kuasa pemerintahan di bumi, sebagaimana Dia telah menjadikan orang-orang yang sebelum mereka: khalifah-khalifah yang berkuasa; dan Dia akan menguatkan dan mengembangkan ugama mereka (ugama Islam) yang telah diredhaiNya untuk mereka; dan Dia juga akan menggantikan bagi mereka keamanan setelah mereka mengalami ketakutan (dari ancaman musuh). Mereka terus beribadat kepadaKu dengan tidak mempersekutukan sesuatu yang lain denganKu. Dan (ingatlah) sesiapa yang kufur ingkar sesudah itu, maka mereka itulah orang-orang yang derhaka.

Verse 55 – Surah An-Nur.

All power belongs to Allah. Whoever has believes and do righteous deeds, Allah would make them leaders in this world. In the above verse of Surah An-Nur, Allah promises to bestow power to those who believe and do righteous good actions without the person did anything to obtain power. A person who has believes and do righteous deeds would only want the love of Allah and not power; but Allah will grant them the power. The purpose of life for those who have believe and do righteous deeds is to obtain the love of Allah and they are busy obeying the orders of Allah with the intention only to please Allah until Allah is pleased. When Allah is pleased with them, Allah promises to make them leaders in this world. A person who has believes and do righteous good actions will use the power given by Allah, to establish Islam in the whole world. Allah made them leaders in this world, in order to elevate them, and as leaders they will lead people to do more good actions. Allah owns power and Allah bestows or withdraws power to whomsoever He wants. Allah gives power to those with believes and righteous deeds in order to test and elevate them.  Allah also gives power to those who do not have belief and do bad actions in order to punish them. A person who has no belief and no good actions will use the power given by Allah to disobey the orders of Allah and to amass wealth and not to establish Islam.

Politicians are those who want power and they work very hard to obtain power. The purpose of life of all politicians is to obtain power. All politicians believe power come from the people and in order to have power, politicians need to work hard to obtain the support of the people. Anwar Ibrahim is a politician who said to all his supporters, that power belongs to the people and the verdict of the people or ‘suara rakyat ialah suara keramat’. All politicians believe that power belongs to the people. In order to obtain power, the politicians work hard to please the people. On the other hand a person who has belief and does righteous deeds work hard to please Allah. When politicians are being elected to power, the politicians believe that the people have elected them to power and so they must serve the people who have elected them to power. Politicians do not want to establish the orders of Allah because they thought it is not Allah who has given them power. As for example the slogan of our Prime Minister that read ‘rakyat didahulukan, pencapaian diutamakan’ or ‘people first and achievement is the priority’, which is designed to serve the people, shows clearly that the aim of the politicians is to serve and please the people whom they believe have elected them to the position of power. Who is giving the politicians the power? Is it the people or Allah who give them power? Certainly there is no one that can give power except Allah. They are many politicians who are Muslims but they are not believers. They have uttered the Great Kalimah with their mouth, which mean they have entered Islam but they are not believers yet because in the heart, they associate Allah with other things. A person is known as believer only when the Great Kalimah has entered into a person’s heart. In the above verse of Surah An Nur, the promise of Allah is not to the person who has entered Islam but on the person who is a believer. Certainly people who are believers will do righteous deeds or good actions. Righteous good actions are done by those who are believers and not those who have only entered Islam. However many Muslims think, they have become believers when they have uttered the Great Kalimah. In reality, in order to become believer a person need to recite the Great Kalimah and do the work which associates with the right of the Great Kalimah so that Allah will instill the Great Kalimah into the person’s heart. Since the majority of Muslims are neglecting the work which associates with the right of the Great Kalimah, in my opinion, many Muslims who are living in this world today, have only entered Islam but not believers yet.

Allah made many promises of benefits in the Quran to those who have believed in Allah and have righteous deeds and those promises of benefits are not for those who have only entered Islam. Those who have only entered Islam will not have righteous deeds because righteous deeds are deeds which are done in the ways of our Prophet Muhammad saw and with the intention only to please Allah. Many people think, all good actions such as helping the poor and orphans are righteous deeds. Many non-Muslims are also helping the poor and orphans. Are their actions also considered righteous deeds? No. What actually righteous deeds mean? In the eyes of Allah, righteous deeds are good actions which are done because it is the order of Allah, done in the ways of Prophet Muhammad saw and with the intention only to please Allah. With these definitions of righteous deeds, all good actions done by those who are not Muslims and those who have only entered Islam are not considered as righteous deeds. Only the good actions of Muslims who have become believers are righteous deeds. Muslims who have become believers will have sincerity in all of their good actions but the actions of those who have only entered Islam may not have sincerity in most of their actions. Good actions which are done even in the ways of Prophet Muhammad saw but without sincerity are not considered righteous deeds. As for example, the action of praying or solat becomes a righteous deed when the solat is performed because it is the order of Allah, done in the way of Prophet Muhammad saw and with the intention only to please Allah. However, when prayer or solat which is supposed to be a righteous deed but is performed with the intention of showing off and not to please Allah, then the action is not considered a righteous deed.

Most of the time, the actions of Muslims who are not believers yet or have only entered Islam are not righteous deeds. Unless they are reminded to make and have a correct intention, the intention of Muslims who are not believers yet is often not sincere. Certainly non-Muslims would not be able to perform any actions with the intention to please Allah, because they do not even believe in Allah. In other words, all the good actions of non-Muslims cannot become a righteous deed. A good action is said to be a righteous deeds when it is done with the correct intention. What is the correct intention? A correct intention is the intention of doing any actions because it is the order of Allah and just to please Allah. A Muslim who have uttered the Great Kalimah but the Great Kalimah has not entered into his heart is a Muslims but not a believer yet. It is advisable for the Muslims who are not a believer yet to say their intention loudly whenever they are doing any actions so that they are reminded to do the action because it is the order of Allah and with the intention only to please Allah. As for examples, in the Mazhab of Imam Shafie, Muslims are advised to recite their intention loudly so that they are reminded to perform the prayers with the correct intention to please Allah.

Our intention to perform prayers or any other actions ordered by Allah must be only to please Allah. Why do we perform prayer or solat? We perform prayers or solat because it is the order of Allah. A person may perform a prayer because of his mother or father asked him to perform the prayer. There are persons who perform prayer because they wanted to show to others that they are also praying. Although prayer is a good action but when it is not done because it is the order of Allah and to please Allah, the action is not a righteous deed. Only those who are believers will have sincerity in all of their actions. Righteous deeds are good action associated with correct and good believe. When a person has correct and good believe then only the person will be able to perform correct and good actions. A person needs to have correct and good believe prior to have correct and good actions. Many Muslims perform so many actions or amals (ibadah) with the belief that by doing more actions or amals will make their iman to be stronger. This is not true, because actions or amals (ibadah) are not related to believe or iman. More actions or more amals (ibadah) will not make a person to obtain more iman. Prophet Muhammad saw said; Whoever perform more amals or more actions (ibadah) but without having iman or correct believe is a stupid person. A person who performs more ibadah without having iman or ilmu (ilmu means to know what Allah wants) is known as an abid. However, the abid and ahli kitab can still be deceived by the devil syaitan but believers cannot be deceived by syaitan. All believers have ilmu and all those who have ilmu are believers.

When I was with Jemaah Tabligh, few of their eldest taught me that believe or iman will increase with the work of Dakwah. What does Jemaah Tabligh understand by the work of Dakwah? Jemaah Tabligh understands the work of Dakwah is to invite Muslims to spend time 3 days or 40 days or 4 months travelling from mosque to mosque. Is this the way of Prophet Muhammad? The work of Dakwah of Prophet Muhammad saw is to invite the non-Muslims to recite the Great Kalimah, to remind Muslims about the meaning of the Great Kalimah and to invite them to obey all the orders of Allah and to teach the Muslims who want to obey Allah about the orders of Allah. Jemaah Tabligh does not invite the non-Muslims to recite the Great Kalimah, because according to the eldest of Jemaah Tabligh, Muslims are not yet ready to invite the non-Muslims to Islam. Jemaah Tabligh concentrates only on Muslims. How does Jemaah Tabligh invite Muslims? Jemaah Tabligh does not invite the Muslims to obey the orders of Allah or remind the Muslims about the meaning of the Great Kalimah but Jemaah Tabligh invites Muslims to spend time travelling from mosque to mosque for 3 days, 40 days and 4 months. Jemaah Tabligh claims to the world that they are doing the work of Tabligh or Dakwah but in reality they are not because they don’t invite people to the Great Kalimah and they are mostly abid. Abid is a person who does more ibadah without having iman and ilmu. And now, in my opinion, the eldest of Jemaah Tabligh who are currently residing in Banglawali mosque, Hazrat Nizammuddin, New Delhi 13,whom Jemaah Tabligh members address them as ulama in reality they are not ulama but only people of the book or Ahli Kitab. With the work of Jemaah Tabligh, iman does not increase as claimed by their Ahli Kitab. It is a false claim and comes from the devil syaitan who uses the ahli Kitab of Jemaah Tabligh to deceive Muslims in all over the world. There are also many in Jemaah Tabligh who believe, that iman will increase if a person talks more about the greatness of Allah. What is found in the Hadis, Prophet Muhammad saw did order Muslims to renew their iman by talking more about Laailahaillallah and not about Allahuakbar or the greatness of Allah as claim by eldest of Jemaah Tabligh. There are not even a single verse in the Quran or Hadis that support the claim made by  Jemaah Tabligh, that by spending 3 days, 40 days and 4 months, iman or believe will increase. Where does Jemaah Tabligh derive these procedures or tertib? Is it from the Quran and Hadis? Our Prophet Muhammad saw had never invited Muslims to spend time 3 days in a month, 40 days in a year and 4 months once in a life time and neither Prophet Muhammad saw nor his companions had ever did what is done by Jemaah Tabligh.

What is the meaning of Dakwah to Pas members? According to Pas members, Muslims and non-Muslims who join Pas are doing good and those Muslims who join UMNO are doing evils. According to Pas members, the work of Dakwah is to invite Muslims and non-Muslims to join Pas and to prevent Malays from joining UMNO. What a deviation of understanding from the true meaning of good and evils as mention in the Quran. Does the iman or believe of the Muslims who join Pas increases? Both Jemaah Tabligh and Pas members think and believe that they are on the correct path of hidayah. The believe that they are in the correct path of hidayah make them to become so annoyed and angry towards anyone who criticized their movement. They become even more sensitive and annoyed when their leaders are being criticized. Jemaah Tabligh and Pas members are so obsessed with their ulama and follow their leaders blindly because they strongly believe that their so called ulama understand the Quran and Hadis more than anyone else in this world. I have great pity on them and I have reminded them about this issue and thus I have obeyed the order of Allah. I have no power to convince them and my intention in reminding them is only to please Allah.

Prof. Dr. Nasoha Saabin
August 2012
Dean of Faculty of Optometry
Twintech International University College of Technology
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia