السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته
The Glass Floor
قِيۡلَ لَهَا ادۡخُلِى الصَّرۡحَ ۚ فَلَمَّا رَاَتۡهُ حَسِبَـتۡهُ لُـجَّةً وَّكَشَفَتۡ عَنۡ سَاقَيۡهَا ؕ قَالَ اِنَّهٗ صَرۡحٌ مُّمَرَّدٌ مِّنۡ قَوَارِيۡرَ ؕ قَالَتۡ رَبِّ اِنِّىۡ ظَلَمۡتُ نَـفۡسِىۡ وَ اَسۡلَمۡتُ مَعَ سُلَيۡمٰنَ لِلّٰهِ رَبِّ الۡعٰلَمِيۡنَ
It was said to her, “Enter the palace.” Then once she saw it, she thought it to be flowing water and uncovered her legs. He (Sulaiman) said, “This is a palace made of glasses.” She said, “My Lord, I had surely wronged myself, and now I submit, along with Sulaiman, to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.” Qur-aan 27:44
There is a great lesson for us to learn here from this story. When Bilqis alayhas salaam saw the floor, she didn’t realise there was glass separating her from the water. She thought that she was about to walk on water, so she prepared herself. On being informed of the reality of the situation, she realised the deception she had been in, that not everything is as it seems to be.
This is the same deception we are facing today in Islam. We see things thinking they are part of Islam. We follow those laws and teachings, not realising, in reality, they are separate.
So many practices today may seem like they are part of Deen, that they are permissible when in reality they are not. Our partition is the Qur-aan and Sunnah. The teachings and actions that coincide with the Qur-aan and Sunnah are part of Islam when done with the correct intentions. Everything else, everything carried out with wrong intentions, everything that goes against the Qur-aan and Sunnah is not considered as part of Islam.
If we realise this and apply this rule, we will start to question everything we do in the name of Islam.
May Allah guide us and keep us on the straight path.
Ameen
Saturday 26th Rabee’ uth Thaani 1445 AH / 11th November, 2023
