بسم ٱلله ٱلرحمن ٱلرحيم ألإسلام دينا

Al Islaama Diynan

 By: Triple A (أحمد عبد ٱلأول)

أليوم أكملت لكم دينكم و أتممت عليكم نعمتى و رضيت لكم ٱلإسلام دينا

the day I perfected to you your way of life/way of living (diyn) and I completed on you my excellence and I choose to you The Submission Way of Life/Way of Living  5:3 

This aayat in Al Qur'aan reveals a number of elements to humankind, most of which had eluded me for many years.  Even after repeatedly reading The Qur'aan in its entirety for many years - and quite naturally this aayat - its real meaning had gone unnoticed by me, and the fault was entirely my own.  As I have said elsewhere in this web site, I had been reading Qur'aan, The Qur'aan, in English for twenty plus years but never during that time had I read or attempted to read Al Qur'aan, in Arabic, additionally; I was reading, but I was not studying.  I thought it sufficient that I believed what I was reading and, believed it was the truth from our Lord, so I went about my merry way - comfortably - in a state of ignorant bliss, unbeknownst to me all that was about to change.  The day that I looked at the Arabic in one of my many English - Arabic Qur'aan's and realized I still recognized quite a few of the Arabic alphabets, even after all those years of neglecting to learn any Arabic was the day that my whole world was turned upside down.  I began to look for ways to learn Arabic, a quest had begun, one that I had no idea how it would play out.  One result of this quest to learn Arabic was my seeing the above aayat in a whole new light.  Words in Al Qur'aan now took on meanings that I had not been aware of for far too long a time.  I was not only reading, but now I was also comprehending and experiencing emotions, and from the very same words, I had previously been reading. 

One day as I was reading The Qur'aan - and comparing the common English interpretations with the actual Arabic - I became aware of aayat 5:3's misinterpretation and subsequent acceptance by a great many of my co-Muslims.  M. Asad, F. Malik, M. Pickthall, and Y. Ali, all have the Arabic word "diyn" in their translations as "religion".  The word 'religion' is close, however; close is just not good enough anymore - at least not for me.  The word "diyn" is more accurately "way of life/way of living" rather than "religion", and it is this 'way of life/way of living' that was perfected and chosen for us.  Al Islaam is a complete, a total, a left out nothing, "way of life/way of living" for us!  It - Al Islaam - actually covers everything in our lives, religious as well as secular.  Al Islaam can only be found in the words from our Lord that were given first to his Receivers and Deliverers and then to us, all of us.  That last statement might warrant further elaboration however, I would prefer to postpone that for another time and instead leave it to you to reflect upon, for now I wish to concentrate upon aayat 5:3. 

I made the statement to a number of brother Muslims one day that I believed the common interpretation of 5:3, "This day have I perfected your religion for you completed my favor upon you and have chosen for you Islam as your religion" (Yusuf Ali), is incorrect.  Quite naturally I found no agreement from the brothers to my statement.  A number of the brothers dismissed my statement by ignoring it, but a few were curious enough to ask why I felt that way.  My response was; that if the interpretation were correct, it would mean that previous to, "This day have I perfected your religion", that any and all religion from God had been imperfect.  I went on to say that I do not believe God would give humankind an imperfect religion to follow.  Moreover, since God is perfect, anything that he does is also perfect, hence, humankind’s religion has always been perfect, ever since revelation.

The common acceptance of aayat 5:3 is as follows, the day this aayat was revealed to Muhammad, that was the very day that the religion was perfected, and this is wrong, as I believe the preceding paragraph demonstrates.  That would also mean that all of the previous Receivers and Deliverers, every one of them, before Muhammad were instructed to enlighten humankind to adhere to something imperfect, and from God no less.  I think you may be getting my point now.  If instead of 'religion', it were the 'way of life/way of living' that was perfected it would be more appropriate.  Humankind was progressing, evolving, and our intellect was doing likewise.  Allaah in his infinite wisdom did not give us more than we could handle at any one period in our existence.  We were being groomed - so to speak - for bigger and better things and that grooming took time.

Imagine if you will the Neanderthal being given the knowledge we currently possess, in religion, medicine, and technology, to name but a few, it would have all been wasted at that time on that level of intelligence, and would have more than likely been totally destructive.  Even at today's level of supposed intelligence you can see the destructiveness of what we currently use these gifts from Allaah for.  We have progressed in those fields which I mentioned, as well as others, but we have failed to progress in the important fields of moral excellence, humanity, self-restraint, etc..

Now back to aayat 5:3, the perfection spoken of is about a complete way of life/way of living, and not just religion.  Al Qur'aan provides us with not only guidance in religion but also in secular matters, it provides us with the means to fine-tune our intellect into moral, humane, and self-restrained excellence.  By providing us with appropriate words to use initially as well as for responses to things said to us, we have guidelines to draw upon and if used would curtail much of the harm we perpetrate upon one another.  I believe that is part of the reason from many aayaatun that use the Arabic words qul, qaala, qaalu, and similar expressions, they are some of the instructive tools for our use to live in peace and harmony with one another that Allaah has provided for us - from his wisdom - in Al Qur'aan.  Therefore, the words 'say', 'he / she said', 'they said', etc., are there for us to actually use, either exactly as written or in a similar manner, that is part of the "perfected" being spoken about in aayat 5:3.  Even though we know various languages, Allaah has chosen to perfect "how we use" those languages amongst ourselves, to bring peace and harmony into this world, and our personal lives.

Therefore; when I say that what was "perfected" was not 'religion' but rather was 'way of life/way of living', it is also because Al Qur'aan has guidance in it for not just religion but everything in our lives.  Moreover, that includes how to talk, how to relate to one another, how to see one another, how to eat better, how to communicate with God better, it even goes so far as how to walk.  It is all there, believe me it is, check it out, study Al Qur'aan and do not just read it.  And learn Qur'aanic Arabic - not just Arabic - if you do not already know it.  I am still working on my learning and it is a pleasure, one that I hope you will also experience.