FREEDOM OF FAITH

FREEDOM OF FAITH

By: A.A. Wahab

It was a habit of Prophet Abraham (a.s), the Patriarch of the Semitic prophets, to invite guests to share his meals. One day, however, he could find none. After waiting for sometime, he came out of his house and waited at the side of the street, where after a few minutes, he saw an old man in his seventies approaching, whom he invited to join him for the food. When they sat down to have the meal. Abraham (a.s) said: “This meal has been given to us by Allah, the only One and the Merciful. Therefore we should believe in him and lead our lives according to His guidance. Well, if you agree to this, we can have our meal.” The old man stood up and said: “I cannot sacrifice my belief just for the sake of a meal” and left the place. Abraham (a.s) was very sad. Before long, the Arch Angel Gabriel appeared before him and said: “Allah is asking: Oh Abraham, I was sustaining him (that old man) for the past seventy years by providing him water, food, physique, shelter and other things. Albeit, I neither compelled him to believe in Me nor to obey Me even for once. It was very improper on your part to force him to accept the true faith in lieu of a meal.”

The incident above speaks high about the freedom of faith given to the human being. Allah, who creates, arranges for and sustains the human being, has given him the right of faith. One can, using hiss eyes, ears and heart, discover himself as well as the nature and then believe in the truth. Alternatively, he can believe whatever he wants. Allah never interferes in such matters. Man has been taught what would be the good ending of true faith as well as the bad ending of rejection of the true faith. The responsibility of each person’s belief and actions is vested upon him only. This is an important lesson taught by all the prophets. The Holy Quran has repeatedly explained that even the prophets were not given the right nor power to interfere in the people’s freedom of faith.