The Best Trade

"Sesungguhnya Allah Subhanahu Wata'ala telah
membeli diri orang-orang Mu'min, jiwa-jiwa mereka dan harta
kekayaan mereka dengan menyediakan bagi mereka Al Jannah
(syurga). Mereka berperang di jalan Allah, mereka membunuh
(musuh-musuh Allah) dan mereka dibunuh (oleh musuh- musuh
Allah). (Itu telah menjadi) janji yang benar dari Allah di dalam
Taurat, Injil dan Al Quran. Dan siapakah yang lebih menepati
janjinya (selain) daripada Allah? Maka bergembiralah dengan jual
beli yang telah kamu lakukan itu, dan itulah kemenangan yang
besar." (Surah Al-Taubah: ayat 111)



Here’s a trade situation which you will never find on earth…imagine that today, you are given a spanking brand new car by the car dealer FOR FREE, then the car sales agent says to you, “hey, what if I BUY the car from you?” You think for a while…Hmmm I got the car for FREE…if I sell it to him; I’ll get 50K easy!!

Well, that’s a simple analogy of the above ayat: Allah has GIVEN FOR FREE our life, our bodies, our healthy minds, our families, our degrees, our salaries and then BUYS it from us with the PRICE of JANNAH.

How is this possible?

When we think of the clothes we wear, the intelligence we have, the mouth we use to speak, we tend to think of these things and many more as OURS. It belongs to ME, MY car belongs to ME, MY wife belongs to ME, mine mine mine! Alllll mine!

We forget that these blessings all belong to Allah, and Allah LENDS it to us as an amanah. To see if we would take care of the amanah and use it as He wishes OR if we would use these blessings according to our own desires and whims.

When I say Allah has ‘given’ things to us, the thing does not become ours. Eh?? How come? Because Allah is the Owner of the Universe and all that is inside it. So we cannot at the same time own what Allah has owned. Allah has simply lent us those things as an amanah. Allah has given us the choice to 1) follow His guidelines in handling it or, 2) not follow His guidelines.

And to follow His guidelines mean we must give up our own wants and desires in handling this precious amanah.

The WILLINGNESS to give up our desires is what constitutes the ‘jual beli’. We trade in our desires to submit to Allah and follow His commands. We don’t treat the things we have as ours, instead we treat it as Allah’s belongings therefore we must take care of it, use it, or not use it, just as He wishes.

Say your parents asks you to take care of the house for the week while they go away on a trip. Guess what they'll say to you? Make sure the mail doesnt collect on the front porch! no parties! make sure the door is locked! make sure the stove is turned off! Make sure your siblings eat! make sure they dont fight! be home by 9! be prepared for emergencies! If there's anything, call your aunt, your uncle, the next door neighbor, the police, the ambulance, and make sure we know too! or something like that...

So similarly, Allah has clearly stated how you should use your money, spend your time, behave towards other people etc. You just don’t do whatever you want because it’s NOT yours to begin with.

This is the character of the mu’minun – he or she will voluntarily shape his/her life according to Allah’s wishes. And in return then Allah will grant Jannah. A bounty that is unmatched and beyond earthly imagination…

Then you think: “Well! What if I only want to enter this trade half of the time? Or what if I don’t want to be part of the trade at all??”

Then that means you are not part of the trade agreement and has chosen a path opposite of islam which means you’ve broken the deal with Allah and that means khianati amanah and hence that means not submitting to Allah’s will. And since islam means submit then not submitting means not islam = i.e. golongan kafir.

Scary isn’t it?

Wallahu’alam

Points from Abul A’la Al- Maududi’s book ‘Cara Hidup Islam’