The Importance of Obedience to Allah and His Messenger
Source: Monthly Al-Hadith, Hazro
Qur’anic Command
(يَاأَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَطِيعُوا اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ وَلَا تَوَلَّوْا عَنْهُ وَأَنتُمْ تَسْمَعُونَ ﴿٢٠﴾ وَلَا تَكُونُوا كَالَّذِينَ قَالُوا سَمِعْنَا وَهُمْ لَا يَسْمَعُونَ ﴿٢١﴾ إِنَّ شَرَّ الدَّوَابِّ عِندَ اللَّهِ الصُّمُّ الْبُكْمُ الَّذِينَ لَا يَعْقِلُونَ ﴿٢٢﴾)
"O you who believe! Obey Allah and His Messenger, and do not turn away from him while you hear (his command). And do not be like those who say, ‘We have heard,’ but they do not hear. Indeed, the worst of living creatures in the sight of Allah are the deaf and dumb—those who do not reason."
[Al-Anfāl: 20–22]
Fiqh al-Qur’an (Understanding from the Verses)
① Obedience to Allah and His Messenger is obligatory.
② The way of those who oppose Qur’an and Sunnah is that, despite knowing, they reject the ḥadīth of the Prophet ﷺ.
③ Those who neither listen to Qur’an and ḥadīth, nor convey them, are like animals without intellect—rather, they are more misguided than them.
④ Merely saying with the tongue, “I have heard the command of Qur’an and Sunnah,” is not sufficient; it must be affirmed through action.
Although the verse “شر الدواب” was revealed concerning ‘Abd al-Dār, (see Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: 4646), its ruling is not limited to him alone. Rather, it applies to every person who, despite knowing the truth, refuses to follow it.
(See al-Tafsīr al-Ṣaḥīḥ, Mawṣū‘at al-Ṣaḥīḥ al-Masbūr min al-Tafsīr bi’l-Ma’thūr, Shaykh Ḥikmat bin Bashīr, vol. 2, p. 392)
