Four Key Concepts Of The Qur’ān by Sayyid Abul A’lā Mawdūdī (r)

The reason why the misapprehensions hinted at above have come into existence is a historical one. When the Qur'ān was first presented to the Arabs they all knew what was meant by ilaah or rabb as both the words were already current in their language. They were not new terms, nor were any new meanings put upon them. They knew fully well what the connotations were and so, when it was said that Allah alone is the Ilaah, and the Rabb and that no one has the least share in the qualities and attributes which the words denote, they at once comprehended the full import, understood completely without any doubt or uncertainty as to what specifically was being declared to Pertain to Allah exclusively and what was being hence denied to others. Those who opposed the precept were very clear in their minds as to the implications of denying others than Allāh جل جلاله to be ilaahs or rabbs, in any sense, while those who accepted it knew equally well what they would have to give up by their acceptance and what they would forgo.

Similarly, the words ’ibadah and deen were in common use, and the people knew what was meant by ’abd, what state was implied by ’uboodiyyah (the state of being an ’abd) what kind of conduct was referred to when the word ’ibadah was used, and what was the sense of the term deen. So, when they were told to give up the ’ibadah of all others and reserve it exclusively for Allah, and give up all other deens and enter into the Deen of Allah only, they felt no difficulty in concluding what the Qur'ānic da’wah (message) implied and the drastic revolution in their way of life it sought to bring about.

But as centuries passed, the real meanings of these terms gradually underwent subtle changes so that, in course of time, instead of the full connotations, they came to stand for only very limited meanings or restricted and rather vague concepts. One reason was the gradual decline of interest in the Arabic language and the other that the words ceased to have the same meanings for the later generations of Muslims that they had for the original Arabs to whom the Qur'ān had been revealed. It is for these two reasons that in the more recent lexicons and commentaries many of the Qur'ānic words began to be explained not by their original sense but by what they had by then come to stand for, e.g., • The word ‘ilaah’, as used in respect of others than God, came to be synonymous with idols or gods.

• The word ‘rabb’ came to mean only someone who brings up or rears or feeds another or provides for his worldly needs.

• ‘Ibadah’ began to be understood as the performance of a set of rituals of worship.

• ‘Deen’ began to mean a religion, or belief in some precepts.

• And the word ‘Taghoot’ began to be translated to mean an idol or the Devil.

The result obviously was that it became difficult for people to get at the real message of the Qur'ān. The Qur'ān asks people not to regard any other than Allah as an ilaah. People thought that since they had actually given up the worship of idols or of others regarded as gods, they had fulfilled the requirements, although in practice they have in fact gone on treating others as gods, but without the least suspicion crossing their minds that they were actually doing so. The Qur'ān had asked that men should not acknowledge any other than God as rabb. The people thought that since they did not profess anyone else to be a rabb, they had complied with the full requirements of the concept of Tawhid.

True enough, their oral professions or even their own understanding of their beliefs and actions, denoted that for them Allah was the one and only Rabb, but they little realised that by their actions they were instead according to many another too the status of rabb.

They protested that they no longer worshipped the idols, that they uttered curses on the Devil, and prostrated themselves before Allah only, and so here too they were doing all that the Qur'ān required of them. And yet, how far they were from that! All they did was to give up the idols shaped by the hands of men, but not any of the other taghoots. And as for ’ibadah, here too, except for the formalities generally associated with worship, they continued giving it to many others besides Allah. The same has been the case with deen. To reserve it exclusively for Allah came to mean to profess only the ‘religion of Islam,’ and not any of the other religions known as such, and this was all that was required and whosoever did this had satisfied the criterion of exclusiveness, although when looked at from the wider connotation of the word ‘deen’, the majority fall far, far short of the criterion.