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

Say (O Muhammad): ‘If you suffer from any doubts as to the details, or validity or rationality of my deen, then let it be known to you that I do not give me ’ibadah to anyone other than Allah He Who (having alone the power in this regard)

causes you to die, and I have been bidden to be of the believers (in Him), and to set my conduct and coarse wholly and solely according to the Deen and not to become one of those who associate others with Allah.’ (al-Yunus 10:104-105)

…authority vests in Allah alone. (And) He has Commanded that we do not give our ’ibadah to any accept Him; this is the Deen, right and proper. (al-Yusuf 12:40)

And to Him belong all who are in the heavens and the earth. All are subservient to Him He has propounded to you a similitude from your own (experience). Is any of your slaves a partner with you in the bounty We have conferred upon you? Do you make them equal partners in your ownership of your possessions?...

... the truth is that these misguided people follow their own wrong and baseless notions, ideas and desires without proper knowledge...

So you (O Muhammad) set your face straight upon the Deen, and follow the natural course meant by Allah for men [What is meant is that it is Allah alone Who has created man, and provided for his sustenance and others of his needs, that there is no god but He, and that He alone is man’s Master and the only authority rightfully deserving of his worship. Therefore, it would be fitly in accordance with this natural fact that man should believe, and behave, as only Allah’s creature and servant and not anyone else’s at all - Maududi]. It is not right that Allah’s Design be interfered with. This is the right and proper Deen and yet many a people know this not. (ar-Rum 30:26-30)

The adulterer, and the adulteress, let them both be given a hundred stripes each, and let not pity overcome you in a matter of Allah’s Deen….

[Adultery, in Islam, is the commission of the sexual act between a male and a female not married to each other. The fact that it has been committed through mutual consent is no mitigation of the offence. The punishment here prescribed is that in the case of persons who are unmarried. In the case of a married person (who would have less reason to commit adultery), the punishment is that he or she be stoned to death, and there are categorical orders that this be done in public and be witnessed by a crowd (so as to serve as a lesson to others). In fact all bodily punishments are required, by the Shari’ah to be inflicted in public. There is far more psychology in this than in all the writings of those who decry whipping or death sentences, in the name of humanness. Abu Asad]. (an-Nur 24:2)

In Allah’s Writ, the number of months has always been twelve to a year, from the day He erected the heavens and the earth; of which (twelve) four are sacred; this is the true and straight deen (usage).... (at-Tawbah 9:36)

And thus did those whom they associated with Allah make it appear a commendable act in the eyes of the mushrikeen [that is, the people guilty of shirk, the association of others with God - Maududi]to slay their children in order to lead them to their own destruction, and cause confusion in their deen….

(al-An’aam 6:137)

Have they taken some people to be partners (with Allah) who prescribe ways for them in the nature of deen, for which they have had no permission from Allāh جل جلاله…. (ash-Shooraa 42:21)

For you, your deen, and for me mine own. (al-Kaafirun 109:6)

In all these verses, the word deen has been used to mean the law, rules or regulations, shari’ah, or code of conduct, or that system of thought and action which a person subscribes to and lives by. If the ultimate authority for the law or code, etc., which is followed, is God Himself, then the person concerned in observing Allah’s deen; if it owes us itself to the commandments of a monarch, then he is in the monarch’s Deen; if it is prescribed by some priests or pundits or other religious leaders then he is observing their Deen; and if it has been laid down by the family, the clan or the tribe, or the national body-politic, then he is following their deen. In other words, the basic, critical factor as to the deen a person follows is the ultimate authority responsible for it.