Divine Advice

Mankind is in need of advice and guidance. Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala), aware of every state of the subjects He created, warned them with the prophets He sent, invited them to the right path with the advice and guidance of the ambassadors of mercy.

In the relevant verse (Adh-Dhariyat 52-53), after mentioning the state of the previous ummahs who mocked the prophets of their respective time periods as if in agreement and transgressed the limits of unruliness, Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) tells Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) to continue giving advice and guidance despite the treatment he was exposed to:

“And remind, for indeed, the reminder benefits the believers.” (Adh-Dhariyat, 55)

The Qur’an Is Advice From Beginning to End

The reminders and advice in the ayah are addressed to the believers. They are advised to avoid ghaflah (heedlessness), deepen their faith, and learn what they do not know. In the following ayah, the most advanced form and the main goal of giving advice and reminders, as well as the main purpose of man’s creation, are explained:

“I did not create jinn and humans except to worship Me.” (Adh-Dhariyat, 56)

As a result, given that the primary objective of man’s creation is to worship Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) and get to know Him, it becomes crucial for individuals to offer advice, counsel, and reminders to one another to attain this goal.

The Qur’an, which is the word of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala), is a book of advice and reminders from beginning to end. The verses of the Qur’an, which emphasize faith, good deeds, and being a mature, spiritually perfected human being, advise us to take lessons from the examples of previous ummahs; they remind us of the transience of the world and that our final destination is the hereafter. As a matter of fact, “dhikr” and “maw’iza,” which are alternate names of the Qur’an, mean reminder, advice, and guidance:

“And this is a blessed message which We have sent down: are you still rejecting it?” (Al-Anbiya, 50)

“O mankind, there has come to you maw’iza from your Lord and healing for what is in the breasts and guidance and mercy for the believers.” (Yunus, 57)

While the ayahs in the Qur’an outline the ways of attaining happiness in the world and the hereafter, special attention is drawn to the matters that will lead to happiness in both worlds, with some ayahs containing advice and guidance. For example, one piece of wisdom included in Qur’anic verses is Luqman’s (alayhissalam) advice to his son.

Luqman’s (Alayhissalam) Advice

Although it is disputed whether he is a prophet or a wali, the advice of Luqman al-Hakim (alayhissalam), who is a person of wisdom according to the majority of scholars, is included in surah Luqman as follows:

13th Ayah: “And remember when Luqman said to his son while advising him, “O my dear son! Never associate anything with Allah in worship, for associating others with Him is truly the worst of all wrongs.”

First of all, we are reminded that tawhid comes first with the message that shirk (polytheism) must be avoided at all costs. A person who associates anything with Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) as a deity commits the greatest transgression. Mufassir Al-Zamakhshari (rahmatullahi alayh) comments on the tafsir of this ayah:

“Shirk is indeed a grave offense. For, to equate the One, from whom all blessings come, with someone from whom no blessing would come and cannot even be imagined to come, is an injustice beyond logic.” (Al-Kashshaf, V, 11)

14th Ayah: “We commanded man (to be good) in respect of his parents. His mother carried him (in her womb) despite weakness upon weakness, and his weaning is in two years. (We said to man,) “Be grateful to Me and to your parents. To Me is the ultimate return.”

15th Ayah: “But if they endeavor to make you associate with Me that of which you have no knowledge, do not obey them but accompany them in [this] world with appropriate kindness and follow the way of those who turn back to Me [in repentance]. Then to Me will be your return, and I will inform you about what you used to do.”

These two ayahs are addressed to Luqman’s (alayhissalam) son as intermediate sentences between his advice. Also, these ayahs reinforce the command of not committing shirk against Allah, which Luqman (alayhissalam) dictated to his son in the previous ayah.

Although parents come right after Allah (subhanahu wa ta'ala) in the hierarchy of whom we need to obey, these ayahs inform us that they should not be obeyed when they encourage or command one to be a party to or engage in shirk and rebellion against Allah. However, when it comes to worldly affairs, duties such as being with them, meeting their needs, and not harming them should not be neglected.

According to a narration, these ayahs were sent after Sa’d bin Abi Waqqas’s (radiyallahu anh) mother told him, “If you don’t quit this religion, I swear I will stop eating and drinking, and eventually I will die!” and he said, “Wallahi if you had a hundred lives and you gave them one by one, I would still not abandon this religion!” (Elmalılı Hamdi Yazır, Hak Dini Kur'an Dili, XI, 272-273)

16th Ayah: “(Luqman went on saying to his son,) ‘My dear son, in fact, if there be anything to the measure of a grain of rye, and it be (hidden) in a rock or in the heavens or in the earth, Allah will bring it forth. Surely, Allah is The Subtle, All-Aware.’”

According to Fakhruddin al-Razi (rahmatullahi alayh), when it is said in the previous ayah, “(At that time), I will inform you about what you were doing,” Luqman (alayhissalam) gave such advice because his son thought that things done in secret could be kept unknown. He reminded him that nothing, no matter how small and secret, would be hidden from Allah. (Al-Tafsir al-Kabir (Mafatih al-Ghayb), XXV, 148)

17th Ayah: “O my dear son! Establish prayer, encourage what is good and forbid what is evil, and endure patiently whatever befalls you. Surely this is a resolve to aspire to.”

In this ayah, attention is drawn to three vital elements of servitude: salah, commanding good and forbidding evil, and patience. Shaykh al-Islam Ebussuud Efendi (rahmatullahi alayh) makes the following remarks in his interpretation of this ayah:

“So, my son! Perform the prayer properly for the maturation of your own soul; In order for others to be mature, order them to do good and try to discourage them from evil; Be patient with the hardships and setbacks you suffer while doing the things you are commanded to do.” (Irshad, VI, 435)

Fakhruddin al-Razi (rahmatullahi alayh) relates this ayah to the previous ones by saying: “When Luqman (alayhissalam) forbade his son from shirk and forbade him from it via Allah's knowledge and power, he ordered him to do what is necessary regarding tawhid, which is salah. Salah is a kind of worship done purely for the sake of Allah. With this expression of the ayah, it is understood that salah practiced by other ummahs, although its form is different.” (Al-Tafsir al-Kabir (Mafatih al-Ghayb), XXV, 149)

18th Ayah: “And do not turn your nose up to people, nor walk pridefully upon the earth. Surely Allah does not like whoever is arrogant and boastful.”

19th Ayah: “Be moderate in your pace. And lower your voice, for the ugliest of all voices is certainly the braying of donkeys.”

Luqman (alayhissalam), in a final piece of advice to his son, advises him to be mature and to help others achieve maturity as well as protect himself from the spiritual diseases of the heart, such as pride, arrogance, and walking with an arrogant gait. This is because, in addition to causing good deeds to be wasted, they are also behaviors that displease Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala).

The Qur’an is not for those whose hearts are hardened but for those whose hearts are softened and shiver with the dhikr of Allah the Most High. In order to have such a heart, it is necessary to follow the path of those who turn to Allah with their whole being, as described in the 15th ayah above.

The following ayah, which was revealed to warn some of the sahabah who used to live in distress in Makkah and received abundant sustenance and blessings after coming to Medina and thus became lax in their religious practice, continues to warn all Muslims until qiyamah:

“Has the time not come for those who have believed that their hearts should become humbly submissive at the remembrance of Allah and what has come down of the truth? And let them not be like those who were given the Scripture before, and a long period passed over them, so their hearts hardened, and many of them are defiantly disobedient.” (Al-Hadid, 16)

Abdülkadir Alioğlu