The Divine Will.

The will is repeated in the very same words by Allah (SWT) through Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in the Quran:

Eid al-Adha reminds us immediately of Abraham (AS) whose life was the saga of a whole series of sacrifices beginning with what the world calls the final sacrifice, the surrender of one’s life. Abraham bequeathed this glorious tradition to his posterity, indeed to the whole of human race, through his will as well as; the will of his grandson, Jacob (Yaqoob AS). Says the Quran:

When his Lord said to him (Abraham), ‘surrender’, he said I have surrendered to the Lord of the worlds. And this was the will that Abraham left for his sons and so also did Jacob saying ‘O my sons, Allah has chosen the (right) faith for you, now die not except as those who surrender to Him. (2:131-132). 

The will is repeated in the very same words by Allah (SWT) through Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in the Quran:

O you who believe, observe your duty towards Allah in the manner appropriate for Him, and die not except as those who have surrendered. (3:102)

What it means is that your life should be lived as loyal and obedient servants of Allah and it should also end so. The unquestioning and loving obedience of the Divine law, based on the spirit of absolute surrender of one’s will to the will of Allah, is the literal meaning of Islam.

It is a pity that most people understand and interpret Islam in narrow terms as if it were a mere creed like other creeds. Indeed it represents the universal urge of unwarped and undefiled human nature to surrender to the Divine will. Human nature naturally recognizes in creation the existence of a law which all forms of creation obey naturally. It is this law which imparts harmony to the universe and in the absence of which it will be a chaos and a multiverse. Islam as a faith is a voluntary surrender of human will, in the sphere in which man has been granted limited freedom, to this law ordained by the Creator. This is the voice that emerges from the depths of human nature if it is left unperverted.

That the urge to surrender is an inherent feature of human nature can be evidenced through numerous examples from universal human experience. Goethe used to remark that when he read the Quran, which contains the essence of Islam (as well as the details of its application to human life which are vouchsafed to man only through Revelation), unknown chords within him would begin to vibrate. William Wordsworth, recognising the presence of the Divine law in natural phenomena, submits to it in the following memorable lines:

Flowers laugh before thee on their beds

And fragrance in thy footing treads;

Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong;

And the most ancient heavens, through Thee, are fresh and strong.

To humbler functions, awful Power,

I call thee: I myself commend

Unto thy guidance from this hour;

Oh, let my weakness have an end.