Praise be to God! There is no other god except God. But, who is your god? Most people are outraged upon hearing this question. “What do you mean, ‘Who is your god?’. “My god is the Creator of the heavens and the earth.” And most of these people will be shocked to find out that their proclamation that their god is the Creator of the heavens and the earth is no more than lip service, and that they are in fact destined for Hell (12:106).
To put this commandment into practice, we must establish certain habits whereby we guarantee that God occupies our minds more than anything else. The Quran helps us establish such soul saving habits:
- The Contact Prayers (Salat): those who observe the daily prayers come a long way towards commemorating God a significant proportion of their waking hours.
- Commemorate God before eating: Verse 6:121 enjoins us to mention God’s name before we eat. It says, “You shall not eat from that upon which God’s name has not been mentioned.”
- Saying, “God Willing (IN SHAA ALLAH): Verse 18:24 says, “You shall not say, ‘I will do this or that tomorrow,’ without saying, ‘God willing’ (IN SHAA ALLAH). If you forget to do this, then apologize and say, ‘May my Lord guide me to do better next time.’ ”. This is a direct commandment that we must carry out, no matter who we are talking with.
- God’s Gift (MAA SHAA ALLAH): To invoke God’s protection for our beloved objects—our children, our cars, our homes, etc.—we are enjoined in verse 18:39 to say “MAA SHAA ALLAH” (This is God’s gift).
- Glorify God day and night: When we eat anything, we shouldn’t be like animals; we must reflect on God’s creation of the food we are eating—the flavor, our enjoyment due to the senses God has given us, the perfect packaging of the banana or the orange, the varieties of sea foods created by God, etc.—and glorify Him as we enjoy His provisions. When we see a beautiful flower, or animal, or sunsets, we must glorify God. We must seize every possible opportunity to remember and glorify God, so that God may be our God.