Surah Yunus, Ayah 63

Identifying the Awliya' of Allah

Allah tells us that His Awliya' (friends and allies) are those who believe and have Taqwa of Allah as He defined them. Every pious, God-fearing person is a friend of Allah, therefore,

لاَ خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ

(no fear shall come upon them) from the future horrors they will face in the Hereafter.

وَلاَ هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ

(nor shall they grieve.) over anything left behind in this world. Ibn Jarir recorded that Abu Hurayrah said that Allah's Messenger ﷺ said:

«إِنَّ مِنْ عِبَادِ اللهِ عِبَادًا يَغْبِطُهُمُ الْأَنْبِيَاءُ وَالشُّهَدَاء»

(Among the servants of Allah there will be those whom the Prophets and the martyrs will consider fortunate). It was said: "Who are these, O Messenger of Allah, so we may love them" He said:

Commentary

In the verses cited above, particular merits, definition and identity of the Auliya' of Allah have been mentioned. Also given there is good news for them in the present world as well as in the Hereafter. The text says that they will have no apprehensions of facing some unpleasant or unforeseen happening, nor will they grieve over the non-fulfillment of some objective. These Auliya' of Allah (men of Allah) will be people who believed and remained pious, righteous and God fearing. They are most welcome in this world and in the next world both.

We have to consider three things at this point:

All of God’s gifts to man—whether agricultural produce or other things which are useful to man—are divine provision (rizq). As man utilizes them in the way shown by God, he developes a feeling of gratitude towards his Maker. But Satan wants man to fail to remember God while making use of divine provisions. In ancient times Satan induced people to associate with these provisions the rites due to false gods and goddesses so that in availing of them, they would forget the remembrance of their true Lord. In the present age Satan is achieving this purpose by advancing material explanations for things. God-gifted things are being shown to people as resulting from certain material factors, so that when they receive these things, they will not treat these bounties as the provision (rizq) of God but as the outcome of worldly toils.