02 Importance of Din in human life

Qur’anic evidence • Complete ayah

“Say: Lo! my worship and my sacrifice and my living and my dying are for Allah, Lord of the Worlds.”

Source: Qur'an, Surah Al-Anam (6), ayah 162.

Translation: Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran; accessed through Quranic Arabic Corpus.

Relevance / context: Directly brings worship, life and death under devotion to God; supports an integrated account of religious purpose.

Status: Arabic and the reproduced published translation wording checked in the linked digital texts.

Best use: Definition / argument

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Qur’anic evidence • Contiguous ayah excerpt

“the nature (framed) of Allah, in which He hath created man.”

Source: Qur'an, Surah Al-Rum (30), ayah 30.

Translation: Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran; accessed through Quranic Arabic Corpus.

Relevance / context: Provides the scriptural basis for discussing fitrah. The precise relation of natural disposition to acquired belief requires interpretation.

Status: Arabic and the reproduced published translation wording checked in the linked digital texts.

Best use: Definition / argument

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Qur’anic evidence • Complete ayah

“I created the jinn and humankind only that they might worship Me.”

Source: Qur'an, Surah Al-Dhariyat (51), ayah 56.

Translation: Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran; accessed through Quranic Arabic Corpus.

Relevance / context: States worship as the purpose of human and jinn creation. Whether a particular everyday action counts as worship depends on further criteria.

Status: Arabic and the reproduced published translation wording checked in the linked digital texts.

Best use: Definition / argument

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Qur’anic evidence • Contiguous ayah excerpt

“Our Lord! Give unto us in the world that which is good and in the Hereafter that which is good, and guard us from the doom of Fire.”

Source: Qur'an, Surah Al-Baqarah (2), ayah 201.

Translation: Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran; accessed through Quranic Arabic Corpus.

Relevance / context: The supplication combines worldly and ultimate well-being; it does not equate worldly success with divine approval.

Status: Arabic and the reproduced published translation wording checked in the linked digital texts.

Best use: Definition / argument

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Qur’anic evidence • Contiguous ayah excerpt

“But he who turneth away from remembrance of Me, his will be a narrow life,”

Source: Qur'an, Surah Ta-Ha (20), ayah 124.

Translation: Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran; accessed through Quranic Arabic Corpus.

Relevance / context: A warning about estrangement from divine guidance. Its application must not become a diagnosis of another person’s poverty or illness.

Status: Arabic and the reproduced published translation wording checked in the linked digital texts.

Best use: Definition / argument

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Qur’anic evidence • Contiguous ayah excerpt

“him verily we shall quicken with good life,”

Source: Qur'an, Surah Al-Nahl (16), ayah 97.

Translation: Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran; accessed through Quranic Arabic Corpus.

Relevance / context: The preceding condition is righteous action with faith, whether the person is male or female. The promise should be read with that condition.

Status: Arabic and the reproduced published translation wording checked in the linked digital texts.

Best use: Definition / argument

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Qur’anic evidence • Contiguous ayah excerpt

“Despair not of the mercy of Allah,”

Source: Qur'an, Surah Al-Zumar (39), ayah 53.

Translation: Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran; accessed through Quranic Arabic Corpus.

Relevance / context: A text of hope addressed to those who have wronged themselves. It should be read with the call to return to God, not as permission to persist in wrongdoing.

Status: Arabic and the reproduced published translation wording checked in the linked digital texts.

Best use: Definition / argument

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Qur’anic evidence • Complete ayah

“Surely We created man of the best stature”

Source: Qur'an, Surah Al-Tin (95), ayah 4.

Translation: Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran; accessed through Quranic Arabic Corpus.

Relevance / context: Introduces human endowment. The succeeding contrast with decline and believing action prevents reading it as unconditional moral superiority.

Status: Arabic and the reproduced published translation wording checked in the linked digital texts.

Best use: Definition / argument

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Hadith / authenticated report • Verified Arabic excerpt; published translation excerpt(s)

“If Allah wants to do good to a person, He makes him comprehend the religion.”

Source: Sahih al-Bukhari, Knowledge, hadith 71; numbering: Sunnah.com. Narrator: Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan.

Translation: Established English wording displayed by Sunnah.com; individual translator not identified on the accessed passage.

Relevance / context: Supports informed religious understanding rather than unexamined affiliation. The excerpt is a statement about understanding din, not a restriction of all useful knowledge to one discipline.

Status: Sahih: included in Sahih al-Bukhari; text and locator checked. This is not a new independent isnad grading.

Best use: Definition / argument

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Hadith / authenticated report • Verified Arabic excerpt; published translation excerpt(s)

“Every child is born with a true faith (i.e. to worship none but Allah Alone)”

Source: Sahih al-Bukhari, Funerals, hadith 1358; numbering: Sunnah.com. Narrator: Abu Hurayrah; report introduced by Ibn Shihab.

Translation: Established English wording displayed by Sunnah.com; individual translator not identified on the accessed passage.

Relevance / context: The continuation refers to parents shaping religious affiliation. The displayed English expands fitrah interpretively; Ibn Shihab’s preliminary funeral ruling is not the Prophet’s quoted speech.

Status: Sahih: included in Sahih al-Bukhari; text and locator checked. This is not a new independent isnad grading.

Best use: Definition / argument

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Tafsir • Scholarly position / paraphrased argument

Al-Tabari explains the command as directing worship and obedience to God. He records interpretations of fitrah as Islam and reads the prohibition of alteration in relation to God’s religion; other explanations are also transmitted.

Source: Abu Jafar al-Tabari, Jami al-bayan; commentary on 30:30. King Saud University digital Quran project.

Relevance / context: Provides an attributed account of religious disposition, not an experimentally demonstrated claim about every newborn’s explicit beliefs.

Status: Cited passage inspected in the linked digital text. Attribution verified; interpretation is not classified as a Hadith. Print pagination not asserted.

Best use: Interpretation / critical analysis

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Tafsir • Scholarly position / paraphrased argument

Ibn Kathir records explanations including lawful provision, contentment, happiness and delight in obedience, and understands the good life broadly. He retains the verse’s conditions of faith and righteous action for men and women.

Source: Ibn Kathir, Tafsir al-Quran al-Azim; commentary on 16:97. King Saud University digital Quran project.

Relevance / context: Supports an account of well-being that cannot simply be measured by material prosperity.

Status: Cited passage inspected in the linked digital text. Attribution verified; interpretation is not classified as a Hadith. Print pagination not asserted.

Best use: Interpretation / critical analysis

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Tafsir • Scholarly position / paraphrased argument

Ibn Kathir explains creation for worship as creation to be commanded to worship, not because God needs His creatures. He also records other early formulations of the verse’s meaning.

Source: Ibn Kathir, Tafsir al-Quran al-Azim; commentary on 51:56. King Saud University digital Quran project.

Relevance / context: Clarifies why worship matters for human orientation without implying dependence or benefit accruing to God.

Status: Cited passage inspected in the linked digital text. Attribution verified; interpretation is not classified as a Hadith. Print pagination not asserted.

Best use: Interpretation / critical analysis

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Classical or modern scholarship • Scholarly position / paraphrased argument

Iqbal argues that faith contains a cognitive element and that religion aims to transform both inward and outward life. He therefore treats the rational examination of religious principles as important rather than opposing all reasoning to faith.

Source: Muhammad Iqbal, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, Lecture I, “Knowledge and Religious Experience”; opening discussion, paragraphs on faith and rational foundation. International Iqbal Society digital transcription.

Relevance / context: A modern philosophical position, not an independently authenticated statement from revelation.

Status: Cited passage inspected in the linked digital text. Attribution verified; interpretation is not classified as a Hadith. Print pagination not asserted.

Best use: Interpretation / critical analysis

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Classical or modern scholarship • Scholarly position / paraphrased argument

Al-Ghazali rejects both unconditional praise and unconditional condemnation of scholastic theology. He weighs its possible help against its potential to provoke confusion and recommends addressing doubt with kindness and appropriately limited arguments.

Source: Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Ihya, Book 2, Kitab Qawaid al-Aqaid; The Foundations of the Articles of Faith, trans. Nabih Amin Faris, Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, Lahore, 1999 reprint; section II, discussion of the benefits and harms of kalam.

Relevance / context: A contextual educational position; it should not be converted into a general claim that all questioning is forbidden or that every debate is beneficial.

Status: Cited passage inspected in the linked digital text. Attribution verified; interpretation is not classified as a Hadith. Print pagination not asserted.

Best use: Interpretation / critical analysis

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