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Appendix 8 - Al-Yawm

اليَوْم

Note: This is the eighth of a series of articles written by the Author on various occasions that have bearing on the topics of the book, and hence they have been included in it as appendices.

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الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِي وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ الْإِسْلَامَ دِينًا

“...This day have I perfected for you, your religion, and have completed My favour on you, and chosen for you Islam (to be) the religion…” (5:3)

From the context, it is obvious that the 'day' referred to here is not the ordinary day of twenty-four hours known to us. It is the 'day' wherein God has approved Islam as a 'deen' for us and according to other passages of the Qur'an the only 'deen' approved by God from eternity to eternity is Islam, to which every heavenly and terrestrial beings has willingly or unwillingly submitted.

No religion other than Islam is acceptable to Allah. And emphatically enough, the person “Muhammad” was commissioned with this universal grace. And Ali was made identical in degree of perfection, so he was ordained as Muhammad's vicegerent. The result is that the day referred to here is the day or rather the stage wherein the creation begins with Muhammad and Ali. The perfection of deen, and bounty of God and approval of Islam for all worlds coincide with the creation of the two identical entities, Muhammad and Ali.

Thus, the ‘day’ obviously transcends all our concepts of space and time and refers to the highest stage of ascension or mi’raj (معراج) as pointed out by the sixth imam Ja’afar as-Sadiq, a stage which is identical with the starting point of descension. And the day of Ghadeer has been honoured as one of the manifestations of ‘this day’. Whenever the Holy Prophet announced his prophethood, he declared Ali's vicegerency, as both are identical with each other at every stage.

Moreover, one should know that the phrase 'al-Yaum' used before the sentence 'This day, have I perfected your religion' in the verse 3 above and in the latter verse, 'This day, have been made lawful for you,’ is a sequence to 'Sublime Day'.

There are various manifestations of the perfection of deen (religion) as such it is not out of place when the perfection of Deen is declared with all its aspects the Satan and his followers (infidels) give up hope. All the clean things (Tayyibat- طَيِّبات) have been declared lawful for the believers and the unclean things unlawful.

There is another point which needs our attention. It is that the verse 5:3 begins with the declaration of the unlawful food but after the middle of this verse, ‘This day, are despaired those who disbelieve’ and ‘this day, have I perfected your religion’, the clause ‘but those whosoever is helplessly forced by hunger (and) not inclined to sin’ implies that unlawful food should be avoided except in the case of complete absence of lawful food (Tayyibat). The structure of' the verse draws the attention of the reader that he is permitted to obey the unlawful authority to the minimum extent as the case of unlawful food where and when circumstances compel him.

To eat a dead body and obey the order of an unlawful authority are permissible when the lawful is not available. This passage refers to the perfection of deen by God. Verse 67 of the same chapter says:

يَا أَيُّهَا الرَّسُولُ بَلِّغْ مَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْكَ مِنْ رَبِّكَ وَإِنْ لَمْ تَفْعَلْ فَمَا بَلَّغْتَ رِسَالَتَهُ وَاللَّهُ يَعْصِمُكَ مِنَ النَّاسِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الْكَافِرِينَ

“(O’ Our apostle Muhammad!) Deliver thou what hath been sent down unto thee from thy Lord; and if thou dost it not, then (it will be as if) thou hast not delivered His message (at all); and surely will God protect thee from (the mischief) of men; Verily God guideth not an infidel person,” (5:67)

Under normal circumstances, this verse should have been placed next to the above verse (‘This day are despaired those who disbelieve’ and ‘this day have I perfected your religion’) but perfection (Takmeel) by God precedes, and next is ‘conveying of the message’ (Tableegh) by the Holy Prophet.