The Soil · About Submission
Monotheism — What It Asks of You
Believing it is the easy part. This page is about living it.
Indeed, those who submit themselves absolutely to GOD alone, while leading a righteous life, will receive their recompense from their Lord; they have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve.
[2:112]Read the other page first
Monotheism, in The Root, explains what the truth is: the first commandment, why there is only one God, and what idol worship looks like. If you have not read it yet, start there. This page picks up where it ends. It asks a different question. Not what is true, but what living by it will cost you, and what God gives in return.
Saying God is One costs nothing. Almost anyone will agree if you ask them. But agreeing is not enough. God tells us that most of those who believe in Him still worship idols beside Him [12:106]. The page Monotheism — Who God Is looks at what that means. This page starts where that one ends.
So here is the practical question. Say you really mean it. Not as an idea you agree with, but as the thing your whole life is built around. What changes? What does it cost? Where will it be tested? And what does God promise you for the trouble?
None of this is hidden. God names the price plainly. He names the people who will make you pay it. And He names what you get back. Most things that ask a lot of us are vague about the cost. This one is not.
On This Page
Four parts, and the questions people ask after each one.
What Changes the Day You Mean It
The first thing to go is a tiredness most of us carry without a name for it.
Think about having several bosses. God. And what the family expects. And what the community will say. And what some scholar ruled. And what you need money for. Every choice becomes a meeting between people who do not agree, and you are stuck in the middle. God gives us a picture that fits this well: “GOD cites the example of a man who deals with disputing partners (Hadith), compared to a man who deals with only one consistent source (Quran). Are they the same? Praise be to GOD; most of them do not know.” [39:29]
Many voices that each want something different. Or one. God asks if those two lives are the same. We know they are not. Answering to many can look like freedom. It is the harder life.
Nothing Else Has a Vote
Once you take that in, something follows. Nothing else in the universe gets a say over what happens to you.
God gives the command and the reason side by side: “You shall not worship beside GOD what possesses no power to benefit you or harm you. If you do, you will be a transgressor.” [10:106] And in the next verse, the reason: “If GOD touches you with a hardship, none can relieve it except He. And when He blesses you, no force can prevent His grace.” [10:107]
This is about how things really work. The person you are afraid of cannot lift a hardship God has sent. The person you are trying to please cannot block a blessing God has given. So much of our worry is built on the opposite idea. When we truly believe this, and do not just agree with it, a lot of that worry has nothing left to stand on.
And What Happens to Fear
Fear does not vanish. It shrinks down to one fear. That is very different from having none.
God says: “If GOD supports you, none can defeat you. And if He abandons you, who else can support you? In GOD the believers shall trust.” [3:160] The first half takes away the fear of everyone else. The second half reminds us who we depend on.
Someone who fears one thing is steadier than someone who fears forty. Other people may see that and call it confidence. It is simpler than that. Only one opinion still matters.
Questions About What Changes
What actually changes, day to day, if we worship God alone?
The number of opinions that decide things drops to one. That changes an ordinary day more than we might expect. Most of the weight we carry is not carried for God. We carry it for everyone else who has a say. The family's hopes. The community's judgment. A boss. A rule somebody made up. God puts this in a picture. He compares a man with several partners who argue, and a man who deals with “only one consistent source” [39:29]. The second man still has work to do. But his life is simpler. Then a lot of worrying and calculating stops. No one but God can lift a hardship He sends, and nothing can block a blessing He gives [10:107]. So who do we need to impress? Who do we need to fear? Those questions go quiet. One question takes their place, and we ask it about everything: is this what God commanded? It is not an easy question. But it is only one.
If God controls everything, does our effort still count for anything?
Yes. It counts for everything. The Quran never sets our effort against God's control. God says it plainly: “Every human being is responsible for his own works.” [53:39] His control does not take that away. He also tells us He does not change the condition of any people “unless they themselves make the decision to change” [13:11]. The decision is ours. What comes of it is not. Here is what God promises to those who strive in His cause: “As for those who strive in our cause, we will surely guide them in our paths.” [29:69] That “we” is God speaking. He promises guidance. He does not promise a particular result. So our work is not wasted because God decides. Our work is required, and the result is in His hands. That can be hard to live with. But it is what the book says. We do the work, and we leave the result with Him.
Is it enough to believe this quietly, without changing anything?
No. In the Quran, believing is never enough on its own. Again and again, the promise has a second part. The reward goes to those who submit completely to God alone “while leading a righteous life” [2:112]. The happy life goes to anyone “who works righteousness, male or female, while believing” [16:97]. And Sura 103 says the human being is utterly lost, except those who believe, lead a righteous life, and urge one another to hold to the truth and to be steadfast [103:2-3]. None of this means we have to make announcements. But a belief we keep to ourselves and never act on is not what God commands. Of His scripture He says: “you shall follow it and lead a righteous life” [6:155]. It was sent to be followed, not only agreed with. Often the real worry behind this question is what people will say. That worry has its own answer further down this page.
What It Costs
God does not sell this cheaply. And He does not let you find out the price later.
He lists what it may cost, one item at a time. None of them are luxuries: “If your parents, your children, your siblings, your spouses, your family, the money you have earned, a business you worry about, and the homes you cherish are more beloved to you than GOD and His messenger, and the striving in His cause, then just wait until GOD brings His judgment.” [9:24]
God does not tell you to stop loving any of these. Every one of the eight is good. Several of them He commands us to care for, in other parts of the same book. What He says is that none of them can come first. The words are “more beloved.” It is about which one comes first, not about whether you love them.
Most of us never have to choose, so the order stays hidden. Then one day something on that list wants you to do what God forbids, or to leave what He commands. On that day you find out your real order. It may not be the one you thought.
Your Parents, and the Line That Does Not Move
This is where it gets hard for most people. And here God speaks with great care.
Honouring parents comes right after worshipping God alone. The two sit in the same sentence: “Your Lord has decreed that you shall not worship except Him, and your parents shall be honored.” [17:23] The same verse forbids even a sound of annoyance toward them. In Sura 31, before any line is drawn, God speaks of what a mother went through: “His mother bore him, and the load got heavier and heavier. It takes two years (of intensive care) until weaning.” [31:14]
Then He draws one line, in the very next verse: “If they try to force you to set up any idols beside Me, do not obey them. But continue to treat them amicably in this world.” [31:15]
Both halves are commands. Do not obey them in that one thing. Keep treating them well in everything else. Sura 9 adds one more line: “do not ally yourselves even with your parents and your siblings, if they prefer disbelieving over believing” [9:23]. Being kind to someone and taking them as an ally are not the same. Under this pressure, most of us manage only one half. We give in to keep the peace. Or we win the argument and lose the relationship. The command is to hold both.
Abraham and His Father
The Quran gives us a real example. And it does not make it look neat.
Abraham's father threatened to stone him: “Have you forsaken my gods, O Abraham? Unless you stop, I will stone you. Leave me alone.” [19:46] Abraham answered without anger: “Peace be upon you. I will implore my Lord to forgive you; He has been Most Kind to me.” [19:47] And then came the line he would not move: “I will abandon you and the gods you worship besides GOD. I will worship only my Lord.” [19:48]
He said no, and he did not answer the threat with a threat. God calls Abraham and those with him a good example [60:4]. The example is their clear break with idol worship: “We disown you and the idols that you worship besides GOD”. The same verse says his promise to pray for his father was a mistake.
God is honest with us about the example He gave us. He tells us that Abraham kept the promise only because he had made it, and disowned his father as soon as he realised his father was an enemy of God [9:114]. Even a good example had a flaw, and God did not hide it.
And the Testing Is Not a Sign Something Went Wrong
When people start taking this seriously, a hard year often follows. Many take it as a sign that they chose wrong. God tells us to expect it.
“Do the people think that they will be left to say, ‘We believe,’ without being put to the test?” [29:2] The next verse tells us why, and God is the one doing it: “We have tested those before them, for GOD must distinguish those who are truthful, and He must expose the liars.” [29:3]
It goes further. Believers before us were tested with hardship and shaken up, until even the messenger and those with him asked, “Where is GOD's victory?” [2:214] God's answer was short: His victory is near.
None of this makes a hard year pleasant. But it does change what the hard year means.
Questions About the Cost
Our family will not accept this. What does the Quran tell us to do?
We do two things at once. Both are commands from God. Honouring parents comes right after worshipping God alone, in the same sentence: “Your Lord has decreed that you shall not worship except Him, and your parents shall be honored.” [17:23] That verse forbids even a sound of annoyance toward them. The next verse tells us to lower for them the wings of humility. Then comes the one line that does not move. If they try to force us to set up idols beside God, the command is: “do not obey them. But continue to treat them amicably in this world.” [31:15] We refuse that one thing. We do not stop being kind. Most of us manage only one half. We give in to keep the peace, or we win the argument and lose the family. Holding both is harder, and it is what God commands. Often it looks like this: we quietly do not do the thing, and we do not turn it into a fight.
Can we pray for a parent who does not worship God alone?
Yes to one prayer, and no to another. The difference matters. The first prayer is commanded. God tells us to lower for our parents the wings of humility and kindness, “and say, ‘My Lord, have mercy on them, for they have raised me from infancy.’” [17:24] That is a prayer for mercy. It comes right after the command to worship God alone and honour parents, and nothing takes it back. The second prayer is forbidden. It is asking forgiveness for idol worshippers, “even if they were their nearest of kin, once they realize that they are destined for Hell” [9:113]. What changes things is realising. It is not death. Abraham shows this. He asked forgiveness for his father only because he had promised to. And “as soon as he realized that he was an enemy of GOD, he disowned him” [9:114]. His father was alive then, and had threatened to stone him [19:46]. So this is not a rule about the living and the dead. We stop asking forgiveness once it is clear where someone is heading. It is a hard ruling. Making it softer would not change what the verse says.
Why does it get harder after we start taking it seriously?
Because that is when the testing begins. And God tells us so before it happens. He asks: “Do the people think that they will be left to say, ‘We believe,’ without being put to the test?” [29:2] Then He gives the reason, and He is the one doing it: “We have tested those before them, for GOD must distinguish those who are truthful, and He must expose the liars.” [29:3] He even tells us what the test will look like, so we do not have to guess. Our money. Our lives. And a lot of insult, both from those who received the scripture and from the idol worshippers [3:186]. That same verse names what proves the strength of our faith: being steadfast and leading a righteous life. So a hard stretch does not mean we took a wrong turn. It is the normal next step. Knowing that does not make it easy. But it takes away a second weight: the fear that the hardship means we chose wrong.
Where It Is Actually Tested
Almost nobody is asked to bow to a statue. The test comes in a form so ordinary that we may not even notice it is a test.
Most often, it comes as other people's opinion of us. God names this weakness even in His own Prophet, so none of us can say we are above it: “Thus, you feared the people, when you were supposed to fear only GOD.” [33:37]
Think about who is being corrected here. It is the man receiving the revelation. He hid something inside himself because of what people would say. God does not excuse it, and He does not hide it. It is written in the very book the Prophet was delivering.
Fear of People, Wearing Ordinary Clothes
It rarely feels like fear. It feels like being sensible. Keeping the peace. Not making things awkward.
Another passage shows the same weakness. Some people were told they only had to pray and give the obligatory charity. Then fighting was decreed for them, and “they feared the people as much as they feared GOD, or even more” [4:77]. It came out when a hard command came. For most of us it comes out in smaller ways. So the real question is how our fear of people compares with our fear of God.
Here is a simple way to check, in an ordinary week. Think of the last time you changed what you said or did to avoid someone's reaction. Whose reaction was it? And what would really have happened if you had not?
What It Costs, Week to Week
Not the big dramatic moments. These are the ordinary places where the price gets paid, and God names each one in the Quran.
An argument you decline to win
“The worshipers of the Most Gracious are those who tread the earth gently, and when the ignorant speak to them, they only utter peace.” Walking away without the last word costs more than most of us expect.
[25:63]
A family occasion that goes quiet
The one refusal that does not move, and the kindness that stays with it. Holding both at the same family table is the hardest thing on this page.
[31:15]
Money you do not chase
The list of eight includes “the money you have earned, a business you worry about, and the homes you cherish”. None of it is forbidden. The question is what comes first when the two pull in different directions.
[9:24]
Approval you were counting on
God records His own Prophet hiding something because of what people would say. And He corrects him for it in the book the Prophet was delivering.
[33:37]
Insult, from both directions
God tells us ahead of time. We will be tested through our money and our lives, and we will hear insult from those who received the scripture and from the idol worshippers. So when it comes, we know it is not a wrong turn.
[3:186]
What Fills the Front of Your Mind
Under all of this is one simple test. You do not need to search your soul to get it right.
Whatever fills your mind most of the time can start to act like a god. God speaks of the one “whose god is his own ego” [25:43]. This is why God tells us not only to believe, but to keep remembering Him. And it is why His warning about money and children is about being distracted, not about having them: “O you who believe, do not be distracted by your money and your children from remembering GOD. Those who do this are the losers.” [63:9]
God does not ask you to care less about your work or your family. The answer is to build a few fixed times into your day, so that nothing else can hold your attention for too long. That is a big part of what the practices are for. It is also why they are commanded, and not just suggested.
Questions About the Daily Test
How do we tell whether we are afraid of God or afraid of people?
One way is to look at what we change when others are watching. God does not treat this as a rare weakness. He names it in His own Prophet, in the very book he was delivering: “Thus, you feared the people, when you were supposed to fear only GOD.” [33:37] The Prophet had hidden something inside himself because of what people would say. If he was corrected for it, none of us is above it. Another verse shows how it can be measured. Some people were told they only had to pray and give the obligatory charity. Then fighting was decreed for them, and “they feared the people as much as they feared GOD, or even more” [4:77]. So the real question is how the two fears compare. In daily life, the question is small. Think of the last time we changed what we said or did to avoid someone's reaction. Whose reaction was it? Fear of people almost never feels like fear. It feels like being polite, or keeping the peace.
What do we actually have to give up about money?
Not the money itself. What we give up is its place at the top, and the hold it has on our attention. The list of eight loved things in [9:24] includes “the money you have earned, a business you worry about, and the homes you cherish”. The verse does not condemn any of them. It warns about one thing: loving them more than God, His messenger, and striving in His cause. That is about order. And we only see our order on the day the two pull apart. The second thing is harder to measure. The warning is about being distracted, not about having them: “O you who believe, do not be distracted by your money and your children from remembering GOD. Those who do this are the losers.” [63:9] God also calls our money and our children a test [8:28]. The warning here is about distraction. And the people God praises have work to do. He describes them as “People who are not distracted by business or trade from commemorating GOD” [24:37]. They work. Their work just does not take all of them.
What do we do when we are the only one?
We keep going. And we expect it to feel lonely for a while. Standing apart like this comes with the test God describes: “You will certainly be tested, through your money and your lives, and you will hear from those who received the scripture, and from the idol worshipers, a lot of insult.” [3:186] Those two groups may be the very people at our own table. The verse tells us to expect insult from both. Believers before us were shaken so hard that their messenger and those with him asked, “Where is GOD's victory?” [2:214]. So a hard time does not mean our faith is weak. God told His Prophet to “continue on the path you have been enjoined to follow, together with those who repented with you, and do not transgress.” [11:112] The command is to continue. It holds for us too, even when we stand alone.
What Is Promised in Return
Everything above is the cost. This is the other side. And God is just as clear about one as the other.
The first promise answers our fear: “Those who believe, and do not pollute their belief with idol worship, have deserved the perfect security, and they are truly guided.” [6:82] Two things are given here. Security comes first, then guidance.
The word God uses is security. Not comfort. Not an easy life. Security.
A Happy Life, in This World
God does promise something in this world. And He promises it to everyone on the same terms.
“Anyone who works righteousness, male or female, while believing, we will surely grant them a happy life in this world, and we will surely pay them their full recompense (on the Day of Judgment) for their righteous works.” [16:97] The Hereafter is in that verse, but it comes second. The happy life is promised here, in this world. And God says “surely” twice in one sentence.
It is not a promise of an easy life. The rest of this page makes that clear. A happy life and a comfortable life are not the same thing. God promises the first.
An Exit, and Provision You Did Not See Coming
One promise is so clear that people quote it all the time. Here is where it comes from.
“Anyone who reverences GOD, He will create an exit for him. And will provide for him whence he never expected. Anyone who trusts in GOD, He suffices him.” [65:2-3]
God gives this promise inside a passage about divorce. It comes right after the rules on the waiting period and the witnesses. It does not come in a quiet passage about prayer. It comes in the middle of one of the hardest times a person can have.
And the Fear That Goes
One sentence comes back again and again, in the same shape. After a while, you cannot read it as a passing phrase.
Those who submit completely to God alone, and lead a righteous life, “have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve” [2:112]. God's allies “have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve” [10:62], and two verses later: “For them, joy and happiness in this world, as well as in the Hereafter.” [10:64] And to those who say ‘Our Lord is GOD,’ and then lead a righteous life, the angels come down and say it to them directly: “You shall have no fear, nor shall you grieve.” [41:30]
Fear looks ahead. Grief looks back. Between them, they keep most of us awake at night. God does not promise that nothing bad will happen. He promises those who meet His terms that neither of those two will have a hold on them.
That is the exchange, stated plainly on both sides. The things on the list in [9:24] are not the problem. They just stop coming first. And the fear of everything except God, and the grief, let go.
Questions About the Promise
What does the Quran actually promise in this life, not the next?
Three things that reach into this life. First, security: “Those who believe, and do not pollute their belief with idol worship, have deserved the perfect security, and they are truly guided.” [6:82] The word is security. Not comfort. Second, a happy life, promised to everyone on the same terms: “Anyone who works righteousness, male or female, while believing, we will surely grant them a happy life in this world” [16:97]. That “we” is God speaking. The Hereafter is in the same verse, and it comes second. Third, a way out of trouble, and provision from where we never expected: “Anyone who reverences GOD, He will create an exit for him. And will provide for him whence he never expected.” [65:2-3] God does not promise a life with no hardship [2:155]. A happy life and a comfortable life are not the same thing.
We worship God alone and life is still hard. Was the promise not kept?
The promise was never that life would stop being hard. God told us about the hard parts ahead of time, in the same book. He announces the test before it comes: “We will surely test you through some fear, hunger, and loss of money, lives, and crops. Give good news to the steadfast.” [2:155] So fear, hunger and loss do not mean the promise failed. They are part of the test the promise came with. Alongside it, God gives us a limit. “GOD never burdens a soul beyond its means” [2:286]. God says it twice: “With pain there is gain.” [94:5-6] The hard part and the good part come together. So in a hard year, the better question is this: which promise were we holding on to? Security. A happy life. A way out we could not see before. Those were offered. A life with no trouble was never on the list. Believers before us, and their messenger, were shaken too [2:214].
Where do we start?
We start with one honest look at what comes first in our lives right now. Then we turn to the practices. They hold a decision in place after the first feeling fades. God's command is direct, and the reason comes with it: “Therefore, you shall devote yourself to the religion of strict monotheism. Such is the natural instinct placed into the people by GOD.” [30:30] Nothing new is being put into us. Something already there is being uncovered. God also tells us to bring our family with us: “You shall enjoin your family to observe the contact prayers (Salat), and steadfastly persevere in doing so.” [20:132] Keeping at it is part of the command. And the plainest command of all was given to someone much further along than we are: “continue on the path you have been enjoined to follow, together with those who repented with you, and do not transgress.” [11:112] Continue. Not arrive. Not be perfect. Continue, and do not transgress.
What the Quran Says About What This Asks
Nine passages that hold this whole page together.
Proclaim: “If your parents, your children, your siblings, your spouses, your family, the money you have earned, a business you worry about, and the homes you cherish are more beloved to you than GOD and His messenger, and the striving in His cause, then just wait until GOD brings His judgment.” GOD does not guide the wicked people.[9:24]
The cost, item by item
If they try to force you to set up any idols beside Me, do not obey them. But continue to treat them amicably in this world. You shall follow only the path of those who have submitted to Me. Ultimately, you all return to Me, then I will inform you of everything you have done.[31:15]
Two commands in one verse. Most of us manage only one.
He said, “Peace be upon you. I will implore my Lord to forgive you; He has been Most Kind to me. I will abandon you and the gods you worship besides GOD. I will worship only my Lord. By imploring my Lord alone, I cannot go wrong.”[19:47-48]
Abraham, answering a threat to stone him
Do the people think that they will be left to say, “We believe,” without being put to the test?[29:2]
Why a hard year is not a wrong turn
Recall that you said to the one who was blessed by GOD, and blessed by you, “Keep your wife and reverence GOD,” and you hid inside yourself what GOD wished to proclaim. Thus, you feared the people, when you were supposed to fear only GOD. When Zeid was completely through with his wife, we had you marry her, in order to establish the precedent that a man can marry the divorced wife of his adopted son. GOD's commands shall be done.[33:37]
Said to the Prophet, and written in the book he delivered
O you who believe, do not be distracted by your money and your children from remembering GOD. Those who do this are the losers.[63:9]
The danger is distraction, not having things
Those who believe, and do not pollute their belief with idol worship, have deserved the perfect security, and they are truly guided.[6:82]
Security first, then guidance
Anyone who works righteousness, male or female, while believing, we will surely grant them a happy life in this world, and we will surely pay them their full recompense (on the Day of Judgment) for their righteous works.[16:97]
A happy life in this world, on the same terms for everyone
Once the interim is fulfilled, you may reconcile with them equitably, or go through with the separation equitably. You shall have two equitable witnesses witness the divorce before GOD. This is to enlighten those who believe in GOD and the Last Day. Anyone who reverences GOD, He will create an exit for him. And will provide for him whence he never expected. Anyone who trusts in GOD, He suffices him. GOD's commands are done. GOD has decreed for everything its fate.[65:2-3]
Given right after the rules on the waiting period and the witnesses in divorce
Growth Prompt
Do not answer this quickly. Sit with it for ten minutes before you write. The first answer that comes is usually the safe one. The true one is often the second or the third.
Look at the eight things listed in [9:24]. Honestly, which one is ahead of God in my life right now? And what is one small, true step toward putting it back in its place?
Keep growing
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