We believe that a true and comprehensive
understanding of Islam would not be possible without careful recognition of the
Prophetic Tradition and the Prophet's Household. And Allah is the Source of Strength.
In God's Image
" It is a Christian belief that man was created in God's image. However there are some ahadith in Sunni books which state the same, that Adam (AS) was created in Allah's image.
It is absolutely clear in the minds of all Muslims, that as Surah Ikhlaas states in (112:4), "None is like him".
A man can communicate, a man can create, a man can innovate, a man has free will. Although these all have limitations and boundaries, these are attributes more suited to Allah, who creates from nothing, who controls destinies, who is above space and time, who knows all, sees all, hears all.
However I do believe that Allah has created some people in his image. The parents of a person are the true image of God. They (try to) protect us from all harm, feed us and cloth us when we are weak, they love us and they want nothing from us in return. Our parents work for our well being and selflessly sacrifice everything for our happiness. They guide us, treat us with love and kindness, they teach us how to talk and how to walk. Today, we are who we are majorly because of the role of our parents in our life and upbringing.
This is why, at many different places in the Quran, Allah has, in the same verse, where he commands not to associate anyone with him, has also commanded us to be kind to our parents, as if both (Tauheed and being kind to the parents) are equal requirements.
That is why the Quran tells the believers in (17:24) to be submissively gentle to ones parents and to pray to Allah to have compassion on them as they had for us when we were young.
May Allah give us all an opportunity to serve our parents in their old age, and may he always cover us through the shade of our parents, and may he grant us an opportunity to become parents ourselves, so that our ranks increase.
To a parent, nothing is more dear, than his own son/daughter. The child is his future, he will fulfill his unfulfilled dreams and destiny. A father can spend days doing nothing but to look at the face of his child, whose innocent smile in infancy is the best moment of his entire life.
And when a father is willing to sacrifice the same 6 month old son in the name of Allah (at Kerbala), then that father does not remain an image of God, he becomes much more than that. "
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