It sounds unbelievable that Muslims until now are still not very clear what the first order of Allah is. When a person embrace Islam what will be the first order of Allah that he or she should do. Many Muslims think that the first order of Allah is to do the five times daily solat and so whenever a person becomes a Muslim the first order that the person is asked to do is to perform five times daily solat. Is it true that the first order of Allah is to perform five times daily solat or the first order of Allah is to convey the Great Kalimah that is I bear witness there is no God except Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah to those who has not accepted the Great Kalimah.
The first verse in Surah Iqra was the first verse revealed to the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w while the Prophet was meditating in the cave. The verse has the approximate meaning….Read…In the name of your Lord that has created man…that has created men from a clump of blood. Many Muslims think that this verse means Allah has ordered the Muslims to learn how to read. Many Muslims believe that the first order of Allah is to read and they interpret to read as an order to seek knowledge. Is this interpretation is in accordance to Sunnah or an interpretation that comes from our own minds. We cannot interpret any verse of the Quran using our own minds but we must interpret the verse of the Quran using Sunnah. Sunnah means what the Prophet did after receiving the verse. Did the Prophet s.a.w after receiving the verse go on to learn how to read or to seek knowledge? The Prophets did not go to seek knowledge or to learn how to write and read after receiving the verse but instead the Prophet s.a.w went straight home in a state of fear and at home, the Prophet s.a.w laid down and asked his beloved wife Siti Khatijah to cover his body with a blanket. The prophet s.a.w was in a state of fear, as the incident that has just happened to him was the first he has ever experienced in his life. His beloved wife comforted him by saying that Almighty Allah will not do any harm or injustice to him, as he, the Prophet has always been a nice and good person. While he was lying at home with the blanket covering him then came the verse…the meaning approximately like this …Oh you who clad in blanket… wake up … remind the people that you Lord is Great.
The first verse revealed to the Prophet is not to order the Prophet s.a.w to go and seek knowledge or to learn how to read and write. Allah has made the Prophet s.a.w unable to read and write until the day he passed away. Allah did this so that the entire humanity knows that the Holy Quran is not the writing of Muhammad but it is the words of Allah. Prophets s.a.w had never learned how to write and read but it does not mean that Prophet Muhammad s.a.w is ignorant. Prophet Muhammad s.a.w is highly knowledgeable and he learned directly from Allah the owner of all knowledge .The first verse is to introduce Allah as the Creator of man and to introduce Muhammad as the Prophet of Allah. It is not the verse to order the Muslim to seek knowledge, as many of us tend to believe. The second verse revealed to the Prophet is the verse to order the Prophet s.a.w and his followers to remind the people about the greatness of Allah. The second verse is the verse of order and the first order of Allah to the Muslims is to do the work of dakwah or to call the people to the greatness of Allah.
The Prophet Muhammad s.a.w said in the meaning conveys to others what you know, even though you know only one verse. When a person embraces Islam, the first verse that he or she knows is the Great Kalimah and the first duty that he or she must do is to convey the Great Kalimah to others who has not recited the Kalimah. This order is obligatory to all Muslims men and women. When Abu Bakar may Allah be pleased with him embrace Islam the first thing that he did after embracing Islam was to deliver the Great Kalimah to others. The act of conveying the Great Kalimah to others is call the work of dakwah or tabligh and it is the first order of Allah. When we are conveying the Great Kalimah to others who has not recited the Kalimah then they bear witness to our recital of the Kalimah. When they also recite the Kalimah then we bear witness to the recital of the Kalimah. When we do this we are doing the actions of the first pillar of Islam. The first pillar of Islam is to bear witness that there is no God except Allah and to bear witness that Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah.
Muslims have understood that the first pillar of Islam is only to recite the Great Kalimah only once in a lifetime. Muslims understood that once a person have recited the Great Kalimah and the recital has been witness by another Muslims then that person has already done the first pillar of Islam and he or she does not have to do it anymore until he or she dies. After reciting the Great Kalimah then the newly embraced Muslim brother or sister will be told to perform the second pillar of Islam that is to do five times daily solat every day. The second pillar of Islam is to perform five times solat everyday but the first pillar of Islam is to recite the Great Kalimah only once in a lifetimes. It seems that Muslims have to do the second pillar more than the first pillar of Islam. It does not sound logical that the first most important pillar of Islam has to be done only once in a lifetimes while the second pillar of Islam has to be done five times daily until death. It is surprising that Muslims are not questioning this seemingly illogical point in the most important principles in Islam. The five pillars of Islam are the most important basic principles in Islam. No one can become good Muslims without performing all the five pillars of Islam and the most important pillar among the five pillars is the first pillar.
The first pillar of Islam is not only to recite the Great Kalimah in the presence of a witness only once in lifetimes but after reciting the Kalimah he or she has to fulfill the right of the Great Kalimah. What is the right of the Kalimah? The right of the Kalimah is to convey the Great Kalimah to the non-Muslims and they bear witness to our recital of the Kalimah, and when the non-Muslims also recite the Great Kalimah, we bear witness to their recital of the Kalimah. This is the first order of Allah, this is the first pillar of Islam, and it is the work of Prophet or the work of dakwah. In other words, the work of Prophet or the work of dakwah is the first order of Allah to the person who has embraced Islam and this is in line to what Prophet Muhammad s.a.w has asked Abu Bakar may Allah be pleased with him to do after he had embraced Islam. What Prophet did was what Allah wants us to do. Since the work of Prophet is the first pillar of Islam, all Muslim must do the work of Prophet for at least forty-five minutes every day and they should only stop from doing the work of Prophet the day when they die.
When Muslims do the work of Prophets then their iman will become strong. When their iman is strong, the Muslims can obey all the orders of Allah in the ways shown by Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. The Muslims will have the behavior like Prophet Muhammad s.a.w and they will become the examples upon which the entire humanity will like to follow. When the Muslims do not do the work of Prophet, as it is now then the Muslims will have weak iman and they are not able to obey all the commandments of Allah in the ways shown by our Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. The Muslims will not have the behavior like Prophet Muhammad s.a.w and they will be look down by the entire humanity as peoples who are disgraced and humiliated. The only reason why the Muslims are in this condition is that they do not fulfill the right of the Great Kalimah when Allah the Most Merciful and Compassionate has blessed them with this Great Kalimah.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia