Baqarah 83

83- AND WE TOOK THE COVENANT OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL THAT YOU WORSHIP NONE BUT ALLAH, AND TREAT YOUR PARENTS KINDLY, AS WELL AS YOUR KINDRED, THE ORPHANS AND THE POOR.  AND TO SPEAK TO PEOPLE RIGHTEOUSLY, ESTABLISH REGULAR SALAH, GIVE THE ZAKAH, THEN YOU TURNED AWAY, EXCEPT FOR A FEW OF YOU, AND YOU TOOK NO HEED.

A Covenant is an agreement and a promise and commitment between two people or groups.  In this case it is between Allah the Highest and the Children of Israel.  They gave Allah the Highest these promises and commitments.  These are not the only covenant they gave Allah the Highest, indeed, there are a number of covenants.

The importance of these to us is not that it is history, but that the same covenants apply to us too. 

What are these covenants? They are:-

1-    To worship Allah the Highest only, meaning worshiping no partners with him.  These partners might be gods, nature, people, money, power, whatever we might consider equal to Allah and worthy of being followed and obeyed as Allah the Highest is, or even more.    The purpose for our creation in the first place, is worshipping Allah “I CREATED JINN AND MANKING ONLY TO WORSHIP ME”.  (S:51 A:56)

2-    Being kind and good to one’s parents.  It is interesting that this followed worshiping Allah the Highest directly.  This is not the only time this happened.  This command to be kind to one’s parents came in the Quran 5 times, 4 of them it was following a command to worship Allah the Highest only.  This shows the great reverence of the parents in the Eyes of Allah the Highest.  Being good to one’s parents is an order made by decree from Allah the Highest saying: “YOUR LORD DECREAD THAT YOU WORSHIP NONE BUT HIM AND TO BE GOOD AND KIND TO YOUR PARENTS”.       (S:17 A:23)

Allah’s messenger, prayer and peace upon him, was asked by Abd Allah Ibn Masoud: “Allah’s messenger, which of our deeds are best?” he said: “Praying the Salah at it’s time”.  I said: “Then what?” He said: “Being good and kind to your parents”.  I said: “Then what?  He said: “Jihad in the cause of Allah”.   (B: Eman; 18 & M: Eman; 137 & D: Salah; 24 & A: 5:150,171)

3-    Then one should be kind to one’s blood relations and close kin, as well as the weakest in the society, including the orphans and the poor and needy.

4-    Then, Allah the Highest commands us, to speak to people in general, righteously.  Meaning to be right and truthful in what one says.  Also not to be insulting or offensive, rude or calling a person names they do not like.  Allah the Highest clarifies this idea in this very eloquent Ayah” “DO YOU NOT SEE THAT ALLAH HAS SENT DOWN A PARABLE OF A GOOD WORD LIKE A GOOD TREE, IT’S ROOT IS FIRM AND IT’S BRANCH IS IN THE SKY * GIVING IT’S FRUIT EVERY SEASON BY IT’S LORD’S PERMISSION * AND THE PARABLE OF AN EVIL WORD IS THAT OF AN EVIL TREE, TORN OUT OF THE EARTH HAVING NO ROOTS.  (S:14 A:24-26)

And Allah’s messenger, prayer and peace upon him, said: “A kind word is a charity”.  (Bukhari & Muslim)

5-    Praying regularly:-

The praying of the Salah, 5 times a day, at the correct time, as ordered by Allah the Highest.

6-    Giving Zakah.

This is the charity money which we have been ordered to give by Allah the Highest. It is a stated amount of our income, of cause we are not restricted to this and giving more than this minimum is always better.

Allah the Highest tells us that only few of the Jews followed these commands and obeyed them, the majority did not.

B: Bukhari   M: Muslim    Mal: Malek   A: Ahmed   D: Abu Dawood     

 Da: Daremy       Ma: Ibn Magah            N: Nesae          T: Termezi