ʿUmar and the Pages of the Tawrāt

One day ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) came to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) with some pages in his hand, and he was so excited. He said: O Messenger of Allah, somebody gave me some pages from the Tawrāt — from the Tawrāt. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) did not even look at them; he turned his face away. It is not that Muslims disbelieve in the Tawrāt — of course they believe in the Tawrāt; nor that they disbelieve in Mūsā — of course they believe in Mūsā. ʿUmar came round again and said: O Messenger of Allah, perhaps you did not hear me; I have some pages from the Tawrāt. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) turned his face away again, to another side. Three times. When the Prophet Muḥammad (peace be upon him) does something three times, that is the end of it; there is no more; the discussion is over. And the face of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) changed, and he said: O ʿUmar — leave aside the Tawrāt — if Mūsā (peace be upon him) were alive, and were living among you, here in Madīnah, he would have no recourse except to believe in me, and follow me, and become one of my followers; otherwise it is useless.

This is very important. Lā ilāha illallāh Muḥammadur rasūlullāh is very special, and great care is needed over it. Someone may protest that he is so loving and so caring that he wants all humanity to go to Paradise. That deserves no gentler answer than the one already given. Allah (swt) is the Most Merciful, al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm; He gives everything. But He gave the human being a will, a faculty of reasoning, with which to think and to decide. When it comes to everything else in life a person decides, and goes about it so diligently: he wants to make sure that he buys the best commodity, that he invests in the best property; he does not want to be taken for a ride; he will not trust his tooth to every Tom, Dick and Harry, but goes and finds the best dentist. Yet when it comes to his eternity, his eternal abode in Paradise, he works on furphies — on some old teaching that has no evidence in reality. He should come to his senses. Lā ilāha illallāh Muḥammadur rasūlullāh is the key to Paradise, and without this key there is no entering. The example of the bunch of keys, given in the part before this, holds: a ring of twenty-five keys from every door, and an office door with one of the most complicated locks, which only one of them opens — the other keys could be tried in it until the Day of Resurrection and it would never open; even a key of the same type must have the same grooves before it will turn. Thaman al-jannah, miftāḥ al-jannah — the price of Paradise, the key of Paradise — is lā ilāha illallāh Muḥammadur rasūlullāh. Praise be to Allah for īmān; praise be to Allah for Islam; praise be to Allah for being of the Ummah of Muḥammad Muṣṭafā (peace be upon him).