Submission of Love: Our Relationship to God

-An Answer to a Christian’s Challenge

                   By Cyril Anderson

Part 2 of 2

We recognize then that in both our faiths, we must strive to both love and serve God by submitting to the guidelines of life He lays out for us.  Christians put the primary emphasis on loving God as a basis for the religion, while Muslims place the primary emphasis on submission.  This is a difference of opinion, and there is nothing wrong with it.  Both groups hold their respective beliefs on this issue with the best of intentions, and with the same end goal in mind – to draw near to God and to live the best of lives in this world and in the next.

 I wish, however, to explain why I believe that the focus on submission in Islam is appropriate, even if this submission were initially unaccompanied by love for the One to which the submission is made.  The reason stems from the fact that the laws given by God to his people to follow is based on mercy, and represent guidance from God as to the best way to live.  We are asked to submit to this law for the same reason why we are asked to submit to the laws of our nation; because the laws are good for us, and following them will lead to better lives for us and others around us.  Submission to the law of God, even if it is done out of sense of duty, rather than love, will have the benefit of improving the peace and harmony of the earth.

 But if one loves without submission, for example, loving one’s country without following the laws of the country, or loving God while disregarding the rules he has sent down to us, then chaos will ensue.  In the long run, both love and submission are needed to ensure a sustainable system.  However, submission offers immediate and necessary benefit in terms of establishing order and stability.

 It may take some time for someone to mature in intellect so as to the point where he will understand why he should submit, that it is in his own best interest, and that God’s commandments come from Mercy rather than from a desire to rule and oppress us.  But in the meantime, ones submission is beneficial both to himself and to the society as a whole, in much the same way that it is beneficial both to a child and to his family for his to submit to the rules of his parents, even if at first he doesn’t understand the rules.  This doesn’t release him from learning the reasons, nor does it release the parent from the need, out of mercy and respect, to explain the reasons why the rules he imposes on he child are for the child’s benefit.  This is needed so that through the love that develops out of recognition of the mercy shown will fuel the motivation to continue to obey.  But in the meantime, even if one does not understand completely, there is still a practical need to submit.  Practically, doing good and following the laws of God has the tangible benefit of making the world a better, happier, more peaceful place.

 This is why the 12 actual apostles of Jesus (as), the ones who actually knew him and met him and traveled with him, and suffered with him and after him were so insistent that those who came to the teachings of Jesus (as) from the gentiles should follow the same law of the Jews; because this law was no burden, no “yoke,” no “curse,” but a blueprint to clean and healthy life in that time.  The apostles reacted with very real resistance to what they saw as an insult to one of God’s great mercies to the Israelite people, the guidance of the law of the Torah.  This is why Jesus taught

“think not that I come to abolish the Torah and the Prophets; I come not to abolish them, but to fulfill them.  For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot shall pass from the law until all is accomplished.  Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he that does them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”  (Matthew 5:17-20)

Jesus (as) did not come to confront the law, but how it was being abused and neglected both to the point of laxness and to the point of severity, by both the common people and the religious scholars who were supposed to guide them.  He did not call people away from submission to God, but rather to add to this submission, and rekindle it by awakening within them the love of God that completes and supports this submission.

 God sees into our hearts and understands best our psychology, and the practical fact that we humans have different levels of understanding, different capabilities.  However, practical concerns of our health and welfare, and of the world as a whole require that people act in a certain manner if they are to maximize the general happiness and well being of the human race.  And so because of this, God requires submission before he requires love.  As it says in the Qu’ran,  “Say not that you believe; say rather: ‘I submit,’ for belief has not yet entered your hearts.”  Submission serves a practical, beneficial purpose in bringing harmony to the earth, and also serves to draw people to the love of God.  For just as the love of the child for his parents deepens as he understands, practically and concretely the love and mercy that lies behind his parents’ admonitions, so too will the believer learn to love God when he experiences first hand the benefit of submission to the merciful and beneficial laws that God has sent down to us.

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