وَإِذْ أَخَذَ رَبُّكَ مِن بَنِي آدَمَ مِن ظُهُورِهِمْ ذُرِّيَّتَهُمْ وَأَشْهَدَهُمْ عَلَى أَنفُسِهِمْ أَلَسْتَ بِرَبِّكُمْ قَالُواْ بَلَى شَهِدْنَا أَن تَقُولُواْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ إِنَّا كُنَّا عَنْ هَذَا غَافِلِين
And [mention] when your Lord took from the children of Adam – from their loins – their descendants and made them testify of themselves, [saying to them], “Am I not your Lord?” They said, “Yes, we have testified.” [This] – lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection, “Indeed, we were of this unaware.” (7:172)
The Covenant of Alast
The covenant that Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, took from all of us in our pre-existence life or before coming to this world’s life has not been erased from our memory, and not one of the sons of Adam has forgotten it. It is the fitrah (natural inclination/sound human nature) that is instilled in our souls and hearts, that drives us to believe in Allah and long to know Him, may He be glorified. In fact, it reaches the level of urgency that pushes and compels us to acknowledge that the Creator, may He be glorified and exalted, is the only, perfect Lord Who bestows His blessings upon us and upon all other created beings.
‘Am I not your Lord? ‘ They said:
‘ Yes! We do bear witness. ‘
God gathered all human beings, divided them into different groups, granted them human form and the faculty of speech, made them enter into a covenant, and then making them witnesses against themselves He asked them: ‘Am I not your Lord?’ They replied: ‘Assuredly you are Our Lord.’ Then God told them: ‘I call upon the sky and the earth and your own progenitor, Adam, to be a witness against you lest you should say on the Day of Judgement that you were ignorant of this. Know well that no one other than Me deserves to be worshipped and no one other than Me is your Lord. So do not ascribe any partner to Me. I shall send to you My Messengers who will remind you of this covenant which you made with Me. I shall send down to you My Books.’ In reply, all said: ‘We witness that You are Our Lord and our Deity. We have no lord or deity other than You.’ (Ahmad b. Hanbal, Musnad, vol. 5, p. 135 – Ed.). Thus, human beings can observe the sense of theism in the depth of their own selves, since they have confessed it in the world of preexistence.
“No individual is lost and no nation is refused prosperity and success if the foundations of their thoughts and actions rest upon piety and Godliness, and upon truth and justice.“
‘Hazrat Ali ibn Abi Talib (PBUH)’
