For example...

For example, sometimes there are two friends and one of them requests the other to lie on his behalf and in this instance, we see that a person is placed in the dilemma of either pleasing the Creator or pleasing the creation.

In this instance, we are told that we must place the pleasure of the Creator above all else: إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَ عَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ سَيَجْعَلَ لَهُمُ الرَّحْمٌنُ وُدًّا “Those who possess true faith and perform righteous deeds, shortly shall the All-Merciful (al-Rahman) place true love amongst them.”[^3] One of the great sages has stated that when a person's long-time friend requests him to do something which goes against the laws of Allah (SwT), the person should reply, “I am your friend right up until the brink of the pit of Hell, however I am not going to follow you into it!” When ‘Aqil, the brother of the Commander of the Faithful, ‘Ali b.

Abi Talib (as) requested him for more than his share from the public treasury, we see that since Imam ‘Ali b. Abi Talib (as) was active in seeking the pleasure of Allah (SwT), he denied his own brother a 'bonus'! This well-known event is a story that has been taught and passed down for generations and is a lesson for all of us to learn from.

Sometimes this act (of trying to please the people) is committed at the level of the society, while at other times the actual leader of the people is their true faith, meaning that fulfilling the needs of the people is done under the guidance of gaining the pleasure of Allah (SwT).

However, the world today does not accept this - rather, they say that the only important thing is that the needs of the people are fulfilled and because of this belief, things such as homosexual relations are now being made legal! We see that the leadership of the people by the people in the meaning stated above has brought us many wars.

The leadership of the American people revolves around the wants and desires of the American nation; in England, the government bases their policy on the needs of their people. Sometimes we see the desires of these two nations differ from one another since naturally, the material goals of the people differ from one another.

✦ ✦ ✦