Ibad Allah Aslimu Taslamu
- Author died
- 1439 AH
- Editions
- Maṭābi‘ al-Rushd
Ibad Allah Aslimu Taslamu (Servants of God, Submit and You Shall Be Saved) is a short da'wah treatise written by the Algerian Islamic scholar Abu Bakr al-Jazairi (d. 1439 AH / 2018 CE), presenting a concise call to enter Islam and outlining its core doctrines, obligations, and moral teachings.
Overview and Purpose
The author frames the treatise as a fraternal appeal directed to every human being—male or female, Arab or non-Arab—inviting them to embrace Islam as the final religion revealed by God through Muhammad and the Quran, which abrogates all previous religious dispensations. The text aims to guide readers toward salvation from punishment in the hereafter and wretchedness in this world through faith and righteous action.
Contents and Structure
The treatise progresses systematically through the fundamentals of Islamic belief, practice, ethics, and eschatology:
- Entering Islam and the Five Pillars: The author explains how to enter Islam by uttering the two testimonies of faith (al-shahadatayn) and fulfilling their obligations. He outlines the five pillars: the daily prayer along with its prescribed times, the annual paying of zakat on monetary and agricultural wealth and livestock, fasting during the month of Ramadan, and performing the pilgrimage (Hajj) to Mecca once in a lifetime.
- Ethical Duties and Social Conduct: Beyond the pillars, the treatise details essential virtues, including filial piety toward parents, maintaining ties of kinship, treating neighbors well, performing acts of worship with sincerity, acting justly and benevolently toward all humans regardless of faith, and showing kindness to animals. The author notes that further elaborations on worship are detailed in his broader work Minhaj al-Muslim (The Path of the Muslim).
- Creed and Spiritual Purification: Al-Jazairi covers verbal remembrance of God (dhikr) and foundational articles of faith (iman), such as God's singular right to worship as the Creator, the truth of Muhammad's prophethood and the divine origin of the Quran, the reality of resurrection and judgment, God's omniscience, and the abrogation of earlier scriptures including the Torah, the Gospel, the Psalms, and the Scrolls of Abraham. He describes these beliefs and practices as essential instruments for purifying the soul (tazkiyat al-nafs).
- Corruptions of the Soul: The text warns against major sins and vices that spoil the soul, including disbelief (kufr), polytheism (shirk), usury (riba), consuming the property of orphans, unlawful wealth, illicit sexual relations (zina), sodomy, falsehood, backbiting (ghiba), slanderous gossip (namima), commercial fraud, abuse, and injustice toward others.
- Eschatological Outcomes: The work contrasts the rewards of the believer with the consequences of disbelief. Believers obtain safety in this world, deliverance from punishment in the grave and the intermediate realm (barzakh), and eternal joy in Paradise, culminating in gazing upon the Countenance of God. In contrast, those who reject faith face anxiety in this life, severe torment in the grave and barzakh, distress during the prolonged standing on the Day of Judgment, and eternal punishment in Hell.
The author closes by encouraging Muslims to share the treatise widely as an invitation to faith and salvation.
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