What Does It Mean to Have a Covenant with Allah?

Answered by Ustadh Tabraze Azam

Question: What exactly does it mean to have a covenant with Allah and to break it?

Answer: Wa alaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,

I pray that you are in the best of health and spirits, insha’Allah.

Yahya related to me from Malik from Yahya ibn Sa’id that he had heard that ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbas said, “Stealing from the spoils does not appear in a people but that terror is cast into their hearts. Fornication does not spread in a people but that there is much death among them. A people do not lessen the measure and weight but that provision is cut off from them. A people do not judge without right but that blood spreads among them. A people do not betray the pledge but that Allah gives their enemies power over them.” [Muwatta]

Allah Most High says, “And that you approach not the property of the orphan, save in the fairer manner, until he is of age. And fill up the measure and the balance with justice. We charge not any soul save to its capacity. And when you speak, be just, even if it should be to a near kinsman. And fulfill God’s covenant. That then He has charged you with; haply you will remember.” [Qur’an, 6:152]

Ibn `Ashour in his al-Tahrir wa al-Tanwir explains that fulfilling God’s covenant is fulfilling that which He has made obligatory upon us of the noble sacred law; it can also include those acts we enjoin upon ourselves for the sake of Allah, such as oaths and vows.

In short, it is upholding the commands of Allah and His Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace) inwardly and outwardly.

See also: Is It Obligatory to Fulfill my Promises? and: Understanding the Qur’anic Verse “Slay them wherever you find them”: Balance, Justice, and Mercy in Islamic Rules of Jihad

And Allah alone gives success.

Wassalam

Tabraze Azam

Checked & Approved by Faraz Rabbani