Ayaat as Foundations of Deen

There are many Ayahs in Quran that gives us this important message. For instance in the following ayah, God says

[10:101] Say, “Observe what is in the skies and the earth.” But of no avail will be Ayaat and the warners to people who do not believe- Emaan

Also Refer the following ayah

[05:10] But those who disbelieve and deny Our Ayaat – those are the companions of Hellfire.

The above Quranic Ayahs gives us a very important message, that the Foundation of Deen rests on two important Fundamentals. One is Emaan and we will be discussing this soon, and the other is Ayaat. Lets define the word Ayat. Ayat has two broad meanings

1- Ayat means a Sign, an evidence etc.

Ayat is any sign, any evidence that would give us an indication of the presence of a confirmed truth hidden behind that sign. For instance if you are going somewhere, in a distance you see smoke coming from behind a building. Now you can not see the confirmed truth, which is the burning of the fire at the bottom of that smoke, but by looking at that smoke you can realize the existence of the confirmed truth, which is the burning of the fire at the bottom of that smoke.

2- Ayat means to pause, to stop, to think & reflect

Ayat also means to pause, to stop, to think & ponder and to reflect, Infact the definition of Ayat only gets completed when you think and you ponder. For instance the smoke in the earlier example will remain a smoke only, it will become Ayat only when you pause, think & ponder on the smoke and make effort in order to uncover the hidden truth. This means that thinking and pondering is the basic requirement for the definition of an Ayat.

Quran’s Mention of the word Ayaat-  Quran mention Two types of Ayaats times and times again. The first type of Ayat is the word of God- these are the word of Quran itself. These are the words of God Almighty on which if we think and ponder, we would be able to realize the hidden confirmed truth which is the greatness and the wisdom of God Almighty. These Ayaat of God Almighty in Quran are further divided in two types Mutashabiha’t and Muhkima’at.

The second type of Ayat is the work of God- that is these are the many creations of God Almighty scattered all around us in science and universe, on which if we think and ponder, we would be able to realize the confirmed truth which is the greatness and wisdom of the Creator hidden behind all these creations.

Conclusion- Ayaat is one of the two important Fundamentals of Deen and the definition of Ayat is completed only when we think and ponder by utilizing all our faculties of our 6 senses, our intellectual abilities etc. Therefore in order to understand the greatness and wisdom of God almighty, we have been asked times and times again in Quran to think and ponder on both the Ayats of God, i.e. word of God (the Quran) and work of God (God’s Creations in Science and Universe), we realize the importance of utilizing all our faculties, our six senses, our thinking and pondering ability as basic and critical ingredients required for us to be able to understand and follow Deen.