Allah wants to lighten the burden upon you

This is a transformative truth.

Divine commands have come, and we may think that they will place a burden on us. But later in the Qur’an, we come across a very beautiful truth about how Allah removes those chains.

These chains had been placed around people’s necks because of their cultures and established customs; and Allah brought the Shari‘ah in order to lift those things off them.

The purpose of Islamic law, of the Shari‘ah, and of these divine commands is to make life easier.

Think about it: we want to hold weddings our own way, yet there is also a way of holding a wedding in accordance with the Sunnah. We want to earn money, but there is a proper method of earning money in a halal way according to Islamic principles.

When you follow your own way, contrary to Islamic principles, you find that your life becomes harder. Your life becomes constricted and full of hardship; you run into all kinds of problems.

But if you follow that simple path, the path of the Shari‘ah, life becomes easier.

Take the common example of extravagant weddings. They have become a major problem that sets marriages on the wrong foundation from the very beginning. In holding these weddings we break many of Islam’s rules, so much so that, because of the nature of the weddings we arrange, even the angels are not present there. At such weddings, let alone blessing (barakah), there is not even any good to speak of.

These celebrations become so expensive, so showy and so excessive... Just because your cousin had an impressive wedding, you feel you have to do better than them. Then someone else comes along and tries to outdo what you did, and so it goes on.

This creates a culture of competition in which families compete with those who came before them. The end result is a culture of pressure. People do not feel good enough or respectable enough unless they spend excessively.

These are shackles fastened around people’s necks.

Think of the families who put themselves through both financial and emotional hardship purely because of the thought, “What will people say?” All because of that one sentence: “What will people say? What will your aunt say? What will your cousin say? What will everyone say?” Purely out of concern for reputation...

The religion came to free us from all of these burdens. The only thing you need to worry about is what Allah will say. Everything else will fall into place.

Then comes this explanation:

How beautiful it is that Allah mentions the weakness of the human being right after speaking of lightening the burden. Why? Because a weak person cannot carry a heavy load.

This parallel is deliberate: You are weak, you cannot carry very much; so I have given you something you can manage, something that is easy for you.

This is a continuation of the truth that Allah made known to us at the end of Surah al-Baqarah:

Everything He has commanded is within our capacity, and its purpose is to make our lives easier; if only we could look at it this way.

We tend to see someone who tries to follow the rules of Islam as overly strict. You hear remarks like “He’s a very strict Muslim” or “He’s a bit too Muslim”. Yet this way of thinking is the exact opposite of the perspective Allah expects from us.

In fact, that person is making their life easier. They know what it means to live a simple and peaceful life.

We need to change our perspective so that we recognize this truth: following Allah’s guidance does not make life harder; on the contrary, it makes it easier.