Quran was revealed some 1440 years ago as a guidance to mankind. In the Quran Almighty God -Allah, has addressed to different groups of people, one of the group is “mankind”.

The verses revealed in the Quran to this group generally start with the address “O Mankind”, these instructions and admonitions revealed in the Quran for mankind are still relevant and applicable today.

As per Quran every human has knowledge of God ingrained in his/her conscious, so essentially instructions of the Quran are not new to mankind. Verses of the Quran are just reminders to what already exists deep within the conscious of a human.

O mankind addresses are to entire mankind, and usually through these verses entire humanity is reminded of favors of Allah to mankind, His power, His attributes and His control over everything in this universe. Our attention is also drawn to the fact that everything around us in this world has some purpose and they are designed with great intelligence and wisdom.

A great emphasize is laid on the points like, Allah is our Creator and our Lord, Muhammad is the messenger of Allah and Quran is the true book of guidance, we will be resurrected and brought back to God for reckoning of our deeds in this world, Day of Judgment is very difficult day. Rewards of good deeds in the hereafter are great.

Mankind also is advised to be mindful of and worship Allah alone and not associate anything or anybody with Him. If we choose this guidance it is for our own benefit and if we ignore it we do it at our own peril.

Let’s study few verses today. Initial verses we are going study are from chapter no 2, verse nos 21-22, verses are like these,

1.      2:21-22   

O mankind, worship your Lord, who created you and those before you, that you may become righteous -[He] who made for you the earth a bed [spread out] and the sky a ceiling and sent down from the sky, rain and brought forth thereby fruits as provision for you. So, do not attribute to Allah equals while you know [that there is nothing similar to Him].  

These verses appear almost in the beginning, when we start reading Quran. So while reading Quran, this is the first address of God to mankind, that is worship your Rabb-Lord. Mankind is advised to remember, be mindful of the fact that we and everyone before us were created by Allah so we need to worship Who created us. We had no existence and He gave us existence. So, worship Him, result of worship is that a person develops awareness and of God and saves himself from evil actions and becomes righteous.

Secondly we are reminded of favors of God, God has made this world habitable for us, He created vast land for us, and sky as a canopy, sent down rain and made the provisions for our food and other necessities. We are advised to look around, observe and reflect upon how various forces of nature has been made to serve the needs of human?

It is only God who has done all these, no one else have these strengths so how can we make someone from His creation equal to Him? Do not attribute equal to Him. As per saying of prophet, biggest sin in eyes of God is equating someone or something with Him.

Last point is very important point – verse says “so do not attributes to Allah equals while you know” – so God points out that we already have this knowledge that there cannot be anything or anyone equal to Him. This knowledge of oneness of God is already ingrained in our existence, we only need to revive it, this is a great point.

2.      4:1   

O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from both of them many men and women. And fear Allah, through whom you ask one another, and the wombs. Indeed, Allah is ever, over you, an Observer.   

Address is to entire humankind, reminding favors of God upon us. Human race as a whole are challenged to ponder over the facts that they are created from one soul, from whom his mate was created and from both of them were created many men and women. We ask favors from others in the name of God and also in the name our family relations, arising out a womb of mother or grandmothers. Here, there is hint and direction to respect family relations (and moving backward entire mankind as one entity by use of a single word “womb”), and be mindful of the fact that Allah is watching us all the time.

In the later part of this verse there is interesting discussion of our day to day behavior, we ask favors from others in the name of God and in the name our family relations. Here, there is hint is to be mindful of God, in whose name we seek help from each other so try to fulfil the rights of God also and follow His guidelines. Also fear ties of kinship, family is the basic unit of society and God place lot of emphasize on maintaining family relationships. Here Allah mentions the rights of family along with His rights, and guides us to respect family relations. Family remains permanent, no change occurs in the family, family is forever.

Prophet said that Allah said, “I will maintain relationship with any who maintain relations with family, and I will cut off relationship with anyone who cuts off relations with family. Prophet also mentioned that who wants his age to be prolonged and his rizq – sustenance increased let him be good to his family. He also said “I know of nothing that causes the increase in the wealth than being good to family”. What a formula we will have good family relations and also increase in sustenance, win-win!

Closing remark is that if in case we want to take liberty in observing this, be aware of the fact that Allah is watching us all the time.