Surah Al Baqarah V.172-176

Consume Fire!

Student of Al Huda
What would it feel like if you told someone the truth and they deliberately hid it from others? They hid something that was known to be true. You would feel upset and horrified and moreover angry. This is the state of those who were given the scripture and yet they chose to hid the parts that did not appeal to them. Allah says that they are not consuming anything in their bellies except fire. The scholars of Bani Israel would change the verses for people when passing a judgment if they were given a worldly profit such as money or raise in status. It is because of this Allah mentions they are taking in nothing but fire.
Even more scary is that on the day of judgment Allah will not speak to those people and they will have a painful punishment. We can not imagine of the pain that there will be in the hellfire, it will be more severe than anything we can imagine.

Gratitude,Worship and Starvation

Medihah Hussain (Group Ruqayyah)
This lesson made me realize that Allah has made it so easy to obey Him. He commands us to eat from what He has provided of the pure and lawful. I was shocked that something as small as eating, which we do without thought, can be an act of worship. Subhanallah! If this is not easy then I do not know what is. Eating from what is pure and lawful is being grateful to Allah and shows that you acknowledge the blessing of food. At the end of the verse Allah says be grateful if it is Him that you worship. This is a strong statement and it made me think about the connection between gratitude and worship. Without being grateful you can not be one who worships Allah. Worshipping Allah only comes out of gratitude for all that He has given us.
  Being grateful is hard when you think that there is too much that Allah has made haram for us. However, those who believe there is more haram than halal are deceived. In fact, Allah has only made unlawful the following: