Tazkirul Quran Tafsir: Ali 'Imran Ayah 98

When the call of truth comes in all its purity, the interests of those who contrived to convince others that their self-styled religion had indeed been revealed by God are put at risk. People serving their own interests oppose the new messenger by raising different kinds of objections based on fallacies in order to turn others away from the true message. In their self-styled religion the basics of faith are not stressed. Instead, by giving importance to hair-splitting arguments on the relative aspects of religion, the acme of virtue is equated with full adherence to a man-made religious form. For example, they would shun rabbit’s meat, saying that it was not consumed by their saints, although along with this, many illegal things would have been legalized by them. They would consider it of the utmost importance to face exactly in the direction of al-Bayt al-Maqdis, like a compass needle pointing to the pole. But they would show no interest in making their daily activities God-oriented. Virtue, however, hinges upon the making of sacrifices and not on the mere fact of opting for a religious form. God’s true servant is one who offers his Lord the gift of love, and for whom no material thing is dearer than God. He is ever ready to pay the price of losing his prestige by recognizing the truth; he is ever ready to spend his wealth for the cause of God. Whoever is ready to pay the price of sacrificing his most cherished ambitions will be counted among the virtuous and considered a God-worshipper in the eyes of God.