Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Qur’anic Reflections 3 Pillars For a Healthy Community

Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Welcome to the Ramadan

reflections that we'll start with our verse for today are all

there'll be la humanists shaytani R rajim Bismillah Al Rahman Al

Rahim, La Jolla Vika theory mein Najwa, whom Allah and Arabi sada

cotton Oh ma roof in O s la him been in.

So that is a part of verse 114 of Surah Nisa, verse 114 of certain

Nisa, Allah subhanho wa Taala says that there is no good in most of

their secret talks, most of their private meetings, most of their

whisperings and intimate discourses with one another,

except in Him who commands charity.

So

whatever you do, whatever you think is good, there's nothing

good in that, except that you're commanding in charity.

amount to be sadaqa you're commanding somebody to do a

charity, okay? You're either doing charity yourself, or you come up

with somebody else to do charity enjoins good. Oh, my roof, you do

that which is decent. And that which is good that most people in

the world most decent people in the world would consider to be

decent and upright, a matter of common decency and chivalry. And

of course, everything that is considered to be that is also

considered to be decent in Islam generally, right? So my roof that

which can be recognized as a good, so ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada says,

except the one who commands to those good things. And then number

three is and who brings about reconciliation among mankind is

law, him being a nurse who reforms, the matters, and the

affairs of the people who goes and helps to sort things out who goes

and tries to reconcile the issues between people you can is only

worth us, going and reforming the matters between other people if

you've reformed the matters between yourself and others. So

that would be definitely included. So that is verse 114, of certain

Nyssa. So let us do this. There are basically three pillars that

are being mentioned here for a healthy social life. So I would

say that this particular verse is to do with our social life, and

how a good society is born, how a good society is nurtured and how a

good society endures, which is through these three properties

through these three pillars, charity, goodness, in general, and

reconciliation and peace. SubhanAllah. Right. Can you just

imagine aren't our biggest issues today? Because there's no charity,

there's poverty going on. And there's no goodness to this evil,

and there is no piece. So that's why there's conflicts. Can you see

how comprehensive this is in terms of its principles. So unless

people demonstrate sympathy for others in the form of giving

charity, I mean, at the end of the day, giving charity is sympathy,

right? There is a sympathy aspect to it, where you think about

somebody else. And what you do in charity is that you're sacrificing

self interests. Because charity is where,

where you're giving something and you don't necessarily expect

anything in return from your fellow human being, you may expect

return from Allah subhanaw taala, which is sadaqa, that's fine.

Even if it's zakat, even as an obligation that you have to take

out 2.5% of your wealth. At the end of the day, you're giving it

for the sake of Allah, you're decreasing your wealth from a

scientific perspective, that just seems like hey, I'm giving money

for nothing. Right? That's against the concept of investment in a

worldly investment, capitalism, right, that goes against all of

those things. However, we believe in this for the sake of Allah,

that Allah will give us back, it's an obligation for us. And we do

this so that we can help others. Right. That's the purpose of it.

That's what you called charity. And without that, if humans did

not do that, you could not have good relationships, you could not

have a balanced human society.

The second one is that is an equally significant Quranic

concept is that of enjoying good, you know, to do any good in the

world to assist others in doing good to correct people and help

them assist them in doing good promoting something which is in

instinctively acceptable for all decent human beings. So it goes

much beyond just telling somebody to pray, Salat, and do

obligations. It's about all good things in the world, encouraging

people to pick up litter, even though that's an Islamic concept

as well, but every good thing is an Islamic concept.

So for example,

you see, generally burglaries and robbers in different areas. You

know what the police will tell you that they watch your house first.

They kind of have an understanding that you might have something

there a certain profile that they look for. They

not going to go into a home where they don't expect to get in is not

worth their time. Likewise, shaytaan is always after the pious

and the noble people, because there's something that he wants

them from them. They see they're practicing. So he wants them to

stop practicing, he wants them to do wrong, those people who are

already doing wrong, then there's not much that he has to worry

about with them. So that's why this is a really interesting

point, there was a chef Ilyas, who mentioned this right, that you

generally see that the pious and noble people, right, who have

righteousness and a good standing of the community, you will see

that there's quite a common sight sometimes even people from there

that they have a lot of hostility.

Right. And one of the reasons that noble people have a lot of

hypersensitivity about their honor and prestige. That's why they,

they feel very vulnerable to any small lapses, any small issues

that may come up, that's why they get offended very quickly or

insulted very quickly. Right. And then they will nurse a grudge for

No, you know, for, for on small, small issues for trivial reasons.

And it just creates a big issue. People who are sensitive, need to

be very careful about this, right need to be very cautious about

this. So this verse is saying that charity, goodness, and good

relationships are needed by everybody at all the time, you

know, for this world to be prosperous. Without charity,

mutual love is all going to be dried up if you got no love for

others. That's why you weren't given charity. Now remember,

though, that charity is not just about giving money. That's not

what Allah subhanaw taala says sadaqa is not just about giving

money, that's a big aspect of it. That's why most people think

sadaqa is just giving money. But no, there are numerous Hadith to

explain that for us, is verses in the Quran that explain it's not

about that talking gently to somebody. Right is a charity,

sharing their joy and sorrows.

You know, being with them. And so like, you've got a neighbor,

you've got a friend, you've got somebody, anybody in the

community.

And you know that somebody of theirs has died, or they've had

some kind of shortcoming than going there and just basically

holding their hand, you know, giving them a an embrace, embrace,

giving them good words, that is a charity as well. And I think we

need to do this more generally, what we've seen in you know,

because I've just recently moved to another community, and you

know, when you've lived in your own community, you don't

understand this, because it's just normal for you, you go to a new

community.

And mashallah, what I recognize is that the new community, one of the

several messages around me, one of the messages Subhanallah, you

know, they, the people kind of really try to welcome you. And I

think people need to do this in different communities. If you're,

if you're in a community where you've got many relatives living

around you, and many friends, because you know, you've been

there forever. So generally, when you come out the masjid, for

example, you're going to meet those people that, you know, you

will generally ignore people you don't know, because you've got so

many people that you do know that you don't have time for people you

don't know, literally. And this is something that's just occurred to

me that we need to actually make an effort, the men every Friday,

and the women, you know, whenever they have gatherings that try to

meet at least one person a week, right that you don't know, just

introduce yourself, just ask who they are, just see if they, you

know, if they need anything, or whatever the case, just building

that kind of relationship. And I'm not saying you need to get really,

really involved, because you know, you have to be careful about

getting really involved with everybody, because that gets

complicated. Now, not you know, you can avoid that. But you can

still, at least, you know, help to foster a more friendly a community

and not just be talking to those people and making salam to those

people and saying how you are, how they are to people who you just

know, right? That's the sign of the day of judgment that you don't

make salaam to people that you know, that you do know and you

don't know, you, those who don't know, you won't mix it up to them.

So make this an effort to try to say salam say hi to somebody else,

right?

And inshallah that will really, really help. Because that's our

human community that we need to be with. So that's why charity

doesn't always have to be you know, it's a sharing somebody's

sorrow as well. giving a helping hand to somebody, right? Even

helping them you know, do whatever it is, you know, pick up the

shopping, right? Your neighbor, pick up their shopping, bring

something in, you know, moving something that's heavy from from

the roadside, clearing road obstacles, all is part of the

spirit of charity. Right? The Quran implies the this very

comprehensive term here sadaqa. Right, which comes from the

concept of sidc and truthfulness. So anybody who's truthful to Allah

subhanho wa Taala anybody who's got sincerity towards Allah

subhanaw taala

He's going to be a lot more compassionate in that regard. Some

people by nature, they're more compassionate. Some people by

nature, they're much more giving. They find this more easily, to do

this much more easily. Whereas people who are more self centered

they find this more difficult to do. They have to learn to do it,

but we're doing it not because it's somebody's nature, I they can

be praised for that. But we need to do it because it's Allah's

command. And that's, it fosters a good human society, good human

community, and good relationship. And that's very good for us.

So what is really important here, right through these verses, we

understand is a feeling of the important aspect here is that it's

not just a physical giving, that is then followed up by harm which

Allah subhanaw taala actually condemns.

Where Allah subhanaw taala will, those who follow the sadaqa up

with men while other regular the UniFi Kumada Huria. Nurse, that's

wrong. What really is required when you give something to

somebody is the feeling of sympathy of goodwill, sincerity.

helpfulness is a genuine focus on helping somebody, right? Without

such noble feelings, no healthy social life is going to be

possible. It won't be a healthy social life, people will be just,

you know, doing their own things. The second point here is about

bringing about reconciliation. You know, the other point mentioned

here is about reconciliation among people, right? cordial

relationships are the keys to happiness, right. And today, both

of these values, charity Hamdulillah, people still do

charity, but peace and reconciliation, harmony and

friendliness that has been neglected and neglected in a major

way you've got, you know, both a Muslim country levels, non Muslim

country levels among individuals, families, internal families, you

know, between nuclear families and so on. divisive forces are just

basically dominant everywhere. And this is sad, I hate to paint a bad

picture but it's just, it's just too much. You know, husband wives,

you know, spouses.

But equally important in this is sincere intention.

Anybody who seeks Allah's pleasure in any of this, they're going to

be rewarded, a good deed can be performed. Remember, when it says

my roof, a good deed can be performed for purely selfish or

political motives, some ulterior motive, it could be what they call

like a bribe or something. And

one may have a material interest in doing something good.

But what Allah subhanaw taala is saying is that he declares that he

will reward lavishly, only those who intend to win his pleasure.

Right? So seeking Allah's pleasure and sincerity, we need to develop

that in our heart, slowly, slowly, if we don't feel that we need to

develop that in our heart, slowly, slowly, which may, and the way to

do that is to think of these verses, and then let them drive us

to do something. Right, let them drive us to do something. And then

what you will see eventually is that every time you do that thing,

you will remember Allah subhanaw taala, that you're doing this for

the sake of Allah, then after that, you're focused on the other

person of that, oh, he is going to say thanks to me, he is going to

give me something he is going to help me out, he's going to that

will inshallah start to diminishing, if that's a big

mountain in front of that, that's all we think about all the time.

Then slowly, slowly, we need to think of these verses that it's

Allah's pleasure that I want Allah subhanaw taala is greater than

anything else. And that's why it's better that we do it for him, for

Allah subhanho wa taala, then, of course, it's a double benefit,

because then you get reward from Allah. And we're still helping

somebody at the end of the day. So whatever comes from that, whatever

we earn from that we're going to get from that person anyway. It

makes no difference. Actually, it doesn't diminish in any way, when

you do something for Allah rather than from for another perspective,

because the act is the same, the physical activity that you're

going to do, of maybe assisting somebody saying a good word to

somebody,

helping them out, moving something from them, running an errand from

them, that work is gonna stay the same, that doesn't change at all.

But now we're just doing it for Allah subhanaw taala. So we're

getting huge benefits for what we're doing this for the reason

for which we're doing and then the person is going to be happy with

us as well, but we're not focusing on that. And in that case, the

benefit is is that sometimes if things go wrong, and they don't

appreciate it, right, because some people are ungrateful, you will do

something for them and they won't appreciate it. They won't even

acknowledge

manage it, that's fine. I've done it for Allah and I've got it.

May Allah subhanaw taala make that easy for us. May Allah make that

easy for us so that we can become more selfless beings, right more

selfless beings with sincerity for the sake of Allah subhanho wa

taala.

So again, the verse is talking about the pillars, the three

pillars of a very healthy social life, be it Muslim or non Muslim,

which is that you command for charity, enjoying good, and bring

about reconciliation about mankind you can see how much of a

how much of a focus there is on the other in this case, Jazak

Allahu Allah may Allah subhanaw taala bless us all during this

month, especially and after this month as well. And that was to

help prosper in terms of our societies help our societies

prosper in terms of all of these things, and allow us to resolve

any conflicts that we may have allow us to enjoin the good and

also allow us to be charitable in the broader sense of it in an

absolute sense of it. Please make a dua for us Allah subhanaw taala

bless you all, and inshallah we will see you again. I just want to

mention at the end here, that mashallah we do these Ramadan

reflections, don't leave your studies and you're listening to

good things just purely for the month of Ramadan and move beyond

just lectures to some serious learning, right to learn your

basic FIQ and Hadith and Tafseer and Sierra and Akita and so on.

That's why we have Rayyan institute.com Please go there and

sign up for the many courses down there at your own at your own pace

in sha Allah may Allah subhana wa Tada except the sinuata econ

warahmatullahi overcut Jazak Allah here for listening May Allah

subhanho wa Taala bless you. And if you're finding this useful, you

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Wabarakatuh