Ahsan Hanif – Page 147 – The Dangers Of Extravagance Quran Tafseer Series
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I seek refuge with Allah from Satan the
accursed.
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most
Merciful.
Allah has given to you eight animals in
pairs, a pair of sheep and a pair
of goats.
Ask them, has he forbidden the two males
or the two females or the young in
the wombs of the two females?
Tell me based upon knowledge if you are
telling the truth.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in these
verses that Allah azawajal made for you, in
the previous verse that Allah azawajal made halal
for you, these domesticated animals.
What are the domesticated animals?
Number one and two, the sheep and the
goats.
And Allah azawajal describes them as pairs because
you have male and females in both.
And so Allah azawajal is saying that you
have a male sheep and a female sheep.
You have the male goat and the female
goat.
Those are the things that Allah azawajal has
made in the first of those two categories
of the four pairs.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, ask them
concerning these, O Messenger of Allah ﷺ, say
to them, and this is for the Prophet
ﷺ to ask the people of the Quraish
based upon the way that they would understand
these rules and how they would say that
this is permissible or this is impermissible.
He would say to them, has he forbidden,
meaning Allah azawajal made haram for you, the
males or the females or the young in
the wombs of the two males, meaning that
if the animal gives birth to the males,
do they then become haram?
If the animal gives birth to females, does
it become haram?
Or if it has a mixture of males
and females, does it then become haram?
And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
who gave you this?
Where did this come from, these rulings that
you had, as we mentioned in the previous
episode, that they would say that if an
animal had a certain type of child or
it had in succession a number of litter
or a number of children in a certain
type of way, that then the animal now
becomes impermissible for us to consume.
It's not allowed for you to use it,
not allowed for you to ride upon it.
nabbi'ooni bi'ilmin in kuntum sadiqeen Allah
says, tell me based upon knowledge if you
are telling the truth.
Where did this come from?
Which sharia do you find this in?
Which Prophet of Allah did you bring this
in?
Now this is in a relatively small issue,
in the issue of food and in the
issue of consumption.
And the Quraysh, as we said previously, they
would do this and the Arabs generally would
do this in many of the issues in
the society.
And if this is what they would do
in something as small as an animal, which
doesn't have any necessarily direct bearing upon you
and your life, it is something which you
consume or something which you work, but it's
not considered to be a family member, it's
not another human, it's not something which you
covet in that way, then what about the
oppression that they did in matters which were
greater?
If in this small thing they're willing to
manipulate and change and alter the laws of
Allah Azza wa Jal, then what about in
those which are greater issues of marriage and
divorce and inheritance where there is people's rights
and people's lives and people's wealth and their
property, what were they willing to do in
those things instead?
And that is why Allah Azza wa Jal
says, nabbi'ooni bi'ilmin in kuntum sadiqeen
Tell me based upon knowledge if you are
telling the truth.
And they had no knowledge of this.
There was no logical reason for it.
There was no reason as to why they
would make this something all of a sudden
which is now beloved to their idols and
therefore impermissible to consume or to use or
to touch.
This is something which they came up with
as a result of their own whims and
desires.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in verse 144
then goes on to the next two categories
of those pairs and he says subhanahu wa
ta'ala وَمِنَ الْإِبِرِ اثْنَيْنِ وَمِنَ الْبَقَرِ اثْنَيْنِ
قُلْ أَا ذَكَرَيْنِ حَرَّمَ أَمِي الْأُنْثَيَيْنِ أَمَّ اشْتَمَلَتْ
عَلَيْهِ أَرْحَامُ الْأُنْثَيَيْنِ أَمْ كُنْتُمْ شُهَدَاءَ إِذْ وَصَّاكُمُ
اللَّهُ بِهَٰذَا فَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنِ افْتَرَى عَلَى اللَّهِ
كَذِبًا لِيُضِلَّ النَّاسَ بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا
يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ And a pair of camels
and a pair of cattle.
Ask them, has He forbidden the two males,
the two females, or the young in the
wombs of the two females?
Were you present when Allah gave you these
commands?
So who is more wicked than he who
fabricates lies against Allah with no basis in
knowledge in order to lead people astray?
Indeed Allah does not love the evildoers.
So here Allah عز و جل now goes
on to the second two categories.
So we've done the sheep, we've done the
goats.
The other two categories in the livestock animals
are the cows, the cattle, and the camels.
Allah سبحانه و تعالى says وَمِنَ الْأِمِدِ اثْنَيْنِ
وَمِنَ الْبَقَرِ اثْنَيْنِ And a pair of camels
and a pair of cattle because the cattle
will include the cows and the buffalo and
so on.
Allah عز و جل speaks about them as
well.
What about these animals?
Ask them again, O Messenger of Allah صلى
الله عليه وسلم أَذْذَكَرَيْنِ حَرَّمْ أَمِلْأُنثَيْنِ أَمْ مَجْتَمَلَتْ
عَلَيْهِ أَرْحَامُ الْأُنثَيْنِ Did he forbid the males
or the females or the young in the
wombs of the females?
How did you come again about this?
Just as they did with the goats and
the sheep, likewise they said concerning the cows
and the camels.
And so Allah عز و جل is saying
where again did this come from?
What is it based upon?
Who decides?
Who determined this?
Where did it come from?
And that is why Allah عز و جل
then goes on to say أَمْ كُنْتُمْ شُهَدَاءَ
إِذْ وَصَّاكُمُ اللَّهُ بِهَذَا Were you present?
Were you witnesses?
When Allah gave these commands, meaning where did
this come from?
And that shows to us therefore a very
important principle in our religion.
When it comes to the issues of the
Sharia and the laws of Islam, you must
make sure that they have come from the
authentic sources of the Quran and the Sunnah
of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم.
And that is why when you hear for
example or you see amongst Muslims today practices
that you hear people maybe they speak about
or they speak against or they object concerning,
don't be someone who just doesn't listen to
this or just dismisses this.
For me and you, for every person, the
question that we should be asking as Muslims
is do we find this in the book
of Allah or do we find this in
the Sunnah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه
وسلم.
And if the answer is yes, it has
a basis for it, there is an established
practice of it going all the way back
to that time of the Prophet صلى الله
عليه وسلم, then there is a part of
the religion.
But if something that you don't find clearly
in the Quran or the Sunnah or you
find some type of indirect allusion to it
or indirect wording that may or may not
suggest it, then you look at the time
of the companions.
The companions were the people who knew Islam
best after the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم.
They learned from him, they studied from him,
they narrated from him, they lived with him,
they practiced Islam in front of him, and
the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم would correct
them, and he would rebuke them, and he
would teach them, and he would educate them,
and so they knew the religion of Islam
better than those who came after them.
So if there is a practice that you
don't find that the companions did, that it
was alien to them, that they weren't aware
of, it wasn't something which they understood, then
to come a hundred, two hundred, three hundred,
or a thousand years later and say that
that is part of Islam, that is similar
to what these people are doing.
أَمْ كُنْتُمْ شُهَدَاءَ إِذْ وَصَّاكُمُ اللَّهُ بِهَذَا Were
you witnesses when Allah made this part of
your religion?
If you weren't there at that time, then
you can't claim that it is part of
the religion of Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى.
So for me and you, then what do
we do?
What is our recourse?
To go back to those texts of the
Quran and the Sunnah, and to see what
the early generations of Muslims understood from them.
So if it's not something which they clearly
understood, it's not something which you find from
that time, then to come later on, even
if it is done with the best of
intentions, even if it is done out of
the love of Allah and His Messenger صلى
الله عليه وسلم, even if it is done
out of love for the religion of Islam,
it's alien to our religion.
Because every religion can then come and manipulate
and change and so on.
And how often does Allah عز و جل
criticize people for doing things that have no
basis of knowledge.
As He does here سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى when
He says فَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِنْ مَنِ اِفْتَرَى عَلَى
اللَّهِ كَذِبًا لِيُضِلَّ النَّاسَ بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍ Who is
more wicked, more oppressive, more evil than the
one who fabricates lies against Allah with no
basis in knowledge in order to lead people
astray.
Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى says concerning these people
not only are they ascribing lies to Allah,
they have no basis for it.
There is nothing in knowledge that would give
it.
And that shows to us that our religion
must be based upon knowledge.
It can't be based just upon your culture
or your elders and their practices or what
people may or may not think.
It must be based upon knowledge.
Knowledge that is firm and knowledge that is
authentic from the Qur'an and from the
sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ.
And what that means therefore is that its
understanding must be something which the companions and
the early generations of Muslims understood.
Because they knew the Qur'an best and
they knew the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ
best.
And if they didn't understand it in that
way, it's not something which they understood, it's
not something which they practiced, it's not something
which they sanctioned.
Then for people to come after it and
to claim it is either from this ascribing
rights to Allah's religion or they're speaking about
Allah's religion without knowledge and both of them
are grave matters.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says إِنَّ اللَّهَ
لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ For Allah عز و
جل does not love those who do evil,
those who are wicked.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then says in
verse 145 قُلْ لَا أَجِدُ فِي مَا أُوحِيَ
إِلَيَّ مُحَرَّمًا عَلَىٰ طَاعِمِي يَطَعَمُهُ إِلَّا أَنْ يَكُونَ
مَيْتَةً أَوْ دَمًا مَسْفُوحًا إِلَّا أَنْ يَكُونَ مَيْتَةً
أَوْ دَمًا مَسْفُوحًا أَوْ لَحْمَخٍ زِيرٍ فَإِنَّهُ رِجْسٌ
فَإِنَّهُ رِجْسٌ أَوْ فِسْقًا أُهِلَّ لِغَيْرِ اللَّهِ بِهِ
فَمَنِ الطُّرَّ غَيْرَ بَاغٍ وَنَا عَادٍ فَإِنَّ رَبَّكَ
غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ Say, In all that has been
revealed to me, I find nothing forbidden for
people to eat except for carrion, flowing blood,
pigs' meat, it is loathsome, or a sinful
offering over which any name other than Allah's
has been invoked.
But if someone is forced by hunger rather
than desire or excess, then Allah is Most
Forgiving, Most Merciful.
After Allah عز و جل rebukes the way
of the Mushrikeen in terms of these issues
of eating and what is halal or haram
to consume and the way that they would
just have these arbitrary laws and rules that
they would invent for themselves, Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ
تَعَالَى now instructs our Prophet صلى الله عليه
وسلم to highlight and to show very clearly,
to state clearly the rule of Islam or
the law of Islam when it comes to
the food that we consume.
And that is that Allah عز و جل
tells the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم لَا
أَجِدُ فِي مَا أُوحِيَ إِلَيَّ مُحَرَّمًا عَلَى طَعِمٍ
يَطْعَمُ It has been revealed to me that
I find nothing forbidden for people to eat.
This first portion of the verse is the
general rule therefore.
The general rule in Islam when it comes
to food and drink is that everything is
halal.
Allah عز و جل is saying to the
Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم say to them
that in everything that has been revealed to
me, I find nothing forbidden for people to
eat.
And then the ayah goes on to mention
a number of exceptions.
Why does it start in this way?
Why doesn't Allah عز و جل say instead
that it's not allowed for you to eat
this and not allowed for you to eat
that and not allowed for you to consume
this or to drink that.
And then say everything else is allowed because
that's more confusing.
What is the default rule?
It's the default rule that lots of things
are haram and whatever sorry everything is haram
except that which Allah عز و جل has
made halal and the halal is what has
been stipulated whereas the default rule is that
everything is halal except that which Allah عز
و جل has made haram and stipulated.
And there is the latter that is the
default rule and that shows to you the
beauty of the shariah number one, number two
it's ease and number three that the general
ruling is that you don't need to worry
about food or drink in general terms but
you have to be aware of a number
of guidelines.
You have to be aware of for example
things that are haram to consume and those
are some of the ones that Allah عز
و جل mentioned here.
You have to be mindful of the way
that something is slaughtered in terms of its
ritual manner of slaughter and the mentioning of
the name of Allah سبحانه تعالى.
These are the things that you have to
be mindful of.
Other than that Allah عز و جل has
made it halal.
So Allah سبحانه تعالى in the shariah doesn't
say for example onions are halal cucumbers are
halal, garlic is halal, tomatoes are halal, apples
are halal and then Allah عز و جل
starts listing every single type of fruit and
vegetable and meat and everything else that would
be too much and it would be too
exhausting.
However and that is also because in different
times and places and ages there are different
types of food that come up, the culture
of people changes and the time that people
live in a change and people are always
inventing new dishes and new types of food
that they are bringing together and merging and
amalgamating different dishes together and creating new ones
and so the shariah doesn't need to go
through all of that.
Rather it gives to you a general rule.
Everything that you have is halal.
That is the default rule إِلَّا أَن يَكُونَ
مَيْتًا And now Allah عز و جل mentioned
some of the exceptions and they are as
we said mentioned in a number of places
in the Quran except that they are carry
on meaning that they have died of their
own accord without being ritually slaughtered.
However they die whether it's by falling off
a cliff, whether it's by being strangled whether
it's by for example something another animal gorging
upon it whatever it may be.
أو دمى مسفوحة or that it is something
which or the flowing blood and so flowing
blood is something which is not halal for
a person to consume.
أو لحمة خنزير or the meat of a
pig.
That's something which Allah عز و جل also
has made halal فإنه رجس.
Because all of this is loathsome, it is
impure And here some of the scholars said
that Allah عز و جل when he mentions
the word رجس that all of these things
are impure.
Then Allah سبحانه و تعالى doesn't need to
go into all of the other details of
what is haram Some of them are mentioned
also in the Quran, some of them mentioned
in more detail in the sunnah of the
Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم because all of
them will come back to this one إِلَّا.
They will come back to this one reason
and that is that all of them are
considered to be impure.
So for example what the Prophet told us
صلى الله عليه وسلم that you can't eat
from the meat of the predator, the predatory
animals or the birds that have claws that
are predatory birds.
These types of animals are not permissible for
you to also consume.
Why?
Because they also come under this category of
it being رجس or it being a type
of impurity that Allah عز و جل has
therefore made haram أو فسبن أهل لغير الله
به or it is a sinful offering over
which any name other than Allah's has been
invoked.
Meaning that the meat in and of itself
may be halal.
The animal may be halal to consume.
It's a sheep.
It's a goat.
It's a camel.
It's a cow.
But the way that it was slaughtered is
not ritually accepted in Islam.
Allah's name wasn't mentioned.
It wasn't slaughtered by a Muslim or by
someone from the people of the book.
It wasn't ritually slaughtered in the way that
we're told to sever the arteries and so
on.
So it wasn't done in the correct way
and if it wasn't done in the correct
way or it was slaughtered in the name
of other than Allah عز و جل then
it becomes something which is fisq.
It is sinful.
It is haram.
فَمَنِ الطُّرَّ غَيْرَ بَغْيٌ وَلَا عَادٌ But as
we mentioned before in Surah Al-Ma'idah,
if someone is forced to consume these types
of haram foods because of hunger, because of
some type of necessity and need.
غَيْرَ بَغْيٌ وَلَا عَادٌ غَيْرَ بَغْيٌ وَلَا عَادٌ
and they don't do it out of desire
or excess.
Meaning they don't put themselves in that position
on purpose just so they can eat haram.
They don't just go and stay in the
middle of a desert with only a bottle
of wine and some haram meat and they're
like I don't have anything else and I'm
about to die.
Wait for that moment.
That's someone doing it out of desire.
It's not real true necessity.
وَلَا عَادٌ Nor do they go excessively overboard
when they're in that particular situation.
فَإِنَّ رَبَّكَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ Then Allah عز و
جل is most forgiving and most merciful to
those people who are in such dire straits
and needs.
Allah سبحانه وتعالى then says in verse number
146 وَعَلَى الَّذِينَ هَادُوا حَرَّمْنَا كُلَّذِي ظُفُرْ وَمِنَ
الْبَقَرِ وَالْغَنَمِ حَرَّمْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ شُحُومَهُمَا إِلَّا مَا حَمَلَتْ
ظُهُورُهُمَا أَوِ الْحَوَايَةَ أَوْ مَا اخْتَرَطَ بِعَظْمٍ ذَلِكَ
جَزَيْنَاهُمْ بِبَغْيِهِمْ وَإِنَّا لَصَادِقُونَ We forbade for the
Jews every animal with claws and the fat
of cattle and sheep, except what is on
their backs and in their intestines or that
which sticks to their bones.
This is how we penalize them for their
disobedience we are true to our word.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala after mentioning the
general law of Islam when it comes to
food and what is halal or haram in
terms of consumption, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
speaks about what he made haram for some
of the people of the book, even though
some of it was permissible for them to
eat meaning that in and of itself that
meat was permissible, it's halal because it's something
which is halal for us and so therefore
it is pure because Allah azawajal does not
make halal something which is not pure, but
for them it was made haram and it
was made haram because of their oppression and
because of their wrongdoing, not because the meat
itself was haram, but because Allah azawajal added
it to them in their shariah as a
means of rebuking them and making things difficult
upon them when they themselves wanted that type
of difficulty to be placed upon them and
that is why Allah azawajal says وَعَلَى الَّذِينَ
هَادُوا حَرَّمْنَا كُلَّذِي ظُفْرُ We forbade for the
Jews every animal with claws, so for example
even the camels were not permissible for them
the camel is halal, it's pure something which
is permissible in our religion but Allah azawajal
made it haram for them and likewise وَمِنَ
الْبَقَرِ وَالْغَنَمِ and from the cattle and the
sheep حَرَّمْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ شُحُومَهُمَا we made haram for
them the fat of those animals إِلَّا مَا
حَمَلَتْ أُظُهُرُهُمَا أَوِ الْحَوَايَةَ أُو مَخْتَرَطَ بِعَظُمٍ except
the fat that was on the backs of
those animals or in their intestines or that
which was clinging to their bones and so
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with the exception
of this, he made the fat of those
animals haram for them as well and we
know that it's permissible for us, you can
have sheep fat, you can have cow fat,
you can have those types of things to
eat and it is permissible for us but
Allah azawajal made it haram for them.
Why did he make it haram for them?
Because of their oppression, because of their wrongdoing,
because of their sin, Allah azawajal punished them
in that way and so Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is saying that sometimes Allah azawajal
may make it haram for a certain ummah
or a nation not because it is haram
in and of itself but rather because Allah
azawajal wanted to show to them as a
result of the harm that they did or
the evil that they did, Allah azawajal punishes
them for that and that is why Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala says ذَٰلِكَ جَزِيْنَاهُمْ بِبَغْيِهِمْ
This is how we penalize them for their
disobedience وَإِنَّا لَا صَادِقُونَ and we are true
to our word and so from the beauties
of the shariah of the prophet salallahu alayhi
wasalam is that Allah azawajal then made halal
much of that which he made haram for
those people and so we know that the
Jews for example have very strict laws when
it comes to their food, their eating and
their meat and so on their kosher laws
are very strict in terms of slaughter and
everything else.
Allah azawajal made that for them as a
test for them but Allah azawajal made our
laws much easier in terms of what we
consume and how we can consume it and
that is from the mercy of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala upon this ummah of the
prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and with that inshallah
ta'ala we come to the end of
today's episode.
بارك الله فيكم و صلى الله على نبينا
محمد وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين.
والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته