Ahsan Hanif – Quran Tafseer – Page 88 – Satan Leads You Astray
AI: Summary ©
The title "tafsir page" in the Quran provides insight into the history and meaning of the title, as well as the dangerous notion of "the way of the believers". The worship of the Prophet's name and the worship of Shaitan, which is a false god and deity, is a trap and dangerous. The punishment of people who turn away from worship and reject first-ever-ever-ever-ever-ever-ever-ever-ever-ever- any of their worship is recurring and will continue until eternity. The importance of integrity and honesty is emphasized, as it is linked to the great of Islam.
AI: Summary ©
Welcome to a new episode of our tafsir
page by page.
Today we're on
page 87 of the Quran, which is the
5th Juz Surah Nisa.
In the previous episode, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
mentioned a number of verses concerning the people
of the scriptures, those people who were given
revelations before us as Muslims
and the way that they responded
in terms of their disobedience, in terms of
their rejection,
in terms of the way that they would
disrespect and disparage that which Allah had given
to them. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentioned
that Allah does not forgive the sin of
shirk and Allah may forgive anything other than
that to him so ever he will subhanahu
wa ta'ala and what that means that Allah
forgives anything else to him so ever he
wills meaning for the people who are upon
Tawhid because if Allah does not forgive shirk
for a person then surely Allah Azzawajal will
not forgive those people for any of the
sins because that shirk is enough for them
to enter into the fire. But a person
upon Tawhid
they have sins they have major sins and
wrongs that they did Allah forgives to him
so ever he will subhanahu wa ta'ala the
caveat in all of those scenarios is so
long as they don't make Tawba for the
one that makes sincere Tawba Allah forgives them
so for the disbelievers the sincere Tawbah is
to accept Islam and accept Tawhid and for
the believer the one who commits major sins
it is to turn back to Allah azza
wa Jal and repent and seek forgiveness from
him, subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Today we begin with verse number 51 and
it is similar in terms of the context
is still the same and the passages are
still speaking about the same issues,
and verse number 51 is the statement of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
Do you not see
how those given a share of the scripture
now believe in idols and evil powers?
They say of the disbelievers they are more
rightly guided than the believers.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the previous episode
as well and in this episode we will
see as well on a number of occasions
that Allah Azzawajal said to us,
do you not see?' meaning do you not
reflect?' And as we said in the previous
episode, this is important because when Allah azza
wa Jal is saying to us as Muslims,
as people who believe in the Quran, who
accept the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, do you
not see? Meaning will you not reflect?
Will you not think about this? And that
is because those people that Allah ajawajal is
speaking about were also given scripture,
also had
prophets that were sent to them from Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, Musa 'alayhi wa
sallam, they were given revelation and prophethood just
as we have the Quran and we have
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. But that
in and of itself is not necessarily enough.
If a person doesn't believe, if a person
doesn't strive against Shaitan, if a person doesn't
persevere and have determination to obey Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala and stick to the halal and
stay away from the Haram, It's not enough
that you are amongst those people, that you
happen to be just born a Muslim or
that you have a Muslim name or that
your culture happens to be a Muslim culture.
Is not necessarily enough because had it been
enough surely would have been enough for the
Jews and the Christians and those other nations
as well. And so here Allah is saying
another example of this,
will you not look at, will you not
see, will you not reflect upon those who
were given a share of their scripture, meaning
that they were given revelation before us.
They believe in idols, evil
powers. The word
refers to anything that is worshipped besides Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So any type of shirk,
any type of worshiping, associating partners with Allah
'alaydu'
all of those false gods and deities
are called Taghut. All of them are Taghut
and Allah Azzawajal mentions this in a number
of places in the Quran as we have
mentioned already for example in Surat Al Baqarah
and so on And that is the term
therefore Tawgut refers to all of these false
gods. So someone may worship a Prophet of
Allah, another person may worship a stone, another
person may worship a saint, another person may
worship an animal, another person may worship some
type of nature or natural being, whatever it
may be. Anything and everything that is worshipped
besides Allah azza wa Jal, that is therefore
a false god and deity, in Arabic it
is called Tawgut.
Allah is saying that these people were given
revelation,
a share of the scripture. What does the
scripture call to? 1st and foremost, the Tawhid
of Allah, the Oneness of Allah, the right
of Allah Azzawajal to be worshipped alone without
partner. Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala says concerning these
people, they believe in Taghut, they believe in
all of these false gods and they believe
in Aljibt. And Aljibt is anything which is
an evil power that helps a person to
turn away from Allah 'azawajal. So for example
fortune telling, for example sorcery, these are types
and examples of Aljib. This is what they
engage in. So rather than sticking to their
scriptures and the central message of Tuhid and
the worship of Allah Azza wa Jal alone,
they turned away. As Allah mentioned, as we
said in the previous verse in the previous
episode,
they purchased misguidance and they want misguidance for
others as
well.
And because of the way that they are,
because of their worship of the Tawhut, because
of the way that they believe in their
false ideologies and so on, and they say
that a person should be upon. So they
consider everything therefore that is unbecoming, under fitting
for a believer.
So they were considered the way of the
disbelievers which is everything which is unbecoming of
the believer
to be more rightly guided,
to be better
and more straight meaning on the straight path
than the way of the believers
and that is because of the way that
Shaitan has come and corrupted the way that
they think and that is the danger of
Shaitan. That is the trap of Shaitan. Shaitan
comes with a small thing and then over
time it continues and increases and increases and
increases until there is nothing left of the
remnants of the Tawhid that those people had.
Just look at Quraysh. Quraysh, we can trace
back their ancestry,
we can trace back their original religion that
they should have been upon all the way
back to Ibrahim and Ismail alayhi musalahu alaihi
wa sallam.
Then the Quraysh still have Hajj and the
Kaaba and Zamzam and Arafa and Mina and
Muzdalifa, these are remnants
from the times of the region of Ibrahim
and Ismail alayhim as salatu was salam. But
Shaitan came and he entered upon them idolatry
and idol worship and the false gods that
they believed in besides Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and he twisted every aspect of their religion
to the extent that even the one thing
that they still kind of hung onto, which
is the pilgrimage and the Hajj and the
Kaaba, even that's twisted.
So they have people making tawaf naked. You
have certain acts that the Qurayshaun are willing
to do such as going out to Arafah
and certain things that they changed
even in the one thing that he still
had kind of and
that is what Shaytan does. He corrupts, he
changes, he distorts so that person even though
they think and that is one of his
traps that they continue to think that they
are upon good, that they are worshipping Allah,
that they are worshipping something that is close
to what Allah Azzawajal wants but in reality
it is far distant and far removed from
that which Allah Azzawajal commanded
and that is the trap of Shaitan and
so here Allah ajazal is saying the same
thing. So therefore a person always needs to
be wary and careful of the traps of
Shaitan,
especially when it comes to acts of worship.
How many of our fellow brothers and sisters
in Islam across the Muslim world today are
engaged in acts of cover
of disbelief and bid our innovation
under the guise of it being something which
is good, something which is righteous, something which
is an act of worship.
So even an act of worship meaning generally
speaking, it could be called
or have the label of prayer or fasting
or charity or the
or some type of pilgrimage
but in reality
when you look down into the detail is
not what Allah commanded or legislated
and that is extremely dangerous.
And so the Muslim has to be someone
who is in shore of their religion,
constantly studying and learning and showing that what
they are doing in terms of their worship,
in terms of their belief, it is what
Allah commanded in the Quran, what the Prophet
commanded sallallahu alaihi wa sallam in his sunnah.
So Allah says concerning these people,
Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala says,
in verse number 52, those are the ones
that Allah has cursed
and you will not find anyone to help
those that Allah has
cursed. Allah cursed them because they turned away
and the curse of Allah azza wa Jal
has
said before is to be removed
from the mercy of Allah and once a
person is removed from the mercy of Allah,
there is nothing for them except the punishment
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And so Allah
'Azza wa Jal says those who are cursed
in this situation
will have no helper besides Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
In verse number 53, Allah then continues
and says
do they have any share of what he
possesses?
If they did, they would not give away
so much as the grove of a date
stone. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, do they
have a portion of what Allah possesses of
his kingdom?
Meaning why as Allah Azzawaj is saying this
in the next couple of verses, Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala is saying that these people rejected
the Prophet sallallahu 'alaihi wa sallam, they rejected
the guidance that he brought and they considered
him meaning Muhammad sallallahu 'alaihi wa sallam unworthy
of being chosen as Allah's Prophet and Messenger.
They said why were we prophets and messengers
or what we have is enough or what
we are is sufficient or we are the
chosen beloved ones of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
All of these different claims that they make
Allah aasawwajal is saying to them
do you own the kingdom of Allah, the
dominion of Allah that you choose what goes
to whom? You are you are the ones
who possess all of the shares and so
you are the ones who distribute them?
Do you have any portion of Allah's kingdom
or dominion?
And even if you did then you would
never give anything away because that is the
nature of humans.
The nature of humans is that there are
people who hoard, people who are miserly, people
who want to keep everything to themselves. If
Allah Azzawajal had given them the choice to
find
the one who was most worthy of Prophet
or the messengership,
they would have said Irrisas
and kept it with themselves even if they
were unworthy.
And so they are not befitting
of this station, let alone befitting of the
kingdom and the dominion of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
Allah, ajaz, then says in verse number 54
continuing on this,
Do they envy people for the bounty that
Allah has granted
them? We gave the descendants of Ibrahim the
scripture and wisdom
And we gave them a great kingdom.
Allah is saying, 'Because of your envy, your
jealousy
from that which Allah has given to his
bounty to other people.'
So they were jealous of the Prophet
be the people of the scripture that Allah
chose him and made him a messenger of
Allah
outside of Bani Israel and the shulrah of
Israel, that Allah chose someone from outside of
their nation,
outside of their people to be the greatest
and most beloved of his prophets to him
salallahu alaihi wasalam.
Or the Quraysh, a similar example,
where they consider themselves to be more worthy
as individuals because of their wealth, because of
their status, because of their fame, because of
their power, whatever it may be they consider
themselves as individuals, as men to be more
worthy of the station of being a Prophet
and Messenger of Allah than our Messenger Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wasallam. 'Am Yasudoon and Nas?' Is
it because of the envy that they feel?
The jealousy that they have in their hearts
for the bounty that Allah gave to other
than them? 'Fakad a'ina Aala Ibrahim Al Kitab
Allah A'Sajid says that indeed We gave to
Ibrahim and his descendants the book meaning the
scripture,
wal Hikmah and wisdom and we gave to
them
a great kingdom. We know that every Prophet
that came after Ibrahim Alaihi Salaam
is from his progeny,
is from there is from his his children
and included from them is our own prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasalam. And amongst them are those
who were given kingdom as well like Dawood
and Salima and alaihi mus salam. Not only
are they prophets of Allah but they were
kings and rulers. People that Allah gave to
them power and wealth upon the land as
well. And they were from amongst them prophets
who were not given those things. But Allah
gave to whomsoever He wills or gives to
whomsoever he wills that which he pleases. And
then you have our messenger Muhammad
that was given the greatest of honors by
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And that is why
Allah then says in verse number 55.
But some of them believed in it and
others turned away from it. Indeed, how fire
blazes fiercely enough.
Meaning some believed in it, meaning the prophethood
of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Some of
them believed in the bounty that Allah gave
to him, and so they accepted him as
the Prophet and Messenger of Allah. They obeyed
him and they believed in him and they
listened to him and they followed his ways
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam as we see in
the example of the many companions of the
Prophet
and those who followed them in righteousness and
goodness and belief. Wamin hooman sada'an,
but there were many others who turned away.
From the time of Quresh,
the people of Mecca and then the other
Arabs and those who followed on their path
today until today,
we are separated into these 2 groups, those
who understand
and believe
in the messenger salallahu alaihi wasalam and those
who turned away from him salallahu alaihi wasalam.
Allah
says and how far is enough
of a blazing fire for those who turn
away from Allah
and reject the revelation
and the prophets that Allah has sent. Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala then says in verse number
56 and 57,
now speaking about that issue of reward and
punishment,
those who turn away and those who believe,
those who accept and those who reject. Allah
'Azza wa Jal speaks about the punishment of
those who reject first in verse number 56.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
We shall replace them with new ones so
that they may continue to feel the pain.
Indeed, Allah is Almighty, All Wise.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in this verse
concerning
the punishment
of those people who reject and turn away,
Allah says that they will be guided towards
the fire.
We will lead them towards the fire and
that will be their punishment
and that is where they will reign or
reside therein for eternity.
Throughout the Quran, Allah
gives to us descriptions of that punishment
in terms of the food of the people
of the fire,
the drink of the people of the fire,
the way that the fire encompasses them, how
they will live and reside in the fire
and this is an example of that. And
it is one of the most graphic examples
of the punishment of the fire. Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala says,
every single time their skin is melted and
burned away because that fire is extremely fierce.
As the prophet told us salallahu alaihi wasalam
when he was comparing the fire of this
world to the fire of the next life,
he said that the fire of this dunya
is one of 70 parts of the fire
of the next life. 1 70th meaning the
fire of Yomul Qiyama burns
70 times stronger,
more fiercer than the fire of this dunya.
And we all know what a fire can
do in this world, how it can destroy
and burn and decimate everything in its path.
We've seen those pictures of wildfires
and the way that they destroy forests. We've
seen the way fires go through a house
and buildings. We've seen the way fire can
encompass and consume everything that is in its
path by Allah's permission.
Now we imagine that 70 times stronger,
70 times more fierce, 70 times more ferocious,
70 times
greater in terms of its burning power. That
is what the people of the fire will
have.
So every single time that they are burned,
Allah tells us in the Quran that only
no, it's not only the external things that
are burned, internally as well, elsewhere in the
Quran. So what they eat, what they drink,
what they consume inside, it burns. But the
physical outer such stuff burns as well. Their
skins will burn
and they will melt away
and a person will think that once their
flesh has burned and gone, that's it, it's
done. But Allah says,
we will continue to replace their skin and
their flesh with new flesh and skin. So
it's not the end but as we know
it is a recurring continuous
punishment
on until
all of eternity
and so Allah
says, we will give to them new skin,
new flesh so that it will burn again
and when it burns it will be replaced
a third time and a fourth and so
on and so forth.
So that they may continue
to taste the punishment,
that they may continue to experience
the pain that Allah has
decreed upon them.
For indeed Allah
is almighty and he is always subhanahu wa
ta'ala in verse number 57 Allah azza wa
jal then gives to us the
glad tidings and the rewards of those who
believe,
those who accept, those who follow the way
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
As for those who believe and do good
deeds, We shall admit them into gardens graced
with flowing streams, and then they will remain
forever.
They will have pure spouses there, and we
shall admit them into cool refreshing shade. Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says that the people of
Iman,
the people of righteous deeds, the people of
belief, the people who accepted what the Prophet
brought to allahu alaihi wa sallam and obeyed
him, they will enter into Jannah,
gardens under which rivers flow,
and they will remain therein forever. Just as
the people of the fire remain therein forever,
the people of Jannah also remain therein forever.
They will have pure spouses.
So the people of Jannah, as we know,
Allah Azza wa Jal will remove from them
everything from this life that was considered to
be impure, that was considered to be filthy.
So they will not need to go to
the bathroom
and and urinate or defecate a crimea qum'ula.
They will not become ill and sick in
the way that people in this life become
ill and sick. They will not become frail
and old and infirm in the way that
people do in this life sometimes.
All of those things that are weaknesses,
they will be removed from the people of
Jannah. Allah will give to them a life
of goodness, a life of bliss, a life
of enjoyment, a life of reward.
Everything in Jannah is pure,
even their spouses.
Everyone is pure, everything in Jannah is pure.
And they will have everlasting,
cool, refreshing shade. And look at the, therefore,
the juxtaposition, the
distinction and the difference between what the people
of the fire have, what the people of
Jannah will have. The people of the fire
will be in torment and burning
and they will continue to experience that burning
forever. Whereas the people of Jannah are given
shade, they are given respite, they are given
coolness, they are given everything that they need
in order to live a blissful existence
by Allah's pleasure and by his command and
his mercy. Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
In verse 58 Allah Azzawaj then continues and
he says
Allah commands you to return things entrusted to
you to their rightful owners and if you
judge between the people to do so with
justice, indeed Allah's instructions to you are excellent
for he hears and sees everything.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala commands us with a
number of things here, that it is from
the attributes of the believer,
that the believer is someone who has integrity
and is honest and truthful,
And from that integrity is that they return
the trust that were given to them. So
when you are entrusted with something, whatever their
responsibility
is, it may be a job, it may
be a role that you play within your
community and in your society
or it may be a physical trust that
someone gives to you and says look after
this for me. I entrust you with this
for your safe in your safe keeping that
you will return it to me at some
point. All of those types of trust
are things that the person should fulfill to
the best of their ability. That is something
which Allah aza wa jal,
Allah
loves and that is because it is from
the signs of hypocrisy
that a person breaks that trust, that a
person is entrusted with something that they accept
and that person that breaks the trust that
they were given in the first place. That
is something which is disliked amongst
the disliked in Islam and it is something
which is from the from the ways of
the hypocrites. Allah
says,
and if you are going to judge between
people then do it with justice.
And that is that a person does it
for the sake of Allah azza wa Jal,
they don't do it for any type of
wealth or wordly
praise or accolade they do it only for
the sake of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and so a person who judges must be
just and if you cannot be just or
you have a vested interest then you seek
to recuse yourself, you apologize, you say this
isn't for me, you withdraw from that situation.
But if you're going to judge then you
must be just. You must listen to both
sides fairly and you must weigh up what
they bring to you to the table and
then you deal in that issue in a
way that is fair and just and that
is because Allah loves
these two aspects. Number 1, that a person
has integrity,
has truthfulness, has honesty and number 2 that
they are fair and just and both of
these issues are linked with one another and
they are from the greatest of of characteristics
and attributes that a person
can
hold.
Allah says that indeed what Allah
instructs you towards,
reminds you of is from the most blessed
and most excellent of affairs. And
remember that Allah knows and hears and sees
everything that you do.
In the final verse in today's episode, Allah
says in verse number 59.
Allah and his messenger and those in authority
amongst you. And if you are in dispute
of any matter referring to Allah and his
Messenger. If you truly believe in Allah, then
I stay that is better and fairer in
the end. Allah subhanahu ta'ala gives to us
this amazing verse that is the principle
and the if you like the bedrock of
the way that the Muslims should be. The
foundation of Islam is in these issues and
affairs. Number 1, the obedience of Allah
and number 2, the obedience of the Prophet
salallahu alaihi wasalam. In everything that you do,
obey Allah's commands, obey the commands of the
Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam. And number 3, wa'ulil
amri min kum those people that Allah has
given authority over you. Allah azza wa Jal,
in society there are people who are given
certain cases of authority.
Those people of authority
have rights and from those rights is that
you obey them in that which they do
which is good. Who are those people of
authority? The scholars said that there are 2
types of people when it comes to Muslims.
Number 1 are the rulers.
Those people have authority over you. You must
obey them because what they decide and what
they decree, it is for the benefit of
the whole of the society. And so you
must play your part. And that's why it
is from the etiquette of the Muslim and
from the good points of Islam that you
obey those people who are in in charge
of your affairs
and the the rules that they place
and the laws that they set so long
as that there are laws that are good
and they are beneficial for the society,
they are to be obeyed. And that's for
example so when we are driving now we
have laws that determine the way that we
drive, laws of road traffic management and so
on, Those things must be obeyed because it
is for the greater good of society.
You can't come and say, no, that it's
not found in the Quran, it's not found
in the sunnah. It is found in the
Quran and the Sunnah in this verse. Allah
says obey them. Those are the first group
of people and the second group of people
as the scholars of tafsir said are the
scholars because they are the ones who instruct
you in terms of your religion. They tell
you what is Haram and Haram. They tell
you what Allah wants from you and what
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala told you to stay
away from And so therefore in those affairs
you must obey them also because they are
guiding you to the path of Allah aza
wa Jal. And
if you dispute,
you don't know, you're going to disagree,
then what do you do? Turn
it back to Allah, turn it back to
his Messenger salallahu alaihi wa sallam because they
are the ones
who decide all affairs.
Our religion is based upon those two sources
primarily, the Quran and the Sunnah. So if
there is a dispute,
if there is something where we're unsure, if
we don't know what is the correct path,
we take it back to Allah and his
messenger, salallahu alaihi wa sallam. Allah says, if
indeed you truly believe in Allah and the
last day, that is better for you and
it is fairer in the end. And with
that we come to the end of today's
episode.