Ahsan Hanif – Quran Tafseer – Page 100 – Justice, Faith, And The Consequences Of Hypocrisy
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AI: Transcript ©
Welcome to another episode of our tafsir page
by page Insha Allahu Ta'ala. Today we are
on page 100 which is the 5th Jews
of the Quran.
In the previous episode, we mentioned a number
of points
relating to the issue of being fair and
just, and especially when it comes
to a husband with his wives, for example.
Or in the issue of a spouse, a
husband and a wife and their relationship, and
that sometimes they may have to reconcile with
one another when there are differences, when there
are disagreements,
when one party has to compromise with the
other party also has to compromise, that in
Islam is called a soul or reconciliation.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says as we
mentioned in the previous episode,
there is good within and Allah speaks as
an extension to that issue about justice between
spouses
and how in that which you can control
your actions, your statements, your dealings, the rights
that people have over you, then that is
something which you must do. You must be
just in the way that you deal with
those affairs. But in those issues that you
cannot control,
such as issues of the heart,
love and so on, those are the things
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has forgiven people
for because it is beyond their ability to
control in that way. And it is that
same topic of justice that Allah begins,
verse 135 where it speaks about in verse
135
and that is the statement of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
Close relatives whether the person who is rich
or poor.
Allah can
best take care of both.
Refrain from following your own desires
so that you can act justly if you
distort or neglect justice then Allah is fully
aware of that which you do.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in this verse as
you can see,
Allah command
us
to
be people who uphold justice
and people who bear witness to Allah meaning
with the truth. And Allah begins this first
with a call out to the people of
Iman.
Oh you who believe, oh people of faith,
oh people who believe in Allah, Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. And that call to the people of
iman then shows that the command that then
comes after it is from the attributes of
the people of Yiman. It is from the
things that they should embody. And so the
believer is someone who is just,
someone who speaks the truth, someone who make
when they make testimony or they bear witness,
they do so with truth and upon justice
and that is because Allah azza wa jal
then goes on to mention
those things that sometimes divert people away from
that level of justice, from those things that
people
often compromise these issues of integrity,
justice, speaking the truth about. One of those
things that can compromise this is when the
people involved are people that are close and
dear to you. As
Allah says,
Even if that justice
means that you have to speak against your
own self, meaning that you have to confess
to doing something which is incorrect. You have
to speak the truth in terms of giving
that testimony and it may harm you in
that certain issue
and that is because that is something which
is difficult to do, requires a great deal
of self discipline, a deal of iman, a
great deal of iman and belief in Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala and fear of Allah
that someone would own up to making a
mistake.
And a very small example and there are
many examples of this but something which you
see commonly on the street is when for
example, 2 people are involved in a motor
accident.
There are 2 cars, they hit one another
and one person was clearly in the wrong.
But what you will often see is that
those 2 people, and I'm speaking about Muslims
here, both of them will deny
that they had any part in the mistake
or in the accident. Both of them will
deny that that it was their fault. Whereas
one of them was clearly our fault but
instead of saying and putting their hands up
and apologizing and saying, look, I actually made
a mistake. It was my fault. You know,
I apologize and so on and so forth.
They would be obstinate and sometimes, that issue
will involve the police and sometimes, it will
go to the courts or each person and
sometimes, it involves not only not speaking the
truth and standing up for justice, but actually
involving people that weren't
there. Having people that are false witnesses, bringing
false testimony
simply so this person is
out to be liable for that particular accident.
That's a very small example, but you see
this in cases of marriage. You see this
in cases of divorce, you see this in
cases of inheritance, you see this in business
dealings, in so many different different aspects that
people, if it means that it will harm
them
financially, it will harm them in terms of
maybe their reputation or whatever it may be,
then those people will go not only to
the extreme of not being just
but going to the extreme of having false
testimonies or witnesses and so on. And so
Allah says that even if it is against
yourself and that is something extremely
difficult to do.
Or if it is against your own parents
or your closest relatives
because those people are close to you, those
people sometimes expect you to take their side
even if they were in the wrong. And
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, no, the believer
doesn't do this. To the believer, they know
that Allah is all hearing, all seeing or
knowing. They know that Allah azza wa jal
would hold them to account and they know
that this person was in the wrong and
so it is not from justice or fairness
that they take the side of the one
who was doing wrong. Such as for example,
this person is an oppressor. He's harming other
people, withholding their rights, doing wrong and simply
because he's my father, simply because he's my
brother, simply because he's one of my close
family relatives, I'm going to stay quiet or
I'm going to do worse and actually support
him in the oppression of man that he's
doing. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says that isn't
the case and that is when the Hadith
that I think many of us are familiar
with in which the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
said,
that even if my own daughter Fatima
was to steal, I would have taken off
her hud because that is justice.
I don't let her go simply because she's
my daughter. I don't pretend not to have
seen or to be unaware of the issue
simply because it's my daughter. The Prophet
was saying that justice
will be exacted upon all and that justice
will be fair to all. Allah
says
and then he gives us another reason as
to why people sometimes compromise on these issues.
Whether he is rich or poor, surely Allah
has more right to them.
And sometimes that's another reason that we're extremely
strict with people that are poor, that don't
really have much station in society, that don't
really have much benefit that they can give
to us as opposed to someone who's rich,
that if you were to pardon them or
to ignore something or to show some favor
to them, they would perhaps repay you with
the wealth that they have. Allah azzawajal is
saying no irrespective of the 2 and that
is why the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam said
in the hadith that from that which destroyed
the people who came before you is that
if the noble amongst them stole, they would
forgive them. They would forget them. They wouldn't
say anything. But if the poor amongst them
stole, they would exact upon them the penalty.
They would take them to court and they
would punish them and they would give them
the full measure of that punishment.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is saying in either
case, Allah
has more right to the meaning that the
justice that Allah
has placed is something which you should have
fairly upon all of those different people.
So do not follow your desires
that you may go away and divert from
justice.
Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala is saying that these
are all issues of desires.
Your family,
wealth, people station all of these things are
different desires that play against
this sense of justice that Allah
commands us with.
Allah says that if you distort or elect
justice then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is fully
aware of that which you do and that
is from the beauty of this religion that
even if someone was to
oppress you in this life by making false
testimonies,
by not showing their clear fault when they
are at fault and so on and so
forth, Allah azza wa jal will deal with
this issue in the best of all courts
and that is the court of Yomul Qiyam
on the day of judgement.
In the next verse, verse 135,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala then says,
in verse 136 apologies.
Anyone who does not believe in Allah, his
angels, his scriptures, his messengers and the last
day has gone far far astray.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala have to give into
us a number of these commandments
about being just and fair and so on.
Allah aza wa Jal now turns back to
the central issue and that is the central
issue of Iman and belief in Allah aza
wa Jal. However, in this verse, if you
think about this verse and look upon it
and reflect upon it, you see that Allah
azaawajal
gives us a command to believe
when we are already believers.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, oh you who
believe, believe in Allah and his messenger.
So, O people of Iman, and by default,
by definition as we know, the statement of
being a person of Iman or being from
the believers,
dictates and necessitates that you already believe in
Allah
and that you already believe in the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam. So therefore, what is the
meaning of this verse? Oh, you who believe,
believe in Allah and his messenger salallahu alaihi
wasallam. The meaning that Allah knows best is
to strengthen your Iman
and to rectify
it and to uphold it in the best
way possible.
Allah
says that these are people of Iman.
By having full iman means that you have
for example all of the different components that
you require for the iman. For example that
you are, that you have,
sincerity,
that you are truthful, that you stay away
from those things that can in any way
nullify your iman, that That you are people
who love Allah azza wa jal and love
his prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam. All of the
issues that make your iman steadfast
and also make your iman complete as the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would often say, whosoever
believes in Allah, they'll stay then let them
do such and such. Meaning that if you
don't do those things, you have yet to
complete iman. There are aspects of real religion
that are still you are falling short in.
And so Allah is saying have complete iman
in Allah. Complete iman in the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam. Complete iman
in the book and the scripture that Allah
revealed to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam which
is the Quran and complete Iman in all
of the scriptures that came before it that
were given to the previous messengers and prophets.
And that is something which we mentioned before
especially when we were going through the tafsir
of Suratul Fatiha and the statement of Allah
'Azza wa Jal' 'Ihdinas Siratul Mustaqim O Allah,
Guide us to the straight path.' We said
that Allah 'Azza wa Jal' that verse means
to guide someone who is yet to be
guided and to keep firm upon guidance those
who have been guided. And likewise here, Allah
azza wa jal is making a call out
to those people
who if they have yet to have iman,
they should take iman. But once you have
iman, it doesn't just finish. Once you say
that ilaha illallah Muhammadu Rasoolallah, once you have
a Muslim name or you call yourself a
Muslim, it doesn't mean that you have perfected
or completed that Iman,
that your, essentially, your journey is over, that
you have achieved everything. No. What it means
is that now you must do all of
the components of iman. You must enhance your
iman, perfect your iman, complete your iman with
by doing those things that Allah commanded and
his prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
So strengthen your Iman. Ask Allah to keep
you firm upon your Iman. Do all of
those things that make your iman stronger and
your connection with Allah aizawajal stronger. And from
those things is to follow the commands of
Allah aizawajal as in the Quran and follow
the commands of the prophet salallahu alayhi wa
sallam in his sunnah. Those are the
2 main ways or the greatest ways of
firming up and strengthening your iman. And then
Allah says that those who disbelieve
in Allah,
in his angels,
in his scriptures,
in his messengers
and in the last day, they have gone
far, far astray.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in these 5
issues, these are 5 of the 6 pillars
of iman. The 6th one not mentioned here
directly
is Qadr to believe in the decree of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And know that that
is from
also Iman and Allah because
to believe in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala means
to believe that Allah Aza Wajal has power
over everything and that he decreed everything whether
it is good or bad and that Allah
is the one who controls
everything in the universe. Those people who disbelieve
in Allah azza wa Jal or in any
one of these pillars of Iman. So for
example, if someone believed in Allah, said that
I worship Allah azza wa Jal alone, I
believe in Allah, but they disbelieve
in the Prophet of Allah Muhammad salallahu alayhi
wasalam. They say I don't accept him as
the messenger of Allah, I am willing to
worship Allah alone but I won't accept the
messenger of Allah.
Is that person a Mu'min? Is that person
a Muslim? Do we classify them as a
believer? No.
Because they have now divorced
different aspects of iman from from one another
even though they are 1 and whole.
So for example, another example, someone says that
I believe in Allah and I will worship
Allah alone and I believe in the messenger
of Allah salallahu alaihi wasallam Muhammad. I believe
in him and I will follow him, meaning
I will accept him as the messenger of
Allah, but I don't believe in the Quran.
I don't accept the Quran. I don't believe
that is the scripture of Allah azza wa
jal, the word of Allah azza wa jal,
the revelation of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala I
disbelieve. Does that allow them then to become
a Muslim? No. So iman is to agree
and believe in all of these issues that
Allah azza wa jal has mentioned. Like for
someone who says that they believe in Allah
or the messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam but they
won't believe in resurrection. I don't accept this
resurrection. I don't accept that there is yumul
qiyama. Does that person is that person then
classified as a believer? No. And so therefore,
Allah azzawajal is saying that whoever disbelieves in
Allah, his angels, his scriptures, his messengers, the
last day, those are the people that have
gone far far astray, meaning that they haven't
accepted iman. And so you can't cherry pick
and choose. You can't say that I will
believe in this one aspect of iman or
this one pillar of Iman and I will
ignore the others. That is something which is
not acceptable as Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
mentioning here.
Allah in verse 137
then says,
As for those who believe,
then reject the faith, then believe again, then
reject the faith again and become increasingly defiant.
Allah will not forgive them nor will he
guide them to any path.
These are those people who,
as a result of their lack of Iman
or their weakness of Iman, they fluctuated between
these two states and they are the people
of Nifak, the people of hypocrisy,
who at times believe and then go back
to disbelief,
at times believe and then go back to
disbelief, and they juggle or they essentially fluctuate
between these two states, but then their final
state is the one of of Kufr and
disbelief and that is what Allah says
then they increase and they become defiant in
their disbelief, in their rejection of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, excuse me, Allah azza
wa Jal speaks about in these verse those
people
who at times when they see Iman and
they see some of its beauties, they will
accept it. But when the dunya comes and
those temptations and Shaitan and his whisperings overcome
them, they turn away from Iman and they
will not believe in Allah
and then at times they may fluctuate back
or they may ping pong back into Iman
and then out again. But their final statement
as we said or their final state is
that they disbelieve. Allah
says those people are the ones who Allah
will not forgive which shows us a very
important point here and that is that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala will judge people ultimately upon
their ending. What a person ends upon and
that is right from the duas of the
prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam is that he would
ask Allah for
for a good ending meaning that you die
upon a man and that's why we have
that famous hadith that whoever says La Illa
Illa Allah before they pass away will enter
into Jannah because it shows that their final
state
was Iman. So they would eventually enter into
Jannah by Allah's permission and his mercy. Likewise,
the opposite is true, whoever dies upon disbelief,
that's their final state, they will enter into
the fire, and so this verse shows that
these people had Iman at times,
but they had disbelief as well. Which one
does Allah judge them according to what it
is that they died upon, what their final
state was? And that is why it is
important for a person never to take Iman
for granted, never to think that they have
some type of guarantee or assurance from Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala that just because you are
Muslim today, you won't die upon Islam. These
are people who lived in the time of
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam lived with him,
saw him, interacted with him, and yet still
Allah chose for them that they wouldn't have
iman. So how then for someone or for
us who come over 1400 years later, do
we think that we have some type of
assurance simply because we were born in Muslim
families for example or that we have Muslim
names?
Allah
says that if you die upon Kufr then
you are from those people that Allah
will not forgive.
In verse 138 Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala then
says,
give to the hypocrites
a tiding
that an agonizing torment awaits them. Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala then speaks about in these verses
now and then the next passage
in the rest of today's episode and much
of tomorrow's episode, Allah Azza wa Jal or
the next episode, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will
focus on the issue of hypocrisy
in terms of their
characteristics, their attributes and their punishment. Hear Allah
says, give to them the tidings
that the hypocrites will have an agonizing painful
torment. So therefore we understand from these verses
that the people of hypocrisy
as Allah ajwajal mentioned in the previous verse
despite
them at times having Iman,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will still punish them
in the fire because they will die upon
other than Iman. Because if they die upon
Iman, they are no longer classified as hypocrites,
they are classified as believers and mumineen. Allah
says that these are the people who Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will punish because of their
hypocrisy.
Do those who ally themselves with the disbelievers
rather than the believers seek power through them?
In reality all power belongs to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says that one of the
reasons
why these people have hypocrisy
is because part of the hypocrisy means that
then they become allies
with the enemies of Islam and the Muslims
as they did in the time of the
Prophet
where for example, in the battle of Uhud,
they turned back with the 3rd of the
army, in the battle of the trench they
were trying to find ways that the disbelieving
armies could come into Madinah and attack the
Muslims, they were looking for ways
to undermine
and weaken Islam and the Muslims and to
harm Islam and the Muslims. So Allah
says they do this because they think that
is where power lies, that is where they
will find fame and wealth and honor, that
is where they will find strength and might
and power. And Allah
says that indeed all might and power and
strength and honor belongs to him alone
and he gives it to whomsoever he wills.
He is the one who gives it to
whomsoever he wills. So if you truly want
to find those things, then turn to Allah
and Allah
will bless you with them. And the final
verse that we are going to take today,
verse number 140
or 2 verses that we have left. Allah
says
As he has already revealed to you in
the scripture, if you hear people denying and
ridiculing Allah's revelation,
do not sit with them unless they start
to talk of other things or else you
yourselves will become like them. Allah will gather
all the hypocrites and disbelievers together in the
hellfire. This is an important point that Allah
is mentioning here for the believers
and that is that if you happen to
sit with people who are disbelievers,
non Muslims or people who are enemies of
Islam or people of hypocrisy,
they don't sit with them if what they
are going to talk about
is issues of disbelief
that will undermine your religion and your belief
or issues of in which they ridicule and
mock your religion. Allah says that if those
people are the ones who when they hear
the verses of Allah being recited, the scripture
being recited, they will ridicule it and they
will mock
it, then stay away from them. Don't sit
with them. And if they do that whilst
you're there, then get up and leave. And
don't return until they start speaking about something
else or they ignore that topic, they move
on from that topic. And so it's not
befitting for a Muslim to sit in an
area or a place or to listen to
something even if it's for example on TV
or on the Internet, on YouTube, whatever it
may be, in which people are openly mocking
Islam, mocking the religion of Allah azza wa
Jal, mocking the Quran. That's not from the
way of the Muslim because it shows a
weakness of your iman that you can sit
there and listen to people making fun of
Allah, fun of the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam,
fun of the Quran, fun of the laws
and the sharia of Allah
and it doesn't really make you, you know,
it doesn't make an impact upon you, it
doesn't make you want to get up and
just leave. And people leave for far less.
People leave from gatherings and sittings or conversations
when they feel like they themselves
have been insulted, when someone insults one of
their family members, when they feel or take
offence to something that's been said, that is
less than those people who are openly mocking
the religion of Allah
and we don't feel anything towards that. At
the very least you just get up and
you leave. Don't be part of that that
conversation
and Allah says don't
sit with them
until they speak about other things because otherwise
you become like them. At the very least,
you are sitting in that situation
and you're not speaking. You can't rectify.
You don't have the position or the power
to be able to speak up and to
correct and to defend because sometimes as a
situation,
maybe you can't speak, maybe you won't be
and if you do speak, maybe you'll make
things worse, so then just get up and
leave and don't return until they speak about
something else because you're sitting there in silence,
in tacit agreement.
It's almost like you agree then with that
which they see. For indeed Allah will gather
those people, the hypocrites and the disbelievers together
in the fire. In verse 141, which is
now on the next page 101 but it
is connected
to this verse, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then
says,
The hypocrites wait to see what happens to
you and if Allah brings you success, they
say, were we not on your side? But
if the disbelievers have some success, they say
to them, did we not have the upper
hand over you and yet protect you from
the believers? Allah will judge between you all
on the day of resurrection, and he will
give the disbelievers no means of overcoming the
believers.
Allah Subhanu Wa Ta'ala as we mentioned before
says that these people fluctuate
between being with the believers and the disbelievers
and what they are essentially looking for is
where in lies success in the dunya wherein
they can find power or fame or wealth.
So when they see the Muslims becoming successful,
even though they took no part in helping
them, in assisting them, in aiding them, They
will say, are we not from amongst you?
Aren't we with you? We're Muslims like you.
Surely, we should get a share of what
you have
at have attained in terms of the spoil
of wars or whatever it may be.
And if they find that is the opposite
that the disbelievers are the ones who are
who are in power, They're the ones who
are overcoming. They're the ones who are in
strength. They will see, didn't we help you?
Because we were giving you information.
We were helping you and making sure that
the believers couldn't come and fight against you
or they couldn't have victory over you. We
were like essentially,
your agents within them to help you overcome
them. Allah
says that Allah will judge them on your
own qiyam. Allah will judge you all on
the day of judgement. These people are only
looking for where their benefit lies and Allah
will never give them full power over
the believers.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in these verses
speaks about the reality of the hypocrites and
how there are people who are only looking
for the duniya and because of that, despite
hearing revelation,
despite being aware of Tawhid, despite knowing the
truthfulness of the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam, they
chose the temporary benefits of the dunya
over the lasting
benefits of the akhirah. And because of that,
they rejected and because of that, they harmed
the Muslims and because of that they seek
to undermine Islam and as a result Allah
azza wa jal will punish them not only
punish them but give them from the worst
of punishment as Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will
mention and as we will speak about insha
Allah in the next episode.