Ahsan Hanif – Quran Tafseer – Page 103- Divine Attributes And The Human Responses
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Muhammad.
Welcome to another episode of the tafsir page
by page. InshaAllah ta'ala. Today we are on
page 103 which is in the 6th juz
Surah Nisa.
In the previous episode, we mentioned a number
of verses that Allah Azzawajal began in the
passage
regarding the people of the book and how
they demanded from the prophet of Allah
that he cause a physical book to be
revealed and descended amongst them that they could
witness and see. And Allah is saying to
the prophet
that if these are the types of demands
they are making upon you, then it is
not something out of the ordinary for them
because they made greater demands from their own
Prophet that they did accept and believe in
the Prophet Musa.
They asked and demanded that Allah should come
to them face to face so that they
could see him and Allah Azzawajal
punished them for that and then Allah took
from them a covenant and pledge that they
would accept the commands of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. In the verse that we begin with
today, which is verse 155,
Allah mentions how they broke the covenant and
pledge that they made with Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala says,
and so for breaking their pledge, for rejecting
Allah's revelations,
for unjustly killing their prophets,
for saying our minds and our hearts are
closed,
no Allah has sealed them in their disbelief
so that they believe only a little. Allah
is saying that this is how they responded.
They made this pledge that they would follow
and accept the commands of Allah Azzawajal, Allah
says that they broke that pledge.
Not only that but they disbelieved in the
signs of Allah ASSAWALL. They rejected
Allah's
signs and his revelations and from those revelations
is that when this Prophet came meaning the
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam Muhammad
with the signs that showed them that he
was truthful and truly a messenger of Allah,
the signs that they had in their scripture
that they would believe in him that they
would follow him they rejected and they disbelieved
in those signs of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
those verses and revelations of Allah
and because they would kill their prophets unjustly
as we said before that some of the
prophets of Allah they killed unjustly such as
what is said concerning the Prophet Zakaria alaihis
salatu wasalam and they even attempted to kill
as we know the Prophet Isa
our hearts are closed meaning that we are
not going to accept any of
these words that you are bringing from Allah
Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah says
Allah is the one who caused their hearts
to be sealed because of their disbelief.
So they only believe a little.
Allah then goes on in verse 156 to
say:
and because they disbelieved and uttered a terrible
slander against Mary, Mariam. Mariam as we know
is the mother of Isa alaihi was salam.
What is the terrible slander that they said
concerning Mariam alaihi salam that they accused her
of being unchaste, of being immodest?
Mariam Alaihi Salam has a child, Isa Alaihi
Salam, a miracle from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
born without male intervention. She had no husband,
no male with her and Allah gave to
her a child. What did they say about
her? She must have been a prostitute, she
must have been someone who was unchaste,
immodest, had this child form an unlawful relationship.
And so they slandered her, they slandered her
honor and Allah praises her in the Quran
as one of the greatest women that Allah
has created. But despite that and despite her
being the mother of a Prophet and Messenger
of Allah
they slandered her and demeaned her in terms
of her character, in terms of her modesty,
in terms of her honor. In verse 157
Allah says
And what they said, we have killed the
messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the messenger of
God. They did not kill him nor did
they crucify him, though it was made to
appear like that to them. Those that disagreed
about him are full of doubt with no
knowledge to follow, only supposition.
They certainly did not kill him. Look at
how Allah is now listing all the ways
in which they disobeyed
Allah from the beginning of today's episode. Allah
favored them by giving them prophets and messengers
and revelation
by Allah
giving them many of his blessings
but they disbelieved in Allah's signs. They rejected
Allah
in terms of his revelations,
they killed their prophets or some of them
unjustly, they refused to accept the prophets and
messengers that came after Musa salaam,
they slandered
the awliya of Allah, the people close to
Allah from his other prophets and messengers. And
now Allah is saying and because of what
they claimed
that they killed Jesus, the son of Mary,
the messenger of Allah
and
that is that they killed or they attempted
and they claimed that they crucified Isa Alaihi
Wasallam. But as we know when the prophet
told us salallahu alaihi wasallam in his authentic
sunnah that Allah
saved Isa
from their schemes,
from their plots and their plots and Allah
raised him to the heavens.
Allah says here,
they didn't kill him
nor did they crucify him
but it was made to appear like that
to them. And it is said in some
of the narrations that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
exchanged
his Messenger,
Musa 'alayhi salaam, with a man who looked
like him. Oh that Allah ajawajal placed upon
this man the image of Isa. So he
resembled him the resemblance of Isa Alaihi Salaam.
When they crucified this individual,
they thought and believed that it was Isa
Alaihi Salam that they had killed. And this
is an example of
their arrogance, their rejection
of the signs of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
That a person would go and kill
a Prophet or Messenger of Allah 'alayhi wa
sallam.
Just as the Quraysh tried to do with
the Prophet
and
all of this is a type of
consolation for the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam
that if this is the way they are
behaving with your Messenger of Allah, then this
is what they did to their own Prophets
and Messengers that were sent to them, This
is the way that they behaved with Musa.
This is the way that they behaved with
Isa alai musaratus salam and these are the
prophets of Bani Israel. These are their prophets
from their nation, from their people. As As
for you, oh Muhammad salallahu alayhi wasalam, you're
not even from amongst their people. You're not
from Bani israel and because of that the
enmity towards you will be greater.
And if they tried to kill you or
assassinate you or harm you, then they did
that with the Prophet salawllah before. If they
reject you and your revelations and the words
Allah
has given to you. They did that the
same with those Messengers and Prophets who came
before. So all of these things that you
see, meaning the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam during
his time, what he is experiencing,
the different interactions he is having with them,
it is not something new. But rather this
is the way they were with their own
prophets and messengers
Allah sent to them. So Allah is saying
that they tried to kill the prophets and
messengers of Allah and they did to some
of them. But when he came to Isa
Alaihi Salatu Salam, Allah raised him up to
the heavens.
That's why Allah says those that disagreed about
him are full of doubt. Is he a
Prophet? Was he a Prophet? Was he not
a Prophet? What happened to him? Did he
die? Was he resurrected? What happened to him?
They don't know.
They
have no knowledge of this.
But they simply follow their
supposition, their thinking, their thoughts.
But one of the things that definitely did
not happen is that he was killed. He
was not crucified.
And when you understand this from the Muslim
point of view, therefore from the Islamic point
of view, those people who believe that Jesus
died upon the cross for their sins and
so on, our belief as Muslims is that
he didn't die, that he wasn't crucified.
And therefore Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala what did
he do instead? Allah mentions in the next
verse
158,
Allah raised him up to himself.
Allah decreed
that the Prophet
should not die upon that cross, should not
be killed or murdered, but rather he should
be raised up to the heavens. And there
he is living
in a manner and way that Allah
knows best, that Allah
has decreed.
And Allah tells us
that
or we know rather from the sunnah of
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam that the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam met the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam
upon his night journey. So when the Prophet
went on that single night journey from Mecca
to Jerusalem to the heavens and back, when
he went to the heavens at every stage
of the 7 heavens, he met different prophets.
And in the 2nd level of the heavens,
he met the 2 cousins,
Risa and Yahya alayhi
wasalam. And so Allah
is allowing Risa
to be in the heavens. He is meeting
the Prophet
and
living there in a man and a way
that Allah has
decreed. And what we know also from the
authentic sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam is that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will
decree that
Isa will come back down to earth and
descend to earth towards the end of time
as is mentioned in numerous Hadith of the
Prophet
and that is at the time when the
Dajjal will appear so that the Dajjal which
is one of the greatest if not the
greatest fitna and trial and tribulation that Allah
will send upon humankind
he will stay upon earth for a number
of days and he will cause corruption and
evil and he will spread corruption upon the
earth and he will kill and he will
force people to believe in him as a
God besides Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And the group of the Muslims will be
few in number, but they will be holding
fast to the religion of Allah and
their need at that time will be the
Mahdi as Prophet
Prophetised.
It is at the time that Allah will
cause and allow for Isa
to descend and he will descend as mentioned
in the Hadith on the wings of 2
angels by the white minaret of Damascus
and he will descend there and then he
will join the battle that is now beginning
between the army of the Mahdi and the
army of the Dajjal.
And when
the Prophet
will appear, he will pray with the Muslims
as is mentioned in the narration, with the
Mahdi leading them in Salah and then the
battle will begin.
And as soon as the Dajjal sees Risa
alaihi salam, some of the narrations
will say that he will lose
the powers and abilities that he had because
the Dajjal has many powers and abilities that
Allah will give to him as a test.
The way that he can walk across the
earth in very short spaces of time, the
way that he can do certain things in
terms of producing treasures and so on and
so forth. He will have certain powers that
Allah will give to him and certain strength
that Allah will give to him. But as
soon as he sees Risa alaihi sallam, one
of the narrations says that he will lose
them the same way that salt dissolves in
water, as quickly as salt dissolves in water,
and so then he will flee from the
battlefield and Isa 'alayhi salam will give chase
to him and he will catch him and
he will kill him. And then the army
of the Muslims will be victorious.
But the point here being that Isa Alaihi
Salam will descend upon the earth. He will
then remain upon the earth for
a period of time that Allah decrees and
that is the time that the Prophet told
us it
will be a time of plenty
it will be a time of justice and
fairness, there will be no oppression, and the
people will live in goodness and happiness and
justice and peace, and that will be a
time in which the people will worship Allah
and enjoy their worship of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala until eventually Allah decrees that this Prophet
of Allah
Giza will pass away.
And that is why in the next verse,
verse 159,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then says,
that is not one of the people of
the book who will not believe in him
before his death,
or who will not believe before his death,
and on the day of resurrection he will
be a witness against them.
Question here is Allah azza wa jal is
seeing that there is not one of the
people of the book, one of the people
of the scripture
except that they will believe
in Jesus alaihis salaam before
his death. The scholars of tafsir differ here
as to who his death refers to, whose
death is being referred to. Allah is saying
that there is not one of the people
of the book
except that he will believe in Isa Alaihi
Salam, meaning that he will believe
in the correct belief concerning Isa Alaihi Salam.
That Isa Alaihi Salam was a messenger and
a prophet of Allah, that he wasn't the
son of Allah, he wasn't a god besides
Allah that he wasn't worthy of worship. They
will believe in Isa
as he should be believed in. Accept him
for what he was and that is one
of the greatest messengers and prophets of Allah
alayhi salaam.
So they won't be one of the people
of the book except that he will believe
in Risa
before his death. Before whose death? Some of
the scholars said, meaning before the death of
that person from the people of the scripture,
meaning that at the time when their soul
is about to be extracted from their body,
the Angel of Death has come to them
now, they will know the reality of the
issue. They will know at that moment now
what the true religion is and what the
true belief concerning Isa
should have been because at that time they
will be under no illusion
concerning
this God or that God or this religion,
they will know what is the truth. But
by then it will be too late as
the Prophet told us that the path and
the door of Tawba, repentance is open so
long
as the soul doesn't begin to leave the
body and so long as the sun does
and the wise from the west. So the
door of Tawbah is open for people to
accept Islam, to repent to Allah, to send
back to Allah for
that moment when death comes to them and
their soul is now being extracted from their
body, then even if they know the reality
and the situation,
it is too late not to accept. It
is too late for them to believe at
that time. That is one position amongst the
scholars of tafsir.
Another from amongst the scholars of tafsir said
no that his death refers to the death
of Isa alaihis salatu salam. There is not
one of the people of the book who
will believe in Risa, meaning at the time
when Risa alaihi salam descends again to earth,
except that they will believe in before Risa
alaihi salam then passes away. Meaning that from
that time when Risa descends
and it will be from the major signs
of Yawmul Qiyama, his descent, he will come,
he will defeat the army of the Dajjal,
the people will
have justice and peace and he will rule
in accordance to the Sharia of our Prophet
Muhammad
And so then the people who are the
people of the book will know the reality,
they will know that Isa alaihi wasallam wasn't
calling to something else, he wasn't calling to
any type of shirk. This is the same
religion and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is
the final and the seal of those Messengers
and every Prophet was told as we mentioned
before that if the Messenger of Allah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam comes out in your time, then
you must support him,
then you must aid him and
you must be from amongst his followers. And
so, Isa Alaihi Wasallam would essentially
therefore
rule in accordance to the Sharia and the
laws of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
So that is also a position amongst the
scholars of tafsir. The first one refers to
the people of the book at the time
of their death before Isa
descends and the second refers to them once
they know
what is the truth and so they believe
in him which essentially means that they believe
in Islam and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And both of those are possible and Allah
knows
best.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says and there is
not an Anam Yomul Qiyam, he will be
a witness against them. As Allah 'azawwajal will
mention when we come towards the end of
Surah Mahidah, that Allah will
ask in front of all of the people,
Risa did you ever call to the worship
of yourself and your mother? Did you say
take me and my mother as God besides
Allah?
And Risa alaihi salam will absolve himself from
this. He will refute this and reject this.
He will say, oh Allah, how can I
claim something
that I have no right to? How can
I claim to be worshipped besides Allah, to
be a God besides Allah, to be the
son of Allah
when I have no right to this? And
so he will be a witness against those
people. He will be a witness against those
who claimed that he was a God besides
Allah azza wa Jal. That is what Allah
is saying here.
He will be a witness against them.
In verse 160, Allah
then says,
Allah says and for the wrongdoings
done by the Jews, We have obeyed them
certain good things that have been permitted to
them before for having frequently departed others from
Allah
path. We mentioned before in the tafsir of
Suratul Baqar when we were speaking about the
story of the cow that took place in
the time of Musa alaihis salam, we were
mentioning how when the laws of Allah Azzawajal
would come upon the people of Musa 'alayhi
wa sallam they would often be argumentative
and they would debate and they would question
and they would ask until those laws would
become more and more restrictive upon them more
and more difficult for them to follow and
that is what Allah is saying here that
because of the oppression that they had, we
made
haram for them some things that otherwise would
have been halal. Why? Because of themselves,
because of the way that they were, because
of the demands that they were making.
And also because of the evil that they
did and the fact that they tried to
bar others from the paths of Allah
And from those sins that they committed, Allah
mentions in verse
61.
For taking usury when they had been forbidden
to do so and for wrongly devouring other
people's property
for those of them that reject the truth
We have prepared an agonizing torment. So Allah
says, not only were they people who were
being difficult in terms of the laws of
Allah azza wa Jal, they would often find
ways that they considered to be loopholes that
they made for themselves. Allah 'Azza wa Jal's
religion and his sharia doesn't have loopholes
but they themselves using their own logic
found ways that they tried to circumvent
the laws of Allah
in his Sharia. And so Allah says and
because of that they engaged in major sins
such as devouring the wealth of people unjustly
and such as
taking riba and dealing an interest.
And so they would sometimes change the name
rather than calling you. Usually they call it
interest. Interest is a nicer name, it's in
your interest, it's in my interest. So they
would change the name and they would say,
no, Allah didn't forbid this, Allah forbid usury.
We're not doing usury, we're doing interest. And
that is why the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam said that from the things that will
happen in this ummah is that people will
change the names of things in order to
use them and they were haram.
So rather than something being
or rather than people knowing that it is
haram, people use it in the guise of
a different name. Change its name, change the
packaging. It's essentially the same thing, but we
just change the way that it looks and
seems and so we then tell people that
it's okay. Allah warns us against this and
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that this is
one of the major things that they fell
into the people of Musa'ali salatu salam,
and
their disbelievers from amongst them will have a
painful punishment.
In the final verse that we are going
to take today, verse
162, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala then speaks about
those people who believe.
Believe in Allah, believe in all of his
prophets and messengers, believe in all of the
revelations of Allah Azzawajal.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
For those of them who are well grounded
in knowledge and a faith, do believe in
what has been revealed to you meaning the
prophet and
what was revealed before you. Those who performed
the prayers, paid the Zakah, believe in Allah
and the last day, to them we shall
give a great reward. Allah
says that from amongst them are those people
of knowledge. They study their scriptures and realize
what is the truth. And that is for
example like the famous companion Abdullah Alaihi Salam
Ra'ilahu
Anhu Wa Ta and others from amongst them
who studied and learnt and realized
because of the knowledge that they had which
shows to you the importance of knowledge for
the Muslims as well. That in order for
you to safeguard your religion,
safeguard your connection with Allah
safeguard your worship of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
knowledge is so important. Here look how Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala after mentioning all of the
harm and the evil that they did, Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala makes an exception to that
rule and he says those people who don't
just have knowledge, they don't just claim to
be learned people, are
They have deep knowledge, they're well grounded in
that knowledge, meaning that they are people who
truly have understanding.
Because lots of people can claim to be
imams, or rabbis, or monks, or priests, or
whatever. Doesn't necessarily mean that they have understanding.
They just qualified or studied or have that
title. Allah praises the people of our rusukh,
those are the people who have deep and
full and correct understanding of what Allah sent.
Those people from amongst them will believe in
what the Prophet
brought in terms of revelation,
as well as believing in everything that Allah
revealed
before him. Those are the people who established
the salah and they give the zakah and
believe in Allah
and believe in your Al Qiyama. Those are
the people that Allah will give to them
the greatest of reward.
And bless Allah that he makes us from
amongst those people who have knowledge and act
upon that knowledge that Allah gives us the
understanding of the Quran and the Sunnah and
that Allah makes us from amongst those people
who understand those sources and act upon them
in a way that is pleasing to him
and with that we come to the end
of today's episode.