Ahsan Hanif – Quran Tafseer – Page 108 – Purity, Justice, And Gratitude
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Muhammad.
Welcome to another episode of our tafsir page
by page and Insha'Allah today
we are covering page 108 which is in
the 6th juz of the Quran, Surah Al
Maidah.
In the last couple of episodes
at the beginning of this Surah, Surah Al
Maidah, which is the 5th chapter of the
Quran, we've mentioned a number of rulings that
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given to us
concerning, for example, food and that which is
halal as opposed to that which is haram
and some of the other rulings that are
pertaining to that. And all of these rulings
as we said
in the last couple of episodes
fits into the overall theme of the Surah.
The theme of the Surah is the covenants
that Allah Azzawajal and the pledges that Allah
has taken upon us. And from those covenants
and pledges, we have the greatest of those
pledges, which is the Tawhid of Allah, Azza
wa Jal, and to believe in him alone
and worship him alone.
And also from that greatest
pledge, we have many other pledges that form
our agreement if you like with our Lord
and creator. And from those pledges are the
pledges to worship him and to abide by
his by his commandments.
Whether it is commandments to do or commandments
to stay away from which we call prohibitions.
So today in verse number 6, where we
begin
is another set of commandments from Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala, but this time to do with
the issue of Tahara and purification.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says
Oh, you who believe when you are about
to pray, wash your faces and your hands
up to the elbows, wipe your heads, wash
your feet up to the ankles, and if
required, wash your whole body.
If any of you is sick or on
a journey or has just relieved himself or
had intimate contact with a woman
and can find no water, then take some
clean sand and wipe your face and hands
with it. God does not, or Allah does
not wish to place any burden upon you.
He He only wishes to cleanse you and
perfect his blessing upon you so that you
may be thankful.
As we can see in this verse Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and it is similar to
a verse that we already covered in Surah
Al Nisa
which Allah gave similar commandments in terms of
Tuhara and Wudu and the different types of
purification that is involved for the believer.
When we stand before Allah Azza wa Jal,
our Lord and Creator to worship him and
to pray
and
to show our devotion to him. Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala, Allah is obligated upon us that we
are in a state of Tahara, a state
of purification.
And there are 2 states of purification. The
first of them is achieved
by having Tawhid and belief in Allah Azza
Wa Jal,
spiritual purification
from shirk and from disbelief,
And the second type of purification is the
physical purification,
which is to purify your body and your
clothes and the place that you are going
to pray upon so that it is clean
and pure for this act of worship that
is the Salah. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala here
gives the command
to offer the Salah. Surah. He says, oh,
you who believe,
when you are about to stand to pray,
which shows that this is something which is
done before the Surah. Surah. As the scholars
of fiqh have mentioned, the tahara is one
of the conditions for the validity of your
Surah. So in order for you to pray
and for that prayer to be correct and
valid, you must be in a state of
purification.
Number 2, one of the benefits that we
also get is that Allah says that when
you intend to pray, then and then he
goes on to describe the Wudu. So that
shows that the Wudu is something
which is only obligatory at that time and
point when you want to perform the Salah.
So you don't always have to be in
a state of Wudu, however it is recommended
to do so. It is always good to
be in a state of Wudu because the
Prophet told us
no one preserves that state of being in
constant wudu except for the believer. And so
that is something which is good and recommended.
But it's not a must, it's not an
obligation.
However, when you want to come and pray
now, so it's the time for Duhr or
Asar or Maghrib or Isha or Fajr or
any other type of prayer. Because Allah says
when you wish to intend to pray and
the word salah is general. So therefore prayers
that are not obligatory.
So for example the sunnah prayers, for example
the dua prayer, for example the tara wih
prayer, all of these other prayers that are
not obligatory prayers, they are optional voluntary prayers
but because they are still a salah then
likewise the condition for that is still the
same that you have to be in the
seat of Tahara. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala then
goes on to describe the steps
to performing Wudu and he mentions the major
pillars of Wudu. Number 1 is that you
wash your faces, That is that you take
clean water and wash all over the face
including for example the men who have beards
that they wash their beards as well. Waidiya
kum il al marafik
and that you wash your hands up until
the elbows and including the elbows. So the
hand includes the hand
all the way up to the forearm and
including the elbow. And that is something which
is important because often people come mistake in
is that people wash their arms, but then
neglect the. They don't really always include the
within the washing of wudu, but that is
something which is extremely important.
And then wipe over your head as is
demonstrated in the sun of the prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam that the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
would take his hands
and wet them and then he would start
from the beginning of his head and wipe
all the way to the back and then
wipe all the way to the front. That
is called in Arabic,
to wipe.
And wash your feet up until and including
your ankles. And that is also something which
therefore includes the heels,
the back of the feet. And that's again
something which people don't necessarily
think about or are conscious of when they're
making wudu. Often they leave the ankles or
the heels in terms of washing their feet
and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam on one
occasion saw a companion who was washing his
feet and he had washed his feet except
for a part of his of his heels.
So The Prophet said to him, salallahu alayhi
wa sallam,
'beware of those heels touching the fire.' Meaning
that your wudu is not full and correct.
And because your wudu is not full and
correct, therefore your salah is not full and
correct and valid. And so these are issues
which even though they may seem simple or
easy or it's something which we've just become
accustomed to because we've been doing it for
so many years now, it is something that
we should cause and and and have diligence,
with regards to. So we should be diligent
in terms of Wudu,
conscious of washing each and every single part
of the limbs of Wudu in the manner
in which it was prescribed by our Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and before him by Allah
in this verse in the Quran.
And to perfect the Wudu, to make what
is called in Arabic Isbaq al wudu, which
is to perfect or complete the wudu, to
do it in the best of ways and
manners from the beginning to the end, which
includes washing the nose and the mouth and
wiping over the ears and all of the
different elements of wudu that we know to
do that in the way that we that
that has been to us in the sun
of the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is something
which is extremely rewarding and it is something
which a person should be conscious of because
the rewards for wudu and isparkl wudu are
many and great as mentioned in the Sunnah.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then goes on to
a different form of purification
because the purification
of Wudu
is
for minor ritual impurity.
And minor ritual impurity is everything
that is, excludes
number
1, intimate relations between a man and his
spouse and the
monthly cycle for a woman or postpartum bleeding.
These
two things, the bleeding of the woman and
marital relations,
enter you into a state of major ritual
impurity.
Everything else which breaks the state of Wudu
is considered to be minor ritual impurity. So
for example, a crime of Wudu going to
the bathroom, as a simple example, or passing
wind.
These break your state of Wudu and they
enter into a state of minor ritual impurity.
How do we come out of that state
of minor ritual impurity?
We come out of it by performing Muduh.
That is one type of purification and Allah
begins with it in this verse because it
is the most common one that you will
need. It is the one that you will
need on a regular basis
every single day, multiple occasions on a single
day. So that is why Allah begins with
it. But then Allah
moves on to the issue of major ritual
impurity and he says,
and if required
or if you are in a state of
janaaba which is major ritual impurity,
then
then wash your whole body meaning make or
take or take or
The major original impurity as we said is
when a person is in a state of
major original impurity after they've had marital relations
or *
and due to the bleeding of a woman
either from a monthly cycle or after childbirth,
which is called postpartum bleeding.
Those people in that category are in a
state of major ritual impurity. For them, in
order to be able to perform Salah,
they need to make a ghusl.
So for the woman who is on a
type of bleeding, she waits for that to
finish and then she makes a ghusl. And
likewise for the person who, because of some
type of marital relations,
then they also come into that state of
major ritual impurity they must make ghusl. And
the manner of ghusl is mentioned in detail
in the sun of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam. Allahu alaihi wa jal doesn't mention
it here
And by that, that is the minimum that
you do. But there is a sunnah way
of doing it. And that is that the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam would begin by
first washing his private parts and then he
would make a full wudu. And then he
would wash his hair the right side before
the left and then his body the right
side before the left and then he would
finish.
And so that is the sunnah way of
making wudu, wussal. But the very minimum is
that you ensure that walta touches all of
your body. And for both wudu and wussal,
you have to have the intention beforehand in
your heart that this is what it is
that you're intending to perform. And that's what
makes rusl different too. For example, a normal
shower that you may have every day, every
morning or that you may have for example
on a hot day or for some other
reason after you exercise. Those are just washing
your body and that is permissible.
But also and wudu are acts of worship.
And so therefore for every act of worship,
you need a specific intention for that to
be correct.
Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala then gives us a
third form of purification
and that is the purification for those people
who have valid excuses for one reason or
another, They are not able to use water
either because
that water is not present, they don't have
any water or because they have water but
the use of that water would harm them.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
if one of you is travelling or is
sick. So those are valid excuses. Now the
person who's sick can't use water, maybe it's
going to harm them even more because of
a condition that they have. So not every
sick person can't use water or can't use
water. These are the people that can't use
water because of their sickness or they will
exacerbate their sickness. Oh, al Assafar. Oh, people
are traveling and so therefore there are very
little water with them or they have run
out of their water.
And you are in a state now of
having been to the bathroom
or touched your women, meaning that you've had
relations with them. So now you're in a
state of impurity either minor or major, then
what do you do?
And you can find no water,
Meaning there's no water there that you can
use. Because sometimes a person travelling, especially in
the olden days, in the journeys that they
used to have in the desert, they would
have water with them. But they needed that
water to drink. That water was for them
to drink. If they use that water for
wudu, then they would have no water left
to drink. So those people are like the
people who have no access to water.
The translation I have here is take some
clean sand. But a better translation is take
some of the earth, meaning touch anything upon
the ground. And that is something which you
can then use, you touch upon it with
your hands and you wipe over it your
hands and your face. And that is called
Tayamum.
And Tiamum is from the Concessions that Allah
has given to us and it is from
the mercy of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. That
when you are in that situation,
you can simply use the earth.
And even though you may not have access
to water, the earth is something which everyone
has access to. You just need to go
and touch something that is earth and then
you can make your tiyamun with that. And
it is very easy, simply wiping
over the hands and the face once and
it is done. Allah Subhanahu Ta'ala says concluding
this verse, Allah Azzawajal does not wish to
place any burden upon you. He only wishes
to cleanse you and perfect his blessing upon
you so that you may be thankful. So
Allah has made the religion easy in terms
of these types of issues, number 1. And
number 2, Allah
wants us to be in a state of
purity.
Allah wants us to be in a state
of purification.
Because to be pure
both in heart and likewise physically in body
and limbs, then that is something which is
good for the believer, which shows to us,
as we know from the general Sunnah,
that when it comes to the Salah, this
is one aspect of the Salah. But to
have a general decorum of being clean and
of being in a state of hygiene and
purity is something which is highly recommended.
So to make sure that your clothes are
clean and befitting for standing before Allah Azzawajal
to perfume yourself for the men, that is
something befitting for them. To use the miswak
before standing for the salah is something that
is befitting. All of these things
show that a person should be in the
best state. And on the opposite side, Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said when we eat raw
onion or raw garlic, don't let them come
to our Masjid. So those odors
that would go against what is the general
sense of cleanliness.
That's something which is to be,
stopped and something which is to be avoided.
And the companions used to say that if
we found someone who used to have an
odor coming from them like that, like onion
or garlic they've just eaten and come to
the Masjid, we would take them out all
the way to Baqir. Baqir is the graveyard
in Madinah, not too far from the Masjid
of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, but
we would take them all the way out
to the area. Meaning it wouldn't even let
them go just close to the Masjid because
of the harm that it does. And the
Prophet told us that
indeed the angels
are harmed by that which harms the children
of Adam. Just as me and you don't
like the smell of raw garlic and onion
coming from someone, then likewise the angels of
Allah Azzawajal don't like them either those scents
or those odors and the angels come and
they bear witness in the salah. They come
to the masajid and they witness the prayer
And so therefore these are issues that are
extremely important that Allah
mentions to us and it is from a
person's Iman that they are conscious of their
cleanliness.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in verse number
7,
Remember Allah's blessing on you and the pledge
with which you were bound when you said
we hear and we obey. Be mindful of
Allah for indeed Allah has foreknowledge of the
secrets of the heart. And here
Allah is expressly telling us
that we should remember the besting of Allah
upon us as well as the pledge
that we are bound with when we obeyed
Allah
and that is that the believer
is someone who acknowledges the blessings of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala and from the greatest of
those blessings is the blessing of Iman
the blessing of knowing how to worship Allah
Azzawajal alone, and the blessing of fulfilling the
commandments of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and the
blessing of knowing the beauty of this religion
Islam.
And also that we then understand and remember
that we have a covenant with Allah aza
wa Jal to say that you're a Muslim
or a Mu'min or a believer, someone that
accepts Islam
means and necessitates them that you're going to
uphold the laws of Islam, that you're going
to uphold obligations that Allah has placed upon
you. And as we said, the Surah often
will mention this issue of pledges and covenants
that Allah has placed upon us and that
Allah
placed upon the nations that came before us
as we will see shortly in the next
episode. Allah Azzawajal will start speaking about Bani
Israel
and the covenant and pledge that Allah Azzawajal
took upon them.
So therefore Allah
says and remember the pledge that we placed
upon you when you said we hear and
we obey and that is that we have
agreed
by simply accepting Islam as our own religion
to hear and obey Allah and his messenger
And that is why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says وَلِّ
and be mindful of Allah and fear Allah
and indeed Allah knows the secrets of your
heart. Allah knows what you contain
within your heart.
Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala in verse number 8
then goes on to say,
for that is closer to the consciousness of
Allah. Be mindful of Allah for Allah is
all aware of what you do. Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala gives this instruction to the believers
that the believers are those people who should
be steadfast in their religion to Allah Azza
wa Jal. And that is because all of
these laws that we have mentioned and look
at the beginning of the Surah, Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala tells
us to respect and honor the symbols and
rights of Allah
and then he gives us rulings concerning our
life, our everyday life in terms of the
dunya and that's the food and drink that
we consume
and then Allah
gives to us also warnings concerning our religion
and that is the rulings of purification of
Wudu and Usul and Tiamu. Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala says be devoted to Allah azza wa
Jal therefore in your dunya and in your
deen in your life, in terms of your
worldly aspects and in terms of your religious
aspects as well.
And likewise
and bear witness impartially
meaning that you should be people of justice,
people of honor, people of integrity,
people who stand up for the truth,
people who whether it is something which goes
for them or against them, they will stand
up and they will speak the truth because
they have the fear of Allah
and they are aware that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is all hearing and all seeing and
all knowing and that Allah knows everything that
takes place. And that is why Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala then goes on to say
do not let hatred of others lead you
away from justice
because often
it is people's emotions,
what they feel in their heart,
the animosity they may have towards certain people
and on the other side the love they
may have for others that will cause them
to be unjust. It will cause them to
sway in terms of the stance they should
take. Allah Azzawajal is saying here don't let
the hatred of others lead you away from
being just because you should always be just
and always be fair irrespective of those people
who are in front of you. So even
if the person who comes to you don't
have a great deal of love for them,
you don't have a great relationship with them,
there is not a very good connection between
you and them but at the same time
you recognize
that this individual is someone who in this
particular issue is speaking the truth.
In this particular issue, they are the oppressed.
They are the ones who have been wronged.
Then it is from the justice of the
believer that he rights the wrong for them,
that he gives to them their fuel for
right and their justice,
even though they may not be the closest
of people to one another. And that is
something which shows
a higher level of Taqwa. As Allah 'Azza
wa Jal then goes on to say,
but rather adhere to justice that is closer
to Taqwa, that is closer to the piety
and mindfulness of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Why?
Because this person you don't have a great
relationship with, the fact that you are willing
to go and give to them the justice
that they deserve,
despite the personal animosity between you and them,
shows that you're not necessarily doing it for
them. It's not because you have a great
relationship with them or they're related to you
or you have some business dealings between you
and them or some other benefit from the
dunya. You are doing that for Allah's pleasure.
You are doing that because you are mindful
of Allah. You're doing that because you have
the piety of Allah azza wa Jal in
your heart. And that is why Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala says, Iradeeru
aqrbulitaqaqwa.
Be people of justice
that is closer to having taqwa.
And so therefore taqwa means to constantly be
conscious and mindful of Allah Subhanahu Ta'ala in
every situation.
And sometimes a situation is a situation which
dictates
that you have to fight your nafs, fight
your soul, fight your heart and desires and
fight what it is that you would rather
want to do because of your ego and
because of certain other things that you have
within your personality. You fight them and you
ward them off. You strive against them for
a higher purpose
and a higher cause. And that is the
pleasure of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and Allah Azza wa Jal says so fear
Allah and indeed Allah is well aware of
that which you do and Allah Azza wa
Jal loves and gives
the reward to those people who sacrifice for
his sake and who strive
against themselves for the sake of Allah.
In verse number 9 Allah says
Allah has promised forgiveness and a rich reward
to those who have faith and do good
works. And that is the reward. For those
people of justice and Taqwa who spend their
lives with Iman and with righteous deeds, Allah
has given them a promise and the promises
of Allah are never broken. Allah doesn't go
back on his promises. Allah's promises are always
fulfilled. For them they will have Magfira the
forgiveness of Allah
and they will have a great reward. And
what more does a believer want than Allah's
forgiveness and mercy and the reward that he
has promised to them of Jannah.
In verse number 10 which is the first
verse of the next page, Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala then says and it is the final
verse that we will take in today's episode.
Allah
says,
and those who reject faith and deny Our
revelations, they will inhabit the blazing fire. So
just as the people of Iman and righteous
deeds will have Allah's forgiveness and a tremendous
reward, then those who don't have Iman, they
have disbelief and rejected
and disbelieved in Allah and the messengers and
the revelations of Allah Azzawajal.
They will be the people of the fire.
That will be their reward rather than the
great reward of Jannah. They will have the
worst of punishment and that is the fire.
May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala grant us and
our families and our loved ones Jannah and
may Allah Azzawajal see us all from the
punishment of the fire. And with that, we
come to the end of today's episode.