Ahsan Hanif – Quran Tafseer – Page 109 – Trust In Allah And Fulfilling Covenants
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Muhammad.
Welcome to another episode of our tafseer page
by page and inshallah today
we are on page 109 which is in
the 6th Surah Al Mahidah.
In the previous verse, Allah in the previous
episode rather Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gave to
us a number of instructions and commandments.
From amongst them was the commandment of purification
when we wish to pray and stand before
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
in salah. And Allah Azzawajal highlighted to us
and emphasized to us the different types of
purification that we may need depending on the
circumstance that we're in. So for example, we
have wudu
which is for minor ritual impurity and then
we have ghusl which is for major ritual
impurity and then we have a concession in
the case of the absence of water or
the inability to use water and that is
called And
and that is all from the mercy of
Allah Subhanahu Ta'ala. But as we said, it
also shows to us a very important principle
of this religion and that is that Allah
wants
the believers to be people of of purity.
As Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says elsewhere in
the Quran,
Allah loves the people of purity. And so
Allah loves the believer to be someone who
is clean,
someone who is smelling good, someone who presents
themselves in a good way without going to
extremes
because there are always extremes in these issues.
One extreme is that a person doesn't care
about their personal hygiene. They don't care about
the way that they smell. They don't bathe
often. They don't wear clean clothes. That's one
extreme. But the other extreme are those people
who spend all of their waking hours concerned
about their appearance.
And mostly those people that do that, it's
because they want to impress others, not that
they want to impress Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
They're impressing others so they're there taking hours
on their appearance, in the way that they
look and in the way that they will
dress and in the way that they will
appear and they go to extremes in that
regard. And the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam didn't
like that either. And that is why the
prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam sometimes used to say
to the companions, you should walk barefooting.
Why? Because it humbles you. Someone that does
not wear shoes humbles you and the companions
used to say that the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam would comb his hair on days and
leave
his hair on other days. And that's because
if it's not especially hair that if it's
left for a day, doesn't become extremely unkempt,
that it's something which you can get away,
it's okay, then that's something which the prophet
wouldn't go to extremes in because people can
go to extremes in all of these issues.
The point here being is that Allah wants
us to be people of cleanliness and purity
and good appearance but without going to the
extremes that sometimes you unfortunately see. And also
from the commands of Allah Azza Wa Jal
that we mentioned in the previous episode was
the command of justice that we should be
people of integrity and fairness
even if it goes against us or even
if the people that we're judging concerning
are people that we don't have the greatest
level of love and and and affection for.
And that is because the justice in that
particular situation,
it is from the signs of the taqwa
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala that you were
just because not that you want to impress
that person. You have no benefit from that
person. There's no connection between you and them.
In fact, the connection between you and them
is one of animosity
and ill feeling for whatever reason.
But you do that for the sake of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and to please your
Lord and creator.
So today we continue from verse number 11.
And that is the statement of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
Oh, you who believe, remember Allah's blessing on
you when a certain people were about to
raise their hands against you and he restrained
them. Be mindful of Allah. Let the believers
put their trust in him.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala reminds here the believers
who predominantly
are the time at the time of the
prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam. So the companions
radiallahu anhu Majman.
Allah reminds them of one of his great
favors upon them and one of the great
blessings that he bestowed upon them. And that
is that Allah says remember when or remember
Allah's blessing on you when a certain people
are about to raise their hands against you
and he restrained them. And that is that
Allah Subhanahu Ta'ala saved the believers from the
enemies that there were certain times and occasions
in which they could have overpowered
the believers because they were greater in number,
greater in terms of their strength, in terms
of their armor and their weapons, in terms
of their manpower, in terms of all of
those things that an army would conventionally need
in order to defeat another army or another
group of people and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
had he will, they could have defeated the
believers.
So for example, on the day of the
battle of Badr as we know, the army
of the non Muslims of the people of
Quraish
outnumbered the Muslims 3 to 1 approximately.
And so therefore, in terms of number, they
vastly outnumbered the Muslims. In terms of equipment,
in terms of their weaponry, in terms of
their armor, in terms of animals that they
had, the riding
animals for war that they had, they also
vastly outnumbered
the Muslims
in terms they were better equipped,
better able to defend themselves, better able to
attack because of the weaponry that they had
and the Muslims had very little in that
regard And so Allah azza wa jal from
his blessings
is that he stopped those people for example
on that day from harming the Muslims because
had Allah willed, it could have been that
case. And likewise, for example, in the battle
of the trench, Al Khandaq or the battle
of Hazab as it's also known which is
when the confederation of the armies of the
non muslims and the polytheists came and converged
upon the city of Medina in order to
attack the muslims. So you had the Quraysh
and some of the premier major tribes of
Arabia.
All of them coming together.
All of them as a single army even
though they're different people, different nations, different,
communities, different tribes but they're coming together for
a single purpose and that was to attack
the Prophet and
the Muslims in Madinah.
And had Allah
built, that also could have been something extremely
detrimental to the believers. But Allah
saved the believers and Allah
inspired them
as we know from the story of Surman
al Fardisi
he gave them the inspiration to
dig a wide trench between themselves and the
enemy as they approach the city of Madinah.
That is from the blessing of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala in the battle of Tabuk when
the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is going to
fight the Romans, the Byzantines
and the Byzantines are the superpower of that
region alongside the Persians.
These aren't just a group of Arab tribes.
These aren't just people who are tribal leaders
or tribal nomads. These are people who have
an actual army. These are people who have
a disciplined army. There are people who have
conquered different parts of the world. There are
people who fight with other superpowers.
But in the battle of Tabuk,
they run away and flee from the Muslims
and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. So
on how many occasions does Allah
prevent harm from befalling the Muslims?
When a certain people were about to raise
their hands against you and he restrained them.
And the scholars of tafsir will give all
of these different examples that I have mentioned
and others but the but the general meaning
is
and it includes and encompasses all of them.
That it is from Allah's blessings
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala saved the Muslims
from a great deal of hardship and that
is from the blessings of Allah known and
that is something which we can apply to
our own lives because how do we know
of how many things that could have come
upon our path each and every single day
to harm us and Allah sends
it away from us. Either because he takes
us down a different path
or he takes that thing down a different
path and so we miss one another.
How many times does Allah make things easy
for you? And all of us have been
in those near misses, For example, when we're
driving or when we're walking, something very simple
that Allah
makes easy for us and takes it away.
And those are the things that we can
see, that we witness, that we experience first
hand. Only Allah knows
the unhidden things, the unseen things that you
will never know That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
from his mercy made go away from you.
That he diverted from your path. And that
is why when you make dua dua to
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, when you ask Allah
for his divine aid and protection, when you
beseech Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and you ask
for his help Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, Allah
is blessing you with those things. Allah is
giving you those things and you don't even
notice. And that is why as the scholars
said and is mentioned in some narrations as
well, that when a person makes dua, Allah
answers in 1 of 3 ways. Number 1,
that Allah
gives you what you asked for. You asked
for wealth, Allah gave you wealth. You asked
for a child, Allah gave you a child.
You asked for a career, Allah gave you
a career. That's the first way. The second
way is that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala doesn't
give it to you, but he gives you
something similar to it that is better for
you or words of some harm from you
that otherwise would have befallen you.
So now you want for example money but
Allah withholds it from you because he knows
that that money will corrupt you. So therefore
he withholds it from you or he wards
off some calamity that was going to befall
you because of the dua that you're making.
That's the second way. And so how many
times you're making dua and asking Allah for
things and you don't necessarily see what you're
asking for, but many of those
hidden and unseen calamities that could have and
would have befallen you, Allah diverted them away
from your path. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala made
them leave you.
Or the third way is that Allah gives
you its full reward instead on the day
of judgement on your
and that is why when Allah tells us
that he answers our duas
and he commands us to make dua to
him subhanahu wa ta'ala, that is something that
we should take extremely seriously because Allah is
granting us from his from his bounty and
from his mercy.
So likewise, Allah
helped the believers
by warding off the harm of the disbelievers
from them and restraining their hands against them.
And then Allah says, and
fear Allah
and let the believers put their trust in
Allah.
And that is the beauty of dua. When
you make dua to Allah
and beseech Allah and you supplicate to him,
you are trusting your first name
with the conviction and the certainty that Allah
knows what is best. And therefore, if despite
your hard dua
or your constant dua and your sincere dua
and your beseeching of Allah
so many times and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
still doesn't give you what you ask for,
know for surety that Allah knows
that it's not good for you or there
is some harm in that for you. And
Allah doesn't want that harm to come
to you because of his love for you.
And that is why Umar
the famous caliph and companion used to say,
my job is only to make dua. As
for the answer, I leave it to Allah.
I don't preoccupy myself with it. Because the
process of making Dua is Ibadah, and that
is what you are getting rewarded for. The
result is in the hands of Allah
The result is something which Allah does. Allah
gives to him so ever he pleases.
But what are you doing that you get
rewarded for? He's making dua. And sometimes Allah
when we make dua, he delays the response.
Because if Allah was to answer immediately every
time we make dua, then we'd stop making
dua. If you ask Allah for money today
and Allah gives it to you tomorrow, then
you're not gonna make dua for money again
because you've got enough money. Allah made you
rich. You asked for a child and Allah
gives you a child. You don't want another
child to stop making dua. Whereas the person
who takes them a number of years in
order to gain that waaf, a number of
years in order to gain that child, What
are they doing for that those period of
years? They're constantly making dua. They're crying before
Allah. They're begging Allah azza wa jal. They're
supplicating to him by morning and by night.
They're supplicating to him in this at this
time and at that time, constantly mindful of
this issue and constantly asking Allah azza wa
Jal. And so as a result, they're building
up their good deeds. As a result, they're
building up their reward because of this act
of worship of dua. The point is that
this is something which is from the blessings
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that we should
be mindful of.
In verse number 12, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
then speaks about Bani Israel and he says,
Allah took a pledge from the children of
Israel.
We made 12 leaders arise among them and
Allah said to them I am with you
if you keep up the prayer,
pay the Zakah,
believe in my messengers and support them and
lend to Allah a goodly loan. I will
wipe out your sins and admit you into
gardens graced with flowing streams
and any of you who now ignore this
pledge will be far from the right path.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala as we mentioned before
the Surah is the Surah that speaks about
the importance
of the pledges and covenants that we have
taken and made. And from the greatest of
those pledges and covenants is the one that
we made with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala that
we will worship him
Allah in this Surah will mention
how some of the previous nations took those
pledges and they broke them. They took pledges
with Allah
of obedience and worship
and they broke those pledges.
And that is a result or a reminder
to us rather that we should be conscious
of this issue of breaking our pledge with
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala because to break the
pledge with Allah
is to break your contract with him subhanahu
wa ta'ala and that will incur a great
deal of misery and punishment
and and sin.
Allah says here and remember, when we took
the pledge from Bani Israel,
and we made 12 leaders arise from amongst
them. And that is because the tribes of
Bani Israel were 12. Twelve tribes of Bani
Israel.
So each one of them has a nakib.
A nakib is a leader, a representative.
These are the people that are representatives even
in the time of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam amongst the Mahajaleen and the Ansar.
They would have
These
are their representatives. Each clan, each family has
a representative because there may be a 100
people in the family. How are we going
to know the whole the opinion of every
single one of them? We don't know. And
it's not our position to go to each
and every single person. I would ask them
their individual position. So what you have then
are representatives, the leaders of the family,
the leader of the family, the leader of
the clan, the leader of the tribe. These
are nakibs.
And that is what what they used to
do. Even in the time of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, they are the representatives.
It makes it easy for the ruler then
to go and to speak to these people
and they intend to speak to the various
members of their tribe or family or clan.
So likewise, Bani Israel had these 12 leaders.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said to them, I
will be with you. I will give to
you my protection, my aid, my blessings, my
mercy. This is a promise from Allah
This is a covenant with Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. Just as Allah has made a covenant
with us as the Muslims,
Allah will be with us. Allah will help
you. Allah will honor you. Allah will bless
you. Allah will give you everything that you
need in this life and Allah will honor
you with even more.
However, the example, the the condition is
as Allah mentions here.
So long as you
pray.
And you give the Zakah.
And you believe in the messengers meaning you
have iman.
And you support them meaning the messengers.
And you give to Allah a goodly loan.
Allah is saying here therefore, that it's not
just about you making the claim that you're
a believer, making the claim that you're a
Muslim, making the claim that you want Allah
help and his divine aid and protection, but
rather what Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala wants to
see from you is the truthfulness of that
in your deeds, in your intention, in your
words, in your speech.
So you must give the salah, perform the
salah and give the zakah
Because those are the 2 major pillars of
this religion, the salah and the zakah. And
the people who preserve these 2 are people
who are more than likely or were then
more likely
to preserve other parts and elements of the
religion.
Because these elements of salah and zakah show
that a person is serious in terms of
this covenant they have made with Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. But the issue of iman is
also important that you believe in all of
the messengers and that would include the time
in the time of the prophet salallahu alaihi
wa sallam for Bari Israel that they believed
in the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam as
well. Not only that you help them or
that you believe in them
that you help them, that you give them
the
the the right of respect and reverence and
obedience, that you help them and that you
support them.
And you give to Allah a good deal.
And what is the good deal known? The
goodly loan to Allah is sadaqa, to give
extra charity. Zakah is the obligatory charity that
you must give. Sadaqa is the optional charity
that you should give. And Allah
calls that a goodly loan. It is a
goodly loan because Allah
will multiply for you your reward.
So, usually, in the dunya, if that was
to take place, it would be a form
of riba. If I was to give you
£10 and ask you to give me 15
back, that would be called riba. It's usually
and it's not allowed. But when it comes
to Allah,
that is something which is a good deal
on because Allah
is not giving you money back necessarily. He's
giving you something far greater and far better
in terms of reward. And so Allah caused
that a goodly loan. And also in the
Quran, Allah
asks or commands the believers and says,
who is there that will give to Allah
a goodly loan? Meaning they will spend in
the path of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And
that is any type of sadaqah that you
give. Whether it is sadaqah to the poor
or the needy or the sadaqah that you
give of any type or form that is
all are goodly known for the sake of
Allah.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that if you
do all of that to ban Israel,
so you want Allah's help, these are the
conditions, pray, give Zakah, believe in Allah
and his messengers,
support them, give to Allah a good deed
on meaning do extra acts of worship, not
just the obligations,
do extra acts of worship. If you do
that,
then you have fulfilled your pledge and covenant.
If you fulfill the pledge and covenant, what
do you get in return?
Allah says
I will forgive you for all of your
sins. What an amazing reward. That by doing
that which Allah has commanded because Allah by
saying
that I will forgive you for your sins.
Allah is telling us that He knows that
we will sin. Allah is aware that we
will sin. Alongside the salah and the zakah.
We're still sinning, which is the case and
situation of all of us. You're praying and
you're giving zakah and you're trying to do
good, but on the other hand, you're still
sinning. You're falling into wrong. You're oppressing. You're
doing wrong. Allah says that I will wipe
out those sins for you. I will forgive
you for those sins. Not only that,
and I will enter you into gardens graced
with flowing streams. That is from the greatest
blessing of Allah
in the hadith of Mu'adh ibn Jabl.
We've mentioned previously, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
asked Mu'adh
what is the right of Allah upon his
slaves
and the right of the slaves upon their
Lord. Mu'ad said, Allah and his messenger know
best. The prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam replied
that Allah's right upon his slaves is that
they worship him alone. Don't associate anyone in
worship with him. And the right of the
slaves upon their Lord and creator is that
if they do that, they fulfill that pledge
and covenant,
then Allah won't punish them. Allah will give
to them Jannah.
That is the covenant that we have made
with Allah azza wa jal. That we must
be people of Iman and people of righteous
deeds. People who fulfill the pledge that we
took to worship Allah alone.
And that doesn't just mean in the claim
that we won't worship Allah alone but he
means in the action as well, In the
speech as well that we're people of Salah,
people of Zakah, people who do good and
believe in Allah and believe in all of
the different articles of faith from belief in
the messengers and the divine revelations and the
day of judgment and so on and so
forth. And the promise of Allah in return
is great. I will give to you forgiveness.
I will give to you mercy. I will
give to you blessings and I will give
to you the highest of reward which is
the reward of Jannah. And that is what
Allah says concluding this verse,
but whosoever
ignores this after this,
ignores this pledge after this covenant has been
made, you turn away. You don't do this.
You don't fulfill these conditions.
Then that person has indeed gone far astray.
They have indeed gone far astray.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
then mentions in verse number 13
how amongst many Israeli there were those who
broke that pledge and covenant.
They took it and they were aware of
the conditions and they broke that pledge and
covenant.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
Allah says but they broke their pledge
so we placed upon them our curse and
hardened their hearts. They distort the meaning of
the revealed revealed words and have forgotten some
of what they were told to remember.
You will always find treachery in all but
a few of them, overlook this and pardon
them for Allah loves those who do good.
Allah
says that from amongst the people of Bani
Israel were
people who broke that pledge we just mentioned
in the previous verse, verse number 12. Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala says that as a result
of that, a number of things happened. The
first of them is that they were cursed
by Allah
and the curse of Allah is to be
removed from all of his mercy and all
of his good Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And imagine therefore that from that promise of
Allah that Allah gave to them in previous
verse that they would have forgiveness, they would
have reward, they would have mercy. Now they
are being distanced from all of that. They
have been cast by Allah
Not only that, but we made their hearts
hard.
They were hard hearted. So therefore when the
reminders came, it didn't soften their hearts. When
they saw the signs of Allah azza wa
jal, it made little impact. When they heard
the words of Allah being recited, they had
very little impact upon them because they're breaking
the pledge constantly.
And because of that, they're coming becoming further
and further distance from Allah azza wa jen
and as a result then, they have less
and less
ability to absorb
the reminder of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in
his words and revelations. And that is what
happens when we sin. Every sin as the
prophet
told us is like a black dot in
the heart and the more that you sin,
it continues to increase in blackness until the
whole heart just becomes darkened. And that is
the example of the person who is constantly
in a state of sin. It is difficult
for them to break out of that mold.
They require a great deal of
of self deception and motivation
and hard work and obviously the success of
Allah in
order to be able to then go back
and make Tawba.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says concerning them, these
people of Bani Israel, what did they do
that caused them to break the pledge?
They would distort the words of Allah as
we've given examples of before. Allah would say,
we'll do one thing and they would twist
it and they would try to find ways
around it and they would try to manipulate
that
from the instructions of the Torah. And from
amongst them was the fact that they're from
the instructions of the Torah. And from amongst
them was the fact that they that they
would see a messenger come to them, the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam with revelation.
They forgot those parts or they ignored them
and they turned away from them. Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala says describing these people that you
will always find amongst them or amongst
a number of them, treachery.
You would always find treachery in all but
a few of them because that is something
which they do. If they're doing it with
Allah ahsanwajal, they're trying to distort his words
and his commandments and this is what they
like in terms of their pledge with Allah
ahsawajal, they're more about their pledge with you.
If they don't care about the pledge of
the Lord and the creator, what will they
care about in terms of the pledge with
that they have with others?
Because there are from amongst them those
who do fulfill their pledge and so Allah
makes exception except for a few amongst them.
So Allah says commanding the prophet salallahu alayhi
wasalam
Rather overlook this and pardon them. So long
as it doesn't harm you, so long as
it doesn't do anything detrimental to you, overlook
and pardon them for indeed Allah loves those
who do good. And this is a good
characteristic and trait to have that when people
are known for their harm, you ignore them
to the best of your ability and you
just simply overlook and pardon them because to
get into debate with them or to sit
with them or to get into some type
of conflict with them will not really achieve
any type of meaningful
conclusion or result. It will only make things
worse, so therefore ignore them. These are people
that you don't simply pay any heed to
and that's something which we should do in
our lives. When you have those people amongst
the people that we know within our community,
that's their characteristic,
ignore them. Overlook them and don't really engage
with them and Allah loves those who do
good. And with that we come to the
end of today's episode.