Ahsan Hanif – Quran Tafseer – Page 113 – Sanctity Of Life, Divine Justice, And Eternal Consequences
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The speakers discuss the history and importance of Islam, including the legal framework for committing murder and the lack of fear. They emphasize the need to be mindful of laws and the importance of thinking of the story of the two sons of Adam as reference to the lack of fear of Islam. The punishment system is based on the gravity of the crime and the nature of the crime, with worst punishment being death or Payment of Un hangs. The speakers stress the importance of striving for one's own purpose and finding ways to be mindful of one's deeds to avoid wasting time and fall into one of two ways.
AI: Summary ©
Welcome to another episode of out of Seer
page by page. Insha'Allah today
we're on page 113
of the Quran, which is the 6th Jews,
Surah Al Maida.
In the previous episode, we concluded the story
of Musa alaihis salam and Bani Israel when
they were coming towards the promised land. And
Muhammad
commanded them to enter that land and to
expel the evil people that were there. But
the people of Musa alaihis salam refused instead
saying to Musa alaihis salam, you and your
lord go and fight. We will wait for
you here. Meaning, that if you go and
do the hard work, we'll enter the city
once those people have been expelled. But as
for us going in and fighting, that's not
something which we are prepared to do. And
so Musa alaihi salam tells Allah that
he has no control over them, doesn't have
the ability to force them and
Allah decrees upon them 40 years of wandering
upon the earth in which they would not
be able to enter into the holy land
and those 40 years was the punishment that
Allah placed upon them. We then also cover
the story of the 2 sons of Adam.
The 2 sons of Adam
from whom Allah accepted from 1 of them
his sacrifice
and not from the other. So the 1
whose sacrifice is not accepted
decides to kill his brother for no other
reason other than the fact that Allah chose
his sacrifice
over
his own.
And so Allah mentions to us that the
other brother, the righteous brother said to his
brother that he would have harmed him, that
he fears Allah that he is taqwa of
Allah azza wa Jal and
that if he was to kill him, then
he would take on the burden of his
sins as well. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells
us that the brother ends up killing his
brother.
So 1 of the sons of Adam kills
the other son of Adam. And then Allah
Azzawajal mentions to us that he is taught
by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala how to bury
that body by digging it in the ground,
by digging the ground and by burying the
body within the
ground. In today's episode, we continue from verse
32.
And that is the statement of Allah Azzawajal
in which Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala draws a
link between that story of the 2 sons
of Adam and between a commandment of Allah
Azzawajal.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in verse 32,
On account of his deed, meaning that son
of Adam who committed murder,
we decree to the children of Israel that
if anyone kills a person unless in retribution
for murder or spreading corruption in the land,
It is as if he has killed all
of mankind.
While if any saves a life a life,
it is as if he saves the lives
of all of mankind.
Our messengers came to them with clear signs
but many of them continued to commit excesses
in the land.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that because and
as a result
of what took place between the 2 sons
of Adam and the son of Adam that
committed murder and we mentioned the hadith of
Ibn Mus'ud radiAllahu under the Prophet
said that no 1 commits murder except that
a portion of that sin will go to
the first son of Adam because he was
the first 1 to commit murder.
And so therefore Allah is saying here that
because of the heinous nature of that crime,
because of the very violent nature of that
oppression, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala decreed that whoever
commits murder unless it is done for a
dual right and a dual right means here
that it goes to the process
of going through the Muslim ruler or the
judge that he appoints and the evidence is
established
and all of the different protocols are taken
and then
the command was given or that ruling or
the decree is issued that there is to
be a an execution in that regard,
that is for a right that the Sharia
has given. But otherwise, murder is not allowed.
And for people to take matters into their
own hand, a type of vigilante justice or
for example in lands
in which there is no Muslim rule or
law, then you abide by the laws of
whatever that country dictates. And so it's not
allowed for you to go and simply take
those matters into your own hand and say
that no, it's alright so therefore I will
commit murder. Even if murder has been committed
against someone that is from your family. It's
not permissible
for you to go and take that,
take those matters into your own hands because
that way lies chaos and confusion.
And so Allah says here that if it
is not for a specific right that the
Sharia
dictates in the manner in which dictates,
then it's not allowed.
And to kill someone,
1 person, is equal to killing all of
mankind. Why? Because this person who kills the
other person
has no fear of Allah
has no concept or mindfulness of the Sharia
of Allah
and the commands of Allah
He didn't have enough Iman and Taqwa of
Allah fear of Allah in his heart to
stop him from committing a major sin, this
major crime that he committed.
So therefore if he is willing to kill
that 1 person, why wouldn't he kill a
second, and a third, and a fourth If
his temper cut the barrel of him, his
anger overcame him to such an extent that
he ends up killing someone, then why wouldn't
he kill another person? And that is why
Allah equates it as if he killed the
whole of mankind, which shows to us the
gravity of this sin. The gravity of the
sin of killing a single person.
A single person in the sight of Allah
is as if he killed all of mankind.
All of mankind. Because this person has no
fear of Allah
and the reverse is also true.
And whosoever
whosoever
lets 1 life live or saves a life,
then it's as if he has saved all
of mankind.
And that is because that person who in
that situation stops,
withholds themselves,
restrains themselves.
They know themselves. He knows that the sharia
of Allah doesn't allow this. He has enough
iman and taqwa in his heart to know
that this is something which is wrong. That
it's a major sin. That by doing so
they will incur the punishment of Allah azza
wa jal and this day make toba so
this person stays away.
And because of that Allah says it's as
if they saved all of mankind.
Because if this is the way that he
behaved with the first 1,
he will behave like that with the second
and the third and the fourth. This is
a person who can restrain himself.
And so Allah says that this is the
way it should be seen. And if this
was what we had in our mind, if
we ever come upon that situation may Allah
save us from that and keep us safe
and our families, but if you're ever in
that type of situation, this is what you
need to think of. You You need to
think of the story of the 2 sons
of Adam alaihi salatu salam and you need
to think of and be mindful of this
instruction of Allah
that to kill someone shows a lack of
fear of Allah
and you may as well or it's as
if you have killed all of mankind
and to save someone
is to save all of mankind
and just as to kill someone in that
situation is a major sin
and it is something which incurs a great
deal of sin, Then likewise to save a
life, to forego, to forgive, to be patient,
to be gentle, to be merciful. It is
also something which is extremely beloved to Allah
and something which is greatly rewarded.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
and our messengers came to them with clear
signs.
But then many of them continued to commit
excesses in the land. And that's because as
we know Ben Israel, they committed murder not
least amongst their own prophets or some of
their own prophets and messengers alayhi mus sala
to us salam.
In the next verse, verse 133 Allah
then gives to us another instruction.
And he says
Those who wage war against Allah and his
messenger and strive to spread corruption in the
land should be punished by death,
crucifixion,
the amputation of an alternate hand and foot,
or banishment from the land, a disgrace for
them for them in this world and then
a terrible punishment in the hereafter.
This verse is known as the verse of
Al Muharaba. And Al Muharaba are those people
who openly go and cause chaos and corruption
upon the earth. They're those people who go
and fight against their rulers.
As Allah mentions, they fight against Allah and
his messenger salallahu alayhi wasallam. They're fighting against
the religion of Allah azza wa jal, the
sharia of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the rulers
of the Muslims
and they're stealing people's money. They're openly going
and stealing people and there's a difference between
the thief
who goes and steals
because the thief is someone who does that
quietly, secretively.
Doesn't want anyone to know. He hides and
he keeps it secretive. And that person has
his his own rulings and his own punishments.
But are those people who openly go and
riot, openly go go and call cause corruption,
openly go and they don't care and broad
daylight they will go and steal. Those people,
what they do is called. Why? Because those
people cast fear into the hearts of others.
So if you're living in a neighborhood of
ruquinti may Allah will keep us all safe
and there are people there who openly go,
they don't care, they don't fear anyone, they
don't care about authority, they don't care about
the police, they don't care, they will come
open in broad daylight and they will attack
you or they will take your wealth or
they will harm you. That means that the
whole neighborhood lives in fear. There's nothing that
they they they will fear as opposed to
the thief
who doesn't wanna be caught, doesn't want to
be known, who's going to look for times
and cases where no 1 will see him
or notice him. That's a different type of
person. This person doesn't care. Doesn't have any
qualms, doesn't have any issue concerning his reputation,
doesn't have any fear of Allah azza wa
jal, let alone of anyone else. Those people
are worse
and what they do is worse. And this
happened in the time of the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam when a group of people came
and accepted Islam.
And then they found the weather of Madina
difficult to bear. So the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam said to them, go out to the
outskirts of Medina where we keep our animals
that we graze for Zakah and go and
drink from the urine and from the milk
of the camels.
So they did that. They went there and
they drank and Allah cured them. They then
apostated from the religion, killed the shepherd of
the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and stole the
wealth, stole the camels that they had. The
prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam sent the companions
to go and bring those people back and
then he punished them in this way that
Allah
mentions. Why? Because these people have openly rebounded,
openly gone and done harm. They're not just
stealing or trying to do it quietly. They
go and they fight and they kill and
they steal openly. And they don't care about
anyone that may see them or that may
know of them.
So Allah as you can see from this
verse
gives to them a great punishment or a
grievous punishment.
He says that they should be punished by
by death.
Or by crucifixion
or that their hands and or hand and
foot should be amputated. Alternate hand and foot,
a right hand and left foot.
Or they should be expound
from the land.
And that is the punishment that they have.
The scholars of and others differ
as to whether this is a choice for
the Muslim ruler meaning that if someone is
found guilty of this crime,
does the ruler have a choice of choosing
between these 4
punishments of Allah which I mentioned here which
is death,
crucifixion,
amputation of alternate hand and foot or expulsion
from the land. He can choose. Some of
the scholars who are at that position it
is up to the ruler or the judge.
They choose depending upon the gravity
of the sin
and its nature and what so on and
so forth. Those circumstances, they choose what it
is that they that they do. Others said
no. Others said that each 1 of these
punishments is dependent upon the level of the
sin that this person committed. So if they
committed open murder and open theft,
they went and they took the the wealth
of people and so on, then those people
should be killed and crucified
because of what they did and because of
how heinous the nature of their crime is
and so that it will be a deterrent
from others. And if there are people who
just killed but they didn't take any money,
then they should simply be put to death.
And if there are people who stole wealth
but they didn't kill, then you take off
an alternate hand and foot. And if there
are people who just go around scaring people,
they haven't killed anyone or taken their wealth
but they cast fear into their hearts, they're
intimidating them, they're causing open harm to people
like this, then those are the people that
should be expelled from the land. And so
there is this difference of opinion. But either
way, you see the gravity of this particular
issue. And that's why those people are from
the west of the criminals
because they do things openly. They intimidate people
openly. People live in a constant state of
fear.
People live in a constant state of fear
from them from from them. And most of
those people are probably unable then to leave
or to move or to find a different
place that they can go and reside. They're
stuck. And so every day they fear for
themselves, They fear for their families and their
children. They fear for their wealth. And that
is from the greatest crimes that a person
can commit towards another person. And that is
why the punishment in Islam is something which
is grave as well. And all of these
punishments in Islam, even though to some people
they may seem like they are harsh
or extreme as some people call them but
Allah
has the greatest of wisdom and knowledge and
it is meant to be a deterrent from
this. If someone knew that this is what
would happen to them, they would be killed
and crucified.
If they were found guilty of this crime
and it was done openly and publicly, as
the Sharia says that it should be done,
then that is something which the people would
be very mindful of. And so the prophet
did
this in his time to those people as
we said in that narration
that went to the shepherd and killed him
and they stole from the mouth of Zakah
and they openly caused rebellion or corruption upon
the earth. Allah
says that this is their humiliation upon the
earth.
This is their disgrace in this life.
In the hereafter, they will have a greater
punishment and a more terrible
punishment.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala then verse 34 gives
us the exception of those people from amongst
those,
them, this group of people, these criminals who
make tawba to Allah Azza wa Jal and
return to him in repentance. Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala says,
unless they repent before you overpower them. In
that case, bear remind that Allah is often
forgiving, most merciful.
And that is the general
principle as we know in our religion.
That so long as a person
isn't at the point of death, so long
as the sun is not about to rise
from the west, meaning that your is going
to be established, the door of repentance is
always open.
And no matter how grave the crime, how
evil it may be in its nature, if
that person is sincere in their repentance
and they turn back to Allah Azza wa
Jal, Allah will forgive them and repent them
as he mentions here in this verse. Even
these people who do the greatest of crimes,
Allah Azza wa Jal will forgive them. That
doesn't
mean that they don't right the wrongs that
they did if they harmed people by taking
their wealth and so on. No. They held
to account for that because of of the
harm that they did to those individuals as
we mentioned in the previous episode when we're
speaking about the story of the 2 sons
of Adam alaihis salam.
The rights of people are still the rights
of people. Your tawbah is between you and
Allah
but from the tawbah also is that you
have to right the wrongs that you've done.
You apologize, you seek their forgiveness,
or if it's some of the wahtah you
took and you can repay it, you repay
it, you make amends with them to the
best of your ability.
But the door of Tawbah is always open.
In the hadith of the prophet salallahu alaihi
wasallam, he told us the story of the
man from the children of Israel who killed
99 men in cold blood,
Murdered them in cold blood. 99 men. And
after killing 99 men, so this is a
man who today we would call in our
in our terminology a serial killer. This is
a man who killed 99 men from the
west of murderers.
He then felt remorse in his heart, wanted
to change and amend his ways.
So he was told to go to a
monk and seek his advice.
The monk was a worshipper, but doesn't have
much knowledge of the religion, but he's an
abbot. He's a worshipper. He's asked by this
man. He says, I kill 99 men.
Is there any hope of repentance for me?
The monk says, how can there be repentance
for you? You killed 99 men. What kind
of repentance are you expecting?
So the man thinks, if there's no repentance,
I may as well carry on. He kills
him as well and makes it a 100.
Now he's killed a 100 men in cold
blood, a 100 people in cold blood.
He's then told because he still feels that
remorse within his heart.
He is told by another person, go to
a scholar and seek his advice. Don't just
go to anybody. Go to someone who knows,
who studied Allah's religion, who knows Allah Subhana
Wa Ta go to him and seek advice.
And so the man goes to the scholar
and he asks him, he says, I've killed
a 100 men in cold blood. Is there
any
repentance for me? And the scholar replies, who
can come between you and Allah?
Who can stop you from repenting to Allah
and who can stop Allah from accepting your
repentance?
However, he says to him, but this land
that you're in is not of good influence
upon you. If in this land you've killed
a 100 people, it shows, this land is
no good for you. So my great for
Allah's sake, go to another land in which
there are people that are good and you
can go and reside with them. The man
goes and he leaves, makes his firm conviction,
made Tawba, I'm not going to leave. And
on the way,
he dies.
Allah commanded
this man be forgiven for all of his
sins.
And that is because Allah saw the sincerity
of his repentance.
Saw his firm conviction because the man is
willing to make hijrah and he starts to
make the hijrah. But Allah decrees that he
dies upon that path. And so Allah
forgives everyone. And Allah's repentance is open no
matter how grave the sin. This is a
man who killed a 100 people.
I don't think that anyone that is listening
to this, insha Allah, any of us have
sins that are worse than the sins of
this man, who have committed crimes worse than
the crimes of this individual who killed a
100 men. So if Allah will forgive this
man, then why won't He forgive me and
you? But all we have to do is
take that step of Tawba, turn to Allah
with sincerity,
with repentance, with remorse, ask Allah Azzajal for
his forgiveness and make a serious determined effort
not to return to those sins.
Be firm in your resolve to the best
of your ability and Allah knows your weakness
and Allah knows the temptations of the dunya.
And if then you fall down again, go
back to Allah and seek repentance again. So
long as you continue to repent, Allah continues
to forgive Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And that is
what Allah says here, unless they repent to
you before you overpower them, in that case
bear in mind that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is of forgiving most merciful.
Allah
verse verse number 35 he then says,
Oh, you who believe, be mindful of Allah,
have Allah's fear. Seek ways to come closer
to Him and strive for His cause so
that you may prosper.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala then gives this command
to the believers. We've
spoken about people who commit major sins,
murder,
causing harm, openly stealing, causing terror in the
hearts of people, casting terror into the hearts
of people. These are major sins that a
person commits.
These are things that you should stay away
from. They are major sins that will incur
Allah's punishment.
So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in verse 35
and commands the believers and he says, what
should you do instead?
Number 1, be people of Allah's taqwa. Be
mindful and conscious of Allah because
a person who is mindful of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala and is constantly aware of him
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and also knows that Allah
will hold him to account.
He's going to be very careful about what
he says and what he does and the
harm that he does. And even if some
harm does come from him or her, they
will do their best to make amends and
turn back to Allah as a general repentance.
So that's the first thing that you should
do.
And Allah azza wa jinn says and seek
ways and means to come closer to him.
Meaning
use good deeds to come closer to him.
Fulfill your obligations, stay away from the haram.
Do everything that you can do in order
to come closer to Allah of all of
the good deeds. Because your good deeds are
a means
of number 1, bringing you closer to Allah
And number 2, fortifying your iman. And number
3, keeping you away from sin. Someone who
is busying themselves in Ibadah
doesn't have time to busy themselves in sin
and in haram. If you're busying yourself in
Allah's worship, you're someone who's praying, you're someone
who's giving charity, you're someone who's reading Quran,
who's studying Islamic knowledge, who's making dhikr of
Allah azza wa jal, who is helping people
in the community, you don't have time for
anything else. You don't have time alongside your
duties and responsibilities
as a parent or a child or whatever
you are in your family setup. You don't
have time as long side your job and
your career and whatever else you may have,
your studies, you don't have time for anything
else. You don't have time for the haram
because you're busying yourself. But also Allah
allows us to use those means of or
to use
the the good deeds that we do as
a means of drawing closer to him. As
we've seen, for example, a number of hadith
of the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam where some
of those people would use their good deeds
and ask Allah
for something in return, like the story of
the men, the 3 men who were stuck
in the cave.
Each 1 of them asks Allah
through a good deed that he did sincerely
for his sake. And Allah
made their affair easy for them and he
allowed them to escape from that cave. And
so here, Allah is saying seek that nearness
to him, Seek nearness to him because the
closer you come to Allah Azza wa Jal,
the further you are away from Shaitan.
And the further you are away from Allah
Azza wa Jal, the closer you are to
Shaitan. And that is how it is. There
is no middle path. Either you are coming
closer to Allah or you are going closer
to Shaitan. There is no neutral. There is
no middle ground where you can just say,
I won't do anything, because that is not
the nature of humans. You are either doing
things that are good or you're going to
be doing things that are not good. And
very little in between
is there
because there, that middle ground is very small
and shaitan will manipulate it and change it
so that you will be wasting your time
and eventually you will fall into 1 form
of Haram or another.
So use your time to do that which
Allah
is pleased with. And Allah
says in the third thing,
and strive for his cause so that you
may be from amongst the people who prosper,
Which shows that this fear of Allah Azza
wa Jal, mindfulness of him, doing good deeds,
doing good Ibadah
requires jihad,
requires a great deal of striving and effort
and the hardest type of striving
and effort and jihad is the 1 against
your own soul and the whisperings of Shaitan.
That is the hardest type of jihad as
mentioned by the scholars such as Ibnuqayim Rahimahullah
ta'ala that to strive against your temptations,
your desire, your own soul, the whisperings that
you have, that is the hardest form of
jihad. So Allah acknowledges
this but if you can do this, you're
mindful of Allah, you're doing your ibadah, your
good deeds and you're patient and striving in
that regard then Allah says, you will be
from the prosperous.
You will be from those who are successful.
In verse 36 Allah
says,
If the disbelievers possessed all that is in
the earth and twice as much again, and
offered it to ransom themselves from the torment
of the day of resurrection, it would not
be accepted from them. They will have a
painful torment.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, look at this verse
that shows to you the terror of yawmulqiama
and how Allah
on that day will not accept anything except
iman and good deeds. Allah is saying that
those who disbelieve,
if they owned everything upon the earth, and
no 1 owns everything upon the earth, not
even the richest, most successful person that ever
lived in the history of the world or
the most powerful individual
ever owned all of the earth. But Allah
is saying that if 1 disbeliever,
1 of these disbelievers owned everything upon the
earth and double its amount.
And it's like again
with all of its treasures and all of
its wealth and all of its palaces and
everything
that is worthy of something and valuable, they
had double its amount.
And they would could ransom themselves using all
of that money so that Allah would save
them from the punishment of
matuqbila minu Allah says it would never be
accepted from them. Why? Because that currency is
worthless in the sight of Allah. The currency
of money, of gold, silver, cash, whatever it
may be, worthless in the sight of Allah.
There is only 1 currency that has any
value in Allah's sight and that is iman
and righteous deeds. So anyone that comes with
anything else, it's like you going to a
place and saying, look, I have some rocks,
I have some dust, I have some soil,
I have some mud, and I want to
buy things from your shop. People will say
that's not the currency we're accepting. We don't
live on that. That's not the way we
do our business. Allah
has the best of examples. Allah dictates and
decides the currency that he will accept. So
on yawmul qiyama, the only thing that will
save a person from Allah's punishment
that they can use to ransom themselves from
Allah's punishment is iman and righteous deeds. Everything
else will not be accepted. They
will have the worst of punishment. In verse
37, which is the final verse that we
will take, Allah then says
They will wish to come out of the
fire but they will be unable to do
so so theirs will be a lasting torment.
Meaning once these disbelievers enter the fire, they
will have no escape. There is no exit
plan. There is no exit strategy. There is
no time that they will ever be able
to leave even for a moment. But they
will remain therein forever. May Allah save us
and our families from that torment. May Allah
give us the ability to seek newness to
him through iman and righteous deeds and rebada.
And that is and with that we come
to the end of today's episode.