Ahsan Hanif – Quran Tafseer – Page 114 – Hypocrisy And The Divine Sovereignty
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We are on page 114
which is in the 6th, Juz Surah Al
Maidah.
In the previous verse or in the previous
episode rather we mentioned those verses which Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala spoke about a number of
important issues.
From amongst them was the example that Allah
gives of those who commit murder. And how
by taking 1 soul unjustly, it is equal
to taking the whole of the lives of
mankind.
And that at the same time, whoever gives
life to a single soul is as if
they have given life to all of mankind.
We also mentioned the verses
in which Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala spoke about
the issue of Muharaba.
And Muharaba
is when a person openly
goes and casts terror into the hearts of
people because of their their killing openly, their
stealing openly, their doing a great deal of
harm openly.
And because of that and the
the heinous nature of that crime, the Sharia
gives a very very harsh judgment or very,
very harsh penalty for those people. And we
mentioned that Allah says that those people should
either be killed or crucified
or that their alternate hand and foot should
be taken amputated
or cut off and or that they should
be expelled or exiled from the land.
So these verses
speak about the, as we said, the rules
of the Sharia
that are to be exacted or enacted rather
by the Muslim ruler or by the judge
that he appoints.
And it's not something which for every Muslim
that they can just go and apply by
themselves. There's a process like with every single
legal
system, in whichever country you're in. Every single
legal system has its process that you follow,
the due diligence that they take, they have
their evidence
that they accept, witnesses that they consider, all
of that stuff's done. And then they have
an appeal system as well until eventually that
ruling is given 1 way or the other.
Likewise, the sharia has a very similar similar
model. The sharia law is something which requires
you to go before a judge or before
the Muslim ruler himself that you present your
evidence, then the other party also has the
opportunity to present theirs and witnesses and so
on and so forth. All of that is
done until eventually the ruling and decree is
given. And there are, there are many details
obviously concerning this that can be found in
the appropriate books of and in the appropriate
books of Qada.
The point of this being, however, that Allah
gives these laws and as Muslims, you must
accept that the laws of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala are the best of laws. And it
is from our iman that we that we
believe that Allah
in his infinite wisdom,
his infinite knowledge, and his infinite mercy and
justice has decreed these laws for people. And
the laws of Islam are not only so
that those people will be
will be stopped from from repeating the harm
again.
Because someone who for example as we will
see today steals and Allah
establishes the the
the ruling of stealing and theft.
That person won't be able to steal again
or it will be very difficult for them
to steal again after that punishment has been
exacted upon them. And likewise, the people who
practice maharaba
as we mentioned in the previous episode, or
the 1 who for example, fornicates, commits adultery,
or for example, the 1 who murders.
These laws are number 1, to stop the
harm of those people
because those people have gone against what is
1 of the 5 major
objectives of the Sharia.
The object the objectives of the Sharia for
which it came to preserve a 5, a
person's religion and their life and their intellect
and their wealth and their honor. And so
when someone comes and attacks 1 of those
major objectives of people's lives, their livelihoods, their
their their honor and so on and so
forth, then the sharia is extremely strict with
regards to those people. And then also it
serves as a deterrent
for others that people should be aware that
if they do something like this, then you
will meet a similar end, that you will
have a similar punishment
that will be placed upon you. And so
when people see this and they know this
and it's something which is well known that
it will happen, it's not just something which
is said or a claim that is made,
actually
people happen, this happens to them, then people
will be very careful or they will consider
it very carefully before
they go and embark upon those things. And
in all of these cases,
there are
there are, there are parameters
and there are definitions and there are guidelines
and there are principles that have to be
understood. This isn't the place, this episode and
and the series of the fisir isn't the
place for us to go into that level
of detail.
But
this it is something important to know and
to remember and to recognize because otherwise people
misunderstand
or people for example just think that Islam
loves to go around taking off people's heads
and limbs. That is not the case. But
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given to us
certain laws that we should enact when the
Sharia
is the rule or the law that is
being, that that is in place in that
particular land.
In today's episode we begin from verse 38
and that is also to do with 1
of the crimes that a person may commit
and its punishment
and this time it is theft.
Allah
says
Allahu Azzizun
Hakim
cut off the hands of thieves whether they
are men or women as punishment for what
they have done a deterrent from Allah Allah
is Almighty and all wise. Allah
Subhanu wa Ta'ala in this verse gives to
us another ruling concerning a crime that people
may commit and that is the crime of
theft.
The difference as we said between the previous
verse that we took in the last episode
which is in Muharaba
and between what is theft in terms of
the 2, also has an element of of
stealing within it and of robbery. However, the
difference between the 2 is that in this
verse, theft is what people do when they
try to do it quietly or they try
to do it secretly.
They do it in a way that people
won't notice them, they don't want to be
caught, they are going behind
you know, when people are unaware, they're going
at times when people are unlikely to be
at home or they're stealing in a way
that they're unlikely to be caught or they
try their best not to be caught anyway.
That is what we call theft. As for
maharaba, what we mentioned in the previous verse
is when people are openly stealing. They don't
care who knows. And in fact, it's 1
of their tactics that people do know so
that it strikes fear into their hearts and
they become afraid of these individuals. So they're
living in a constant state of fear. Like
for example,
bandits.
Bandits opening steel in the daylight. They go
and they rob people. In the olden days,
people used to have trade caravans or people
used to journey together in groups and they
would have with them an amount of wealth
that they would take with them in terms
of provisions and money and so on. And
those people would come openly and they would
steal from them. So they're not afraid of
being caught because they're doing it openly and
people know that these people are here in
this area and this is what they're doing.
Those people are worse, the Maharabeen because of
what they do.
Maharabeen because of what they do and what
they
cast into the hearts of people in terms
of the fear and the instability and lack
of peace that those people then are able,
unable to experience as a result of the
actions of these people.
However, when it comes to theft it is
different and so the ruling is different. Number
1 it is important for us to understand
that when we come to
theft there are again many principles, many guidelines,
many parameters that have to be understood. So
for example, the Sharia says
that theft only takes place from a place
that is enclosed, from a place that you
would know that that is something which is
foremost private property. So for example, if someone
was to go into the park and there's
something on the ground and you pick it
up, someone can't come to you and say
you stole my wallet, you stole my phone.
That's not because it's not in an enclosed
place. You could have been picking it up
because it's a lost item and in the
sharia there are rules concerning lost items. You
could have been picking it up to come
and put it somewhere safer, picking it up
to hand it into the police or someone
in in in a position of authority. So
we wouldn't accuse that person of of stealing.
That's different to someone who goes into someone's
house while the doors are locked and the
windows are locked and they break in in
order to take from their wealth. And so
there are parameters. The point of this is
that I want to explain to our listeners
or my listeners that there is always parameters
in this. And please don't be from amongst
those people who sometimes, because of what's said
in the media or what's said on social
media or even amongst the Muslims, their lack
of understanding and knowledge of these issues leads
them to think that there is an element
of extremism in this religion. And the religion
of Allah
is free from that type of extremism. Allah's
religion is perfect in every way. Even when
the laws seem harsh, there is wisdom and
mercy within them for all of
society.
So that's for example 1 ruling. Another ruling
would be that there is a minimum amount
that a person has to steal before the
punishment can be placed upon them. The sharia
doesn't say that anyone that comes for example
and steals, we're going to take off their
hand, someone comes and steals something that doesn't
have really any worth, hardly worth anything, you're
not going to take off their hand because
they just came and stole something like that,
someone goes and they steal something which doesn't
have any worth like a loaf of bread
or something really small, doesn't really make a
difference to someone in that sense? We don't
just you don't just take someone's hand off
or something like that. And likewise, if the
person who's committing the theft is someone who
isn't in the state of of necessity.
Someone who's extremely poor and they're about to
die from starvation and their children are about
to die, they go and steal. That person
is in a certain circumstance that the sharia
will look at differently from the 1 who
doesn't need to go and steal, doesn't have
any reason but he goes and does it.
Because the first 1 isn't doing it to
oppose Allah's laws necessarily.
He's doing it to relieve his circumstances.
The second 1 however, has no need but
is openly going
and breaking the laws of Allah subhanahu ta'ala
and harming others. Likewise, for example, if the
person that's stealing is under the age of
puberty, a child going into a shop and
stealing something isn't the same as an adult
coming into a shop and stealing something. So
the point is that there are all of
these laws that you will find in the
books of fiqh.
And so it's not the case in all
of these issues whether it's zina
or it's theft or it's murder or whatever
it may be. It's not just simply the
case that someone can make an accusation and
that's it. All all all that takes place
then is that execution or the the cutting
off of a hand or some type of
flogging or stoning. That's not how the shaliya
works. And we mentioned before in the issue
of zina, that in the time of the
prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam, every punishment that
was given for zina for adultery was only
because of confession, not because someone came with
the evidence of someone else committing
only because of confession.
And that's because the Sharia places a very
high bar when it comes to all of
these issues because the Sharia recognizes that it's
not a light issue, it's not a small
thing to take off someone's limb or to
take their life. That's not a small thing
to do. It's not an easy task to
do or an easy verdict or judgment to
give and so the sharia places a very
high bar when it comes to these types
of issues and that is something that we
as Muslims should understand.
First and foremost for ourselves
so that we have the knowledge of the
religion of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and we
have the iman that Allah is
the best of all law givers. And then
that we also can defend this religion from
other people when they attack it in a
way that is not correct or they attack
it without any knowledge of its religion.
The punishment that Allah azza wa jal then
mentions is
the man or woman that steals
Then cut off the hands of the thieves.
That is that you take off their right
hand from the wrist. You cut off the
right hand from the wrist.
Allah as punishment for that which they have
done and it is a deterrent from Allah
and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is almighty all
white. So
Allah
says that that is a punishment for them,
a deterrent for others. And that is exactly
what we said concerning the laws of the
Sharia. When it comes to these types of
issues, these are the 2 primary things. Number
1, it's a punishment for that person because
the 1 whose hand you take off, that
person isn't going to be easily be able
to steal again.
It's not going to be something which they're
going to take lightly because their whole life
and their whole livelihood will now change as
a result of the action that they did.
That crime that they committed will have a
life a a lasting effect upon them for
the rest of their lives. Someone who doesn't
have a right hand in terms of what
they can do, their functionality,
what they can't do, the what they all
of these things make a difference. We know
in our sharia
that the right hand is something which is
used for the most blessed of things. You
eat with the right hand. You greet with
the right hand. You start with the right
hand. Everything with the right hand is in
anything which is good and blessed. You begin
with the right hand. To take off someone's
right hand therefore means what? They can only
eat with their left. They can only greet
with their left. They can only do everything
with their left and the left is usually
used for those things that are not worthy
or that are not very clean. And so
therefore, Allah azza wa jal punishes this person
in that way because they took the rights
of others, the blessing of others. And so
Allah
has placed his punishment upon them. And at
the same time, it's a deterrent
for others to understand that this is not
an easy issue. It's not a small thing.
Allah ajazul as the prophet told us salallahu
alaihi wasalam in the Hadith in the farewell
Hajj when he asked the people on the
days of Hajj which day is this and
which month is this and which city is
this. And for each 1 they were saying
that this is a sacred day, a sacred
city, sacred month. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
said that just as these things are sacred,
then Allah has made your blood,
your wealth, your honor sacred
upon you. Meaning that it is a sacred
thing for each person, their name,
their their honor, their blood, meaning their life
and their and their wealth is sacred. For
me to go or you to go and
take from someone else's sanctity is a major
issue. And so therefore that is something which
we should always bear in mind. In verse
number 39, as Allah
often does in the Quran, Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala then opens up the door for repentance
for those who have committed this sin and
this crime that they can still turn back
to Allah in repentance if they are sincere.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says
But if anyone repents after his wrongdoing and
makes amends, then Allah will accept his repentance.
Allah is most forgiving, most Merciful.
So if anyone repents after this, after the
harm that they do, after the wrong that
they do, after the crime that they commit,
as is with everything in the Sharia,
Allah opens up the door for Tawbah and
repentance. So long as you turn back to
Allah with sincerity,
with remorse, with sincere conviction that you will
not go back to your sin, Allah Azzawajal
forgives and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala pardons and
Allah Azzawajal shows mercy subhanahu wa ta'ala. And
that is from the greatest blessings of Allah
Azzawajal.
And so if you are not caught,
turn back to Allah azza wa Jal and
make toba and try to amend the wrong
that you did. And even if you have
been caught and punishment has been taken upon
you, then turn back to Allah and make
Tawba and ask Allah for his forgiveness
Because the punishment of the dunya
will always be easier and lighter than the
punishment of the and
the fire of *. And so therefore Allah
opens up this door of forgiveness
and repentance for those people. And then Allah
says in verse number 40.
Do you not know the control of the
heavens and earth belongs solely to Allah? He
punishes whomsoever he wills and forgives whomsoever he
wills and Allah has power over everything.
Allah
alone is the 1 who controls everything in
the heavens and the earth, and he is
the 1 who chooses the punishment
and he chooses who will be punished and
who will be forgiven. And that is why
for the Muslim who commits a sin, whether
it be major or minor, and they come
to Allah, azza wa Jal, and yawmul Qiyama,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, it is up to
him whether he chooses to punish that person
or whether he chooses to forgive them. They
are under the threat of the punishment of
Allah no doubt. But whether
Allah decides to punish them or not, that
is up to him subhanahu wa ta'ala. And
who can stand before Allah and oppose his
decree, his will, his judgement.
And that is why the believer
always hopes for the repentance and mercy of
Allah
The prophet told us that Allah
will bring on the day of judgement a
person and he will shield him, cover him
from everyone else. And then Allah will say
to him, do you not remember the sin
that you committed on such and such a
day? And the other sin that you committed
on such and such a day and Allah
will begin to list all of his sins
and that man will acknowledge them. Has no
choice but to acknowledge them. Yes, our Allah
I did that and yes, our Allah I
did that and yes, our Allah I did
that. Until after Allah resisted many of them
Allah will say
just as I veiled them from the people
in the in the dunya today I will
forgive them for you on this day. That
is the rahmah of Allah and his mercy.
And in the other hadith the prophet told
us that
Allah will
bring a person to accounting
and he will present to them their good,
their their evil sins, their minor sins and
take away from them their major sins. Meaning
he will hide them, not present them at
that time. Just start with the minor sins.
And then that person
will be told, is this your sin? And
that person will acknowledge all of their sins.
Allah will say that on this day I
have forgiven you and changed all of those
evil deeds into good deeds. Because Allah tells
us that in the Quran as we will
see in the forthcoming verse that those people
who are sincere repentance,
Allah takes the evil deeds and turns them
into good. So when that man will see
the
he will say, oh Allah, there's still other
sins that I committed that I don't see
here. Meaning he wants the other ones not
to be brought as well. Whereas before he
was afraid of the presentation, now he wants
them to be brought because he knows that
Allah
is going to forgive him and change them,
turn them into good deeds. That is the
rahma of Allah and his mercy. So no
matter what sin you commit,
how much evil you've done, what crimes you
may have done in the past, the door
of Tawba is always open as we mentioned
in previous episode
about the story of the man from Bani
Israel who killed 99 men in cold blood.
And Allah forgave him.
So there is no limit to Allah's forgiveness,
and there is no maximum
sin that you can perform after which you
can't seek tawba. Even the people of shirk
can make tawba.
And their tawba is to accept Islam and
say,
However, if a person dies,
either upon other than Islam
or they die upon major sin and death
comes to them at that time and they
haven't made tawba, then if they're other
than Islam, then Allah will not forgive them
because that is the promise that Allah has
made. And if they are Muslims and they
die upon major sins, then they are fearers
with Allah
and we don't say that some of the
groups and sects of the Muslims say that
those people will go into the fight. No,
we say that Allah is their judge. And
Allah will decide what to do with them.
He may punish them. He may forgive them.
That is between them and Allah azaawajal.
But Allah
is an afu
and and Allah
loves to pardon and to forgive. And Allah
loves for people to make tawba so that
he may forgive them As the prophet told
us were you a people who never sinned?
Then Allah will take you away and bring
the people who did sin. So that they
may seek forgiveness and Allah may forgive them.
In verse 41 Allah Azzawajal then says
Oh messenger, do not be grieved by those
who we raise to surpass 1 another in
disbelief.
Those who say with their mouths, we believe,
but have no faith in their hearts, And
the Jews who listen eagerly to lies. And
to those who have not even met you,
who distort the meanings of revealed words and
say to each other, if you are given
this ruling, accept it, but if you are
not, then beware. If Allah intends some people
to be misguided, you will be powerless against
Allah on their behalf. These are the ones
whose hearts Allah does not intend to cleanse,
a disgrace for them in this world and
then a heavy punishment in the hereafter.
In this verse Allah addresses his messenger
and
he says to him
do not be grieved by those
who raise towards
and disbelief. They raise 1 another towards and
disbelief.
Or those who say with their mouths, we
believe and in their hearts they have no
faith and those who are from amongst the
Jews who listen to you and then distort
the meanings of the revelations.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is speaking to the
Prophet
because as we know from the character of
the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam is that
he would become extremely saddened by those people
who would reject Islam and reject his court
to the tawheed of Allah
And that is because the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam knows that by their rejection
of the call of Islam,
those people are going to be damned into
the hellfire.
They're going to have internal damnation.
And so the prophet
didn't want anyone to come into the fire.
Doesn't want these people to be punished by
Allah wants them to be saved. Just as
they should be the trait and characteristic of
every Muslim that we don't want the people
around us, the non Muslims, the people who
are upon other regions to go and be
in the fire. So from a place of
mercy and love and kindness and gentleness, we
want them to be guided. We want them
to understand the beauty of Islam and the
beauty of the Sharia. And so we try
our best to give a good image of
Islam through our character and our dealings, We
try our best to call people to Islam
in a way that has wisdom
and in a way that is good and
befitting. We want those people to be guided.
But not all of those people are going
to be guided, not all of those people
are going to accept Islam. So the prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was saying, don't don't don't
be concerned. Allah Azzawaj says to the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, don't be concerned by them
if they turn away. Those people are making
their own choice and that is the choice
they would have to live with. So don't
be concerned about those people who are racing
towards this belief. It shows that they're not
sincere, that they don't want the guidance of
Islam. Or those people who say 1 thing
with their mouths, but believe another thing in
their hearts, such as the hypocrites. Or those
people from the other religions, who when they
hear certain things,
they have lies and they distort the meanings
of your words.
They say
They say that if you are given this
thing, this ruling, then accept it and if
not, then don't accept it. Meaning that if
the prophet rules when you go to him
according to what we want, our desires, our
thing, then it's okay. But if he gives
you a different ruling, then don't accept it.
Allah is saying to the prophet
don't mind these people.
Don't don't pursue them. Don't be overly worried
concerning them.
Allah says, and if Allah
wants
the hearts
of those people not to be cleansed.
Allah says if Allah intends some people to
be misguided
you will be powerless against them on behalf
of Allah
because there is Allah
who decides
who has guidance and who doesn't have guidance.
So when those people come to the mission
of Allah azza wa jal or they come
to the prophet as salam as they used
to sometimes to ask him to judge in
something or to ask him to settle a
dispute or to have reconcile between some of
them. It wasn't really the ruling of Allah
Azza wa Jal that they wanted. And that's
why if they found that the ruling was
theirs, that was correct
according to them and what they wanted, they
would accept it. But if it wasn't something
which they were happy with, something that they
were pleased or content with, then they would
reject it.
Allah says that these are the people that
are misguided.
And if Allah misguides
a people or a group of them, then
no 1 can guide them besides Allah
Those are the people that Allah has intended
that their hearts will never be cleansed.
They will not have the purification of their
hearts in this world they will have disgrace
in the next world they will have a
grievous punishment And this will continue this theme
of these people and what they do. We'll
continue on to the next page, this 1
Insha Allah Ta'ala in the following episode,
and insha Allah we will continue with that
then. But for today, this is the end
of our episode.