Ahsan Hanif – Quran Tafseer – Page 123 – The Evils To Avoid For Success
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Welcome to another episode of our tafsir page
by page. Insha'Allah today we are on
page 123 which is in Surah Al Mahida,
the 7th Jews of the Quran.
In the previous episode, Allah subhanahu ta'ala mentioned
in the verses that we covered
the state of those people from amongst the
Christians who believed in Allah who had the
revelation,
they had the Quran, they had the message
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and they
recognized the truth of it and so they
accepted Islam. Allah praise those people
because
tears came to their eyes and they took
Iman and they believed in Allah
and declared their faith openly. Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala honors them and rewards them. Allah gives
Jannah and from those people as we said
from the time of the Prophet was
najashi, the Abyssinian ruler who gave asylum to
the Muslims, he accepted Islam and he remained
upon that until his death during the lifetime
of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala then in the verses
that we also covered gave to us a
number of rulings. From those rulings
is that it is not permissible for a
person to make haram that which Allah Azzawajal
has made halal. It is not permissible for
you to make from the bounty that Allah
has made halal and from his provision from
the food and drink that Allah Azzawajal made
halal, you can't make haram upon yourself. And
as we explained
in the previous episode, it is permissible for
you to leave something off, to refrain from
something,
to not like something, you don't find appetizing,
it's not something that you like to eat,
certain people don't like certain types of food,
that's fine. But you don't make your haram
upon yourself and and you don't make haram
upon others. That is something which only Allah
can do. We also mentioned the verse which
Allah
gave us instructions concerning the oaths that we
take. When we swear in the name of
Allah azza wa jalah or take an oath
in the name of Allah that we will
do something or that we won't do something.
If that is just done frivolously
because of its of of the nature of
some people that their everyday speech contains
those types of oaths, those oaths don't count.
They don't make any, any
difference to a person in terms of their
ibadah.
But those oaths that a person does take
in the name of Allah with sincere intention
and there's a conviction in their heart that
they want to make their oath, then their
oath is enacted and they must do it
to the best of their ability and they
should preserve it to the best of their
ability and fulfill it. However, if they can't
for one reason or another, then as we
said, the expiation
is that they either feed 10 poor people
or clothe 10 poor people or free a
slave. And if they can't do that, it's
beyond their means, their financial ability and capability
to do so, then they can fast 3
days as an expiation for breaking that oath.
Today we begin or continue with verse number
90
and that is the statement of Allah Subhanahu
wa ta'ala
Oh, you who believe in intoxicants and gambling,
adulterous practices and divining with arrows or repugnant
acts, they are Shaitaan's handiwork,
shun them so that you may prosper.
Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala speaks
to us about a number of things that
he has made haram upon us. The first
of those things is that Allah says addressing
the people of Iman that we stay away
from, forming toxic. Humr
is wine and alcohol and anything which intoxicates
and many of the scholars
use the word, hamar to denote other types
of intoxicants as well such as drugs and
so on. Because all of them have the
same
properties in terms of intoxicating the mind, carving
the mind, not allowing or not allowing a
person to use
the faculties of reason
that they can distinguish between what they are
doing and not doing. And so Allah Azzawajal
or many of the scholars say that this
is included in all types of intoxicants which
is often what you find that has been
the translation. But the first and foremost of
them is no doubt alcohol, wine and so
on and so forth that people used to
drink and would intoxicate their minds. This verse
therefore makes alcohol haram, and as we know
that the prohibition of alcohol was revealed in
3 stages in the Quran. The first stage,
and these are verses that we have already
covered
in our previous verses of Tarsi, so this
is the final of the 3 stages being
mentioned here at the end of Surah Al
Mahidah. Allah Azzawajal mentioned
that the first stage was that when they
asked concerning
the intoxicants
and its ruling, and they were told that
there is some good in it, but it
is it's it's evil is worse. So stay
away from it. That was the first. It's
like just a gentle push or nudge, a
gentle exhortation that you should stay away from
alcohol because it harms outweigh its benefits.
The second
level of prohibition was then that Allah Azzawajal
said don't come to the Masjid and pray
when you are intoxicated. The 5 daily prayers
meaning at the times of Fajr,
stay away from drinking. And so Allah has
been limited greatly
the times in which it could be consumed.
Because
the time between especially Duhar Asa Maghra Isha
isn't so long, and then really it's only
the night time or the early morning time
which for many of the Arabs would not
be a time for drinking because they would
be working and doing labor and so on
and so forth. And so Allah restricted the
time greatly. And then now in this verse
Allah says
stay away from it, meaning it is now
haram. And so this is the 3rd of
those 3 stages.
Also Allah
says concerning what else Allah made haram is
al maser, gambling.
So gambling is also something made haram by
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Gambling in all of
its forms. Because it is something which is
also detrimental and causes a great deal of
harm. When
a person
spends their wealth and their money in the
hope that they are going to attain more
or win some type of jackpot or big
prize and they end up becoming bankrupt. And
we all know the stories around us. You
know the addiction of gambling and the harm
that it can do and the 1,000 and
1,000 of pounds that people will spend because
they want to feed that addiction and they
lose their wealth and they will take the
property of others and they will mortgage their
houses and sell off their property and pawn
things in order to be able to fulfil
this
habit of theirs. And that is something which
is detrimental
from that which Allah made haram is a
lansab,
the practice of idolatry.
So any idolatrous practice Allah says
that
it is haram. Well, Islam and dividing with
arrows as we said that the Arabs used
to do where they would come if they
wanted to make a decision about something they
needed help in a decision, they would come
to these arrows. On one arrow, it would
say do it. On the other one, it
would say
don't do it. On the third one, it
would be blank and they would pick an
arrow. If it said do it, they would
do it. If it said don't do it,
they wouldn't do it. And if it was
the blank arrow, they would repeat the process
again until they picked one of those other
two arrows. These are people and their superstitions.
Allah says concerning all of this,
these are the repugnant acts, the handiworks of
Shaitan.
So Allah says number 1 describes them as
being evil.
Describes them as being rich, so rich is
something which is impure, it is filthy, because
of the harms that it contains.
Shirk is something which is harmful, believing or
trusting in anything other than Allah is extremely
harmful. 2 of those things are to do
with Aqeedah,
with a person's belief, with a person's tuhid
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will lack thereof
and the other 2 are to do with
people's actions, drinking and gambling. And we all
know the harms that brings
within a society if it is left unchecked.
So Allah says stay away from them, shun
them so that you may be from amongst
those who are successful.
Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala then continues in verse
91 speaking about the evils of these things
and especially the intoxicants and gambling. Allah says
With intoxicants and gambling, Shaitan seeks only to
incite enmity and hatred amongst you and to
stop you remembering Allah and prayer will you
not then give up. Allah says that the
reason why Shaitan
pumps and entices people to go towards these
2 things primarily.
2 of the biggest addictions people have in
the world is either drink,
alcohol or some type of substance abuse or
gambling.
These are the 2 major things. People who
are into drugs, into drink
and addicted to it, even if you are
not addicted because the sharia makes even the
smallest amount of these things haram because they
lead to the greater ham. So Allah makes
it all haram, but addiction to these things
as well as gambling causes a great deal
of harm from those harms.
It is something which will bring enmity and
hatred amongst you. The person who is gambling
with another person,
they are going to have problems if they
don't pay up, if they
themselves feel that they are being cheated, that
they are being hard done by. How many
people do this when they
bankrupt themselves because of this? Or the person
who's intoxicated, drugged out of their minds or
alcohol and they're dazed and they don't know
what's going on, they can't potentially harm someone,
they steal to fuel their habit. They will
steal, they will go and they will try
to get wealth and money so that they
can buy their drugs or their
alcohol in order to fuel this addiction that
they have. It is an extremely dangerous thing.
And all of this is known even by
society at large. It's not just something which
only Muslims recognize. We know now that many
people in society know this and they can
see the dangers and the harms. The problems
that it causes in antisocial behaviour, the problems
that it causes in disturbances,
the fights, the problems, all of these things
that are fueled by these types of addictions.
And so Allah is saying to us that
if that is the end result of Shaitan,
then stay away from it. Don't even engage
in it. And that is why the Prophet
salallahu alayhi wasalam said that that which intoxicates
in a great amount is haram even in
the smallest amount. If Allah has told you
there is evil in it, then stay away
from it. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala didn't say
just stay away from
doing it in excess,
from drinking too much, from gambling too much,
a small amount is okay. No.
He said stay away from the whole thing.
And that is why the Muslim is someone
who is extremely mindful because unfortunately,
even amongst Muslims, we have our brothers and
sisters who drink and especially drugs, which is
a big problem in our communities, young people
and older people because of the problems that
they feel or the stress that they feel
or whatever it may be, they are into
soft drugs or hard drugs. And these are
issues that the Muslims should stay away from.
A person's iman,
a person's
tawkul in Allah, they trust in Allah, a
person's love for Allah's religion should be far
greater than they need to be able to
go. It is a sign of Iman that
they don't need to go and resort to
those other things. In the time of the
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
do any of us have a life that
is more difficult than the companions?
Are any of us going through the hardships
they went through with Quraysh, the persecution, the
torture, the evil that they had to suffer
at the hands of their people?
Yet you don't find a single one of
them resorting to drugs. There were drugs available
at that time, alcohol was prevalent at that
time, the Quraysh used to drink all the
time, they were into alcohol.
Yet the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam once
he obeyed this and he made Haram in
the Sharia. You don't have the companions going
back to it. Some of them were people
who used to drink commonly
and regularly as is found in the narrations
of Alis Radiallahu Wa'ada from amongst the companions
they used to drink because it was halalah
at a point in time. And then Allah
made haram immediately and they throw it away
and they never go back to it again.
They could have had the excuse of pressures
and hardship and difficulty and wars and battles
and enemies. But no, Allah as you just
said stay away and they stayed away. And
so it's not a good enough excuse for
the person who believes in Allah, hopes in
Allah's reward, wants to attain Allah's Jannah, that
they use these types of excuses to do
that which is haram.
And from the greatest of the evils in
these two things,
they take you away from the remembrance of
Allah, they take you away from salah. Because
the person who is gambling for example is
so addicted to what they are doing that
they can't even step away. Some of those
people will spend the whole day or the
whole night gambling,
time after time after time after time and
prayers will come and prayers will go. And
the remembrance of Allah is nowhere to be
seen. They are not going to be reading
Quran, they are not going to be remembering
Allah Azza wa Jal, they won't be doing
any good seeking knowledge, doing anything good because
what they are going to be doing is
feeding their addiction and their habit. And likewise
the person who is intoxicated, the person who
is drunk, what salah is he going to
offer? The person who is drunk, what of
the dhikr of Quran are they going to
read? In fact, if they did pray or
read Quran, they would probably do something which
was even worse. They would probably do some
evil act in it or mess mess up
one of the issues of salah or read
the Quran in incorrect way, which would be
even potentially a greater harm than just the
drinking as well or greater evil than just
the simple drinking by itself. And so this
point here that Allah is making therefore
shows that this is a general principle in
the Sharia. So these things are haram, stay
away from them. But the principle Allah also
gives to us here is anything that takes
you away from salah and the remembrance of
Allah, you should dim it even if it
is halal. So for example, people often ask
what's the ruling of playing sports, or playing
video games or playing if they are halal,
it's okay. If there's no haram within them,
it's fine to do. So long as you
don't do it in excess, so long as
it doesn't reach the level here that Allah
is speaking about. That you're into your video
games or you're playing the sport and the
salah comes and goes. In the winter, you're
playing football, and the dhud comes and the
dhud goes and you're still playing football because
the match is 90 minutes and you didn't
pray. That's a problem.
Or you're in on your video games and
you spend the whole day or you spend
the whole night awake playing them and then
you go to sleep and you miss fudger.
Because you didn't go to sleep till 2,
3 AM and fajal's at 5, 6 and
you can't wake up now and you miss
your salah. That is then something which is
haram. It becomes haram for you now. Not
because the issue itself was haram in its
default ruling, but it's haram now because of
your application of it. The way that you're
practicing it. And that is the way that
the Sharia looks at these types of issues.
Allah then says so will you not give
them up. Allah is the original verse number
92 then continues and says
Obey Allah and obey his messenger and always
be on your God. If you pay no
heed, bear in mind that the sole duty
of our messenger is to deliver the message
clearly. So Allah have to mention these rulings
concerning drinking and alcohol and gambling. And so
Allah says, obey Allah and obey his Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam. And be on guard, on
guard from what? From who? From Shaitan,
from sinning, from turning away from Allah in
disobedience. Be aware because that is what shaitan
wants you to do so that you become
more and more distant from Allah
and go towards the path of misguidance.
Allah is saying rather obey Allah and obey
His Messenger
for
interval later and if you refuse to do
so, then the role of the Messenger is
only Al Balakul Mubin to deliver the message
clearly.
In verse number 93, Allah Azzawajal then says,
Those who believe and do good deeds will
not be blamed for what they may have
consumed in the past as long as they
are mindful of Allah. And they believe and
do good deeds. Then are mindful of Allah
and believe. Then are mindful of Allah and
do good deeds. Allah loves those who do
good deeds. This verse was revealed concerning those
people who died before this command of Allah
was given about the prohibition of gambling and
alcohol.
Allah forbade alcohol,
but there were many companions or a number
of companions that had died before this point.
So what they did is they consumed alcohol
because there was halal at that time, they
drank,
and they worshipped Allah at the same time,
and then they passed away, and then Allah
revealed this verse towards the end of Surah
Al Mahidah saying, it is not haram,
some of the companions then feared for their
brothers who had passed away.
What is their warning? Allah says that it
is something which causes enmity between you, from
the paths of Shaitan, from his handiwork,
from Salah and from the Dhikr of Allah
azza wa Jal. What about those Muslims who
passed away before us and they used to
drink? So they asked the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam, so Allah
revealed this verse.
There is no harm upon those who believe
and do good deeds.
They will not be blamed for what they
consumed in the past, meaning at that time,
so Allah will not hold them to account
for a ruling that came after their death.
And that is from the mercy and justice
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
so long as they were people of Iman
and Taqwa and righteous deeds. And those companions
were doing
to the best of their ability, they were
doing what Allah Azzawajal commanded and legislated at
that time. And that shows therefore
the beauty and the justice of Islam. And
that is why if a person genuinely doesn't
know a ruling
of Islam, then how to account for it?
Like the new Muslim, the new Muslim who
accepts the region of Islam, you can't be
expected in the 1st few weeks or the
1st few months or even the 1st year
or 2 to know all of the major
rulings of Islam. They will learn as they
go along, but they may miss out one
thing or another
or misunderstand certain things. So they do something
that you see that is wrong.
Advise them. And if it comes and you
find out they were ignorant of that ruling,
or they misunderstood it or it was a
genuine mistake, Allah does not hold them to
account for that. And that is because they
did their best. They did what Allah commanded
them to do. However,
that is not an excuse not to learn.
You can't not physically go and learn and
seek knowledge and ask and then say, oh
but I didn't know. That's not acceptable.
Why? Because that is your shortcoming then. You
had the opportunity to ask and to learn
just as you do for everything else in
your life. You wanna buy a house, you
wanna buy a car, you wanna go and
change jobs, you wanna move to a different
country, you wanna send your kids to a
school, you do your research, you ask, you
find out, you learn, and then you make
that decision. So why then when it comes
to the religion of Allah azza wa Jal,
are we happy to be go lucky people,
ignorant and so on, and then when we
make major mistakes, then we turn around and
say but we didn't know no one told
us as if we expect people to come
out every step of the way and hold
our hands in this issue of Allah's religion
and Islam. But with everything else, we'll take
the initiative.
We'll be the ones who will go and
research and ask and learn and sometimes so
much that we gather whole dossiers on an
issue,
files on an issue before we make a
decision. It's your responsibility
to learn. That's different to the person who
genuinely doesn't know they're a new Muslim for
example or someone who is illiterate, someone who
is really old, those people have their reasons
and their excuses.
But even those people to the best of
their ability must do what they can in
order to learn about the religion of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Allah in the next number of verses will
now give to us a number of commands.
In verse number 94 says
Or you who believe, Allah is sure to
test you with gain,
within reach of your hands and spears to
find out who fears Him even though they
cannot see Him. From now on, anyone who
transgresses will have a painful punishment.
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says to the believers
primarily at the time of the Prophet
when these rulings are now being revealed for
the first time, Allah says that Allah will
test you with game, game meaning hunting.
Game are those animals that it is permissible
for you to hunt. Allah will test you
with this because they are in the reach
of your hands and in the reach of
your spears and your arrows and so on,
but Allah will tell you to stay away
from them. And this will be further clarified
in the next verse. These are the rulings
of hiram,
the ruling of being in the state of
hiram when you're going for umrah or for
hajj. There are certain restrictions
placed upon the Muhlim, the one in the
state of Haram with the male or female.
And from those restrictions is that they cannot
hunt.
And in the olden days, because people used
to go by land, they would need to
eat and so they would have provisions with
them. But if they came across animals
that they could hunt, they would hunt them
as well in order
to replenish themselves and their provisions and so
on and so forth. They would hunt. That
is generally permissible.
However, in the state of Ihram, it is
not allowed. And that is why Allah says
Allah will test you with this. So Allah
is warning the believers
that what you are accustomed to, especially at
that time of hunting as you are travelling,
you see a wild deer, you see a
gazelle
and you hunt it. But now you can't.
Even though it may well be enriched, you
could probably come and reach out and catch
one of those animals.
Or you could use one of your spears
or arrows in order to catch them because
of how close they may be to you,
but in the state of Haram because there
is a state of sanctity,
then likewise
any harm
or harm or harm anything also becomes from
that sanctity. And so therefore they are told
to stay away.
Allah says so that Allah will know who
fears him
even
though they cannot see him. And that is
from the way that the believer is. So
in the restrictions of a haram, you're told,
for example, don't pluck your hair, don't cut
your nails, don't use perfume. How easy would
it be for someone to go and remove
some of their hair, to pluck a nail
or 2, to use perfume that no one
can see them using. Allah says, Allah
knows what you do
when you are absent from everyone else. And
so it is a sign of Taqwa and
a sign of the fear of Allah
that we abide by these restrictions that Allah
places upon us. In verse number 95 Allah
Azariah then goes into more detail and he
says
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in this verse
verse number 95: O you who believe,
do not kill gain whilst you are in
the state of Ihram
for pilgrimage.
If someone does so intentionally, the penalty is
an offering of a domestic animal brought to
the Kaaba, its equivalent as judged by 2
judgment amongst you to the one he has
killed.
Alternatively, he may atone by feeding the needy
or by fasting an equivalent number of days
so that he may taste the full gravity
of his deed. Allah forgives what is past
but if anyone reoffends, Allah will exact the
penalty from him. Allah is Almighty and capable
of exacting
the penalty.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala as we said from
the restrictions of Ihram is that you can't
hunt. So Allah Azzawajal says that whilst you
are in the state of Ihram,
then don't go and hunt, don't kill any
type of game.
If we do so intentionally,
meaning therefore if it is done by accident,
Allah forgives that person. It wasn't their intention.
They didn't mean to harm that animal. But
if you do so intentionally, what is expiation?
Because for breaking all of the restrictions of
Ihram, there are expiations that are due
as is well known in the books of
Fiqh. Here Allah gives to us in the
Quran the expiation of hunting. What do you
do?
What you must do is sacrifice an equivalent
domesticated animal.
So
someone hunts an animal that is wild, a
deer,
a gazal, whatever it may be, that's what
they hunt. Allah says, you must now find
this equivalent
from the domesticated animals that you can slaughter
when you go to the Kaaba as an
offering of expiation.
What are domesticated animals? Sheep, goats, cows, camels.
These are the domesticated animals. That's what you
must give
as an equivalent to that which you slaughtered.
How do you know which one is equivalent
to what now?
To just people amongst you will judge. Meaning
these are people who know what is likely
to be similar to the other ones. And
so therefore they will say that this is
equal to that, that is equal to, to
this. And that is what the companions of
the prophet, salallahu alayhi wasallam used to do.
They would say this animal is equal to
a cow. That one is equal to a
sheep. That one is equal to a camel.
And so we have a number of those,
the rations from the companions that you will
find also in the books of and in
the rations of the companions.
But if there's not one of those rulings,
then those 2 just people look at what
they consider to be equivalent to the animal
that was killed in its size, in its
type of features and so on. And they
say that you have to give this as
an expedition. So it may well be that
a person hunts something and their expiation is
that they have to offer a whole sacrifice
of a camel for example as expiation.
That you bring to the Kaaba and are
restored there for the Haram and given to
the poor of the Haram.
Allah says or
you feed
the needy if you cannot do so, meaning
that you can't find this animal.
So what you do is you feed the
people, you feed the poor people. Many of
the scholars said that what happens then is
that you look at this animal, how much
would they have cost? So you can't sacrifice
the animal but maybe the animal would have
cost £400
or £200 or £100 in order to sacrifice
what you do then is you take that
money
and you buy food for the poor in
equivalent to that amount and that is what
you give as an expiation.
Or you fast the days
that you would have given instead. Meaning that
instead of if you can't feed those people
and just say that £100 would have fed
30 people,
20 people, 10 people then you fast those
days instead.
Fast those
10 days
in placement for those 10 poor people that
you would have fed as an expiation. Allah
says,
so this person may understand the gravity of
their deed that they evoked under the restrictions
of Allah
So this may actually become a penalty that
is a dear penalty upon that person, not
an easy penalty that they can fix and
that is because Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala tells
us that this is one of the restrictions
of haram and therefore it is something which
you must avoid in that state and alhamdulillah
now at times it's not necessarily a big
issue anymore but it used to be in
times that were past. Allah
forgives you for that which you did before
and the mistakes you make but if you
return then Allah will hold you to account.
In the final verse that we are going
to take today Allah says in verse number
96.
It is permitted for you to catch and
eat seafood and enjoyment for you and the
traveler, but hunting game is forbidden whilst you
are in the state
of Haram.
Be mindful of Allah to whom you will
be gathered.
Allah
says
that seafood is always halal
outside of the state of Haram and that
is from the mercy of Allah as the
prophet told us
that all seafood is halal by simply taking
it out of the sea and it dies
by its own accord because it is out
of the sea or the ocean or the
river and it dies, doesn't need to be
slaughtered, it becomes halal for you. And so
it is one of those things that a
meat that you can eat or a type
of meat that you can eat without necessarily
slaughtering it for you whether you're at home
and resident or whether you are travelers. However,
Allah says
but it is the land game,
hunting animals of land, that is why Allah
has made haram for you whether that's birds,
whether it's animals, that is haram in the
state of haram. And therefore if you're out
of the state of haram, it becomes halal
and permissible again that is the understanding of
this verse and fear Allah
to whom you will be gathered. And with
that inshallah ta'ala we come to the end
of today's episode.