Ahsan Hanif – Quran Tafseer – Page 90
AI: Summary ©
The history and importance of Islam is discussed, including the importance of fighting for one's own gain and leaving one's current state. The speaker emphasizes the importance of following commands and sharia in protecting one's reputation and preparing for the future. The speaker also discusses the importance of learning to trust Allah's teachings and avoiding fear and fearing in order to achieve spiritual goals. The speaker also discusses the importance of reward and sin in achieving spiritual goals and the differentiation between good and evil in Islam.AI: Transcript ©
Muhammad. Welcome to another episode of our tafseer
page by page and Insha'Allah ta'ala. Today we
are on page number 19 of the Quran.
In the previous episode,
one of the main themes and subject matters
that we were speaking about is how Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala were telling the Muslims or
instructing the Muslims especially at the time of
the prophet
that they should obey the command of Allah
the command of the prophet
to fight in his way, to fight in
his path subhanahu wa ta'ala
and how the different groups were responding to
the command of allah aseawajal
especially from the hypocrites who
would take every excuse and find every way
of trying to remove themselves from that situation
and from that, from having to obey the
particular command. And we know this to be
the reality from the sunnah of the prophet
from his
and the stories that we have from the
battles of Badr and Uhad for example and
other incidents that took place for example such
as on the day of Hazab, the battle
of the trench,
other types of the battle of Tabuk. All
of these incidents that show that when it
came to this particular command that they should
follow the prophet suballahu alaihi wa sallam into
battle, those people would turn away and allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala therefore gives the instruction
in the final verse that we took in
the previous episode,
the instruction that people should fight in the
way of Allah azza wa jal in following
the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam's command.
Today we continue from verse number 75
and that is the statement of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
Why should you not fight in the last
cause and for those oppressed women, men, women
and children who cry out, our lord rescue
us from this town whose people are oppressors
by your grace give us a protector and
give us a helper
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in this verse therefore
is saying to the believers.
For example at the time of the prophet
as
we know the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam
and the Muslims originally in Mecca and that
they were being oppressed
and transgression and oppression was being committed upon
them. The prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam therefore gave
the permission by Allah's command that the Muslims
could migrate from the city of Mecca to
the city of Medina and many of the
Muslims did so. But there were other Muslims
who stayed back and in these verses that
we will take Insha'Allah in today's passage and
the forthcoming passages,
Allah will speak about these 2 other groups
of people.
The first of them are those who were
genuinely weak and unable to travel. They didn't
have the means
to be able to make hijrah and migrate
to Madinah. That's one group of people. And
the second group of people
are those people who chose to stay back
in Mecca even though they had
Allah in this particular verse is speaking about
that first group of people, those people who
don't genuinely have the ability to migrate men,
women and children
because of the weakness of their state and
because of their lack of means and ability
to migrate. Allah says therefore and why would
you not fight in Allah's cause for those
people?
And so Allah is giving this command to
the companions of the prophet salallahu alayhi wa
sallam and to those Muslims who are in
Madina and those people who are obviously under
the umbrella of Islam. Why would you not
fight when oppression is being committed amongst your
brothers and sisters in Islam? Why wouldn't you
follow the lead of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam? And clearly here Allah
is giving this command because the leader of
the Muslims in the Muslim state is giving
the command that they should fight and they
are refusing or some of them do not
wish to do so and Allah is saying
that there are men, women, children who are
in a state of weakness who want to
leave
who want Allah's assistance, who want Allah's help,
who seek to leave but because of their
means and because of their situation,
they are unable to do so.
And Allah ajaw in this verse also therefore
speaks
about
the situation of these people who are weak
and being oppressed
and they turn to Allah in dua trusting
in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala calling upon Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
for his divine aid and his divine assistance.
In the next verse verse number 76 Allah
then says
The believers are those who fight for a
lost cause
whilst those who reject faith fight for an
unjust cause they fight for the Tawahid.
So fight the allies of Shaitan for indeed
Shaitan's strategies
are truly weak.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala here says that those
who believe, fight for the sake of Allah
Azza wa Jal. They don't fight for any
other reason except to please Allah
and within that verse therefore is a meaning
which is extremely important
and that is that when you fight for
the sake of Allah, the cause of Allah
azza wa Jal, it must also be done
in the way that is legislated by Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. You can't claim to fight
in Allah's way and for Allah's cause and
you are breaking the rules of Allah. You
are not following the sharia of Allah azza
wa Jal, you are not adhering to the
commandments of Allah and his messenger salallahu alayhi
wasalam. That is therefore fighting in the way
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That is not
fighting for the cause of Allah azza wa
jal, that is a person fighting for their
own needs, for their own desires, for their
own ideologies that they have adopted.
As for fighting for Allah's way, it is
to adhere to the commands and the shaniyah
of Allah
and the commands of the prophet salallahu alaihi
wasallam and the guidelines that he left for
us. And that is why the companions or
whenever the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam would send
a group of companions on a military expedition.
He would send them forth. He would say
to the general of that particular army or
that particular expedition, he would give him a
number of guidelines
and he would tell them, don't attack these
types of people and don't harm those types
of people and don't destroy those types of
buildings. And he would give to them a
number of instructions
and then he would send them on their
way. So there are guidance. It's not just
an issue of anyone and everyone
going and fighting whichever way that they that
they please or wish because that way lies
chaos and that is not the way that
the sharia of Allah works. And so Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala in the previous verse is
saying to those companions, fight in the way
of Allah azza wa Jal but remember that
they are fighting and that's why we have
whole chapters dedicated to this in the books
of fiqh. The chapters of jihad and its
many laws and its many guidelines
are important
for a person to be able to understand
what it is that it means when we
say fighting in the way of Allah ahsawajal
because as we all know this is an
issue now that has become warped in the
minds of many people, Muslim and non Muslim
alike because of the way that certain people
have misinterpreted the Sharia
and these texts of the Quran and the
Sunnah and then applied them to situations that
they cannot be applied and by doing so
they have caused a great deal of harm
and a great deal of chaos
and a great deal of
problems for the Muslim Ummah.
So Allah
says here that those who
truly believe they fight in the way of
Allah and
the fighting in the way of Allah
is determined
by Allah himself. I don't get to choose
what he means
fighting the way of Allah, you don't get
to choose and decide what it means to
fight in the way of Allah ajawajal, Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala decides and the prophet salallahu
alayhi wasallam legislated
Those are the people who truly fight in
the way of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And as for those who disbelieve
they fight in the way of every other
Taghut meaning everything besides the sake of Allah
is called Taghut.
It is false.
And so those people fight for other than
the sake of Allah
Sometimes it's for their own image, for their
own reputation, for their own name as the
Prophet told us salallahu alaihi wa sallam that
from amongst the first people that will be
punished by Allah ahsawajal and thrown into the
fire is a man who will be brought
that was known for his bravery,
known for his courage, known for his ability
to fight on the battlefield.
And this man will be brought and he
will say after Allah has reminded him of
his many blessings upon him, why did you
fight?' And he will say, 'I fought only
for your cause, O Allah.' And Allah ahsawajal
will reply, you are a liar, but rather
you fought so that people would see that
you were brave, that you were courageous, that
you had military prowess and that is what
was said about you. Meaning that your intention
was to show off and to guard in
the place of people and you achieved your
intention, your intention.
So Allah will command him and he will
be thrown into the frame of Allah aseawajal
see was from that. And so here any
other
any other intention other than the sake of
Allah is in the way of the so
whether that be for personal reputation and image
whether that be for desires or an ideology
that someone follows that is against the Quran
and the sunnah or whatever it may be,
those are all paths other than the paths
of Allah people are fighting for false causes
and so Allah
says that all of those people who fight
in those causes they are from the Oliya
Shaitan, they are from the helpers and the
people who give aid to Shaitan. So that
is why Allah says,
so therefore fight those people who are allies
of Shaytan
for indeed the strategies, the plans, the plans
of shaitan
are truly weak and this shows that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala helps and shows his blessings
upon those people who are sincere for his
sake Those people who stand up sincerely for
the sake of Allah aza wa jal and
they are there to help Allah's religion and
they are there to benefit and aid Allah's
religion. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala blesses them and
he helps them. And as for those people
whose intentions are pure,
their intentions are not sincere, their intentions are
not to service the region of Allah
those people Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not
aid them and help them and after a
while their situation becomes
very apparent and very known towards the people.
In the next verse verse number 77
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala then goes on to
say
perform the salah and pay the zakah.
When fighting was then ordained for them, some
of them feared men as much as or
even more than they feared Allah saying, our
lord, why have you ordered fighting or ordained
fighting for us if only you would just
give us a little more time? Say to
them little is the enjoyment in this world.
The hereafter is better for those who are
mindful of Allah. You will not be wrong
by as much as the fibre in a
dead stone.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala here speaks about the
people who were living in the city of
Mecca. At the beginning of Islam as we
know the muslims were in the state of,
being oppressed
and the numbers of the muslims were few
and many from amongst those muslims were from
the ex slaves or from the poor and
the needy or the women and the children.
Those were the people that were the majority
of the makeup of the muslim
at that time in those early days of
Mecca.
So the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam and those
companions that were with him were told to
be patient.
They were told to restrain themselves. They were
told to expand all of their efforts
in shoring up and firming up their tawhid,
the iman Allah ahsawajal
and also in shoring up and firming their
actions of worship, their salah and their zakah.
And that is what Allah is saying here.
And they're prompting you. They're they're they're in
inciting you towards violence. They're inciting you towards
fighting. They're
by oppressing you and harming you and calling
you names and mocking your religion, they are
inciting you towards some type of reaction,
restraining yourselves.
Rather what should you do?
Establish the Salah and give the Zakah and
even though this is before the time as
we know before these two acts of worship
were made
they were from the pillars of Islam because
both of them were legislated as we know
one of them towards the end of the
Meccan period and the other one in the
Madinan period. However, the Muslims even before that
time would pray, even though it wasn't necessarily
the way that we the 5 daily prayers
to be but they were told to offer
salah so they would offer salah and they
were told to give Zakat in the sense
of giving charity not necessarily in the sense
that we now understand it with all of
the different,
shares and and and and but they were
told to give some of their wealth in
zakah
in in in charity and so they would
do so. And so Allah is giving to
us a very important principle here and that
is that before a person can go to
that level
where they go and start doing things on
a mass scale, the first thing that every
person needs to work on is their own
selves and this is an inherent weakness that
we see in the Ummah today. Many of
us question why the Muslims are weak, why
the Muslims are often oppressed, why islam has
such a bad name and so we often
ask these questions when we see world affairs
and what's going on across the globe But
one of the things that we fail to
realize is that one of the major reasons
for that is because of our own weakness
of iman, our own weakness
in terms of the worship of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. Look at how here Allah azza
wa jal is saying to the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam and to those Muslims and amongst
those Muslims of the likes of Abu Bakr
and Umar and Usman and Ali and Hamza
radiAllahu anhu which are major companions of the
prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam and he's telling
them restrain yourselves.
Be patient. What should you do instead then?
Work on your iman. Work on understanding your
aqidah, your tuhid, know who Allah is, know
how to worship Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala because
when you come to that point where you
must now sacrifice your wealth, sacrifice other things
for the sake of Allah azza wa Jal,
you can only do so if you have
the strength of Iman, the strength of worshipping
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So this is the
instruction that was given to the Muslims and
that is exactly what they did. When we
look at the seal of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam, you see that the prophet salallahu
alaihi wa sallam, those first 13 years of
Mecca, all he focuses on is issues of
belief,
issues of faith, issues of strengthening a person's
connection to Allah azza wa Jal, understanding what
it means to worship Allah alone, what it
means to have tawhid of Allah azza wa
Jal, what it means to believe
in Allah's messenger sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, what
it means to believe on yomulkiyam
on the day of judgement, in the day
of judgement. All of those issues that make
the Muslim who they are and then translating
the Iman into deeds of worship
because you firm your Iman or you strengthen
your Iman by worshipping Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
It is like a shield that protects
the Iman that you have in your heart.
So you spend your time in salah, you
spend your time in charity, you spend your
time in reciting the Quran and seeking knowledge
of your religion, doing those acts of worship
that are beloved to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Allah says so therefore this is what Allah
commanded the Muslims initially.
Then when they migrated to Madinah and they
had a certain level of strength, they were
told now they could fight.
So then when Allah now
ordained fighting upon them and from amongst those
people are those people who in the Meccan
period wanted to fight, they told to restrain
themselves.
Now in the medinean period they told, now
you can go and fight, Allah
says we found from amongst them a group
of people
who started to fear the people as if
they feared Allah
as they should fear Allah or even more
so than the fear of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala meaning that when the time came for
them to step up now and to fight,
they weren't able to do so
and that is because they had they didn't
work maybe perhaps on that iman issue, the
issue of worshiping Allah
in the way that they should have but
rather they had a level of fear from
fighting for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. And they said
oh Allah why did you legislate? Why did
you ordain fighting upon
us?
If only you had given us more time.
If only you had delayed us until another
time. Allah replies
and he says,
say to them that the life or the
enjoyment of this world is very little and
that is because the people who,
who have this type of mindset and attitude,
often it's because of some attachment to the
dunya in this life and that is one
of the greatest traps of Shaitan.
One of the greatest traps of Shaitan not
only to stop people from fighting in the
Path of Allah but performing any act of
worship,
Living a life of obedience and submission to
Allah Azza wa Jal, one of the greatest
traps of Shaitan
is calling people to attach themselves to the
Dunya and this temporary life.
And that is a pull that is very
great because it's the here and now. It's
the materialistic world that you can see around
you. It's the enjoyments that you can almost
reach out and grab and and benefit from
or partake in. And so those are things
that to you are here and now that
you can actually see and they're tangible.
As for the reward of the akhira,
belief in Allah,
those are things that are further down the
line.
Reward and sin are things that are not
tangible. You can't actually hold them and feel
them. And so sometimes Shaitan comes and he
makes us heedless of those aspects and makes
us focus on what we can see and
that is human nature.
And those things that you have to fight
your desires against, you have to fight yourself
for, it is more beloved to Allah
because you have to go a further step.
It is an issue of iman that you
believe in that which is unseen,
not tangible
and you take that over that which can
be seen and can be attained but it
is something which Allah told you to stay
away from and that is why the Quran
often focuses on this particular aspect, this issue
of don't attach yourself to the dunya. Remember
that the akhirah is better,
everlasting,
far greater in reward and enjoyment and blessings
and so on. And so therefore Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala says the same here. Those people
who when the time of fighting came upon
them in the time of the prophet salallahu
alaihi wasallam, they wished that it hadn't been
ordained. Allah says why? The reason is because
they wanted to continue the life of this
dunya and Allah says know that its enjoyment
is little.
Little in what? Compared to
and
the life of the hereafter is better for
those who have for those who are people
of piety and consciousness of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
And so Allah says that it is little
the life of the dunya and its blessings
and enjoyments in comparison
to what Allah has prepared for the believers
on
and that is why the prophet told us
in the hadith of Sahadi Bhusad.
He
said in
the The place of a stick in Jannah,
meaning when you hold a stick like a
walking stick or or some type of a
walking aid, that stick at the bottom, how
much space does it take up on the
ground? It's like a small circle. That's all
that it has up on the ground. He
said that the place of the stick in
Jannah is better than the dunya and everything
within
it. Just that small amount area
of Jannah which is literally hardly anything.
It is no bigger, no greater than a
place for a stick for you to put
your stick down as you walk. That's all
it is. You couldn't live on it. You
couldn't use it to trade in. You couldn't
use it for anything other than it is
a place for your stick to go. That
is better
than all of everything that you find in
this dunya. Let on what Allah has been
prepared for the for the believers
in Jannah of everything else as Allah says
elsewhere in the Quran,
Know so knows what Allah has prepared for
it from delights and treasures and as the
prophet told
us in Jannah is that which no eye
has seen, no ear has heard, no mind
can possibly imagine.
And so Allah is saying
you will not be wung by a fatil
and a fatil is the smallest amount of
thing that you could possibly imagine and the
translator in this particular translation, he chose the
word, the fiber in a date stone and
what that means is that when you open
a date and you have the stone, in
between the date and the stone, you have
the small membrane,
a skin, a small membrane that stops or
that that is between this the date stone
and the date itself. That, he says, is
the meaning of fatigue. By the way, the
fatigue is essentially something which is extremely small,
has no worth,
has no value but in the sight of
Allah
his perfect justice and his complete justice subhanahu
wa ta'ala is that even that small amount
that most people wouldn't even consider
to be an issue because it's not worth
anything. Doesn't make a difference to anything. Even
that amount in the accounting of Allah
is not misused, it is not misplaced and
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala
is all just
in the next verse, verse number 78 Allah
says,
Allah
says death will overtake you no matter where
you may be even inside high towers. When
good fortune comes their way, they say, this
is from Allah.' But when harm befalls them,
they say, this is from you.' Meaning the
Prophet
say to them both are from Allah what
is the matter with these people that they
can barely understand what they are told.
Allah is saying
following on from the previous verse that those
people therefore don't want to fight in the
path of Allah because they hold on to
life and they feel that if they go
to the battlefield then they will die. Say
to them, let them know that death will
come to them whenever it is decreed to
come, wherever you may be, even if you
were in fortified towers.
Buruj and Mosheye
that are high towers that are fortified like
castles
that are upon the top of a a
peak of a mountain that is a fortress,
essentially, that has been closed off from everything
external.
But death doesn't need doors. Death doesn't need
windows. Death doesn't need to approach you in
the way that other things do. Death will
come to you in the way and manner
that Allah is the original decrees and when
the angel of death comes by the command
of Allah, there is nothing upon this dunya
that can stop its coming. There is nothing
that can act as a barrier between you
and between death and so see to them
those people that death will come to you.
If Allah decreed for you to die in
one place it will happen and if Allah
didn't decree for you to die on that
on that day or in that place, then
it won't happen. And that is why
Allah continues and says, these are the people
who, when some good comes to them, they
say that this is from Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala
and when some bad comes to them they
say it's because of you, look at what
you've done, meaning the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam you're the one who brings us false
things or bad things or you're the one
who who brings us bad luck and so
on and so they would use the prophet
salallahu alaihi wa sallam
as a potent or an omen of everything
harmful and bad that took place to them.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
say to them rather,
everything that happens, it is from Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. Allah is the one who decrees
both good and both bad and Allah is
the one who ordained that this thing should
happen to you whether it was good or
bad. And so Allah that is from the
iman of the Muslims as we know from
our belief in Allah
is that we believe in the decree of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala whether good or bad
is what Allah has decreed and what Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala
has allowed to happen. And so therefore the
belief of the Muslim is that we don't
say that good stuff is only from from
from one thing or a bad things from
something. Allah decreed everything. Yes, we don't ascribe
that evil back to Allah
because it is not from good etiquettes to
do so. It's not from the good practice
of a Muslim that they ascribe things which
are bad and evil to Allah
but we believe and we know that nothing
happened except by Allah's will and by his
permission subhanahu wa ta'ala and so therefore Allah
allowed it to happen and that is a
test for me and you when some calamity
or hardship befalls us. Allah
says, so what is wrong with these people?
They
barely
understand what is being said to them because
all of these issues that are explained in
the Quran and the sunnah. All of these
issues that Allah tells them over and over
again, it's as if they barely understand.
These are people who when
this admonition is given to them, this reminder
is repeated to them time and time again
over and over, they don't really understand, they
don't connect with it, they don't
they are unable to understand what it is
that Allah is saying to them.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then says in the
final verse that we will take in today's
episode verse number 79,
Allah azza wa Jal then says,
anything good that happens to you is from
Allah.
Anything bad that happens is ultimately from yourself.
We have sent you as a messenger to
people and indeed Allah is sufficient as a
witness.
So here Allah
now is changing or
discerning between two things, differentiating between two things.
In the previous verse, Allah says
they are all good and bad, Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is the one who decrees it,
nothing happens except
by Allah's permission.
However, in this verse, Allah is now speaking
about the means or the reason as to
why it happens.
The first reason is that when it comes
as something good, it is from Allah's blessings,
from Allah's mercy, it is from Allah's favor
and his grace. And if something bad happens,
some calamity, hardship befalls you, then notice as
Allah ajawajal tells us elsewhere in the Quran,
It is because of what you have earned
by your own two hands, meaning by the
sins that we have done, by the misdeeds
that we do, Allah has
sometimes since upon us these hardships and these
calamities
and so therefore there is a differentiation between
these two issues that Allah is mentioning and
that is why as we said, we don't
ascribe evil to Allah as is mentioned in
some of the Hadith
all good is in the hands of Allah
and
evil is not ascribed to him.
And that is that even though Allah
decrees and allows for it to happen, it
is not befitting that we ascribe anything evil
to Allah rather than evil is ascribed to
ourselves as Allah tells us in the Quran,
it is ascribed to Shaitan and his Whisperings
to us. Allah
Azzawajal concludes this verse by saying, We have
sent you as a Messenger to the people
and indeed Allah is a witness over all
of you. And with that InshaAllah Ta'ala we
come to the end of today's episode.
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