Ahsan Hanif – Quran Tafseer – Page 91 – A Straight Path To Obey Allah
AI: Summary ©
The importance of following messenger's instructions and rules for religion is discussed, including hesitation, obeying laws, acknowledging mistakes, and following Sunaways. The speaker emphasizes the importance of not obeying Prophet's words and actions, as it is a weakness in one's heart. The speaker also discusses the importance of researching and returning to the people of authority when dealing with issues, and advises against lying to others and giving things like alcohol or money. Additionally, the speaker emphasizes the importance of avoiding sharing one's needs and speaking on behalf of others to help others.
AI: Summary ©
Muhammad. Welcome to another episode of our tafsir
page
in the previous episode, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
gave to us a number of commands or
gave to the Muslims at the time of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam a number
of commands as how they should obey Allah
ajawal and his messenger sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
when it comes to fighting in his path
and for his cause
and the different ways and guidelines in which
that should be done or some of those
guidelines in which that should be done and
Allah Azzawajal also mentioned those people
who don't do so and they ascribe evil
to Allah and to his Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam
whereas in reality what we should do is
we should obey Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and
obey his Messenger and
it is with that command
that Allah Azzawajal begins the verse that we
are going to start with today which is
verse number 80 of Surah Al Nisa.
The command to obey the messenger
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says
If some pay no heed,
then we have not sent you to be
their keeper.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in this particular verse
is giving to us a very important principle
and that is that the obedience of Allah
necessitates the obedience of the Messenger of Allah
sallallahu alaihi wasallam
in order for you to obey Allah to
worship Allah
to hold on to the original Allah ajawajal
the way that he commanded you must by
necessity
follow the sunnah of the prophet Sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam you must follow his Sharia You
must learn about his his sunnah. You must
learn what he commanded what he legislated what
he said and what he said to do
and not to do in order for you
to be able to obey Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. And in the obedience of the messenger
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the obedience
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and that is
because even in our time as we know
people try to differentiate between these two things.
People who say no we will just follow
the Quran because this is the the book
of Allah but we're not going to follow
the sunnah or we don't accept hadith because
those are statements of people and and chains
of narrators and so on. We don't know
their situation so we're going to stay away
from that. That's not our religion. Allah said
you must obey the Messenger of Allah sallallahu
alaihi wasallam. How can you obey him if
you don't follow his Sunnah? And how can
you arrive at the Sunnah if you don't
take the notations of Hadith that have been
collected and preserved and recorded for us by
generations of scholars. May Allah
have mercy upon them.
This principle therefore is extremely important
to try to
divorce these two things, obedience of Allah and
obedience of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
is something which will cause a person to
become
extremely and far from the path of Allah
'Azza wa Jal and that is why obedience
is something which Allah has dictated
that it must be up for both. Allah
himself has said you must obey Allah and
obey his messenger
that also therefore shows that when it comes
to the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam's legislation
when it comes to his Sharia
and when it comes to aspects of religion
then he is
infallible.
Allah
has given him infallibility
and made him
speak only the truth and only that which
Allah is pleased with and therefore what he
says
and what he ordains in terms of religious
issues that is something which is our religion
and so Allah gave him that level
of honor that when he speaks on behalf
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala about the original
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
that is as Allah commanded and as Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala wanted from him. The woman
and if someone turns away from this, they
don't obey Allah, they don't obey the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam they know that you
are not their keeper, meaning you haven't been
sent over them as a guardian. You're not
responsible for them. Each person is responsible for
their own particular,
particular decisions and for their own actions.
In verse number 81, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
then says,
So leave them alone and put your trust
in Allah. He is your sufficient protector.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying here that
in order for you to obey Allah azza
wa Jalal and obey his messenger salallahu alaihi
wa sallam, that is something which has to
be both internally and externally.
So for you to, for example, claim or
for me to claim that we obey Allah
we obey the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
but in our hearts we don't have that
level of obedience towards the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam we turn away we reject
we are heedless
that isn't a true reflection then of the
statements that we are professing verbally or I
will be And so therefore true obedience to
Allah, true obedience to the prophet
is when it is done both internally and
externally.
You have in your heart the intention
and the firm conviction that you will obey
the messenger salallahu alaihi wa sallam and again
as we've said before previously in this tafsir
series that doesn't mean that a person won't
sin, doesn't mean that they're infallible or that
they're perfect, they will sin but it's not
the
desire to disobey Allah and his messenger salallahu
alaihi wa sallam. It is a moment of
weakness, a weakness of iman or the overpowering
of the whisperings of shaitan or the temptations
of the dunya. A person does not seek
to dishonor Allah or his messenger salallahu alaihi
wasallam.
However,
the true
heart or their true want, if you like,
their true desire is to obey Allah and
to obey the prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam. That's
in their hearts and that is therefore what
they try to do by action and by
statement as well.
Allah is speaking here about a group of
people in the time of the Prophet
would say that they obey him.
They say, oh messenger of Allah, we give
to you our obedience
But as soon as they leave you,
a group of them scheme by night. Mabit
is something which happens during the night. So
these people leave,
and then in the under the cover of
darkness, they meet and they collude together
to do other than obedience. And what is
other than obedience except disobedience,
except planning planning and plotting against Allah and
his messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam. And we know
that this was the situation
of a number of the munafiqeen of the
hypocrites
that by day would profess their Islam, they
would apparently and outwardly
pretend or show that they are Muslims,
but by evening, by night in secret, when
they were alone, they would try
to find ways in which they could harm
Islam and the Muslims ways in which they
could help the enemies of the messenger sunallahu
alaihi wasallam against him And so these people
Allah azzawajal is saying this is what they
do and they do it under the cover
of darkness
and they do it away from prying eyes
and they do it secretly because they know
that what they're doing is wrong but they
still continue to do so because that obedience
isn't something which has settled in the heart
and again all of these terms therefore it
is important whether it's obedience,
whether it's love for Allah and his messenger
salallahu alayhi wa sallam, whether it's fear of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. All of these statements,
they have two components.
The first is the outwardly component
that's what we say upon our tongue but
it's also manifested in action in terms of
the way that we show whether we truly
obey Allah or love Allah or love the
Messenger of Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam will fear
Allah azzawajal and the second component is what
is in the heart And if the heart
is something which truly
believes in and holds on to these concepts,
then the actions and the statements will follow
likewise.
But if a person only makes those statements
as statements, but their actions
are only then done when in the company
of others or because it's that show
a a a front towards others or a
front to others, an image to others, but
behind the scenes in their heart behind,
behind or or when they're alone and away
from other people's eyes, then you see their
true reality that shows that this person isn't
true and isn't sincere in what it is
that they're saying. So many of us and
all of us love Allah and his messenger
salallahu alayhi wasalam and all of us say
that we obey Allah and his messenger salallahu
alayhi wasalam. But if that's not something which
is truly settled in the heart then when
it comes to our actions, it's not something
which will be manifested. When it comes to
the benefit of obeying Allah and loving Allah
and his messenger salallahu alaihi wa sallam, it's
not something which will be seen. Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala says, Allah
records their statements. Allah knows what it is
that they say and Allah records what it
is that they plan and they plot.
And Allah
gives us instruction
so turn away from them, ignore them and
place your trust in Allah
for indeed Allah is sufficient as a protector.
In the next verse verse number 82 Allah
then says
Quran
will they not ponder and reflect over this
Quran? If it had been from anyone other
than Allah, they would have found much inconsistency
in it.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala then gives us this
command
which is an extremely important command
and especially when it comes to our relationship
with the book of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and that is the command to contemplate the
book of Allah Azza wa Jal. So when
it comes to our reading of the Quran,
our study of the Quran, there are stages
or different parts to our relationship with the
book of Allah Azza wa Jal. One of
them is recitation,
one of them is memorization,
one of them is understanding and study like
we are doing now, the study of tafsir,
the study of the meanings of the words
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. One of them
for example may be application applying those lessons
that we take from the Quran and the
Sunnah applying the commands of Allah Azzawajal from
the Quran applying them into our daily lives.
But one of the most important
aspects of that relationship or our relationship with
the Quran, one of the most important components
of having a strong attachment to the book
of Allah azza wa jal is what is
being mentioned in this verse, verse 82 in
Surah Al Nisa and that is the command
to reflect and contemplate over the Book of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Allah
says:
will they not reflect, ponder, contemplate
over the book of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
What does it mean to contemplate? Because Allah
will repeat this verse one more time with
this instruction and command, one other time in
the Quran, and that is towards the end
in Surah Muhammad in the 26th Jews of
the Quran. What does it mean to reflect,
to ponder, to contemplate?
It is essentially to stop and to think.
So often when we're reading,
we read as we're reading, if you open
the Quran and you're reading, you read and
you read and sometimes you read at fast
pace.
And you're reading so fast because you want
to finish your section of the Quran that
you want to read your portion that you've
assigned for yourself, you want to finish the
juz or maybe for example it's the month
of Ramadan, so you want to finish the
Quran once, maybe twice, maybe maybe 3 times
throughout that month and so you have a
certain amount that you want to read. And
so often we read and we don't really
reflect.
Well, sometimes we're reading
and we have the translation as well and
so we're looking through the Arabic and the
English, but again, it's just reading. And so
because we are reading again at pace that
it's something which we're not really stopping and
reflecting over
and then when it comes to tafsir so
now we're studying the book of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala and we're going into more detail
we're going into greater meanings and deeper meanings
of the book of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and we're trying to look at different verses
that complement this verse in a hadith of
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and so
on so there's more information.
However,
again, many of us won't stop and reflect.
A tadabbur is to stop and to reflect
and to think, to think of how this
verse impacts you, what it means to you,
how it relates to you, how you can
improve as a Muslim, as a believer when
it comes to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and
your relationship with Allah through the Quran and
through these verses and what it is that
they are saying to you, this is what
it means to make tudibul.
And therefore as we know it was the
practice of the companions radiyaallahu anhu Majma'in that
they would read the Quran only a few
verses at a time and they would memorize
them and understand them and reflect upon them
and apply them before moving on to the
next group of verses. And that allows a
person then to make the dabbul and that
is why you will see many statements of
the early scholars of Islam saying
the aim of the Quran is not to
finish. Meaning don't just be don't let it
be your main preoccupation
that you need to finish the juz, finish
the Surah, finish reading the Quran and start
again, but rather take your time to understand
and to reflect as well. So yes, you
have times where maybe only you do is
read the Quran because that's the time for
it. Maybe the month of Ramadan is a
good example for that. However, there are other
times and places where you stop and you
ponder and you reflect especially over those Surahs
that you are continuously reading. Suratul Fatiha Ayatul
Qursi, Suratul Gahf, the final Surah in the
Quran, those short chapters that you are always
reading in your Salah, at the very least
you should understand and reflect upon them
and then work your way up towards the
rest of the Quran. And Allah is saying
that those people who stop and reflect will
see so many benefits,
so many great lessons from the Quran that
it will only increase them in iman and
that is what Allah says
if
it had been from anyone other than Allah
meaning the Quran
the truthfulness of the Quran, the benefits of
the Quran, the many virtues and rewards that
you get from reading the book of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
In the next verse verse number 83 Allah
says
Whenever news of any matter comes to them,
whether concerning peace or war, they spread it
about.
If they referred it to the Messenger and
those in authority amongst them, those seeking its
meaning would have found it out for them.
If it were not for Allah's bounty and
mercy towards you you would almost all have
followed Shaitan.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
and this is a very important verse and
something which is an important principle for us
to remember and to know that if any
news comes to you whether it's something which
is good or something which is not so
good whether it is to do with matters
of peace or matters of fear and war
you find a group from amongst the people
just spreading it And this is the situation,
unfortunately, we find many of the Muslims upon
today.
Every single message that you get, every single
social media post that comes your way, everyone's
just forwarding.
They're reading and they're forwarding. Not looking, not
verifying, not stopping to think, not looking to
see whether it's true or not, but simply
forwarding forward. And so a simple issue or
a small issue that may not even be
true
becomes such a widespread
fact
because of the way that everyone has now
adopted it. It is untrue so it's not
factual but people treat it like it's factual.
It's not something which is even true but
it's a rumor that spreads far and wide
because every person that takes their news spreads
it and this isn't the way of the
Muslim. The Muslim isn't someone who just goes
around spreading, especially issues that cause fear, cause
people to be damn hearted, causes people to
become depressed and anxious and worried because it's
not a good nice type of news to
be spreading. The way of the Muslims is
that they go around liking the type of
news to be spread amongst people
and whatever the news is, you must verify
before you spread it or sometimes the news
is true.
The issue is true. It's happening.
But how do you deal with that now?
Everyone's giving their opinion. Everyone's sharing their thoughts.
Everyone's got a platform now that they can
go and and just share everything that comes
into their mind. What does Allah
says? Say
If only they were to return it back
to the messenger of Allah and to the
people of knowledge from amongst them, the people
of authority,
those seeking its meaning would have found it
out for them. And that's why you find
that the true scholars, the major scholars are
people who take their time.
Everyone's speaking and everyone's posting and everyone has
an opinion and those scholars don't say anything.
And they'll wait for days weeks for things
to become clear and apparent and for them
to take that issue and study it and
to understand it and to analyze it before
they say this is what we think should
be done or this is the position of
the Sharia and so on and so forth
and that is how the believers should be.
Take your time, stop,
don't rush into anything.
Look at the story of the standard of
our mother Aisha radiAllahu anha it was as
a result of people hearing one thing and
spreading it that it became widespread in the
city of Madinah and it was slander, it
was false,
none of it was true but that is
the way the news starts to spread when
people don't have
the the ability to to understand those issues
and to return to the people of knowledge.
In the time of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, one of the issues that became
widespread at one point was that the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam had divorced all of
his wives.
And the hadith is found as al Bukhar
is the long narration in the story of
Amr radiAllahu an.
And what does Amr radiAllahu an do this?
Because one of those wives is his daughter
Hafsa radiAllahu anha. People are spreading this news.
People are saying, but no one seems to
know the reality. Just like in many issues
today, when you stop that person who forwarded
you a message and you ask them a
question, they'll be like, I don't know. I
just got the message and I forwarded it.
I just heard and I said it. So
no one actually took the time to verify.
Everyone's just spreading.
And so Muhammad radiAllahu anhu, what does he
do? He seeks out the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam who's going to know better than
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam whether he's
divorced his wives or not. And that is
why Allah Azzawajal is saying here waluwraduhu
ila Rasool
Had they returned it to the Messenger sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam or the people of authority
amongst them after his death
You go to the scholars, you go to
the people of knowledge and that is why
these issues that come up today, someone comes
and pulls a verse out of the Quran
or takes a hadith and extracts it from
the sunnah and says this means a, b,
c and d. These are the rules that
you must now apply and it's never something
that you've heard before or is telling you
to do something that you're not familiar with
that you've never come across before. Why jump
onto it and hold on to it like
it's the only thing when you have people
amongst you in your community of knowledge, of
age, of wisdom, of experience who you can
return back to and they can tell you
what is the correct position regarding it and
were it not Allah says for his mercy
and his bounty towards you, you would have
all followed shaitan meaning that Allah
from his mercy, from his bounty and his
grace, subhanahu wa ta'ala, has told us the
way to deal with these issues as opposed
to each and every single person essentially becoming
like a postman
or a postwoman and spreading the news and
following it until it becomes something which causes
a great deal of harm within the community.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in verse number
84,
So fight in Allah's way. You are accountable
only for yourself urge the believers armed indeed
Allah may well curb the power of the
disbelievers
for he is stronger and might and more
terrible in punishment.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives after these instructions
that he gave to us in the previous
verses that we mentioned This command that the
believers should be people who fight in the
way of Allah ahsawajal and they should be
people who follow the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
and that the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam should
urge them on as he did Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam during his lifetime and that is why
we have those major battles that took place
during his lifetime Sallallahu 'alaihi wa sallam, the
Battles of Badakh and Uhad and the Battle
of the Trench, the Khandaq and then afterwards
the conquest of Mecca, the Battle of Hunayin
and so on and so forth. All of
these tabuk, all of these are mentioned as
we know some of them alluded to in
the Quran and others you can find their
details in the books of Sira and in
the books of Hadith and the son of
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And so this
is essentially what the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
did. He urged the companions on and after
his death, the Khulafa who followed in his
way Abu Bakr Umar Uthmana 'alayhi
Allahu Anhu Majbaeen, they continued upon that path
as well of fighting in the way of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and Allah
through his blessings and mercy granted them many
victories as we know through the study of
history.
In verse number 85, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
then says,
Whoever speaks for a good cause will share
in its benefits
and whoever speaks for a bad cause will
share in its burden. Indeed Allah
controls everything. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala uses the
word in Arabic of intercession. Whoever intercedes for
a good thing, whoever intercedes
for a bad thing, but what it means
here is helping
anyway whether that help is intersession verbally
that you speak on behalf of someone or
whether it's helping on behalf of
whether it's helping through intersession verbally or whether
it's helping them by giving them some other
type of support that's not necessarily verbal, could
be financial,
could be physical, all of those are included
in this verse and whether it's for good
or for bad, you will have a share
of it. If it is good you get
a share of the reward and if it
is bad you get a share of the
sin. And so one of the things that
is recommended in Islam and is one of
the good deeds that a person can do
is to is to intercede on behalf of
someone else
to intercede on behalf of someone else for
a need that they have for your fellow
brother or sister you intercede on their behalf
in a way that is obviously true and
accurate and reflective of reality.
Does it mean to lie or to or
to or to in any way mislead
or to cheat others or to misguided or
whatever no It means that you do it
in a way that has integrity and honesty
and truthfulness attached to it. And so to
do so is something which is good as
the Prophet told us sallallahu alaihi wasallam ishfa'u
tujaw.
Intercede and you will be rewarded.
So someone has a need and you know
that this person now you can come and
help them by speaking on their behalf to
someone else. They respect you. They have some
type of honor towards or they give you
a certain amount of honor that they afford
to use. So by speaking on their behalf,
this person, that person's issue can be resolved.
That is a good deed and it's something
which a person should strive to do if
it is that they can do it. And
this is something which the prophet did as
well. His wife Aisha radiAllahu anha bought a
slave girl that she freed. Her name was
Barira and her story is mentioned in the
books of hadith you will find in Bukhari
and Muslim and other books of hadith. Berira
was a slave girl and she was married
to a slave man. She was a woman
slave girl and she was married to another
slave.
When she
became free, her husband was still a slave.
And the ruling of Islam is that now
she has a choice to either remain with
him as her husband or she can separate
because she is free now and he is
still a slave. She chose Baniyah Radiallahu Wa'ala
chose that she would be freed. Her husband
was in love with her,
was attached to her, did not want her
to leave him. And so he, in some
narrations, he would follow her around asking her
to reconsider,
to take him back,
to reconcile with him and so on. And
so the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam on one
occasion, one narration that he said that he
spoke to Barira and he said look at
your husband, look at his need, why don't
you think about it again? She said oh
Messenger of Allah, is this a command?
He said no I'm only interceding.
So then she said no oh Messenger of
Allah in that case I don't accept.
So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam would intercede
and we have many occasions and incidents like
this in the Sunnah
And that is because of the reward. Even
if that person doesn't accept the fact that
you attempted to help someone is something which
you are rewarded for and likewise the opposite.
If it is evil that you are trying
to proceed for harm, oppression, then you have
a share of that sin and Allah is
the one who controls all. In the final
verse,
or the final two verses that we have
left, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in verse
86.
But when you are offering a greeting, respond
when you are offered a greeting, respond with
a better one or at least return it
for indeed Allah keeps a count of everything.
This is from the etiquette that a Muslim
has towards another Muslim. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is saying that when you are greeted,
it is from good etiquette from good mannerisms
from good character that you reply with a
better greeting
so for example someone comes to you and
says Assalamu Alaikum
to respond and to
say is something which is good or Allah
says, 'Owudduha
or at the very least you should return
it and that's why as as we know
the Prophet told us that
from the rights of a Muslim upon another
Muslim is Radu Salam That you return the
greeting of your fellow brother or sister. Someone
gives you Salam,
it is not from a good,
it was not from good character or etiquette
that you ignore them, that you don't return
the salaam, that you don't respond to them
nor is it from good etiquette or character
that when you see another Muslim that you
don't give them salaam. As the prophet told
us, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, that the best
of the 2 is the one who starts
the salaam. You see another Muslim and you
give them salaam
or at the very least it should be
a better salam or if not a better
salam than the one with which they started
with at least you should respond in a
like for like manner and indeed Allah azzawajal
is someone who keeps account or is one
who keeps account of everything.
In the final verse in today's episode verse
number 87 Allah azzawajal then says,
He is Allah and has the right to
be worshipped except him. He will gather you
all together on the day of judgement about
which there is no doubt whose word can
be truer than that of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
Allah azzawajal in this verse speaks about his
tuhid Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala that he alone is
worthy of worship and he speaks about the
second issue that is extremely important for the
believer and that is the gathering on numu
Qiyama the resurrection and standing before Allah azza
wa Jal to be accounted and how Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says that Allah
is the most truthful.
So these two issues which are the 2
major issues that many of the non Muslims
especially at the time of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam, had an issue with. Number
1, his belief in Allah and his right
to be worshipped alone, and number 2, belief
in the day of judgement that there would
be an accounting. These are the 2 issues
that they most,
most had issues with or had problems with
Allah aasawwudal is saying who is more truthful
than Allah? So if Allah tells us that
he alone is worthy of worship, that there
is a day of judgement that there will
be an accounting, then that should be enough
because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is truthful and
Allah never speaks a lie. And with that
Insha'Allah we come to the end of today's
episode.