Ahsan Hanif – Quran Tafseer – Page 94 – Rank Of Those Who Strive For The Cause Of Allah
AI: Summary ©
The transcript discusses the issue of Jihad and fighting for the sake of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, with detailed examples of rulings that apply to the topic. The importance of valid reasons for not fighting and the church's rule of the Sharia are also highlighted. The importance of rewarding individuals for striving for excellence and achieving greater reward is also emphasized. The Sharia is seen as a way for individuals to prove their true circumstances and receive reward, with the exception of individuals who migrate for Allah's sake. The importance of trusting Allah's mercy is emphasized, and individuals who migrate for Allah's sake will find great plentifulness in the earth.AI: Transcript ©
Muhammad walaalihiwasahabihijmaeen
imma bad.
Welcome to another episode of our tafseer page
by page. InshaAllah ta'ala. Today we are on
page number 90 4, which is in the
5th jaws,
Surah Nisa.
In the previous
episode, we spoke about a number of verses
of the book of Allah, alaih zawajal in
Surah Nisa
that dealt with a couple of topics. The
first of those topics was the issue of
killing someone accidentally and the commands that Allah
azza wa jal gives and the expression that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala places upon
that particular
issue. And that is that someone who commits
this act of accidentally killing someone. And that
someone who does so without any intention to
harm or to hurt, but they just happen
to kill someone as a result of their
actions. And so there is a expiation
and a
fidya,
a a or a deyah, a blood money
that is due upon such a person. And
then Allah speaks about the sin and the
punishment of those people who commit murder intentionally
and because that is one of the greatest
and gravest of sins in the sharia.
Today we begin from verse number 95 and
today's passage speaks about a number of the
rulings concerning Jihad and fighting for the sake
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So Allah says in verse number 95
Those believers who stay at home apart from
those with an incapacity
are not equal to those who commit themselves
and their positions to striving in Allah's way.
Allah has raised such people to a rank
above those who stay at home,
Although he has promised all believers a good
reward.
Those who strive are favoured with a tremendous
reward above those who stay at home.
These verses and today's passage will speak about
and deal with a number of issues concerning
the issues of Jihad and fighting in the
way of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and as
we've explained previously the Quran is a book
that deals with all issues and it contains
guidance for all matters. And so there is
guidance within it for a father and for
a mother and for a child and for
a person who's involved in business and for
the ruler and the Muslim judge and the
general. And so there are certain rulings that
apply in certain context and from them are
the rulings of Jihad and its details are
found within the books of fiqh that I've
explained them in great levels of detail.
In verse number 95, Allah azza wa Jal
is making a comparison
between 2 groups of people,
those who are willing to go out and
fight for the sake of Allah Subhana Wa
Ta'la and those people who do not do
so, those people who continue to stay or
they stay at home and they prefer not
to fight and these
2 categorization or these 2 categories that are
being mentioned in this particular verse, all of
them are believers
as opposed to some of the previous verses
that we have covered in which Allah
makes the distinction
between those who fight in the way of
Allah who are the believers
and those who stay back from the fighting
because
of their hypocrisy.
That's a different issue. So there are people
who don't fight because of hypocrisy because they
don't believe because in their hearts they have
kufr and disbelief in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
In this verse, verse number 95 and 96
and so on, these verses
speak about believers. They are all meanen, all
of them are believers in Allah
but for one reason or another, a group
from amongst them do not go out and
fight. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says that these
2 groups are not equal.
The group who chooses to fight for the
sake of Allah and
is willing to sacrifice for the sake of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala obviously in the correct
context with all of the rulings of the
Sharia being adhered to and with the correct
leadership in place and the correct rulings or
the correct
the correct call for jihad being given. All
of that stuff is in place. Those people
who choose to fight in the path of
Allah
are not equal to those people who choose
not to fight in that particular circumstance or
scenario
unless they stay behind for a valid reason
as Allah says,
except for those people who have some disability,
some incapacity,
they have a valid reason to stay home.
And there are a number of valid reasons
as we know, as is mentioned again in
the books of Islam.
It is said for example that when this
verse was revealed and Allah made the comparison
between these two groups of people,
the part of the verse concerning the incapacity
that they are an exception to this rule
had yet to be revealed.
And so Abdullah ibn Ummi Muttum radiAllahu an,
the companion, the famous companion who was blind,
he came to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
and he said oh Messenger of Allah what
about people like me? He's blind. He doesn't
have the ability to go out and to
participate upon the battlefield and then there are
other people who have valid excuses and reasons
that preclude them from being able to go
and participate also. And so Allah revealed
this part of the verse also. And
this is from the
the rahmah of Allah from the mercy of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and his kindness to
his to his slaves. And that is that
Allah
gives people with valid excuses and exemption and
that's a general rule throughout the Sharia as
we know. There are certain things that if
you cannot do in salah, you have different
rules in salah, Certain things that if you
cannot do whilst fasting, you're exempted from fasting.
Certain things that make you not have to
go for Hajj for example. And so this
is the general ruling in the Sharia and
likewise the rulings of Jihad are similar. So
for example in the time of the prophet
salallahu alaihi wasallam,
in the battle of Badr,
Rasman radiallahu an, the famous companion and the
khalifa,
he didn't participate in the battle of Badr.
But the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam gave to
him a full share of war beauty. And
the reason why he didn't go is because
his wife, Uruqayhi radiAllahu anha, was extremely ill.
So the prophet
said to him, 'Stay home and look after
your wife.' And she ended up passing away
from the illness radiAllahu anha waddaha.
And so therefore, Usman radiAllahu anha had a
valid excuse, a valid exemption
from the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and what
shows that it was valid is that the
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam gave him his full
share of war brutality, the spoils of war,
as if he had been on the battlefield
because he was prepared to go and ready
to go but a valid excuse held him
back. So Allah exempts these people from this
ruling.
For everyone else, however, those who go out
and are willing to sacrifice
their lives and their wealth for the sake
of Allah
are better than those who don't go out.
As Allah then goes on to say
Allah
has raised those people who are willing to
fight,
and to all of them Allah has promised
good. Why? Because they are all believers.
They are all upon tawheed and if they
die upon Tawhid then Allah has guaranteed Jannah
for the believers. So all of them are
upon good. But Allah is saying that the
believer is someone who shouldn't just want the
minimum when there are opportunities to gain greater
reward, like for example, the month of Ramadan.
Like for example, those people that are able
to go and perform Hajj, like for example,
certain times and places where there is an
opportunity
to increase in reward, then the believer is
the one who should hasten towards that increase
in reward because who doesn't want more reward
and who doesn't want inshallah a greater chance
of entering into Jannah And that is why
Allah
says that those who strive for the sake
of Allah
Allah has favored them and given them a
tremendous reward above and over those who stay
at home.
And Allah expands upon that great reward
in the next verse in verse number 96
and he says
High ranks are conferred by him being by
Allah
as well as forgiveness and mercy, and indeed
Allah is Most Forgiving and Most merciful. Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala says that those people Allah
says
they will be given a tremendous reward, reward
in ranks and stationed in paradise, reward terms
of the forgiveness of Allah azza wa jal,
reward in terms of the mercy of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala and the virtues of those
people who strive in the path of Allah
azza wa jal and those people who sacrifice
themselves for the sake of Allah
their virtues and rewards are mentioned throughout the
Quran and mentioned in numerous Hadith of our
Prophet sallallahu alaihi
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala then in the next
verse, verse number 97, he continues and he
says:
souls of those who have wronged themselves, they
ask them, what circumstances were you in? They
reply, you were oppressed in this land. And
the angels said, but wasn't Allah's earth not
spacious enough for you to migrate to some
other place? These people will have * as
their refuge and an evil destination.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
speaks
concerning a group of people
who were upon Iman or they were Muslims
but they refused to migrate for the sake
of Allah Azzawajal.
They stayed
in
the lands of the mushli king.
All those people who didn't have an issue
with Islam or they didn't necessarily believe or
disbelieve in Islam but they continue to stay
in the lands of the believe in Islam
but they continued to stay in the lands
of the disbelievers and they refused to migrate.
As we know, as we mentioned before in
previous episode,
Number 1 were those people who didn't have
the ability to migrate because they're too weak
or they're too poor or they're being oppressed
or they're being imprisoned and so they're unable
physically to migrate. And those people who chose
not to migrate, they chose to remain in
the city of Mecca. Those people that remain
in the city of Mecca, even if they're
believers,
in one way or another, sometimes
they may indirectly
or unintentionally
help the non Muslims against the Muslims. And
so in that time, because the Muslims in
the time of the Prophet in Madinah are
waging war, they are at war with the
people of Quresh and these people who are
believers and they're staying in Quresh. They're in
qor they're amongst the qurish and that's why
it said and Allah knows best that even
in the battle of Badr, from amongst the
army of Quraish that came out to fight
the Muslims, amongst them were people from this
category who had accepted Islam and they were
believers but they were either concealing their iman
because they didn't want it to be known
amongst the Meccans or they just happen to
remain in Makkah,
even though they had the ability and the
choice to go to Madinah. And so therefore
what they're doing is that they're giving them
a level of strength to the non muslims.
Allah says that these people have oppressed themselves,
they've wronged themselves, they're committing the sin, not
necessarily because they're living in those lands. If
there's peace there and as we know now
many Muslims live in non Muslim lands. This
is a different issue. But we're talking about
in the time, in the context of where
the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam is in and
those companions
or those people, those those Muslims are remaining
in the city of Mecca and the problems
that they may cause especially when they then
go on to fight the muslims in the
time of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Allah azzawajal calls these people, those people who
have wronged themselves, they will oppress themselves
and so when the angels come to take
their souls, they will be asked what
is it that you were doing? What were
your circumstances? And they will reply
we were oppressed in the land, we were
too weak to be able to go, meaning
we didn't have the means and the opportunity
to go and to migrate.
And Allah
knows that these people had the ability
but what they mean by their own weakness
in this regard is that they had interests
that prevented them from going financial interests, business,
land, property and they know that if they
leave, they give up everything. They leave their
all behind and they abandon everything for others
to come and to take and they will
be given no compensation.
And that's essentially what happened to those companions
that migrated to the city of Madinah. How
many of those Muslims that migrated
were left essentially then with nothing. No money,
no land, no property. Even the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam himself,
the Prophet
left from Makkah to Madinah. What does he
have in return? Nothing. And that is why
when the Prophet
was returning
to Mecca, the companions many years later, they
said to my Messenger of Allah, where will
you leave? Where will you live? Where will
you stay in Mecca? Where are you going
to spend your time in Mecca? The Prophet
salAllahu alaihi wa sallam said:
and did Aqeel leave anything behind for us?
Who is Aqeel?
Aqeel is the son of Abu Taalib, the
first cousin of the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam.
But because Aqeel became a Muslim later on,
when Abu Taalib
died his inheritance goes
to Aqeel because a muslim doesn't inherit from
a non muslim and vice versa. And so
therefore the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam Adi radiAllahu
anhu was also one of the sons of
Abu Ta'lim, Jafar radiAllahu anhu was also one
of the sons of Abu Ta'lim. They were
Muslims
and because they were Muslims, they didn't inherit.
Aqeel is an un Muslim at the time.
He later on becomes a Muslim as well
radiallahu an. But he at that time is
a non Muslim so he takes the inheritance.
And that's why the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam
said and has aqi left behind anything for
us. Meaning he took everything at that time
and now it says, rather where I will
go is I will go to that same
place where we were boycotted by the Quraysh
during the early period of Mecca and that
story I think is well known also, if
not then it can be found in the
books of Sira. The point here being
that the many of them stayed behind for
that reason because if you migrated, you lost
everything and that is why many of the
companions lost everything, All of the wealth that
they had on their land and their property,
they essentially gave up for the sake of
Allah azza wa jal. So when Allah
speaks about those people who strive
for his cause and are willing to sacrifice
their wealth and their lives, it isn't just
a small statement, it doesn't just mean they
are giving a bit of charity, it doesn't
mean that they are just giving Zakah every
year or sadaqa. What it literally means is
that they're willing to give up everything that
they own of wealth, Everything that they possess.
And me and you and every person that's
listening to this knows
just theoretically how difficult that would be. If
someone came to you and said, give away
your house, give away your car, give away
your clothes, give away all of the money
that you have, all of your assets essentially
that have any worth, give them away and
leave with hardly anything. How difficult would that
be? And then imagine and double upon that
or include upon that the fact that you
have a wife, the fact that you have
a husband, the fact that you have children,
the fact that you have elderly parents, how
extremely difficult that would be and that is
why Allah 'Azza wa Jal honors and praises
those companions to Muhajideen
because of what they did and what they
were willing to do for the sake of
Allah SubhanaHu Wa Ta'ala.
So Allah 'Azza wa Jal says to these
people or the angels will say to these
people who claim that they were unable to
migrate,
Was on Allah's earth expansive enough, wide enough
that you could go and migrate as and
where you please? And that is especially at
the time of the prophet where there is
no borders, there is no visas, there's no
citizenship in that sense. It's very easy for
people to go or relatively easy in the
sense that it's possible for you to move
from one place to another. You can go
as opposed to our time now. And it's
very difficult because you don't have a claim
to other countries. You can't just go and
be there and have rights as citizens do
and buy and sell and live and so
on. It's different now that the situation has
changed and so therefore the ruling has to
reflect that also. However, in the time of
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
it's relatively open and free for people to
leave and so Allah says that those people
who do harm to Allah if they are
disbelievers and so on know that they will
enter into the fire and sometimes it may
be on Allah best that some of those
Muslims because of their unintended actions may also
be punished for that cause and Allah knows
best but know that every Muslim irrespective
of their actions
and their and their misdeeds
will eventually enter into jannah as we know
as as established in the Quran and in
the sun of the prophet that
no believer remains in the fire for eternity.
In verse number 98 then Allah
makes an exception to this rule as well.
So these people that chose not to migrate
even though they had the ability to do
so, Allah Azzawajal also gives an exception to
this rule and what is that exception? Allah
Azzawajal says,
but not so the truly helpless men, women
and children who have no means in their
power nor any way to leave.
So,
this is the exception as we said those
people who remained behind, from amongst them were
those people who literally didn't have the ability
to leave. They were unable to do so.
From amongst them were women, from amongst them
were men who were imprisoned, from amongst them
were young children who couldn't just go and
leave the city of Makkah by themselves and
walk in the desert all the way to
Madinah. These people have a genuine excuse as
we mentioned before when Allah ajawajal is making
the comparison between those people who strive in
Allah's path and those who stay home Allah
exempts from them those people who have no
ability to do so and that is from
the mercy of Allah azza wa Jal. So
here for example you have companions it is
said for example as is in the relation
of Ibn Abbas radiAllahu anhu
Ibn Abbas radiallahu anhu says that me and
my mother were from amongst the people that
were included in this verse we were from
the weak. His mother was unable to leave
and he was a young child at the
time wasn't able to leave but they were
believers that had already accepted Islam. He says
that we were from amongst those people and
so they were only able to migrate towards
the conquest of Makkah and Son when things
were open and easier for them and the
Muslims had strengthened power and then it was
relatively safe that's when they might wait to
Madinah and settle there. Otherwise
they were for the vast majority of the
life of the Prophet
remaining in Mecca. These people have a valid
excuse and Allah therefore exempts them as he
says in verse number 99.
Allah may well pardon these for he is
the most pardoning and most forgiving. Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala says as for these types of
people Allah
will forgive them. Why? Because they have a
valid excuse. And therefore in order of the
rulings of the Sharia, this is something as
we see which is one of the most
beautiful parts of our religion and that is
that Allah subhanahu ta'ala takes into account your
circumstances, your genuine
circumstances. Not like those people in the previous
verse who are making an excuse but it's
not a genuine excuse.
So not every excuse is accepted and not
every excuse is genuine
and not every excuse
exempts you from
rulings of the Sharia.
It has to be an excuse
that Allah considers
to be valid in the Sharia. That the
sharia itself says is genuine in this particular
context for this particular ruling so that you
may be exempt and then the exemption also
depends upon what Allah
has then allowed you to be exempted from.
So for example in salah,
if someone is not feeling well,
salah the exemption means that if you can't
stand, you sit down. Doesn't mean that you
don't pray.
As opposed to, for example, fasting. If you're
unwell, you don't fast that day but again
you have to make it up after the
month of Ramadan and so each one will
depend upon the validity of that excuse
and what it then
turns to in terms of the exemption of
what it goes to in terms of the,
substitute ruling.
So therefore, this is from the beauty of
our religion and that is that there are
certain people who genuinely
are unable to do certain acts of worship,
are unable to uphold certain laws of the
Sharia, are unable and Allah azza wa jal
from his mercy has given to those people
their exemptions
due dependent upon their circumstances
and those people who are sincere,
those people who intended to do their full
deeds. If Allah 'Azza wa Jal decrees for
them a valid excuse then they still get
the full reward as the Prophet told us
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam in the hadith that
someone who who becomes sick
Allah gives to them the full reward of
that which they used to do once they
were resident and once they were they were
in full health. So today, you know, someone
for example is always always prayed standing, always
prayed standing, never made it and now they're
unable to play standing up for a month
or 2 because of an illness or because
of some injury that occurred to them and
they sit down. Allah gives them the reward
as if they were standing up.
Allah gives them the reward as if they
were praying in full because that is how
the mercy of Allah
works.
In verse number 100 Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
then goes on to say this is the
final verse that we will take today InshaAllah.
Allah
says
Anyone who migrates for Allah's cause will find
many a refuge
and great plentifulness in the earth. And if
anyone leaves home as a migrant towards Allah
and his messenger and is then overtaken by
death his reward from Allah is sure indeed
Allah is Most Forgiving Most Merciful.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala then speaks about the
reason as to why those some of those
people didn't migrate from Mecca to Madinah and
that is as we said because of some
financial interest, because of the assets that they
had, because of the property and the land
that they owned and the fear of losing
this. Allah says that whoever migrates for the
sake of Allah
will
find upon the earth a refuge. You will
find a place that will take you. You
will find a place where you can go
and worship Allah azza wa Jal and you
will find saa, you will find expansiveness, you
will find plentifulness, meaning Allah's rizq will come
to you in a different way. Just as
those companions who did migrate with the prophet
salallahu alaihi wasallam came to Madinah, they found
things whether some of them had to live
in the masjid and they became from the
homeless companions known as alhusofa
or whether others from amongst them was struggling
and it took them time to again build
up themselves and build up a job and
an income and some steady type of stability
there in the city of Madinah. It may
have taken them time but Allah gave to
them wealth and Allah blessed them and then
especially once the Muslim expansions began, Allah gave
to them wealth and gave to them a
great deal of sustenance. And so Allah says
that there is always the risk of Allah
if it is written for you it will
come to you. Whether you are in one
country or another. Whether you stay or you
migrate what Allah has decreed will come to
you. And so this is an issue of
iman, it's an issue of trust in Allah
azza wa jal, it's an issue of having
Yaqeen in Allah azza wa Jal and Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala makes his affairs easy for
those who wish to do so. And then
Allah azza wa Jal says and even if
you were to migrate for Allah's sake and
for his messenger's sake
and then you were to die, death would
come upon you then you have achieved the
reward
that Allah ahsawajal will set out for you
and that also therefore shows that if a
person embarks upon an action
and they have the sincere intention for that
deed even if they are unable to fulfill
it, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will give to
them their reward, summarize the intention and they
begin a good project to help the community,
to help people in society.
You may not live to see the fruition
of that project but the fact that you
started it with sincerity and with conviction
even if death comes to you at some
point Allah ajazhu will give to your full
reward and that is something which we see
in the Sharia as in the hadith of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam about the man
who killed a 100 men from the people
of the children of Israel and
then he was told to migrate
to leave to make toba to turn back
to Allah and to migrate from the land
of evil and so he made toba and
he migrated
during his journey he dies So he is
yet to get to his destination,
he is yet to start his new life,
he is yet to start his new relationship
with Allah He is still on the way
and he dies and Allah forgives him because
the fact that he made that journey, was
willing to do so, made the effort, took
those first steps, it is a sign of
his sincerity and a sign insha Allah with
his Tawba and so Allah Azzawajal from his
mercy he forgave him and that is how
Allah Azza wa Jal forgives people who are
sincere for his cause and for his sake
and with that Insha'Allah we come to the
end of today's episode.
Related Episodes
- Hamza Yusuf – The Echoes Of Gods Word
- Yaser Birjas – Isha Khatirah – Sincere Intention Scrutinizes The Right Cause
- Omar Suleiman – The Man Who Resembled Jibreel (as) – Angels in Their Presence S02 E12
- Abdul Nasir Jangda – Tafseer Of Surah Maryam – Day 14
- Nouman Ali Khan – Hikmah in the Quran – Part 1/4
- Taimiyyah Zubair – Taleem al-Quran 2010 – Juz 05 – L058D
- Yasir Qadhi – The Stories of The Prophets #24 – The Story of Adam Pt. 12 – Ibleess Temptation of Adam