Ahsan Hanif – Quran Tasfseer – Page 117 – Unity And Faith In Islam
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Muhammad. Welcome to another episode of our tafsir
page by page and Insha'Allah ta'ala. Today we
are on page 117
which is in the 6th juz Surah Al
Maidah.
In the previous episode, we mentioned those verses
in which Allah spoke
about the importance of judging
and ruling according to the Sharia of Allah
and the laws of Allah
and how Allah
gave to every nation their scripture, their laws,
their divine guidance.
If they followed it, it would lead them
to the pleasure of Allah
and how often those people distorted
and changed and manipulated the laws and commands
of Allah
and that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells the
Prophet
that he sent to him the Quran,
the Quran which confirms everything that came before
it in the scriptures in terms of Tawhid
and belief and worship of Allah alone, in
terms of worship, in terms of character, in
terms of the overarching
principles
of all of the shali'ahs of Allah
But an added virtue is given to the
Quran and added status and that is that
it is Muhammin and Ali. That it has
authority over everything that came before it. It
abrogates everything that came before it. And so
whoever comes now after the time of the
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam cannot accept anything except
the Quran nor can they accept anything except
the message of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa
sallam. Meaning in terms of belief, otherwise we
believe in all of the scriptures of Allah,
all of the prophets and messengers of Allah
alayhi wa sallatu wasallam. And Allah Azzawajal told
us in those verses also that those who
turn away
from the commands of Allah, the shria of
Allah Azzawajal only choose to follow their whims
and desires
and they prefer
the rulings of ignorance and darkness and oppression
over the rulings of Allah which all of
them are justice and light and mercy and
goodness
for the people.
Today we continue with verse number
51 of Surah Al Maidah
and that is the statement of Allah Subhanahu
wa Ta'ala.
O you who believe do not take the
Jews and Christians as allies, they are allies
only to each other. Anyone who takes them
as an ally becomes one of them Allah
does not guide such wrongdoers.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in this verse gives
the command
that the believers should be careful as to
who they take allies.
Allies in the sense that if you take
those people and you then,
you then forego aspects of your religion, your
belief,
you watered down aspects of your sharia in
order to appease them. That is the type
of alliance that Allah is speaking about primarily.
And that is because we know that the
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi wa Salam made alliances
with non Muslim tribes at the time of
the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah from the terms of
that treaty was that the Quraysh could add
into their side of the treaty any of
the tribes that wanted to join them. And
likewise, the Muslims could do so, for any
of the tribes that wanted to join them.
And so there were tribes from amongst the
Arabs that chose the side of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam even though the vast majority
of those people were not Muslims. They became
Muslims later but they were not Muslims at
that time. And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam accepted that. And the reason why that
treaty was broken in the events that led
up towards the conquest of the city of
Mecca is because it was one of those
tribes
that were
allied to the Prophet
and the people of Madinah that the Quraysh
and their allies attacked. They didn't attack the
Muslims. They didn't attack the Prophet
and the people of Madinah but they attacked
one of his allies. And that was the
rule. If you attack an ally, it's like
you're attacking that whole side, that whole party
of agreement.
And so therefore it was the allies of
the Muslims that were attacked that then the
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam saw justice on their
behalf and then he went and conquered the
city of Mecca as we know in that
famous story or incident that takes place in
the Sira.
So here Allah Azzawajal is saying, be careful
who you take as your allies and don't
take the Jews and Christians as allies besides
Allah
meaning that you favour them over Allah
that you give precedence to them
and their laws, or their
desires over that which Allah wants from you.
Because they are allies to one another,
meaning because all of them are upon, types
of disbelief and types of
not worshipping Allah Azza wa Jal alone. So
therefore their alliance is like
that. And anyone who takes them as an
ally becomes one of them. And that is
why it is important to remember,
an issue that that this call often mentioned
concerning friendship. That the closer you are to
someone,
then the more likely you are to you
are in terms of your assimilation with them,
the more likely that you are that you
are the more likely you you are to
be in terms of resemblance to them. Times
trying and trying to imitate them. And that
is why in our religion, we're told to
be careful who you take as your as
your close friend as is mentioned in the
hadith.
Every one of you is on the religion
of his closest friend. What does that mean?
It means that you are likely to imitate
them if they are a person of goodness,
of Ibadah or worshipping Allah
they will remind you and they will influence
you just as you would influence them. But
if they're people of heedlessness,
people of sin, people who when it's time
to pray, don't pray, people who are involved
in drugs or alcohol or whatever it may
be of haram, then that influence will come
upon you. It may not be on the
1st day, may not be in the 1st
week, may not be in the 1st month,
but the influence over time will come upon
you to the extent that even if you
don't go to the level of what they
go to, at the very least, it will
desensitize you from the evil that they do.
It will become normal to you that people
can drink, that people can take drugs, that
people will smoke, that people will do evil.
You'll sit there and you'll accept it as
being normal even if you don't take part.
And that is a type of alliance also
that you can't speak out against haram, that
you can't speak out against oppression, that you
see that person actively going and doing haram
and harming others and oppressing them. But because
they're your friend now, you won't see anything.
Isn't that a type of an alliance? Isn't
that a type of of being on the
religion of someone? Because you're giving them the
authority to go and do it and you're
probably in a position where if you spoke
out or you said something, they'd listen because
of your relationship and your friendship. But you're
not going to say anything because you fear
that that friendship will then be severed. And
so Allah tells us to be careful and
that is why we're told in our religion
that we can't wear clothes or imitate
the disbelievers in that which is specific to
them in their religious issues.
So for example, you can't dress in the
way that is a symbol of someone else's
religion. You can't behave in a way that
is specific to that religion only as opposed
to everything else which is normal, they wear,
we wear, everyone wears, that's fine. But we're
speaking about those things by which they are
recognized by their religion. Those things the sharia
prohibits
and that is because it is a type
of assimilation with them that is not from
the region of Allah Azza wa Jal.
Allah does not guide such wrongdoers.
In verse 52 Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then
says:
Yet you
will see
the perverse at heart rushing to them for
protection, saying, we are afraid
fortune
may turn against us, but Allah may well
bring about a triumph or some other event
of his own making, then they will rule
the secrets they harbored in their hearts.
From amongst these people are those who have
a type of illness in their heart and
that is a type of illness of hypocrisy
that that they will be from amongst the
disbelievers, meaning the hypocrites those who are perverse
at heart because of this illness and this
disease that they have at the heart and
That is something which Allah gives
us an indication that we should be aware
of as Muslims
and that is that the diseases of the
heart are more dangerous
than the diseases of the body. Allah
gives disease
in terms of their health, in terms of
their body. Someone
has a disability,
someone is given a disease, a terminal illness,
those are no doubt challenges and trials that
Allah places
upon people and in their lives.
And that is something which is something which
a person needs to have Because
the disease of the body doesn't corrupt you.
If you're a person
Because the disease of the body doesn't corrupt
you. If you are a person of Iman,
a person of Ibad, a person of Yaqeen,
a person of Duaa and Sabr and patients,
it doesn't corrupt you. But the diseases of
the heart will corrupt you even if your
body is healthy.
The diseases of the heart like animosity,
like jealousy,
like arrogance, like
nifaq, hypocrisy that Allah
is speaking about here, those corrupt you. And
so Allah
says they will come rushing to you because
of that weakness of Iman and they will
say they think that they will be harmed
in some way that the people or the
non Muslims or whatever may come and they
will harm them. So what are they doing?
They are
doing something in which they consider,
they are coming towards the Muslims saying that
we are afraid fortune may turn against us.
And this is also one of their plots
and plans against Islam and Muslims in the
way that they are trying to to,
undermine them. So they're saying that we think
that we will be undermined, that the fortune
would turn against us, meaning the Muslims, but
they're not really Muslims, the believers, but they're
not really believers, Just as we gave examples
before and we will see examples again for
example in Surah Al Hazab of how the
hypocrites and every single turn and every single
chance that they had would try to undermine
the Muslims. And they would say, we're trying
to advise you. You don't go and fight.
Don't go and fight. It's not it's too
late. Surrender. It's better for you. Don't go
there's no power, you don't have any authority.
You don't have the numbers to defeat them
and that's what they do at every turn
and at every opportunity. Allah says however,
faasallahuaynyetya
bilfathriawamrimininde
but perhaps Allah
will bring to you a triumph and a
victory
or some other event as he pleases subhanahu
wa ta'ala. Perhaps those people will think
that they are going to be defeated because
they look at the numbers, they look at
the opposite army, they look at whatever they
look at in terms of wealth and power.
But Allah is the one who gives victory
and Allah is the one who gives triumph.
So it may be that Allah will give
power to the Muslims, Allah will give them
victory.
And so therefore there, Allah says for you
speak for what they had in their hearts
of secrets,
they will rule because in their hearts they
wanted the Muslims to be defeated and they
were trying to undermine them but Allah gives
victory to the Muslims and now they are
stuck. And that's exactly what happened if you
look at for example the battles of Badr
and Wuhod and Hazab. In Hazab, they were
saying to the muslims,
there's no hope for you, go back home
and just hope for the best. Go home
and just hope that if you surrender, people
will be gentle towards you, meaning these armies
that are going to come and invade and
conquer us. That's what they were saying to
the Muslims. They were saying that you have
no hope today. And then Allah
gave the Muslims victory.
So now they were saying, yes but we
only feared for our families, we were trying
to protect our households, it was just because
we feared for our children. And so they
make an excuse for what is in their
actual hearts. Allah
says, they rule within themselves the fact that
they were not able to see defeat for
the Muslims.
Allah Subhana Wa Ta'la then says in verse
number 53:
And the believers will say, are these the
men who swore by Allah, using
their strongest oaths that they were with you?
All they did was in vain. They have
lost everything.
Meaning are these people
those who believe
will say and they will be amazed at
these people who have these diseases in their
heart and they will say concerning them, are
these the men who swore by Allah
using their strongest oaths that they were with
you? Meaning that they took oaths
and they made their strongest oaths. Allah Azwajal
says, Jahaada imanihib. Not just a small oath,
they made their strongest oaths that they could
make that they will be with you, that
they will support you, that they will help
you, that they will defend you, that they
will take your side against your enemies,
And this is all that they did in
times of ease. Then what happens as soon
as they see the enemy, as soon as
the army comes, as soon as they fear
now for themselves, their lives, their wealth, They
start to turn around and they make excuses.
Like in the battle of Uhud, the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam comes to defend the city
of Madinah. The army of Quraysh is approaching.
If they lose
or in that battle, the Quraysh enter into
Madina and they destroy everything and kill everyone.
And so the Prophet sallallahu ahi wa sallam
comes out with the companions of the Muslim
army. As he is coming towards Uhud, a
third of them
return back with the hypocrites. A third of
the army, under the leadership of Abdullah ibn
Ubayy, turns back and goes. Can you imagine
a third of the army just leaving? You're
a soldier in this army now. You're already
outnumbered.
You're already in a state of difficulty.
You know that this army is coming to
attack you. You know that they are seeking
revenge
for the Battle of Baghdad that took place
the year before. You know that their blood
is boiling, that they are extremely angry, they
are looking for revenge. And that's what happened
in the Battle of Uhag. Then they mutilated
the bodies of the martyrs. Not only did
they kill the Muslims but they mutilated them
because of the enmity and hatred that they
had in their hearts towards the Muslims.
So this is the situation you're in and
then you see a third of the army
leaving.
And those companions, the 2 thirds, still stood
firm with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and
that is why the companions have their amazing
status in this religion. Why Allah honors them
so much that even in those most difficult
of times, imagine you seeing a third of
the army. A third is not a small
number. A third of the army is not
like just 10, 15, 20 people leaving you.
A third is a sizable number that you
can now see physically,
visibly that your army has been depleted, that
your numbers have just gotten much smaller if
a third of the army leaves.
Imagine being in that situation and their companions
remain firm and that is why Allah praise
them. That is why they were the men
to support the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
because even in those most difficult of circumstances
when many of us don't know how he
would respond, we hope that we would be
like those companions but me and you don't
know because we have never been tried and
tested in that way that may Allah azza
wa Jal see us from that. We haven't
been tried and tested to that extent in
our faith that we would stay firm or
would we go back and be from amongst
those people who retreated. We don't know. And
no one knows until they tested in that
way what Allah holds for them. And so
those people
Allah gave them firmness and he gave them
steadfastness upon that day. But a third of
the army turned back And that is what
Allah is referring to. These are the people
that give you the strongest of oaths, that
they will defend you and help you. But
as soon as they see the signs that
there is danger,
that there may be defeat
or harm towards them what do they do?
They run.
And that is why Allah says that all
of their actions will be in vain,
all that they did will be in vain,
and they will be from amongst those who
have lost everything.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala then says in verse
number 54.
O you who believe,
if any of you go back on your
faith, Allah will soon replace you with people
He loves and who love Him. People who
are humble towards the believers, hard on the
disbelievers
and who strive in Allah's way without fearing
anyone's reproach. Such is Allah's favour. He grants
it to whomsoever He wills. Allah has endless
bounty and knowledge. Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Allah
mentions after this previous verse in which he
says that these are the way of the
people of the hypocrites. Their way is that
they give you oaths, that they will help
you, they will support the religion of Allah,
defend its religion, then when the time of
difficulty comes and harm and danger, they are
the first ones to run away. Allah
says that he has no need
of anyone of his creation.
No need of anyone.
Allah is Al kani.
He is free and rich of all needs.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala controls and owns everything
in the universe And Allah
does not need us, we are in need
of him.
And that is why elsewhere in the Quran
Allah says
O people you are the ones who are
poor before Allah and Allah is al Ghani
al Hamid. Allah doesn't need anyone. And so
Allah
is saying that if these people and others
turn away from their religion, they are apostates,
they turn away and they go away from
the religion of Allah Azza wa Jal. Allah
has no need of them. Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala says, O you who believe, if you
go back after your faith
state, and leave your religion,
then
Allah will replace you. Allah has no need
of you. Allah does not need your Ibadah,
doesn't need your Iman, doesn't need your Tuhid,
doesn't need your Sadaqah or charity, doesn't need
your good character. You and me are the
ones who benefit from all of this worship
and Iman. Allah doesn't benefit in the slightest.
And so if no one was to believe
upon the face of the earth ever, it
would not harm Allah in anything. And if
every single one of creation from the time
of Adam, of humankind from the time of
Adam until the very last person to live
was to believe and have Iman and was
to be the most perfect of believers, they
wouldn't benefit Allah in anything either.
Allah has no need. Subhanahu wa ta'ala. But
Allah is saying that if this is how
you would be, then Allah will remove you
and He will replace you with a group
of people
who love him and he loves them. Because
Allah
loves that people turn to
and
he doesn't need it but Allah Azza wa
Jal loves this. It is from the things
that he loves subhanahu wa ta'ala that we
recognize him subhanahu wa ta'ala that we acknowledge
his greatness over us, that it is right
to be worshipped alone. And so we then
dedicate our lives to his submission and to
his worship and to his servitude,
Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. Allah
will bring a group of people.
They love Him and He loves them. And
these are attributes of the believers that Allah
loves. Number 1, that they love Allah
People who are
their whole life is about the love of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Number 2,
they are gentle and humble towards the believers,
as the Muslims should be.
They should be humble towards the believers, humble
towards those
who believe in their religion
good character, good natured, kind, generous, merciful, people
of humility, humbleness, people wanting to help and
do good towards others.
And they are harsh towards the disbelievers.
Not if they haven't done anything wrong, it
doesn't mean you are rude to them, doesn't
mean that you go and show bad character
to them, doesn't mean that you harm them
or oppress them, we're speaking now about those
people who are trying to harm the religion,
the kafileen who come and they do harm
because Allah tells
us in the Quran
Allah doesn't prevent you from those who are
trying to kill you or exile you or
harm you in your religion, that you are
good towards them and that you are fair
and just towards them. So we can't just
take one verse and ignore the others in
the Quran. But here Allah is speaking about
those people who are like in the time
of the companions. Allah describes the companions as
being people who are shida'al kuffar, wahama'ubaynahum.
They're severe against the disbelievers, merciful towards one
another. This was the companions. Why? Because the
Quraysh are trying to kill them. They're harming
them, they're oppressing them in their religion And
so you don't be someone who in your
religion isn't willing to stand up for your
belief and what it is that you believe
in Allah
but rather you are those people who stand
up for what they believe in. And that
is what Allah
says from the 4th characteristics of the believers.
They strive in the path of Allah Azza
wa Jal strive in terms of their religion,
stand up for what they believe in. There
are people who when it is time to
pray, they will pray and they will do
it in a sensible, wise way, but they
will pray and they will fulfill the rights
of Allah Azza wa Jal and the Muslim
woman will dress the way that she needs
to dress and the Muslim man will have
his beard and everyone will do what they
need to do in order to worship Allah
azza wa Jal. But that requires striving. It
requires a level of jihad and effort because
it is not easy to do in a
society where people may look at you in
a certain way, speak about you in a
certain way, make remarks about you in a
certain way and that is why Allah ajwaj
then says the 5th
characteristic.
And this is a beautiful characteristic that Allah
ajwaj gives of the believers and that is
that they don't fear the reproach of anyone.
They don't care that people are gonna criticise
or speak or make fun or mock. Why?
Because they are there to please Allah Azzawajal.
And if the pleasure of Allah means the
displeasure of everyone else then so be it.
And if by pleasing everyone else he means
the displeasure of Allah azza wa jal, then
the believer doesn't want to go down that
path.
And so yes at times
we have to do certain things that people
will look at us in a strange way
or they will make remarks in a strange
way. Not all people,
most people are sensible and wise and mature
enough to understand
that people want to worship their Lord and
that's okay. But there are people who are
going to say things like time of the
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam went there amongst
the people of Quraysh those who were sensible,
didn't want to harm the Muslims, were okay
with them, didn't have an issue in that
way. They weren't oppressors
but they were part of their society,
the Quraysh society.
But then amongst the Quraysh there were those
people who harmed the Muslims, ridiculed them, mocked
them, oppressed them. And so the believers are
people who don't fear that reproach because if
you do then you are always going to
be shy. You are not going to have
the self confidence to worship Allah ajawajal, you
will be amongst those people who hide and
is shy and embarrassed about your religion as
opposed to being someone who is proud. If
there is one thing you have a right
to be proud of, it is that
Allah gave to your faith, gave to Iman,
gave to Tuhin. Nothing is more beloved to
you than that from Allah azza wa Jal.
Are people proud of less? People are proud
of their cars, their houses, their wealth and
their families. People are proud of lots of
different things that they have and they own
and that they possess.
The believer has nothing that he is more
or she is more proud of than the
faith that Allah gave to them. That iman
in your heart is more precious than anything
else. And so therefore don't let people reproach
you for it. That is the favour that
Allah grants to whomsoever he wills he says
and Allah has endless bounty and knowledge. That
is the favour of Allah. That you understand
the value of Tawhid and Iman and therefore
you are someone who will do what Allah
commands them to do. And that is what
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the next
verse who are the true ones, who are
the allies of Allah
In verse 55 Allah says
Allah,
his Messenger and the believers. Those who keep
up the prayer, pay the Zakah and bow
down in worship. Those are the allies of
Allah and his Messenger sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
not those who wish to sell their religion
or wish
to be allies with those people who don't
like and love this religion. The allies of
Allah, the people of Iman, the people of
Sarah,
Zakah and the people of worship to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala who submit to him Jallafi'ula.
This is how the believers should be, that
previous lesson, that previous verse concerning the characteristics
of the believers, this verse in terms of
their Ibadah, in terms of their worship and
devotion to Allah Azza wa Jal, this is
the way that the believers should be. In
verse 56 Allah Azza wa Jal then says
that the reward of those people is what?
Those people who are the true allies of
Allah.
And those who turn for protection to Allah,
His Messenger and the believers,
then Allah's party is sure to triumph.
Then Allah will give them victory, and Allah
will help them over their enemies and Allah
will give to them the best of this
life and the next.
In verse number 57, Allah then goes back
to the first issue. Don't take those people
as allies. These are the true allies of
Allah. This is how you should be. And
Allah warns us against going towards other than
them and seeking alliance from other than Allah
and the believers. Allah subhanahu wa'ala says in
verse
57:
Where the people who are given the scripture
before you or disbelievers and be mindful of
Allah if you are true believers. Look how
Allah is which describe the believers were the
true allies of Allah. People who love Allah,
people who humble towards the believers, people who
know and devote themselves to the religion of
Allah, Azzawajal, strive and not fear the reproach
of others. Allah says those are the true
allies of Allah, the true allies of the
believers.
Then Allah says, don't take those people who
what they do instead is mock your religion
and they take it as amusement and jest
and make fun of it. Those are not
the people who are your allies. Why? Because
they go against all of the characteristics that
Allah 'azwajah revealed
or mentioned concerning the believers in terms of
devotion, submission and striving for the path of
Allah and doing that which Allah Azzawajal pleases.
So Allah says those people who make fun
of your religion, ridicule it, mock it, those
aren't your true allies and fear Allah if
you are from amongst the believers. In the
final verse that we will take today, verse
58, Allah Azzawajal then continues to describe them
and says
and when you make the call to pray,
they ridicule it and make fun of it.
This is because they are people who do
not see reason.
They make fun of your salah, the adhan
goes and you go to pray, they're making
fun. Look at these people. Look at the
way they're falling on the ground. They're prostrating.
They're putting their head on the floor. They
are bowing and prostrating to, they make fun
of everything that you do in terms of
your worship and your religion. Those are not
people who are people who are mindful of
Allah
people who want Allah's reward So Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala warns us against them and look
at how these two last verses that we
just mentioned
go against the 2 verses or 3 verses
before that in which Allah mentions the characteristics
of the believers and the attributes that they
have. May Allah make us from amongst those
sincere and true believers. And with that we
come to the end of today's episode.