Nadim Bashir – Community Ethics – Surah Hujurat Tafsir Verse 11
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So today, inshallah,
we're continuing with the tafsir of Surat Al
Hujurat.
And Surat Al Hujurat, once again, it's a
surah that talks about and emphasizes
on community cohesion,
getting along in the community, making sure
that we keep aside, and we stay away
from things
that can perhaps divide our hearts. This is
the most important thing. Today, inshallah, we're just
gonna just again, just take 1 ayah, which
is ayah number 11 of Surat Al Hujurat.
But I wanna share with you something interesting.
If you read these 2 ayahs, ayah number
11 and ayah number 12, there are 6
things.
6 things that Allah subhanahu is telling us,
as a community, you stay away from it.
If you want your hearts to be united,
stay away from these 6 things.
Now you may just see them as 6
things, 6 points that Allah
is making to us. But there's a difference
between them. In ayah number 11, Allah is
telling us to stay away from 3 things
that happens right in front of the person.
And in ayah number 12, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is telling us to stay away from
3 things that often happens behind a person.
So that is why Allah is telling us,
3 things that can happen in front of
a person, stay away from them. What are
those 3 things that you can do in
front of someone?
You can hurt them, you can do something
to them, that we should stay away from
as a community.
The first thing Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
This is the first thing that Allah is
telling us to stay away from. What is
this?
To make a mockery of each other. Now,
I want to break down this aya here,
this part, because it's very interesting. Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala often in the Quran,
whenever he is addressing people,
Allah will often use the word qaum. Qaum
is in reference to a nation,
or a group of people, a community.
When you say the word qaum, and you
are referring to a community,
the men are covered, the women are covered,
the children are covered, the elderly are covered,
everyone is covered.
And Allah
he could have said, because he brought women
later on. So a person is thinking to
themselves that if Allah is addressing the women,
then why didn't Allah say in the beginning,
The men should not make a mockery of
other men. Because later on he said, the
women should not make a mockery of other
women.
But the reason why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
did this is that first of all, as
the ulama say, that because often
this can happen between the women of making
a mockery of each other, Allah subhanahu wa'ala
is telling us that first he brought a
broader topic.
Within a community,
we should not make a mockery of each
other. But especially especially, since this happens often
within the the women of the community,
the women have to also be very vigilant.
They have to be very careful about this,
that when you get together,
you make sure you don't make a mockery
of each other. Now of course the men
are not exempt from this, but since it
happens often amongst the women, that's why Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, he's highlighting
the women here in this. Another important thing
is to understand from this ayah is that
Allah
he's telling us that often
when we make a mockery of each other
Why are we making a mockery of each
other? Often because we think of higher. We
think that we are better than them. We
think we are superior than them. And often,
when we make a mockery of each other,
what are we bringing up? I'm rich,
they're poor.
I'm affluent, they're less affluent.
I have a bigger house, they have a
smaller house.
My children are more accomplished,
their children are less accomplished. We always bring
up these things when it comes to making
a mockery. They don't look good, I look
good. I You know, and there's all these
topics that usually come up. And this is
why Allah is telling us
that in a community,
who is superior,
who is inferior
is never
based on how much money you have. And
who is affluent and who's less affluent. And
who's look good looking and who is not
good looking and so forth. None of that
matters when it comes to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. That is why Allah says
That is the criteria.
The who is better in the eyes of
Allah Allah
And
this is why I say this all the
time.
We have no idea
amongst us
how much one's connection is with Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. I may come to the masjid.
Yes, I'm the imam of the masjid.
And we might be coming to the masjid
as a religious community.
But if I see someone who is coming
to the masjid, and I have no idea
who they are,
They could be better than me in the
eyes of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. They could
be waking up for tahajjud, and qiyamulayin.
And they could be amongst the mustajabu
da'wad. That if they raise their hands, Allah
will accept that. But often what happens is
we become judgmental.
I am better than them. I I don't
see this brother often. I don't see this
sister often. That's why Allah is telling us
don't say these kind of things. Do not
make a mockery of others because when you
make a mockery of others,
and imagine if that person
is close to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
then who's gonna defend this person?
It's Allah who's gonna defend this person. And
that is why you could
A person could potentially
put themselves in danger
if they're making a mockery of a person
who is so close to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala that you're putting I may be putting
myself in harm's way by making a mockery
of them. That's why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is telling us,
Then the second advice that Allah subhanahu wa'ala
is telling us, that we should stay away
from is, that insulting one another, or defaming
one another.
Now see here Allah subhanahu is telling us,
do not defame
Allah Allah Quresh said, do not defame them.
That's not what he says. He says,
Why? Because when you defame others,
you are defaming yourself.
When you are insulting others,
you are actually insulting yourself. So that's why
Allah subhanahu wa'ala is telling us that keep
this in mind. Next time you say something
to someone, and you're trying to bring them
down, you're not bringing them down, you're bringing
yourself down. Because that person, that brother, that
sister will be part of the community. And
if you bring one person down in the
community,
you are bringing yourself down. And guess what?
If this is not stopped, then we're gonna
pull each other down, and as a community
we will suffer. So that's why Allah subhanahu
wa'am is telling us,
and do not use insulting nicknames
towards each other. Now, of course we have
to understand this. That does this mean that
if I wanna give a reference to someone,
I cannot use a nickname? Or I cannot
say some I can say something? If you're
trying to use as a reference For example,
I could be talking to a person,
and I'm saying that this one particular brother,
or this particular sister, and the other person
is saying, I still don't understand who you're
talking about. You understand? I may not understand.
And then we use an adjective, or we
use a word.
We use a word. That sometimes
in some societies, in some cultures, it may
be offensive,
but that's not my intention. My intention is
I'm just trying to help you understand who,
which person I'm referring to and so forth,
and that in that case, it will be
okay. But always try to use better things,
better adjectives, better, you know, better words to
describe a person.
But what if that person is standing right
in front of you, and you use an
offensive nickname
that they do not like it and so
forth, Allah subhanahu wa'ala is telling us stay
away from these kind of things. Why? Because
it's a very known fact that when you
use a nickname
to insult someone, to put down someone,
it does not stop over there.
Usually often people would join in. If it
becomes a big laughing, a big laughter, and
a big laughing moment,
what happens is other people are gonna join.
And people are gonna add nicknames to that,
and eventually what happens is that person's name
is a name that no one understands or
no one knows, I would say, but his
nickname becomes more very well known in the
community. And that's why Allah subhanahu is telling
us everyone has beautiful names. Always refer to
them with their beautiful names, but not insulting
nicknames.
And this is something that we find, that
back in the time of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi
wa
sallam, one time Safiyyah radiAllahu ta'ala Anahi came
to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, and
she was crying.
And she and she and the prophet asked,
why are you crying? And she said that
Hafsa
said to
me that I am the daughter of a
Jew.
So because I am that, she felt that
she took that very offensively. Now of course
she is the wife of the prophet They
both are the wives of the prophet
So the prophet
she he said to, to Sofia that, you
tell her
that your,
that your father was a prophet,
and your uncle was a prophet, and your
husband is a prophet. Now what does that
mean? It means that if you think about
Judaism and where it goes back from, which
prophet was sent to Bani Israel?
Musa alayhis salam. Right? So she he's he,
he alayhis salam, he salalahu alayhi salam is
telling her that, say that my father, meaning
that going all the way, referring to Musa,
and my uncle referring to?
Who's Musa's brother?
Harun. Okay? So tell her
that your father, meaning Musa,
and your uncle, referring to Harun,
and your husband, all of them are prophets.
That is a distinction that no one else
has. You understand?
So, but then later on, the prophet he
did go back to Hafsa, and he said
to Hafsa, Hafsa
It's mentioned actually This is the worrying that
is mentioned in the hadith of Prophet He
said, Hafsa, that be cautious of Allah
Be aware of Allah
You're violating other people's rights. And even in
the time of the Prophet when people would
refer to each other in insulting ways, Rasulullah
salallahu alaihi wa sallam, he would not take
the he would not just say that, you
know what? It happened once, it's okay, just
let it go. No. He would address it
immediately,
because the most important thing is that we
keep the community united. And especially, especially when
we live in a land like this, where
we are the minority,
we cannot afford as a Muslim community that
we are fighting from within. We have to
make sure that our communities are united, so
that we can progress, and we can have
a bigger bigger impact. But if our hearts
are divided, we may be within 4 walls,
but if the hearts are divided and they're
not united,
then our impact will be very less, and
we're gonna be spending a lot of times
putting down each other. So this is why
there are 3 advices.
3 things that we should stay away from,
but once again, these are three things that
happens in front of a person. Next week
insha Allah, next week insha Allah we'll cover
the next verse, ayah number 12, where Allah
is telling us to stay away from 3
things that happens behind the back of a
person.
Number 2 is, do not defame each other.
Do
Number 2 is, do not defame each other.
Do not do some do not say something
that is considered as insulting. And number 3
is, do not create nicknames,
towards each others that can put each other
down. I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
make us and actually I forgot the remaining
verse of the aya. I just remembered these
three things. Then Allah says,
After you have become a Muslim, after you
believe in Allah, these are not things that
are that are appropriate. By the way, Badal
Iman. Why not Badal Islam? Because we're talking
about Madina here. You understand? We're talking about
after a community has come together. These are
people who are now on iman. So Allah
subhanahu wa'ala is telling us, it's not appropriate
after we truly believe in Allah that we're
using these kind of nicknames against each other.
And then Allah says,
Whoever does not repent to Allah, they are
indeed those who
they are indeed those who are the walimund,
the oppressors. Yes. We may make a mockery
of each other. We might insult each other.
We might do something to hurt someone, but
we always go back and we seek forgiveness.
Ask them for forgiveness. And by the way,
there is
If I if I violate the laws of
Allah, I ask Allah subhanahu for forgiveness. But
if I do something to hurt someone else,
then I need to go back to them,
and I need to ask them for forgiveness.
It's not sufficient to say that, you Allah
forgive me. You know, this
is
you need to go back to that person
and ask us for for forgiveness. Otherwise, as
Allah is saying, if we don't do this,
we'll be amongst those who are the oppressors.
So we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
not make us amongst their oppressors in this
dunya and the Akhirah.