Nadim Bashir – Community Ethics – Surah Hujurat Tafsir Verse 14
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AI: Transcript ©
In the time of the prophet there
was a group of, people who converted to
Islam on the hands of the prophet
And what they began to do as it's
mentioned in Tafsir al Khortobi,
that they would begin to cause
people harm.
They would just sit in the way, and
people who would pass by, they would say
things to them. They would do things to
them. They would sometimes litter the road.
And not only that, but there are some
Al Tafasi that be that say that would
say that they began to come to Rasulullah
salallahu alayhi wa sallam,
and they would try to put their Islam.
They would almost say that their Islam
and their conversion to Islam
is a favor for Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wa
sallam. They would say that we are those
people
that other we're not like other people. Other
people, they fought against
Rasulullah We are a group that we never
fought against Rasulullah
And we converted to Islam for the sake
of
alaihi wasallam.
So because they say they said these kind
of things, and not only that, more importantly
they said, over and over again, that we
are people who are believers. We have iman.
Allah
in that situation,
he interjects.
And he tells Rasulullah
that
There's a group of people, You Rasulullah
in your community,
who claim to have iman.
They have faith.
Now, first stop, if we just take a
stop here at this ayah or this juncture,
at this ayah, and if you just reflect
on what they're saying,
they're not saying something that is absolutely wrong.
For a person to say that I have
iman, I have faith,
it's not wrong. However,
if you look at what they were saying
and what they were doing,
these 2 were in contradictory to each other.
Because iman in faith
basically means that whatever
the Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wa sallam has said.
And there's a long hadith. Al imanubiduunwasaboonashawaba.
That there are 70 odd branches of faith.
The greatest amongst them is
to say,
And the lowest of all the branches of
faith is to remove something that can harm
someone else from the path.
And then he says,
and hayah is also a branch of faith.
There are 70 odd branches of faith, and
Imam al Bayhaqirahmatullahialay
in his book,
of Kitabul Iman. He has actually listed all
these 70 branches of faith. But what Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying over here to
these people is that you're making this very
bold claim that you have iman.
Allah is saying, tell these people
they don't have iman, but rather they have
Islam.
And there's a difference between the 2. Islam
is what as in the hadith of Jibreel
alayhis salam, when Jibreel alayhis salam came to
the prophet salallahu alayhi salam in the form
of the human being. And this is considered
as umul ahadith according to some of the
ulama.
When he asked Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
he asked him 3 questions or 4 questions.
What is Islam?
What is iman?
What is ihsan? And he asked him, When
is the day of judgment?
The very first question, When is What is
Islam? What did the prophet alaihis salam say?
He said to verbally
declare
that there is only 1 God, or there
is no there is no 1 worthy of
worship, but but 1 Allah
and to the performance of salat,
the giving of zakat,
the performance of fasting in the month of
Ramadan, and giving and doing Hajj, if you
have the physical and financial capacity.
These are the This is what Islam is.
After
and the qadr of Allah, and so forth.
These are There are 6
What is mentioned in this hadith, there are
6 branches. From a theological perspective, there are
6 things that we have to truly believe
in. But in another hadith, the prophet then
says, there are 70 branches of faith. So
what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying is,
that these people they claim to have iman,
but they don't have iman. They have Islam,
and there's a lesson to be learned from
this. Number 1 is there's a difference in
Islam and iman.
But number 2 is
that when a person says, I have iman.
This is a person These are people who
did have some good, but overall they were
doing some things which were uncalled for. Harming
other people.
Causing problems for people who were passing by.
Coming to the prophet and
reminding him as if they're doing a favor
for Rasulullah
They're not doing a favor for the Prophet.
You accept Islam for who? For Allah's sake.
So you don't have to come back and
remind the Prophet over and over again, that
we are a qum, that we never fought
against you, and we took our Islam for
you. You can't do that kind of stuff.
This is just uncalled for. So this is
why Allah is saying that you cannot make
this bold claim. Because when you make this
kind of claim, you are saying that all
these 70 branches of faith, they exist within
my life. And this is why, if you
think about it, if a person says, I
have iman,
what you're claiming is you have all these
70 branches of faith in your life, and
most of us, unfortunately, we don't have We're
not in that position that we can say,
I have every single branch of faith
is existent within my life. None of us
can make that bold claim. Now someone can
say that well, of course it is not
Is it not understood
that if I'm saying I have iman, of
course I'm not gonna have all these 70
branches of faith in my life, but if
I have few in my life,
then doesn't that constitute that I have iman?
Yes, we may have some aspect of iman,
but we don't have full iman. That's like
saying a person says, I have a car.
But if you go outside,
all they have is just the body of
a car, and the steering wheel. You have
no tires,
You have no body. You just have the
the core function
of the of the car. You don't have
the wiring, the engine, you don't have anything.
Will any person say that this person has
a car?
Hakam. No. Okay? If you don't have the
wheels, you don't have the steering wheel, you
don't have anything, you will not say that
this is a car.
Likewise, a per A person who says,
I have iman,
is a variable statement.
Alayhis
salam, Tell these dear people that they don't
have iman but they have Islam.
Now, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying that
iman has not entered entered into their hearts
yet.
Lamma
versus lam.
That iman has not entered. Lama gives the
meaning that it has not entered yet. Meaning,
there is some hope. If you work hard,
you focus on yourself and your spirituality,
there is a possibility
that all these branches of faith can come
into your life, but as of right now,
it has not come.
If you obey Allah and his prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam,
Allah will not let any of your good
deeds go to waste. Now, 2 things are
mentioned here that we need to understand.
Before this ayah,
does anyone
remember what was the ayah before this?
Anyone remember the ayah before this?
This is the key thing I want you
to I want all of us to focus
on here.
Allah is making it very clear.
What makes you superior?
It's not your race,
it's not the money that we have, It's
not our socioeconomic
status.
It's not our it's not our the color
of our skin.
That's not what makes us superior. That's why
Allah says,
I brought you from many different walks of
life, and many different backgrounds,
but the only 1 who has superiority
is the 1 who has taqwa.
Now, in this ayah, Allah is telling us
that that taqwa is based on your iman.
Now, see, there is something interesting here about
this ayah.
If we had talked about superiority is based
on something that you can see,
something that is tangible. For example, I'm I'm
just giving you a very random example here.
If there was a statement
that superiority
is based on how much money you have,
Money you can see
in the manifestation of cars, houses,
property, estate. We can see that.
But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying over
here
that
your success or your superiority
is not based on that.
It is based on your iman, and it's
based on your taqwa.
These are things
that have to do with what?
The heart.
These are not things that you can see.
Can you see actually someone's iman? No. You
see someone praying salah, you can say, that
is a sign of iman. The prophet says
for example,
When you see a person going to the
masjid frequently,
give testimony
on my behalf that he has faith.
Once again, it does not mean the whole
faith. They have an aspect of faith.
But the reason why this is important for
us is,
Allah subhanahu wa'ala is telling us that our
superiority
is not based on something that you can
see.
That means that number 1, I don't have
to prove anything to anyone.
That's number 1. But number 2 is, I
don't have a right in front in the
eyes of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We all
are all equal.
We all are equal.
No 1 can say that I am superior
to someone else because of my taqwa, because
the only 1 who can gauge the taqwa
is who? Is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. How
much taqwa do I have compared to all
of you? Or each 1 of us, how
much do we have taqwa compared to each
other? Or your versus me and so forth.
No 1 can say. So,
there is a very good chance, in fact
I really believe I may have some taqwa,
but there are people sitting here in this
gathering who may have more taqwa than me.
Who may have more who who may have
more
and
in the eyes of Allah
compared to me. It's very possible.
But the key thing is that we cannot.
You see in a community,
when we talk about superiority,
this is where a community breaks off. This
is where there's division within the community because
there are people who can say, I am
better than you. You understand? Or I am
better than them. But here Allah is telling
us, your superiority
is not based on something that you can
see. It's based on something that you cannot
see.
And if you cannot see something,
then no 1 has any right
to state that I am superior to someone
else.
And I am better than someone else because
it's built on something that is only and
only in the knowledge of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
This is 1 of the key messages
of this ayah.
This ayah is trying to keep the community
together, that there is no 1 who can
ever make that statement. So Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is saying, number 1 is, there's a
difference between Islam and iman.
Number 2 is, no 1 can use
or you no 1 can say that they
are superior to someone else
based
on Islam and iman or taqwa, because this
is something that's only and only in the
eyes of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Only in
the knowledge of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So
this is why this helps us keep our
community together.
At this point, all we try to do
is we always support each other. And this
is why it's very important. When we we
when we don't know
any of our statuses in the eyes of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then we need to
be very careful
before we hurt someone.
Because as the prophet says, or in the
Khaliqusi,
when he says When Allah says,
Whoever causes or whoever creates enmity
with my wali,
then I declare war against them.
Now if wilayah, if this I this this
status of being a wali of Allah is
based on one's taqwa and iman,
then wallahi none of us know who could
be the wali of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Right? Think about it. If I don't even
know, if I go and I hurt someone,
and they turn out to be a wali
of Allah, no matter what we think, what
we think their Islam, and their imal, and
their taqwa is. If they turn out to
be a wali of Allah, it's not written
on their forehead that I'm the wali of
Allah,
But if you hurt someone,
and this is why we need to be
very careful if we do anything to anyone.
If I hurt someone,
I cannot judge anyone based on their looks,
based on what they have. It's all comes
down to what? To their heart and their
taqwa. If I hurt someone, and by chance
they turn out to be a wali of
Allah, then wallahi, I'm causing destruction for myself.
So this is why
these are key things that will keep our
community together. If we're not in the position
to judge anyone, we'll leave that to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
This is something that will take away from
the issues of our community, and this is
happening Allah in our community. So I ask
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to keep our community
united, but more importantly whatever we have learned
from this ayah, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
make us amongst those who will apply this
ayah in their life, and spread to others
inshallah.