Nadim Bashir – Community Ethics Surah Hujurat Tafsir Verse 15
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So every Saturday morning, we take 1 or
2 verses of Surat Al Hajarat, and we
just try to cover and try to understand
the application of these ayat and how we
understand them in our own personal perspectives.
First of all, is that today the ayah
that we are covering, inshaAllah, is ayah number
15,
but ayah number 15 is connected to ayah
number 14,
which we talked about last week. Throughout Surat
Al Hujurat, Allah
has been talking about community ethics,
community matters, community affairs.
But in eye number 14, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala he sort of switches gears,
and now he is talking about iman.
And Allah
in last week's verse, he said,
This is the verse that where you had
a handful of people,
a certain group of people in Madinah,
who made this very bold claim that we
have iman.
And last week, I remember I gave you
the example of a car. When you say,
I have iman, mean that you have the
entire package.
But iman has so many branches, and this
is a very bold claim that a person
makes. And 2 things I shared with you
last week from that ayah. Number 1 is
that a person when he says he makes
a claim,
then you have to understand that that is
a very big claim, and you have to
back up your claim. A person who says,
I have iman.
That implies
that you have the entire package.
And many of us, we may not even
have the whole package. We may have some
aspects of iman. Some shades of iman, but
we don't have the entire
goal The entire picture, or the entire package
of iman. Number 2 is,
that because
iman is something to do with the heart,
and when it comes to community,
we always tend to compare ourselves to others.
We always believe that I'm better than others.
And yes, there should be some kind of
competition.
Competition, healthy competition is good.
However,
when it comes to judging others, we cannot
judge anyone.
We cannot judge anyone. We cannot pass a
judgment
regarding anyone. Why? Because judgment is based on
taqwa.
Taqwa is a matter of the heart, and
all matters of the heart is something that
is only in the knowledge of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
So now the question still begs
that if Okay. If I understand
that I cannot make such bold claims, and
I understand I cannot judge anyone. But what
is iman? And this is where the next
verse comes into the picture, item number 15.
Allah says,
Those people Indeed, those are the ones. When
Allah says,
it is used for hasr, meaning that it
is exclusively
these people who have iman. And what does
that mean? It implies
that when you make a claim of anything,
Allah will test us on that. When a
person makes a claim that I am good
with others Because once again, this ayah is
where? In Surah Al Hujurat.
A surah about community ethics.
When a person makes his claim that I
am very good with everyone, I respect everyone,
I dignify everyone,
then this claim will be put to test.
When a person says,
I'm a very thankful person to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. And I've said this before. How
often does it happen in our lives
when things are going very well? We say
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the best
of providers.
But Allah then he will put that claim
to test.
Sometimes Allah will put us in a situation
that Allah will test where is our iman.
A person who says that I do such
and such good, Allah will always put to
test. Why? Because this is what iman is.
Iman is something that Allah will test us.
We are living a life where our iman
is always gonna be tested. It is a
battle between us and shaitan. And shaitan will
always try to come and deceive us. And
we are clinging to our iman,
clinging to our faith because wallahi, that is
the only thing that is the the ticket
to Jannah. Why? Because anytime you study the
Quran,
when Jannah is promised,
Jannah is promised to those who have iman.
That is the key thing. So Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala says,
These are the people who have faith in
Allah and his prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
See brothers and sisters,
one is faith that, you know, verbally you
believe in it. From your heart you believe
in it. But when your backs When our
backs are against the wall Like right now,
I said this yesterday in my khutba too.
How many people are coming right now? And
they're saying that what is happening in ghazah?
What Is there any explanation in this matter?
Why is this happening? Why is Allah doing
this? Why why does Allah, you know, just
destroy these people and so forth? And wallahi,
I wish I had the answer. I wish
we all had the answer. We all are
looking for answers, but you see this is
what faith is.
When Allah says that those the believers are
those who have faith in Allah,
this is what faith in Allah means. It
does not only mean
that when things are going well, and we
we have trust in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
it means that even in difficult circumstances like
this,
when we see our brothers and sisters being
slaughtered in Gaza, may Allah aid them and
support them, and give them 'izzah. And may
Allah destroy the Valimoun.
But what we see happening there right now,
this is a test of faith. For them,
this is there there's a test. For us,
there's a test also. So we have to
always, no matter what the situation is,
we always put our trust in Allah. We
put our faith in Allah. Faith is something
that we may it may not make sense
to us, but we gotta put our faith
in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And the words
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. And
usually in times like these, what may happen?
There may be some doubt.
Doubt may creep into the hearts and the
minds of the people. So what happens? Allah
says,
The signs of these people
is that they don't they don't doubt Allah
There is no ambiguity
that creeps into their heart.
And a sign of these people is
that, so one is from a spiritual perspective,
they believe in Allah. They they they have
faith in the prophet shalallahu alaihi wa sallam.
They don't have any doubts, but physically what
do they do?
See, Islam is a complete package. 1 is
belief, 1 is spirituality,
1 is physicality.
You have to show physically
that what you believe in. So Allah says,
these are the people that they strive with
their wealth, and they strive with their lives,
and the cause of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And Allah then says,
I'll finish on this. Allah says that these
are the people who are truthful.
Now a person may ask, here we're talking
about striving in the cause of Allah. Striving
with your wealth. Striving with your life. We're
talking about belief and spirituality.
Where did truthfulness come into the picture?
Truthfulness comes into the picture because
a person who claims to believe in Allah,
a person who claims that I will give
my life for the for Allah, a person
who claims that I will believe in rasulullah
salam, a person who claims that I will
give everything I have for the sake of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
When a person
makes all these claims and Allah puts this
person through all these different circumstances,
and there is no better example than all
the anbia in Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
Every single prophet went through challenges. Rasulullah salallahu
alaihi wa sallam went through the most amount
of challenges. And what did they do at
the end? They showed, they demonstrated
that they are truthful in their words. They
made a claim and they backed up their
claim.
This is where you and I today, we
fall apart. We make all these big claims
about our spirituality,
but when the time comes to apply,
to exercise that spirituality,
that commitment to Allah, that is where we
fall apart, and that shows that we are
not truthful
in our words. We're not truthful in our
claims. This is what this ultimately comes down
to. Do we are we who we truly
are? Do are we who we truly say
we are or not?
That is where this this this test is.
So Allah
is saying is that these are the people
who are the believers. They make all these
claims, they back it up with action, and
hence Allah has declared them as a sadiqun.
I ask Allah
that
in light of what is going on, may
Allah
keep us steadfast on iman. May Allah keep
our children
steadfast and committed to their faith, and do
let them not waver in any kind of
situation. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make
us from the sadiqun in this dunya and
the