Nadim Bashir – Community Ethics Surah Hujurat Tafsir Verse 16-17

So we are inshallah finishing the the tafsir

today of Surah Al Hujarat.

And the ending of Surah Al Hujarat, if

you have ever read the ending of Surah

Hajarat,

it can cause a person to think about

exactly what's going on in this story.

And this is subhanAllah just 2 days ago,

I have I remember I had a brother

who came to my office,

and he was complaining about the same thing

or sort of like concerned about the same

thing. And he said that, I understand

that the word the Quran is the word

of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

And it is considered as a timeless guidance.

But he says that whenever I read the

Quran, I The challenge that I find

is that I'm not able to connect the

verses. I'm not able to understand

that if Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is talking

about one thing, he switches up very quickly

and he goes to another diff another matter.

And then from there, he'll go to another

matter. And he's like, I don't understand, you

know, why is this the style of the

Quran and so forth. And I had to

give him some details and so forth that

this is, you know, the way every single

Surah works is that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala

is trying to help us understand a certain

theme. You understand? Let me give you an

example. If you study a book of science,

if you study a book of science, you're

gonna find that there's there are different chapters

and each chapter talks about one particular topic.

Okay. And it goes to the next chapter

and goes to the next chapter. And if

it goes to the next chapter and it's

talking about something that has already been passed

or has it already been covered, they will

always say go back to this page.

And this particular matter of regarding, for example,

cells or things inside the body and so

forth has already been covered in the previous

chapter.

The Quran, even though we call the Quran

or refer we refer to the Suras as

chapters. By the way, this idea of referring

to Suras as chapters

is something that is a a new thing

in the sense that it was something that

was you know coined later on you know,

especially, you know, by by people who were

speaking English and they had to come up

with a name regarding Surahs because the challenge

they found was that how do you define

Surah in a English term, hence they came

up with the word chapter. But when you

think about chapter especially like in a book

of social studies or English or science,

then you cannot apply the same concept to

the Quran. You understand?

So for example, when you talk about the

story of Musa Alaihi Islam, someone can think

that why well, why didn't Allah Subhanahu Wa

Ta'ala just reveal a surah

called Surah Musa

and the entire story of Musa

from beginning to end should have been mentioned

in that one chapter. Right? But that's not

how Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala He revealed the

Quran. Allah

revealed the Quran different surahs

in a way that Allah is trying to

get across to us one particular message.

Now whatever story

fits that message,

whatever story or whatever advice

fits that theme, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mention

it in that Surah. You understand? This is

how the Quran is. Now some people have

mentioned that it is not appropriate to or

to, you know, it's not appropriate

to assign certain themes to one surah. But

if you read the the books of Tafasir

and especially

not just, you know, one is Tafsir ibn

Kathir, one is Tafsir al Khortubi, and some

of your well known Tafasir in your Islamic

libraries. I'm not talking about those. There are

some scholars who have gone really deep into

the Quran

and studying the Quran

and that is the books that we have

to really get into to really understand exactly

what's going on. Now

coming back to the point here is that

the end of Surah Al Hajarat

can also throw someone off. That's exactly what's

going on here. And let me explain why.

There's one ayah where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala

he mentions

about some Bedouins who that existed in the

time of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.

So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says that these

people they made a very bold claim. What

was their claim? Their claim was that we

have iman.

Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala

he pushed back

on that claim and said, no, you don't

have iman, what you have is Islam.

Okay? Now the next ayah

is that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is talking

about that what are the signs of believers.

So so now, okay, we're going on a

trend. We understand what's going on. But then

Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala he talks about having

favors and doing favors.

So the question is that how's what's the

connection between all these verses?

Let me explain.

Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala when he said about

these Bedouins, these Bedouins made not one claim

but they made 2 claims.

The first claim they made was that we

have iman. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala said that

if you claim to have iman, that's a

very loaded word. And if you remember I

talked about this, iman has 70 odd branches.

When you say I have iman, what you're

saying is that I have encompassed all these

branches of faith.

Then in the next ayah, Allah subhanahu wa

ta'ala he's actually telling all of us

what is the true definition

of iman.

What is the definition of iman? Allah Subhanahu

Wa Ta'ala says

By the way, last time I did not

mention this.

Does not only mean they don't doubt in

Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

It means it's actually more powerful than this.

It means that they don't entertain

any kind of doubts in their deen.

Mean that someone can come and say

that, you know what, there's something about your

deen that is that is off. There's something

about the Quran that is off. There's something

about your deen that does not make sense.

And a person logically thinks that, yeah, you

know what? There might be a question there.

But you know what? I put my full

faith in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, I'm not

gonna entertain any doubts.

This is what's what is in his aya.

The sign of believers is they don't even

entertain a doubt when it comes to their

matters of their of their deen. So

these people, they don't entertain any doubts. Now,

Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says what after that?

He says, See these Bedouins, when they came

and they said, there is almost as if

they're trying to teach people what deen is.

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying, you're trying

to teach people what deen is, you're trying

to teach Allah what your deen is. And

the the point here that the Qur'an Mahdi

say is,

the difference between a believer and a person

who is not a true believer, they may

have Islam,

is that a person who's a believer,

they don't go around telling people that I'm

a believer.

See these better ones, what did they do

wrong? They went around saying I have I

have Iman. I have Iman. I have Iman.

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala negated it right away.

But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is telling us

here, a person

who truly is.

So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala here is saying

that the sign of a true believer is

that they don't keep on going around telling

people that I have iman and I have

faith. They continuously

work hard. They continuously ensure

they do the right they do good deeds.

So this is the difference between a person

who has Islam and a person who has

iman. Now, the last verse Allah subhanahu wa

ta'ala said,

That they claim that they're doing you a

favor. Now once again a person's thinking Allah

is talking about iman in faith and then

he's going to favors. What is it? What

is the connection here? The connection is

that these Bedouins also said

that we have done a favor

to Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam by becoming

a Muslim.

And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is telling them

that one thing that you'll see often in

the community when you live together Because once

again, so the Hijrat is about community ethics.

You're gonna have people in a community

who are very quiet about their iman. They

keep on coming for salah. They read Quran

and so forth. But you're gonna have some

kind of people who are gonna come. They're

gonna speak a very big game that we

are believers. We are such and such. And

these people, they're not true believers because a

true believer never talks highly about their faith.

But another thing that you will see often

in the community too is that people are

gonna come and they're gonna do some hard

work and they're gonna contribute to the community.

But they will use that

to use that as a favor towards the

community.

Just like these Bedouins, they said, we became

Muslims

because of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. It's

almost as if they're saying, We did a

favor to Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. And

Allah is saying

that, They believe that they have done a

favor to you by becoming a Muslim.

You Muhammad salallahu alaihi wa sallam,

You have done You have not done any

favor to me because of your Islam

But rather Allah has done a favor to

you

that he had he has brought you to

Islam.

This is Allah's favor. The fact that we

are today Muslims

is Allah's favor upon us.

And so a person and the ulama they

say a very beautiful point here that this

is a point where a person has to

realize

that when we think that we are something,

we think that this You know how many

people they they contribute to an organization?

And you know what they say afterwards?

If it was not for me, this organization

will not flourish. If it was not for

me, this deen will not flourish. If it

was not for me, then this and such

and such will not happen. Yes. We serve

the deen of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

Yes, we serve the deen of Allah Subhanahu

Wa Ta'ala. But to say

that this deen is dependent upon me and

my intellect, in my volunteering,

in my hard work? No. Allah subhanahu wa

ta'ala is not in need of anyone. This

is one thing that we have to all

keep in mind. Yes, we may serve our

deen and we want to be amongst those

that Allah uses to serve his deen. It's

an honor from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that

Allah is saying that I have used such

and such person

for the cause of my deen. This should

be when we when we when we talk

about

Allah having a favor upon us, this is

the true reality.

Not that we're doing Allah a favor. So

this is the key point here is you're

gonna find people in the community also. They

come and they give donations.

And you know what they do after donations?

Well, I've heard this so many times with

my own ears. I have given a donation.

I have done something for the organization,

hence I should have a say in the

organization

and not only that, but if I see

something wrong because I gave a donation, because

of I gave a donation, and you know

what happens?

You keep on saying I give a donation,

I give a donation and thinking

you, we, we did a favor to Allah

subhanahu wa ta'ala. Nah. That's not the case

here.

Rather Allah gave us the tafik

to give our money for Allah's sake. We

cannot do good things

and say that I did it for such

and such person. We did it first of

all for Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and I'm

not doing a favor to anyone but rather

Allah is doing a favor upon me by

allowing me to spend my money and by

the way when we spend our money for

Allah's sake it's not that Allah benefits from

it who benefits from it We benefit from

this.

So Allah is giving us the opportunity to

spend our money for our benefit. See one

is I can tell you, come and give

me. Khaleda come to you, come and give

me. It benefits me. But Allah is saying

that

give

for Allah's sake. Why? Because you are the

one who's gonna benefit at the end of

the day. So this idea that often happens

in a community

that we think that we're doing good things

just like these Bedouins.

They think that they became a Muslim that

so that it can be a favorite to

the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. No. This

was a favorite from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

So this is how the surah then finishes.

You see, Allah talks about the Bedouins,

their claim, they made 2 claims and Allah

Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala he clarified

both of their claims in the ending of

Surat Al Hujurat. You just have to sometimes

you really have to sit down with the

Quran and this is why I believe that

people are not able to connect with the

Quran. They are reading the Quran, Allah is

talking about one thing, it goes to the

next thing and goes to the next thing.

But if you just really sit down and

go deeper into the Quran see, one is

the the layer of the ocean.

1 is to go to the depth of

the ocean. You know, one is to go

a little deeper into the ocean,

but then once one is to go so

deep into the ocean, you know, where you

will find Titanic. You know, that's like going

all the way that that that deep down.

You understand?

Going so deep, that is why that is

when you will see the gems of the

Quran. That is where you'll understand the Quran.

You know, subhanallah, even as a child when

I was memorizing my Quran and I began

to read the translation,

it never occurred to me exactly what's going

on here. But that is where you have

to then go a little deeper into the

Quran and you will understand the Quran. So

this is the ending of Surah Khurjat InshaAllah.

Starting next week InshaAllah, we'll start another Surah

InshaAllah. But the point is that first of

all, these Bedouins, they made two claims. One

is about iman and faith. One is about

doing favors. And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, he

clarified both of them at the fir in

the last two verses or the last two

verses of of the Surah. May Allah Subhanahu

Wa Ta'ala grant all of us the tawfiq.

May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala make us from

the true believers and give us the tawfiq

to exhibit the true qualities of believers mentioned

in the Surah. And may Allah

make us amongst those that whatever we do,

we have the utmost amount of in our

work.