Zia Sheikh – Tafseer of Surah AnNahl Ayah 104 onward 3172016
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I seek refuge with Allah from Satan, the
accursed.
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the
Merciful.
Those who do not believe in the signs
of Allah, Allah does not guide them, and
for them is a painful punishment.
Only those who do not believe in the
signs of Allah, and those are the liars,
seek to deny the truth.
Those who disbelieve in Allah after they have
believed, except those who are forced to do
so, and whose hearts are at peace with
faith.
But those who open their hearts to disbelief,
for them is wrath from Allah, and for
them is a great punishment.
That is because they have preferred the life
of this world over the Hereafter, and because
Allah does not guide the disbelieving people.
Those are the ones whom Allah has sealed
over their hearts, their hearing, and their sight,
and those are the heedless.
There is no doubt that in the Hereafter
they are the losers.
One of the issues that will be discussed
today is the issue of forcefully making a
person disbelieve in Allah, putting a gun to
his head or a knife to his throat,
and telling him, you have to denounce Islam,
what is the ruling on that?
So that inshallah will be discussed today also.
So Allah says, Indeed those people that do
not have Iman in the Ayat of Allah
SWT, Allah SWT does not guide them, and
for them is a painful punishment.
This is carrying on with the theme from
last week in which there were objections against
the Prophet SAW about the Quran, where he
got it from, did he copy it from
somebody, and different objections that came up.
And the conclusion of that is that if
you do not believe that these verses are
from Allah SWT, then Allah SWT is not
guiding you, Allah SWT is not giving you
the truth.
So this is why this verse is starting
off with, Indeed those people that do not
have Iman in the Ayat of Allah SWT,
in the verses of Allah SWT, and Ayat
can also mean miracles, but here in the
context of what has been read before, it
is referring to the Ayat, the verses of
the Quran.
Allah says, Allah does not guide them.
So this does not make sense, that on
the one hand Allah says, those people that
do not have Iman in Allah, so obviously
they are not guided.
They are not guided, so then why does
Allah then afterwards say, Allah does not guide
them.
So we have to understand that there are
actually two levels of Hidayat, or there are
two types of Hidayat.
The word Hidayat is used for two things.
One is known as, in Arabic it is,
which means to show the way.
So Allah SWT has shown them the way.
Allah has shown them what is right, what
is wrong, what is true, what is false.
But the second meaning is what is meant
here.
That what is called is, meaning that what
is Matloob, the guidance that is Matloob, the
people do not reach that.
Meaning, to actually get guidance, to attain guidance,
to achieve guidance, that is also known as
Hidayat.
So one Hidayat is Allah guiding somebody, showing
him the way, and the second step of
that guidance is actually achieving that guidance.
So, Allah SWT does not let them achieve
the guidance because they do not want the
guidance.
They do not want the guidance in the
first place, so therefore Allah SWT does not
guide them.
And for them, specifically for them, there is
a very painful punishment.
The next verse, What is the consequence of
a person who does not believe in the
Ayat of Allah SWT?
Another consequence is that he will make false
accusations, false assumptions, false claims about Allah SWT.
And this is what the next verse says,
Indeed, those people that do not have Iman
in the Ayat of Allah SWT, they make
false accusations against Allah SWT.
So, you will find many misguided groups, people
that want to follow their own whims and
desires and call it Islam, but in reality
they do not really want to follow what
Allah SWT says.
They are basically making accusations against Allah SWT.
So, that actually indirectly means that they do
not have Iman in the Ayat of Allah
SWT in the first place.
They do not have Iman, therefore they make
these false accusations and false assumptions about Allah
SWT.
And these people are liars.
So, the word liars has been used here
and it really should be Kafiroon, disbelievers.
But Allah SWT wants to show the gravity
of the sin of lying that he is
actually equating it with Kufr.
He is equating it with disbelief.
So, those people that do not have Iman
in the Ayat of Allah SWT, they are
disbelievers, right?
Those people that make false accusations against Allah
SWT, they are disbelievers.
The word Kafir should be used.
But instead Allah SWT used the word liar
to show that lying is such a huge
and such a grave sin.
The Prophet SAW was asked that does a
believer steal?
So, the Prophet SAW recited a verse in
the Quran.
The man or the woman who steal cut
their hands.
So, it means that a person who believes
can in a lapse of judgment or by
making a mistake or by slipping up and
by forgetting the command of Allah SWT, he
can steal.
So, he will steal.
And then after that, the person asked the
Prophet SAW, can a believer actually commit Zina?
So, the Prophet SAW said, quoting a verse
from the Quran, that the Zani
man and the Zani woman, meaning adulterous or
fornicating man and woman, give them the prescribed
punishment.
So, he said, yes, this shows that a
believing man, when he again, when he slips
up, believing woman, when she slips up and
forgets about Allah SWT, they can also fall
into this trap of the Shaytan and commit
adultery and fornication.
And then the Prophet SAW was asked, does
a believer actually lie?
So, the Prophet SAW said, no.
A believer, one who believes in Allah SWT,
he cannot lie.
He cannot lie.
So, this again, this verse, it shows us
the gravity of the sin of lying, so
much so that Allah SWT has equated liars
with disbelievers.
So, this is again something to point out.
After that, Allah SWT then goes on to
the issue of Kufr with Allah SWT again
and being forced into disbelief.
Allah says, the person who does Kufr with
Allah SWT after having Iman in him.
So, a person becomes a believer and then
he becomes a disbeliever.
And then this, the response to this is
mentioned later on, but prior to that response
being mentioned, an exception is made.
إِلَّا مَنْ أُكْرِهَا وَقَلْبُهُ مُطْمَئِنٌ بِالْإِيمَانِ And so,
I'll come back to that in a minute,
but what does this Ayah actually, how is
this Ayah actually completed?
مَنْ كَفَرَ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ بَعْدِ إِيمَانِهِ فَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ
عَظِيمٌ Which is right at the end.
وَلَهُمْ فَعَلَيْهِمُ غَضَبٌ مِّنَ اللَّهِ وَلَهُمَا عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ
Upon them is an anger from Allah SWT
And specifically for them, there is a huge
punishment.
So this is for those people that disbelieve
and they are firm in their disbelief, they
have conviction in their disbelief, Allah SWT will
give them this punishment.
But in the middle of that, Allah SWT
makes an exception.
That exception is إِلَّا مَنْ أُكْرِهَا وَقَلْبُهُ مُطْمَئِنٌ
بِالْإِيمَانِ Except for that person who was forced
and his heart was at ease with Iman.
So Islam is not a religion of difficulty.
Islam is not a religion that makes a
person face adversity and difficulty and hardship and
torture and being killed.
So what this ayah is telling us, that
if a person is forcing you, and in
this day and age it can be very
easy, especially with the negative propaganda against Islam
and Muslims, for somebody to put a gun
to your head and say denounce Islam, otherwise
I'm going to shoot you.
So what do you do in that particular
incident?
So the ruling is that a person is
allowed to actually denounce Islam at that particular
time, while his heart is at ease that
he is still a believer.
So there is nothing wrong with that, to
save one's life to do that.
So there is actually the story of Ammar
ibn Yasir.
First of all, remember what happened to Yasir
and his wife, Sumayya.
These were the first martyrs of Islam, killed
by Abu Jahl in a very brutal fashion.
So Ammar ibn Yasir was the son of
this same Yasir.
And the story goes that somebody told the
Prophet ﷺ that Ammar ibn Yasir, he actually
denounced Islam.
So the Prophet ﷺ said it cannot be.
He said that Ammar ibn Yasir, Iman is
within him, he is full of Iman, right
from the top of his head right to
the bottom of his feet.
He is so full of Iman.
So if somebody tells me, the Prophet ﷺ
said that he denounced Islam, I will not
believe him.
So ultimately Ammar ibn Yasir came crying to
the Prophet ﷺ and told him the story
of how somebody had forced him to say
words of disbelief against Allah ﷻ and the
Prophet ﷺ.
And because of that he was extremely upset
and sorry and didn't know what was going
to happen to him.
So the Prophet ﷺ asked him that how
did your heart feel?
Was your heart full of Iman when you
said those words?
He said yes, my heart was still full
of Iman.
I didn't mean those words.
So the Prophet ﷺ said then there is
nothing to worry about.
In fact the Prophet ﷺ said that if
these people come back to you and they
make you do the same thing again, then
do it again.
The Prophet ﷺ commanded him to actually denounce
Islam verbally if they come back to him
again and force him to do so.
Now some Sahaba were standing by and they
said, Ya Rasulullah, you know so many of
our companions, they've been tortured in the past,
like Bilal ﷺ, he's been tortured, and many
have been killed while they have been told
to denounce Islam and you are telling Ammar
ibn Yasir this?
So the Prophet ﷺ, again this shows the
deep jawami ul kalim that the Prophet ﷺ
had, that one sentence and one instruction, it
had so much meaning in it.
That he said that when Ammar ibn Yasir,
he did what he did, he took the
rukhsah, he took the ease that Allah ﷻ
has given him and as for Bilal, when
he was being tortured, he proclaimed the truth
and he remained steadfast on the truth and
he did the best thing obviously, by not
denouncing Islam, but Ammar ibn Yasir did something
that was permissible and there's no problem with
it.
So this again, this shows from this hadith
we can, it is permissible for a person
to save his life to denounce Islam and
there's another story also of Musaylimah al-Kaddab.
Musaylimah was a person in the time of
the Prophet ﷺ who claimed to be a
Prophet of Allah and he used to tell
the believers, he used to gather them and
ask them, do you believe in me as
a Prophet or not?
So first of all, again there's a similar
story about, like to Ammar ibn Yasir, one
of the believers, he was asked by Musaylimah
al-Kaddab that, do you believe in Prophet
Muhammad ﷺ as a Prophet?
He said, yes I do.
And what about me?
He said, you also.
But he didn't verbally say that you also
are a Prophet, he kind of twisted his
words just to kind of save himself.
Another person, Musaylimah asked, he said to him
that do you believe in me as a
Prophet?
He said, no I don't believe in you
as a Prophet.
So he killed him.
So the story, the news got to the
Prophet ﷺ and he said both of these
people were on the right path.
The person who kind of twisted his words
to save himself that was permissible and as
for the person who remained steadfast, he was
proclaiming the truth.
So this is actually the ruling related to
being forced into disbelief.
The Prophet ﷺ also he mentioned in a
hadith, My ummah has been
absolved and forgiven from khata' wa nisyan.
Khata' meaning mistake, forgetfulness and things that they
are forced into doing.
So this is a clear hadith also.
So going back to the ayah, Allah ﷻ
says, The person who has disbelief after his
iman, except for the person who was forced
while his heart was at ease with iman,
as for the person, but for the person
whose heart became open to disbelief and accepted
disbelief.
What it means is, And specifically upon them
is an anger from Allah ﷻ and for
them is a huge punishment.
That is because they gave preference to the
worldly life over the hereafter.
And indeed Allah ﷻ doesn't guide the disbelieving
people.
So the word used here is, They gave
priority to.
So what you can understand from this, what's
known as, That the worldly life is something
that we are living in.
We are living in a world, we need
to provide for our families, we need to
provide for our children, we need to put
a roof over our heads, we need to
pay the bills.
And this is a responsibility that we have.
And we have to fulfill that.
But that responsibility should not overshadow our responsibility
towards Allah ﷻ and the hereafter.
So istahabbu means, Those people that gave priority
to the worldly life instead of priority to
the hereafter.
And I often give this example of a
person, for example, who is studying at a
university.
So you ask him the question that, What
are you doing at the university?
He says, my purpose of coming to the
university is studying, getting my masters, bachelors, getting
my PhD, whatever it is.
So you ask him the question that during
the course of your study, do you go
to sleep?
He will say, of course I go to
sleep.
Do you eat?
Yes, I eat.
Do you relax sometimes?
Do you have recreational time?
Yes, I do.
But I do all of those things.
I sleep, I eat, and I have recreational
times, keeping in mind that I should not
fulfill my main objective, which is studying.
And this is basically what the worldly life
is about.
Our main objective is the hereafter.
Do we work?
Do we provide for our family?
Do we pay the bills?
Do we have intimacy with our families?
Do we play with our children?
Yes, we do.
We do all of those things, but not
forgetting the main purpose of our existence, which
is pleasing Allah SWT and working towards the
hereafter.
So here Allah is describing those people that
gave priority to the worldly life.
They are the ones that are in the
wrong.
In another verse of the Quran, Allah SWT
says, وَإِنَّ الدَّارَ الْآخِرَةَ لَهِيَ الْحَيَوَانَ The abode
of the hereafter, that is the true life.
And in another verse, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا
اسْتَجِيبُوا لِلَّهِ وَلِلرَّسُولِ إِذَا دَعَاكُمْ لِمَا يُحْيِيكُمْ O
people of Iman, respond to Allah and His
Prophet when He calls you to that thing
that will keep you alive, that will give
you life.
What will give you life?
Basically, it refers to the life of the
hereafter which is everlasting and permanent.
Whereas this worldly life, how much are you
going to enjoy it?
By the time a person, he is in
his 40s and approaching his 50s, he is
basically heading towards the grave.
The time of his enjoyment or the prime
of his life has now passed him by.
And during all of these prime years of
his life, he is working and working and
working to build a nest egg for retirement
and everything.
And when he gets enough money to retire,
then by that time, he is too old
to enjoy his life anyway.
So that's basically the existence of this world.
So Allah SWT is telling us, the real
life is the life of the hereafter and
that is what everybody's focus should be on.
ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُ مُسْتَحَبُّ الْحَيَاةَ الدُّنْيَا عَلَى الْآخِرَةِ That
is because they give priority to the worldly
life over the hereafter.
وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الْكَافِرِينَ And Allah
SWT, He does not guide the disbelieving people.
أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ اطَّبَعَ اللَّهُ عَلَى قُلُوبِهِمْ وَسَمَعِهِمْ
وَأَوْصَارِهِمْ They are the people that Allah SWT
has put a stamp over their hearts and
their hearing and their seeing.
What that means is that they see everything
around them.
They hear the verses of the Quran being
recited.
They hear lectures and khutbas.
And they hear people on YouTube giving advice.
But it doesn't penetrate into their hearts.
It doesn't go into their minds.
It doesn't increase their iman.
Because Allah SWT has put a stamp on
their hearts.
So why the word Allah has put a
stamp on their hearts?
Because the stamp of Allah SWT is something
that cannot be removed.
So if somebody puts a seal or a
stamp, that is something that can be forged,
that can be removed, that can be erased.
Somebody, for example, he has a visa in
his passport.
He can do something and he can erase
it if he wants to.
There are ways around it.
But the stamp of Allah SWT is such
that it is a permanent stamp.
So once Allah SWT has put that stamp
on a person's heart, then there is no
way for guidance to get in.
So we ask Allah to protect us from
that type of stamp from Allah SWT.
They are the ones that are ghafilin.
They are ghafil, ignorant, absent minded.
All of these meanings are in this word
ghafil.
So at the end Allah SWT makes a
declaration.
That those people that gave priority to the
worldly life, what is going to happen to
them?
La jarama is a word which means undoubtedly.
There is no doubt whatsoever.
That these people, indeed they will be.
So there is a lot of emphasis in
these words.
No doubt, undoubtedly.
Indeed they will be.
In the hereafter.
They will be.
There is a lot of emphasis here.
If the people know Arabic, they will realize
all the different levels of emphasis there are.
First of all, la jarama, which means undoubtedly.
This anna, it provides emphasis.
Hum, again, it provides emphasis.
This is taqdeem and taqheer.
Taqdeem, muqaddam, it has been brought forward and
it gives the meaning of hustle and stress.
And hum, again, has been repeated.
Humul, khasiroon.
And al-khasiroon, ism fa'id is used,
which indicates, again, more stress.
So the whole ayah, it is saying that
without a doubt, undoubtedly.
And indeed, those people that gave priority to
the worldly life, they did not believe in
the ayat of Allah SWT.
They will be, indeed, huge losers in the
hereafter.
So this is what we finish off with.
I pray that Allah SWT gives us the
tawfeeq to understand and practice what has been
said and heard.
Inshallah, we will continue with this lesson next
week.