Zia Sheikh – Tafseer of Surah AnNahl Ayah 125 4142016
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A'udhu Billahi Minash Shaitanir Rajeem.
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem.
Ud'u ila sabili Rabbika bil-hikmati wal
-maw'ithati al-hasanati wa jadilhum bil-latihi
ahsan.
Inna Rabbaka huwa a'alamu bimaa dhalaan sabilihi
wa huwa a'alamu bil-muhtadeen.
We are going through the tafsir of Surah
An-Nahl.
And inshallah today I'm going to be starting
from Ayah number 125.
And this Ayah, as you may have noticed,
I only read the one Ayah.
And the reason that I'm keeping it only
to one Ayah is that this particular Ayah,
it requires a lot of detail and a
lot of information.
And the reason behind it is that it
is talking about the very important work of
Dawah, calling people towards Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala.
And why is that important for us?
Because we being in the Ummah of the
Prophet, the responsibility of inviting people has been
put on our shoulders.
Why?
Because our beloved Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, is
the last Prophet.
There is no more Prophet to come after
him.
And yet the work of Prophethood or the
responsibility of Prophethood, it will continue.
And that has been placed on the shoulders
of his Ummah, which is basically you and
I, all of us, collectively are responsible for
calling people towards Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
The Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, has been described
as Rahmatulil Aalameen, mercy for the world.
And he has been described in another verse
as being Kaafatulil Naas.
He has been sent for the whole of
humanity as Bashirun Munathira, as one who gives
glad tidings and as a warner from the
punishment of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Yet, his life of Prophethood was simply 23
years.
And if we keep in mind that Nuh
Ali, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, sent for a limited
amount of time for a limited group of
people, yet he was given 950 years to
give Dawah to people, it doesn't seem logical
that the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, is given
only 23 years for the whole of humanity,
for all of the world, for the jinn
and the human beings, all the way until
the Day of Judgment.
It doesn't make sense.
So the only conclusion that we can come
to logically is that it was not simply
his responsibility, but rather it was the responsibility
of the people around him and we as
an Ummah.
And that's why Abu Bakr Siddiq, R.A.,
as soon as he became Muslim, the thing
that he asked the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
was that, what's my responsibility now?
The Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, told him that
whatever my responsibility is, it's also your responsibility.
Immediately, Abu Bakr Siddiq, R.A., started calling
people towards Allah, S.W.T., and started
inviting them and within a matter of days,
he had made many people Muslim, many people
and many prominent Sahaba actually became Muslim at
the hands of Abu Bakr Siddiq, R.A.
So this responsibility is the responsibility of this
Ummah.
And that's why Allah, S.W.T., addressing
us, he said, كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْلِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ
تَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ
O Ummah of the Prophet, S.W.T.,
you are the best of nations, you've been
sent for the benefit of mankind, you order
people to do good and you forbid them
from evil and you have Iman in Allah,
S.W.T. So all of these verses
and all of these indications, they tell us
that it's our responsibility to call people towards
Allah, S.W.T. About this last verse
that I recited, Umar, R.A, used to
say that the person who does not fulfill
what this verse says in terms of أَمْرُ
بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ he has no right
to claim that he is in the best
of nations.
So the fulfillment of what that verse says
results in being a person who is regarded
as from the best of nations and if
a person is not fulfilling that, then he
has no right to claim that he is
from amongst the best of nations.
So that's a very stark warning for all
of us that we should take it upon
ourselves to think about this responsibility very very
seriously.
So this verse, it falls straight out of
the verses in which Allah, S.W.T.
told the Prophet, A.S. to follow the
millah of Ibrahim, A.S. If you remember,
we talked in detail last week about Ibrahim,
A.S., what his millah was, what his
specialties were and how we need to follow
in his footsteps.
So one of the most important things that
Ibrahim, A.S. did was of course the
work of dawah.
So keeping that point in mind, Allah, S
.W.T. addresses the Prophet, A.S. and
says to him, اُدْعُوا اِلَىٰ سَبِيلِ رَبِّكَ بِالْحِكْمَةِ
وَالْمَوْعِظَةِ الْحَسَنَةِ وَجَادِلْهُم بِالَّتِيهِ أَحْسَنَةً And remember,
whenever Allah, S.W.T. is addressing the
Prophet, A.S. directly, indirectly he is also
addressing us.
Directly he is talking to the Prophet, A
.S. but indirectly he is also talking to
us.
So throughout the Quran sometimes Allah, S.W
.T. uses the word singular second person as
if he is talking to just the one
person and that one person obviously it is
our beloved Prophet, A.S. But that is
an indirect address to all of us.
So this is no exception.
So Allah tells the Prophet, A.S. اُدْعُوا
اِلَىٰ سَبِيلِ رَبِّكَ بِالْحِكْمَةِ وَالْمَوْعِظَةِ الْحَسَنَةِ
وَجَادِلْهُم بِالَّتِيهِ أَحْسَنَةً So there are a lot
of important points here.
Firstly, Dawah has to be done towards the
way of Allah SWT.
There has to be no hidden agenda.
There has to be no motive, no, you
know, conflict of interest.
And that is why all the Anbiya'alim
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, Allah SWT describes them and
they used to tell their people, وَمَا أَسْأَلُكُمْ
عَلَيْهِ مِنْ أَجْلٍ إِنْ أَجْرِيَ إِلَّا عَلَى اللَّهِ
that we do not ask you for any
type of reward for this Dawah that we
are doing to you.
Our reward is with Allah SWT.
He is the one who is going to
reward us.
So, this is what it is meant by,
أُدْعُوا إِلَىٰ سَبِيلِ رَبِّكَ The second thing is,
بِالْحِكْمَةِ Okay, so, بِالْحِكْمَةِ which means, literally translated,
it means with wisdom.
And the scholars say that what does wisdom
mean?
وَضْعُوا الشَّيْءِ فِي مَوْضِعِهِ الْمُنَاسِبِ This is the
definition of Al-Hikmah.
Okay, so, you can think of that from
so many different perspectives.
So, when you are giving a teenager Dawah,
for example, you have to talk to him
like a teenager.
When you are giving an older person Dawah,
you have to talk to him like an
older person, like a more mature person.
When you are giving a Christian Dawah, you
cannot give him proofs which are related to
Hinduism or Atheism.
You have to give him proofs that are
related to Christianity.
When you are talking to a Jew and
trying to give him Dawah, then the proofs
have to be related to Judaism and so
on and so forth.
So, this is what wisdom is about.
To really use a person's common sense in
realizing the person that he or she is
talking to and making sure that the points
are made according to the person's understanding.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, in so
many examples, he used to change his dialect,
even, according to the person who was talking
to him.
For example, a person came to the Prophet,
peace be upon him, and asked him in
a dialect which has Meem inside it.
So, he asked the question, which basically means,
Is it good to fast while a person
is traveling?
But the dialect that the person was using
had Meem, the letter Meem in every single
letter.
So, he said, The Prophet, peace be upon
him, responded in his dialect.
There is a Hadith which talks about how
the Prophet, peace be upon him, was very
particular about talking to the people in front
of him, according to their level of understanding.
So, this is what wisdom entails.
Another aspect of wisdom is to make sure
that a person does not push the person
that he is giving Dawah to, push him
away.
Why is that?
You know, one of the most difficult things
that a person has to endure is taking
advice from people.
This is one of the most difficult things
that somebody advises you, even though the advice
is good, the advice is true, but to
accept that advice, it is a huge burden
upon a person.
Even from the person who is close to
him, like a person who loves you very
much, a father giving his son advice, for
example, it is burdensome, it is heavy, to
accept that advice, even though that advice may
be correct.
The wife giving the husband advice, the husband
giving the wife advice, the brothers giving their
brothers or sisters advice, you know, and so
on and so forth.
So, the most difficult thing is to accept
advice, even good advice, from people that mean
well.
So, when this is the case, when a
person is advising, he has to make sure
that he is advising in a way that
is not pushing the person away or hurting
him.
The other thing is sometimes a person is
forced to advise a person who has gotten
used to committing sins.
He has gotten used to enjoying the committing
of sins.
So, taking a person away from the commitment
of those sins, it is a difficult enough
you know, task.
And on top of that, to make it
in such a way that you are also
hurting his feelings, that makes it easier for
him to stick to the sin, rather than
make him repent and turn to Allah SWT.
So, it is very, very, it is a
very, very delicate situation when advising somebody what
to do.
And advising him, making him repent, making him
turn back to Allah SWT, it has to
be done in such a way that the
person really feels that you mean well for
him.
And that is why, I mean, if you
look at what Musa A.S. was instructed
by Allah SWT, where is he going to
give dawah to?
Who is he going to invite?
He is inviting Fir'aun.
Who was Fir'aun?
That person who claimed to be God himself.
He used to say, I am your highest
Lord.
Or even your Lord.
I am your highest Lord.
So, he used to make people prostrate to
him and worship him.
But, Allah SWT, when he sent Musa A
.S. and Harun A.S. to invite Fir
'aun to Allah SWT, he told them both,
Say gentle things to him.
Say soft things to him.
Maybe he might take a heed from it
or he might fear Allah SWT through that
advice.
So, when this is the case with the
biggest tyrant and the one whom we curse
until this day for being what he was,
by being, because of the fact that he
was a tyrannous ruler and he killed so
many people, even killed so many babies, this
person, Allah SWT instructed Musa A.S. to
be gentle with him.
So, what do you think about those people
that are already Muslim?
How gentle must we be with those people
when we are giving them dawah and inviting
them to Allah SWT?
This is very very important to understand.
So, when we are inviting people to Allah
SWT, we need to make sure that we
say gentle words to the person.
We must not make it look like that
we are acting like we are better than
the person that we are inviting.
We should not treat him in a way
that we feel that he is beneath us,
rather we treat him in such a way
that he is better than us.
Also, it is important to make sure that
we do not admonish him publicly in front
of everybody in such a way that again
this will push him away.
The Prophet A.S. he used to see
people engaging in wrong acts and instead of
admonishing them there and there, he used to
address this issue in lectures and khutbahs.
And when he used to give those khutbahs,
he did not mention the people by name.
He used to say مَا بَالُ قَوْمٍ مَا
بَالُ أَقْوَامٍ يَعْمَلُونَ What is wrong with some
people that do such and such actions?
Not mentioning by names but saying the action
and saying in general what the people were
engaged in so that they knew that he
was referring to them but not admonishing them
in such a way that they were embarrassed
in public.
And this was actually a tradition that used
to take place amongst the Arabs of old.
If they used to find out that a
property of theirs had been stolen from them,
they used to announce it amongst the people
and then they used to say that in
front of the people the house of the
person whose property has been stolen we are
going to نَرْمِي أَكْتُرَاب We are going to
throw soil in front of the person's house
whose property has been stolen.
So what does that mean?
So what they used to do, the public
announcement was made that such and such a
thing has been stolen from such and such
a person and at his house we are
going to throw soil.
So the person who stole the object he
knows that he is the one who stole
it.
So everyone from the community they used to
take a pot of soil and they just
put it in front of the person's poured
it in front of the person's house.
Including the person who had stolen the object
and he would hide that object inside the
soil and pour it in front of the
person's step so that nobody knows who the
thief was and the person he gets back
his property.
So this was what people, the old Arabs
used to do in villages and so on.
So this was a tradition that used to
take place and the purpose of that was
again not to admonish the person in public
rather let him repent and let him return
the property without any kind of persecution any
kind of prosecution.
There is a beautiful story of the grandsons
of the Prophet Hassan and Hussein.
And they saw one day that a person
he was making wudhu but he was making
wudhu incorrectly.
So they hatched a plan to correct this
person in such a way that they didn't
want to hurt his feelings.
So he was an older gentleman and they
were young boys.
So they said to him, uncle we are
having an argument amongst ourselves and we want
to know who makes the best wudhu from
both of us.
I think that I am making the best
wudhu and he thinks that he is making
the best wudhu so you be the judge
of who is making the best wudhu and
tell us who is actually the one who
is making the best wudhu.
So first Hassan he makes wudhu and obviously
he does it in a perfect way without
leaving anything.
And then Hussein he does the same thing.
He makes the wudhu in a perfect way
without making any type of mistake.
And then they say to him can you
tell us who made the best wudhu?
And then he realized his own mistake and
he said that you know you, both of
you made the wudhu beautifully but I am
the one who has been making it incorrect
all this time.
JazakAllah Khairan for actually correcting me.
So indirectly they corrected him without you know
without admonishing him without embarrassing him because he
was older than them.
And then what about the story of the
person that came to the Prophet and said
Ya Rasulullah I wish to commit zina.
You know I, give me permission to commit
zina.
I am a young man and I have
these urges and I cannot stop myself, I
cannot prevent myself, I cannot control myself so
allow me to commit zina fornication.
So the Prophet A.S. sat him down
gently and started talking to him.
Now just imagine that if somebody comes to
us and says I want to commit zina.
You know how would we react?
Astaghfirullah How dare you talk about these kinds
of things in front of me.
Get away from me otherwise you know your
effects are going to rub off on me
and I am going to be a bad
person because of you.
What did the Prophet A.S. say?
He sat him down and started talking to
him very gently.
He said do you have a mother?
He said yeah I have a mother.
How would you like it if somebody committed
zina with your mother?
He said I wouldn't like it at all.
Do you have a sister?
Yes I have a sister.
How would you like it if somebody committed
zina with your sister?
He said I wouldn't like it.
And then so on and so forth counting
all of the female relatives of the person
and ultimately the Prophet A.S. put his
hand on the chest of this person, made
dua for him and the person walked away
saying that from that point on zina, adultery,
fornication became the most despicable thing to me
and prior to that I was attracted to
committing this very vile sin.
Prior to the Prophet A.S. making me
understand the gravity of it that if I
was in the shoes of a relative of
the victim of zina then how would I
feel?
So really this was the wisdom of the
Prophet A.S. in advising and admonishing the
person that made the person repent and turn
back to Allah SWT.
So when we say when we say entails
that you know we use wise words do
not hurt a person's feelings do not admonish
him in public and use such wording that
makes a person come closer to you rather
than pushing him away.
This is what hikmah is about.
And this also goes back to the issue
of inviting non-muslim towards Islam.
A lot of people get hung up on
these issues of a woman for example a
non-muslim comes into the masjid without hijab
and people go crazy how dare she come
into the masjid without hijab but she doesn't
know any better okay she doesn't know any
better so you know why are you making
it a huge issue why are you making
a big fuss out of it and scaring
her away and this happens that people come
to the masjid with true and sincere interest
in learning about Islam and somebody says something
to them and they get scared and they
never want to come back to the masjid
again.
So this has happened on many occasions just
last week we had a huge group of
people about a hundred people came to the
masjid early in the morning around 8 o
'clock and you know pictures were posted on
our whatsapp groups and people just raised that
same issue again that why non-muslims are
in the masjid in the musallah they shouldn't
be in the musallah area and so on
you know there are so many examples of
the Prophet allowing non-muslims into the masjid
the people group of Christians came all the
way from Najran to have a dialogue with
the Prophet the Prophet had a dialogue with
them in the masjid, in the masjid and
then on top of that when the time
came for them to pray, he even permitted
them to pray inside the musallah so the
issue is here that when a non-muslim
is coming to sincerely learn about Islam our
actions sometimes push a person away from Islam
rather than get him close to us very
very sad situation and many people that actually
became muslim they say that that when we
initially came to the masjid we used to
get bad treatment from people we were sitting
in the masjid listening to lectures, listening to
talks you know becoming more and more interested
and suddenly somebody tells us oh you are
not a muslim you have to step outside
the masjid and stay outside the masjid very
very sad situation and not something that we
should tolerate we have to be a little
bit more lenient when it comes to these
issues there is a ruling for a woman
who is in her menstrual cycle which is
a state of impurity that when she needs
to when she needs to make arkan of
hajj or umrah and she has no other
choice but to make tawaf around the kaaba
in that state of impurity then she is
allowed to do so there is a dam
which has to be given basically a penalty
that has to be given but the point
is that even in the state of impurity
she is allowed to make tawaf around the
kaaba, the holiest place in the world so
you know this should give us an indication
of that impurity is not something that is
transferable in the sense that we look at
it so especially being a non-muslim non
-muslims are not mukallaf meaning they are not
held accountable by Allah SWT for their actions
so therefore the state of impurity that they
may be in it is not an issue
especially when we are trying to invite them
towards Allah SWT the next thing that Allah
SWT says is call people to the way
of your lord with hikmah we have talked
about hikmah already and which means good speech
good speech means that don't let any joe
just give the lecture if the person doesn't
know what he is talking about ok don't
let a person who has no knowledge of
the subject try to advise people who are
in need of good advice the person who
is talking must know what he is talking
about he has to have the correct knowledge
before he gives dawah so al mu'ibat
al hasana means that whatever dawah whatever type
of dawah he is giving he needs to
know what to do he needs to know
what to say when he is talking to
muslims he needs to know what to say
when he is talking to christians he needs
to know what to say when he is
talking to jewish people he needs to know
what to say so depending on the situation
the expert in that particular field needs to
be brought forward and he is the one
that should be given the lecture not any
person the person who knows what to do
he is the person that will give dawah
after that allah says and dispute with them
in a way that is the best jidal
actually means to fight but here this is
jidal in the sense that you have a
dialogue with a person so when you are
having a dialogue with a person it should
not be in an insulting way do not
talk to the person in an insulting way
do not talk to him in derogatory terms
and that is why the concept of debate
in islam where a person tries to put
the other down this is not really something
that is appropriate in islam a dialogue is
a better word to use rather than debate
in a debate you try to prove the
other wrong using his own proofs and so
on sometimes that is counterproductive you are insulting
him in a way that you are pushing
him away allah says in one verse of
the quran do not curse those that
call to other than allah otherwise they are
going to curse allah in return so if
you curse a statue that a person worships,
he loves that statue he loves to prostrate
to the statue he thinks highly of that
statue and you insult that statue, you think
that he is not going to insult allah
or insult our religion of course he is
going to so means dispute with them in
such a way or dialogue with them in
such a way that is good that is
not making the person down and not insulting
the person specifically allah says in surah al
ankabut ...
when talking to the people of the book
then talk to them in such a way
that is the best and tell them that
we have iman in what was revealed to
you and what was revealed to us, we
believe in the books that were sent to
your prophets, we believe in the torah, we
believe in the injeel that in their original
sense they were books sent by allah and
our god and your god is the same
and we submit ourselves to him so talk
about the things that you have in common
rather than talking about the differences so this
is what is meant by ...
dispute with them in such a way that
is good and then finally allah says ...
...
...
...
it's a very very profound ayah that allah
finishes off this verse with so half of
the verse is associated with people calling people
towards allah giving dawah inviting people towards islam
but then the warning is given to every
single person who gives dawah that don't forget
about yourself Don't forget about yourself.
You know, you focus on other people and
focus on inviting people, but you yourself must
not be led astray and you yourself need
to work on yourself.
So, do not think of somebody as being
worse than you and do not think of
somebody as being a person who is impure
or a disbeliever or a person who is
not a good Muslim.
Ultimately, that person may make Tawbah and you
may become misguided.
And there is a Hadith Khudsi in which
Allah SWT says in this Hadith Khudsi, Who
is the one who dares to say that
I am not going to forgive such and
such a person?
I have forgiven that person and I have
put all your deeds to waste.
That's a very scary Hadith that when people
become judgmental about other people, you, Allah SWT
is never going to forgive you.
The way that you act with Allah and
the way you don't pray and you don't
come to the Masjid and you are involved
in such and such sins, Allah will never
forgive you.
Nobody has the right to say that.
Nobody has the right to say that.
We really need to think about ourselves that
which way we are heading and to work
on ourselves, to work on our character, that
is the thing that we should be focusing
on and not looking at other people's faults.
So, there is a saying that I heard
from my teachers that Allah SWT has given
us two eyes.
With those two eyes, one of them should
be used to look at the good in
others and the other eye should be used
to look at our own faults.
Our own faults, we look at them and
look at the good in others.
So, this last portion of the verse, it
says, Inna rabbaka huwa a'lamu biman dhalla
an sabili Indeed, your Lord, He has more
knowledge of those people that are astray from
His path.
Wahu a'lamu bil muhtadeen And He has
more knowledge of the ones who are guided.
So, that in a nutshell tells us that
you who are giving dawah should not think
that you are more guided than anybody else.
You should focus on yourself also.
You should focus on your sincerity.
You should focus on building your own character.
At the same time as giving dawah, but
don't forget about yourself.
Make sure that you are focusing on your
good deeds and your relationship with Allah SWT.
So, inshallah we will stop there and we
will continue next week.
I pray that Allah SWT gives us sufiq
to understand and practice what is being said
and heard.