Zia Sheikh – Tafseer of Surah AnNahl Ayah 97 onward
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
If you are a man or a woman
and you are a believer, we will give
you a good life, and we will reward
you with the best of what you have
done.
So when you read the Qur'an, seek
refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan.
He has no authority over those who believe
and put their trust in their Lord.
He has no
authority over those who believe and put their
trust in their Lord.
Recognition of Allah SWT, recognition of the greatness
of Allah SWT, pondering into His creation and
so on.
Today we have two main themes.
Firstly, the requirement for a person to have
a good and a pleasant life.
What is that requirement?
How does a person do that?
How does a person get that?
And what exactly is a pleasant life that
Allah SWT promises?
So that's the first thing.
The second thing is the issue of the
recitation of the Qur'an and the rules
related to it.
Seeking the refuge from the Satan and how
much influence the Satan actually has upon us.
This is the theme, inshallah, that we are
going to be discussing today.
So firstly, Allah SWT says, مَنْ عَمِلَ صَالِحًا
مِّنْ ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنثَىٰ وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَلَنُحِيَّنَّهُ حَيَاءً
طَيِّبًا Whoever does good deeds.
Whoever does good deeds.
مِنْ ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنثَىٰ Whether they are male
or female.
So this is a very important point here.
The equality of the two genders when it
comes to deeds and the acceptance of those
deeds by Allah SWT, they are both equal.
The obligations are the same upon both male
and female and the acceptance from Allah SWT
is the same.
The issue of مساوات or equality between the
genders, it is often discussed especially amongst western
circles and western societies about the apparent inequality
that is between the two genders.
We say that the issue is that the
genders are different in responsibility, they are different
emotionally, they are different physically.
So all of these differences Allah SWT has
made for a reason and there is this
difference that does occur between the two genders
of male and female.
However, in the eyes of Allah SWT, both
are equal and this is what Allah SWT
is saying here.
مَنْ عَمِلَ صَالِحًا مِنْ ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنثَىٰ Whoever
does good deeds whether they are male or
female.
وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ The second condition is that for
the acceptance of those deeds, a person has
to be in the state of Iman.
Without Iman, no deeds are acceptable to Allah
SWT.
The question then occurs that what about those
people that do so much good in this
world, helping the poor and needy, building hospitals
and assisting people that are going through difficult
times and yet they are doing these things
without Iman.
So what about them?
So Allah SWT, He rewards them for those
deeds in this world.
Allah SWT is not Zalim.
Allah SWT, He will repay and recompense those
people who do good deeds without Iman in
this world.
And that is what Allah SWT says that
مَنْ كَانَ يُرِيدُ حَرْثَ الْآخِرَةِ نَزِدْ لَهُ فِي
حَرْثِ Whoever wants the pasture of the hereafter,
He wants the growth of the hereafter.
Allah says we would increase his pasture, we
would increase his crops of the hereafter, we
would increase his investment.
وَمَنْ كَانَ يُرِيدُ حَرْثَ الدُّنْيَا نُؤْتِهِ مِنْهَا وَمَا
لَهُ فِي الْآخِرَةِ مِنْ نَصِيبٍ But whoever wants
the pasture and the fruits and the crops
of this world, we would give it to
him.
But there is no share for him in
the hereafter.
So the general idea behind people doing good
is so that they become acceptable in society,
so that they are recognized for their good
deeds.
People give them awards for the charity work
that they do and the philanthropy that they
engage in.
And they get that recognition in this world.
People give them awards and statues are built
for them, buildings are named after them and
so on.
So they get that in this world, but
in the hereafter, وَمَا لَهُ فِي الْآخِرَةِ مِنْ
نَصِيبٍ There is no share for them in
the hereafter.
And Allah SWT also says, فَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ مِثْخَالَ
ذَرَّةٍ خَيْرًا يَرَهُ وَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ مِثْخَالَ ذَرَّةٍ شَرًّا
يَرَهُ Whoever does any good deed of khair,
he will see it.
Whether he sees it in this world or
in the hereafter, he will see it.
And whoever does any bad deed, he will
see the effect of that also, whether in
this world or the hereafter.
So the deed that a person does, there
will be a consequence.
But the consequence will be either in this
world or the hereafter.
Both things do apply.
As for those people that do good deeds
without iman, Allah SWT has described them as
a person who witnesses a mirage.
What is a mirage?
You look at it from far away.
You are going through a desert and you
see that there is water shining on the
horizon.
And you go up to that water and
you think that the means of your survival
are at that water that you are seeing.
But when you get there, there is nothing.
Allah says in the Quran, in Surah An
-Nur, وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا أَعْمَالُهُمْ كَسَرَابٍ بِقِيْعَةٍ Those people
that do kufr, their deeds are like a
mirage.
بِقِيْعَةٍ in a desert land.
يَحْسَبُهُ الضَّمْآنُ مَاءً A thirsty person, he thinks
that this is water right there.
حَتَّى إِذَا جَاءَهُ لَمْ يَجِدْهُ شَيْئًا Once he
gets there, he finds that there is nothing
there.
وَوَجَدَ اللَّهَ عِنْدَهُ فَوَفَّاهُهَا حِسَابًا وَاللَّهُ سَرِيُّ الْحِسَابُ
And he finds Allah SWT there and Allah
SWT completes his hisaab because indeed Allah SWT,
He is swift of reckoning.
So this is the example that Allah SWT
is giving that a person thinks that I
am doing so much good and I will
be rewarded by Allah SWT.
But the reality is when all of these
deeds are without iman, it's just like a
mirage that he thinks that there is something
going to be there but ultimately he finds
that there is nothing there.
So that's why Allah says here, وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنُ
He has to be in the state of
iman when he is doing these good deeds.
Allah says, most certainly we will give him
حَيَاةً طَيِّبًا a beautiful life.
Now what does this beautiful life mean?
There is a difference of opinion amongst the
scholars as to what it actually means.
Ibn Abbas and another group of scholars, they
interpreted حَيَاةً طَيِّبًا as الرِّزْقُ الْحَلَالُ الطَيِّب That
Allah SWT gives him rizq which is halal
and pure.
And Ali Ibn Abi Talib He interpreted this
حَيَاةً طَيِّبًا with قَنَاعًا قَنَاعًا means satisfaction.
He will be satisfied with what Allah SWT
gives him.
This is known as قَنَاعًا And the third
opinion is also from Ibn Abbas.
It means سَعَادًا meaning good fortune.
Allah SWT will bless him.
And Hasan al-Mujahid and Qatada they say
لا يَطِيبُ لِأَحَدٍ حَيَاةٌ إِلَّا فِي الْجَنَّةِ What
حَيَاةً طَيِّبًا means is that he will get
حَيَاةً طَيِّبًا in the Hereafter.
Meaning he will get Paradise.
And طَيِّب, this word طَيِّب, the only place
that the word طَيِّب is justified to be
called is Jannah.
The best place to be called طَيِّب is
Jannah.
So according to their opinion, it refers to
Jannah itself.
And Tahhaq said it means الرِّزْقُ الْحَلَالِ وَالْعِبَادَةُ
فِي الدُّنْيَا He says that it means رِزْقُ
الْحَلَالِ and the fact that he gets the
تَوْفِيق to worship Allah SWT in the Dunya,
that is what is meant by حَيَاةً طَيِّبًا
Ibn Kathir, رحمه الله, he sums everything up
and says the actual correct opinion is that
الحَيَاة الطَيِّبة تَشْمُلُ هَذَا كُلَّةً It includes all
of these things.
All of these things that the various Sahaba
and the Tabi'een have had the opinion
of, all of these things are included in
حَيَاةً طَيِّبًا And that is proven by a
hadith that Imam Ahmad narrates from Abdullah ibn
Umar that the Prophet ﷺ said قَدْ أَفْلَحْ
مَنْ أَسْلَمْ وَالرُّزِقَ كَفَافًا وَقَنَّعْهُ اللَّهُ بِمَا آتَاهُ
That the person who became Muslim, he submitted
himself, he became successful.
He is successful and also he was given
sustenance which was sufficient for him and Allah
SWT gave him قناعة and satisfaction with what
He gave him.
A person who has these three qualities, he
is the one who has become successful and
this is what حَيَاةً طَيِّبًا is referring to
according to Ibn Kathir.
So again to summarize, whoever does any good
deed, whether male or female, while in the
state of Iman, Allah SWT says فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً
طَيِّبًا Most certainly, the wording is very powerful
here.
There is تَاكِيد, there are two forms of
stress in this word.
The word نُحْيِي would be sufficient in this
ayah.
We would give him a good life but
there is a نُّ تَاكِيد at the end
and a لَمْ تَاكِيد at the beginning.
لَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ That means most certainly we will give
him a حَيَاةً طَيِّبًا A very good life
and we have already discussed what a good
life is.
وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْرَهُمْ بِأَحْسَنِ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ And the
ayah goes on to say most certainly we
will reward him, give him the reward or
recompense him with the reward in a better
way that he used to do.
So the reward that Allah SWT is giving
us for making a small sacrifice in this
world is eternal bliss, eternal paradise, eternal happiness,
never ending.
So obviously أَحْسَنِ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ It is
much better than what we could have received
in this world.
So as the Prophet SAW mentioned in a
hadith Qudsi أَعَدَدْتُ لِعِبَادِي الصَّالِحِينَ مَا لَا عِيْنٌ
رَأَتْ وَلَا أُذُنٌ سَمِعَتْ وَلَا خَطْرَ عَلَىٰ قَلْبِ
بَشَرٍ I have prepared for my pious slaves
what no eye has seen, no ear has
heard, and no person can even imagine in
his heart what that Jannah is actually like.
This is what I have prepared for him.
And this is really what Jannah is about.
We really don't know what it is like.
We cannot even imagine.
And the descriptions that Allah SWT has given
us in the Quran and the Sunnah these
are simply just to give us an idea.
Otherwise the example that we need to understand
is that if you talk to a baby
that is in a womb that you are
going to go into this world and in
this world there are going to be cars,
there are going to be airplanes, huge buildings,
oceans, rivers, fruit and vegetables and all these
different kinds of things you are going to
see them in the worldly life once you
come out of this little world that you
are in.
The baby is not going to understand anything.
Right?
So this is the case with us.
We are in the womb of this world
and what Allah SWT has prepared for us
we cannot even imagine.
And that is what this hadith is talking
about.
Allah is saying that we will reward them
with something even better than what they used
to do.
More than they deserve.
This is what is meant by make us
from amongst these people.
After that Allah SWT goes into a different
subject and He says when you read the
Qur'an there are two meanings that you
can derive from this.
Either before reading the Qur'an or after
reading the Qur'an you should make isti
'adah and ask refuge from Allah SWT the
refuge of Allah SWT from the Shaytan.
So once you recite the Qur'an or
when you read the Qur'an or when
you are about to recite the Qur'an
then you should make isti'adah.
So why the two things?
Why the two meanings?
Firstly, when we are about to recite the
Qur'an there is a certain sanctity of
the words of Allah SWT the respect of
the word of Allah SWT.
While we are reciting we do not want
the Shaytan to intervene and make us think
about something else and focus on anything else.
We need to focus only and solely on
the Qur'an.
And from this we actually get the sanctity
and the respect of the Qur'an adab
of the Qur'an which is kind of
fading from us nowadays.
That many people just want to hold the
Qur'an without wudu although there is a
fiqhi difference of opinion about this issue but
still the respect dictates that we should hold
the Qur'an with wudu.
Many people just leave the Qur'an on
the floor and they say well there is
no hadith or anything like that that says
that you are not supposed to put the
Qur'an on the floor.
Well the floor is where we put our
feet.
What if somebody puts his foot on your
face?
Is that going to be respectful?
It's not going to be respectful, right?
Nobody, even in all cultures it's a universal
thing that if you are sitting you don't
point your feet at somebody.
It's regarded as disrespectful in all cultures.
So how can we put the Qur'an
in the same place that we put our
feet?
So this is something that we need to
understand the respect and the sanctity of the
Qur'an that these are truly the words
of Allah SWT that have been given to
us.
We should respect them and we should appreciate
them and the fact that the Prophet SAW
brought these words to us and he gave
these words to us intact without any kind
of contamination.
So we need to respect, we need to
have adab, this is very very important and
the first adab is that when we are
about to recite the Qur'an we say,
أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم and the other
opinion is that after reciting the Qur'an
why would we say أعوذ بالله من الشيطان
الرجيم that now we've read the Qur'an,
we've internalized the meanings, we've heard what Allah
SWT wants to say to us and now
when we want to put it into practice
we do not want the Shaytan to intervene
and infiltrate in between us and our deeds
and our intentions and therefore we ask the
refuge of the Shaytan from the Shaytan, we
ask the refuge of Allah SWT from the
Shaytan to protect us from his evil after
we've recited and after we put into practice
or try to put into practice what we've
read.
So Allah says فَإِذَا قَرَأْتَ الْقُرْآنَ فَاسْتَعِذْ بِاللَّهِ
Seek the refuge of Allah من الشيطان الرجيم
from the outcast Shaytan and now is this
obligatory or not?
Is this an obligation to say أعوذ بالله
من الشيطان الرجيم or not?
The majority of the scholars say that this
is not an obligation rather this is an
أمر للنضب نضب means that it's recommended that
we say أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم before
we recite and in the majority of cultures
especially in Indo-Pak culture the idea is
that we should say بسم الله is more
important than أعوذ بالله Reality is that Allah
didn't tell us to say بسم الله before
reading but he told us he commanded us
to make استعاذة meaning say أعوذ بالله من
الشيطان الرجيم so that is more important than
بسم الله Now on the same token to
say بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم at the beginning
of the surahs it is essential because some
scholars they say that بسم الله at the
beginning of the surah is actually part of
the surah so when the surah is beginning
it is essential at the middle of the
surah it's not essential it is again recommended
it is good to do that but it's
not as important as استعاذة meaning saying أعوذ
بالله من الشيطان الرجيم so after that Allah
says إِنَّهُ لَيْسَ لَهُ سُلْطَانٌ عَلَى الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا
وَعَلَى رَبِّهِم يَتَوَكَّلُونَ indeed he doesn't have any
control over those people that have Iman and
they have توكل on their Lord so what
does سلطان mean سلطان there are two opinions
two meanings of سلطان سلطان is derived from
سليط and سليط is basically when the oil
that you use to light a fire you
light it and it becomes lit so this
whole procedure is called سليط and the light
that emerges it enlightens the way so that's
why the word سلطان it means حجة proof
because it guides you and it tells you
the right way it is a proof that's
one meaning of سلطان and the other meaning
of سلطان is control the king he has
control he influences he makes the judgments he
makes decisions this is also سلطان and in
both ways the Shaytan has no influence whatsoever
انه ليس له سلطان he has no حجة
he has no proof to guide you because
his proofs are simply وساوس his guidance is
simply whisperings so he has no proof and
secondly he has no power also to take
your hand and make you do something all
he can do is whisper and that is
why it's important for us to there is
something that we need to understand is that
we give Shaytan too much credit we give
Shaytan too much credit whereas he has no
control over us whatsoever he said to Allah
SWT when he was asking permission to try
to misguide us until the day of judgment
he said that فَبِعِزَّتِكَ لَأُغْوِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ إِلَّا عِبَادَكَ
مِنْهُمُ الْمُخْلَصِينَ I swear by your honor I'm
going to misguide every single one of them
except your chosen slaves so meaning that there
are some people that he doesn't he cannot
influence at all okay so the Shaytan all
he does is whisper he cannot prove to
us that what he is telling us to
do is correct and the other thing is
he cannot force us to do anything that
is beyond our will that is simply our
own doing so this is where the Nafs
comes in our Nafs our desire our inclination
and I often give this example for people
to understand this that there are people for
example who drink alcohol they drink alcohol but
yet when you put pork in front of
them they cannot imagine eating pork so you
can say well the Shaytan influence you to
drink the alcohol why can't he influence you
to drink pork eat pork there is a
fair question right that's a very fair question
both equally haram alcohol is haram pork is
haram so why is it that you cannot
eat pork and yet you can drink alcohol
that means that it is actually one's own
desire that pushes him to do something that
he is inclined towards and keeps him away
from the thing that he is not inclined
towards so this is what Nafs is so
the Shaytan can just whisper in a person's
ear and try to misguide him but ultimately
it is the person that does the actual
action and that's why on the day of
judgment Allah SWT describes the Shaytan what does
he say the
whole ayah is basically the Shaytan he will
be talking to people on the day of
judgment and he will say that I simply
called you and you responded to me and
I didn't have any kind of control over
you except I called you and you responded
to me I didn't have any control any
power over you except and you just responded
to me so this is basically what is
actually happening to us the Shaytan is not
that powerful we need to understand our own
shortcomings and make sure we do not succumb
to the wasawis of the Shaytan and that
is by controlling our own Nafs and by
controlling our own desires so this is what
Allah SWT says he has no control over
those people that have Iman and those that
have pure Tawakkul and trust on their Lord
however he does have control over those people
that befriend him how do they befriend him
they listen to him and each and every
time he whispers, they do whatever he commands
them to do and that is basically again
because their Nafs they are not controlling their
Nafs to push away the Shaytan and therefore
they are befriending him and those people that
become partners with him with the Shaytan they
partner with him to basically lead their lives
in disobedience they partner with him to disobey
Allah SWT they partner with him to just
lead their lives in the following of their
own desires so this is how they are
becoming partners with the Shaytan so ultimately we
need to understand that first of all we
ask Allah to protect us from these wasawis
of the Shaytan secondly we need to understand
that the Shaytan will not have any control
over us until we allow him to control
us it is simply our own Nafs that
we follow and that means that we need
to control our Nafs we need to control
our desires and prior to that what Allah
SWT told us that if we want success
in this world and in the hereafter then
we have to first of all have Iman
and then follow that up with good deeds
I pray that Allah SWT gives us Tawfiq
to understand and practice what has been said
and heard InshaAllah we will continue with this
next week