“Indeed, [O Muhammad], you do not guide whom you like, but Allah guides whom He wills. And He is most knowing of the [rightly] guided.” [28:56]
We all know people that are close to us who we wish we can guide. We try everything we can and nothing works. This issue effected our beloved prophet (ﷺ) even more than it will effect any of us. Muhammad (ﷺ) is Allah’s best creation and yet even he (ﷺ) did not have the power to change people’s hearts, as mentioned in another ayah:
“You, [O Muhammad], are not but a warner.” [35:23]
He (ﷺ) watched his uncle – the man who raised him – die as a disbeliever. He was the best prophet (ﷺ), teacher and reminder to mankind, yet many people around him (ﷺ) passed away as disbelievers. This is to remind us that we are not in charge of people’s hearts. We do not decide who is to be guided and who isn’t, nothing can be forced. Our role as parents, siblings, family members and friends is to remind each other and ourselves, and make dua that Allah guides us all as we call to Allah everyday in every salah in Surat Al Fatiha.
Most importantly, never give up on people, no matter how far astray we may see they have gone. Allah is the turner of hearts and he turns the hearts of whomever He wills and all is with justice, as He says:
..”Indeed, Allah leaves astray whom He wills and guides to Himself whoever turns back [to Him]” [13:27]
Let us remind ourselves that nobody is left astray unjustly, Allah knows what is in the hearts of the people that we do not see. May Allah turn all our hearts towards His guidance and His light.
“Have they devised [some] affair? But indeed, We are devising.” [43:79]
Here Allah is talking to the prophet about Quraish and therefore, the disbelievers. He asks a question (in the basic translation of the meaning: have they devised their affairs? Allah here uses the word “abramou” which is derived from the word “ibram” which in Arabic is used in construction to describe a knot that holds beams together.
In early times people used very strong knots to hold beams together for a house; the main thing to take away from this figure of speech is that these kind of knots are intended to never come loose as it holds the main form of the building together. Thus Allah here is asking “have they tied their knots?”. What kind of knots? Before this ayah Allah depicted hellfire thus talking about the disbelievers, He then essentially asks “have they permanently tied their knots of disbelief?”, meaning are they certain with their disbelief of Allah? He then says that He also has tied the knot, the knot on their hearts that leads them to what He previously described – hellfire.
Extra treasure: when talking about the disbelievers Allah uses a past verb “abrama” and when talking about Himself, He says “mubrimoon” which is a name; in Arabic a past verb (“f’il madhi”) is generally used to describe a temporary action while a name (“ism”) is used for something permanent. Allah uses this differentiation here because even though these types of people are sure of their disbelief, there will go back on their decision on judgement day, the day they see hellfire, they day all hearts will turn to Allah, the day when it will be too late as Allah’s knot is truly final.
What is interesting is that this Ayah is an “if then” statement – if they are sure of their disbelief then Allah is sure of where they are headed. This tells us that He does not seal the hearts of His creation without the creation making a decision, thus it is up to us as human beings to make the choice and is not therefore based on specific people’s influence or surroundings.
We are all born with the “fitra” which is a predisposition to believe in the oneness of Allah, it is only as we live on that people bury that belief, just as a farmer buries a seed in the ground (which is another meaning of “kafir”) and it could then reach a point that their hearts are certain of their disbelief which will lead to a permanent knot from Allah.
May Allah keep all our hearts turned towards Him and not make us of those who choose to have their hearts sealed from Islam.
“O people, an example is presented, so listen to it. Indeed, those you invoke besides Allah will never create [as much as] a fly, even if they gathered together for that purpose. And if the fly should steal away from them a [tiny] thing, they could not recover it from him. Weak are the pursuer and pursued.” [22:73]
This ayah paints a real picture of what everything in this world is worth. As humans we deem ourselves as intelligent creatures, capable of building skyscrapers and machinery. Yet nothing even comes close to the complexity of what seemingly is a simple fly, which if humanity were to gather all the intelligence and funding in the world would still not be able to create anything like it.
Allah begins by mentioning that an example has been set. We see all around us the creations of Allah and the miracle of the Qur’an and yet people still deny. He tells these people to listen.
What’s interesting here is that He didn’t say “I have made an example”, He says “an example has been made” – there is a difference. Think about it from this perspective: when people do not value someone or respect them, they wouldn’t listen to anything that has to be said whether or not it may be valid.
This ayah is addressing everyone but this wording is specifically for those who if they hear the word “Allah” immediately put a barrier upon their hearts; so Allah says an example has been made, meaning concentrate on what is being said not on who’s saying it.
The picture being portraying here is the fact that we are not only incapable of creating a fly but if it were to steal a little of our food (as in land on it and take a portion before being waved away) it will be impossible to retrieve it. Now imagine someone of the highest status – take the Pharaoh from history as an example – all the money and power in the world, yet if a fly steals his food he can’t get it back.
Science has recently discovered that a fly does not eat as many other creations do; they would dissolve their food before ingesting it. So even if we try to be smart and say modern technology may be able to extract the food, it’s literally impossible – this is our status as compared to Allah, humbling.
Then Allah ends with something powerful, “weak are the pursuer and the pursued”. For the word weak Allah uses “da’ofa” which is derived from the word “da’eef” – interestingly here this specific connotation translates more accurately to “originally weak”, as in weakness is the natural state.
So the pursuer (“talib”) and that which is being pursued (“matloob”) are both weak in themselves.
To put things in perspective, think about psychological disorders – most of them are caused by a deprivation of something that the person really wanted or was obsessed with over everything else in life and as a result they just simply cannot get over it – whether it was a person or a materialistic item.
The message here is that what we pursue makes us even weaker than our natural state. The more wanting we are of stuff, the weaker we become as a person. The more we overly attach ourselves to other people, the less strength we have as individuals, the more easily we break down if something or someone were to be taken away because everything will inevitably fade.
So how do we become stronger people?
Allah adds:
“They have not appreciated Allah with true appreciation. Indeed, Allah is Powerful and Exalted in Might.” [22:74]
Appreciating Allah is what makes us strong. Putting Allah above all that which we desire – attaching our hearts to Him, to His book, to His teachings. This is where true strength is harnessed, with the one being that is infinite, that will never disappear.
May Allah make us of those who put Him above everything else in our lives.
“O you who have believed, do not ask about things which, if they are shown to you, will distress you. But if you ask about them while the Qur’an is being revealed, they will be shown to you. Allah has pardoned that which is past; and Allah is Forgiving and Forbearing.” [5:101]
In our deen, there are two main attitudes or ways that people ask questions. The first of the two is asked by those who are genuinely seeking answers for something about the religion. Someone comes to a scholar or does some research looking to learn whether an action is halal or haram, or whether the deed they are carrying out is done in the correct way and then taking what is given from the credible source, convinced that it is from Islam and applying it.
The second attitude of approaching this is trying to find a loophole. What this means is that the questioner or the person seeking answers, is not looking to figure out the truth, but instead is looking for a way out of their own guilt. What this means is that they understand what the correct answer is to their query but are looking for one scholar or one fatwa or one sheikh that agrees with their presupposed notion. These are the people Allah is talking about when He orders us to not ask about things.
He is also talking about those who in their hearts are not comfortable with an answer they are given about a certain topic. If we really call this deen Islam which means “to submit”, then this is the ultimate test of submission. To get an answer from credible sources and are convinced that the answer is correct and is from Allah, then submit to it, even if the answer is not what we want to hear.
May Allah not make us of those who ask questions with the wrong intentions or the wrong attitude, and make us of the true submitters to Him.
O you who have believed, let not a people ridicule [another] people; perhaps they may be better than them; nor let women ridicule [other] women; perhaps they may be better than them. And do not insult one another and do not call each other by [offensive] nicknames. Wretched is the name of disobedience after [one’s] faith. And whoever does not repent – then it is those who are the wrongdoers.
[49:11]
When Allah revealed the Qur’an, He mentions some of His most exquisite mercies and gifts, so He said: ‘Ar-Rahman, Al-amal Quran’. One of the points to ponder about these ayat in Surat Ar-Rahman is that He mentions not just a name that depicts His Mercy, that a name that depicts His extreme Mercy. Ar-Rahmaan, the unimaginably Merciful, the one being incredibly Merciful.
Al-amal Qur’an, He taught the Qur’an. The speech of Allah that when He revealed it, it’s supposed to be in our tongues, we’re suppose to remind each other with it, so the words we uttered from our mouths are suppose to actually be a means to penetrating somebody else’s heart. Then He says, ‘khalaqal Insaan’, He created the human being then He uses the same word ‘Al-amma’, which is amazing, He says ‘Al-amma hul Bayaan’, He taught the human beings speech.
Just like He said HE taught human beings Qur’an, He taught human beings speech. The ability to speak is an incredible gift from Allah and it’s an honour from Him and what we’re learning from those ayat is that, the best use of our speech is to remember Allah by the words He taught us. Our speech in any matter should be inspired by the speech Allah taught us, the one who honoured us with His Qur’an.
Now, we’re all humans and we make mistakes and we sometime don’t realise the value of things that we have, especially our tongues. We say things, we make comments and we know in social settings among family and friends etc sometimes things we say completely cross the line and we that we don’t realise the magnitude of that problem. Due to the fact that Allah takes the time to mention this particular problem in the Qur’an, it should make us appreciate that this is not a light matter.
In this regard, we will share a reminder from Surat Al-Hujurat, just one ayah, this is an ayah that is addressed to those who believe, and the first thing Allah says,’ Ya aiyuhal lazina aamanu la yaskhar khaw mumin khawmin’,:
Those of you who believe don’t let any group among you poke fun at any other. ‘Sakheera’ or ‘Suhkhriya’ in Arabic doesn’t just mean to poke fun because the word for that is ‘Istahza’ also, but the most comprehensive word in Arabic ‘Suhkhriya’ actually means to be sarcastic too. Don’t be sarcastic against each other. Now making fun of someone and being sarcastic against someone, at lot of times specially now a days it’s considered as a sign of Intelligence – ’that guy is really funny’ or ‘ that guy makes a lot of funny jokes’ or ‘he makes lot of sarcastic remarks that are like a rapid fire, they come out of him one after another, he’s such a joker’. When people around you laugh at our jokes, it’s pretty much an ego boost, so we come up with a next disc or a next sarcastic remark or the next inappropriate joke and we kind of feed off the laughter of others, and we get caught up with it.
Allah is telling us in this Surah that this is something that can take away the very fabric of brotherhood that we enjoy among each other. Allah says right before this ayah that believers are nothing but brothers among each other so make reconciliation among your brothers and have the ‘taqwa’ of Allah so you are shown Mercy. Be conscious, aware and in awe of Allah so you maybe shown Mercy.
The previous ayah talks about us making reconciliation among each other, and the very next ayah is saying watch the way you speak to each other. Don’t be sarcastic with each other. Don’t make insulting comments in the name of humour against each other. It has become very casual to say or talk about how short someone is or how ugly they are or how they dress or what kind of car they drive or what school they go to or what kind of job they have. It’s very easy to pick on someone’s flaws and make them on the point of ridicule.
Then Allah says,’ asayaa ayyakunu khairaan minhum’: may be the group made fun off is better than the group making fun. Now obviously, when you are making fun of someone there is an already underlined assumption, conscious or sub-conscious that we are better than them, that’s why we are making fun of them, they are the object of our ridicule. We wouldn’t take someone who we are convinced deserves more respect than we do or is above us in anyway, they wouldn’t be the point of ridicule for us, so obviously there is a sense of superiority that we have.
Allah here is saying that as far as He’s concerned, the group we are making fun of is better. Here just a note about our society in general, something that has become a part of comedy and entertainment, you know a comedian or a standup comedian, cracks a lot of jokes and things like that, one of their sellers is to mock another ethnicities and to imitate an accent, or make fun of what kind of food that ethnicity likes to eat, dress or what kind of weird things they say among each other, how they drive they cars or how cheap they are or how much they love spicy food or what kinda hot tempers they have etc. So they pick up some flaw of some ethnicity and make that the object of ridicule, which makes this ayah even more alive. ‘la yaskhar khawmun min khawmin’, not any group making fun of any other group, maybe the group you are making fun of is better than you as far as Allah is concerned that is to say. ‘wala nisaun wa min nisain’, which is interesting, neither should women be making fun of other women.
In other words, Allah mentions nations which include men and women but Allah specifically highlighted women doing so. So what is being told here, because of the word ‘suhkhriya’ is the way women do this is very different then the way men do it. So ‘wala nisaun min nisain aasaa ayyakunna khairaan min hunn ‘, So maybe the one’s made fun of are better than the one’s poking fun of them. Then He says, ‘wala talmizuu an fusakum’, this one ayah is about not violating the rights of our tongues – this beautiful thing Allah has given us.
‘Wala talmizu an fusakum’, ’lamz’ in Arabic could be criticising someone either by means of bodily gesture or by means of our eyes, like rolling our eyes or by sign, by taking a deep breath. Or by snicker or comment made under our breath, this is the definition of ancient lexicon telling us what ‘lamaz’ means, it’s a snicker or comment made under our breath just so the other person heard us say something but they don’t quite know what we said. Then when we are asked ‘what?’ We say ‘nothing, I didn’t say anything’, that subtle kind of criticism or undermining somebody’s speech or demeaning someone or condescending towards someone that’s not even captured in speech.
Sometimes we can insult someone without saying a single word and Allah knows that so he uses the word ‘wala talmizu an fusakum’ . What’s interesting is that among the many things that’s amazing about this ayah is that, Allah doesn’t says “don’t make this kind of sarcastic, condescending, critical type of gesture to others”. He says ‘anfusakum’, to yourself. In other words, if we do this to a believer, we are they and they are we – we are one people, we are one nation. So who we are really making fun of is actually our own selves and the other implication here is that when someone does this kind of thing, the only one they are successfully insulting is their own dignity. The only one they are really harming is their own sense of self worth.
Now a days another common thing is to send someone a text message about how stupid somebody sounds or how ugly they look or take a picture and post it up on a social media about how ridiculous somebody is, just an act of embarrassing them. In ancient times, the act of embarrassing someone could have been a gesture of a hand or with a rolling of an eye or just a deep breath or some remarks spread about them. Now it takes modern forms. Just because it’s taken a modern form doesn’t make it permissible, it’s the same crime.
So ‘wala talmizu an fusakum’ then he says, ‘wala tanabazu bilalkhaab’, and don’t call each other out by nicknames and ‘nabaza’ is used in Arabic meaning it’s to try to come up with artificial nicknames against each other, that we are trying to make it stick on them and we’re trying to make sure everybody around them calls them that and they themselves are hurt and insulted by it. So what happens is when we call someone with a nickname, in response they call you by a nickname, they’ll come up with something else for you and obviously they are doing this as an act of retaliation and even though we are “just friends” and even thought we don’t think it’s a big deal, but some kind of animosity is planted inside the heart.
There is some offence taken and maybe it won’t come out at the time, maybe the friend doesn’t want to let things get ugly between us, so he/she doesn’t say anything when we call them a nasty nickname or an insulting nickname, commenting about their weight or height or skin colour or accent or their intelligence even or whatever it maybe, but it will come out on judgement day. When that person is in deficiency of good deeds and they could use whatever they could get, they’ll come out after their best friends and say ‘you used to call me these nasty or hurtful nicknames, and for everything you used to call me I’ll like to get compensated.’
So why doesn’t he/she take away some sins of mine for each time they used that word against me, they might make that kind of deal, we need to watch out because they’re friends with us now, but that’s not the case on judgement day, when a mother forgets her child, we’re not going to remember our friends. The day Allah describes as a day a person runs away from his own brother, his wife he runs away from, that he would live with her forever and ever, he would never get away from her, he loved her, he’s running away from her on judgement day.
Do we think our friends are going care on that day that it might hurt our feelings? That they don’t want to take away from our good deeds. Now a days we might say that ‘I don’t want to say anything, it might hurt his feelings.’ That day we’re not going care about anybody’s feelings but our own. So we need watch out from making those offensive comments and those offensive gestures.
The ayah continues:‘ beesal ismu alfusukhu baadal emaan’, – Allah says,’ ismu alfusukh’, the horribly corrupt word, the word itself is utterly despicable – how terrible it is ‘badal imaan’, after you have faith. In other words when a person has Imane, then bad language, which all of this was describing – on top of that by using ‘beesal ismual fusukh’, Allah is now even including foul language, profanity and filthy language. All of this together, this speech, Allah says how terrible this can be, it’s an absolutely nasty thing to have, ‘once you have imane’. Once faith is there.
What this suggests is that if we’re people that don’t care that we curse, it just rolls out of our tongues and we don’t care if we make snickering comments about someone and filthy language whether spelled out exactly or as the bleeped out word it – we make a variation of the spelling – and say ‘no, no I didn’t use the bad word, I used the closely spelled word that sounds like it’ to play word games, even though our intent is clearly known. Then what that suggests is that faith isn’t there because once imane is there these things become ugly and despicable to us. We wouldn’t even want to go near them. ‘ beesal ismu alfusukhu baadal emaan’
In the end of this if we realise that maybe our faith is hurt, maybe we haven’t cried in salat in forever and maybe we haven’t remembered Allah and thanked Him and maybe we realised that our real disease is nothing but lack of controlling our tongue, the more filthy words we use the darker our heart gets and we can’t remember Allah in a healthy way; but maybe even if we realise it now, then now is the time we repent. Now is the time we say, ‘no, I’m not going to do this again. I’m going to watch my tongue. I’m going to become a better person.’
So Allah says in the end of this ayah, what an amazing ending: ‘wa mallum yatub faoolaaeka humuzzalimoon.’ – ‘And whoever didn’t repent, those in fact are the wrongdoers’. In other words, if we come at this point of the ayah where once we have faith, these things should be terrible to us and we should realise that this is a detriment to our faith itself, the natural consequence of this is that we should be repenting and walking away from these things and apologising to Allah and all those people we offended, this is part of our repentance. And what a time is to form our repentance – in the month of ramadan where the obstacles of the shaytan are withheld.
May Allah make us of those are able to watch our tongues in public and in private, and are able to stay away from offensive comments and remarks and are able to say things that instead spread love and unity and courtesy among each other.
And judge, [O Muhammad], between them by what Allah has revealed and do not follow their inclinations and beware of them, lest they tempt you away from some of what Allah has revealed to you. And if they turn away – then know that Allah only intends to afflict them with some of their [own] sins. And indeed, many among the people are corrupt.
[5:49]
In this ayah, Allah orders the prophet (ﷺ) to judge by which Allah has sent down and He warns him not follow the whims of those who have come to him for knowledge. What does this mean exactly?
People simply want to take the word of Allah but use their feelings to bend Allah’s laws to their whims, to fit what is comfortable for them. For these individuals it makes their feelings are above the word of Allah.
This is not to say that Islam does not care about people’s feelings. There are many occasions in the Qur’an where Allah send down revelation to sooth the hearts of the believers.
The job of the shaytan is essentially to take everything beautiful and make it ugly, while taking that which is ugly and making it beautiful and we see it around us today. Islamic clothing is an example; in most of the West, the khimar is looked down upon while wearing revealing clothes is the norm.
The deen of Allah came to protect us from the harm we can do to ourselves. Take children for example – they have uncontrollable desires. There could be a child that wants ice-cream all the time – if the parents fulfils their desire, it would harm them.
Just like children, human beings in general can act like they care about only what they want to do – “let me be happy”. When we do that we cause harm to ourselves. What Allah is saying is that our feelings could be the biggest danger to ourselves. He says:
But as for he who feared the position of his Lord and prevented the soul from [unlawful] inclination,
[79:40]
Allah talks of those who stop their whims from dictating their actions. So when Allah tells the prophet (ﷺ) to not bend His judgement to the people’s feelings, He is basically telling him that the people’s feeling are already taken into consideration; after all, Allah created us.
What is best for the human being is already there even if they may not subjectively like it. He knows what is better for us since He knows us personally better than we know ourselves. Allah says:
Say, “Would you acquaint Allah with your religion while Allah knows whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth, and Allah is Knowing of all things?”
[49:16]
Sometimes we hear something Allah wants us to do or stay away from and our immediate response is a counter – “it doesn’t feel like it’s good for me” or “it’s too constricting”.
So Allah talks about the people’s whims then He warns the prophet to watch out for them, to be careful of the ones who ask him – why?
They come with the mentality that “we want this religion to fit in with the majority’s opinion”. They want to interpret it differently to fit into their own comfort zone.
Then the warning comes: “they might put you into trial through some of Allah’s revelation”. In other words, they might start picking and choosing – this is the fitna caused by many people and we see it everywhere today.
People pick and choose which parts of the Qur’an and Sunnah are comfortable to follow, then proceed to bend other parts. We essentially become consumers in the deen, choosing what we want out of Islam just as we choose what to purchase from the market.
Then people come up with the greatest scam – we will ignore the word of Allah when it comes to certain halal or haram, but we will go to Umrah every year, or we will donate some money to charity etc. This is merely to satisfy their conscience – “at least I am doing something for islam” – while at the same we ignore the core aspects of the religion. Allah says:
If you avoid the major sins which you are forbidden, We will remove from you your lesser sins and admit you to a noble entrance [into Paradise].
[4:31]
Instead of following Allah’s notion in this ayah, we do the smaller good deeds while holding on to major sins. Then we say, at least we’re doing these good things, Allah will forgive those other major sins – this is the great lie we tell ourselves.
We do not decide what the priorities are in Islam. This attitude redefines what the religion is – the fact that Allah is the master and we are the slaves and we submit our wills to Him. He decides what is halal and haram – we do not make this decision on our own terms.
So what is the consequence if we hold this corrupted approach?
Allah says that He intends to strike these people with calamity because of some of the sins they commit. Meaning that this is not something that only affects someone in the next life – there will be problems coming our way in this dunya when we knowingly compromise Allah’s words.
These problems can come in any form – a “mousiba” (calamity) is not just a physical issue like death or illness, but emotional too. Meaning it could be depression, anxiety, not being able to sleep, never feeling content in life etc. Then we look into medicine and therapy and other forms for a cure which is perfectly reasonable in Islam to do, but if Allah takes away the peace in our hearts because we keep disobeying Him, only He can put it back.
It is He who sent down tranquillity into the hearts of the believers that they would increase in faith along with their [present] faith…
[48:4]
He sent His own tranquillity upon the hearts of the believers so the peace will only come when we tell ourselves that we are not going to play with His words anymore.
We must acknowledge our attitude towards Allah’s word and fix the mentality we have towards His rulings.
We must take what He has given us sincerely and leave that which He has made forbidden for us.
Allah ends by stating that many human beings are corrupt, He mentions “nas”. This is to tell us that this is not a specific group of people but humanity as a whole. Human beings tend to know something is wrong but they want to do it anyway.
Allah then asks a rhetorical question in the next ayah, which we must ponder over ourselves.
Then is it the judgement of [the time of] ignorance they desire? But who is better than Allah in judgement for a people who are certain [in faith].
[5:50]
“Jahl” has a few descriptions; one of the meanings is the inability to control ones whims and feelings – whatever it is that people of jahl feel, they just follow it – to be impulsive.
So are we following the jahileen? Or are we following the best of judgements which is Allah’s word?
It is one or the other brothers and sisters.
May Allah make us of those who truly follow His way.
