بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
Allah says in the Qur’an:
Indeed, Allah orders justice and good conduct and giving to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and rebellion. He admonishes you that perhaps you will be reminded.
[16:90]
This ayah is commonly mentioned when concluding the khutbah on Fridays yet for the most part it is usually just used as a cue to get up for prayer and the true essence of the beautiful ayah is lost. Let us explore what Allah is really telling us.
There are 3 things Allah orders us to stick with, along with 3 things we need to avoid.
He first commands justice and excellence. Justice is the bare minimum expected of any human being, Muslim or non-Muslim. When a person lives by justice it’s not necessarily an accomplishment – it just means they’re not a criminal. He then tells us to excel past that towards excellence. Both are mentioned which covers the entire spectrum of good deeds, big and small.
After this, Allah refers to giving to relatives. Interestingly, this act is part of justice towards the family – someone who gives towards relatives is performing an act of justice yet Allah says this separately. This tells us that there will be some people who simply cover their normal duties towards relatives and there will be those who go above and beyond – the people of excellence.
We usually associate justice with court cases or justice of country leaders upon their nations but Allah specifically mentions family. In Islam, justice starts with the relatives. There cannot be justice or excellence in a society unless it is first given to individual families. So the foundation of a society succeeding is the relationship between families and within families it starts on an individual level.
So what is the direct threat to this foundation?
Allah mentions “fahsha'” – shamelessness of which the worst form is zina. On one hand we have nikkah (marriage) – a structured concept of family, role and rights of man and woman, responsibilities towards spouse and children. Then the opposite is the chaotic concept – shamelessness – which destroys the family structure through obscenity.
Fahsha’ covers all types of shamelessness or obscenity. It could be obscene speech, obscene movies, obscene friends etc. The difference between fahsha’ and “munkar” is that munkar is something that is mutually agreed to be evil such as stealing or murder. Allah warns us about both then mentions “baghyi” which translates to rebellion – when this is mentioned in the Qur’an, it usually means rebellion against Allah. It could be said that fahsha’ and munkar is or leads to rebellion against Allah.
The ayah ends with “ya’ithukoum la’alakoum tathakaroun” – Allah warns us so that we may remember; ironically most of us start getting up for prayer at this statement (for those who were asleep throughout the lecture wake up from their nap). Interestingly Allah says “perhaps” we may remember through these warnings meaning it will take effort from us to take advantage of this reminder, it won’t just happen.
The few words in this verse are the essence of the entire range of Islamic teachings thus why many khateebs mention this verse in the Friday gatherings. It is for us to take this reminder and work on it every day of our lives in order for us to succeed.
May Allah make us of those who are just, those who excel in Islam and in our families while staying away from shameful acts, evil deeds and rebellion against Him.
Allah knows best.