Suppressors of Truth

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Extract from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART I:

178. Wala yahsabanna allatheena kafaroo annama numlee lahum khayrun li-anfusihim innama numlee lahum liyazdadoo ithman walahum AAathabun muheenun

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3:178. And let not the suppressors of the Truth think that the long rein We give them is any good for them. The long rein to them is only for the purpose that they may add to their sins. And for them is a disgraceful punishment.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 27^th December 2019.

Trust Allah

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Extract from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART I:

160. In yansurkumu Allahu fala ghaliba lakum wa-in yakhthulkum faman tha allathee yansurukum min baAAdihi waAAala Allahi falyatawakkali almu/minoona

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3:160. If Allah helps you, none can get the better of you. And if He forsakes you, who is there to help you thereafter? In Allah, then, believers should put their trust.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 20^th of December 2019.

Human Mind

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Excerpts from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART I (the historical background, in which the Qur’aanic Verse quoted was revealed, was the battle of Uhud wherein Muslims had suffered many casualties):

154. Thumma anzala AAalaykum min baAAdi alghammi amanatan nuAAasan yaghsha ta-ifatan minkum wata-ifatun qad ahammat-hum anfusuhum yathunnoona biAllahi ghayra alhaqqi thanna aljahiliyyati yaqooloona hal lana mina al-amri min shay-in qul inna al-amra kullahu lillahi yukhfoona fee anfusihim ma la yubdoona laka yaqooloona law kana lana mina al-amri shay-on ma qutilna hahuna qul law kuntum fee buyootikum labaraza allatheena kutiba AAalayhimu alqatlu ila madajiAAihim waliyabtaliya Allahu ma fee sudoorikum waliyumahhisa ma fee quloobikum waAllahu AAaleemun bithati alssudoori

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3:154. Then, after the sorrow, He sent down the peace of slumber covering one section of you, while another section cared about their own selves, entertaining wrong thoughts about Allah – thoughts prevalent during the times of ignorance. They said, "Have we had the authority to take decision in any matter?" Say, "The authority in taking decisions in all matters indeed rests with Allah." They hide within their own selves what they do not reveal to you. They say, "If we had anything to do with taking any decision in this affair, we would not have been slain here." Say, "Even if you had stayed in your houses, those for whom death was decreed would certainly have gone forth to their decreed places of death." And in order that¹⁶¹ Allah might test that which is in your conscious minds and purge that which is in your subconscious.¹⁶² For Allah knows well the secrets of your minds.

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161. What follows in this sentence is the 2nd purpose of Allah Ta'ala in inflicting sorrow upon sorrow on the Muslim army. The first purpose, mentioned in the preceding Verse, was to prevent the believers from indulging in grief over what they had lost and what befell them in the battlefield. The sorrows succeeded one another so rapidly that the believers had no time for grief. And immediately after the causes for the sorrows ended, the believers were overcome with a becalming slumber.

162. The mind operates at two stages - one, conscious, and the other subconscious. It is the conscious mind that exercises the freedom of choice given to man and takes the decisions on any course of action. The decisions may be influenced by events that are still fresh in the conscious mind, but these are also influenced by events that have got submerged into the subconscious and by feelings and emotions that have their bases in the subconscious. In this Verse, sudoor (plural of sadr) has been used to refer to the conscious mind, whereas quloob (plural of qalb has been used to refer to the subconscious. Conviction on anything, good or bad, comes from the subconscious. In religious discussions, we modern-day Muslims may reiterate our faith in the Qur'aan and in all the divine directives therein. But in practical life, most of us forget those directives and do not mind resorting to falsehoods and corruption to get our worldly things done in our favour. That is because Islam has not become a matter of conviction with us. In other words, Faith has not entered our subconscious, as the Qur'aan says in Verse 49:14. The subconscious is within the conscious mind as confirmed in Verse 22:46. In the context of the battle, in the perspective of which these Verses were revealed, Allah tested the minds of those in whose subconscious still lurked wrong thoughts of the period of ignorance, before their exposure to Islam. Allah's 2nd purpose of inflicting sorrow upon sorrow on the Muslim army was to bring out into open those wrong thoughts and to purge them from the subconscious.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 13^th of December 2019.

Muslims of Today - 2

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Muslims of Today

Derived from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART I:

139. Wala tahinoo wala tahzanoo waantumu al-aAAlawna in kuntum mu/mineena

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3:139. Be not weak and grieve not! And you should be better off if you are strong in Faith.¹⁵¹

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151. And most Muslims of today are not strong in their Faith. So, they are weak as a community, and they grieve a lot.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 6^th of December 2019.

Atheist vs Believer

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Atheist vs Believer

Extract from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART 1:

109. Walillahi ma fee alssamawati wama fee al-ardi wa-ila Allahi turjaAAu al-omooru

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3:109. And to Allah belongs all that is in the heavens and in the earth. And to Allah, the matters return.¹²⁶

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126. Here's a crucial point of difference between an atheist and a believer believing in an Entity consciously creating and sustaining the entire Universe. For an atheist, this worldly life is the 'be-all' and 'end-all' of all things. To him, a man is just a superior type of animal. Nothing more. Like all other animals, he is born, he lives for an uncertain number of years, and he dies. During his span of life in this competitive world, if he uses his intelligence shrewdly in out-manoeuvring others in the games of life, he can enjoy the fruits, although temporary, thereof. Otherwise, his life would be miserable. For him, there is none to sit in judgement on the propriety or impropriety of his actions. For a believer in Allah, on the other hand, death is not the 'end-all'. Life for him here is only a test. The matters he is involved in are referred to his Creator for final adjudication. Along with the matters, he too is returned to the Creator, after death, for facing His judgement on his performance in this life. He is accountable to Allah for all his acts of omission and commission.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 29^th November 2019.

Good Deeds

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Extract from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART I:

            

115. Wama yafAAaloo min khayrin falan yukfaroohu waAllahu AAaleemun bialmuttaqeena

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3:115. And whatever good they do, nothing will be suppressed there from.¹³¹ And Allah knows those who fear Him.

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131. There is a general apprehension, in the minds of those who do not have a strong belief in Allah, that the good one does is not adequately appreciated and, therefore, wasted. They are thus inclined to give as much publicity as possible to their good deeds, whereby they hope to get good names and other benefits for themselves. Had their belief in Allah been strong enough, they wouldn't hanker after such mundane benefits. They would be sure that Allah, their Lord, wouldn't let their good deeds go waste.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 22^nd of November 2019.

Attaining Righteousness

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Extract from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART I:

92. Lan tanaloo albirra hatta tunfiqoo mimma tuhibboona wama tunfiqoo min shay-in fa-inna Allaha bihi AAaleemun

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3:92. Never shall you attain to righteousness unless you spend from what you love. And Allah is indeed aware of anything you spend.^{105 to 107}

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105. Man loves wealth. He thinks it could bring him comfort in this worldly life. His thoughts do not go beyond, to the life in the Hereafter. But Islam teaches him that this worldly life is temporary and only a test; it is the everlasting life in the Hereafter that really matters. And the Verse 92 here tells us that unless we overcome our love of wealth by spending from it, we cannot be righteous enough to deserve comfortable lives in the Hereafter.

106. We can of course incur necessary expenses, from our own wealth, on our own selves. But we cannot waste the wealth on our own selves beyond our genuine needs. Allah would be aware of it, when we do it. And Verse 2:215 tells us on whose genuine needs to spend our wealth that is more than our own individual needs.

107. Man loves other things also, besides wealth. He loves his spouse and children, for example. Verse 92 here could be extended in its implications to cover these other objects of love too. Our love for our own children, for instance, should not come in our way of standing firmly for justice in any matter involving them.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 15^th of November 2019.

Prophet Worship

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Extract from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART I:

79. Ma kana libasharin an yu/tiyahu Allahu alkitaba waalhukma waalnnubuwwata thumma yaqoola lilnnasi koonoo AAibadan lee min dooni Allahi walakin koonoo rabbaniyyeena bima kuntum tuAAallimoona alkitaba wabima kuntum tadrusoona

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3:79. A man, whom Allah has given the Book and the Command and the Prophethood, cannot say to the people, “Be worshippers of me besides Allah.” But be you all faithful worshippers of your Lord in accordance with what you have been teaching from the Book and in accordance with what you have been studying/learning from it.⁹⁴

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94. The Verse is a direct indictment of the Christians. They worship Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him) as God Himself or as Son of God. This tendency to worship God's Messenger as God Himself is not restricted, among mankind, to the Christians alone. Worshipping of Rama and Krishna in India appears to be a result of the same tendency. Why blame other communities? There is a palpable tendency among the Muslims themselves to give their own Prophet (peace upon him) some of the divine powers. They have already 'given' him the power of intercession, as the Christians have given Jesus, to ensure their safe entry into Paradise despite their sins committed here on earth. There is nothing in the Qur'aan to show that Allah has given the power of intercession to any of His Messengers/Prophets. The Qur'aan, in fact, categorically states that there shall be no intercession on the Day of Judgement (Verse 2:254)

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 8^th of November 2019.

Qur'aan Seldom followed

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Extract from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART I:

23. Alam tara ila allatheena ootoo naseeban mina alkitabi yudAAawna ila kitabi Allahi liyahkuma baynahum thumma yatawalla fareequn minhum wahum muAAridoona

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3:23. Have you not seen those who have been given a share from the Book? They are called upon to refer to the Book of Allah to settle things among themselves. A section of them then back out and turn hostile.²⁴

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24. Initially, at the time of revelation, this Verse obviously referred to the Jews or the Christians as being those given a share of the Book. But in our present times, it very well refers to Muslims who have been given the Qur'aan. The Muslims seldom refer to the Qur'aan, for settlements of disputes among themselves. At the time of writing of these comments, the Muslim Ummah is faced with the unseemly spectacle of Muslims celebrating EidulFitr on different days, not only in the different parts of the world, but also in different parts of the same country! The Muslim Ummah is not at all bothered to follow what the Qur'aan says in this regard. They would rather follow a hadeeth, no matter it leads them to follow a calendar, untenable and impracticable in the present circumstances when Islam has become a fast-growing world Religion. Please refer to my article The New Moon in this context.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 1^st of November 2019.

Obeying the Messenger

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Extract from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART I:

31. Qul in kuntum tuhibboona Allaha faittabiAAoonee yuhbibkumu Allahu wayaghfir lakum thunoobakum waAllahu ghafoorun raheemun

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3:31. Say, "If you do love Allah, obey me. Allah will then love you and forgive you your sins.^{35 to 37} And Allah is Forgiving, Merciful."

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35. Allah loving us and forgiving our sins is apparently made conditional to our obeying His Messenger (peace upon him). At the time when the Messenger was living among mankind here in this world, this divine directive obviously meant that all directions of the Messenger, whether in matters of religion or of administration, were to be obeyed scrupulously. But what should the position be now when the Messenger is no longer living among mankind? Many Muslims believe that obeying the Messenger means following his Sunnah as described in authentic ahaadeeth. But who decides whether any hadeeth is authentic or not?

36. Allah has guaranteed the protection of the Qur'aan (Verse 15:9). There is, however, no such divine protection guaranteed for the ahaadeeth. And the ahaadeeth were floating from mouth to mouth for generations till some of them were recorded in writing, for the first time, at least 150 years after the death the Prophet (peace be upon him). There is likelihood, therefore, of the ahaadeeth having been contaminated and interpolated with the personal opinions and words of the narrators. The Allah-perfected Religion of Islam could not therefore be based on such an unreliable source. It is based solely on the Qur'aan now. This does not mean that the ahaadeeth are to be completely discarded. They are invaluable in the sense that they give us the historical perspective of the era in which our Prophet lived. But any hadeeth, that is basically contradictory to the teachings of the Qur'aan, must be rejected outright. The Qur'aan is, and ought to be, the criterion.

37. Obeying the Messenger ought now, therefore, to mean following the Qur'aan.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 25^th of October 2019.

Fundamental Article

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Fundamental Article of Islamic Faith

Extract from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART I:

18. Shahida Allahu annahu la ilaha illa huwa waalmala-ikatu waoloo alAAilmi qa-iman bialqisti la ilaha illa huwa alAAazeezu alhakeemu

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3:18. Allah bears witness that there indeed is none worthy of worship but He; and so, do the angels and those with right knowledge, based on truth and justice. There is none worthy of worship but He, the Omnipotent, the Wise.¹⁶

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16. This fundamental article of Islamic Faith is witnessed and certified by Allah Almighty Himself and by the angels who are the first amongst His creations to know the absolute Truth of the article of Faith. And among mankind, only those endorse the fundamental article, whose acquisition of knowledge is the result of their quest and enquiry based on truth and justice. Their knowledge is not based on unverified guesswork like Darwin's Theory of Evolution. Had his theory been true, we ought to have seen at least some signs of monkeys/chimpanzees evolving into humans, during this historical period of well over a thousand years. Protagonists of the theory try to hide behind the anonymity and haziness of the pre-historic ages. There too they encounter their 'missing links'.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 18^th of October 2019.

Dreadful Warning

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Below is an extract from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART I. The Qur’aanic Verse extracted follows One wherein Allah admonishes Believers to give up Ar-Riba accruing to their accounts, but not received by them till the promulgation of total prohibition against taking Ar-Riba vide Verse 2:275. ‘And if you do it not’ in the extract signifies, ‘And if you do not give up Ar-Riba so accrued’.

279. Fa-in lam tafAAaloo fa/thanoo biharbin mina Allahi warasoolihi wa-in tubtum falakum ruoosu amwalikum la tathlimoona wala tuthlamoona

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2:279. And if you do it not, take notice of war from Allah and His Messenger.^{520, 521} And if you return penitently to Allah, you are entitled to all that comes under heads of account of your property and/or dues, so that you do no wrong, nor are you wronged.⁵²²

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520. "Take notice of war from Allah and His Messenger"! What warning could be more dreadful than this divine one? It clearly shows that the All-knowing Allah has given a very great importance to eradication of economic ills from human societies. Ar-Riba is an economic ill that corrupts human society and eats into its body polity, like cancer. It deprives people of their dues to fill the coffers of the rich, thus creating a great economic divide between the rich and the poor. On a mega scale, we have examples in history wherein the divine notice of war was put to dreadful effect in such cases. In the French Revolution, the numerically vast poor populace, for long subjected to deprivation and oppression by the obscenely rich, took to violence, took control over the land and put every rich person, they could lay their hands on, to the guillotine. A similar thing happened when the Communists, under Lenin, overthrew the Czars in Russia. On the micro individual scale also, Allah punishes most of those indulging in Ar-Riba in this life itself first, after giving them a long rope. A genuine believer cannot but take heed of this dreadful divine warning. But what is the ground reality? Most Muslims are unaware of what Ar-Riba means. I've already given earlier in these Studies the example of a factory owner cheating his employees in their salaries to fatten his profit. The factory owner may apparently be a very pious Muslim, sporting a flowing beard and offering prayers regularly. With the fat profit he is getting from the sale of goods produced in his factory, he may be buying car after car for every member of his family, and he won't touch the haraam interest money by putting his money in a commercial bank. But he is blissfully unaware that by paying his employees less than their rightful dues, he is guilty of committing the real Ar-Riba.

521. And there are examples galore of Ar-Riba being indulged in, in every other walk of life. Employees cheat their employers by attending to their own private affairs, during office hours, but get their full salaries. Traders hoard goods to create an artificial scarcity to sell them at higher prices and get fatter margins of profit. Taxi drivers compel passengers to pay more than what the meters indicate. Tax-payers cheat the Government by hiding part of their income. But none of our religious leaders apprise us of Ar-Riba masquerading in any of the forms mentioned here. They are content with declaring again and again from their housetops that interest is 'haraam' 'haraam', and they remain blissfully ignorant of the real Ar-Riba growing luxuriantly in their own backyards.

522. If A lends B $1000, and B repays after a year, A is entitled to get his amwaal back, as this Verse clearly indicates. But money, per se, is not amwaal. It's only the present transitory value of amwaal. As such, if the cost of living has appreciated by 5% during the year, A is entitled to get $1050 from B. Otherwise A stands wronged. In addition, A is also entitled to a just, mutually agreed compensation for his being deprived of using $1000 for his personal purposes, for a year. It's another matter if A & B are friends, and A waives all the additions lawfully due to him.

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Please refer the preceding blog post ‘Prohibited Ar-Riba’ in this context.

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 11^th of October 2019.

Prohibited Ar-Riba

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Prohibited Ar-Riba

Extract from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART I:

275. Allatheena ya/kuloona alrriba la yaqoomoona illa kama yaqoomu allathee yatakhabbatuhu alshshaytanu mina almassi thalika bi-annahum qaloo innama albayAAu mithlu alrriba waahalla Allahu albayAAa waharrama alrriba faman jaahu mawAAithatun min rabbihi faintaha falahu ma salafa waamruhu ila Allahi waman AAada faola-ika as-habu alnnari hum feeha khalidoona

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2:275. Those who consume Ar-Riba⁵¹⁴ live not but like those whom Satan makes to stumble on in life, under his spell⁵¹⁵. That is because they assert, "Business is just like Ar-Riba.⁵¹⁶" And Allah has made business lawful and Ar-Riba unlawful. He, then, to whom admonition has come from his Lord and has since abstained from Ar-Riba – to him belongs what happened in the past. And to Allah returns his deed.⁵¹⁷ And those who rebel – they shall be inhabitants of the hellfire, therein to remain forever.

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514. In Verse 30:39, Allah declares, "That which you give at a premium, so that the gain accrued is on account of other people's properties, possessions or dues, such a gain has no approval of Allah ...." In that Verse, Allah has clearly expressed his disapproval of gains that are rightfully due to others, but manoeuvred to be usurped from them in day-to-day human dealings. An example can be given of a factory owner cheating the workers employed, in their salaries, to have a fatter profit for himself. Such gains, wrongfully usurped from others and disapproved of by Allah in Verse 30:39, are here in this Verse, 2:275, made totally unlawful. And such gains are termed as Ar-Riba, literally meaning the gain/increase, to distinguish it from lawfully obtained gains as through trading, giving services etc. It is unfortunate that most Muslim scholars have given a wrongly restrictive meaning of 'interest on money lent or borrowed' to the Qur'aanic term.

515. Under the satanic spell, people become reluctant to believe in any life after death. They therefore tend to believe that this worldly life is the be-all and end-all of human existence. And they try to get the most out of it. With no fear of any divine punishment, they stumble on from one wrongdoing to another and consume Ar-Riba to get rich quickly and enjoy all that money can buy. But the happiness and enjoyment, that they seek, ever eludes them like a mirage.

516. I have no knowledge of the people who said this at the time of revelation of this Verse. But I know people who say this now in this 21st Century (15th Century Hijri). I know people who say, 'Banking business is Ar-Riba', whereas Allah has categorically made business lawful and Ar-Riba unlawful. Business is an activity by a person or by a group of persons to make things or services conveniently available to the public. Manufacturing and trading businesses make goods conveniently available and there are firms, like those of solicitors, who provide services to the public. Likewise, banking business provides money for needful projects that an individual or a group of individuals undertake, but for which the individual, or the group, doesn't have all the necessary finance. Banking is therefore a legitimate business fulfilling a social need. Like other businesses, banking business too is legitimately entitled to a reasonable profit for itself. It is also entitled to recover expenses incurred like staff salaries, building rentals etc., on pro rata basis from its clientele. And a bank does recover its expenses plus profit and calls this recovery as interest. Such interest gets divinely sanctioned when this Verse 2:275 declares that Allah has made business lawful. But the Satan has succeeded in inducing many Muslim scholars in declaring such legitimate interest collected as Ar-Riba! Ar-Riba, I repeat, is wrongful usurpation, during transactions, of other people's properties, possessions or dues, in terms of Verse 30:39. Ar-Riba is not interest, as such.

517. Whatever Ar-Riba gains people had made before they became aware of the divine prohibition against it, could be retained with those people, provided they abided by the prohibition thereafter. Their matter is left for Allah Himself to deal with as He wished. Allah, in His mercy, may forgive them – but not those who consciously act against the divine prohibition.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 4^th of October 2019.