O Muslims - 7

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

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

254. Ya ayyuha allatheena amanoo anfiqoo mimma razaqnakum min qabli an ya/tiya yawmun la bayAAun feehi wala khullatun wala shafaAAatun waalkafiroona humu alththalimoona

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2:254. O you believers! Spend of what We have given you before the advent of the Day during which shall there be no trade, no friendship and no intercession. And suppressors of the Truth – those are the wrong-doers.⁴⁸¹

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481. This Verse reveals to us several things:

·         Allah given things – like wealth, wisdom, time – are to be made use of and not just hoarded or wasted away.

·         Every individual's position in the Hereafter inter alia depends on the way he uses those Allah-given things here.

·         The proper use of those things may make him/her eligible for entry into Paradise, and their misuse may land him/her in Hell.

·         Evaluation of every individual on Judgment Day shall be strictly impartial. No good man would be able to buy a better place in the Hereafter for his friend/relative.

·         In the Hereafter, there is no scope for any intercession – from a friend, a relative, or even a Prophet. Beware, Muslims and Christians!

·         Those who do not believe in all that the Verse implies are only deluding themselves and others. And, consequentially, they are oppressing themselves and others.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 27^th of March 2020.

O Muslims - 6

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

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

208. Ya ayyuha allatheena amanoo odkhuloo fee alssilmi kaffatan wala tattabiAAoo khutuwati alshshaytani innahu lakum AAaduwwun mubeenun

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2:208. O those who believe! Get into Islam thoroughly^{365, 366}, and follow not Satan's footsteps. He indeed is an open enemy to you.³⁶⁷

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365. The original Arabic phrase could also be translated as 'Surrender yourselves completely to Allah'. Complete surrender to Allah would inter alia mean adherence to all applicable Qur'aanic commands.

366. Once a cyber-friend told me that it wasn't practical to do everything that the Qur'aan asks us to do. It was enough to adhere to as many Qur'aanic commands – from among those applicable – as it was practically possible. This view is a negation of this Verse we are presently studying. The Satan it is that subtly induces man to entertain such views to lead him astray. That's why the Verse further advises man not to follow the Satan's footsteps. He (the Satan) arrogantly (see Verse 7:12) thought it wasn't possible for him to follow one of Allah's commands to him – to bow before Adam!

367. In Verse 2:168 there is a similar divine instruction not to follow Satan's footsteps as 'he is to you an open enemy.' The instructions there were in the context of consuming lawful and wholesome things. One of the food items that are prohibited is 'that which is consecrated to someone other than Allah' [Verse 2:173]. This category of prohibited food could include items distributed as tabarruk from the shrine of a peer or saint. The association of the saint with the food makes the latter consecrated to 'someone other than Allah'. Consumption of such food in the belief that it specially benefits the consumer, is a manifest sin of shirk. It (the belief) betrays the consumer's blasphemous assumption that the peer or saint partners with Allah in granting special benefits in the act of eating the tabarruk. Satan, the avowed enemy of man, misleads the consumers in making them think that they are doing nothing wrong.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 20^th of March 2020.

O Muslims - 5

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

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

183. Ya ayyuha allatheena amanoo kutiba AAalaykumu alssiyamu kama kutiba AAala allatheena min qablikum laAAallakum tattaqoona

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2:183. O you who believe! The fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those who lived before you, so that you become pious.³⁰⁵

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305. And the pious are the ones who are on the right Guidance and successful, the All-knowing Allah assures us (refer Verses 2:2 to 2:5)! In other words, fasting opens the door to real success in this world and to salvation in the Hereafter. To achieve success in its real sense, therefore, one has got to fast in the divinely prescribed manner.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 13^th of March 2020.

O Muslims - 4

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

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

178. Ya ayyuha allatheena amanoo kutiba AAalaykumu alqisasu fee alqatla alhurru bialhurri waalAAabdu bialAAabdi waalontha bialontha faman AAufiya lahu min akheehi shay-on faittibaAAun bialmaAAroofi waadaon ilayhi bi-ihsanin thalika takhfeefun min rabbikum warahmatun famani iAAtada baAAda thalika falahu AAathabun aleemun

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2:178. O you who believe! Prescribed for you, is the capital punishment in the matter of murdered persons. If a free man, a slave/servant or a female commits the crime, this prescribed punishment would accordingly be applicable only to that free man, that slave/servant or that female, respectively. But where the guilty person’s fellow citizen concerned commutes the sentence, the commutation must be adequately implemented, and the guilty person must fulfil the terms of commutation in good measure. That is a remission from your Lord, and His grace! Then whoever transgresses thereafter – for him shall there be a painful punishment.^{293 to 296}

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293. Advocates of abolition of capital punishment, beware! You cannot change what the Creator Himself has laid down. But it should well be noted that, in the light of Verse 4:92, capital punishment would be applied only to cases of intentional murder, and not to killing by mistake. And, of course, it is not applicable to killings in a war.

294. The Arabic al-quisuaasu basically means retaliation – a tit-for-tat response. In the context of an intentional murder, therefore, I have rendered the Arabic word as 'capital punishment' in the translation.

295. Literally translated, the second sentence of the Verse would look like, 'The free man, to the free man ...' In the context of the first sentence, it would obviously mean, 'If the murder is committed by a free man, the capital punishment would be meted out to that free man ...' To avoid any mistake in and consequent misconception of a literal rendering, a free renderiong is done, as in the second sentence of this English translation of the Verse.

296. In some translations, the Arabic term min akheehi occurring in this Verse, is so rendered as to mean 'the murdered person's brother'. But there is no justification for relating the possessive pronoun hi (his) here to the murdered person, as he/she (the murdered person) is not mentioned earlier in this Verse or in the immediately preceding Verses. The murderer, on the other hand, is mentioned. And it would be blasphemous to expect a mistake in a divine script. Moreover, akhee, in Qur'aanic terminology, does not necessarily mean only the close blood relationship of a brother. It often means (as for example in Verse 27:45) a fellow human of the same group, community or nation. Min akheehi would therefore mean any human being, duly authorised by the community, in which the murder is committed, to examine the case and pronounce his judgement or grant commutation of the death penalty. I have hence rendered min akheehi as 'the guilty person's fellow citizen concerned' in the translation. Besides, this divine provision for commutation, it may be noted, would take care of cases of murder committed, inter alia, under intense provocation.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 6^th of March 2020.