Pride

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

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

206. Wa-itha qeela lahu ittaqi Allaha akhathat-hu alAAizzatu bial-ithmi fahasbuhu jahannamu walabi/sa almihadu

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2:206. And when he is asked to fear Allah, pride drives him to sin.³⁶² Hell, then, is a just retribution for him. And that, surely, is an awful resting place!

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362. And pride it was that felled Satan from Allah's grace (peruse Chapter Note 33 of these Studies). And pride it is that distances a human being from His mercy. Pride it was that induced Satan to commit the sin of openly disobeying Allah. And pride it is that induces man to commit the sin of persisting with the wrong that he has been committing, even after realising that what he had been doing was wrong. The subject person of these Verses impresses people with his tall talks. But when people realise that his deeds lead only to destruction, they ask him to fear Allah. He however persists in his wrong doings, just because of his false pride. He doesn't want to admit publicly that he had been wrong! Beware, my friends! Such false pride lurks in some corner of the hearts of us all. Satan is ever vigilant to exploit this lurking sense of pride to lead us astray from Allah's Straight Path.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 26^th of July 2019.

Following Forefathers

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

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

170. Wa-itha qeela lahumu ittabiAAoo ma anzala Allahu qaloo bal nattabiAAu ma alfayna AAalayhi abaana awa law kana abaohum la yaAAqiloona shay-an wala yahtadoona

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2:170. And when they are asked to follow what Allah has sent down, they say, "But we follow what we found our forefathers doing." Even if their forefathers had understood nothing, nor had they been guided!?²⁷⁸

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278. This loaded question, divinely posed over 1400 years ago, is still valid for people today, including most Muslims! Even though the Muslims have with them the divinely protected Qur'aan, they hardly refer to this invaluable Book of guidance, and choose instead to follow what they have found their forefathers doing. So, they call dead saints to their aid in worldly matters and visit their graves, even though the Qur'aan categorically tells them that such acts of shirk would be unpardonable sins [Q: 4:116].

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 19^th of July 2019.

Will is Mandatory

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

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

180. Kutiba AAalaykum itha hadara ahadakumu almawtu in taraka khayran alwasiyyatu lilwalidayni waal-aqrabeena bialmaAAroofi haqqan AAala almuttaqeena

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2:180. It is prescribed for you that when death confronts any of you, the dying person, if he/she leaves behind any property, makes a will in favour of parents and relatives in a fair manner. Mandatory upon the pious! ^{298 to 302}

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298. As regards 'the pious', please refer to Chapter Note 2 of these Studies.

299. In Verses 4:11 and 4:12, the Qur'aan has given the details of the shares divinely prescribed for different relatives of the deceased. But it has also been laid down in those Verses, in clear terms, that the prescription would apply only to what remains of the deceased's property after execution of the deceased's will and repayment of his/her debts, if any. And there is no warrant in the Qur'aan for restricting the scope of the will to only third parts of the deceased’s property, as most Muslims believe.

300. Making of a will is made obligatory on those who become reasonably aware of death approaching them. But death may often come suddenly, without notice. And the person may, on this account or on any other account, fail to make a will before dying. In that case, the law of inheritance as laid down in the said Verses 4:11 and 4:12 shall have to be followed, in the distribution of the deceased person's entire property.

301. But where a person does make a will, there is nothing in the Qur'aan that binds him/her to stick necessarily to rules laid down in Verses 4:11 and 4:12. He/she has of course to take heed of the divinely laid down rules overall, but the All-knowing Allah has given him/her the leeway to deviate from those rules to suit his/her circumstances. For example, the will may make better provisions for a son who is not financially well off than for a better-placed son.

302. It makes one sad to note, time and again, that we Muslims are wont to give more importance to what the ahaadheeth and the scholars say than to what the Qur'aan says in unambiguous and clear terms. The matter of inheritance dealt with in this Verse, read with Verses 4:11 and 4:12, is yet another instance of how the Satan is constantly at work to deviate us from Allah's Word. No wonder our beloved Prophet (peace and Allah's blessings be upon him) would sadly say, on the Resuurection Day, "... my Ummah had taken this Qur'aan as a thing of no importance." [Q: 25:30]

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 12^th of July 2019.

The One & Only

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

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

163. Wa-ilahukum ilahun wahidun la ilaha illa huwa alrrahmanu alrraheemu

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2:163. And the Being worthy of your worship is the One, and Only! None is worthy of worship other than He, the Gracious, the Merciful.²⁶³

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263. Allah, as we Muslims know, is the One and Only Being worthy of worship (Ilaah). 'Worship' connotes unquestioned obedience. We worship Allah if, and only if, we obey all His commands given in the Qur'aan. But we need to introspect, deeply and sincerely, whether we really do so. We need to introspect whether we do not have ilaahs, other than Allah, in the form of our own carnal desires and in the forms of other forces, human or otherwise, imagined or real, in the influence of which we often do things contrary to divine commands.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 5^th of July 2019.