Showing posts with label Hereafter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hereafter. Show all posts

Friday, 7 May 2021

Wordly Life


It is extremely uncertain. I have had a fairly long innings myself- I am 85 not out

 presently. But I have seen my own son, my own younger brother, my own younger sister, and many other younger persons die!


The thing that bothers me is that most human beings are bothered about this uncertain life only! They do not believe that therre is a permanent life in the  Hereafter. Allah Almighty has sent us here to this world only to check our eligibility for a permanent good life in the Hereafter. That should be our main concern; but, unfortunately it is not!


May Allah save us!


I am unable to send this FRIDAY SERMON in the usual manner as I am on a hospital bed as a Covid patient.  Please pray for me!I do pray for all.


Mohammad Shafi 

Friday, the 7th of May 2021.

Thursday, 7 January 2021

O Muslims - 48

 

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful


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

38. Ya ayyuha allatheena amanoo ma lakum itha qeela lakumu infiroo fee sabeeli Allahi iththaqaltum ila al-ardi aradeetum bialhayati alddunya mina al-akhirati fama mataAAu alhayati alddunya fee al-akhirati illa qaleelun


9:38. O you who believe! What is the matter with you that when you are asked to set out in Allah's Path, you cling heavily to the earth? Do you prefer this life to the Hereafter when the provisions of this life count for nothing but little in the Hereafter? 19


19. The Verse itself depicts the circumstances in which it – as also the Verses that follow – was revealed. The Prophet (peace be upon him) was to embark on a difficult military expedition. And several men were reluctant to go with him.


Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 8th of January 2021.

Friday, 31 January 2020

Aim in Life


In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

In a family get-together, a few months back, I posed a question to youngsters on the threshold of adulthood, "What's your aim in life?"

The answers were all related, understandably, to getting better positions of living in this world.

But, my Qur'aanic studies tell me that the common aim of human life in this world ought to be getting a place in Jannah {Paradise}, in the Hereafter!

And this aim could be achieved only by following the divine directions in the Qur'aan.

These directions, inter alia, require a human to be convinced 
1. of the existence of Allah & seeks His help frequently in the conduct of his/her worldly life,
2. that Allah is aware of, and does minutely monitor, every bit of his/her actions in this world.,
3. that Allah requires a human to be honest, truthful, sincere, and just in whatever he/she does in the course of living and earning a livelihood in this world,
4. that this life is uncertain, transitory, and replete with trials & tribulations to test a human's eligibility for a better life in the Hereafter,
5. that those that pass this worldly test would enjoy everlasting happiness in the Hereafter and those that fail would be punished there.

Friday, the 31st of January 2020.





Thursday, 2 January 2020

Worldly Life


In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

185. Kullu nafsin tha-iqatu almawti wa-innama tuwaffawna ojoorakum yawma alqiyamati faman zuhziha AAani alnnari waodkhila aljannata faqad faza wama alhayatu alddunya illa mataAAu alghuroori


3:185. Everyone must taste the death. And only on the Resurrection Day, shall your earnings be fully paid. So then, whoever is moved away from the Fire and admitted to the Garden, he indeed has achieved success. And the life of this world is nothing but ways and means of deception.


Friday, the 3rd of January 2020.


Thursday, 19 September 2019

Bragging Negates Charity


In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

262. Allatheena yunfiqoona amwalahum fee sabeeli Allahi thumma la yutbiAAoona ma anfaqoo mannan wala athan lahum ajruhum AAinda rabbihim wala khawfun AAalayhim wala hum yahzanoona

2:262. Those who spend their worldly possessions in Allah's path and follow not what they spend with boastfulness and insult – for them is their reward with their Lord; they shall have no fear, nor shall they grieve.494, 495

494. It is often the case with human beings that if they give something to a needy person, their behaviour with that person would be such as to make that person feel burdened with their favours. They will go on, on some pretext or the other, reminding him of their charity. They may even insult and speak harshly to him. Allah condemns such behaviour and makes their charity ineligible for any reward from Him.
495. The Qur'aanic statement falaa khaufun ualayhim walaa hum yahuzanoon (they shall have no fear, nor shall they grieve) has been repeated in several Verses while speaking of
·         those who spend their property by night and by day, secretly and openly (2:274),
·         those who believe and do good deeds and keep up prayer and give charity (2:277),
·         those who believe in Allah and the last day and do good (5:69),
·         the friends of Allah (10:62),
·         those who say, Our Lord is Allah, then they continue the right way (46:13).
Any group of persons described by any one of the above attributes, do inherently also have all the other attributes mentioned. These are the people whose minds are at peace, whatever be their momentary situations, good or bad, in this worldly life.

Friday, the 20th of September 2019.

Thursday, 1 August 2019

Worldly Life


In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful
Worldly Life is but a Test

212. Zuyyina lillatheena kafaroo alhayatu alddunya wayaskharoona mina allatheena amanoo waallatheena ittaqaw fawqahum yawma alqiyamati waAllahu yarzuqu man yashao bighayri hisabin

2:212. The life of this world is made attractive for those who suppress the Truth, and they mock at some of those who believe. And those who fear Allah shall have an upper hand over them on the Day of Resurrection.375 And Allah provides for whomsoever He wishes, without measure!376

375. One of numerous ways in which Allah tests mankind is to give a plenty in this world to some of those who disbelieve, and to give less to the believers, in comparison. In such cases, the disbelievers are wont to scoff at the believers, taunting them that despite their belief, their Allah has provided them with less wealth. The believers' test lies in whether they remain steadfast in their faith even in such seemingly unfavourable and unfair circumstances. The All-knowing and Merciful Allah however strengthens the will of the believers in such trying circumstances by promising them that they shall surely have an upper hand in the everlasting Hereafter, if they but passed the test of the temporary life of this world.
376. In the exercise of this absolute divine prerogative of our Lord, we, the creatures, have no say at all. But let us be clear in our minds that our Lord is a Just Lord. If in this world, He chooses to give undeservedly more wealth to a disbeliever than to a believer, He knows what He is doing! We should remember that He has reserved His bounty bi ghayri huisaab (without measure), in the Hereafter, only for the believers.

Friday, the 2nd of August 2019.


Thursday, 6 June 2019

Resurrection


In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

The background to the extract below from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART I is that someone had killed a person, and people were quarrelling on who the murderer was. Allah Almighty made that case an example to show how He would resurrect people on Judgment Day. The murdered man, thus resurrected in that case, would name the murderer.

73. Faqulna idriboohu bibaAAdiha kathalika yuhyee Allahu almawta wayureekum ayatihi laAAallakum taAAqiloona

2:73. So We asked them to raise him up86 from something thereof 87 to 89. Thus, does Allah give life to the dead 90 & 91, and show you His signs so that you understand 92..

86. Among the various meanings in which the Arabic root word zaraba is used in the Qur'aan, one is 'to set up' or 'to raise'. It is in this meaning that this word, with its grammatical variation, is used in Verse 57:13. It is used therein to connote 'setting up' or 'raising' a wall between the believers and the hypocrites, in the Hereafter. And the pronoun hu obviously refers to the murdered person mentioned in the preceding Verse 2:72. Since the pronoun is masculine, it is obvious that the murdered person was a man. And in the context of the reference made to Allah giving life to the dead, further down in this very Verse (2:73), it is obvious that the killed man was brought to life again to disclose to the people as to who had killed him.
87. Here, the pronoun used is the feminine ha. This has led some of the commentators of the Qur'aan to link it to the slaughtered cow referred to in Verse 2:71. But this linkage is unwarranted. For, in the immediately preceding Verse 2:72, mention is made of a murdered man, and his dead body (the Arabic word for which is feminine in gender) is already referred to therein as ha. We should remember that the All-knowing Allah could make no mistakes!
88. The fact, that His choice of words is perfect, is well illustrated in the use of the masculine pronoun hu just before, in this very Verse 2:73. Had the Jews been told to hit or strike at the dead body of the murdered man, the pronoun used would have been ha and not hu. The use of hu there conclusively proves that the Jews were told to raise a living man, and not to strike at a dead body.
89. So, the Jews were asked to raise the murdered man to life from or with something or some part of the dead body. It needs no mentioning that in this act of raising the living from the dead, Allah was the sole Architect and the people were just the instruments! Just like: a man and a woman are merely the instruments with which Allah brings a new human being into this world.
90. And in this divine statement lies the divine confirmation of the conclusions drawn in the foregoing notes! The reference here, obviously, is mainly to the Resurrection of mankind in the Hereafter. Allah says that He thus gives life to the dead. That is, just as He had given life to the murdered man (of the episode narrated in these two Verses) from some part or remnant of his dead body. Allah has thus disclosed to us that on the Resurrection Day, He will give life to every human that ever lived on this earth and died, from any remnant of that human. And the good earth contains distinctive remnants aplenty of every such individual! A tiny bit of a bone, a tooth, or even hair from any dead person, mixed with the earth, serves as a good enough remnant for the Almighty Allah to resurrect that person from!
91. Modern knowledge has enabled us to have an insight into these wonderfully meaningful divine Verses. Any bit of a remnant from the dead person contains microcells. And every such cell contains a DNA map distinctive to that person! So even a man now can come to know, by conducting a proper DNA test, as to which person that remnant belongs to. So, we can now understand how the Almighty Creator can have no problems at all in distinguishing the remnants, one from another.
92. In the pre-historic age – the setting for this episode described here in these two Verses under our study – the extent of human knowledge was limited. The All-knowing Allah had compensated the people living then with seemingly miraculous signs to make them understand the Reality of, inter alia, the Hereafter. The seemingly miraculous bringing of a murdered person back to life in the episode, described here in these two Verses, was one such sign. But now, with the considerable advance in human knowledge, the divine signs about the Reality are implanted in that advanced knowledge itself. A few years back, with such knowledge, man succeeded, for the first time, in making a surrogate mother sheep give birth to a lamb that was genetically identical – a clone – to another sheep! The lamb was made to be conceived in the surrogate mother's womb asexually by implanting the nucleus of a cell taken from the body of the other sheep into an unfertilised egg of the mother sheep! This human effort of course involved a very complicated and uncertain procedure, the success rate of which is said to be very, very low! But it did give the unmistakable sign that the Resurrection is a distinct possibility!

Friday, the 7th of June 2019.


Thursday, 27 September 2018

Science Has No Answers


In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

19. Latarkabunna tabaqan AAan tabaqin

84:19. You [humans] do move from stage to stage.1

1. Mankind is aware of the many stages through which man passes from his conception in a womb to his grave. Then why does he not believe in the divine intimation to him of his further stages of barzakh (state of complete unconsciousness from death till his resurrection in the Hereafter) and further life in the Hereafter? This very question is posed to him in the next two Verses. The divine intimation is given to him through the Qur’aan, which he ought to believe in and prostrate (submit himself) to. But one may ask why. The answer is: there is no other source which gives us the information as to what happens after death. Our knowledge of science just tells us that we cease to exist. Science also does not tell us as to what it is that triggers life in the 3-week-old fertilized ovum in mother’s womb. Science is thus helpless in giving us this vital info. So, we have no alternative but to go to the divine source. And the divine info provides answers to several unresolved questions arising in the human mind. Why do innumerable cases of injustices apparently remain unpunished in this world? And why acts of good deeds remain unrewarded? Why do innocents suffer and why do wrong-doers apparently enjoy good life on this earth? Science has no answers to such questions; the Qur’aan has!

Friday, the 28th of September 2018.


Thursday, 15 March 2018

Recipe for Salvation


In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Excerpts from Chapter 41 of QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir:




30. Those indeed who say, ‘Allah is Our Lord’ and then remain steadfast, the angels come down to them saying, “Fear not, nor regret, but rejoice in the glad news of Paradise that has been promised to you!”
31. “We are your close friends in this life and in the Hereafter. And in the Hereafter, you will get whatever you desire, and you will have therein whatsoever you ask for”
32. “As gift from the One forgiving, merciful.”6

6. Verses 30, 31 and 32 above together constitute a brief divine recipe for salvation. The recipe is just to have an unshakeable belief in Allah being the Lord (i.e., one’s creator, nourisher, protector, guide, judge, benevolent ruler but also one to give severe punishment to the evil-doer, all rolled into one). It is easy for one to declare that Allah is one’s Lord, but Allah, from time to time, puts that belief to test throughout one’s life. It is important to pass those tests. The Verses also define what the salvation is. It is a gift from the Creator freely available to anyone who would conduct one’s life as per that practical recipe. But are there many takers – even among the so-called Muslims?

Friday, the 16th of March 2018.

Thursday, 28 December 2017

Righteousness

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Excerpt from Chapter 3 of QUR’ AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir:
92. Lan tanaloo albirra hatta tunfiqoo mimma tuhibboona wama tunfiqoo min shay-in fa-inna Allaha bihi AAaleemun


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


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, if and when we do it. And Verse 2:215 tells us on whose genuine needs to spend our wealth that is in excess of 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.



Friday, the 29th December 2017.

Friday, 15 December 2017

Divine Punishment

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Excerpt from Chapter 3 of QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir:

56. FapaImma allatheena kafaroo faoAAaththibuhum AAathaban shadeedan fee alddunyta waal-akhirati wama lahum min nasireena


56. "So I punish, with severe punishment in this world and the Hereafter, 71 those who suppress the Truth. And they shall have none to help them."


71. Had the preposition fee (in) been used also before akhirati (Hereafter), then it would have meant that the severe punishment would be given both here and in the Hereafter. But the construction of the phrase here, – treating 'here and the hereafter' as one unit in relation to the prefix 'in' – indicates that some suppressors of the Truth may not be subjected to the severe punishment, in this world. Suppressors of the Truth, as the Qur'aan repeatedly says, are bound to be punished severely in the Hereafter. And incorrigible suppressors of the Truth like the people of Noah and the people of Lot are known to have suffered severe punishment in this world also.



Friday, the 15th of December 2017.

Thursday, 9 February 2017

No Intercession

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Extract from Chapter 2 of QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir, in which the divine declaration, that there shall be no intercession in the Hereafter, is discussed:

48. Waittaqoo yawman la tajzee nafsun AAan nafsin shay-an wala yuqbalu minha shafaAAatun wala yu/khathu minha AAadlun wala hum yunsaroona

48. And fear that Day when none can be of any avail on anything to another, when no intercession will be accepted from anyone nor any ransom taken, and when they will be given no help!53

53. This is a divine statement, made quite categorically! In defiance thereof, however, almost the entire Christendom and most Muslims cling to their futile fond hopes that Jesus and Muhammad (may peace be upon them both) shall ransom their sinning souls out, with their – the two Messengers' – respective powers(?) of intercession!

Save us from the evil of following falsehoods, Allah!

Mohammad Shafi
Friday, the 10th of January, 2017.


Thursday, 8 December 2016

Reply to Atheist

Atheist to me: You are wrong.  You either did not read what the scientists say about the universe or you have not understood it.  Please read the following articles on what the scientists say about the creator.  It says sincere universe is eternal, there is no role for the creator.  



Me: You know, Prem (name changed), your gods - I mean, the scientists - are like those proverbial blind men who had tried to find out what the elephant was like.

The truth is that they do not know the whole Truth! They are just groping in the dark, thinking what they can feel with their hands to be that whole Truth. I don't blame them; they are really blind.

But, sadly, they refuse to realise their limitations. They don't realise that they're just picking up, as one of their brother scientists had once said, one or two pebbles, here and there, on the vast seashore of knowledge. They will remain blind of that vast seashore unless & until they swallow their false pride that they know everything.

Their much-lauded work - as regards origin of the universe, at least - is nothing but indulging in guessing with the limited power of their mortal, human minds, driven by their irrational and idiotic opposition to the very concept of God. That concept is anathema to them. They are not sure of what they pontifically theorise. That is why you find words like 'may have', 'appear to', being frequently used in their 'research’ papers. I don't blame them for that. They are, after all, fantasizing about what could have happened millions of years before they, poor fellows, were even born!!

And you, Prem, want me to believe in their half-baked theories, of which they are themselves not sure, to be the gospel truth!?

I think you have forwarded the 2nd of the two web pages - the one about God having no time - without bothering to read for yourself what it actually says. It seeks to disprove Hawking's grandiose claim that God had no time for creating the universe! You might have googled for it and just sent it because its title suited your atheistic view. Please read it. It debunks Hawking's theory.

Brother, time is a relative entity. For a living being like a bird or an animal - or a human being, for that matter - it begins with its birth and ends with its death. [Man is a more intelligent animal; he comes to learn, in course of time, that time extends beyond his lifespan.] And for the Universe, similarly, time began when it itself came into being and would end when it itself would come to an end. The Universe is, per se, unintelligent. If it were to express itself, time would be analogous with its own existence. Behaving like the unintelligent universe or the semi-intelligent bird or animal, the supposedly ultra-intelligent Stephen Hawking cannot think beyond the limitations of the Universe and declares - as if he knows everything - that there cannot be any time beyond the Universe. The article you sent me proves he is wrong. He has forgotten about the relative character of time.

To overcome the inconvenient notion of singularity in Einstein's theory of general relativity, scientists are now busy compiling the quantum theory wherein too they encounter some - small, per them - perturbations. Time alone will tell us whether these are really small or insurmountably big to warrant promulgation of yet another human theory.

'The cosmological terms and a radiation term', they say, keep the universe at a finite size, and therefore give it an infinite age. Finite size and infinite age are mutually incompatible terms. Only infinite size can have infinite age. The scientist community are fighting on whether the universe is finite or infinite, whether it is expanding at an accelerated rate or a constant rate, and on very many such imponderables.

And my dear Prem wants me to consider their wild guesses as gospel truths!!

Come on, friend, accept the reality! Our scientists are no better than those proverbial blind men.

Why should I believe in their hypotheses which are all motivated by their common hatred of God. They just want somehow to disprove His existence. And what will their Godless false perspective of human life give me?

It will give me freedom to do as I will! Since this worldly life would be the be-all and end-all of existence, I would like to have everything I want, by hook or by crook. I will leave no illegal and immoral stone unturned, taking care not to get ensnared in the mesh spread by the always imperfect human governance I would be under. I could always grease the palms of authorities concerned to get my need fulfilled. There would be no fool-proof monitor to observe my ill-deeds.

And why should I then not do so? I see injustices perpetrated in this world everyday. The rich are getting richer, and the poor, poorer. People with influence and money power seemingly get away scot free after committing blatant acts of oppression, suppression and corruption.

But I do not do so because I know for certain that atheism is an absolutely false premise. I know for certain that my Creator is closely monitoring all my acts of omission and commission in this world. If I do anything illegal or immoral, I may escape scrutiny by worldly authorities, but not from His scrutiny. I know for certain He will punish me either through those authorities or by any other means at His infinite command.

I may myself not get absolute justice in this world. It is a fact of this worldly life that many do not. Your atheistic platform does not provide any hope for such people. Those of them, who do not have a staunch belief in God, succumb to their utter feeling of helplessness and commit suicide or resort to terror and violence.

But those who really believe in God do not so lose their patience. They display their courage of conviction in the dictum that God is indeed in overall control of life in this world, and He is never unjust. They are convinced that life in this world is only a long-drawn-out test. God is testing them through trials and tribulations. Even if they do not seem to get full justice in this world, they are bound to get it in another world, to which mankind will get resurrected. Yes, another world! The apparent injustice prevailing in this worldly life is a definite pointer to that other world, where everyone is scheduled to get full justice. Mankind could not have been created to suffer injustice. While this world of tests is only of short duration, the other world is everlasting. Wise men do not sacrifice everlasting happiness there for a very limited and dubious happiness in this world.

For you, Prem, this other world is nothing but mere fantasy, indulged in by prehistoric ancient people. I won't blame you. Your gods, the scientists, have rubbished the very idea of mankind being resuscitated in another world, although science has given us a definite pointer to that possibility when man has been able to clone an animal. Given their cultivated hatred for God, the scientists are, of course, liable to ignore any such pointers. In fact, that other world is beyond human intellect however bright it may be.

That is why the all-knowing Creator had been sending His human Messengers one after another, till mankind reached its historic age, to inculcate in them the need for and the reality of the other world. Their divine Messages are recorded in the holy Scriptures of various religions. I have not studied the other Scriptures, but I have studied the Qur'aan, the last of those divine Messages.

And the Qur'aan contains many evidences of its being divine, and not man-made. It gives me the badly needed moral support to lead my life in this rather harsh world. Your gods, the scientists, cannot give me that support.

Mohammad Shafi
Friday, the 9th of December, 2016