O Muslims - 51

 

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

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

21. Ya ayyuha allatheena amanoo la tattabiAAoo khutuwati alshshaytani waman yattabiAA khutuwati alshshaytani fa-innahu ya/muru bialfahsha-i waalmunkari walawla fadlu Allahi AAalaykum warahmatuhu ma zaka minkum min ahadin abadan walakinna Allaha yuzakkee man yashao waAllahu sameeAAun AAaleemun

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24:21. O you who believe! Follow not footsteps of Satan. And whoever follows footsteps of the Satan, he does indeed then exhort doing things that are indecent and forbidden. And had it not been for Allah's favour upon you and His mercy, not one of you would have ever been pure! And Allah purifies whom He wills. And Allah hears all, knows all.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 29^th of January 2021.

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.

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.

Iblees

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Excerpt [Verse 2:34] from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir, depicting Satan disobeying Allah Almighty:

34. Wa-ith qulna lilmala-ikati osjudoo li-adama fasajadoo illa ibleesa aba waistakbara wakana mina alkafireena

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34. And when We asked the angels to prostrate ^{27 & 28} before Adam, prostrated they all except for Iblees ²⁹. He (Iblees) refused and was proud ³⁰ and became one of the suppressors of Truth!

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Notes:

27. One may think that it is the prerogative of Allah to be bowed or prostrated to. And Allah does say, "...Prostrate not to the sun or to the moon, but prostrate to Allah Who created them, if it is He Whom you worship." [Q: 41:37] But here, in Verse 2:34, Allah Himself asked the angels to prostrate to Adam who was but a creature of Allah. To understand properly the truth behind this apparent contradiction, one must remember that to worship is to obey completely and unquestioningly. When Allah Himself asked the angels to prostrate to Adam, He was just testing their absolute obedience to Him.

28. There is another instance mentioned in the Qur'aan of a man, Prophet Yusuf (may peace be upon him), being prostrated to by his brothers and parents [Q: 12:100]. That was in the nature of an involuntary act in divine fulfilment of the inerpretation of a dream seen by Yusuf in his childhood. Neither this instance, nor that of the angels prostrating before Adam at the express order of the Almighty Creator, should be taken as a precedent for us humans to prostrate before any created thing. For us, the standing divine command, as given in Verse 41:37 quoted above in the preceding Note, is to prostrate only to Allah!

29. In Verse 18.50, Iblees has been described as Jinn.

30. Justifying his pride, Iblees is quoted, in Verse 7:12, as saying, "I am better than him (Adam). You created me from fire, and him You created from clay."

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Save us from Satanic pride, Allah!

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 20^th January, 2017.