Passport to Paradise

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Excerpt from Chapter 2 of QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir, that mirrors the common attitude, in general terms, of a modern-day Muslim and orthodox adherents amongst Christians & Jews:

80. Waqaloo lan tamassana alnnaru illa ayyaman maAAdoodatan qul attakhathtum AAinda Allahi AAahdan falan yukhlifa Allahu AAahdahu am taqooloona AAala Allahi ma la taAAlamoona

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80. And they say, "The Fire shall not touch us, but for a few days." Say, "Have you taken from Allah a pledge, which He would not breach? Or is it that you say of Allah what you know not?!"¹⁰⁶

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106. It may be remembered that this is a continuation of a narrative about the Jews. And it was the Jews who were the original authors of the arrogant statement that the Fire would not touch them, but for a few days if at all! But now, the Jews are not alone in this arrogance! The Christians are sure that, whatever be their sins, their belief in the divinity of Jesus (peace be upon him) will fetch them the passport to Paradise. And the Muslims! Well, most of them are sure that, whatever be their sins, Muhammad (peace be upon him) will intercede on their behalf to get them into Paradise.

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A place in Paradise has to be earned individually by passing successfully through the divinely ordained tests in this worldly life, and then through divine Grace alone! The Qur’aan cites no provision for punishment of a limited nature in the Hereafter.

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 3^rd of March, 2017.

Muslim Behaviour

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Excerpt from Chapter 2 of QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir, that mirrors the behaviour, in general terms, of a modern-day Muslim:

78. Waminhum ommiyyoona la yaAAlamoona alkitaba illa amaniyya wa-in hum illa yathunnoona

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78. And among them are illiterates who know nothing of the Book - they know nothing but their own desires/fancies. And they do not but guess! ^{102 & 103}

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102. Even at the risk of sounding repetitive, I wish to reiterate the fact that the All-knowing Allah hasn't given us these glimpses of Jewish history just to remember these for answering questions in a written test. HE knew beforehand that a substantial majority of those who profess to follow the Qur'aan, would in fact be following the footsteps of the Jews, in their behaviour and attitude towards divine Guidance! HE has given these glimpses at some length, and even sometimes repeatedly, to warn us against following those faulty footsteps.

103. The illiteracy among the professed followers of the Qur'aan, now, may not be as high as among the Jews at the time of the revelation of the Qur'aan. But we have a sort of neo-illiterates now! These neo-illiterates do know how to read the Qur'aan, and do read it, in original Arabic, but they do not know – nor do they deem it necessary to know – what the Arabic text means!! These neo-illiterates, like the illiterate Jews before them, know nothing of the Book; they do but know their own false desires, and they do not but guess!!!

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I appeal to my brothers/sisters in Islam to introspect deeply and sincerely. These worldly lives of ours are uncertainly short. We can't be sure whether we would be alive even for another minute!

But for making this very uncertain life 'secure' and 'comfortable', we devote our entire time and energy. And we care practically little for making our ever-lasting lives in the Hereafter really secure and comfortable. We can do that only by following the Allah-bestowed Book of Guidance - the Qur'aan!

Do we put in any sincere efforts to study and follow the divine Book?

Bring us back to the Right Path, Allah!

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 24^th February, 2017.

Who Can Achieve Salvation?

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Excerpts from Chapter 2 of QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir, analyzing implications of Quráanic Verse 2:62:

62. Inna allatheena amanoo waallatheena hadoo waalnnasara waalssabi-eena man amana biAllahi waalyawmi al-akhiri waAAamila salihan falahum ajruhum AAinda rabbihim wala khawfun AAalayhim wala hum yahzanoona

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62. Indeed, those who believe and those who are Jews, the Christians and the Saabieen – whosoever believed in Allah and in the Last Day, and acted righteously ⁶⁸ – for them then, of course, is their reward with their Lord. And fear shall overpower them not; nor shall they grieve! ⁶⁹

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68. In Verse 8:29, the Qur'aan informs the believers that Allah creates for them the furqaan, the ability to distinguish between right and wrong, if they are pious! Even a thief, when he steals, knows in his heart of hearts that he is doing something wrong! But he suppresses this call of his conscience. And with its repeated suppressions, his conscience so to say dies much before his physical death! A pious, Allah-fearing man, on the other hand, does not suppress his conscience - his furqaan! The Qur'aan guides us further in this regard by explaining, in Verses 2:44, 2:177 and 2:189, what Al-Birr (good, righteous conduct or behaviour) ought to be!

69. From Adam to Muhammad (peace be upon them all), all the Prophets have preached but one Religion - the Religion of Islam! And the fundamentals of this Religion have always been: belief in Allah, belief in the Hereafter and performance of righteous deeds. So, no eyebrows need be raised when this Verse 2:62 informs us that even the Jews and the Christians shall attain to salvation if they only satisfied the three conditions mentioned. And no dichotomy be sought between this Verse here and Verse 3:85, wherein Allah informs us that no religion other than Islam shall be accepted! The moot question that now arises is whether the present-day Christians and the present-day Jews – with all their notions about Trinity, and about each being the chosen people of God with guaranteed divine visas to Paradise, and with their outright rejection of Muhammad and of the Qur'aan as the last Prophet and the last divine Testament - do thus satisfy the three fundamental conditions to be entitled to Salvation. And the moot question also is whether the present-day Muslims - with their neglect and ignorance of, and therefore with their fundamental deviations from, divine commands laid down in the Qur'aan - do thus satisfy the three fundamental conditions to be entitled to Salvation.

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Grant us the wisdom to understand Your Verses correctly, Allah!

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 17^th 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

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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

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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!

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Save us from the evil of following falsehoods, Allah!

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 10^th of January, 2017.

Divine Mantra for Salvation

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Excerpts from Chapter 2 of QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir, discussing divine advice given to Adam while being banished from Paradise to this earth:

38. We said, “Down you go all from this place! Then whenever Guidance comes to you from Me, all those who follow My Guidance shall have no fear, nor shall they grieve.”

39. “And those who suppress the Truth, and belie Our Verses/signs, those will be dwellers of the Fire, therein to remain, forever! ³⁷”

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37. And this - the divine message contained in these two Verses 38 and 39 - is what is vitally important and necessary for us now to know and always remember. This is the divine mantra for the ultimate salvation of any individual among mankind. The individual ought to remember that it is only the purely divine - and not any other - guidance that will get him/her the salvation. The individual also ought to remember that if he/she suppresses or in any way whatsoever belies the truth behind any piece of the divine guidance, he/she would certainly be doomed!

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Grant us the wisdom to take heed of Your Advice, Allah!

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 3^rd of February, 2017

Radical Islam

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Donald Trump, in his inaugural address as President of USA, said that he would work for complete eradication of ‘radical Islamic terrorism’ from the surface of the earth.

What is Radical Islam he is referring to? Does it include ‘terrorism’, as he mischievously implies?

History is witness to an extraordinarily shining example of Radical Islam set by none other than Prophet Muhammad (peace on him) himself! For 13 long years, his own people at Makkah had relentlessly harassed the Prophet just because he declared, ‘There is no god but Allah!’ Then they – the Makkans – had sent armies to eradicate the nascent Islamic State at Medina, á la our Donald now, from the surface of the earth, but without success of course! And when the Prophet later marched triumphantly into Makkah, he pardoned all his arch enemies there!! There was no mass massacre, no raping of women on a massive scale, and no massive destruction of public properties, as routinely done by modern national armies when they conquer neighboring territories!!!

That was the true exhibition of Radical Islam! Peace, mercy, goodwill, justice towards one and all!

But it is too much to expect Donald Trump to sincerely study what Radical Islam is! Like any Tom, Dick, and Harry, he goes by common perception. And the common perception among a large number of non-Muslims is that Islam is an evil religion!

And I blame the Muslim community all over the world at large, themselves, for this utterly false perception. The Qur’aan advices them to continue doing good and righteous deeds, without fear and favour and despite facing trying adversities, and to have patience and trust in the One Creator of all in giving them ultimate justice.

Muslims of the modern world, generally, have failed to follow this Qur’aanic advice. Faced with seemingly unending atrocities and injustices around them, they lose patience and faith, and resort to retaliatory violence which may affect even innocents. They have thus lost Help from the Guiding Divine Hand, and are obviously facing ignominy as envisaged in the Qur’aan.

They are themselves responsible for the negative image of Islam Donald Trump gets on his retina.

Guide us back to the Qur’aanic Path, Allah!

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 27^th January, 2017.

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.