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

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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}

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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.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 29^th December 2017.

Promoting Shirk

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Promoting Shirk

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

78. Wa-inna minhum lafareeqan yalwoona alsinatahum bialkitabi litahsaboohu mina alkitabi wama huwa mina alkitabi wayaqooloona huwa min AAindi Allahi wama huwa min AAindi Allahi wayaqooloona AAala Allahi alkathiba wahum yaAAlamoona

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78. And, indeed, there is among them a section who so twist their tongues with the Book that you may think it is from the Book, and it is not from the Book. And they say it is from Allah and it is not from Allah. And they knowingly utter a lie about Allah.⁹³

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93. This Verse might well have been revealed in the perspective of the Jews and the Christians trying then to change the contents of the revealed Books with them. But, in our present-day perspective, we need not get concerned with what those people did then. The Qur'aan is valid for all times. Let us therefore look at this Verse in our own perspective. And let us first look to what we ourselves do with our own Qur'aan, before looking to what the Jews and the Christians are doing with their Books. We are fortunate, by Allah's Grace, that the Arabic text of the Qur'aan is divinely protected. But Arabic is not known to all the Muslims. In fact, a majority from among them do not know Arabic; nor are any sincere efforts made to make Arabic a compulsory subject for all Muslims to learn, all over the world. In this scenario, Satan has manoeuvred the majority Muslim mind into thinking that it is enough for them to learn just to read the Qur'aan. It is indeed a satanic handiwork to delude the intelligence of the Muslim mind against the imperative need to understand what one reads from the Qur'aan. The Moulvis and the Mullahs have, in the circumstances, become the Arbaab (Lords), besides the One Lord, of the common Muslims. For, they (the common Muslims) literally gulp down what their religious leaders tell them, right or wrong. And the Moulvis and Mullahs, many of them semi-literates themselves, often give the commoners a wrong picture of Islam. Besides, in the translations & commentaries of the Qur'aan in other languages, not only do human mistakes creep in inadvertently, but deviations are advertently made to cater to views promoting shirk.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 22^nd 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

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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."

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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.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 15^th of December 2017.

Lord of the Easts

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Excerpt from Chapter 37 of QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir:

5. Rabbu alssamawati waal-ardi wama baynahuma warabbu almashariqi

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5. (And the One Whom you should worship is the) Lord of the heavens and the earth and what is in between, and Lord of the easts! ²

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2. The Sun has many planets other than the earth. All these planets have rotational movements around their respective axes. So, like the earth, these other planets have their respective easts. Besides, there are innumerable stars out there in the vast cosmos. And these stars, like our own Sun, may also have their respective planets revolving and rotating around them. All these planets should therefore be having their own respective easts. ‘Lord of the easts’ is Lord of all these innumerable planets. The planets are of course included in the Arabic expression wama baynahuma contained in the earlier part of this Verse, but by mentioning ‘easts’ Allah Ta’ala has brought to light the factual positions of the planets, orbiting the Sun and other stars that were unknown to mankind at the time the Qur’aan was revealed. [The people then thought that the Sun moved round the earth.] This also shows the need for interpreting Qur’aanic Verses in the light of knowledge gained by mankind from time to time. Those who advocate sticking to the interpretation at the time of revelation are advocates of stagnation.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 8^th of December 2017.

Fundamental Article of Islamic Faith

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

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

18. Shahida Allahu annahu la ilaha illa huwa waalmala-ikatu waoloo alAAilmi qa-iman bialqisti la ilaha illa huwa alAAazeezu alhakeemu

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18. Allah bears witness that there indeed is none worthy of worship but He; and so do the angels and those with right knowledge, based on truth and justice. There is none worthy of worship but He, the Omnipotent, the Wise.¹⁶

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16. This fundamental article of Islamic Faith is witnessed and certified by Allah Almighty Himself and by the angels who are the first amongst His creations to know the absolute Truth of the article of Faith. And among mankind, only those endorse the fundamental article, whose acquisition of knowledge is the result of their quest and enquiry based on truth and justice. Their knowledge is not based on unverified guesswork like Darwin's Theory of Evolution. Had his theory been true, we ought to have seen at least some signs of monkeys/chimpanzees evolving into humans, during this historical period of well over a thousand years. Protagonists of the theory try to hide behind the anonymity and haziness of the prehistoric ages. There too they encounter their 'missing links'.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 1^st of December 2017.

Mutashaabihaat

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Mutashaabihaat

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

7. Huwa allathee anzala AAalayka alkitaba minhu ayatun muhkamatun hunna ommu alkitabi waokharu mutashabihatun faamma allatheena fee quloobihim zayghun fayattabiAAoona ma tashabaha minhu ibtighaa alfitnati waibtighaa ta/weelihi wama yaAAlamu ta/weelahu illa Allahu waalrrasikhoona fee alAAilmi yaqooloona amanna bihi kullun min AAindi rabbina wama yaththakkaru illa oloo al-albabi

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7. It is He Who has sent down the Book upon you. Therein are Verses that are unambiguous and authoritative – these form the essence of the Book – and therein are other Verses, the interpretation of which is not clear to mankind⁵. Those then with dishonesty in their minds, zealously pursue what is not clear thereof, seeking mischief and seeking its interpretation; but no one knows its interpretation but Allah. And persons, deeply versed in knowledge, say, "We believe in it; it is all from our Lord." And none but those endowed with insight receive admonition.⁶

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5. Mutashaabihaat are Verses, in other words, that are not clearly understood by the human mind. One example is the oft-repeated divine statement that the wicked shall be punished by putting them into Hell-fire. If any person is put into a burning fire in this world, that person is sure to die in a matter of minutes. But the Hell-fire in the Hereafter would be such as wouldn't make persons put in it to die, although they would very much wish to die. The human mind is unable to grasp the concept of such a fire. The Verses that present such concepts which are incomprehensible to the human mind, in this world, are Mutashaabihaat. Muhkamaat, on the other hand, are Verses that are well-explained in the Qur'aan itself, and therefore capable of being well-understood by the human mind, in this world. Muhkamaat, moreover, contain clearly worded divine commands and admonition that are required to be obeyed and acted upon by mankind to get salvation from certain doom.

6. The first Verse of this Qur'aanic Chapter, containing only Arabic letters corresponding to the English letters A L M, is another example of mutashaabihaat. No one knows the interpretation of those letters there, except Allah. The question then arises as to what is the divine purpose of placing such Verses in the Qur'aan, the meanings of which are not clear to the human mind! The purpose obviously is to provide for a test of a believer's faith in the divine authorship of the Qur'aan. As the Verse itself indicates, a true believer shall unquestioningly accept such Verses to be from Allah. But a deviated mind will seek mischief therein.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 24^th November 2017.

Allah Teaches Us Even How To Pray To Him!

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Extract from Chapter 2 of QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir:

286. La yukallifu Allahu nafsan illa wusAAaha laha ma kasabat waAAalayha ma iktasabat rabbana la tu-akhithna in naseena aw akhta/na rabbana wala tahmil AAalayna isran kama hamaltahu AAala allatheena min qablina rabbana wala tuhammilna ma la taqata lana bihi waoAAfu AAanna waighfir lana wairhamna anta mawlana faonsurna AAala alqawmi alkafireena

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286. Allah burdens not any being except with what it can bear. To it what it earns and on it befall consequences of its earnings. "Our Lord! Call us not to account if we forget or make a mistake. Our Lord! And put us not to such burden as You had put on those before us. Our Lord! And burden us not with what we have no strength to bear. And pardon us. And forgive us. And have mercy on us. You are our Protector, so help us against the people who suppress the Truth."⁵³⁰

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530. Thus Allah does Himself teach us how to pray to Him. HE is kind and considerate, and knows us much better than what we know about our own selves. HE articulates exactly what we would like to pray to Him about. We wouldn't ourselves be able to express our own thoughts so nicely. Oh! If only we had the wisdom to submit ourselves completely to the Gracious and All-knowing Lord of all of us.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 17^th of November 2017.