Surat al-Furqan Ayah 64

"Those who in their houses at night pray to their Lord" (al-Furqan 64)

//wa allatheena yabeetuna lirabihim sujjadan wa qayiaaman//

Dr:
(يبيتون) //Yabeetuna// means to be housed but particularly refering to night time.
(سجّدا) //Sujjindan// prostrate - in sujjood
(قياما) //qiyiaaman// standing (in this case standing in prayer)

The Mu'min prostrates and stands (sujjadan wa qayiman) in prayer to their Lord Allah the Most High.

There is one opinion that the absolute minimum of night praying to be considered like those refered to in the ayah is 2 raka' after maghrib and 2 raka'a after Isha. I prefer the opinions that the absolute minumum of night prayer is 2 raka'a after maghrib and 2 raka'a after Isha and the witr prayer.

The best of night praying is all of the above plus praying in the last half of the night. That is getting up out of bed after some sleep early before fajr adhan and praying the Qiyam al-Lail prayer.

Allah the Most High says in Surah adh-Dhariyaat 17-18:

They used to sleep but little of the night

 

  

And in the hours before dawn they would ask forgiveness,

,

 

Also there is a Hadith narrated by Ibn Abbass May ALlah be pleased with him, saying: Whoever prays two raka'at after Isha will be considere like those mentioned in this verse (from al-Furqan ayah 64) and another similar hadith narrated by al-Kindi says: two rakaa't after maghrib and four after Isha will be like those mentioned in the ayah.

 

Allah ordered the night prayers on His Messenger (Peace be upon him) and Rasool Allah never left the night prayer. This order from Allah to His Messenger is found in Surah al-Muzzamil ayaat 2-3

 

 

 

Arise [to pray] the night, except for a little -

Half of it - or subtract from it a little

 

If we do like what these ayat ordered Rasool Allah , and even if we only pray a little at the end of the night, before the adhan of fajr prayer, we can gain so much benefit and reward. And to be considered amongst Allah's preferred slaves we must pray the qiyam al-ALail, even if it is just a few raka'a.

 

 

Surat al-Furqan Ayah 63

"And the Servants of The Rahman, those who walk on the earth tranquilly and if addressed by an ill-educated one replies in kind." (al-Furqan 63)

Stranger: In this ayah Allah the Most High refers to the believers as (عباد الرحمان)
3ibad ar-Rahman. 3ibad is plural for 3bd - servant or slave.

Dr: These servants are Allah's worshipers, His slaves and He considers them as especially preferred over others of His slaves - like VIPs in His A-List. Allah regards these of His worshipers as (تفضيلا و تخصيصا) preferred ans special. Allah loves them so much because of the characteristics of these worshipers - their sifaat which He lists in these ayat.

They are servants to ar-Rahman and to Him only - they are not slaves of any other, they do not worship any other than Allah the One. Allah refers to His beautiful name of ar-Rahman - the Most Merciful. Allah has 99 names and of all those only 2 can be used for Him only and they are Allah and Ar-Rahman. All the others we can use also, for example I can say that you are latif or kareem, which are names of ALlah, I can call someone Rahim - merciful but I cannot call anyone Allah or Ar-Rahman.

The use of Ar-Rahman here is important. Allah refers to Himself with one of His soft names - Merciful - the Most Merciful, and He bestows His Mercy on Who he wants and He is Merciful to His slaves. Also the characteristics mentioned in the next ayaat are of the merciful attributes of the mu'mineen.

Stranger: The first sifah listed is that they - the 3ibad ar-Raman - walk on the earth tranquilly.
The word used for tranquil in the ayah is (هوناً)  "hawnan" What is meant by that? How does one walk in such a way?

Dr: Walk peacefully, with tranquility, not making problems where you go, not leaving mess and rubbish, not stomping and being loud and obnoxious, not being arrogant. All this but still having dignity.

The way the phrase is structured is of interest. Hawnan is in the masdar form of "haina" which is a direct adverb if it was to come straight after the verb which is walk. In this phrase the masdar form is placed on the end of the phrase. This style of balagha brings emphasis and amplification to that word. So the way of walking in a peaceful way is very important, be very peaceful, sooooo peaceful and tranquil.

Straight after this in the same ayah we have the second sifah which is also a tranquil peaceful action and it is when the believer meets an ignoramus trouble maker they respond in a peaceful way. You know the situation when an idiot wants to get into an argument with you and really there is no benefit in it for you or for the idiot if you reply to their comment?

Stranger: Yes I know this situation. It happens a lot here in Yemen and even in the West when I lived there you always got rude comments from passers-by about your Islamic dress. On a bad day I may have responded on a good day I could just ignore and walk on.

Dr:It is best for us all if we follow the way of advice here from Allah and not let our patience slip.

Stranger: the ayah names the ignorant one as "jahiloon" that is the plural of jahil, it means more than just ignorant of knowledge, can you expand this for us?

Dr: Yes, Ignorant, or dumb or foul in language, or "kalil adab" that is poor upbringing no manners, rabble, riff raff, scum, hooligans. Any of these.

When a mu'min encounters such people and they use foul language the mu'min doesn't  lower him or herself to this low manner. A mu'min will just excuse him or herself from the situation with good words and not be drawn into useless argumentation, backbiting, slander, or other thing, this is from al-Laghoo which we covered in surat almu'minoon. It isi useless activity.

Stranger: You would not even reply in order to make dawa?

Dr: You assess the situation when you come to it but the type of jahil referred to here does not listen or understand and just wants to be crass and mad mannered. Your excusing yourself in a good way is dawa in itself.  Make dua for them for Allah to guide them or something of this nature.

Surat al-Furqan 63-76 Overview

Stranger: Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barokatuhu, Welcome back to Yemen and may Allah the Most High accept your Umrah.

Dr: Wa alaikum assalam Stranger. Amin. It is always a pleasure to make a trip to the House of Allah.

Stranger: So where will we go next on our Tafsir journey?

Dr: Surat al-Furqan ayah 63 to 76 and then ayah 77 because it is the last ayah of the Surah and we may as well look at it too.

The reason I want to go here next is that the information in the segment about the characteristics of the Mu'mineen are presented in the same layout as in Surat al-Muminoon that we covered already. Just the Characteristics (sifat) are slightly different or have a different slant on them.

First is the subject - what we call in Arabic the mubtada', then sifaat, then at the end you get the khabr - the part of the sentence that completes the thought - the clause.

Surat al-Mu'minoon starts with: Indeed successful are the Mu'mineen, then a list of sifaat, and then the prize of Jannah is mentioned at the end of all these clauses in the ayaat.

Surat al-Furqan 63 starts also with mentioning the subject but calls them "3ibad ar-Rahman" Slaves of the Merciful. Then you get sifaat in the ayaat up until ayah 75 and then you get the khabr which completes the clause and that is the prize of the highest place of Jannah for the Believers and congratulations and good words from Allah az wa Jall.

The grammatical structure and eloquence (balagha) is beautiful - as is in the entire Qur'an - and I will point out some of these features of balagha as it happens.

The first words starting the segment about the sifat al-Mu'mineen are, (و عباد الرحمان) which translates as "and slaves of the Rahman." They are Muda3af and muda3af ilahi - this is a possessive form in Arabic that the owner of the slaves (3ibad) belong to The Merciful (Ar-Rahman).

After the Subject come all of the sifat of the 3ibad ar-Rahman - what do they do and why does Allah refer to them specifically as His. These sifat continue up to surah 74 and then in Surah 75 the khabr (news/information) that completes the thought.

Stranger: Then all these ayaat run together like one long sentence?

Dr: Yes, one sentence broken up into sub-clauses in each ayah, usually one or two sifat in each to help with the list format and also helps us with memorising.

Stranger: Cool. Got it.

Dr: Alhamdulillah so now lets get onto the first ayah - ayah 63

Land of the Two Gardens

The story of the two gardens can be found in Surat al-Qalam 17-34. The owners of the gardens did not want to share their harvest with the poor so they planned to harvest their fruits early so to finish early and not be seen by the poor who would beg from them some of the produce. The men planned and did not say Insha Allah (If Allah wills), so Allah sent upon the gardens some sort of fire and the whole area turned black and barren.

When the owners saw the garden in the morning you could imagine the shock and bewilderment of what they saw – their prosperous agricultural land had all turned into blackness. They knew immediately that they had done wrong (ayah 26 “We have gone astray”). They blamed each other and then realised their sins and understood this as a punishment from Allah the Most Powerful.

To this day the land Allah turned black is still black and nothing grows in the area except dry thorny grass. You can find the land of the two gardens a half hour drive northwest of Sana’a, Yemen.

The blackness is comprehensive, and some of the pieces even look like burnt branches. To look at you might think the ground covered with wood charcoal but they are rock and very hard rocks. When scraped on the ground or hit together they sound like terracotta fired clay.

The black patches are clear from a vantage point on a nearby hillside. The black patches extend the length of the valley. You can imagine how the gardens may have looked in a lush fertile valley, as there are many valleys like this in Yemen full of agriculture but for millennia this land has remained black and untenable as it was Allah who sent the fire and blackened the earth and it remains for us to observe and reflect upon as a lesson to take heed of Allah’s warnings to us to be thankful for His blessings upon us and on how to live successfully in this life and the next

This is Ali Muhammad ar-Raqi Primary school right in the middle of nowhere with a stretch of the black land in the background.

We walked up to this village which is the only village anywhere near the black lands. The villagers are privilege to a wide view of the land of the two gardens. The people we met were very welcoming and felt embarrassed that they only had bread and tea to share with us. We were all very happy with the hospitality and were welcomed into their home without any hesitation from them.

Surat al-Qalam 17-34
Indeed, We have tried them as We tried the companions of the garden, 
when they swore to cut its fruit in the [early] morning. Without making exception. 
So there came upon the garden an affliction from your Lord while they were asleep.
And it became as though reaped.
And they called one another at morning,
[Saying], "Go early to your crop if you would cut the fruit."
So they set out, while lowering their voices,
[Saying], "There will surely not enter it today upon you [any] poor person." 
And they went early in determination, [assuming themselves] able.
But when they saw it, they said, "Indeed, we are lost; Rather, we have been deprived."
The most moderate of them said, "Did I not say to you, 'Why do you not exalt [ Allah ]?' "
They said, "Exalted is our Lord! Indeed, we were wrongdoers."
Then they approached one another, blaming each other.
They said, "O woe to us; indeed we were transgressors. Perhaps our Lord will substitute for us [one] better than it. Indeed, we are toward our Lord desirous." Such is the punishment [of this world]. And the punishment of the Hereafter is greater, if they only knew. Indeed, for the righteous with their Lord are the Gardens of Pleasure.