Surat al-Furqan Ayah 70-71 - Repentence to Allah

"But he who repents and believes and does good deeds, then Allah will change their evil  with virtues. And Allah is Forgiving, Merciful". (Surat al-Furqan 70)


Stranger: Back in Ayah 69 Allah mentions the punishment for those who commit shirt, murder and adultery. In Ayah 70 and 71 Allah the Most Merciful explains how, if we are doing these sins, we can reform ourselves and avoid the devastating punishment as well as please Allah with clean living. There are three things that need to be fulfilled, they are:

1. To repent to Allah the Forgiver and this repentance must be sincere, and to be sincere the next two must be followed.
2. Belief in Allah The Greatest. With Iman comes desire to please Allah and loss of desire for former sins.
3. Do good deeds - do not return to former sins and act piously and fear Allah.

Dr: Yes how merciful is Allah and how great is His ability to forgive, and He spells it out for us in His book of true guidance.

"Indeed Allah does not forgive association (of other gods, deities) with him but he forgives other than that as He pleases and whoever associates other with Allah indeed has committed a grave sin." An-Nisa:4

Allah accepts repentance and can even change those evils into virtue as is mentioned in the ayah, so what does this look like? The former mushrik (polythiest) will be changed into a mu'min in Allah's Oneness - upon true tawheed, the murderer will no longer kill and if he does kill it would be for Allah's cause in jihad to establish Islam or other legislated killing. And if the repenter was a zani (adulterer) that would be changed to chastity or faithfulness to ones spouse. Allahu Akbar He is able to do all things.

Stranger: Ayah 71 further confirms Akkah's capacity to forgive those who repent to Him and continue on His straight path not returning to former crimes.

"And who repents and does righteous work indeed has repented to Allah in an accepted way." (Surat al-Furqan:71)

Dr: Allah loves those who repent and He loves those who are "mutatahhareen" clean - that is clean of physical filth as well as the inner cleanliness of repenting and asking forgiveness from Allah, with constant remembrance and supplication.

" Say, O servants of mine who have committed excess against their own selves, don't despair the mercy of Allah as indeed Allah forgives all sins and He is The Forgiving and The Merciful." (Surat az-Zumar:53)

Surat al-Furqan Ayah 69 - Punishment

"The punishment will be doubled for him on the Day of Resurrection and he will live in it humiliated." (Al-Furqan 69)

//yudhaa3af lahu al3athabu yawmal-qiyaamati wa yakhlud fihi muhaana//

Stranger: This ayah directly links with the previous ayah regarding which actions earn this punishment - ayah 68

The three crimes listed in ayah 68 - committing shirk, killing unjustly, committing zina attract the double or in some translations multiplied punishment that is referred to in this ayah. Dr can you tell me is the punishment doubled or multiplied. I ask because of the differences in English translations.

Dr: I prefer it means doubled. Either way doubled or multiplied it is still an awful punishment. It is doubled because the criminal is punished for his crimes and for shirk. Let me explain that. If one starts committing shirk and praying to or worshipping something or someone other than Allah The One then it is natural that they will start to incline to other criminal behaviour. When someone kills without due cause, his iman leaves him at that point of the crime as well as for zina a persons iman leaves them at the time of the crime, so having your iman leave you means that you have worshipped other than Allah be it the whispers of Satan to satisfy your immediate desires or a corrupt leader or what ever else one might worship and follow. It was and still is well established that if someone has no iman then killing and zina are easy for them so they get the double penalty in Hellfire. They are living in Hell - that is one punishment and they are there with huge humiliation and that is the doubling of their punishment. The ones who associate others in Lordship with Allah and kill and do zina are very arrogant in duniya (this world) and so that arrogance needs to be punished by humiliation in akhirah (Hereafter).

In the ayah the verb "to double" is in the passive construction so that the punishment is "marfoo3" that is a raised importance in grammar - thus emphasising the punishment in the sentence.

Surat al-Furqan Ayah 68 (Tawheed, killing and zina)

"And those who do not invoke besides Allah any other and do not kill the soul that Allah has made illegal except with just right and do not partake in illegal fornication and whoever does that will meet the penalty" (al-Furqan 68)

//wal atheena la yada3oona ma3a Allahi ilaaha akhara wa la yaqtuloona an-nafsa alati harrama Allahu ila bilhaqi wa la azinoona wa man yaf3al thalika yalqa athama//

Stranger: This week's ayah is not long but very heavy in content. It opens the basis of Tawheed (oneness of Allah) , illegal killing and zina.

Dr: First we will look at the condition in which this ayah was sent. Rasool Allah (peace upon him) was asked what is the gravest sin in Allah's view. Rasool Allah answered, "That you set up partners in worship with Him when He created you."

Then Rasool Allah was asked, "Then what?" and he replied, "That you kill your child in fear that he will eat with you." (Meaning killing a child in fear of poverty).

Then Rasool Allah was asked, "Then what?" and he replied. "That you commit adultery with your neighbours wife." (Hadith recorded in Bukhari, Muslim and an-Nisa'i)

This exchange occurred and then the ayah was revealed to Rasool Allah that we see now as ayah 68 of surah al-Furqan. The hadith is rather specific where the ayah of from Allah is more general and wide reaching.

Stranger: The tawheed part is obvious, and is the foundation of our creed and the first pillar of Islam - la ilaha ila Allah. All worship is to him, all dua and supplication to Him and not to is Messenger or pious predecessors or things. No lucky charms, lucky rituals and so on.

Dr: yes basically that is it, but to explore the layers of tawheed with justice we would need a second blog just dedicated to the subject.

Stranger: The second point refers to illegal killing - murder in other words. So what is legal killing?

Dr: Legal killing is that which is done within the boundaries and regulations set by Allah. For example if someone committed a crime which invokes a death sentence and the judge finds the individual guilty and sentences him to death, then that is legal - must be sure however that the court is fully adherent to shariah and the judge has properly examined all evidence and legalities and if any doubt remains then the death sentence cannot be passed.

Another legal killing is for example is someone invades your house to do harm to you and your family or steal from your wealth, and you kill that person, in shariah law you are not at fault as this comes under self defence against an aggressor.

The other killing is of animals - we must give animals their rights too in how we slaughter them for meat. There are regulations to ensure the animal does not suffer and that Allah's name is mentioned over the animal at the time of slaughter.

Killing out of anger and passion crimes, or corrupt rulings, fighting for other than the cause of Allah and so on, all of this is illegal killing and we need to stay away from it.

Accidental killing like in a car accident is a different matter and their is legislation for this.

Stranger: The sin of zina - illegal fornication of any type is mentioned here again, we won't repeat it but you can find our previous notes on zina at surat al-Mumineen ayah 5 and surahs 6-7

Surat al-Furqan ayah 67 - Don't waste or be Miserly

"And those who if they spend, they are not wasteful nor miserly, they are between the two balanced." Ayah 67

//wa alatheena ithaa anfaqoo lam yusrifoo wa lam yaqturoo wa kana baina thalika qawman//



Dr: Today we will start by looking at the meaning of waste and being wasteful.

A little grammar first - in the ayah, the verb is in the third person plural (يسرفوا)but you will notice that the ending is with the letters 'waw' and 'alif' rather than 'nun'. This is because of the negative particle before the verb - 'lam' (لم). This particle is of the "haroof al-jazm" so the verbs that come afterwards are in the present form with a sukoon ending. For verbs in 3rd person plural, the rule is the delete the nun - 'hathf an-nun". So just in case you were wondering why the verb is taking this shape, that is the reason.

Stranger: In English this is referred to as jussive mood. Those who studied European languages or Latin will be familiar with this term.

Dr: That is a bit confusing - jussive - just remember if there is a lam negative particle before a verb, the verb afterwards is in the present form with a sukoon - no sound on the end, and for the 3rd person plural (they) the nun is deleted and an alif added.

Being wasteful is buying, or using more than we need, of money, electricity, petrol, paper -  anything that we use or consume.

Allah commands us not to waste and He hates those who waste extravagantly. Here is an ayah where Allah the Most Merciful mentions his hate for waste.

"O Children of Adam, take your adornment whenever you go into a masjid and eat and drink but do not waste as verily Allah does not like the wasteful." 7:31

Stranger: One of the things I see as being a severe source of waste is the constantly changing fashions and trends. Those who follow these are constantly buying new clothes, or updating their phone when the previous phone was still fine or in richer people, buying a new car every year in order to have the latest model. Of course we don't see this too much in Yemen because most people are poor, but I do see the phone trend.

Dr: The phone trend - not like you with your $20 phone with the screen in dot matrix.

Stranger: It calls people and even receives calls! and no one ever wants to steal it!

Dr: Ahsan but I want to clarify that buying an expensive item when there are cheaper ones is not waste - I personally have Samsung 3. It is not waste as I use it, and you know the 4 is out. It would be waste if I bought it when my 3 is still in perfect order. Also buying a quality item that is more expensive is not waste. Just buying what you don't need is, as well as buying things that are haram - like the obvious things - pig meat would be waste, or alcohol, as well as buying music, yes, music is haram and spending money on it is haram and waste.

la khair fi israf wa la israf fi khair - there is no good in waste and no waste in good.

On the other end of the scale is being miserly by not spending or consuming even when that thing is necessary of beneficial. Allah commands us to take the middle path - even in spending.

"And do not tie your hand to your neck, not outstretch it completely lest you become blameworthy (in severe poverty.) " Surat al-Isra:29

Having your hand tied to your neck implies stinginess and having in completely extending implies wastefulness so we must be in between and keep our commitments to our family and sadaqa and so on.

In the famous story of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (raa) when he gave away his entire wealth to sadaqa in the way of Allah, He said that he has left his family with Allah and His Messenger. Abu Bakr's giving away of all his wealth was not waste as it was in good - khair. However for most people it is not recommended to give away your entire wealth, but to leave some for taking care of family and commitments. Abu Bakr (raa) was on a much higher level of iman and so too were his family.

The final word in the ayah (qawman) means to take a middle way between two extremes. So in this case the two extremes are wasteful spending and miserliness. A scholar said, "the hasan (good) is between two evils"

Surat al-Furqan Ayah 65 - 66 - Fear Hellfire

وَالَّذِينَ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا اصْرِفْ عَنَّا عَذَابَ جَهَنَّمَ ۖ إِنَّ عَذَابَهَا كَانَ غَرَامًا

 "And those who say "Our Lord divert from us the punishment of Hell, indeed it is a grievous punishment" (Al-Furqan 65)

//walatheena yaqooloona rabbanaa asrif 3naa 3thaaba jahannama inna 3thaabahaa kaana gharaama//

 

 

"Indeed worst is it as an abode and place of rest" 66

  (note that the number on this hadith is up one because the people at the website list bismillahi ar-Rahman ar-Rahim as ayah 1)

Stranger: Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.

Dr: Wa alaikum assalam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Are you ready? You were absent last week.

Stranger: I'm ready, lets dig up some tafsir.

Dr:  Vocabulary first. Yaqooloona - they say (referring to what the mu'mineen say) it is in the present continuous because the believers say it constantly, daily. There is a dua to say immediately after the salams of fajr and maghrib prayer. It goes like this:

"Allahumma ajrnee min an-nar"

It is nice and short, memorise it and make this dua after fajr and maghrib prayer before you make any other dua.

asrif - this is in command form as a request - a dua to Allah to do what is in that verb - to divert or change direction.

3thaaba jahannama - the punishment (3thab) of Jahannam - Hell. This is what the believers as Allah the All Powerful to divert from them. And anyone who knows anything about hellfire will want it diverted from them! They go on to describe in a few words the horror of the punishment of Hellfire by describing the punishment as (gharaaman)

Gharam is a term we will focus most upon today.

Stranger: Good because I find none of the English translations of the meanings of Quran really give justice to the significance of this word.

Dr: In Duniya, think of the most absolutely worst place to exist - in the sewers, in a Iraqi prison, where ever, it is bad but absolutely not even a scratch on the horrors of Hellfire.

Gharaman in this ayah is referring to the Hellfire. Hell fire wants to grab the disbelievers, the fire is angry. Imagine someone killed your child for example, you would be angry and outraged beyond words, and if you came face to face with the killer you would want to strike out, you would not be able to keep yourself back. Hellfire is like this, it is angry at the disbelievers denial of the truth, of their disbelief in Allah the Creator of the worlds.

On the Day of Reckoning, we will be able to see Hellfire, and millions of angels (70,000 chains or leashes being pulled by 70000 angels each(hadith recorded in Muslim) all these angels if you calculate = 49 million angels) and  the size of these angels the distance between their ear and their shoulder is 500 years riding on a fast horse (recorded in abu Dawood), hold back the hellfire from jumping out angrily at the disbelievers. It is like the Hellfire is a living creature, not just a fire. In a hadith recorded by al-Bukhari, Rasool  Allah peace upon him said that the fire of this world is one part of seventy of Hellfire.

There are some Ayat that describe how Hellfire will roar and boil. they are:

إِذَا رَأَتْهُمْ مِنْ مَكَانٍ بَعِيدٍ سَمِعُوا لَهَا تَغَيُّظًا وَزَفِير

“When the Hellfire sees them from a distant place, they will hear its fury and roaring,” (Qur’an 25:12).

and;

إِذَآ أُلْقُواْ فِيهَا سَمِعُواْ لَهَا شَهِيقًا وَهِىَ تَفُورُ تَكَادُ تَمَيَّزُ مِنَ الغَيْظِ

“When they are thrown into it, they hear from it a (dreadful) inhaling while it boils up. It almost bursts with rage […]” (Qur’an 67:7-8).

 Many people disbelieve and Hellfire is amazed and enraged and it will be asked of the disbelievers, "didn't messengers come to you?" and the disbelievers will no longer deny they will reply, "Indeed and we denied them."

Stranger: SubhanAllah this is scary stuff.

Dr: You know when I give lectures about the characteristics of the Mu'mineen here in Sana'a, the women ask me exasperatedly, "Why are you talking about all this horror of Hellfire, we came to hear about being Mu'mineen".

Stranger: Yeah, and what do you tell them?

Dr: I tell them this ayah that we are studying today - fearing hellfire is a characteristic of a mu'min and how better to fear hellfire than to know about its horror? sah am la?

Stranger: Yes the more you know the more you fear, or love, or hate. Like when we study sirat an-nabi (life of Rasool Allah) one cannot help but love him more and more. The more we know about Hellfire indeed the more we will do as Allah wants for his servants in worshiping Him, the One.

Thank you Dr for today's lesson, sorry about my absence for the past two weeks, really I feel I have been fed well today.

Dr: Allahumma barik fiki


See more about hellfire here