Surat al-Mu'minoon ayah 6-7

إِلاَّ عَلَى أَزْوَجِهِمْ أَوْ مَا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَـنُهُمْ فَإِنَّهُمْ غَيْرُ مَلُومِينَ - فَمَنِ ابْتَغَى وَرَآءَ ذلِكَ فَأُوْلَـئِكَ هُمُ الْعَادُونَ

Except for their wives or what their right hands possess, for that they are free from blame (6)

And whoever seeks beyond that , they are transgressors (astray) (7)

//ilaa 3la azoowajihim aw ma malakat aymanuhum fa innahum ghairu maloomeen//. (6)
//faman ibtagha waraa'a dhalika fa oola'ika hum al3adoon// (7)

Stranger: Last time we discussed the characteristic of the mu'min of guarding him/herself from unlawful sex. Today we move on to ayat 6 and 7 which let us know the boundaries of halal sexual relations and these relationships are clear - your spouse, the one to whom you are legally married, and the other is what the right hand possesses. this is referring to captives or slaves. For us in this time this sounds atrocious, so can you explain for us the wisdom behind this legality.

Dr. First you need to understand that the nature of slavery or captives of war is nothing like the slavery of the Western concept. In Islam a slave has rights, the owner must provide food of the same quality of his own family and clothes of the same quality of his own family and suitable dignified accommodation. If a slave owner does not give the slave his or her rights that slave may take the matter to court and complain to the authorities.  It may sound odd because we don't have this in our current lives, the slaves have either all been freed or that we have left the Jihad and no longer taking war booty.

When a slave woman is in a mans house she is always around and seen by the man, so to protect "furoojihim" that we spoke about last session, to protect him from zina of eyes and illegal sex, Allah the Most Wise has made halal the sexual relations between the slave owner and the slave woman. Once he engages in this relationship with her, he is responsible for her as much as he is responsible for his wives and if the woman bears children, those children are not slaves and enjoy total free status as the man's legitimate children and the slave woman cannot be sold to another - she is hers and if the man wants separation from her he can simply free her and she is free - no longer a slave. Islam is responsible for the freeing of more slaves than any other group or nation.

That woman herself may have desires and needs, and the want of having children so in this system she is not merely a sex slave but a member of the family. Also as a woman she gains a mahram who not only looks after her and provides for her but protects her.

These are the limits set by Allah the Most High, the Most Merciful and He knows His creation and He is Most Wise.

What would happen to women taken as war captives by people not practicing Islam? They simply become sex slaves with no right to anything and an awful existance.

Surat al-Mu'minoon ayah 5

وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ لِفُرُوجِهِمْ حَـفِظُونَ

"alatheena hum lifuroojihim hafidhoon"

Stranger: Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barokatuhu. We will cover what we can in tafsir of the fifth ayah of al-Mu'minoon. The ayah describes the mu'mineen as those who gaurd their sexual desires. I looked up the word faraja and furooj and all the different sarf of the word before coming to the session today and found a number of meanings from an opening to desire, enjoyment and comfort to newly hatched chicks. Let's unpack this word to the meaning intended by Allah the Most High.

Dr: Furooj is a really nice polite way to say sex. It can be described as that which is between your legs. This word is in plural form so it is quite extensive in breadth of meaning, it means more than just the actual act of sexual intercourse. I want to make a grammar point before I expand upon the meaning. Allah has revealed the word farooj with the possessive pronoun afterwards - furoojihim - to imply that a Muslim is individually responsible for his or her own guarding of the private parts. So if a man blames a woman for tempting him, ok yes she was sinful in that act but he was personally responsible for himself and needed to take heed of Allah's command in guarding oneself from illegal sexual relations starting right from the eyes.

Stranger: Allah the Most High says in Surat al-Isra' 32 not to even come near to illegal sex (zina and fahisha/fawahish)

32﴿وَلاَ تَقْرَبُواْ الزِّنَى إِنَّهُ كَانَ فَاحِشَةً وَسَآءَ سَبِيلاً

And do not come near to unlawful sex. Verily, it is Fahishah (immoral sin) and an evil way.

Dr: Yes, don't even come NEAR it, it is very dangerous and a very dirty way the dirtiest. To slam the door before you even get a change to go through the door just start by of course fearing ALlah's punishment and in your actions LOWER YOUR GAZE. This is requiested of us by Allah in Surat an-Nur ayah 30 and 31.

قُلْ لِّلْمُؤْمِنِينَ يَغُضُّواْ مِنْ أَبْصَـرِهِمْ وَيَحْفَظُواْ فُرُوجَهُمْ ذلِكَ أَزْكَى لَهُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ خَبِيرٌ بِمَا يَصْنَعُونَ

 Tell the believing men to lower their gaze, and protect their private parts. That is purer for them. Verily, Allah is All-Aware of what they do.

and the same advice for the women in the very next ayah:

...وَقُل لِّلْمُؤْمِنَـتِ يَغْضُضْنَ مِنْ أَبْصَـرِهِنَّ وَيَحْفَظْنَ فُرُوجَهُنَّ

And tell the believing women to lower their gaze, and protect their private parts...

The ayah is longer and talks about wearing hijab (jilbab) we will get onto this later as it is to do with a woman protecting herself from the gaze of men (because men really love to look and are more desirous of women than women of men so to help them out a little we cover to protect ourselves from harrassment and to protect them from their gaze which can lead to other things).

The eyes are the begining of zina. We see something that attracts us, it is normal but we must have control so we lower the gaze. Rasool ALlah (sas) said in a hadith to Ali ibn abi Talib to not follow the nathr (look/gaze), the first glance is for your self (unintentional) but the second (on purpose) is against your self.

They eyes looking at what is not halal in the sense of sexual desires, is zina as in a hadith "al-ainan taznian wa zinahuma an-nathr" the eyes do zina and their zina is the gaze.

This gazing at what is not halal is often refered to as "siham iblis" the arrow of satan - like how the disbelievers have that shirk of cupid aiming his bow so people fall in love, the arrow is from satan and the nathr - gaze is an arrow from satan to make us listen to our desires and follow them and end up in serious sin.

Stranger: Islam does not condone celibacy though.

Dr: Celibacy is not from the natural disposition of man - Allah created sex to be enjoyed but in the halal way. The haram way is destructive to the individuals involved and the society. We will cover the halal sex in the next ayat of al-Mu'mineen.

Stranger: Jazakum Allahu khairan.

Surat al-Muminoon Ayah 4

وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ لِلزَّكَـوةِ فَـعِلُونَ

Stranger: We move on now to the characteristic of doing zakat. Yes doing, not paying. Can you explain this for us Dr.?

Dr: The ayah says that they - the Mu'minoon are doing their zakat - fa'iloon means to do or carry out. Also unlike the previous ayah where the ayah says that they are in "salatihim" using the possessive pronoun on the end of salat implies that the salat is for each mu'min between him/her and Allah only. This ayah says "lizakat" without the pronoun on the end because the zakat is a benefit for not only that person but others too.

The end word of the ayah "fa'iloon" means doers of. So the Mu'min are doers of zakat.

The zakat is not only the compulsory yearly payment but it is also purification of the self (nafs) as in tazkiyat al-nafs.

The word zakah in the dictionary means to grow, enlarge, to bless, to purify as well as other meanings, so we will just look at these ones. Zakat whether it be purifying the wealth by giving some away or purifying the self, is growth and increase. Allah the Most High mentions the spending in his way as increase, Allah (the Most Merciful) does not let our actions for Him go unrewarded. As He mentions in surat al-Baqarah:272


"وَمَا تُنفِقُواْ مِنْ خَيْرٍ يُوَفَّ إِلَيْكُمْ وَأَنتُمْ لاَ تُظْلَمُونَ
"...And whatever you spend in good, it will be repaid to you in full, and you shall not be wronged." 2:272

It doesn't mean that Allah Most High will send you money, He may repay you in good health and righteous children, and of course He has with Him the greatest repayment of a place in Jannat-Al-Firdous.

This zakat has to be actively done, you don't just wait for a poor person or an opportunity to come to you, you go out and actively do zakat by whatever means so long as it is not against what Allah has ordained and what is stipulated in the Sunnah of Rasool Allah (peace be upon him).

I hope that is helpful for understanding the ayah and character of the Mu'mineen.

Stranger: Insha Allah khair and thank you for your time and help in explaining this for us. How did you do in your English Exam? Maybe soon you can do lectures?

Dr: I only just passed the level - basic level!!! Years to go my sister and you have to teach me!

Stranger: I Ask Allah to guide me in my translations of our tafsir conversations and that what I diseminate here is correct. It may be missing some information but the most important thing that it is correct. This is also a reminder for readers to comment on anything that is not clear or they feel should be mentioned.

Wa alaikum Assalam wa rahmatullahi wa barokatuhu.

Al-Kashaaf - Book of Tafsir

Al-Kashaaf
by Imam Abi al-Qasim Jar Allah Mahmood bin Omr al-Zamakhshari al-Khuwarzmi
This edition is published in 4 volumes.

Other than the famous tafsirs of Ibn Kathir, Al-Tabari, Al-Qurtubi etc, we have been using this book especially for the linguistic explanations of words which have linguistic and shariah meanings. It is a great read!

Characteristics of the Mu'mineen - Surat al-Mu'minoon ayat 3

وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ عَنِ اللَّغْوِ مُّعْرِضُونَ 


Those who turn away from idle talks.
"alatheena hum ain allaghui ma'ridhoon"

Stranger: The next characteristic of Mu'mineen is the shunning of empty or idle talk. We all know how damaging idle talk can be to us and to others. I understand that laghoo extends to more than what most of us think of initially - the gossiping and so on.

Dr: Laghoo in the dictionary means errors and mistakes in talk or action. Here in the ayah it means the same and includes all types of useless talks, and anything in which there is no benefit. 

Stranger: This would then extend to types of entertainment programs on TV, like soap operas and similar programs. 

Dr: Yes, there is a lot of laghoo in the TV, and it is an easy temptation to watch these but we need to be disciplined because there are also useful programs on the TV where we can benefit in Islamic knowledge as well as in sciences and history and so on, documentaries and the like.

Stranger: What about the news? Some news spread untruths - that would be laghoo wouldn't it?

Dr: The news is useful, but we need to review our intention for watching a program and to use our intelligence when viewing it. We should know how the situation is for Muslims around the world, especially now that everything has become so messed up politically. We get ourselves informed but be aware of these untruths, and which alliances the news agency has. For example if you watch the BBC (Arabic service) you will find General Sisi presented in a more positive light than al-Jazeera where the lean is more towards revolutionaries. Also with the news now on 24 hour cycle, we don't need to waste time watching the exact same news twenty times, watch once, then again the next day when the news is updated. 

Stranger: What other things are included in laghoo?

Dr: games of no benefit like dice games, they are haram anyway. Joking and idle silliness, anything where there is no benefit. Even if for example you yell at someone without good reason, it is not haram but it is not from good manners and so no benefit. This is laghoo too.

Stranger: Someone serious about pleasing Allah would have no time for this anyway. What about sports?

Dr: Playing sports for the purpose of building strength and fitness is good but all this mass mega-spectator sports are laghoo and surrounded by haram such as illegal betting and alcohol. 

Yes, the leaving of laghoo is linked to khushoo which we discussed before. When someone seriously starts building their khushoo, they start to dislike laghoo and turn away from it, and the stronger the khushoo becomes the less desirable it is to indulge in laghoo. They end up having absolutely no interest in it in any of its forms. So shunning and turning away from laghoo increases khushoo which then benefits the Muslim in their prayer.  

stranger: This is good to know, and I hope we can all be determined to shun the laghoo and build our khushoo, so esential to reaching Mu'min Status. Thank you Dr!
 

Surat al-Mu'mineen Ayah 2 (23:2)

Characteristics of the Mu'mineen Ayah 2

(Tafsir Loghawi - linguistic tafsir references taken from tafsir  Imam Al-Khuarzmi.

Stranger: The very first thing mentioned after stating that the Mu'mineen are the successful is that they are sincere in their prayers.

  الَّذِينَ هُمْ فِى صَلاَتِهِمْ خَـاشِعُونَ

(alatheena hum fi salatihim khashi'oon)

 

They are those who are in their prayers khashi'oon.

All Muslims pray, but when a mu'min prays he or she prays with khushoo' and this is what makes all the difference. We usually find khushoo' translated as sincerity.

Dr. Yes it is sincerity, and more. Ibn Qayim al-Jawziya said that khushoo' is the soul (ruh) of prayer. So if you have no soul in something it is dead, and so prayer without khushoo' is just movements and the prayer is dead.

Stranger: How is khushoo' manifested in prayer?

Dr. It all comes from the heart and it affects the mind, body and soul. The Messenger of Allah (peace upon him) said that if their is khushoo' in the heart the whole body will be in harmony. to get khushoo' in one's heart on must have mindfulness of Allah, that Allah is watching your salat (and all actions) very closely. Like when we are summoned by the boss or someone in authority, we may feel some shyness and lower our gaze and speak in a polite and respectful way, so when we pray, we need to remember that it is ALLAH who has summoned us to stand before Him and is watching and hearing our prayer. We are praying to Him and need to feel the awe in our hearts of His Greatness and Majesty.

When we stand in prayer before Allah we humble ourselves, and lower our gaze to the place of sujood (prostration). We don't fidget, scratch, adjust our clothing, pick our nose or any other action outside salat. Such fidgeting is not khushoo'. A man was fidgeting with his beard while praying and The Messenger of Allah  said that if he had khushoo' in his heart his body would have khushoo'. Meaning that he would not fidget.

Stranger: So it would also not be khushoo' when during salat we start getting thoughts and think of other things, remember things we need to do and so on.

Dr. Of course, this is not khushoo, this is shaytan interrupting your concentration when in front of Allah. Shaytan always wants us to forget our duty to the Creator.

Stranger: So khushoo of the mind - concentrating on what one is doing while praying and blocking out other thoughts is part of building khushoo.

Dr. It is essential - how can we pray to Allah while thinking about our duniya things and what we are going to do after praying. This is Allah the Highest we are in front of, not some feeble  school principal or boss at work!

One needs the correct and pure  intention - the niyah. Salat is not just movements and words. All actions are by intention as the hadith reported by Omar goes. You hear adhan and immediately you start making the niyah and the khushoo' starts to build, through wudu, through walking to the masjid or preparing a place to pray inside the house, praying the Sunnah, making the supplications and then when in prayer and reciting the verses of Allah, we don't just ramble it off like an automatic pilot, we pronounce each word and know its meaning. Know what you are saying when you recite.

Stranger: Yes, my khushoo' improved a lot once I had done tafsir studies of the surat that I had memorised. Understanding the ayat made a  great improvement in focusing my mind and eyes and of course my heart as the meanings are so powerful and intense and that feeling of awe and sublimity of Allah the All-Powerful grow.

Dr: Exactly, I should also point out that khushoo is essential in dua. The dua with sincerity is like a sword - very powerful.

Stranger: SubhanAllah

 Dr: The khushoo' is from the heart and then affects the rest of our body, so that is important for us to note when trying to follow they way of the mu'mineen. The heart is essential.

Just another thing to note other than khushoo' is that ALlah said in the ayat that they are "fi salatihim" and not fi salat. This should be noted as it is very specific that the prayer is upon each and every individual to be responsible over each and every one of his or her prayers.

Stranger: So a true mu'min doesn't have a bad hair day in relation to the prayer, they are all with khushoo'. On paper it looks easy, but it takes real serious effort and faith, but we are all capable of achieving it if we truly want to please Allah.

Dr: Yes, there is no time for a bad hair day in salat! They are all important. May Allah keep us steadfast and khashi'een in our salat and may he accept our sincere salat and dua.

Stranger: Amin

Characteristics of the Mu'mineen from Surat al-Mu'mineen Ayah 1

The Characteristics of a Believer from Ayaat of Quran Series

Tafsir with Dr. Anaya Abu Talib, Sana’a Yemen

(Conversation conducted in Arabic with translation by al-Ghariba)

Part 1 – Surat al-Mu’minoon ayah 1

Al-Ghariba: Thank you Dr. for taking time to take part in this project of promoting Islam. I know you have started studying English in order to spread the dawa directly. How is the English study going?

Dr: Terribly. It is a very slow process. Khair Insha Allah.

Al-Ghariba: Today we start discussing the characteristics of a believer (sifaat al-Mu’min) as laid down in Allah’s Book. We are starting with the opening line of Surat al-Mu’minoon which is a very triumphant statement. 

 قَدْ أَفْلَحَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ

Indeed successful are the believers (qad aflahal-muminoon)

Dr: Yes it is especially triumphant and what we all should be aiming for.

Al-Ghariba: so let’s start with a quick vocabulary rundown, what do these words mean linguistically?

Dr: qad at the start of the ayah signifies the absoluteness of the verb following, so in this there is no doubt at all. The verb aflaha means to be successful, so in this there is absolutely no doubt about that success, it has come to pass, it is done. And mu’minoon means believer but a higher level of faith than just a Muslim, but we will get onto that next.

Al-G: Why is the ending of mu’minoon not with een – as in mu’mineen.

Dr: This is because the oon ending is marfoo3, and in this ayah, mu’minoon is like what you say in English is the subject so it is marfoo3 and takes the oon ending. I don’t want to go into too much detail in grammar just now. The -oon ending also makes the ayat melodical when you recite - it is something of the beauty of the way Arabic is used so that some of they ayat rhyme.

Al-G: Ok, so then let’s look closer at the meaning of success in the ayah. What is the success?

Dr: It is not like the success of this life, it is a success much greater for the Hereafter, and it is an eternal success which never fades. The success of duniya is interchanging with failure and with hardship there is ease, this is the continuum of this life but the success of the Mu’min by doing the right things now in this life give tranquillity and sabr and for the Hereafter will result in a never ending success and fortune in Paradise Jannat al-Firdaus. May Allah make us of those who will be successful.

Al-G: Amin Amin ya rabil-alameen! You mentioned that the Mu’min is a higher rate than a Muslim, can you explain the difference between these two?

Dr. All of us are Muslim, we submit to Islam – we accept Allah is the One True God and Muhammad is His Messenger, but the Mu’min has a higher level of iman and piety and have the characteristics and actions mentioned in the following ayaat of the Surah. Only Allah knows who they are, we can’t say, “so and so is a Mu’min”, because we don’t know, we cannot see what is in the heart. If we think someone is a Mu’min and we want to praise them (carefully) we might say, “so and so has the character of a mu’min”, and make dua for that person because we don’t want to give them hasad (the eye).

Allah says in His Book about saying one is a Mu'min,

"The Beduin say, "We believe" Say, "You do not believe but rather say, "We have submitted"; for faith has not yet entered into your hearts" Al-Hujarat:14

We will see in the next ayah how important faith in the heart is in order to be like a Mu'min.

Tafsir Talk by Concentrating on Themes

Bismillahi ar-Rahman ar-Rahim
Assalamu Alaikum,


We hope to present tafsir of Quran through topics that affect our everyday lives and worship of Allah the Most High.

Our approach is to choose a topic then go through all ayaat of Quran that deal with the issue. The first issue we will concentrate on is the Characteristics of Believers - Sifaat al-Mu'minoon. We will start with Surat al-Mu'minoon then move to the start of Surat al-Baqarah and then other ayaat.

Our method is to meet two times per week and discuss a single ayah at each meeting. We discuss in Arabid then Al-Ghariba (me) takes notes in English then cross checks the notes with the Dr and then makes an article generally representing our conversation.

We try to keep each post as short as possible covering the most important information so not to create boredom in reading long articles.  We don't claim to know everything and so if we do get something wrong or leave out something, please let us know.

If you have any topics you would like to see in the future send us an email or post.

We hope you will benefit from our posts and we hope for ajr of Allah.

Wa salam
al-Ghariba

Introducing Us - the Dr and the Stranger

The Dr is  Yemeni with a Phd in Arabic language focussing on the way Arabic langauge is used in the Quran. She has a strong knowledge of tafsir loghawi (linguistic explanations of Quran) as well as tazkiya an-nafs (purification of the self). Dr is active in many Islamic pursuits such as being involved with the running of an orphanage with over 400 orphans, a school and regularly lectures publically on Islamic topics to the local people in Sana'a.

The Dr wanted to widen her dawa activites by speaking about Islam in English and has embarked upon the journey of learning English. So far she has only very basic English so decided to go into collaboration with al-Ghariba - "the stranger", to make dawa to English speaking Muslims and non-Muslims with al-Ghariba making translations of their tafsir discussions.

Al-Ghariba is a muhajirah in Yemen and has been in Yemen since 2008. Al-Ghariba is a recluse and doesn't do much face to face dawa  and so collaborating with the Dr has opened a way for her to use her Arabic skills, do dawa to her fellow English speaking Muslism and non-Muslims and to spend time chatting about Islamic topics with the Dr.thus increasing her knowledge.

The Dr and al-Ghariba welcome constructive comments and questions from all.