Issue 163 » March 29, 2002 -
General
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Living the Quran
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Translation:
Surah al-Nisaa' (The Women)
Chapter 4: Verse 58
"Allah commands you to deliver trusts (amanaat) back
to those worthy of them;
and when you judge between people, to judge with justice ('adl).
Excellent is that to which Allah exhorts you. Surely, Allah is All-Hearing
and All-Observing."
Background
The context of these verses indicates that here Allah is warning the Muslims to not follow in the footsteps of the past nations and communities (in particular the Israelites), who would often betray the trusts of God and common people and commit injustices.
Learning from the Mistakes of Past Nations
1- One of the fundamental mistakes committed by the Israelites was that in the time of their degeneration they had handed over the positions of trust (i.e. religious and political leadership) to incompetent, mean, immoral, and corrupt people. Therefore, Muslims are directed in this verse to: return the trusts (amaanat) back to those people they are due and to entrust the positions of responsibility to those who are capable of shouldering the burdens of such positions.
2- The other major weakness of the Israelites was that they completely lost their sense of justice and fairness ('adl). In their pursuit of either personal or national interests, honesty and good faith were often sacrificed. The Muslims in the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him), were themselves subjected to gross injustices at their hands. On the one side there was the Prophet and his followers, to whose purity of life and conduct the Jews were themselves witnesses. On the other side were those who worshipped idols, buried their daughters alive, married their step-mothers and circumambulated the Ka'abah naked.
Despite this, the Jews at the time of the Prophet Muhammad (sall Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) felt no shame in declaring that the latter were more closer to righteousness than the Muslims. Therefore, the Muslims are now being warned that they should rather declare what is right and wrong in the face of a friend or a foe, and should treat everyone with justice and peace.
Keys of the Ka'abah
It is interesting to note that it is precisely this verse [4:58] that the Companions heard Prophet Muhammad reciting on the day Makkah was subdued, when he was handing back the keys of the Ka'abah to Uthman bin Talha, from whom the Prophet had borrowed them.
It is reported that after the Prophet's visit to the House of Allah was over, Abbas or Ali (may Allah be pleased with them) requested to the Prophet that the keys of the Ka'abah be entrusted to them. Instead, the Prophet (peace be upon him) recited, "Allah commands you to deliver trusts back to those worthy of them..." and gave the keys back to Uthman bin Talha, who possessed them when Makkah was conquered. [Ibn Kathir and al-Qurtubi]
Sayyidna 'Umar (radhi Allahu 'anh) states that he had never heard the Prophet recite this verse on any earlier occasion. It is reported that it was this occasion, and the powerful message of this verse as well as the noble character of the Prophet (sall Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) that he demonstrated by returning the Amaanah to whom it initially belonged, that led 'Uthman bin Talha to accept Islam!
It should also be noted that it was the same Uthman bin Talha who had once tried to rudely obstruct the entry of the Prophet into the Ka'abah before the Migration (Hijrah). [al-Shafi'i and al-Raazi]
Unique Justice of Islam
"This Ummah (community of Islam) has been raised in order to administer justice - whenever it has the power to do so - and it is a special kind of justice: a kind of justice humanity has never experienced, at least not in the form and fashion that it once experienced in the heyday of Islam, in the heyday of Muslims, at those times when they were at the helm of affairs. It is a kind of justice that humankind has since been missing, since the times the Muslims lost a say in running the state," states Sayyid Qutb.
[compiled from "Tafsir Ishraq Al-Ma'ani", Vol II, by Sayyid Iqbal Zaheer and
"Towards Understanding the Quran", Vol II, by Sayyid Abul 'Ala Mawdudi]
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Prophetic
Guidance
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"You will come to be governed by the rulers who will indulge in good (ma'roof) as well as evil (munkar). So one who regarded their evils as such, he attained salvation, and also the one who raised his voice against their evils. But the one who approved of them and followed them was doomed."
[Muslim]"By One is Whose Hand is my life, you must go one calling people to virtue (ma'roof) and forbidding evil (munkar), otherwise it may be that Allah will visit you with His Punishment and then you will cry to Him for relief but He will not hear you!"
[Tirmidhi]Which of us has not observed the affairs of Muslims in the world today and wondered what on earth is going on? Which of us has not questioned in disbelief how heartless and complacent our 'leaders' have become to our brothers and sisters who depend upon them? What did we do to deserve such rulers, tyrants, and incompetent representatives for ourselves?
In short, we did NOTHING. We were born Muslims and most of us will die as such, but our awareness of Allah and our relationship with Him hangs by the thread. We know little of our Deen and we practise convenient portions of it in our free time. We realize not our responsibilities of being examples of goodness, standing up for justice and rejecting oppression: the three basic elements needed for social reform.
Yet we still feel the need to blame others, including Allah, for our sad state. We direct criticism at our fellow Muslims, our 'corrupt scholars', our 'sell-out politicians', and other nations and faiths; everyone but ourselves. Allah's sunan (ways) are clear: He will give honour and dignity to the righteous, disgrace and humiliate those indifferent to Him, and when those who have the ability to enjoin good and forbid evil abandon this duty, He will punish us all together until we collectively return to His Way.
Let us take the Prophetic advice. We can not afford to have our dua's go unanswered, we can not have the blood of our brothers and sisters on our consciences, and Allah's Punishment is not a thing we can bear. Why don't you and I start today to raise our voices more often with words of Truth and Goodness in every situation of life, so perhaps those who have hearts may listen, instead of further contributing to the 'noise and clatter' in the world with trivial words of complaint and superficial emotions!
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Islamic
Vocab.
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Iman ('eemaan)
e.g. one can have Iman if there is no threat of war- it also implies having found refuge in something or having a guarantee of protection
e.g. one can have Iman in a guardian that will not abonden them- alternatively, means having faith, trust, and reliance in something or to testify to its truthfulness and reliability
e.g. one can have Iman in a trustee of valuable goods- in Islamic terminology, to have Iman is to have have knowledge and assurance of Allah's love, mercy and protection, to have found peace and refuge in Him from all fear and danger in this life and the hereafter, to have hope of and trust in His promises and to testify to the truth of His angels, prophets and revelations
- Iman is not just 'to have faith' or 'to believe in' something blindly but a strong mental and spiritual conviction based upon reason, knowledge and personal experience that both the heart and mind are at peace with, leading to inner contentment
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Community
& Society
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How do we keep the bonds of Islamic brother/sisterhood intact to fulfill our goals as an Ummah, especially in North America, where our diversity is even more marked than in other parts of the world? In the continuing series, we will present ten practical ways you and your community can build unity.
3) Learn tolerance towards other points of view
Isn't it interesting that we can attend classes at college or speak with colleagues from work and discuss issues while being willing to disagree with them? But the minute some of us step into a mosque or Muslim community function, all that tolerance seems to go out the window.
Islam is very broad and wide, contrary to popular belief, and you can find a range of scholarly views on issues as diverse as how to place our hands during prayer to whether or not Muslims should participate in the American political process. If our scholars from the past and present have shown such tolerance towards differing views on various issues, who are we, the average Muslim, who do not have that level of knowledge, to express intolerance for another point of view?