Friday Nasiha

General

Surah Bani Israel (Children of Israel)
[aka. Al-Isra (the Ascension)]
Chapter 17: Verse 54

Translation:

Your Lord knows you best. He will have mercy on you if He wills and chastise you if He wills. We have not charged you, (O Muhammad), to be an overseer over them.

Commentary:

The believers should never go about bragging that they are going to enter Paradise, or cockily name other persons or groups as the ones destined to enter Hell. For it is God alone Who has the authority to decide such matters. It is He alone Who fully knows about all human beings, about all things both apparent and hidden, which took place before or which will take place in the future. It is He alone Who will judge, He alone Who will decide to whom He should show mercy and whom He should punish.

All that a human being can say, enunciating the teachings of the Quran, is what kind of people deserve mercy, and what kind deserve punishment. No one has the right to categorically say that a particular person will be either chastised or pardoned by God.

Presumably this directive was occasioned by the constant oppression to which the Muslims were subjected by the unbelievers. For some of the former may have been tempted to say of their more cruel opponents that they would be consigned to Hell or that God would chastise them for their behaviour.

A Messenger’s mission is simply to invite people to the right way. The destinies of people have not been placed in his hands, nor has he been empowered to sit in judgement over them, deciding who should be cast into Hell and who should be shown mercy.

The observation made here does not imply that the Prophet (peace be upon him) had committed such a lapse and that this needed to be pointed out to him. The purpose of the statement is rather to warn the generality of Muslims against adopting such an attitude. For if even the Prophet (peace be upon him) does not have the authority to judge who deserves Hell and who deserves Heaven, then how can ordinary Muslims be justified in making these decisions.

[compiled from "Towards Understanding the Quran" Vol. V by Abul Ala Mawdudi, (The Islamic Foundation, UK), p. 51-52]

Relying and Depending on Allah

"If you relied on Allah with a true reliance, He would provide for you the same as He provides birds: they set off in the early morning with empty stomachs and return back at the end of the day with full stomachs."
[At-Tirmidhi, Ahmad]

Sh. Fadl Ilaahi said: "The one who relies upon Allah with a true reliance is provided for as birds are provided for, and how would it be otherwise, when he has relied upon the Ever-Living who does not die, and whoever relies on Him, He will suffice him." [Mafaatih ar-Rizq, 36]

[Taken from http://www.islaam.com/Article.asp?id=432]