Friday Nasiha

Living The Quran

Al-Shura (The Consultation)
Chapter 42: Verse 36

Everlasting Success
"What you are given (here) is a provision for the life of this world and what is with Allah is better and more lasting for those who believe, and who put their trust in their Lord."

Opportunities are numerous and varied, but our course in life will depend on how we utilize such opportunities. The attractions of life are numerous and they come in many forms and varieties. They are made available by Allah to see how well we choose and manage our affairs in His cause, and how we apply His guidance.

Man is full of ambitions, desires, needs, and demands. A person may go after social enhancement, power, money, fame or self-service and attain well. But whatever the outcome of his toil, man's success has no permanent value except for what is done for the cause of Allah.

Allah provided numerous attractions for all of us, to be utilized and enjoyed. But this is truly a small measure if we are to compare it to what lies ahead in the heavenly bliss of paradise.

Since our life is limited, what we utilize and enjoy is for a limited time. And if all that we see on earth is only a small measure compared to what is in Paradise, try to imagine how enormous the available attractions are in Heaven!

But the marvellous Paradise is for those who qualify. It is for those who earn it. They are the believers, since through the belief in Allah they will be on the right path. It is a faith directed to noble goal - Allah, and Allah's service, with no strings attached. Such a believer puts his trust in Allah and totally relies upon Him. Such a staunch believer deserves the bounty in Paradise.

Source:
"Quranic Selections Explained" - A.S. Hashim, Vol 4, pp. 69-70

Understanding The Prophet's Life

Affairs of Worldly Life

The best understanding of the Prophet's Sunnah comes by investigation of the particular causes on which hadiths are based, or the specific occasion to which they are attached, specified in the hadith text or discoverable from the hadith, or understood from the actual circumstance to which the hadith is addressed.

An example of that is the hadith: "You know better the affairs of your worldly life." [Muslim] It is one on which some people base their evasion of the Legal injunctions in the spheres of economics, civic and political duties, and the like, because these matters - so they claim - are among worldly concerns, and we know them better, and the Messenger, entrusted them to us! But is this really what the noble hadith intends?

By no means. Among the purposes with which God sent His messengers is that they should stipulate for the people the principles of justice, the balanced norms of equity, and the regulations of the rights and duties in their worldly life, so that their standards should not clash, nor their ways differ. So texts of the Book and Sunnah have come which order and regulate everyday concerns - selling and buying, partnership and mortgaging, leasing and lending, and other matters - to the extent that the longest verse in the Book of God was sent down on the arrangement of a matter that is slight among the worldly matters, namely the writing down of debts.

The hadith is interpreted by the occasion that prompted it, namely the incident of the pollination of date-palms. The Prophet's indication to the people about this was his conjecture, for he was not an agriculturist, he had grown up in a valley not endowed with crops. But the Ansar supposed his opinion to be the way of a revealed or religious command, and so they abandoned the pollination. Its effect was bad for the yield. Then he said: "I was only conjecturing a conjecture, so do not take [from] me [what is] by way of conjecture..." to [where] he said "... You know better your own worldly affairs." And this is the story behind the hadith.

This requires profound understanding and subtle perception, as well as comprehensive, integrated study of the texts and mature insight into the goals of the Law and the reality of the religion. It also requires moral courage and inner strength to come out with the truth even if it opposes what the people are used to and what they have inherited. It is not an easy thing. This is the cost exacted from Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah by the enmity of the scholars of his time. They conspired against him until he was put in prison many times, and he died therein, may God be pleased with him.

Source:
"Approaching the Sunnah: Comprehension & Controversy" - Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, pp. 124-127

Blindspot!

Position of Specific Rituals

The wide jurisdiction of worship, its incorporation into all acts which are performed with the intention of complying with the will of God, is sometimes used as a pretext to support the erroneous view that the formal rituals of worship such as prayers, fasting, zakah and pilgrimage can be dispensed with; or that they are not very important. The truth, however, is quite contrary to this. In Islam, they are the chief means for strengthening one's attachment with God. Thus the view of those who are given to laxity in religious matters with regard to obligatory acts of worship, and who imagine that the true faith does not consist of salah and sawm, and who believe that the basis of true faith is merely purity of heart, goodness of intention and soundness of conduct is absolutely misconceived. This constitutes a fundamental misrepresentation of the Islamic teachings.

So far as the intention to live a life of righteousness is concerned, some take the view that this does not lend itself to external observation. But such intention to do good alone does not mark off true people of faith from the rest. Religion, after all, has an external aspect in the same way as it has an intearnal one.

This attitude of deliberate disregard for obligations is destructive of the very foundations of religion. For, were this viewpoint to be adopted, everyone, even those who are opposed to religion, could claim to be the most devout of all worshippers! Prayers, and all other prescribed forms of worship for that matter, serve to distinguish the ones who do really have faith and who wish sincerely to serve God from those who are content with lip service. So important is Prayer that the Prophet has said: 'salah is the pillar of the Islamic religion and whosoever abandons it, demolishes the very pillar of religion.'

Source:
Islam: The Way of Revival,"The Islamic Concept of Worship" - Mustafa Ahmad al-Zarqa, pp. 161, 162