Friday Nasiha

Living The Quran

Share of This World
Al-Qasas (The Story) - Chapter 28: Verse 77

"Seek, by means of what Allah has granted you, the life to come, and forget not your share of the present world; and do good as Allah has done good to you; and seek not to spread corruption on earth. Indeed, Allah does not like corrupters."

God has created the pleasures and luxuries of this life so that people may enjoy their share of these, and work towards obtaining them. The only proviso is that in such enjoyment of pleasures they should seek the reward of the hereafter. Thus, the wealthy neither deviate from the road leading to heaven, nor neglect their duties as a result of their riches. When they seek the hereafter, their enjoyment of pleasure becomes a form of gratitude to earn more reward. The divine way of life enables man to progress spiritually without suffering deprivation or wasting natural resources. It makes the wealthy look forward to the life to come hoping to be among the successful on the day of Judgement, without depriving him of his share of enjoyment in the present life. In fact, the divine system urges him to do so as a duty, so that he does not discard life's pleasures and look down upon the life of this world.

The money we have is a gift God has granted us out of his kindness. Hence, it should be received with gratitude and used for good purposes, and doing kindness to other people. Abu Bakr as-Siddiq said: "Your religion is your future and your money is your livelihood; there is no good in a man with no money in his name."

We should therefore live this life fully. We should be interested in it. Thus, all good things in life must be pursued, but not the love of this world. There is no true enjoyment of the good of this world if we do not adequately prepare our home in the Next world. Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz used to repeat the following verse unceasingly: "There is not good in the life of a man for whom Allah has appointed no share in the everlasting abode."

Compiled From:
"In the Shade of the Quran" - Sayyid Qutb, Vol. 13, pp. 270, 271
"In the Early Hours" - Khurram Murad, pp. 105, 106

Understanding The Prophet's Life

Publicizing Sins

Haya (shame or modesty) is one of the most important factors that keeps a person away from committing a lewd or sinful act. If a person has no feeling of shame or modesty, then there is nothing to prevent him from doing almost anything. He would do almost anything because he has nothing inside him telling him that such is not good behaviour and that he should be ashamed to act in that fashion.

When a person commits sins, his feeling of haya is lessened. As he commits more and more sins his haya is weakened more and more, to the point that it may not exist at all. When he gets to that point, he does not care what people might say or think about him. In fact, he might even start to brag or tell about the sins that he has committed. This type of person will not be forgiven and the road to repentance will be blocked for him. The Prophet, peace be upon him, has said:

"All of my nation is apt to be forgiven except for those who commit sins openly. Included among those who commit sins openly is where a person performs a deed during the night and although Allah had concealed that sin, in the morning he says, 'O so and so, last night I did such and such.' He spent the night being concealed by Allah and in the morning he uncovered Allah's concealment from himself." [Bukhari]

Compiled From:
"Commentary on the Forty Hadith of al-Nawawi" - Jamaal al-Din M. Zarabozo, p. 803

Blindspot!

Private Realities

Today's consumer can wake up to a personalized selection of news waiting on her or his computer screen, click on a saved Web address in a browser, and get the latest stock reports or sports story, complete with integrated video and animated graphics. This is the age of information when we want it, how we want it, all automatically updated to suit our tastes, as smart search engines learn our preferences. We are approaching a time when each individual lives in a personalized information and media cocoon, protecting and promoting each lifestyle, while making common issues and concerns more distant and harder to fathom.

Perhaps individuals balancing the dilemmas of a fragmented, personalized media system against the potential of a digitally networked society will make their information choices in sensible ways. Perhaps people will not turn away from the tough problems in society and the world. Given the choice to construct increasingly private realities, people may choose to link to information sources that keep them informed about the problems of those who cannot help themselves (or who cannot afford the communication technologies required to be in the political loop). However, it is also possible that people will avoid issues that (they think) do not affect them, that seem hopeless, or that require more thought and human concern than they care to give. Research on news habits and political participation patterns is not encouraging. Studies of news consumption from the late 1980s through the turn of the millennium reveal steady declines in attention to national, international, and local politics. These declines are associated with decreasing likelihood of voting. At the same time, rapidly expanding networks of digital communication offer the potential for people to stay in touch with large amounts of distant information at relatively low cost.

A prime concern is that, left to their own choices in this information environment, people may seek out only the points of view they already agree with and form virtual communities with only those people who share their religious, economic, social, or entertainment preferences. One aspect of this closing circle of information around the individual is that social reality itself becomes an increasingly personal production.

Compiled From:
"News: The Politics of Illusion" - W. Lance Bennett, pp. 252-262