Friday Nasiha

Living The Quran

Judging by Revelation
Al-Nisa (Women) - Chapter 4: Verse 105

"(O Messenger) We have revealed to you this Book with the Truth so that you may judge between people in accordance with what Allah has shown you. So do not dispute on behalf of the dishonest."

At the highly critical juncture in the life of the new Muslim community in Madinah, this verse and the ones that follow were revealed from on high giving instructions to God's Messenger and the Muslim community to ensure that justice was done to a Jewish person who was wrongly accused of theft.

The incident involved a person called Tu'mah or Bashir ibn Ubayriq of the Banu Zafar tribe of the Ansar. This man stole a shield that belonged to another Ansar Rifa'ah. Rifa'ah's nephew Qatadah ibn al-Nu'man approached the Prophet, peace be upon him, and expressed his suspicion about Tu'mah. But Tu'mah, his kinsmen and many of the Banu Zafar colluded to ascribe the guilt to a Jew called Zayd ibn al-Samin (Tu'mah placed the shield in Zayd's home). When Zayd was asked about the matter once the shield was found in his home he pleaded that he was not guilty. Tu'mahs' supporters on the other hand, waged a vigorous propaganda campaign to save Tu'mah's skin. They argued that Zayd, who had denied the Truth and disbelieved in God and the Prophet, was absolutely untrustworthy, and his statement ought to be rejected outright. The Prophet was about to decide the case against Zayd on formal grounds and to censure Qatadah for slandering Tu'mah, but before he could do so, the whole matter was laid bare by this revelation from God.

In this and the following verses the Muslims are strongly censured for supporting criminals for no other reason than either family or tribal solidarity and were told that they should not allow prejudice to interfere with the principle of equal justice for all.

With reference to the words: "By what Allah has shown you," Umar has said: "Let none of you say, I did this or that, by what Allah has showed me (as the right thing). Because, such a "showing" by Allah was only to His Prophet. As for us, our opinions can be both right as well as wrong." In fact, when someone told Umar in a case that he should judge by what "Allah showed him," Umar reprimanded him and said that that was the prerogative of the Prophet, peace be upon him.

Compiled From:
"In the Shade of The Quran" - Sayyid Qutb, Vol 3, pp. 297, 298
"Towards Understanding the Quran" - Sayyid Abul Ala Mawdudi, Vol 2, pp. 81, 82
"Tafsir Ishraq Al-Ma'ani" - Syed Iqbal Zaheer, Vol 2, pp. 318, 319

Understanding The Prophet's Life

Certainty and Good Health

Patience is essential in performing the commanded good and abstaining from the forbidden evil. This includes patience in bearing hurt and things that are said, patience in adversity, patience when tempted to arrogance in good times, and every other kind of patience.

It is not possible for a creature to be patient unless he has something by which to reassure, comfort and sustain himself. This something is the certainty of firm conviction. As the Prophet, on him be peace, said in the hadith transmitted by Abu Bakr the Veracious, may God be pleased with him: "People! Ask God for certainty and good health, for after certainty no gift of His is better than good health, so ask God for both."

Compiled From:
"Public Duties in Islam" - Ibn Taymiya, p. 102

Blindspot!

Strength in Sensitivity

When the news of the Prophet's, peace be upon him, death spread through Medina it caused infinite sorrow. Faces showed dismay; tears, sobs, and sometimes screams expressed the intensity of the pain. The Prophet had recommended that grief should be expressed but without excess, without hysteria, with restraint and dignity. Heavy silence, crossed with sighs and sobs, reigned near the Prophet's home. Umar ibn al-Khattab suddenly broke that silence and exclaimed forcefully that the Prophet was not dead, that he would come back, as Moses had done, after forty days. He even threatened to kill whoever dared declare that the Prophet was dead. His love was such, and the feeling of emptiness was so intense, that Umar could not imagine the future without the man who had guided and accompanied them. Emotion had taken hold of his being.

At this point, Abu Bakr arrived at the Prophet's home, sat at his bedside, and lifted the blanket that had been laid over the Prophet's body and face. Tears were streaming down his face as he realized that the Prophet had left them. He went out and tried to silence Umar, who, still in a state of emotional shock, refused to calm himself. Abu Bakr then stood aside and addressed the crowd, and this was when he uttered those words, so full of wisdom, that synthesized the very essence of Islam's creed: "Let those who worshipped Muhammad know that Muhammad is now dead! As for those who worshipped God, let them know that God is alive and does not die."

Umar, despite his strong character and impressive personality, had lost control of himself for a short while, his emotions seizing him so strongly that it brought out a heretofore unsuspected fragility, causing him to react like a child refusing the ruling of God, of reality, of life. By contrast, Abu Bakr, who was normally so sensitive, who wept so abundantly and so intensely when he read the Quran, had received the news of the Prophet's death with deep sorrow but also with extraordinary calm and unsuspected inner strength. At that particular moment, the two men's roles were inverted, thus showing that through his departure the Prophet offered us a final teaching: in the bright depths of spirituality, sensitivity can produce a degree of strength of being that nothing can disturb. Conversely, the strongest personality, if it forgets itself for a moment, can become vulnerable and fragile. The path to wisdom and to strength in God inevitably leads through awareness and recognition of our weaknesses. They never leave us, and the Most Near recommends that we accept them - with confidence, as Abu Bakr did, and with intensity, as Umar did, but always with humility.

Compiled From:
"In The Footsteps of The Prophet" - Tariq Ramadan, pp.209, 210