Wednesday 29 October 2014

Surah Al-Qasas Verse 83

Notes taken at a brief session by Ustad AE. All Glory and praise is for Allah SWT alone, all good comes from Him and all faults are from my own self. These are my personal notes and not to be taken as Ustad's word verbatim.

Ayah 83 Surah Al Qasas :  That home of the Hereafter We assign to those who do not desire exaltedness upon the earth or corruption. And the [best] outcome is for the righteous. main focus of talk

The entire quran is relevant to every person. Even though Allah may be talking about the disbelievers or even firawn, if we analyse the ayah; it will apply to us and we will learn something for ourselves from it. So we can never look at a verse and say that it isn’t talking about me. Every muslim should try to find the message for them in every ayah.

The above verse speaks about 2 qualities, the absence of which is the cause for a “good  end” – “al –‘aaqibah” These 2 qualities are status/power and  corruption - ‘uluw and fasaad .  These 2 qualities are linked in the Quran in multiple places; and one does cause the other. The greed for power will cause corruption, whether willingly or otherwise. Islam does not allow the means to be justified by the end – hence one cannot take wrong measures to attain power in order to “fix” things – because he is causing fasaad, even though it may be unintentionally.

To understand the real and true meaning of a “good end”, a muslim must first fathom that this dunya is not meant to be comfortable and fun. According to the hadith of the Prophet SAW, this world is a “sijn” (prison) for the believer and Jannah for the disbeliever. Why did the prophet use “sijn”, he could have said its hard.. the idea he wanted us to grab is all the things a prison is associated with is exactly what this dunya is : so its not meant to be fun, or luxurious and its meant to be uncomfortable, strange, unjust, cruel, stifling, etc etc. The kuffar along with shaytan are making it a paradise for themselves, and want to drag you into it so you spend this life making this prison into Jannah when it can never be. Once you come to terms with what this dunya is, 1) you accept your circumstances and difficulties because you say I know its suppose to be tough 2) you know a better end, the best end awaits you. That is what the “good end” truly means. It is the only “good end” .. and it is for those who are not arrogant and don’t cause corruption/oppression.

These words are usually associated with political figures/ heads of states, etc but as stated earlier everything in the Quran is relevant to you. So you have to see how you are seeking status among people and how you are/could be the cause of someones’ or your own destruction.
One of the tools of destruction that the kuffar have employed is “interest”. It is the greatest oppression of its kind; however we must analyse why and how we get ourselves in situations which trap us in interest. Why are we so materialistically attached to this dunya (remember its supposed to be a prison!) that we must get ourselves into debt. Debt cannot be forgiven by Allah, because it is a right of the person you have borrowed from and only he can forgive it to you.

Having wealth or status is not impermissible and it has always existed and will always exist – it is the arrogance and feeling superior and demeaning others which is meant by the above verses.

Ibn Taimiyyah divided the people into 4 groups in his explanation of the ayah,
1)      Those who seek power and destruction eg bashar al assad
2)      Those who desire corruption without elevation, such as the thieves and criminals from the riff-raff amongst the people.
3)      The third type: Those who desire elevation without corruption, such as those who have the deen, they desire to elevate themselves by it over other than them amongst the people.
4)      Those who seek neither : this is the group that the good end is for. These people don’t want fame and don’t seek for themselves to be known, rather only spread the word and name of Allah. They would gladly give up what is rightfully theirs in order to maintain peace and are of those who join people not cause divide. Eg. Hasan ibn Ali RA who gave up his khilafa because not doing so would have spent the lives of 1000s of people although every companion would have backed him.
Al- Aali is Allah’s name and ‘uluw is His attribute and only He can have it.