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Sunday 13 December 2020

'Our Lord, disgrace us not on the Day of Resurrection; indeed You never go back on Your promise.


Sometime back, we shared an invocation as mentioned in the 193rd verse of Surah 3. Al-i'Imran. Today in its continuation, we are sharing the next connecting verse which makes this beautiful supplication complete wherein the true believers ask for their forgiveness by reminding Allah that He never goes back on His promises that He as made: 

رَبَّنَا وَاٰتِنَا مَا وَعَدتَّنَا عَلٰى رُسُلِكَ وَلَا تُخۡزِنَا يَوۡمَ الۡقِيٰمَةِ ​ؕ اِنَّكَ لَا تُخۡلِفُ الۡمِيۡعَادَ‏ 
(3:194) 'Our Lord, fulfil what You promised to us through Your Messengers, and disgrace us not on the Day of Resurrection; indeed You never go back on Your promise.

Such people do not doubt the fact that God will fulfil His promises. What they do doubt is whether they will be reckoned among those for whom those promises were made. Hence they pray to God to make them worthy of His promised rewards. They are afraid lest they remain targets of slander and ridicule by the unbelievers in this world, and then be disgraced in the Hereafter before the same unbelievers who may mock them once again saying that their faith has been of no avail to them.

Prominent 14th century Muslim scholar and exegete Ibn Kathir " ابن كثير " explains this verse, relating it with the life of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)  as  under:

"رَبَّنَا وَءَاتِنَا مَا وَعَدتَّنَا عَلَى رُسُلِكَ" ("Our Lord! Grant us what You promised unto us through Your Messengers'') for our faith in Your Messengers, or, and this explanation is better; grant us what You promised us by the words of Your Messengers,

"وَلاَ تُخْزِنَا يَوْمَ الْقِيَـمَةِ" ("and disgrace us not on the Day of Resurrection,''), before all creation,

"إِنَّكَ لاَ تُخْلِفُ الْمِيعَادَ" ("for You never break (Your) Promise.''), for surely, the promise that You conveyed to Your Messengers, which includes us being resurrected before You, shall certainly come to pass.

It was the Prophet's tradition to recite the ten Ayat at the end of Surah Al `Imran when he woke up at night for (voluntary) prayer. Al-Bukhari recorded that Ibn `Abbas said, "I slept one night at the house of my aunt, Maymunah. The Messenger of Allah spoke with his wife for a while and then went to sleep. When it was the third part of the night, he stood up, looked at the sky and recited,

"إِنَّ فِى خَلْقِ السَّمَـوَتِ وَالاٌّرْضِ وَاخْتِلَـفِ الَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ لاّيَـتٍ لاٌّوْلِى الاٌّلْبَـبِ " (Verily, in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the alternation of night and day, there are indeed signs for men of understanding) [3:190].

The Prophet then stood up, performed ablution, used Siwak (to clean his teeth) and prayed eleven units of prayer. When Bilal said the Adhan, the Prophet prayed two units of prayer, went out (to the Masjid) and led the people in the Dawn prayer.'' This was also collected by Muslim.

Ibn Marduwyah recorded that `Ata' said, "I, Ibn `Umar and `Ubayd bin `Umayr went to `A'ishah and entered her room, and there was a screen between us and her. She said, `O `Ubayd! What prevents you from visiting us' He said, `What the poet said, `Visit every once in a while, and you will be loved more.' Ibn `Umar said, `Tell us about the most unusual thing you witnessed from the Messenger of Allah .' She cried and said, `All his matters were amazing. On night, he came close to me until his skin touched my skin and said, `Let me worship my Lord.' I said, `By Allah I love your being close to me. I also love that you worship your Lord.' He used the water-skin and performed ablution, but did not use too much water. He then stood up in prayer and cried until his beard became wet. He prostrated and cried until he made the ground wet. He then laid down on his side and cried. When Bilal came to alert the Prophet for the Dawn prayer, he said, `O Messenger of Allah! What makes you cry, while Allah has forgiven you your previous and latter sins' He said,

«وَيْحَكَ يَا بِلَالُ، وَمَا يَمْنَعُنِي أَنْ أَبْكِيَ، وَقَدْ أُنْزِلَ عَلَيَّ فِي هذِهِ اللَّيْلَة» (O Bilal! What prevents me from crying, when this night, this Ayah was revealed to me,)

"إِنَّ فِى خَلْقِ السَّمَـوَتِ وَالاٌّرْضِ وَاخْتِلَـفِ الَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ لاّيَـتٍ لاٌّوْلِى الاٌّلْبَـبِ " (Verily, in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the alternation of night and day, there are indeed signs for men of understanding.) - (Woe to he who recites it but does not contemplate it.).''

Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, a present day Muslim scholar and exegete sums up this verse beautifully: "Instead of showing vanity on their faith, these men of vision here are seen submitting before their Lord in utter humility. They are imploring Him to forgive their sins and ease out for them the way they tread for His cause just as He has granted them the urge to accept the truth."
May Allah help us understand Qur'ān and help us to act upon the commandments of Allah contained therein. Aameen.

For more Selected Verses, please refer to our reference page: Selected Invocations / Dua " دُعا " from the Qur'anYou may also refer to our Reference Pages for knowing more about Islam and Qur'ān.
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Reading the Qur'ān should be a daily obligation of a Muslim - Reading it with translation will make it meaningful. But reading its Exegesis / Tafsir will make you understand it fully.

An effort has been made to gather explanation / exegesis of the surahs / verses (ayat) of the Qur'ān from authentic sources and then present a least possible condensed explanation of the surah. In that:
  • The plain translation has been taken from the Qur'ān officially published by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. [1]
  • The exegesis of the chapters of the Quran is mainly based on the "Tafhim al-Qur'an - The Meaning of the Qur'an" by one of the most enlightened scholars of the Muslim World Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi. [2]  
In order to augment and add more explanation as already provided by [2], additional input has been interjected from following sources: 
  • Towards Understanding the Quran
  • Tafsir Ibn Khatir
  • Muhammad Asad Translation
  • Javed Ahmad Ghamidi / Al Mawrid
  • Al-Quran, Yusuf Ali Translation
  • Verse by Verse Qur'an Study Circle
In addition the references of  other sources which have been explored have also been given above. Those desirous of detailed explanations and tafsir (exegesis), may refer to these sites.

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