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Showing posts with label Verse 104. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Verse 104. Show all posts

Saturday 12 March 2022

Selected verses from Qur'an: Do not worship others beside Allah

When last of the prophets Muhammad ﷺ proclaimed his prophethood and conveyed to the disbelievers of Makkah and all those who worshiped gods other than One Omnipotent Allah or associated humans at par with Allah, he faced a stiff resistance from the idolators who were not willing to leave the traditions and culture of their forefathers. At that time the 104th verse of Surah 10. Yunus (Jonah) was revealed in which Allah commands His prophet to plainly tell the disbelievers that he will never serve anyone beside Allah.

After more than 1400 years since the advent of Islam, this message still stands clear as it was when this revelation was revealed:

قُلۡ يٰۤاَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اِنۡ كُنۡتُمۡ فِىۡ شَكٍّ مِّنۡ دِيۡنِىۡ فَلَاۤ اَعۡبُدُ الَّذِيۡنَ تَعۡبُدُوۡنَ مِنۡ دُوۡنِ اللّٰهِ وَلٰـكِنۡ اَعۡبُدُ اللّٰهَ الَّذِىۡ يَتَوَفّٰٮكُمۡ​ ۖۚ​ وَاُمِرۡتُ اَنۡ اَكُوۡنَ مِنَ الۡمُؤۡمِنِيۡنَۙ‏ 
(10:104) (O Prophet!) Tell them: 'Men! If you are still in doubt concerning my religion, know that I do not serve those whom you serve beside Allah. I only serve Allah Who will cause (all of) you to die. I have been commanded to be one of those who believe,
The Arabic word literally means "gives you death", but it has been purposely translated into "who has power to cause your death" in order to convey its real spirit in the content it occurs. It implies this: "I worship only that One, who has full power over your life: He has complete authority and power to let you live as long as He wills and cause you to die at any moment He wills. That is why I am fully convinced that I should submit and surrender, worship, serve and obey Him alone."

Now let us consider why of all His characteristics, this quality of Allah was specifically cited here. This was to bring home to the mushriks of Makkah that the doctrine of shirk was absolutely false. For they also believed (and all the mushriks have always believed) that death is entirely in the hands of Allah, the Lord of the universe, and none else has any power over it; so much so that they confessed that even those beings, whom they believed to be partners with God in other qualities and powers of, His, could not avert death even from themselves. Thus the mention of this quality of Allah along with the statement of the Doctrine of Tauhid has been made to serve as a proof of that creed. That is, "I serve Him only for He alone has the full power over life and death. Why should, then, I serve others who have no power at all over their own lives and deaths, not to mention the lives and deaths of others?" The eloquence and force of the statement has been enhanced manifold by saying, ".......Who gives you life and death" instead of ".....Who gives me life and death". For this contains the statement of the Doctrine, its proof and invitation to it, all the three combined in one concise sentence. Had it been said, "...I serve that one Who gives me death," then it would have implied, "I alone should serve Him". But by saying. "......Who gives you death" the implication is: "It is not only I, who should serve Him, but you also should serve Him. For it is absolutely wrong to serve any other than Allah, Who alone has such powers."

And the next verse makes abundantly clear that be not those who associate others with Allah in His divinity.
وَاَنۡ اَقِمۡ وَجۡهَكَ لِلدِّيۡنِ حَنِيۡفًا​ ۚ وَلَا تَكُوۡنَنَّ مِنَ الۡمُشۡرِكِيۡنَ‏  
(10:105) and to adhere exclusively and sincerely to the true faith,108 and not to be one of those who associate others with Allah in His divinity.

Tafsir Ibn-Kathir
"The Command to worship Allah Alone and rely upon Him." Allah, the Exalted, says to His Messenger, Muhammad , `Say: O mankind! If you are in doubt about the correctness of that which I have been sent with the Hanif (monotheism) religion - the religion which Allah has revealed to me -- then know that I do not worship those whom you worship besides Allah. Rather, I worship Allah alone, ascribing no partners to Him. He is the One Who causes you to die just as He gives you life. Then, unto Him is your final return. If the gods that you call upon are real, I still refuse to worship them. So call upon them and ask them to harm me, and you will see that they can bring no harm or benefit. The only One Who holds the power of harm and benefit in His Hand is Allah alone, Who has no partners.'

Yusuf Ali  Explanation
Other people may hesitate, or doubt, or wonder. But the righteous man has no doubt in his own mind, and he declares his Faith clearly and unambiguously to all, as did Al-Mustafa, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
The worship of the One and True God is not a fancy worship, to be arrived at merely by reasoning and philosophy. It touches the vital issues of life and death-which are in His hands and His alone.
Nor is the worship of One God an invention of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ . It comes as a direct command through him and to all.
Individual Faith is good, but it is completed and strengthened by joining or forming a Righteous Society, in which the individual can develop and expand. Islam was never a religion of monks and anchorites. It laid great stress on social duties, which in many ways test and train the individual's character.

Please listen to explanation of the ayat by eminent Muslim scholar Nouman Ali Khan:
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 Verses from the Qur'anYou may also refer to our Reference Pages for knowing more about Islam and Qur'ān.
Photo | Reference: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
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 of the Qur'ān from authentic sources and then present a least possible condensed explanation of the surah. In that 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.  
In order to augment and add more explanation as already provided, 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.

If you like Islam: My Ultimate Decision, and to keep yourself updated on all our latest posts to know more about Islam, follow us on Facebook

Please share this page to your friends and family members through Facebook, WhatsApp or any means on Social Media so that they can also be benefited by it and better understand Islam and the Qur'ān - Insha Allah (Allah Willing) you shall be blessed with the best of both worlds.

Sunday 16 May 2021

Who will be the greatest losers in respect of their deeds


Many men are born greedy and selfish. For all along their lives, their effort is to make money no matter how, yet come out clean of their misdeeds and project them as the winners and stand tall in the eyes of the onlookers by displaying their good will and generosity by overtly helping others, yet in their hearts satisfyingly themselves that their "good deeds' will earn them more rewards in this world or even in the hereafter. 

At many a places in the Qur'an, Allah has warned those who will be ultimate losers. See one of our early posts: The Utter Losers - Who? [Surah 2 Al Baqarah: 27]

Herein under we share today three verses (103-105) from Surah 18. Al Kahf (The People of Cave) in which Allah tells His revered Prophet Muhammad ﷺ:

قُلۡ هَلۡ نُـنَبِّئُكُمۡ بِالۡاَخۡسَرِيۡنَ اَعۡمَالًا ؕ‏ 
(18:103) Say, (O Muhammad): "Shall We tell you who will be the greatest losers in respect of their deeds?

And then Allah tells whose deeds will be wasted a way and why?

اَ لَّذِيۡنَ ضَلَّ سَعۡيُهُمۡ فِى الۡحَيٰوةِ الدُّنۡيَا وَهُمۡ يَحۡسَبُوۡنَ اَنَّهُمۡ يُحۡسِنُوۡنَ صُنۡعًا‏ 
(18:104) It will be those whose effort went astray in the life of the world and who believe nevertheless that they are doing good.
This verse has two meanings. The one is the same that we have adopted in the translation. The other meaning is this: Those who confined all their endeavors to the worldly life. That is, whatever they did, they did for this world without paying any regard to God and the Hereafter. As they considered the worldly life to be the real life, they made the success and prosperity in this world their sole aim and object. Even if they professed the existence of Allah, they never paid any heed to the two implications of this profession: to lead their lives in a way to please Allah and to come out successful on the Day they shall have to render an account of what they did in this world. This was because they considered themselves to be mere rational animals who were absolutely independent and free from every kind of responsibility and had nothing else to do but to enjoy the good things of the world like animals in a meadow.

Yusuf Ali  Explanation:  That is, those who prided themselves on their works in this life, and now find that those works are of no avail. Their loss is all the greater because they had a misplaced confidence in their own deeds or in the assistance of false "protectors". Allah is the only Protector: no one else's protection is of any use.

Many people have such a smug sense of self-righteousness that while they go on doing wrong, they think that they are acquiring merit. So, in charity, all the elements that make for outward show or selfishness (as to get some worldly advantage) nullify the deed of charity. In the same way hypocrites sometimes affect to be surprised that their declared effort for somebody's good is not appreciated, when they are really seeking some hidden gain or false glory for themselves. The sincere are only those who believe in their spiritual responsibility and act as in Allah's sight.
This verse thus tells how misguided these people are. They have no inclination that whatever they do in this world takes them further into error and is thus completely wasted. Hence, they continue spending their whole lives in such vain pursuits. [3]

Tafsir by Hayya Alal Falah: [4] This verse, as well as the other verses up to the end of Surah Al-Kahf, not only is an explanation upon the qualities of the faithless persons, but also is a kind of summary for all the subjects which were discussed in this Surah. They are especially the matters concerning the story of the Companions of the Cave, Moses, Khidr, Zul-Qarnayn and their efforts and struggles against their opponents.

At first, it refers to the greatest losers, the most wretched persons among all mankind. But, in order to move the sense of curiosity of the hearers upon such an important subject, the Qur’an propounds it in the form of a question, and commands the Prophet of Islam (S) as follows:

“Say: ‘Shall We inform you of the greatest losers in (their) deeds?”

Then, immediately after this question, the Qur’an itself answers it, so that the hearer does not spend a long time wandered, and it implies that the greatest losers are:

“Those whose effort is lost in this world’s life, while they think that they are working good deeds.”

Certainly the meaning of ‘to lose’ in this text is not only that a person loses some profits, but the real loss is that he loses the main capital, too. What a capital can be higher and worthier than intellect, talent, God-given-powers, lifetime, youth, and health.

These very things, which produce our deeds and our actions, are the fruit of our powers and abilities. When these powers turn into some destructive and vain deeds, it seems all of them have lost and vanished.

The true and double loss is where a man loses his own material and spiritual capitals on a wrong and deviated way, and he imagines that he has done a good action. Such a person has neither obtained any useful result from these efforts, nor has he learnt a lesson from that loss, nor is he secured from the repetition of that event

Unfortunately this is the case for a lot of people, including the Muslims. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was asked who is the truly bankrupt and he said:

“The real bankrupt of my Ummah is one who comes on the Day of Resurrection with prayer, fasting, and charity, but he cursed others, slandered others, unlawfully consumed the wealth of others, shed the blood of others and beat others; so his good deeds would be credited to the account of those (who suffered at his hand). If his good deeds run out before the score is settled, their sins would be added to his account and he would be thrown in the (Hell) Fire”.

The verse 105 further clarifies "Those' as mentioned in verse 104 above:

اُولٰۤـئِكَ الَّذِيۡنَ كَفَرُوۡا بِاٰيٰتِ رَبِّهِمۡ وَلِقَآئِهٖ فَحَبِطَتۡ اَعۡمَالُهُمۡ فَلَا نُقِيۡمُ لَهُمۡ يَوۡمَ الۡقِيٰمَةِ وَزۡنًـا‏
(18:105) Those are the ones who refused to believe in the revelations of their Lord and that they are bound to meet Him. Hence, all their deeds have come to naught, and We shall assign no weight to them on the Day of Resurrection.
“So worthless will be their deeds” in the sense that they will be of no avail to them in the life after death, even though they might have considered them as their great achievements but the fact is that they will lose all their value as soon as the world shall come to an end. When they will go before their Lord, and all their deeds shall be placed in the scales, they will have no weight at all whether they had built great palaces, established great universities and libraries, set up great factories and laboratories, constructed highways and railways, in short, all their inventions, industries, sciences and arts and other things of which they were very proud in this world, will lose their weights in the scales. The only thing which will have weight there will be that which had been done in accordance with the divine instructions and with the intention to please Allah. It is, therefore, obvious that if all of one’s endeavors were confined to the worldly things and the achievement of worldly desires whose results one would see in this world, one should not reasonably expect to see their results in the Hereafter, for they would have gone waste with the end of this world. It is equally obvious, that only the deeds of the one, who performed them strictly in accordance with His instructions to win His approval with a view to avail of their results in the Hereafter, will find that his deeds had weight in the scales. On the contrary, such a one will find that all his endeavors in the world had gone waste.

Yusuf Ali  Explanation: What weight can be attached to works behind which the motives are not pure, or are positively evil? They are either wasted or count against those who seek to pass them off as meritorious!
You may like to listen to prominent Muslim scholar Nouman Ali Khan explaining the above said ayah:

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 Verses from the Qur'anYou may also refer to our Reference Pages for knowing more about Islam and Qur'ān.
Photo | Reference: | 12 | 3 | 4
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 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
  • Al-Quran, Yusuf Ali Translation
  • Javed Ahmad Ghamidi / Al Mawrid
  • 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.

If you like Islam: My Ultimate Decision, and to keep yourself updated on all our latest posts to know more about Islam, follow us on Facebook

Please share this page to your friends and family members through Facebook, WhatsApp or any means on Social Media so that they can also be benefited by it and better understand Islam and the Qur'ān - Insha Allah (Allah Willing) you shall be blessed with the best of both worlds.

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