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Showing posts with label Verse 63. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Verse 63. Show all posts

Saturday 22 October 2022

Important DOs and DON'Ts from Qur'an: Walk on earth Gently

Pride and arrogance can be best described as the famous characters of the novel: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Dr Jekyll was a nice and thriving doctor, who would turn into a monster Mr Hyde by drinking some chemical and haunting the society. Pride and arrogance are just like both the characters; one entirely positive and the other entirely negative. 

Pride is when a person feels satisfied with his abilities or possessions. Arrogance is when a person has an inflated opinion of his abilities or possessions. The difference between the two is that while pride is normal and is justified because a person has a special ability, arrogance is not. Arrogance is overbearing pride or haughtiness. If your friends are constantly complaining about your arrogance, you might want to lose the haughty attitude and try to be humbler. Arrogance comes from the Latin arrogant which means overbearing. [1]

With this premise, let us turn to a very important directive from Qur'an, as stated in the 63rd verse of Sūrah 25. Al-Furqan (The Criterion) given herein under:

وَعِبَادُ الرَّحۡمٰنِ الَّذِيۡنَ يَمۡشُوۡنَ عَلَى الۡاَرۡضِ هَوۡنًا وَّاِذَا خَاطَبَهُمُ الۡجٰهِلُوۡنَ قَالُوۡا سَلٰمًا‏ 
(25:63) The true servants of the Merciful One are those who walk on the earth gently and when the foolish ones address them, they simply say: "Peace to you";

A true believer is never boastful of his knowledge, wealth and status. Rather when he walks out of his house, he walks with so much humbleness that no one can assume his otherwise high status due to his wealth, wisdom and knowledge. True pride makes one humble and meek and induces humility in him. On the contrary there are many whose every action displays arrogance, and a feeling of false pride that so exhibited to portray him better than others. He thinks that his hollow status is more than his actual achievements and thereby displays an overbearing stature so that people could not catch his inherent weaknesses. The mere gait of a person reveals his true inner: Pride with Humility and Pride with arrogance. That is why it has been mentioned in Qur'an to walk gently with the gait of piety and not of arrogance.

With this short premise, let us now turn to eminent scholars and see how do they interpret this verse:

Tafsir Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi:
That is, "Though all human beings are by birth the servants of the Merciful before Whom you have been invited to prostrate yourselves, and which you disdain, his true servants are those who adopt the way of His obedience consciously and develop such desirable characteristics. Then the natural consequences of prostration are those found in the lives of the Believers and the evil results of rejecting the invitation, those found in your lives." Here attention is being drawn to the two patterns of character and life: first of those who had accepted the Message of the Holy Prophet and were following it, and the second of those who persisted in the ways of ignorance. Here only the prominent characteristics of the true Believers have been cited, and for contrast, the characteristics of the disbelievers have been left to every discerning eye and mind which could see them all around in society and make its own decision. 

79That is; "They do not walk haughtily and arrogantly like the tyrants and mischief-makers, but their "gait" is of a gentle, right-thinking and good-natured person." "Walking humbly" does not mean walking like a weak or sick person, nor does it imply the gait of a hypocrite who walks ostentatiously to show humility or fear of God. According to Traditions, the Holy Prophet himself used to walk with firm, quick steps. One day Caliph `Umar saw a young man walking slowly like a weak, sick person, and asked him, "Are you ill?" When the man replied in the negative, the Caliph raised his whip, rebuked him and told him to walk like a healthy man. This shows that the "humble gait" is the natural gait of a noble and gentle person and not a gait which shows weakness and undue humility.

In this connection, the first characteristic of the true servants of Allah to which attention has been drawn, is their "gait" This is because the gait indicates the character of an individual. If a man walks in a humble and dignified way, as opposed to a haughty, vain and proud manner, it shows that he is a noble and gentle person. Thus, the different "gaits" of the different types of people show what sort of characters they possess. The verse means to imply that the true servants of the Merciful can be easily recognized by their "gait" among the people. Their attitude of Allah's worship and obedience has changed them so thoroughly that it can "be seen at first sight from their "gate that they are noble, humble and good-natured people, who cannot be expected to indulge in any mischief. For further explanation, see E.N.43 of Bani Isra'il and E.N 33 of Luqman 

80"Ignorant people": Rude and insolent people and not uneducated and illiterate ones. The true servants of the "Merciful" do not believe in "vengeance", even though they may have to deal with the ignorant people who behave rudely and insolently towards them. If they happen to come across such people, they wish them peace and turn away. The same thing has been expressed in AI-Qasas: 55, thus: "And when they hear something vain and absurd, they turn away from it, saying, `Our deeds are for us and your deeds are for you: peace be to you: we have nothing to do with the ignorant'." For details see E.N.'s 72 to 78 of Al-Qasas. 

Tafsir Ibn-Kathir: Attributes of the Servants of the Most Gracious
These are the attributes of the believing servants of Allah, (those who walk on the earth Hawna,) meaning that they walk with dignity and humility, not with arrogance and pride. 
This is like the Ayah: (And walk not on the earth with conceit and arrogance...) (17:37).
So, these people do not walk with conceit or arrogance or pride. This does not mean that they should walk like sick people, making a show of their humility, for the leader of the sons of Adam (the Prophet) used to walk as if he was coming downhill, and as if the earth were folded up beneath him. 

What is meant here by Hawn is serenity and dignity, as the Messenger of Allah said: (When you come to the prayer, do not come rushing in haste. Come calmly and with tranquility, and whatever you catch up with, pray, and whatever you miss, make it up.)

(And when the foolish address them they say: "Salama.') If ignorant people insult them with bad words, they do not respond kindly, but they forgive and overlook, and say nothing but good words. This is what the Messenger of Allah did: the more ignorant the people, the more patient he would be. 

This is as Allah says: (And when they hear Al-Laghw (evil or vain talk), they withdraw from it) (28:55).

Yusuf Ali Explanation:
Ignorant: in a moral sense. Address: in the aggressive sense. Their humility is shown in two ways: (1) to those in real search of knowledge, they give such knowledge as they have and as the recipients can assimilate; (2) to those who merely dispute, they do not speak harshly, but say "Peace!", as much as to say, "May it be well with you, may you repent and be better"; or "May Allah give me peace from such wrangling"; or "Peace, and Good-bye; let me leave you!"

Having explained the above said verse in detail, you may now listen to explanation of the Ayat by eminent Muslim scholar Nouman Ali Khan:
May Allāh (سبحانه و تعالى‎) help us understand Qur'ān and follow the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, which is embodiment of commandments of Allah contained in the Qur'ān. May Allah help us to be like the ones He loves and let our lives be lived helping others and not making others' lives miserable or unlivable. May all our wrong doings, whether intentional or unintentional, be forgiven before the angel of death knocks on our door. 
وَمَا عَلَيۡنَاۤ اِلَّا الۡبَلٰغُ الۡمُبِيۡنُ‏ 
(36:17) and our duty is no more than to clearly convey the Message.”
That is Our duty is only to convey to you the message that Allah has entrusted us with. Then it is for you to accept it or reject it. We have not been made responsible for making you accept it forcibly, And if you do not accept it, we shall not be seized in consequence of your disbelief, you will yourselves be answerable for your actions on Day of Resurrection.

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. It will also help the Muslims to have grasp over social issues and their answers discussed in the Qur'an and other matter related to inter faith so that they are able to discuss issues with non-Muslims with authority based on refences from Qur'an.

May Allah forgive me if my posts ever imply a piety far greater than I possess. I am most in need of guidance.

Note: When we mention God in our posts, we mean One True God, we call Allah in Islam, with no associates. Allah is the Sole Creator of all things, and that Allah is all-powerful and all-knowing. Allah has no offspring, no race, no gender, no body, and is unaffected by the characteristics of human life.

For more Selected Verses, please refer to our reference page: Important DOs and DON'Ts from Qur'anYou may also refer to our Reference Pages: Understanding Al Qur'an and  Selected Verses from the Qur'an for knowing more about Islam and Qur'ān.
Photo | Tafsir References: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

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 the 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, 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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