Day 15
Guidance for the People of Taqwa
The Quran is guidance for the People of Taqwa, people who are mindful of God in every step that he takes in his life.
Our Quest today is to lead a mindful day; to pause before everything we do, to recite and reflect upon Bismillah.
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Welcome to day 15 of Be Qur 'anic, where we take short passages from the Qur 'an daily, extract practical lessons from it, apply it into our daily lives so that we can be more Qur 'anic.
InshaAllah today we continue our study of Surat al -Baqarah, ayah number 2. ذَلِكَ الكِتابُ لَا رَيْبَ فِيهِ هُدَى لِلْمُتَّقِينَ Which means that is the Book, there is no doubt in it guidance for the people of Taqwa.
In the second half of Surat al -Fatiha, we make the most important dua in our lives. اهدِنَا الصِرَاطَ الُمُستَقِيمُ We ask for guidance through the straight path. And immediately in the opening of the next Surah, Allah says that is the Book, there is no doubt in it guidance for the people of Taqwa.
Now if you want to find guidance, you find it in that Book, you find it in the Qur 'an. It is guidance for the people of Taqwa. But before we obtain the guidance from the Qur 'an, we need to pass through the gate of Alif -La'mim.
Alif -La'mim is the gate of humility. We need to submit ourselves to Rabbul Alameen, to the Master of the Universe. But the Qur 'an tells us that it is a guidance for the people of Taqwa. What is the meaning of Taqwa?
Taqwa is sometimes defined as fearing God or God fearing. This is what you find in the more older English translation. In the more modern one, you find God consciousness, mindful of God. But what is Taqwa?
Actually, let's break it down. Taqwa comes from the word Waqaya. Waqaya means to protect yourself from something. There are so many words for fear in the Arabic language. You have Khawf, which is the common word for fear.
Then you have Khashya, which is fear out of respect. So you fear the lion, which is Khawf. you fear the ruler is khashya. Then you also have khusho 'a. Khusho 'a also means to a certain degree it means fear but it is the kind of fear where you cannot move a muscle, you are paralyzed or off your fear.
This is why you have khusho 'a in your salah and also Allah mentioned some people in Yawm al Qiyamah when they see the punishment they say, see the fire but they can't run away because they are paralyzed by fear.
So taqwa on the other hand is the opposite of this paralyzing fear. It is the kind of fear that motivates you, that moves you to save yourself. So when we look in the linguistic meaning of taqwa it means that you are running away from things that might harm you, things that might harm your akhirah, your safety in the hereafter.
You are running away. from Allah's anger to Allah's mercy, compassion and love. You're protecting yourself from the punishment of fire. So you will find in the Quran Taqwa of Allah. You also find in the Quran Taqwa of the fire.
Fad taqunnaam taqwa of Jahannam. That is the linguistic meaning of taqwa. But the technical meaning of taqwa is demonstrated in a conversation between Sayyidina Umar ibn Al -Khattab and Sayyidina Ubay ibn Ka 'ab.
A bit of background of who Sayyidina Ubay ibn Ka 'ab is he is one of the few Sahaba, the Rasul Sula Allah wa A 'arehi wa Salam, said take Quran from these people and he is one of those people. And he also said that if you want to listen to how Jibreel recited the Quran, listen to the recitation of Ubay ibn Ka 'ab.
So he is someone known among the circles of the Sahaba as knowledgeable in the Quran. So Umar ibn Al -Khattab one day asked Ubay ibn Ka 'ab, what is the meaning of taqwa? Ubay ibn Ka 'ab answered the question with another question.
He asked Umar, have you walked through a thorny path? And Umar ibn Al -Khattab said yes. By continuity's questions, how did you do it? And Umar said, I lift my garment and walk carefully. His lifting his garment is because the traditional Arab garment is flowy so you lift it, hold it together so that it doesn't get stuck in the thorns and he walks carefully, place one foot in front of the other carefully so that he doesn't step on any of the thorns.
Ubay ibn Ka 'ab said, that is taqwa. It means that if you go through life being mindful of every step that you take, being careful that you do not trample on the rights of Allah, you do not do haram things, you protect yourself from things that Allah dislikes.
So you are being conscious in the steps that you take. And this is why you find in the more traditional English translation, Qad Firi. which is correct linguistically and in the more modern translation God conscious or mindfulness of God which aligns with the technical definition of taqwa.
A person of taqwa doesn't scroll through life aimlessly. He's aware of his purpose and he walks towards his purpose consciously and this is displayed by the best of creations of Allah, of Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
He's the most taqwa person always mindful in everything that he does and this is displayed in his daily habits that you find the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam taught us so many different dua for so many different things that we do in life and these can be mundane things just like waking up waking up in the morning We all wake up in the morning.
There is a dua for that. All praise be to Allah who brought me to life after I died and to the day of resurrection. He sets up On his bed he recites the last ten ayat of Surah Ali Emran and then he goes to the bathroom and there is dua 'ah entering the bathroom, there is dua 'ah relieving yourself after coming from the bathroom, there is dua 'ah looking at the mirror, there is dua 'ah taking your wudu, there is dua 'ah putting on your daamun.
These are all mundane things in life, yet the Prophet turns it into a mindfulness practice. He connects those actions to Allah. That is the very essence of taqwa, in everything that we do, we are being mindful.
Is this something that brings us closer to Allah or takes us further away from Allah? But the simplest step towards this mindfulness or towards this taqwa training is Bismillah. If you remember, when we started day one, start with Bismillah.
Before we do anything, we invoke the name of Allah, that we are mindful of Allah. You wake up in the morning, Alhamdulillah, you mention Allah's name, you are mindful of Allah. You don't just mention it out of habit, but you are mindful of everything that you say and you do.
That before you eat Bismillah, before you drink Bismillah, before you drive Bismillah, it is not just out of habit, you do it because you know its meaning. You know the gravity of Bismillah. You are conscious of Allah, that you are mindful of God in everything that we do.
So our quest today is back to day one, because taqwa is not a destination. Taqwa is a way of life. Our quest today is Bismillah in everything that we do. But if you've been doing Bismillah for the past 14 days, today, pause and mean it, feel it in your heart that you are doing this in the name of Allah.
Have taqwa in everything that we do. Pause before we do something, take a split second and realize the deep meaning of Bismillah and make the right choice after saying that Bismillah. Make the right choice in the name of Allah, in every single juncture of our life.