Day 23

Who is a Kafir?

TL;DR:

1. Day 23 of Be Quranic focuses on understanding and applying a new passage from Surah al-Baqarah, which contrasts the people of Taqwa with those disliked by Allah.

2. The passage explains that regardless of receiving guidance, some people, symbolised by the disbelievers (kafir) in Makkah, will not believe due to their sealed hearts and covered sight. This is highlighted with the context of the Prophet's challenges in Medina.

3. The key lesson is not to possess the characteristics of a kafir - to acknowledge and embrace the truth when presented, shedding ego and biases, and not to delay in accepting and acting upon it.

This is an AI generated transcript. You can watch the video on Instagram or Tiktok, or listen to it on Spotify.

Welcome to day 23 of Be Quranic, where we take short passages from the Quran daily, extract practical lessons from them, and apply these to our daily lives so that we can be more Quranic.

InshaAllah, today we continue our study of Surat al-Baqarah and now we have entered not only a new ayah but a new passage in this great surah. The first part of the surah, the first five ayahs, explains one type of people, the people of Taqwa.

After Allah explains the path of Surat al-Ladina and the Aamta Aalayhim, the path of the people that Allah is pleased with, we move on to a new passage about people that we should not be like. Now, these are the don'ts.

The first part, the first five, the do's. Now we're going into the don'ts. What are the types of people that Allah does not like? The first one is ayah six and seven, and the ayah reads "it is the same for them.

Whether you give them a reminder or you don't give them a reminder, they will not believe. Allah has sealed their heart, their hearing and upon their sight a cover, and for them is a great torment."

It's important to understand a bit of historical context of this ayah because if you just read the ayah literally, you might think, what's the point of me making da'wah to people around me, to my office mates, to my neighbours, to my colleagues, because they are kafir, they're not going to have iman anyway.

Sawa'un alay'im, it is going to be the same. Understanding this ayah in its historical context is important. Remember, Surah Al-Baqarah was one of the first few surahs revealed in Medina. One of the internal challenges that the Prophet ﷺ faced when he migrated to Medina was disconnecting himself from his family members, from his tribe, from his friends.

To us, Abu Lahab is an evil man, but to the Prophet ﷺ, Abu Lahab is his uncle, someone that was so close to him that two of his daughters were engaged to two of the sons of Abu Lahab. Yes, after the coming of Islam, Abu Lahab became the enemy of Islam, became the enemy of the Messenger.

But remember, our Prophet ﷺ is someone who had a gentle heart, who sincerely cared for the well-being of his people, even though those people hated him. He cared for those people so much so that Allah revealed in Surat Al-Kahf, "Are you going to destroy yourself because they refused to listen to you, to listen to this message?"

The Prophet took the responsibility of da'wah seriously. Now Allah is telling the Prophet, "Those kuffar that you have left in Makkah, they are the same whether you give them da'wah or you don't give them da'wah, whether you remain in Makkah in close proximity with them, and continuously give da'wah every day, or you are in Madinah where you no longer have access to direct da'wah to them, they will not believe.

Allah knows their fate because Allah has sealed their hearts, Allah has sealed their hearings, Allah has put a cover upon their eyesight. This ayah is to calm the Prophet down. It is okay to be in Madinah, God knows best, He has greater plans for you.

So it doesn't really apply to our colleague at the office, our friends when we go cycling. Now we should do da'wah, we should represent Islam in the most beautiful way. Now what are the lessons that we can extract from this ayah?

These ayahs are explaining the characteristics of the kafir, the disbeliever. Let's look at the linguistic meaning of kafir. A kafir literally means a farmer. You've got a seed, you plant the seed. That is a kafir.

Kafir is to bury something in the ground. Now why is a disbeliever a kafir? Because you've got a seed, something useful, you cover it in the ground. You've got guidance, you've been presented with guidance, something like that.

Useful, you choose to bury it in the ground, ignore it and refuse to accept it. This is a kafir. This is a kafir in the Quranic context. The fiqh-i context has a different meaning. A non-Muslim is a kafir from a fiqh-i context.

But not all non-Muslims, not all kafir in the fiqh-i context is a kafir in the Quranic context in terms of punishment, in terms of torment and so on. The lesson that we're going to extract from this ayah is not to have those characteristics of a kafir.

When you know the truth, don't choose to bury it. Don't delay it. You know this is right, you know this is something that you need to do. Don't wait until tomorrow. Don't push it forward. Do not wait until Allah places a seal on our heart, places a seal on our hearing and covers our eyesight so that we are dumb, deaf, and blind to the truth around us.

Open our eyes, open our heart. When we know something to be true, take action upon it. Rectify our mistakes. Don't wait. So, the lesson from this ayah is not an actionable item, but it is a change of the state of our heart, the way we perceive things around us, that when we know something to be right, we are not too egoistic to accept it.

Abu Jahl, for instance, knows that the Prophet ﷺ is true. In fact, he would sneak out from his house at night to go to the Prophet's house to listen to the Prophet reciting Quran. But when people ask him, why don't you accept Islam?

He said, how can we compete with Banu Hashim? This is tribalism. We used to compete with them when they fed the pilgrims, we would feed the pilgrims. When they would give water to the pilgrims, we would give water to the pilgrims.

They are generous. We will be more generous. We compete with them. Now they have a Prophet. How do we compete with them? So the reason why Abu Jahl rejected Islam is not because he doesn't know that it is the truth, it is just because of ego.

So the lesson from this ayat is to shed our ego away. Realise the truth is the truth for what it is and accept it and act upon it. A true mu'min will shed away his ego and put the truth in front of him.