Day 26
Holding on to burning coal
TL;DR:
On day 26 of Be Quranic, we study ayah 13 of Surah al-Baqarah, which continues to describe the Munafiqin (hypocrites).
This ayah illustrates their mockery of true believers, reflecting their inability to understand the sacrifices and faith of the Sahaba.
It emphasizes that despite being ridiculed or considered outdated by others, a true Mu'min (believer) remains committed to the truth and the straight path (Sirat Al-Mustaqim), irrespective of current trends or opinions.
The key message is to steadfastly hold onto Islamic values and practices, recognising the importance of an akhirah-centric (afterlife-focused) life.
This is an AI generated transcript. You can watch the video on Instagram or Tiktok, or listen to it on Spotify.
Welcome to day 26 of Be Quranic, where we take short passages from the Quran every day. We extract practical lessons from them and apply them to our daily lives so that we can be more Quranic.
InshaAllah, today we continue our study of the longest Surah in the Quran, Surah al-Baqarah, and we are now on ayah 13. Ayah 13 continues the description of the Munafiqin or the hypocrites. The ayah reads:
"And when it is said to them, 'have faith, have iman like those people,' their response is, 'should we have iman like those idiots?' And Allah's response is, 'know that they are the idiots, yet they do not know about it.'"
On day 25, we explored the difference between 'qil' and 'qal', both meaning 'he said', but 'qil' is used when the person saying it is unknown, and 'qal' when the speaker is known. The wisdom behind Allah using 'qil' for advice is to highlight the importance of the message as opposed to the messenger, and a mu'min would humble itself to the truth regardless of who the messenger of the truth is.
Continuing on the same premise, Allah uses 'qil' again and when the Munafiqin are told by someone, "have faith like those people." The word 'anas' can have multiple meanings in the Arabic language; sometimes it can mean the entire humanity.
When we say, 'So the Munafiqeen are being told, have Iman like the Sahaba, like Abu Bakr, like Umar, like Sa'ad ibn Mu'ad and the likes.' And 'An-nas' can sometimes also mean just one person as in Surah Ali Imran, when Allah says, 'When one man came to the Muslims telling them that the entire Quraysh has regrouped to attack you.'
So 'An-nas' can mean one person, 'An-nas' can mean a group of people, 'An-nas' can also mean the entire mankind; context is very important, especially in the Arabic language. Why am I going into this mention of 'An-nas', this word, because there is this hadith.
In the 40 collection of Imam An-Nawawi that is often misunderstood, where Rasulullah Wa Alayhi Wasallam said, 'Ummirtu An-Uqati Al-Anas,' I've been commanded to fight people until they submit to Islam. Some people misunderstand this as in the entire mankind, but the Hadith 'An-Nas' specifically means the Quraysh and we see this is how Sahaba understood the Hadith and how they acted upon the command of the Prophet.
But now back to Surah Al-Baqarah. So the Munafiqeen are being told by someone have Iman like the Sahaba, like the Muslims and they say, 'should we have Iman like those idiots?' From the perspective of the Munafiqeen, many of the Muhajireen are viewed as idiots because they couldn't understand why they do what they do.
The Muhajireen sacrificed everything in their lives. Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, for instance, was a rich man before Islam. He used up all his wealth to free Muslim slaves, to help people who are oppressed. Whatever little was left, he used it for Hijrah, for migration with Rasulullah Wa 'alaahu Alaihi Wasallam. In the eyes of the Munafiq, that is crazy. That's stupid. Why do you sacrifice your own money for the sake of others?
But for Abu Bakr, he understood. This is not a losing sum. He's just transferring from the worldly account to the Akhirah account. The Munafiq is not able to see that. A Munafiq would also make fun of the Muslims praying early in the morning, Fajr, before the sun rises.
'What are you doing waking up so early in the morning?' And Allah says, 'Indeed, they are the ones that are idiots.' They don't see beyond the life of this world. They don't have this long-term vision and purpose in life.
What are the lessons that we can extract from this ayah? Sometimes Islamic practices may not go in line with the current trends. There may be people that may think that you are an idiot for holding on to the truth, for holding on to Islam, for being backwards.
You're not in line with the current times. So remind ourselves, we are not the first. The Sahaba experienced the same. People around the Sahaba called them idiots, called them backwards, called them stupid, all kinds of names.
We are not the first. A Mu'min stays true to the truth, committed to Al-Haq, committed to the path Sirat Al-Mustaqim, regardless of what people around them say. So you may be at work. People have certain corrupt practices.
They may cheat here and there because the boss doesn't know. But a Mu'min remains true. We don't cheat. And our friends may think like, 'why aren't you making extra money here and there?' No. We remain true to the truth, we are not the idiots.
We are not the foolish ones. It's those people that cheat, thinking that there is no akhirah, they are the foolish ones. We may be at school. Everybody is vaping and we are not. Everybody may have boyfriends and girlfriends.
We may not. We stick to Sirat Al-Mustaqim. We stick to the straight path. People may think that we are not cool. People may think that we are backward. But remember, as long as we stay firmly on the truth, we are in the right group, we are with the Sahaba, we are with the true believers.
Hold on to Islam, no matter how difficult it is. Surah Allahu Alayhi Wasallam said, at the end of times, holding on to Islam is like holding on to a burning coal, it is difficult. But we hold on to it anyway, because we've got a long-term vision.
Our life is akhirah-centric.