Day 60
Halal vs Haram
TL;DR:
Day 60 of "Be Quranic" explores Surat al-Baqarah, ayah 35, which narrates Allah instructing Adam and his wife to enjoy the pleasures of Jannah with the exception of approaching one forbidden tree.
This command reflects broader life lessons about the prevalence of halal (permissible) over haram (forbidden) things, emphasising that while many things are allowed, humans often gravitate towards the few restrictions.
The passage highlights the concept that everything is deemed halal unless explicitly stated otherwise, a principle meant to simplify religious observance.
It also underscores the belief that prohibitions exist for our own benefit, with alternatives that are either equal or better, encouraging trust in divine wisdom even when the reasons behind certain prohibitions are not immediately apparent.
Welcome to day 60 of Be Quranic, where we take short passages from the Quran daily. We extract practical lessons from it, apply it into our life so that we can be more Quranic.
InshaAllah today, we will continue our study of Surat al -Baqarah. We are now at ayah number 35 which means, "And we told Adam and his wife to stay in Jannah, and they can eat anything they want in Jannah, except for one rule, do not come near this tree or you will be from among the wrongdoers."
So this ayah comes after the ayah about Allah commanding the angels to bow down to Adam, and all the angels obeyed Allah except for Iblis.
And he disobeyed out of arrogance, he was from among the disbelievers. So Allah then told Adam, and his wife, now you can stay in Jannah, and you can eat anything you want, you can do anything you want in Jannah, except for this one particular rule.
And that one rule is, they can't go near one tree, or else they become from among the wrongdoers. Now, what's interesting is, this ayah is like a reflection of life in this world. Where Allah told Adam, you do anything you want, eat anything you want, consume anything you want, except for one rule.
That means there are more things that are halal in this world than haram things. And when you look at the Quran, the way Allah structures his commands in the Quran, when it comes to something that is haram, he will be explicit.
The ayah will be long. For instance, ayah 3 of Surah Al -Ma 'idah, and Surah Al -Ma 'idah, Allah talks about the prohibition, things that we cannot eat. Allah says, It's actually very explicit. You cannot eat this, this, this, this, the list goes on and on.
But when it comes to halal things, Allah is saying, today everything that is good is being made halal for you. Halal is vast and wide, and Allah will just mention that, all right, everything else is halal, haram are these things.
And this is also the fiqh approach, and our scholars, they establish a fiqhim maxim, a legal maxim, al -aslufil ashiyyah. The original state of things is halal. That means everything is halal unless you can produce an evidence to say that it is haram.
And Allah in His mercy makes more halal options for us as compared to haram options. But then unfortunately we tend to be attracted to what is haram, to that one particular thing that is haram. Of all the halal things in Jannah, our father Adam Ade Salaam was later on tricked by shaytan to go and consume from that one particular tree that is made haram for him.
And that's also how we are in this world. There's so many halal alternatives, there's so many halal options we tend to look for what is haram, what is prohibited. And Allah will not make something haram unless, number one, it is bad for us.
Number two, He replaced it with something that is better for us. And something that is bad for us, we may not be able to see immediately the effects of it, but Allah knows us, He created us. So He knows that what's good and what's bad for us.
For most things we know, we can see the wisdom behind it. But there are things that we can't see the wisdom behind it. We trust Allah because we know that 90% of the things that He has made prohibited, we can clearly see its wisdom and then the balance 10% that we can't see, we trust Him.
So this ayah is telling us that when it comes to halal and haram in life, there are always more halal alternatives than haram. If we can't find it, maybe we have not looked in the right direction, maybe we have not looked hard enough.
Always know that Allah will not make something haram unless it is bad for us and He has replaced it with something that is equal or something that is better.