A poor non-Muslim once approached a wealthy tabi’een and said: your Prophet lied. He said this world is a prison for the believers — yet you are living like a king and I have nothing. How is this your prison?
The tabi’een replied: because you have not seen what Allah has prepared for me in the akhirah. If you could see it, you would understand that this life — however comfortable — is nothing by comparison. And you think you are suffering now? You have not seen what Allah has prepared for those who go against Him in the next life either.
This is the correct proportion. The best of this world is still a prison compared to Jannah. But whatever Allah has created in this world — the beauty, the good provisions, the adornment — He created it for us to enjoy. Responsibly. Without excess. And with our eyes on something greater.
Innama — These Are the Things
Allah now lists what He has actually made haram. And He opens with a single, precise word: innama.
In Arabic, innama is a word of restriction. It limits what follows to a specific, bounded list. Nothing more. When the Prophet ﷺ said innama bu’ithtu li utammima makarimal akhlaq — I have been sent only to perfect noble character — that innama tells us everything. The entire prophetic mission, all of the Sharia, all of the ibadah, all of the fasting and prayer and dhikr — it all points toward one destination: makarimul akhlaq, noble character.
This is a mirror we should hold up regularly. If our engagement with the religion is making us more arrogant, ruder in how we speak, more dismissive of others — something has gone wrong. The religion of the Prophet ﷺ does not produce that. It produces humility, gentleness, and excellence in character. If we are getting closer to the rituals but further from good akhlaq, we are missing the point of the rituals entirely.
So when Allah uses innama to introduce what He has made haram, He is doing the same thing — drawing a clean, limited boundary. Not an overwhelming list. Not everything that makes life enjoyable. These specific things. That is all.
