Joe Bradford 7-21-17

And I bear witness that there is no one worthy of worship but God alone, and that Muhammad ﷺ is his slave and messenger. O you who believe, be mindful of Allah as He should be minded, and do not die except as Muslims. O mankind, be mindful of your Lord, who created you from one soul, and from that soul its mate, and from those two spread many men and many women.

And be mindful of the wombs that bore you, and be mindful of those you ask your rights from, for indeed He is ever watchful over you. O you who believe, be mindful of Allah and speak the truth. He will guide you to righteous deeds and forgive you of your sins, and whomsoever obeys Allah and His messenger, has achieved the greatest achievement.

The best of speech is the speech of God. The best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad ﷺ. And the worst of affairs are those newly introduced, and everything newly introduced goes astray, and everything is an innovation, and every innovation goes astray, and everything which goes astray will lead to the hellfire. Allah asks us a rhetorical question in the Qur'an.

In one of the shorter chapters of the Qur'an, He says:

Have you not seen the one who disbelieves in a deen? He is the one who rejects the orphan, who pushes off the orphan. Nor does he encourage to feed the poor. So woe to those who pray, those that are heedless about their prayers, those that do so ostentatiously. And they do not give from the basic needs that are needed to those around them.

Understanding the Concept of Deen

Notice that Allah starts off this surah asking us a question. أَرَأَيْتَ الَّذِي يُكَذِّبُ بِالدِّينِ Have you not seen the one who rejects faith, who rejects religion, who rejects the idea of a deen? Many times we translate deen as faith or religion.

But in most usages of the word deen in the Qur'an, Allah, yes, is connecting the word to the idea of our practice of our faith. But it's so much more than that. It's inherently connected to why we practice that faith in the first place.

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful, Master of يوم الدين, the Day of Al-Deen. We say Master of the Day of Judgment. But even this translation is deficient.

The word deen comes from the same root word as dayn. The word deen comes from the same root word in Arabic as the word debt. When we are indebted to, in need of, and impoverished to, Allah, then we know that we always have something to do, something to give, something to pay back, because we are at a loss, at a deficit.

And when we understand that principle:

O mankind, you are impoverished and in need of God. And God is self-sufficient, worthy of all praise. When we realize that, we realize that unless we pay back what we owe, unless we do what is expected of us, we will be taken to account.

The Reality of Being in Debt to Allah

Have you ever gotten a phone call from a bill collector? They are the most annoying people to call you, because they call at the most inconvenient times. And had it not been for legislation against bill collection, you would still be getting calls at your job right now. You would be getting calls at off hours.

Do you have the money? When are you going to pay? Do you know that you owe this much? How much can you pay right now? When we realize that we owe something to someone, it can be very frustrating. But for us as believers, when we realize that we owe something to Allah, it can be felicitous. It can be a source of joy.

Indeed, the righteous will be in a state of joy, in a state of pleasure. And indeed, those disobedient will be in a state of agony. Abiding therein, يَوْمَ الدِّينِ on the day of payback. And they won't be able to escape it.

And what is this day of payback? The يَوْمُ الدِّينِ, the day of Deen. Then, think about it. What really is this day of payback?

The day when one soul can do nothing for the other. And all affairs on that day go back to Allah.

Allah says, on the day when someone will flee from his brother and from his mother and his father and from his wife and his children. Every single person on that day will have something to concern themselves with. Everyone will say on that day نفسي نفسي Myself, myself. My soul, my soul. My salvation, my salvation.

Working for the Day of Accountability

So the Muslim, in his mindset, everything that he or she is doing is working for that day of payback. That day of salvation. That day of saving oneself and oneself alone. And it's amazing that at times we can be so selfish with everything in the material world. But when it comes to our personal salvation which is predicated on doing what is ethical and moral and good and proper for ourselves, we somehow become generous.

And we give up that salvation to please others. In this life, the temporal life, the one that won't last. يَوْمَ لَا تَمْلِكُ نَفْسٌ لِنَفْسٍ شَيْئًا The day when no soul will benefit another. And everything will go back to Allah on that day.

So Allah asks, أَرَأَيْتَ الَّذِي يُكَذِّبُ بِالدِّينِ Have you seen the one who denies this day? Now you might say to yourself, in Mecca, everyone denied the day of judgment. There were very few people that affirmed the day of judgment from amongst the kuffar of Quraysh.

Amongst the kuffar of Quraysh, most of them denied the fact that there was any retribution, anything to take them to account. Anyone called Al-Rahman, and any messenger named Muhammad, and anything named يَوْمَ الْآخِرَةِ or يَوْمَ الدِّينِ So why then is Allah singling out this idea in this surah?

Because He's bringing to attention that denying a key article of your faith does not happen just through walking outside and saying, I declare that there is no such thing as the day of judgment. But through your actions themselves, you can be showing that you really don't believe that you'll be taken to account one day.

Historical Context and Broader Meaning

It's said in the books of Tafsir that these verses were actually revealed due to several instances during the Meccan period. One of Abu Jahl pushing away a young orphan that was in his care, that came to him without any clothes on, asking for a little bit of the money that was in his care, and he pushed him away. Abu Sufyan, before he became Muslim, rejecting and refusing to even encourage people to give, to feed the poor in Mecca.

But there's a bigger picture as many scholars have said about this verse. Let's not think of it just as a question about those two instances or instances that were happening in Mecca at that time. What it's saying to us is, our inability to engage with society and to live and to realize our ethics and our morality in society can be a denial of the day of judgment even though we profess to believe in it outwardly.

It's as if to say to us, what good are these beliefs and these labels and these identities that you seem to support when your actions themselves go completely against them? We can do something online and it can be seen by millions of people. But we can be asked by a man on the street corner to give him a dollar, and it's only seen by the Lord of the worlds. Which of these will be better for you? Yawm al-Din, the day of recompense, the day of payback, the day when your debts will become due.

The Warning Against Heedless Prayer

Allah then points out another side of this attitude. فَوَيْلٌ لِّلْمُصَلِّينَ So you don't want to deny the day of recompense. You want to do things which are good in society. So woe to those who pray.

Now notice, when we read the Qur'an, we don't stop here in this verse. Because this is a key example of cherry-picking from the Qur'an. Allah says, woe to those who pray. Guess we shouldn't pray Jum'ah today. Everyone's free to go home.

No one says that. So when anybody cherry-picks a verse from the Qur'an, show them this verse. Say, what we do with this one verse? We read the Qur'an in context.

Those who are heedless about their prayers. Some of the Salaf used to say, Alhamdulillah, Allah said heedless about their prayers and He did not say heedless in their prayers. Because there's not a single one of us except that sometimes we're heedless in our prayers.

We're praying, we start thinking about how we're going to get lunch afterwards, if we're going to make it back to the office on time, what are our kids doing this summer while we're at work. We start thinking about different things. That's not what Allah is talking about.

فَوَيْلٌ لِّلْمُصَلِّينَ الَّذِينَ هُمْ عَن صَلَاتِهِمْ سَاهُونَ Those that in the performance of their prayer are heedless about those things which are necessary for the prayer to be valid. Those things which are necessary for the prayer to be complete. Those things which are necessary for the prayer to be effective.

Those who do so ostentatiously. And, they avoid or they prevent giving المعون to those who need it. المعون comes from the word to mean assistance.

The Meaning of True Assistance

And in general, it's any assistance. Someone asks you for some water. Someone asks you for a cup of sugar. Your neighbor asks you to help them carry something for them. Someone asks you for the slightest, smallest amount of assistance. And while yes, you are clinging to this identity of being a person of prayer, that prayer has not guided you to be the best both in prayer and outside of prayer.

Note that Allah in the beginning of the surah, He's warning us from a form of agnostic, atheistic belief that allows us to pigeonhole people and allows us to deny them their rights as human beings simply because they don't agree with us. And in the end of the surah, Allah is warning us of the same thing from an individualistic, antagonistic and selfish belief that allows us to deny others their rights simply because they don't agree with us.

The True Believer's Approach

But the believer in doing good for others has to embody several things. When I believe, I believe that what I'm doing, I'm going to be held responsible for in front of Allah. I don't allow the first part of the surah to apply to me. I believe in Yawm al-Din. I believe in a day of recompense. I know that one day I will be questioned.

The Prophet ﷺ said, that on the day of judgment, the feet, your two feet will not move a single inch until you are asked about four things. You'll be asked about your wealth and how you spent it, your life and how you lived it. You'll be asked about things which are essential to what you've been given and you are able to make a difference in your life and the lives of others.

So we don't allow ourselves to be from amongst those that think that life has no consequence. And at the same time, we don't allow ourselves to become from those that think that religion is only for me. In my prayer, in my house, the good in my life is only for me. Both the goodness of my faith and the goodness of the material that I've been given.

And when we do help others, as Allah describes the believers:

When we feed you, we feed you for the sake of Allah. We don't want any reward or any thanks from you. Belief in a day of recompense, faith that leads to action, an action that is done for the goodness of that action, not for the rewards that would come from it.

Three Pillars of Muslim Identity

Affirmation of the day of recompense, of the day when we will have to pay back for those things that we've done is key to our belief and to our faith and to our identity as Muslims. Prayer and devotion to Allah is key to our faith and our identity as Muslims. And doing good to others for the sake of the good that needs to be done regardless of who they are or what they believe or how good or bad of people we see them to be is key to our faith and our identity as Muslims.

Becoming productive proactive positive members of society that defend the rights of Muslims when they're wronged and defend the rights of non-Muslims when they are wronged is key to us fulfilling our faith. Do we defend unethical behavior? Do we defend immorality? No. But we can at least stand with those who are oppressed and stop that oppression although we may not believe in the immorality of their individual actions.

The Middle Path

And this goes on both sides. This is on both sides of the aisle. Unfortunately, as of late we've seen religious rhetoric been used to push a far right agenda or a far left agenda.

Indeed, this nation of yours, this community of yours is a middle grounded community. A tolerant, midway community and I am your Lord, so worship me. We neither go to one extreme nor to the other.

What is right is right. What is just is just. What is oppressive is oppressive. What is wise is what we always seek to implement. It takes intellectual maturity for us not to go to one side that says forget about any meaning of the next life, only worry about how you appear in public. And the other side that says forget about anything in this life, only focus on your personal devotion.

But to come together and say we can be effective members of society without falling into the traps, the ideological, theological, social and cultural traps that are set for us. That want us to give up some portion of our faith in order to support an agenda or part of an agenda that may be immoral, unethical, and does not fit with our position as believers.

From Talk to Action

It's easy for us to get riled up. It's easy for us to go outside and shout, to have a demonstration. What's harder for us to do is to put our names on the dotted lines, to become active with a real voice in society. What do I mean by a real voice in society? By doing something as simple as giving a gift to your neighbor so that your neighbors know who you are. By showing up at your homeowner's association meeting so that you can voice what you would like to see in your neighborhood.

By registering to vote and having a voice in society. By putting your money where your mouth is and supporting those political issues which are near and dear to you. Not bringing them to the masjid to politicize the masjid and to feel good that the shaykh was on the minbar today and he said what I wanted to hear him say.

I can speak here from now until maghrib. It's not going to change the political situation in the world. It's not going to change the oppression in the world. The only thing that I can do today here is hope that anything that I say can touch the hearts and minds of one of you and you take action in your personal life.

We know that there is oppression happening in this world. Who talks about the plight of the Rohingya? But how much talking will help them? And how much action on our part will help them? We know of the oppression right now in Al-Quds. How much talk will help them? And how much action on our part will help them?

The Example of the Prophet

It's important that if we want to have faith and we want to be active and to embody activism that that activism not be something that denies the rights of some over others. Notice that the Prophet ﷺ when he came to Mecca on the day of Al-Fatih and he saw the faces of those who had thrown trash on him while he was praying. Who had cursed at him and spit at him. Who had denied that he was the Messenger of Allah. Who had oppressed him and conspired to devoid him and his followers of their material wealth and their spiritual wealth. What did he ﷺ say?

اذهبوا فأنتم الطلقاء Go, for you all are free.

Truth is truth and oppression is oppression. And we stand with the truth and we stand against oppression.

Use what is good in your life to push off that which is evil.

And lastly, all of the lessons that I mentioned from Surah Al-Ma'oon today can be summed up in the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ when he said, a man said, O Messenger of Allah, tell me something that I can act on that I can't hear from anyone else. He ﷺ said:

Say, I believe in Allah. Then be upright and proactive.

O Allah, forgive us of our sins and our transgressions and our affairs. And make our feet firm, O Lord of the worlds.

O Allah, protect those who are weakened and distraught amongst us, O Lord of the worlds. O Allah, protect them and give them victory and give them help from You. For You are the only one that can assist them, O Lord of the worlds.

Servants of Allah: