Believing Women Pledge (Loyal Allies vs Enemies) | Khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan

We have to develop a sense of what the Qur'an wants from us, the principles Allah wants us to live by. And when I personally believe, from what I've been able to understand of Allah's book, when we implement this kind of principle living in our families, then the ummah at large transforms. We transform economically, socially, politically, strategically.

We transform because we built the right kind of wilayah from the ground up. When the brick is weak, how is the building going to be strong? How is that even possible?

May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon the Messenger of Allah, the Most Generous, the Most Honorable, the Most Glorious, the Most Perfect Light, and the Perfect Book, and also upon the Prophets and the Seal of the Prophets, the Master of the Children of Adam, whom Jesus, the son of Mary, gave glad tidings of, and whom Abraham, peace be upon him, called to be sent, when he was raising the foundations of the Sacred House of Allah. May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon him and his followers, the best of nations, whom Allah has blessed, all the Arabs and the non-Arabs.

All praise is due to Allah, who has not taken a son, nor has he a partner in sovereignty, nor has he a guardian from humiliation, and glorify him greatly. And all praise is due to Allah, who has sent down the Book upon His servant, and has not made it crooked. And all praise is due to Allah, to whom we worship, and to whom we ask for help, and to whom we ask for forgiveness, and to whom we believe, and to whom we rely, and to whom we seek refuge from the evils of our souls and from the evils of our deeds.

Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whomsoever He leads astray, none can guide him. And we bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and He alone has no partner. And we bear witness that Muhammad is the servant of Allah and His Messenger.

Allah Almighty has sent him with guidance and the religion of truth, so that he may manifest it over all religions, and Allah is sufficient as a Witness. May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. The best guidance is the Book of Allah, and the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad, peace be upon him, and that the worst of things are its innovations, and that every innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire.

O Prophet! When the believing women come to you, they pledge allegiance to you that they will not associate anything with Allah, and that they will not steal, and that they will not commit adultery, and that they will not kill their children, and that they will not come with falsehoods that they fabricate between their hands and their feet, and that they will not disobey you in what is right. So pledge allegiance to them and ask Allah to forgive them. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.

Context of Surat Al-Mumtahina

Today's brief khutbah is about a single ayah, mostly, that belongs to Surat Al-Mumtahina, also called Al-Mumtahana. This surah is unique, it's a small surah, and the situation in which the surah was given to the Prophet is also very different. The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, many of you may be familiar with it, was already signed.

So the treaty has been signed, so Muslims are no longer in a state of war. There's already been a declaration, a peace agreement, and even though Muslims have engaged in conflict three times already directly, and many smaller times before this, the most important one being the Battle of Al-Ahzab, the most recent one, now there's a ceasefire, and there's no more conflict. That does not mean that the Quraysh, or the people in Mecca, and the Muslims are at peace.

It's still war, but it's a cold war, it's an intelligence war, it's an economic war, but it's no longer a military war. The military aspect of it has been closed. And in this kind of a situation, both sides, they try to undermine or destroy the other side by non-military means.

Espionage, intelligence, spying, this sort of thing. And so what the Qur'an does, what Allah tells us in this time, is a very important set of lessons that came right after Al-Ahzab, leading up to Hudaybiyyah, and even after Hudaybiyyah. How are Muslims going to develop relationships that they can trust? Because somebody might shake your hand, and trust you, and you trust them, and you share things with them, and they might be delivering your information to the enemy.

The Concept of Wilayah in Arab Culture

You see, before Islam, the Arabs had a very large concept of alliance. Who is your ally, who do you trust? This concept of wilayah was a powerful concept in Arab culture for thousands of years. So of course, if you are from the same tribe, automatically you are allies to each other.

That is the strongest kind of citizenship, that was one kind of alliance. But then, sometimes there were smaller tribes, and sometimes there were middle-sized tribes, and sometimes there were big tribes. And the small tribe can be easily attacked by the big one.

And the medium one can also be attacked by the big one. So the medium size and the small size would make alliances, so together they can protect themselves against the big one. This was a kind of alliance, and then what did that alliance mean? You can use our well, we can drink the milk from your goats, we can marry among each other, we can borrow from each other, we can use each other's land, your animals can graze from our farm, that kind of thing.

But after this treaty of Hudaybiyyah, the Quraysh were trying to see if they can still hold on to influence, because every other tribe respected Quraysh. But now so many tribes were also coming and making treaties with the Muslims. You know, they were coming and they were giving bay'ah, and they were accepting Islam, and Islam is spreading quickly all over the region.

But these are not, you can't necessarily call them trusted partners. They have not been tested, they were not in war with you, they were not together with you, they were just, they're newcomers. And they come and they shake your hand.

You don't have any background information, you don't know if you can trust them. So Allah in this surah, from the very opening, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُوا عَدُوِّي وَعَدُوَّكُمْ أَوْلِيَاءَ Believers, do not take my enemy and your enemy as partners and allies. Don't do that.

Notice, this is different language from الكفار. Allah did not call them كفار, disbelievers. He said enemies.

So now Allah is making a distinction between non-Muslims and non-believers and enemies, because even non-Muslims can come and say, look, we don't like Quraysh, and we don't love you, but we don't want any trouble. So can we shake hands? They could do that. And Allah didn't stop from that.

But Allah said that some of them will shake your hand with one hand, and they'll have a dagger in the other hand. So you got to be careful. And that's what this surah is fundamentally about.

The Challenge of Escaping Women

You see, there were women who were secretly Muslim in Makkah. They were married to a mushrik man. They were married to an idol worshiper, but secretly they became Muslim. And there were actually even men who secretly became Muslim.

We learned about them at Hudaybiyyah. But we now know that those men cannot escape. The treaty was, if those men, the secret Muslims, if they escape, what do you have to do? You have to return them back.

But there was a small fine print that the Quraysh missed. It never said anything about women. It said if a man escapes, you have to get him, send him back.

But there was no mention of what happens if a woman escapes. There was no mention. So now because that was not part of the original treaty, if a woman escapes from Makkah and makes her way to Medina, we are under no obligation to return her to the kuffar.

So what starts happening is there's a trickle of women escaping Makkah and coming to Medina and getting the citizenship of Islam. So women are now coming in from Makkah to Medina. And some of them were previously married.

This surah also talks about what if a woman comes who was married to a mushrik and now she's in Medina and she wants to start a new life. Is that marriage still valid? Or can she just marry someone else now? Allah actually revealed in this surah she has to make a payment to that husband or payment has to be made to the ex-husband. Even Allah acknowledged that relationship has to be officially finished before she can start her life again.

The Threat of Female Spies

But of course, this is times of cold war. So it's very, very easy for the Quraysh to say, well, we know that these women are escaping. Why don't we send some of our female spies to go in there too? Why don't we send some women in that are gonna take shahada and marry one of the prominent sahaba. Maybe even try to marry the Prophet himself.

And then she can be in the household. And when they're having their important meetings, she can listen in and she can get us some information. It's a pretty easy tactic.

Nowadays, they call it a honey trap. That's what they call it. So this was a tactic that they were going to employ.

And Allah saw it coming. Allah saw it coming. So when those women come, فَامْتَحِنُوهُنَّ The surah.

When these women come and they wanna accept Islam, you better take a test. You better do a filter. You better have a border control checkpoint where you ask some important questions.

So why are you here? Where did you hear about Islam? How did you become Muslim? So who told you about the religion? What do you know about it? And who are you related to? How much do you communicate with them? That had to be done. فَامْتَحِنُوهُنَّ

The Two Types of Disloyalty

But after all of that, there was something even more important. There are two kinds of loyalty. Or I can say disloyalty. There's the one who is actually a spy.

And he's going to pass information to the enemy. And there's the one, even if they don't pass information to the enemy, because of their lack of commitment to Islam, they are helping the enemy anyway. There's a kind of Muslim, by the way they live, they're actually helping the enemy.

Even if they've never met the enemy, they've never supported the enemy, they don't even think of themselves as allied with the enemy. With the way that they violate the teachings of the religion, they are actually supporting the enemy. This surah tells us that there's the outside enemy, the Quraysh, and there's going to be an inside enemy in every family.

Listen to that again. There's an outside enemy. We have to worry about we can trust them or not. There's also an inside enemy, inside a family. Is it possible that somebody's husband is a munafiq? Is it possible that somebody's wife is a munafiq? Somebody's son or daughter is a munafiq? Because all the munafiqoon in Madinah were not like, oh, this is a munafiq household and this is a mu'min household. That's not how it works.

It could be one member of the family has nifaq. They have hypocrisy. So Allah revealed in this surah, particularly for these women that were coming, Allah revealed for them a litmus test.

The Litmus Test for Believing Women

How do you know these are actually trustworthy women? Deep down inside, they actually have iman. This ayah says, يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ إِذَا جَاءَكَ الْمُؤْمِنَاتُ المؤمنات is some emphasis here to suggest when women that have firm faith, real faith in their heart, when those women that have real iman come to you, and they want to make a promise to you, they want to make a pledge to you, prove their loyalty to you, so now Allah is telling us, the proof of their iman is their commitment to what is about to be said.

Now I haven't actually got to the subject of what they said, but I want to set the stage for it here. So you understand where I'm going with this. Allah is telling us, these few items that they're going to promise, this proves that they have real iman. And if they don't live by these items, what this proves is that they are a threat to the structure that can be trusted.

They are not trustworthy. Because the entire surah is actually about who do you trust, who do you not trust. Who is the wolf in sheep's clothing? So who are the women that are a threat? And who are the women that are safe? This is about the... I know online maybe some women are listening to this feeling threatened.

But you know what? When we talk about munafiqoon, men don't come and say, I felt really triggered by what you said. Doesn't work that way. Allah, our master, can call out men and can call out women. If you're offended by it, take it up with the surah.

The Five Elements of the Pledge

So here's what Allah reveals about them. Number one, أَلَّا يُشْرِكْنَ بِاللَّهِ شَيْئًا They're not gonna do any shirk with Allah.

These are new Muslims, many of them. Maybe they don't even know what counts as shirk. Oh, they believe in one God, but they do a little bit of sihr on the weekends. The little, you know, possible. A little bit of, you know, call some shayateen and have some rituals and, you know, do some hocus-pocus or magic. No, I didn't think that was shirk. I pray five times and I do that stuff too. No, no, no. They're gonna come and they're gonna say, أَلَّا يُشْرِكْنَ بِاللَّهِ They're not gonna do any of that stuff.

They're gonna cleanse themselves of pagan practices, of satanic practices, of evil practices. That's one side of it. And many of you, you know, alhamdulillah, this is a country where we have an international Muslim community.

So you come from several different countries. Is it an observed reality that there are people that have been Muslim for generations still engaged in these shirk practices? And particularly common among women? Particularly common among women. You know.

So, the first part of the pledge. See, the pledge happened right then in Makkah. But it was setting the foundation for Muslim culture for generations to come.

This is gonna be by saying, أَلَّا يُشْرِكْنَ بِاللَّهِ which should have been obvious. It's as if Allah is telling us, this is gonna be one of the things that you're going to find in a corrupted Muslim woman. When a Muslim woman becomes corrupted, this is one of the things you're gonna find in her.

أَلَّا يُشْرِكْنَ بِاللَّهِ We'll look at shirk one more way. One of the aspects of shirk is not just in terms of worship, but it's also in terms of authority. Who has final authority over me? When I say Allah has final authority over me, that means Allah's word and His Prophet have final authority over me.

That's what that means. So when Allah says, don't do this, don't cut family ties. Then a woman says, but I hate my in-laws, so I'm gonna cut my children from my in-laws.

What has she just done? She became the authority. The word of Allah is not the authority, she's the authority. If Allah says, guard the privacy of your husband, and she loves to spill the tea, and every time she gets a chance, she posts a story about her husband and how he didn't do the dishes online to talk about what a toxic husband he is and broadcast it. And then she prays, and then she posts her pictures at the haram - du'a for me, istighfar.

And then at the same time, my husband's lazy, broadcasting it. Is she violating what Allah says? حَافِظَاتٌ لِّلْغَيْبِ بِمَا حَفِظَ اللَّهُ Is she violating it? Yeah, but you know what? In her mind, Allah has authority when I pray, Allah has authority when I do umrah and when I fast, but Allah has no authority when I talk about people. Allah has no authority in my interpersonal relationships.

Allah has no authority in how I spend money. Allah has no authority when I backbite. That's not Allah's department, that's my department.

If that's not shirk, I don't know what is. If you compartmentalize and say, Allah, I will give you this part of my life and the other part, that's me. Aren't you partnering with Allah in authority? Isn't that what shirk is? They come and pledge that they will hand over authority to Allah.

أَلَّا يُشْرِكْنَ بِاللَّهِ شَيْئًا Okay, that's the first part of the pledge. وَلَا يَسْرِقْنَ And they won't steal. They won't steal.

What a thing to say, they won't steal. That seems pretty extreme. It's like assuming that women are thieves.

But it's not just about kleptomania, there's something more like اسْتِرَاقُ السَّمْعِ, for example. Stealing isn't just about you went to somebody's house and you like the little, you know, little decorative cup that they have on the side table and while they were looking the other way, you copped it and you know, that's not just about that.

Sometimes you're sitting there and people are talking about some important family matter and all of a sudden you wanna, what did the jinn do? They try to steal information from the angels. The shayateen. They try to steal, اسْتِرَاقُ السَّمْعِ is called in the Qur'an. Stealing information, stealing, you know, private matters.

You know, stealing is actually not just the physical act of stealing, it represents all forms of خيانة, all forms of treachery. You're being trusted with something, you violate that trust. And so women will engage in treacherous behavior, untrustworthy behavior.

They will violate promises. They will create manipulations. This is part of the stealing. And they pledge they're not gonna do that. Then the next part of their pledge, وَلَا يَزْنِينَ And of course the worst part of خيانة is when she's disloyal to her husband. So now the thing is escalating now, it's getting more serious.

So shirk was on the inside and now we're moving to the outside. And as we move to the outside, they're not gonna commit adultery. They're going to be loyal to their husbands. Remember the surah is about loyalty. So we come back to the ultimate loyalty she has is to her husband.

She's not going to violate that. Then from that, وَلَا يَقْتُلْنَ أَوْلَادَهُنَّ which some ulama draw a connection. If she's committed zina, maybe the child is from someone else.

And so she wants to bury the secret. So she wants to kill the child. وَلَا يَقْتُلْنَ أَوْلَادَهُنَّ They're not gonna kill their kids.

But it could be other reasons to also kill their children. And so these serious matters have now been brought up. They're not gonna go down that road. And by the way, the first things are connected to the later things.

You know, they call them in people that engage in law enforcement. They know there's something called gateway drugs. You start with a small one and then it gets, you know, you do a little bit of weed and eventually you're a coke addict and whatever else, whatever other kind of acids you're doing. It escalates.

The same thing with alcohol, the same thing with anything else. It's small, starts with a small crime, ends up in a big crime. So Allah started with something that's barely noticed.

You know, somebody commits shirk, they're not gonna hear the alarms go off. It's not something you notice immediately. It's subtle, shirk is subtle. But then it escalates, escalates, escalates.

And once you don't respect the authority of Allah, and you're not loyal to your God, how are you gonna be loyal to your husband? It's a natural consequence of one thing to the next, to the next, to the next. And then how are you gonna have any regard for human life even the one inside you? وَلَا يَقْتُلْنَ أَوْلَادَهُنَّ

The Power of Slander

Now Allah describes what they do next. By the way, up until now, she's hurting herself, and she's hurting her family. Up until now, she's hurting herself, and she's hurting her husband, she's hurting future generations, she's hurting her family. But her damage is not limited to just her family. The damage she's capable of can destroy an entire society.

So now Allah escalates it and says, وَلَا يَأْتِينَ بِبُهْتَانٍ They don't come up with a slander. They don't create an accusation. بُهْتَان is an interesting word here.

It could have been افتراء or ادعاء, but Allah used the word بُهْتَان. Or بَهِت or بَهَت in Arabic is used when you are stunned, when you are paralyzed. How could you say that? What did you just say? There are some people who say such outrageous things about you, that when you hear it, you get paralyzed.

Not only is it a lie, it's such a crazy lie that you don't even know how to begin to respond. You're like just taken aback by it. You know the Donald Trump effect. You just... Where do you even begin? You get overwhelmed by the power of the lie and the drama with the lie, the tears with the lie, the theatrics that come with the lie.

How am I gonna respond to this? She makes this accusation and she portrays herself as this victim or this, you know, that she's the one who's done something wrong and now other people are feeling sorry for her. Where am I gonna... If I explain myself, if I say this is wrong, it's like I'm going after an innocent little lamb. Now you're like, what do I even do? What do I even do? So you're automatically put on the... And this is the kind of thing that's called بُهْتَان.

Allah describes when Ibrahim defeated Nimrod in a debate. فَبُهِتَ الَّذِي كَفَرَ Same word. بُهِتَ الَّذِي كَفَرَ Because he was like, how do I respond to this? He's paralyzed. He doesn't know how to respond to the argument made by Ibrahim. They promised that they will not come up with the kinds of accusations and lies and half-truths and spread them.

لَا يَأْتِينَ بِبُهْتَانٍ يَفْتَرِينَهُ They'll creatively craft them. بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِنَّ وَأَرْجُلِهِنَّ Between their hands and their feet. What that means is, they're going to walk over to this one's house and say, I really want to talk to you.

I didn't want to say anything, but I don't have a choice. I really want to tell you what's going on. And then there's hands and oh my God, and he did this. And you know, there's a whole body language. There's a whole dramatization. Okay, one down.

I got to make another call. I got to send another text message. I got to send another voice note. I got to, you know, I'm doing okay, alhamdulillah. It's okay. I don't have to tell you.

No, no, please tell me. Okay, if you insist. Don't tell anyone though. And you go and you go and you spread and you spread. يَأْتِينَ بِبُهْتَانٍ يَفْتَرِينَهُ They crafted very creatively. What is this person's weak point? How do I manipulate them with this conversation? What's this person's weak point? How do I twist the truth a little bit over here? And by the way, it doesn't have to be a 100% lie.

It could be 5%, you know, or 50% true. And then you mix your own masala on top and you add a little few things and it becomes a completely different flavor, doesn't it? So it's like, do you deny the 50% that's true? Yeah, but it's turned into something else entirely now. And I'm paralyzed.

How do I separate the truth from all these falsehoods that have been mixed in? There's like no solution to it. And the women acknowledge these women that come to the Prophet. Allah describes the women of real Iman. They acknowledge that they are capable of some crafty evil.

They're capable. They have the talent to create the ultimate propaganda scheming machine. That's what they come and admit to the Prophet.

And they're not gonna do it. They're saying, I have this super weapon inside me. I have the superpower inside. I won't use it. I know how to hurt a family. I know how to hurt a child.

I know how to hurt a husband. I know how to hurt a family. I know how to hurt society like nobody else can.

You think you got an enemy from the outside that's gonna bomb you and destroy you. I can destroy you from the inside and break you. But I won't do it because I believe in Allah.

I promise.

And then after all of that these are the specifics then they said وَلَا يَعْصِينَكَ فِي مَعْرُوفٍ And in every other good they will still never disobey the Prophet. These are the things that they recognize in themselves they're like look these are the evils that I know I'm capable of I'm gonna acknowledge to you that these are the dark sides that are clearly a threat to my Iman I promise you I'll stay away from these and other things that I learn in this religion I'll make sure I won't disobey you whenever I learn something good and stay away from something bad

It's like they're acknowledging I don't know everything I'm humble and I'm ready to learn more I don't have an attitude that I know everything وَلَا يَعْصِينَكَ فِي مَعْرُوفٍ and المَعْرُوف without Al because they don't even know what that new Ma'ruf is gonna be they might be educating themselves further and further and further

And Allah says to the Prophet فَبَايِعْهُنَّ Then take their pledge And when Allah says take their pledge it's like when the Prophet accepts someone when he accepts someone then what message does he send to the entire Ummah? These women are certified with a blue tick and they are licensed true believers licensed by who? Rasulullah These are safe women وَاسْتَغْفِرْ لَهُنَّ اللَّهَ And continue to ask Allah to forgive them because we're all human beings we can make a pledge we can slip we're all human we can all fail إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ

The Connection to Family Loyalty

This remarkable promise taken from women that they came up and Allah says they came up with the items it wasn't brought by Allah when they come to you and they make this pledge that they won't do this, this, this, this, this it's as if the language of the ayah is they understood what they are capable of doing this wasn't brought down to them from some other source it was from within themselves and so as I conclude contemplate with me the last ayah of this surah this was the second last ayah of surah al-Mumtahina contemplate with me the last ayah of this surah

Believers do not become allies with any nation that Allah is angry with don't be Believers don't be allies with any nation that Allah is angry with of course this has to do with tribes again and Quraysh's allies and the Jewish tribes that were attacking the Prophet etc. Banu Qurayza for example which was already dealt with Banu Qaynuqa Banu Nadhir etc. but why is this here? what's this doing here?

there's an immediate connection because you will become allies with people that you know about in your family you know people in your own family that do this stuff and you're like their family I can't say anything family first you will know women in your family an aunt a cousin a close relative a mom who is doing this kind of shirk business who is doing this kind of slander and it's brought to your attention I can't say anything that's my aunt family first we're against you in this لَا تَتَوَلَّوْا قَوْمًا غَضِبَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ don't become allies with people that Allah is angry with

Allah is telling the Arabs now you used to think being an ally has to do with who's in your family and who's not in your family now you have to have a new definition of who's your ally and who's not an ally whoever makes Allah angry openly cannot be your ally قَدْ يَئِسُوا مِنَ الْآخِرَةِ these kinds of people have no hope in the akhira meaning they don't ever believe that they're going to stand in trial in front of Allah that's why they behave the way they behave you are aligning yourself with people who have no fear of consequences كَمَا يَئِسَ الْكُفَّارُ مِنْ أَصْحَابِ الْقُبُورِ that's not that different from the disbelievers who think the people that are dead are dead they're never gonna come back these people who may even be believers are just as confident that Allah's reckoning Allah's judgment is not coming as confident as a kafir who thinks the guy in the grave is never coming back

Allah describes the level of their disregard for the akhira as the same as the kafir as the same and these people could be inside the family they could be inside your circle you and I have to ask ourselves a question we get very interested in geopolitics we get very interested in the news about the Strait of Hormuz and who's aligning with who and what treaties have been signed and who's, you know, wanna keep up but you know what? there's lots of alliances and misalliances happening in our house in our family complete blind eye to that

Building the Right Kind of Wilayah

it's time we have to we have to understand when the Qur'an talks about the big picture it brings us back to the mini picture again and then the big picture and then brings it back to reality again because you have no right to comment on what's happening in the world if the same things are happening in a mini level in your own house you have no right we have to develop a sense of what the Qur'an wants from us the principles Allah wants us to live by and when I personally believe from what I've been able to understand of Allah's book when we implement this kind of principle living in our families then the ummah at large transforms we transform economically socially, politically you know, strategically we transform because we built the right kind of wilayah from the ground up when the brick is weak how's the building gonna be strong? how's that even possible?

so we need to really rethink beyond the rhetoric we really need to think about who is it that we're allied with and really need to assess ourselves audit ourselves I can't tell you what's happening in your family you can't tell me what's happening in my family this is an audit you have to do of yourself I have to do of myself and may Allah allow us to live up to this beautiful timeless guidance that he's given us and a way to transform our condition our personal condition and the condition of the entire ummah

الحمد لله وكفى والصلاة والسلام على عباده الذين اصطفى خصوصا على أفضلهم وخاتم النبيين محمد الأمين وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين

عباد الله رحمكم الله

ولذكر الله أكبر والله يعلم ما تصنعون