Respect for Muhammad (PBUH)

Respect for Muhammad (PBUH) - Nouman Ali Khan

Opening

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu

All praise is to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, his family, his companions, and those who follow him. To proceed: "My Lord, expand for me my breast and ease for me my task and untie the knot from my tongue that they may understand my speech." (Quran 20:25-28)

Conclusion of Previous Discussion: The Choice Between Faith and Magic

The last ayah 103 that we were discussing in our conclusion:

"And if they had believed and feared Allah" (Quran 2:103)

The phrase أَنَّهُمْ آمَنُوا is repeating itself, so Allah is pointing specifically to that group of people and saying they had the alternative - they were in the position where they could have had iman. These are the people that were interested in sihr (magic).

If you recall وَاتَّقَوْا - and if they had iman, then the logical progression of having iman is taqwa. So Allah is mentioning here a progress, and this is something that's come up before - how Allah mentions the progression in the life of a believer. So the first thing is iman and then the progression of that is taqwa.

But then the peculiar word that is used is لَمَثُوبَة. For sure مَثُوبَة is the word for reward. Thawab is a common word, but you know that the word mathuba is actually an ism maf'ool and it's the feminine form of the ism maf'ool. What it suggests is there's an adjective understood before it - be it aqibah or jannah or whatever that word may be.

The Grammatical Beauty of Divine Reward

What's interesting about the word mathuba: because it's feminine in Arabic, the feminine adjective is used for something that's plural. That's also possible - that a feminine adjective is used to describe that which is plural. Now what the word itself means is "that which has been given as a reward" - that's mathuba, that which has been given as a reward. But since it's feminine, what is even alluded to in the text is the reward would have been a lot of things - it wouldn't have been one thing.

A lot of times our translations, because of the limitation that we have in language, will say "the reward from Allah would have been better":

But not capturing the beauty of the word mathuba here - that Allah is saying multitudes of rewards and such rewards that they can't even be described with any description except that you will be compensated. The اسم مفعول has been given, not the actual noun that is being described. SubhanAllah! So this undescribable reward would have been given to them if they only met two conditions:

They had to just meet these two conditions.

The Test of Temptation and Faith

Here what we're learning is a very important lesson: if someone has temptation in front of them of the impermissible, it's being dangled in front of them - because that's what was being done with them. Their final test was that which Allah had forbidden, which Allah had made tantamount to kufr, was dangled in front of them and they were told before they took it لا تكفر - "don't do kufr." You have the option not to do it, but they took it anyway.

But what we're learning is: if kufr is being dangled in front of you, if the opportunity to do the wrong is dangled in front of you, and you're still able to hold on to iman and to taqwa - the لازم and ملزوم together - then the reward is unimaginable:

And then Allah didn't say... the grammarian calls this من زائدة he calls it that it's extra, but from a balaghi point of view, from a language point of view, there's nothing extra in the Quran. The unimaginable compensation that is especially from Allah:

And then at the end, Allah just gives a simple comparison خير is actually a word used to give comparison between two things - what they got and what Allah had especially from Him that can't even be described is better.

The Eternal Nature of Divine Mercy

So the final brief comment I want to make about this beautiful, beautiful ayah:

This is not کلام شرطي - it's not conditional speech. It's actually a جملة اسمية - it's just a statement of fact. The unimaginable compensation from Allah is better. So even though some translation will suggest "had they only had iman, the reward from Allah would have been better," Allah didn't say it would have been better - لكان خيراً لهم "it would have been better." No, no, no - خير "it IS better."

In other words, it's still there. If you're alive and you've made those mistakes, the door is still open. That reality is still there:

"If they only knew" (Quran 2:103)

Had those people only known, had they only taken advantage of that - لو كانوا يعلمون

Two Types of Knowledge

What's amazing is that's the other riddle here that the previous ayah: did they know this is kufr? Did they know that anybody who takes it they will not have anything in the akhirah? Actually Allah mentions in the ayah before:

"But they certainly knew that whoever purchased it would have no share in the Hereafter" (Quran 2:102)

They already knew whoever takes it has no portion in the akhirah. Then how does the next ayah say, after perfectly explaining and emphasizing they knew already, the next ayah says:

"Had they only known" - had they only known? We're learning two different degrees of knowledge. Knowledge in your head is not the same as knowledge in your heart - they're two different things.

When somebody tells you "don't do this, it's haram" and you say "yeah, yeah, I know, I know, I know" and you do it anyway - did you know? At some level you did know, but did you really know? Did you realize it in your heart? No, you didn't feel it. You didn't feel the value of it.

So you know, the same thing happens to a student - the exam is coming and his friend says "why don't you study? You're running out of time." He says, "I know, I know." He says, "I know" and then when he sees the exam he says, "if I only knew." You know the irony in speech.

So now Allah says "had they only known" - لو كانوا يعلمون. It's a very powerful means of الحصر - words of restriction.

Warning to the Believers: Proper Speech with the Messenger

Allah mentions this was one of their many crimes. A new crime is now being mentioned and the believers are being warned, and this transition immediately:

Immediately the kalam was about Bani Israel, all of a sudden يا أيها الذين آمنوا - what are we being told? Pay attention! It is not just about them, so you just don't think that it's about them. You have to stay alert.

So the very next ayah:

"O you who believe, do not say 'Ra'ina'" (Quran 2:104)

It's from فاعل يفاعل مفاعلة - so مراعاة. And Allah is telling the believers - those of you who claim to have iman - don't say راعنا . Don't say "could you give us a minute? Could you give us some courtesy?"

The Context of the Prohibition

Meaning the messenger says something, and somebody wasn't quite paying attention or they didn't hear it properly or they were lost in their own conversation, so they say after he's done speaking, "could you kind of repeat that please?" - راعنا

Now some members of Bani Israel, they used to actually extend the ya. Now راعنا in Arabic is "a shepherd," and even though in Christian literature shepherd is used in the sense of a leader - like "I'm the shepherd of the town," "shepherd of the household," right? So shepherd is in the position of leader.

But in Arabian society, in particular Madani society, the shepherd is basically like the guy you hire for your lawn mowing nowadays. It's the guy who works for you. It's the guy that you're basically - if you call him by that name, if you call him by the name of his profession, sometimes it's even a means to demean him.

A janitor - "come here!" When you call somebody a janitor, even if their job is a janitor, you should call them by their name. If you call them by their profession, it's like you're trying to insult them - that you're nothing but a janitor.

The Linguistic Manipulation

So now if you say, instead of راعنا if you extend the ya - راعينا - it becomes an اسم فاعل and it means "oh our shepherd," meaning the guy who we hire to herd our sheep - basically the equivalent today of a janitor, you know.

So Bani Israel heard the sahaba say راعنا "please pay attention to us," and they would extend it and say "oh راعينا our shepherd." And then when you ask "what did you say?" they say "no, no, راعنا - we meant please give us a minute."

So now they're playing with words. This is not something new for Bani Israel - Allah mentions them playing with words even in Allah's book, so it's not something all that new. And you know, of course, there are other incidents like (السلام عليكم - السام عليكم) is basically a means of cursing someone if you drop the لام altogether, which is a specific warning in this case.

Divine Command for Respectful Speech

So Allah commands the sahaba:

Just don't say راعنا. Just don't use that word even because it can be taken the wrong way - don't use it.

Here we're learning something amazing about the manners of speech. You know, even nowadays our youth - especially our youth (the senior citizens don't know much about the play of language in our time, at least in English; in Urdu or Arabic they might know, but in English they don't know as much) - are there words you can say in English that can have dual meaning and have a really bad meaning too?

When you say... would you say "aah nothing," or you know what the new game that's played is - I don't know, it's getting old now actually - there's a really filthy word and you say a word that's very close to it. We just take a... we change a little bit of the spelling, right? And then say "oh I didn't say that, I just said this, right? I just said the innocent version."

I won't even give you an example of the innocent version - I think all the guys know what I'm talking about, and the sisters, they can already think of 20 words in their head that they manipulate, right?

The Principle of Clear Communication

Now what Allah is teaching the sahaba is: don't play with speech, because Allah knows the intent. And if you even use an innocent word like ra'ina - ra'ina is an innocent word - but somebody else, it will conjure up in their minds bad ideas. Avoid that kind of speech altogether.

This is a very good principle in communication in life, whether you're communicating with your spouse or your boss or your friends. If you say something that can be taken the wrong way, don't say it. If you have the common sense to know that if you say this, there's a way to interpret this that might be offensive, just find another way of saying it.

So Allah tells the sahaba:

"And say 'Unzurna' (look at us)" (Quran 2:104)

Just say "please wait for us," "look towards us." انظرنا - "could you please look this way?" In other words, that's a polite way of saying "could you repeat that? Could you give me some attention?" etc. انظرنا instead of saying ra'ina which can be taken the wrong way.

What a beautiful piece of advice! And so because the Quran gave this subject importance, we shouldn't take it lightly. We shouldn't say "playing with words - what's the big deal? Just having a little fun with words."

The Weight of Divine Speech

If it's a small deal, Allah would not mention it in His قول ثقيل - the Quran calls its words "heavy words," its heavy speech. Allah would not reveal this from the seventh heaven to us if it was minuscule, if it was something that you could get away with or do away with - it's not that important. It became important because Allah mentioned it, because Allah talked about it.

So:

And then He says:

Really good advice also. Why would someone say "could you please repeat that? Could you say that again? Turn this way, give me extra time, give me extra attention?" Why would someone say that to begin with? Because they weren't listening the first time around.

So Allah says: the first time around واسمعوا - "and listen."

The Importance of Attentive Listening

Now what's interesting is in Arabic, when you say "listen carefully," the word for that is واستمعوا - "listen carefully." واسمعوا - "just listen." It's not "listen carefully," it's just "listen." You know what that suggests? You weren't paying even a little bit of attention the first time. So this time around, just at least listen - at least listen - واسمعوا.

Divine Protection of the Messenger's Honor

And then He ends the ayah - because this is not just doing this with a teacher or a boss or a parent (even those are important roles) - this is being done with the messenger. So even the least bit of disregard for the messenger, what does Allah do? To the defense of His messenger, He says:

"And for the disbelievers is a painful punishment" (Quran 2:104)

And specifically for kafireen - for disbelievers and the ungrateful - there is incredible, you know, painful punishment. There is intensely painful punishment - عذاب أليم

What is the crime of the kafir here? Is he attempting to kill the messenger of Allah? No. Is he attempting to, you know, change the book of Allah or any other of these kinds of crimes? No. He's just playing with words to make a mockery of the messenger, and that's enough:

Conclusion and Looking Forward

And so we'll end inshallah with this ayah because this took some time. I was gonna go one more ayah, but inshallah ta'ala we'll take it easy and cover:

"The disbelievers do not wish" (Quran 2:105)

Tomorrow, and even talk a little bit about the ayah of naskh that is not very well understood and it's also used or misused quite a bit nowadays when Allah talks about some ayah being abrogated or منسوخ - you know how that even is being manipulated. So we'll discuss that tomorrow.

Closing

"We remind you with the verses and the wise remembrance"