Surah Al-Muminun: Indeed, The Believer is Successful | Divine Reminders w/ Mufti Abdul Wahab Waheed

Surah Al-Mu'minun: Indeed, The Believer is Successful

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. Alhamdulillah, we're going to pray the Holy Qur'an after this. Today's recitation, Alhamdulillah, Al-Qadha recited Surah Al-Mu'minun and also completed recitation of Surah Al-Nur, and they started the recitation of Surah Al-Furqan.

Today, in my discussion, I will discuss a few verses in Surah Al-Mu'minun. And I'm hoping that insha'Allah, when Shaykh Abdullah Ibn Abdur-Rahman in tonight's session, they will talk about the stories and the lessons in Surah Al-Nur, because there are beautiful lessons in that surah which I will not be able to cover in the limited time that I have today.

Qad Aflaha Al-Mu'minun — The Believer Is Certainly Successful

Allah begins Surah Al-Mu'minun by declaring a statement — a statement that ends with a period. There is absolutely no question about this statement. There is no doubt about this statement. And that statement is:

That verily, the believing men and women are successful. This is it. There is no "what if," "and okay, then what happens?" or "are you sure?" There are no ifs and buts. قَدْ أَفْلَحَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ — that the believing men and women are certainly successful.

And aflaha in the Arabic language is used for a farmer. Fallah is a farmer. The reason why it is used for success is because when a farmer plants his seeds, and he waters his seeds for the entire year, and finally when the time comes to harvest, and he is able to see the blessing of the crops that he brought out — that is a successful person. He feels successful. He feels as if he has achieved something, because he worked on that the entire year.

So Allah is saying aflaha al-mu'minun — and this word fallah is different from najaha. Najaha also means success, but fallah is success in the akhirah. That in this life we are planting our seeds — planting our seeds of a'mal, planting our seeds of adhkar. And the moment we get to the akhirah, it is time for harvest. It is time to see the reward of the seeds that we planted. And Allah blesses us with the reward of the akhirah.

The Five Qualities of the Successful Believer

But who are these believers? Allah gives five descriptions of these believers.

1. Khushu' in Prayer

These are people who have khushu' — who have humility, who have God-consciousness in their prayer. They are not just praying passively like the munafiqoon. Allah says about the hypocrites:

They would stand in a manner of being lazy. They would stand without remembering Allah except for a little bit. Allah says these believers, by contrast, are people in their prayer who have khushu'.

People always ask: how can I earn khushu'? One of the tips to earn khushu' is to take care of our khudur — meaning, in order to earn internal connection to Allah, our external limbs and our acts should be in accordance to the orders of Allah. That is, the way we are supposed to perform ruku' — slowly, with serenity, with peace — that ruku' should not be performed fast. The way sajdah should be performed slowly, with reading subhanAllah clearly and slowly to praise Allah — that is how sajdah should be performed, without praying in a rush.

The Prophet ﷺ says: "Do you know who the worst robber is?" And the Sahabah said: "Who is the worst stealer?" And the Prophet ﷺ responded by saying: "The one who steals from his prayer." And the Sahabah asked: "How can one steal from their prayer?" And the Prophet ﷺ responded by saying that they perform the ruku' and sajdah without completing it.

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 11532; also reported in al-Mustadrak of al-Hakim)

Khushu' is an internal connection to Allah, but that happens because our external actions are being done in accordance to the sunnah.

2. Turning Away from Futile Speech (Al-Laghw)

These are individuals who turn away from obscene talk, who turn away from futile talk, who turn away from talk which has absolutely no benefit — neither in this world nor in the akhirah. If it has some benefit, they may engage in it. But if it has no benefit, they will turn away. That is a sign of a believer.

The slaves of Allah are those that walk on the earth with humility, and when they are challenged with something that cannot benefit them, they move away. They don't engage in a conversation which cannot bring any benefit. In our time, we speak for the sake of speaking. We speak for the sake of being heard. We don't speak because we need to speak — we speak because we want to be heard. Allah is saying: just walk away, move away. Don't engage in that conversation. Don't sit in a place where people are backbiting. Don't sit in a place where people are being vulgar in their speech. Rather, move away.

3. Giving Zakat

These are people who complete their giving of zakat. They don't hold back their zakat. And one of the quickest ways to earn barakah in our wealth is to make sure we are giving our zakat. Similarly, one of the quickest ways to lose the barakah in our wealth is to hold back our zakat.

Zakat is not money that we own — that percentage belongs to Allah. Therefore, whenever Allah speaks about giving zakat, He always says:

That they are spending from the money that We gave them. It is ours — you are just giving it back to Us. It removes the filth in our wealth. Literally, the word zakah — yuzakki — means to purify. So when we give our zakat, we are purifying our wealth.

It is like the dirty oil in a car. When you have an oil change, you flush out the old oil. Flushing out the oil is important — you cannot mix the new oil with the old oil. Similarly, flushing out the filth of our wealth is our zakat. Even if there was something wrong with that wealth, or we had some filth in it, by giving our zakat we hope that Allah purifies it.

4. Protecting Their Modesty

They only spend time with the people that they are allowed to have a relationship with — i.e., their spouses. They do not go out and transgress the orders of Allah in their modesty. Now this doesn't only mean in a major sin. It means modesty in their eyes, modesty in their ears, modesty in their tongue. And to protect their modesty, the Prophet ﷺ told us:

If you lose the quality of haya', you can do whatever you want — because nothing will stop you now. So having haya' in our life is a quality of a believer.

5. Upholding Their Trusts and Covenants

This is very important. These are people who uphold their promises and their covenants with others. They hold their amanah. Their word means something — when they say something, it has weight behind it. It is not just fluff coming out of their mouth. There are people who uphold their covenants, uphold their promises.

One of the first signs of the Day of Judgment is that amanah will be lost from the people. People will not find others to trust, and they will have to travel a great distance to find someone they can trust. A sign of a believer is that they are people who can be trusted by others and who can hold that trust.

Not the munafiqoon. The sign of the munafiq is:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 33; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 59)

When someone trusts them with something, they do not know how to hold it — they will break that trust. Allah says in Surah Al-Ma'idah:

Fulfill your covenants and fulfill your promises. If it is with your spouse — if you agreed upon a mahr, fulfill that promise. If it is with your children, fulfill that promise. If it is with a co-worker, do not go back on your word. This is a sign of a believer.

The Reward: Inheriting Al-Firdaws

And lastly, Allah gives these five signs, and at the end He says: it all starts from praying salat. If you are praying salat, these things will also fall into place. And then Allah says — what is the reward for these people? What is their success? What is their harvest that they will receive?

These people will be individuals who will inherit Jannah. Allah doesn't say He will give them Jannah — He says they will inherit Jannah. Because inheritance is the most pure form of wealth, because there is no way it can be taken away from you. You earned it. There is no way your father's wealth does not come to you unless you are stripped of your right by someone else.

Similarly, Allah is saying with يَرِثُونَ — there is no way this Jannah will not come to you. It is a given. You will have it for sure. It is just a matter of time now. Just like inheritance — it is a matter of time when someone passes away, may Allah protect us and our families. Similarly, Jannah is that reward that is there for us. It is just a matter of time. When we leave this world, may Allah bless us all with that Jannah.

JazakAllahu Khayr to all of you for joining, and I truly am grateful for you being a part of our programs. Wassalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.