Surah Ali 'Imran: Qualities of the Muttaqeen | Divine Reminders with Mufti Abdul Wahab Waheed

Surah Ali 'Imran: Qualities of the Muttaqeen

Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem, alhamdulillah wa nassalih wa rasoolil kareem, ma ba'd. We'll have a short reminder insha'Allah for all those that are watching — insha'Allah you can benefit and hopefully take a short lesson.

The Fourth Juz' — A New Challenge

In the fourth juz' there are many themes and many stories, but we will try to focus on one specific verse that insha'Allah we can take a lesson from and hopefully benefit from as well.

Just generally in this juz': Allah in the first juz' spoke about Islam, in the second about Iman, and in the third juz' we spoke about the completion of Iman —

Now comes the challenge. And therefore in the fourth juz', Allah speaks about the Battle of Badr and the Battle of Uhud — both of them. Because after your Iman has been clarified in front of people, now there's a difference between us and the Ahlul Kitab and the Munafiqoon. Now comes the challenge — now comes the Battle of Badr and the Battle of Uhud and so on and so forth.

But I won't speak about that. I'm hoping that insha'Allah Sheikh Abdullah and Mufti Abdul Rahman tonight, when they have their session, they'll speak about it because that's a lengthier discussion. I will speak about a specific ayah — which is ayah 134 of Surah Ali 'Imran — where Allah speaks about the qualities of those that have fear and who have God-consciousness in their heart.

The Ayah: Rush Towards the Mercy of Your Lord

وَسَارِعُوا إِلَىٰ مَغْفِرَةٍ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ — Rush towards the mercy of your Lord. وَجَنَّةٍ عَرْضُهَا السَّمَاوَاتُ وَالْأَرْضُ — And Jannah, the vastness of which is bigger than the earth and the heavens.

So number one, Allah related — or referred — our Jannah to Allah's mercy. And this is very straightforward: in order for us to reach Jannah, we need to have the mercy of Allah on our side.

Three Steps to Jannah — According to Ibn al-Qayyim

What Ibn al-Qayyim says is that three things have to happen correctly in order for us to reach Jannah:

Number one, we need to have a'amal — we need to have action. We can't just rely upon "Allah will forgive me." Of course Allah will forgive me, but the source of Allah's forgiveness is that we have to have actions. Therefore Allah says:

That this Jannah — I have secured and preserved for you because of your actions.

Peace be upon you for the patience that you exercised throughout your life by fulfilling good deeds.

Number two, through our good actions, the next step is the shafa'ah of the Prophet, where the Prophet himself stands up for us and intercedes for us — and that intercession leads towards Allah's mercy.

Number three, the mercy of Allah then grants us Jannah. So all three of these things have to happen on top of each other, in a sequence, in order for us to get Jannah. But the goal is to get Allah's mercy, because the Prophet says no one will enter Jannah except through the mercy of Allah.

The next part is that the mercy of Allah leads to Jannah — أُعِدَّتْ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ — that it was prepared, it was decorated, it was made for the muttaqoon.

What is Taqwa?

Going back to the first verse of Surah al-Baqarah — this is for the people that have taqwa in their life. Who are the people that have taqwa in their life?

Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, said: taqwa is like a person who is walking on a pathway and there are thorns around him, and he holds all of his clothes and his garment together so they don't get pricked by the thorns.

There are many definitions of taqwa, but just generally it comes from the root letters of wiqayah — which means to create a barrier between you and that which makes Allah unhappy with us.

The Qualities of the Muttaqeen

Quality #1 — Spending in Times of Ease and Difficulty

Allah describes the people of taqwa in the next verse. Number one:

They are those individuals who spend in the path of Allah and spend on people in times of ease and in times of difficulty. That is the most general translation of this first part — that they spend when it's easy for them and they spend when it's difficult for them.

Dear brothers and sisters, every single time we open up the Quran and we find stories of those that spend in the path of Allah, there are stories of those individuals where it was difficult for them to spend, but yet they spent. Like the story of Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, and Fatimah in Surah al-Insan — where three days in a row they were fasting, and every single day before they broke their fast, someone would knock on the door and ask for money or for food, and they would take all that food that they had for breaking their fast and give it to that person knocking on the door. Allah revealed for them:

And Allah says of them:

That they give their money and their food despite themselves having a need for it.

So number one: spending in the path of Allah in times of ease and in times of difficulty. As the Sahaba once asked the Prophet:

The Companions asked: "What is the best charity?"

And the Prophet responded:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1419; Sahih Muslim, Book 12, Hadith 71)

The best charity is when you are healthy and you want your money, and you desire wealth, and you fear poverty — and you spend. That is one definition of sarra and darra.

Others say sarra means spending on your family, and darra means spending on people you don't like — so that love can enter their hearts for you. It's very interesting: by spending on people who don't like you, they'll start to like you and they'll start to appreciate you. And that's what the Prophet did. When he was looking towards the camels, the Prophet said: "Do you like these camels?" And Safwan ibn Umayyah said: "Ya Rasool Allah, I like them." And the Prophet said: "Take all of it." And that's what brought Iman into his heart.

So nonetheless: spending on our families and spending on our enemies.

Quality #2 — Swallowing Their Anger

The next part of this ayah — those individuals who swallow their anger. Kaadhamah is a very interesting word. As Imam Fakhruddin al-Razi says, kaadhamah refers to a person who — regardless of which negative emotion they are hoarding inside of their heart — they don't expose it.

Therefore Allah, when describing Yaqub, uses the same word — that his eyes went blind and he was kadhim. The definition of kadhim is that he chose — he tried his best — and he chose not to expose his inner sadness and grief to other people. Rather he said: Allah will help me — I refer all of my complaints to Allah.

So kadhim minal ghayth means a person at the rage of anger is able to swallow their anger and not even expose their emotions on their face. This is awesome. This is unbelievable.

I give this example quite often to our students at Miftah and the Masjid-e-Islam Institute. Kaadhamah actually refers to when a person goes to someone's house and they're offered food, or they're eating something, and they don't enjoy it — but the host is watching them eat. For example, I don't eat fish. And if someone puts fish in front of me and that's all that's there, well, I have to eat it now. So if I eat that food, I'm not enjoying it — but I also don't want the host to know that I'm not enjoying it. So I just swallow the food. When I swallow it and I don't chew and bite on it, the taste — my lack of enjoyment of it — won't be shown on my face. Rather I just swallow the food.

Well, kadhim minal ghayth means: just swallow the food. Just swallow your anger. And Allah rewards you for it.

There's a beautiful hadith by the Prophet where he says that a person who swallows their anger when they have the ability to expose their anger — not when they don't have it — when a boss has it in front of his employee, when an older person in the family has it over a person who is junior or younger, and so on, and they swallow their anger — that's when Allah says that is kadhim minal ghayth. And ghayth is one step higher than ghadab — it's burning you up inside, but yet you swallow it, you contain it, and you own it. And that is a beautiful sunnah for us to implement into our life.

Another hadith that refers to this, where the Prophet says: whosoever swallows their anger, they can enter into the doors of Jannah however they wish.

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 4777; Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2021)

Quality #3 — Forgiving Others

The next part of this ayah — the third part — is that there are people who don't just swallow their anger and hold it in their heart and say "yeah, man, I don't like this guy." Rather, they forgive people. They forgive them.

Al-'Afw is a quality that we share with Allah — even though Allah is at the epitome of it. Wa al-'aafina — if it refers to Allah, it means that you forgive someone without them deserving your forgiveness. Allah forgives us without us being deserving of Allah's forgiveness. Wa al-'aafina means: forgive those even though they may not deserve it — but just forgive them.

And this is the quality that Allah highlights for the Prophet — saying that it is because of your mercy and compassion towards them, and because of this, all of your companions love you, because you are kind to them and loving towards them.

Don't just swallow your anger — forgive them. And there is a beautiful narration that comes on this ayah, where Hasan al-Basri says that when it is the Day of Judgment, every single person will be on their knees — they'll be stuck, they won't be able to move, their knees will be planted into the ground. And when this happens, Allah will make an announcement:

(Narration of Hasan al-Basri, as cited in commentary on Quran 3:134)

"Whosoever has their reward with Allah — enter Jannah." And his students asked him: who are those that have their reward with Allah? And he responded: "Faman 'afa wa aslaha" — whosoever forgives and rectifies — Allah is preserving their reward.

Quality #4 — Excelling in Goodness (Ihsan)

Allah finishes the ayah by saying: Allah loves those who excel. Not only do they forgive — but they go and give them a gift, they do something nice for them.

The Prophet explains to us that silat al-rahim — and being kind to someone — is not just doing good to those who do good to us. Rather, even if they wrong us, we still do good to them. And if they speak negatively of us, we still try to clean our hearts of any form of animosity and hatred towards them.

A Key Observation

And this ayah summarizes the quality of the muttaqoon. One point that I found interesting is: when Allah was describing the muttaqoon — and that He has prepared for them Jannah — Allah does not speak about any Salat, or Zakat, or Siyam. Rather, He refers to the qualities and characteristics that we have in dealing with people.

Number one, they spend. Number two, they don't show their anger — they don't show those emotions on their faces and through those noises. Allah says: you don't show those things. Those people that show that — that's a sign of a very arrogant person. And the third thing is that they forgive without the need of forgiving. And rather, they don't stop at forgiveness — they move one step beyond that and they do ihsan — they excel — by giving a gift or saying something nice about them behind their back.

May Allah give us these qualities and make us amongst the muttaqoon. JazakAllah khair. May Allah bless all of you.