11-09-2003, 06:44 PM
Praise be to Allah, a praise which is adequate to Your graces and favors, Praise be to Allah abundant and special gratitude, we send prayer and peace on the best Messenger to the worlds our Prophet Mohamed, his family members, companions and whoever followed them until the day after. I seek refuge of Allah’s Complete knowledge from my ignorance, “O my Lord! expand me my breast;* Ease my task for me* And remove the impediment from my speech* So they may understand what I say.
I seek Allah’s Close guidance and assistance in presenting the following analysis, may He accept it and make it a useful knowledge for all of us.
Reading the following Ayahs a week ago, I felt that I want to share my thoughts on them with my brothers and sisters.
196 " Verily, my Walî (Protector, Supporter, and Helper) is Allâh Who has revealed the Book (the Qur’ân), and He protects (supports and helps) the righteous.
197. And those whom you call upon besides Him (Allâh) cannot help you nor can they help themselves.
198. And if you call them to guidance, they hear not and you will see them looking at you, yet they see not.
199. Show forgiveness, enjoin what is good, and turn away from the foolish (i.e. don’t punish them).
200. And if an evil whisper comes to you from Shaitân (Satan), then seek refuge with Allâh. Verily, He is All-Hearer, All-Knower.
201. Verily, those who are Al-Muttaqûn (the pious - see V.2:2), when an evil thought comes to them from Shaitân (Satan), they remember (Allâh), and (indeed) they then see (aright)."
The Ayahs address hard situations which one might face in the path of dawah (calling to Allah). Of course as usual in the Quran, Allah is talking to Prophet Mohamed (PAPBH) giving him the proper instructions which we all have to follow and take as rules in our lives. At the beginning, the Ayah establishes the fact that Allah is the Only Protector, Supporter, and Helper in order to keep this in mind under any circumstances. To further confirm the fact, it is succeeded with a confirmation about those who are called upon besides Allah and the fact that they can do nothing for anyone one nor to themselves.
So now we have two facts Allah is the only supporter and protector and none of what they take as associates is useful in any way.
Based on this Allah Started to explain that when you will try to call those who take associates with Allah to the proper guidance and oneness of Allah, they will certainly ignore you. They might even act aggressively towards you or speak in an ill manner. In such cases, what did Allah instruct His Messenger to do?? Allah told him not to shout back, not to adopt a harsh attitude, not to snap back at them, of course it is easy to do so in order to vent and feel better, but Allah rather instructed him (and of course us to follow) to show forgiveness, enjoin what is good then just simply leave and go away from those who are according to Allah are certainly foolish for not being able to see the light (may Allah allow us all to see the light).
However, in the succeeding ayah, Allah Told His Messenger, in order to be able to adopt such attitude (which is not easy and needs much training and self restraint, needs that we always just put Allah in front of us as the ultimate goal), Allah taught him to seek refuge to Allah when he is subject to the whisper of Shaytan. Certainly shaytan will come and tell you O how come you allow people to treat you this way? how do u accept people talking to you like this? Why would you waste your time when people are not listening or even understanding? For this as soon as you are hit by such whispers, u must immediately seek refuge to Allah. Only Him can save you against such whispers and support u in your efforts.
To further explain this situation Allah described those who follow this guidance as pious, stressing the fact that when pious people are subjected to whispers of Shaytan which makes one blind unable to differenciate between falsehood and truth, that is why Allah say that remembering Allah will brings them back to seeing.
Actually ending the ayah with back to seeing alright only implies that on the first case under whispers of Shaytan one becomes blind (wal `iadhu billah). It is true. Sometimes u talk to someone about a hard situation he / she created and they would answer I think I was totally blind at that time. Only if at that time you would say a`adoudh billah min a shaytan arajeem, u would feel again on the proper track.
As you can clearly see from the sequence of ayahs, Allah presented how people may react for calling to Allah or advice in general in terms of halal and haram (permissible and forbidden), instructed us to adopt a certain attitude, then gave us the tool to use in order to be able to behave in such a manner. Sobhan Allah.
May Allah accept my humble effort, over looks my shortcomings if I was unable to present His ayahs the way they must be presented.
Praise be to Allah Who guided us to this and prayer and peace be on His Messenger.