Surah Baqarah: ayah 258-263 Page 1 Friday 5/09/14 Surah Al-Baqarah Ayah 258-263: In the previous ayahs Allah spoke about friends. There are those people who s friend is Allah. And there are those who s friend is a false deity or leader (Taghut). The ones with Iman are the ones who make Allah their friend. Here we will learn about three incidents. One of the is about prophet Ibrahim and Namrot. the second incident is about Ozair when he was like the dead for 100 years and the third incident is about Ibrahim when he prayed to Allah to show him how Allah will give life to the dead. Three of them are about life after death. AYAH 258: Have you not looked at Namroot (king of Iraq) who questioned (faught with) Ibrahim about His Rab? Why? Because Allah had given him kingdom and made him a king so he started to think of himself as a king of everything. His kingdom was indeed very big and when someone has been given such power by Allah, he gets a big head and becomes arrogant and very few people can handle this much wealth, and power. That s why having wealth becomes the biggest test for people because it allows arrogance to enter the hearts. So when Namroot was given kingdom, he started to say I am God, I am his version on earth and he made people worship him. When he found out that Ibrahim was calling to another God, he went to him to fight with him. He asked Ibrahim who si your Rab so Ibrahim is answering him my Rab is that who gives life and death no one else can do this or figure it out. So Namroot said I also do this how? Because he would sentence some of his prisoners to death and let some live so he said he also had this power over life and death so he is God. But he didn t realize, it was not in his hands, life and death is given by Allah. Ibrahim knew he was talking nonsense so he then said something different. Ibrahim said my Rab is the one who causes Sun to rise from East, if you are Rab, then you make it rise from the West
Surah Baqarah: ayah 258-263 Page 2 So Namroot was left speechless but he still did not have iman. No one ever questioned or challenged Namroot because he could get them killed, but Ibrahim was not scared because he knew life and death was in Allah s hands so he challenged him without fear. Allah gave him the strength to speak without hesitation. Allah does not guide those who are zalimun. Ibrahim had gone to Namroot to collect provisions for his family but after this discussion, Namroot was not about to give him anything. So Ibrahim returned home. Before got home, he filled his sacks with sand so the family will not lose home and think that he has brought something back. He took the sand bags in, put them away and went to sleep. That night, his wife, Sara, opened the bags and found they were filled with the highest quality grains. So she cooked them. so when Ibrahim saw the food, he asked, where did this food come from? She said from the provisions you brought so Ibrahim understood it was from Allah. Namroot was given the chance to accept Allah s message 3 times. After the third time, he challenged Ibrahim to a battle. He brought his biggest army and Allah only sent mosquitos. The biggest, and largest number of mosquitos came that people couldn t even see the sun, there were so many. So this army of Allah s was so powerful that in little bit, they not only drank the army s blood but ate their flesh off their bones. The whole army died there and only skeletons were left. One mosquito crawled into Namroot s nose. For 400 years, that Mosquito caused Namroot such pain and anguish that he thought death would have been better. He used to hit his head on the walls, and ask people to hit his head with hammers he was so uncomfortable. And he died slowly in anguish so Allah showed him his fruits of his own actions. It only took one mosquito to show a man who thought he was God, how an insignificant mosquito can torture his life. AYAH 259: Here we learn the second story. Prophet Uzair was passing by a town. in this town the ruler was very cruel he had killed most of the people and the whole town was now barren. They had lost the Taurat and the town was now in ruins. When he saw the state of the town, he started to wonder and sadly think how will Allah bring this back to life? he was not doubting that Allah could do it, he was just feeling hopeless looking at the state of the town and having a depressing thought. So Allah caused him to die for a hundred years and then raised him up again. But 70 years after
Surah Baqarah: ayah 258-263 Page 3 that town was destroyed, it was inhabited again and people and life had returned to it. So now he is alive now and the town has been alive again for about 30 years. Allah will ask him how long did you stay in the duny? Uzair said I was there only one day or a part of the day (it didn t seem like long to him, just a day or part of the day) This question will be asked of us on the Day of Judgement, how long did you stay? we will all think it was only a day or part of it, our whole life will seem that short to us. Even the ones in Jannah Allah will say you are so good that in such a short time you pleased your Lord so much that you made your permanent home in Jannah! To the ones in the hellfire, Allah will say you are so bad that in such a short time, you angered your lord so much! So Ozair will say he was only asleep for aday or part of it, so Allah will answer him you were gone for 100 years but there was no sign of aging or death on his body so he did not know so how will Allah show him? Allah said to him look at your food and drink and he saw that his food was just as he had left it. But then Allah said look at your Donkey the donkey was nowhere to be found, it was a pile of bones. So the food Allah kept safe, but he caused the donkey to deteriorate. So Allah can keep whatever he wants alive and whatever he wants he can give it death. Then Allah casued the bones to come back together, clothes them with flesh, and brought the donkey to life right before Ozair s eyes. He kept the body of Ozair and his food safe from the effects of time. Time is not something we can see, or touch. It is something that we see in terms of its effects on things. It is part of Allahs miracles that he can cause it to stand still whenever he wishes. (Ozair had the Taurat memorized, he then had the people write it again form his memory so the jews started to call him the son of God because he knew it so well.) So after he saw the miracle of the donkey, Ozair now knew that Allah is able to do all things. Why does Allah sow them these types of things? Because the Prophets have to convince the people of Allahs word so Allah needs to show them these things so they are convinced.
Surah Baqarah: ayah 258-263 Page 4 They had the real belief that Allah can make a person who is talking, walking, living one second into a dead person whenever he wills. And only Allah can bring them back to life. The third story is about life after death. AYAH 260: Ibrahim is asking Allah to show him how He brings back the dead to life. Not because he didn t believe it, but he said so that my heart will be at ease and stronger in faith When we don t see something ourselves, but are curious about it, it preoccupies our thoughts because we keep thinking about it and trying to figure out, how does it happen? So to give his thoughts and faith strong, he asked to see the miracle. Ali (RA) said if heaven and hell were in front of me, my belief and faith would not be stronger than it is already. His level of faith was high but it was not as high as a Nabi. So even though Ibrahim s yaqeen was much much stronger than Ali s but he wanted to get peace of heart and mind so he wanted to see. This is something at a level only the Rasools and Nabi s have. Allah said to Ibrahim, take four birds and make them comfortable with you, as you tame your pets Then he was not told anything. But later he asked Ibrahim to slaughter the four birds and cut them up after he had tamed them. Then he was told to take the pieces and mix them up. And distribute the pieces on to 4 different mountains. Then call them back to you. They will come back to you running. Then Ibrahim did the same and kept the heads of the 4 birds with him. He called the birds to him one by one. The one bird he was calling, the feathers would fly in the wind and join on their own, their blood would reunite, the other body parts would gather together from the other mountains and join. So when the bird would reach Ibrahim, he would offer it the head of one of the other birds, but it would not accept it until Ibrahim offered him his own head. This happened until each bird became whole again and reclaimed his own head from Ibrahim. Here some people say how do we tell the non-muslims? so they say he tamed the birds and let them to go four different mountains and when he called them, they came to Ibrahim. So what s the miracle in that? But they feel that if we tell the Non-Muslims the
Surah Baqarah: ayah 258-263 Page 5 real story, they will laugh at us. But they don t realize that there is no supernatural, miracle in that. But if we have true iman, we can say Allah can do this of course. So what has Allah shown Ibrahim? Not just that he can make the dead back to life, but also that when the trumpet blows and the call comes for us, the soul and each part of our bodies are slaves to Allah and when they are called, they will run towards Allah the same way and our bodies will reunite the same way to stand up in front of Allah as a whole person once again. But these days we are so distracted by the dunya that when the call comes from our Rab, we don t even recognize it, how can we answer it? Remember that Allah is able to show this to every person but he chooses not to because then there is no Iman on the unseen. AYAH 261: Here the topic has changed. From ayah 261-283 are all about money matters. If the world follows these rules, the worlds economic issues will be resolved. The first part talks about spending in the cause of Allah. & the motivation to give sadaqah. The second part talks about interest (Riba) and the prohibition of dealing with it. In this ayah there is a very beautiful example given. The example of those who spend in the way of Allah. There is paying zakat but that is fard on every one. Then there is what you spend aside form zakat on the path of Allah. The example is given here so we can understand clearly. The example is of one seed. We put it in the ground, then it yields a plant that give s numerous flowers. So here Allah says you take one seed of a corn and bury it, from it, 7 more corns grow. Each cob has 100 seeds so there are 700 seeds. So we put in 1 seed into the ground and we got 700 back from it. So we think that the one we put in to the ground is gone form us but it is not gone. It may even give us more than 700 seeds in return. Here Allah is saying the benefits of sadaqah are numerous. So when we put whatever we give in Allah s path, it should be a healthy contribution, meaning it cant come from haram means.
Surah Baqarah: ayah 258-263 Page 6 Also, we need to make sure that we are burying the seed in the ground the right way. The gardener should know how to nurture it, his niya should be pure and he must want to make it go far and yield the most benefit. Third, we need to make sure that the soil we put it into is fertile. We wouldn t put a seed in concrete or dry arid land. We need to make sure that our sadaqah is going to who really needs it and is deserving of it. Just taking out money from our pockets and giving it away is not enough, we need to be aware of all these things before we give for it to yield 700 times the benefit. Giving someone food is good but if you pay for someone s study of deen, as long as that person is learning and then when he practices or teaches it to anyone and then when his students benefit, your sadaqah will turn in to sadaqah jaariya. Every seed will not yield 700 times its worth, we have to be aware of where the seed is coming from, where its going and where we are burying it. Is there any bank, any institution that can do this for us? Give us so much benefit? no If we show off our seed, will it yield anything? No. we have to hide it in the earth. We have to hide it from others and when we give even a dollar, we should have yaqeen that it will grow 700 times because you have followed the conditions. Hadith: A man came to the Prophet with one camel to donate, the prophet said on the day of judgment, he will be with 700 of the same types of camels one date, Allah nurtures it so much that on the day of judgement we will see that one date will be the size of mountain of uhud! if all the mankind form the beginning came together and asked Allah for whatever each person wants and Allah gave every soul what they are asking for, his treasures will not decease even so much as a finger dipped in the ocean decreases the water from it Allah has ilm of every penny spent on his behalf. Who spent with what intention, what was your status when you spent, who spent for what purpose. AYAH 262: Also, a condition of this is that those who give sadaqah in Allah s path, then they shouldn t follow it. Meaning don t make others feel bad that you gave for them, or to brag to others that you gave to someone.
Surah Baqarah: ayah 258-263 Page 7 The minute you spoke about what you gave, all that you gave went to waste. Prophet said three types of people to whom Allah will not even speak or look at with Rahmah on the day of judgement nor make them pure of their sins, but there is severe punishment for them: 1. The one who brags about what they have given 2. Those who hang their pants below their ankles (men only) 3. The one who lies to sell his goods Some Ulamah say definitions of mun and Aza : telling the person what you did for them when they were in need, and another way is to tell others what you gave, or did for others. Or we ask them to do something for us in return for what we did for them this is mun Many also do what is called aza when we do something for someone, even if our niyah is pure at that time, but later in life if that person says or does something to displease us, we tell that person we helped you this way or that way when you were in need you were nothing if we hadn t helped you Some say: Mun is to hint that you are a bigger person in front of that person because you gave to them. you act arrogant in front of them. aza is that if they ask for anyting, you scold them that all you do is ask Other Ulama say: Mun is to think in your heart that you are doing them a favor because you gave to them. even if it is only in our hearts and we don t ever act on it. So when we look at all these, its like we planted all these seeds but it got destroyed by pests or disease. The disease and pests are mun and aza So whatever you gave you should think that the person who you gave to was a source of ajar and purifying your wealth for you and that you are indebted to that person. Once we give, Shaitan is after us in some way. He tries to put these thoughts into our hearts some how. We start to think, I never look at how much but I keep giving even this is making ourselves big in our minds.
Surah Baqarah: ayah 258-263 Page 8 We should consider ourselves more needy than the beggar because he only needs money but we are needy of good deeds and ajar. We should never think that the beggar is the needy, because we are giving to them, but we should think that the beggar is a blessing for us that we have the chance to give to him and gain good deed and ajar. We should not expect a good response from giving. Giving in Allah s path is like glass, its very fragile. Even after we give it, it is not safe. Even if we expect that the person gives us dua in return that is not ok. We should not expect anything in return. Just Allah s mercy. when Aysha used to give anything to needy, she used to say to the one who delivered, listen to the response from the beggar when the response was told to her, she would give the same dua the beggar gave to her back to the beggar so she was not taking even a dua in return. Its not a bad thing to get peoples duas but we should not make it our purpose for giving that they give us dua. We may be giving in the cause of Allah but have destroyed that deed ourselves by doing any of the above mentioned mun and aza???? Those who did not followed up their sadaqah with these deeds, for them there is 700 times the reward. There will be shade on the day of judgment. Allah is not looking at how much you gave, he looks at your niyah, your monetary situation, your capability. AYAH 263: If you feel that you will not be able to give without following it with mun and Aza then its better for you to not give at all and say a kind word instead. To say kind words and to forgive is also sadaqah and Allah accepts it also. So we should try very hard that our sadaqah does not become a source of hellfire instead of good for us. Whatever you give to the needy, is not giving to him, you are giving it to Allah. Prophet said Allah has said spend and I will spend on you! Hadith Qudsi Allah will say on the DOJ, I was hungry and you did not feed me. The person will answer Allah you are free from hunger and thirst so Allah will say that servant of mine was hungry and you did not feed him, had you fed him you would have fed me
Surah Baqarah: ayah 258-263 Page 9 May Allah keep us safe from the sins of mun and Aza and keep our sadaqah truly beneficial to us and a source of Jannah for us.