Looking at the beginning of Surat al-Baqarat, you will notice that the very first characteristic of the muttaqin Allah lists is that they believe in al-Ghayb - the unseen world. Besides the obvious, there are a few practical implications of this concept in your life.
Firstly, you - O Muwahhid - believe what you believe not because it is popular, easy, cute & cuddly, or will get you more visits to your website. You do not draw your scale of truth/ falsehood, right/ wrong, acceptable/ unacceptable from the reaction of the people around you. In fact, such factors mean absolutely nothing to you. If the six billion people on this Earth believed in something, this would not cause you to budge. Rather, in this world of changing trends, fashions, and flavors of the month, you believe what you believe based on the reaction of a world that never changes its scales - the world of the Unseen ... a world of divine Pleasure and Anger, Heaven and Hell, Angels and devils, that has retained the same unchanging scale of good/ evil & truth/ falsehood since the beginning of time, and will continue to do so until the end of time. The record of this scale - the Qur'an - was sprung forth from that world. It sprung forth from that world whose scales pay no mind to what those around you think, pay no mind to what will/ won't make you a household name, pay no mind to the constantly changing fashions that beliefs have unfortunately become an example of. This is why, my brother and sister, your heart grabs onto this Qur'anic scale of Tawhid being the maslaha (benefit) over all other masalih, and it grabs onto this scale of wala' & bara' being the honor of honors to carry in this era, and it holds tight to the scale that measures compromising with or bowing to a taghut as being the humiliation of humiliations in this era - your heart holds to this and never asks what this will mean for your popularity or worldly comfort. Why not? Because your heart is holding onto a scale that comes from a world devoid of changing fashions and trends. To believe in the unseen world will keep your beliefs as firm and unchanging as the scales of that world. And in a world where overnight riddah is in style, this verse of al-Baqarah means all the more.
Because of your full conviction in the unseen world, you are not a coward. You are willing to take risks in life, especially for the sake of preserving truth. You think back to the du'a' make by the Messenger of Allah (صلي الله عليه و سلم) during the Battle of Badr: "O Allah! If this small group is defeated, You will never be worshipped on Earth!" You Think about how this shows that the odds were so much against the Muslims that day - the risk of failure and annihilation so high - that Islam itself was in danger of being wiped out for good, and yet, this only increased the resolve of the Muslims and they went forth anyway. You think to yourself what drove them to take such a risk? What instilled this courage in their hearts? What kept them firm? You then realize that they had an advanced understanding of the forces at work in the world. They knew that the unseen world could - and would - unleash powers that the human mind cannot comprehend. They didn't know when it would unleash these powers and forces, but they knew for a fact that it could and would. In her book 'Just Five Minutes' (p.48-49), Heba Dabbagh relates that when her mother was in prison, her interrogators asked about her son, to which she replied: "All I know is that I raised my son to go from our house to the mosque from the mosque to the university, and that's all." The officer then said to the interrogator: "Prepare her for some beatings." She replied: "God help you. I am your mother's age, and you want to beat me?" When she was put into solitary confinement, she complained to the warden, asking why she was in prison: "I want to write a letter of complaint to this whole division! Give me a pen and paper." He replied: "That is not allowed. It would never reach him. That is against the rules." So, she replied: "Then I will complain to God, the One and Only, the most Just of Judges, and God-willing, one day you will sit in my place, but you will not have the patience to bear it as I do." Sister Heba then related: "After a month or two, we heard about the warden's death. He died in a car crash. The steering wheel tore into his stomach."
So, you reflect over how the unseen world controls the seen world - not vice versa - and you are emboldened because of this. No worldly power can possibly stand in your way, because you are privy to powers even greater. This is a reality we have to be 100% certain in!
As a believer in the unseen world, you are also able to absorb losses and instead see them as victories. Your whole scale and perception of what loss is is completely beyond what they are for those around you. They deal with the currency of money and health, you deal with the currency of thabat and Allah's Pleasure. For you, there is no such thing as loss so long as you are true to your principles and have fulfilled the criteria for attaining Allah's Pleasure. Loss for you is defined as weakening in your principles and violating the Shari'ah. While the Battle of Uhud was, in a wordly sense a loss, Ibn al-Qayyim dedicates roughly eight pages of 'Zad ul-Ma'ad' to in essence illustrate how it was a victory. This writing of his should be dissected and pondered over deeply by any Muslim looking for clarity in our current circumstances. By making our success/ failure based on the currency of the unseen world, we can never lose, no matter what "losses" befall us in this world. Our religion will be attacked, we will be thrown in prison, our lands will be invaded and pillaged, but we never lose because these are all transactions of this world, while the flurry of activity in the unseen world - reward being recorded, palaces in Paradise being prepared - tells a very different story as to who won & who lost.
The best example in my mind to illustrate this attitude is that of the mother of our sister Aafia Siddiqui - that poor, poor woman who was subjected to so many years of physical and mental torture at the hands of those who lecture us day and night on how to treat our women. The blatant injustice experienced by this woman who was kidnapped, held in a secret American prison, torn from her children, shot twice in the abdomen in hopes of having the truth of what was done to her die along with her, and finally convicted of utterly ridiculous and laughable charges in light of her physical frailty - what this woman has been subject to leaves no words that can adequately express the heart's feelings. However, the attitude of her heroic mother is one that perfectly manifests a true belief in the unseen world turning a loss into a victory. She reacted to her daughter's conviction by saying:
"Up until now, I've been so sick, I couldn't leave my bed. But after receiving the news of my daughter's guilty verdict, life has come back to me! If the judge thinks that today will be a dark day at Aafia's house, that her mother would faint from hearing the verdict, then let it be known to him that I couldn't have had a happier day! This day, Allah has replaced Aafia with a thousand sons for me who stand by my door everyday pledging their support!"
Finally, she said:
"The sign of a believer is that he never bows to anyone except Allah. The day we bend to the Creation for mercy instead of Allah, we will be destroyed."
This is the true meaning of gain/ loss - based on the scales of the Ghayb, not those of this tangible world that will one day melt away.
So, belief in the unseen world has very deep and powerful implications in our lives as Muslims in this world.
In Surat Al 'Imran, v.144, Allah said: {"And Muhammad is no more than a Messenger. Many Messengers passed before him. If he dies or is killed, will you then turn back on your heels?"}
There are a handful of verses in the Qur'an where the words in the verse were actually spoken by a Companion prior to being officially revealed and incorporated into the Qur'an by Allah. This is one of those verses. As Mus'ab bin 'Umayr stood on the day of Uhud surrounded by pagans, and as he looked over and saw that the Prophet himself was surrounded and in danger, he said to himself: "Muhammad is only a Messenger. Many Messengers passed before him." Mus'ab was then killed by the pagans, and the rumor spread that it was the Prophet who had been killed, rather than Mus'ab. Upon hearing this false report, the Companions became divided into three groups: Some were so sad & demoralized that they simply gave up; some went and joined the hypocrites; some said: "If Allah's Messenger has died, then let us fight for what he died for," and they stayed firm as they were. And later, these words that Mus'ab had uttered in the face of a siege by the pagans were completed and revealed by Allah as this verse from the Qur'an in order to confirm a crucial point for those who follow this da'wah…
A person can be motivated to believe in or follow something for any of a variety of reasons:
• Some simply like to follow the crowd, and will adopt a methodology that their friends accept;
• Some experiment with beliefs & methodologies, such that when they are tired of one, they exchange it for another, as if it's a flavor-of-the-month commodity;
• Some were sucked in in a moment of emotion, while perhaps hearing a moving lecture or presentation;
• Some might believe in or follow a methodology out of attachment to a particular personality.
It was due to this phenomenon that the mere rumor of the Prophet's death led to some of the Companions to lose heart and give up. The verse in turn came to address this human inclination and teach that by attaching our hearts to anything but the message itself, we will collapse under the slightest pressure and turn on our heels. Even though the Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is loved on account of being the one through whom the Message & methodology are delivered. This is why the Companions who stood firm at Uhud responded to the rumors of the Prophet's death with: "If he died, then fight for what he died for," i.e. 'So what if he died? We followed his message, not him as an individual. He is nothing more than a Messenger.' And this is why on the day that the Prophet actually did die seven years later, Abu Bakr stood and said: "Whoever of you worshipped Muhammad, then Muhammad has died. But whoever of you worshipped Allah, then Allah is Ever-Living and does not die," and he recited the verse in question. This was to emphasize that we are Muslims for Islam itself, and not because of any attachment to personalities.
Western society places great emphasis on personality worship, whether it be of music stars, movie stars, and other forms of celebrity. One notices that this phenomenon has afflicted even da'wah organizations in these societies, where there exists a sort of 'Superstar Shaykh' culture that appears to serve as a substitute celebrity culture in place of the jahili version that surrounds us. The danger in this is two-fold: first, the opinions & words of such celebrities are taken as absolute, undisputable truths that cannot be challenged, even though the truth is not exclusive to one particular group of scholars or instructors; and second, such veneration and undue attachment to any personality will inevitably lead to his blind followers dispersing & turning back on their heels the moment that Shaykh, leader, etc changes his beliefs, is arrested, or dies – just as some of the Companions did at Uhud when they thought the Prophet had died. The solution is to have an open, critical, analytical, and investigative mind that allows you to take the truth from wherever it comes, for the sake of it being the truth, regardless of who it comes from. And as al-Imam Ahmad said: "From the lack of a person's knowledge is that he believes in something out of blindly following another person." And perhaps it was for this reason that Imam Ahmad himself would limit his classes to the teaching of ahadith from his 'Musnad' and would strongly discourage that his own opinions be written down. He wanted to emphasize an attachment among his students to his sources – the Qur'an & Sunnah – rather than to his own person and opinions.
It is truly unfortunate that because many initially enthusiastic & energetic Muslims neglect to grasp the theme taught in this verse, they end up becoming manhaj chameleons – one day, they are Salafi, the next day Sufi/Ash'ari, another day they might leave the Din altogether. This all leads back to the fact that their entrance point into the da'wah was one of the fleeting, superficial motivations that I'd outlined early on. Such chameleons change so often because they at one time followed the truth for all reasons but the right one: conviction and deep understanding of the message itself.
So, beware of undue attachment to and veneration of personalities – people change, and they die. Rather, study, love, be sincerely motivated and inspired by the da'wah itself and its original pure source – the message never changes, and it never dies.
In Surat Al 'Imran, v.153, Allah said, {"Then He gave you one distress after another by way of requital to teach you not to be sad for what you missed or what befell you…"}
While this verse was revealed regarding the reversal suffered by the Muslims at Uhud, its implications in our lives today are clear, and it is a characteristic of each human being that the more he has, the more he wants, and the more he wants, the more distressed he will be at an inability to get more, as the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said: "If the human being had a valley filled with gold, he would want another one like it, and nothing will stuff his mouth but dirt." So, Allah hits us with periods of deprivation of one luxury or another – food, money, freedom, family, health – to break that insatiable desire for comfort and attachment to this world. When we don't always have things the way we want, and instead are made to experience distress at times, this conditions us to adapt to all circumstances in the future. As the verse says, we will learn to not be sad when what we want misses us, or what we don't want befalls us, since we've been exposed already. That dependence on comfort & ease has been broken.
Another issue contained in the verse is the discouragement from sadness in general. Sadness over good that is missed or evil that is experienced is useless, and brings about no benefit, and will not change reality in the least. Rather, as Ibn al-Qayyim once wrote, sadness causes harm by weakening one's resolve, weakening one's heart, preventing him from doing what will benefit him, and blocking his vision from seeing things as they are. So, when you are feeling sad for one reason or another, immediately replace that sadness with praise of Allah, patience and satisfaction with His Decree, stronger faith in Him, and the phrase 'Qaddar Allah wa ma sha'a fa'al' (Allah Decreed and He does what He Wills). This is the result of a calamity seen through the lens of Tawhid.
Third, the dunya is not meant to be free of distress. Only Paradise is. For example, the Prophet was once asked what the most beloved thing to him in the world is, and he responded that it was 'A'ishah. Yet, even that most beloved worldly love to the Prophet was not free of blemish, as the story of the false accusation against her attached some level of distress to his love for her. And in this was a subtle message that the distresses we come across in the dunya are meant to detach our hearts from it and reorient them towards the journey to the Hereafter.
Allah said in Surat Al 'Imran, v. 156: {"O you who believe! Don't be like those who disbelieved and say about their brethren when they travel throughout the Earth or go out on an expedition: 'If they had stayed with us, they wouldn't have died or been killed,"} and in v. 168: {"… the ones who said about their brethren while sitting back: 'If they had listened to us, they wouldn't have gotten killed…"}
These verses are in regards the hypocrites when they broke away from the Muslim army at Uhud and watched the believers as they fought instead. This was their mentality, summarized in the above verses: that the believers who were willing to put their very lives on the line to defend & spread the truth were simply wasting themselves, while the 'wisdom' was in remaining safe at home, far away from the difficulty & harm associated with struggling for the Din.
Difficulty and harm from others are inseparable companions of calling to the truth. In fact, to bear such harm is the greatest proof of one's love for the truth. Ibn al-Qayyim described the degrees that a da'i can reach in his effort to spread the truth, and he presented the highest degree as being: "Patience with the difficulties of calling to Allah and the harm that people inflict on you, and to bear all of this for the sake of Allah." And in Surat al-'Asr, we are pushed by Allah to be willing to bear such harm patiently if it accompanies the obligation of teaching and spreading the truth: {"By the time! Mankind is indeed in loss, except those who believe, do good, encourage the truth, and encourage patience."} So, while the Muslim doesn't seek out harm & danger for his own sake, he or she is willing to face it if it accompanies the fulfillment of an obligation towards the truth because it is such willingness which distinguishes the believer from the hypocrite, as these verses show.
It's natural for us to incline towards ease, comfort, and safety. A'ishah herself said about the Prophet (عليه الصلاة والسلام) that "he was never presented with two options except that he chose the easier of them, so long as it didn't entail disobedience to Allah." But, ask yourself this: when it came to his own ease, comfort, and safety vs. an opportunity to spread the truth that entailed some harm from the kuffar – if he were made to choose between the two – did he ever once choose the former? Did he, or any other Prophet, for that matter, back down from preaching and standing for the truth out of concern for their own selves, or even with the flimsy justification used by many du'at today that 'if we speak the truth now, we will be wiped out and will not be around to represent it tomorrow'? Never. Not once. In fact, look at the Prophet on the day of Badr, as he stood before the battle supplicating to Allah. Recall what he said: "O Allah! If this group of believers is wiped out and defeated, You will never be worshipped again." In other words, he knew very well that proceeding with this battle carried the very real risk of Islam itself being wiped out that day, let alone the comfort, safety, and lives of the believers. Did the Prophet tell the Companions to pack up their bags and ride back to the safety of Madinah because some risk was involved? On the contrary, he went forth, faced the pagans head-on, and was granted a full victory. And this incident represents his character in all situations, and it represents how our mindset should be.
The world today is dominated by a Capitalist 'every man for himself' mentality that encourages a willingness to do whatever it takes to benefit the self. This is exactly what the hypocrites were saying in these verses: that if standing for the truth entailed being harmed by others, they wanted no part of it. And they sat back, patronizing the believers who were less concerned with their own interests than they were for the interests of the Din of Allah, mocking them and thinking of them as rash zealots who wasted their lives needlessly when they could've been sitting at home safe and sound from the wrath of the tawaghit. They could've chosen the 'easier,' 'wiser,' 'practical' way that involved no controversy or friction. This was the mentality of the hypocrites of then, and it is the mentality of the hypocrites of today who prefer self-preservation over self-sacrifice. Ibn 'Abbas once said that: "Allah's Messenger was the most generous of people." While we often associate his generosity with his willingness to give to the poor, there is another aspect to his generosity we rarely emulate: his willingness to put aside his own comfort & safety if his responsibility as a caller to the truth required him to choose between the two. So, the mentality of the hypocrites is one of selfishness, while that of the Prophets and their followers is one of selflessness. The Muslim organizations, leaders, callers, and even laymen in the West need to take a step back and ask themselves how much this Capitalist mindset has affected their Islamic work – are they motivated by adherence to principles, or are they inwardly motivated by self-preservation? If called upon to choose between ease & safety vs. risk-taking for the Din of Allah, which would they choose? Would they choose their own short-term interests or would they choose the long-term interests of the Din of Allah being clarified and defended? Would they choose the mindset of the hypocrites laid out in these verses, or would they choose the mindset of the Prophet? Preservation or principles?
Commenting on the story of the People of the Ditch in Surat al-Buruj, Sayyid Qutb said: "It was possible for the believers to save themselves by giving up their beliefs, but with how much of a loss to themselves, and with how much of a loss to Mankind? They would've lost and would've killed this great truth: that life without belief is worthless, and without freedom is degrading, and if tyrants are allowed to dominate the souls and bodies of people, then life is entirely depraved."
Allah said in Surat Al 'Imran, v.180: {"And don't let those who covetously withhold what Allah has bestowed upon them of His bounty think that this is good for them…"}
We are all alike in certain ways. All of us have been given blessings by Allah, albeit of varying degrees. All of us love to have more than what we have. All of us – no matter what you say – feel at least a tinge of hesitation when parting ways with a bit of what we do have. And all of us understand perfectly the virtue of parting ways with a bit of what we do have for the sake of Allah, whether it's to the poor or what have you. These are qualities universal to us all, regardless of whether we act on them all or not.
What, then, is an easy way to condition ourselves to remove that hesitation and make it easier to act upon the knowledge of the virtue of giving? The best way is to do the following: as you go about your day, begin to count – mentally, verbally, or in writing – every blessing you come across that you have been blessed with. No matter how seemingly small and insignificant, take note of it… your life, breathing, sight, and everything related to your physical body; your home, car, clothes, food, and everything related to your possessions; your job, family, friends, masjid, and everything related to your social structure; your freedom of movement, moments of joy, love of your spouse, Islam, clean air, cool water, that you have an overall sense of security, that you experience kindness from others, and so on – there are countless blessings you experience on a daily basis, such that you would be unable to list them all. I recently read a magazine article describing how in parts of India & Africa, a mother has to make a six-hour journey on foot each morning in order to bring back a canister of water for her family to drink, bathe, and cook with, simply because no other water is available. But I, sitting in my prison cell, can take two steps in less than a second, press a metal button on my sink, and cold, clean water comes out until I decide that I've had enough. At first glance, it would seem like a curse to others, since it is in a prison. But after a reflection for a minute in light of these mothers not even dreaming of the ease with which I can have clean water, it becomes just one of the blessings that I encounter on a daily basis in my life here. So, if I have this in prison, imagine how much more you could list on the outside!
So, you list these blessings. The longer the list gets, the more you will see what's been under your nose all along that you never thought much of. Then, realize that you deserve none of this. It's all a bounty from Allah, that He provided you with out of His Mercy. You don't have a right to any of it. So, when you go through that list again and see example after example of what you have been given undeservedly, out of Mercy and Generosity, your mind & heart begin to transform. It is human nature to do unto others as is done unto you. When you are treated badly throughout your life, you will have a natural tendency to deal harshly with others, simply because this is how you've been taught to deal with others. Likewise, if you are shown generosity and mercy and kindness throughout all your life, you will in turn be this way with others because this is what you know. The problem with us is that we are shown generosity, mercy and kindness constantly by Allah – second by second – but we often don't know it, or don't know to what extent.
This, then, is the most subtle barrier to being generous ourselves to others: heedlessness of Allah's Generosity toward us. The more you unearth these blessings of His, and the more you realize that you truly don't deserve them, this will automatically result in a desire to compensate for all that you have been given by in turn giving to others. This is the easiest way to come to love generosity and giving.
Quran and mankind relation is very tight. Quran is given to mankind because ALLAH gave us the mind and the powers to understand this book and follow its sayings.
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