let's learn about Quran and Islam this Ramadan
Gems extracted by Aida Msr - Aida is a fellow sister and friend from Malaysia. She aspires to continuously learn, improve and be a better Muslimah. Today's media age, in which we are constantly exposed...
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Bismillah
Al-Birr
It is not Al-Birr (piety, righteousness, act of obedience to Allah, etc.) that you turn your faces towards east & (or) west (in prayers); but Al-Birr is (the quality of) the one who believes in Allah, the Last Day, the Angels, the Book, the Prophets & gives his wealth, in spite of love for it, to the kinsfolk, to the orphans, & to Al-Masakin, & to the wayfarer, & to those who ask, & to set slaves free, performs As-Salat, & gives the Zakat, & who fulfill their covenant when they make it, & who are patient in extreme poverty & ailment & at the time of fighting (during battles). Such are the people of the truth & they are Al-Muttaqun.
{Surat Al-Baqarah 2: Verse 177}
⚫️This ayat was revealed during the change of Qiblah from Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem to the Ka’bah. It tested the people’s loyalty: They had to turn their backs towards Jerusalem, where they had been facing all this while to perform prayers, in order to face the Ka’bah. For those whose religion was all about facing Al-Aqsa, this was a very big deal to them. They asked: How can we turn away from Al-Aqsa! How can the religion be right if we turn from Al-Aqsa!
⚫️Allah (Subhanahu Wa Taála) sets a sense of proportion in this ayat where He (Subhanahu Wa Taála) reveals to them the wisdom behind the command.
And that is obedience to Allah, adhering to His commands & implementing whatever He legislates, that is the objective. This is Birr (goodness), Taqwa & complete faith.
{Tafseer Ibn Kathir}.
⚫️But sadly just like those who were so set that Al-Aqsa should be the only right way, the same mindset plagues us today. We sometimes blindly follow the norms of our cultures & are so set it is the right way. This type of mentality chooses only some parts of the religion, makes a really big deal out of those few things they follow, but lose sight of what the entire Deen is about.
As believers, we have no right to pick & choose what to follow & not to follow when it comes to matters of our Deen. Islam is also not based on culture, but it is from the Qur’an & Sunnah of Rasulallah (Salallahu Aleyhi Wasallam). Allah (Subhanahu Wa Taála) commands us in another ayat:
O you who believe! Enter perfectly in Islam (by obeying all the rules & regulations of the Islamic religion)…
{Surat Al-Baqarah 2: Verse 208}
⚫️‘Birr’ in Arabic comes from ‘Barr’ i.e. land, which is the opposite of ‘Bahr’ i.e. ocean which is unstable. The parable of goodness is like the land because it is stable. What it means is that Allah s.w.t. expects from us that the attributes mentioned in ayat 177 are not seasonal matters, but must be internalized & become a part of us.
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Gems extracted from tafseer of Surat Al-Baqarah by Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan.
