Birr in the Qurʾan

The Muslims were praying toward Jerusalem, until the command came to turn the direction of prayer (qiblah) to the Kaʿbah while they were in the midst of their prayer; so those who were in a row behind the imam turned a complete turn, from one direction to its opposite, without interrupting their prayer. And the matter had scarcely settled before a broad debate arose around it: What did God intend by this changing? And what has religion to do with these directions? And instead of the verses that were revealed afterward answering the question "which direction is better," they came to demolish the question from its root: "Righteousness (birr) is not that you turn your faces toward the east or the west, but righteousness is [that of] one who believes in God, the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the prophets" [al-Baqarah: 177]. So the debate over the direction of the qiblah was but an example of a more dangerous illusion: that religion be reduced to an outward movement, and that it be supposed that "birr" is a thing as narrow as the narrowness of the single direction one faces.

Twenty revolving around good, and twelve about dry land

The root "b-r-r" recurs in the Qurʾan thirty-two times, but nearly half of it has no connection to our subject: for "al-barr" (with a fatḥah on the b) means dry land as opposed to the sea, and it occurs in this purely geographical meaning twelve times [as in al-Anʿām: 59, 63, 97; al-Isrāʾ: 67, 68, 70; al-Rūm: 41], a place having no true verbal connection to the character trait despite the identity of the letters. As for the circle that concerns us, it comprises: the verb "tabarrū" (twice: al-Baqarah 224, al-Mumtaḥanah 8), the noun "al-birr" (eight times: al-Baqarah 44, 177 [twice], 189 [twice], Āl ʿImrān 92, al-Māʾidah 2, al-Mujādalah 9), the plural "al-abrār" (six times: Āl ʿImrān 193, 198; al-Insān 5; al-Infiṭār 13; al-Muṭaffifīn 18, 22), the adjective "barran" describing the son who is dutiful to his parents (Maryam 14, 32), the name of God "al-Barr" (al-Ṭūr 28), and the adjective "bararah" describing the angels (ʿAbasa 16). So the total of the direct verbal witness is twenty places^[1].

A breadth that matches a breadth

And before we trace this circle of twenty in its places, it is useful to pause at what joins it linguistically to its distant sister "dry land," for the lexicons agree that "birr" in its origin is broad, comprehensive good, not a particular act of good; and the linguists have observed that this meaning intersects with "al-barr," dry land, in a single common factor which is breadth and expanse, for just as the dry land expands before the beholder with no limit confining it, so "birr" is a broad good that is not confined to a single door of the doors of obedience. And this linguistic intersection — though it is not a verbal witness to the ethical usage but a distant derivational connection — illuminates the meaning with an illumination whose confirmation is in the text of the verse itself: for when the Qurʾan wished to refute the illusion of reducing birr to a single direction, it came with one of the broadest definitions of virtue in the entire Qurʾan, as though the breadth of the word linguistically is itself the breadth of its content legally.

Two verses that refute the reduction twice

This is not the only time the Qurʾan uses the style "birr is not… but birr is" to refute a superficial understanding. For in the same sura, and after twelve verses, the pattern recurs on an entirely different occasion: some of the Arabs in the pre-Islamic era, when they entered the state of consecration for the pilgrimage, would not enter their house through its door but would make a hole in the back of the house to enter through it, as a false form of piety. So it was revealed: "And righteousness is not that you enter houses from their backs, but righteousness is [in] one who fears God" [al-Baqarah: 189]. So the central structure that this repetition speaks: whenever people invent a formal rite they suppose to be the essence of religion — the direction of prayer, or the door of entry — the Qurʾan comes to return it to a single unchanging criterion: faith, God-consciousness, and righteous deeds. Birr, then, is not an act added to the list of obediences, but the comprehensive name by which every act its doer supposes to be an obedience is tested: is it of the essence of religion or of its invented husks?

A list, not a direction

The completion of al-Baqarah 177 deserves to be read in full, because it is the most comprehensive list of the components of birr in the Qurʾan: faith in God, the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the prophets, then "and gives wealth, in spite of love for it, to relatives, orphans, the needy, the traveler, those who ask [for help], and for freeing slaves," then the establishment of prayer and the giving of alms, then fulfilling the covenant, then patience "in poverty and hardship and during battle." So the verse gathers, in a single breath, creed, worship, spending, social conduct, and patience, and leaves no door of the doors of religion outside its definition. And it is striking that the spending is qualified by "in spite of love for it," which another verse declares: "You will never attain righteousness until you spend from that which you love" [Āl ʿImrān: 92]; so birr is not attained through the surplus of wealth that is not missed, but through what its owner loves and prefers another to it. And in another dimension the Qurʾan links birr to parents specifically, describing Yaḥyā and ʿĪsā (peace be upon them) as "dutiful to his parents" and "dutiful to my mother" [Maryam: 14, 32], making this trait a quality with which God described His prophets themselves, not the general body of the righteous alone.

And the word "al-abrār" itself deserves an independent pause, for it did not come as a passing description but as a name for a lofty rank among the people of Paradise, described with a special bliss: "Indeed, the righteous will be in bliss" [al-Infiṭār: 13, al-Muṭaffifīn: 22], and its people are given to drink from a cup "whose mixture is of Kāfūr" [al-Insān: 5], and their record is described as being "in ʿIlliyyūn" [al-Muṭaffifīn: 18] — the highest of the stations of the records, not the lowest. So birr in the Qurʾan is not a single virtue among many equal virtues, but the name given to one who has reached in obedience a degree by which he is singled out with an independent standing among the people of Paradise, not merely those saved from the Fire.

A word that abridges the list

After this Qurʾanic breadth, a prophetic hadith came to abridge the whole meaning in two words. Al-Nawwās ibn Samʿān (may God be pleased with him) asked the Prophet ﷺ about righteousness and sin, and he said: "Righteousness is good character, and sin is what wavers in your soul and you dislike that people become aware of it," recorded by Muslim^[2]. So after the Qurʾan detailed a long list of creed, worship, spending, and patience, the hadith came to return all of that to a single essence manifesting in daily dealing: good character; as though every item in the list of al-Baqarah is a manifestation of the manifestations of this single essence. And in another hadith, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd (may God be pleased with him) asked the Prophet ﷺ: "Which deed is most beloved to God?" and he said: "Prayer at its time," he said: "Then which?" he said: "Then dutifulness to parents (birr al-wālidayn)," he said: "Then which?" he said: "Striving in the path of God," agreed upon^[3]. So the Prophet ﷺ ranked dutifulness to parents in the second rank after prayer, before striving which is the peak of the summit of religion, giving it a priority that may be neglected by one who supposes that striving and calling to God are better than the care of an aged parent in his home.

When the rite becomes a veil

In their exegesis of the verse "righteousness is not that you turn your faces," many of the exegetes agreed that the aim of the verse is not the preference of one direction over another, but the liberation of religion from the illusion that rites — stripped of the faith that accompanies them in the heart and the deeds in life — achieve birr or produce good; for the rite may become a veil over the essence of religion if it is supposed to be the essence in itself, instead of being a means to it. And this explains why the Qurʾan chose, in the moment when people could have been preoccupied with the debate "which direction is more correct," to broaden the whole question rather than answer it in its narrowness; for the aim of religion is not in a direction one faces, but in a heart that is reformed and a life established upon truthfulness, giving, and faithfulness.

When we too reduce

The very pattern that the two verses of al-Baqarah corrected recurs today, even if its image has changed. For some suppose that religiousness is confined to a single appearance — the manner of dress, or the tone of speech, or strictness in a secondary contested matter — while being lax in good character with the closest people to him, in his home or his work; so he establishes his own "qiblah" and supposes it the whole religion, exactly as some of the pre-Islamic Arabs supposed that entering from the back of the house was piety. And the list of the verse of al-Baqarah itself serves today as a practical measure: Is there truthfulness in my faith? Is there in my wealth preference [of others] rather than surplus? Is there in my promise faithfulness? Is there in my hardship patience? For if one of these pillars is absent and its place is taken by strictness in a formal matter, then that is precisely the reduction that the two verses were revealed to refute. And this also applies to whoever supposes birr confined to the relationship with God alone, so he is preoccupied with an abundance of supererogatory acts while falling short in the right of his parents, his neighbor, or his colleague; for the hadith of Ibn Masʿūd places dutifulness to parents in a rank preceding even striving, and it is a reminder that the breadth of birr includes the closest people before the farthest, not the reverse. And in a time in which priorities contend between seeking religious knowledge, calling to God, and public work, the hadith of Ibn Masʿūd remains an unforgettable reminder: that a person ask himself where the dutifulness to his parents falls on the ladder of his priorities, before he becomes preoccupied with other arenas he supposed to be better.

Conclusion

From the debate over the direction of the qiblah, to the boring of walls as a form of piety, to a list gathering faith, spending, and patience, the Qurʾan draws for birr a breadth that refuses every attempt to confine it to a single rite. And when this whole breadth was abridged in two words on the tongue of the Prophet ﷺ, nothing was chosen for it but "good character" — an essence manifesting in every daily detail, not in a single direction one faces and then forgets. And God, the Exalted, knows best; He is the Guardian of success.