Guideposts of Guidance in Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt

Occasion: Transcription of a khatira delivered on 21 June 2019 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

We promised to speak about Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt and to look at the guideposts of guidance in it. Guideposts are beacons along the road; you are travelling along the road and you meet a sign that tells you: turn right, and another that says: head left, and a third that says: this street is closed, and a fourth: one way. These indications help one arrive safely; adhering to them leads to a safe arrival, and violating them may lead to destruction. This is in travel and movement, and when we move on to the movement of societies we find the Lord of Might, glorified is He, setting for us guideposts of guidance; whoever follows them is saved.

The Straight Path and the Side Lines

The Prophet ﷺ was sitting one day among his Companions, and he drew a line for them and explained that this is the way to Allah, the straight path, then he drew a number of branching lines on its two sides, and said that at the head of each one of them is a devil. Whoever leaves the path, it is as though a devil is calling him: Come, leave from my door here. So you have the door of desire with a devil at its head, and the door of wealth, and the door of power, and the door of the love of possessing things; doors of trial with all that is in them: ﴿زُيِّنَ لِلنَّاسِ حُبُّ الشَّهَوَاتِ مِنَ النِّسَاءِ وَالْبَنِينَ وَالْقَنَاطِيرِ الْمُقَنْطَرَةِ مِنَ الذَّهَبِ وَالْفِضَّةِ وَالْخَيْلِ الْمُسَوَّمَةِ وَالْأَنْعَامِ وَالْحَرْثِ ذَلِكَ مَتَاعُ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا﴾^[1] (Beautified for people is the love of desires: women, sons, heaped-up treasures of gold and silver, branded horses, cattle, and farmland. That is the enjoyment of worldly life). So the Prophet ﷺ shows us that the straight path has guideposts; whoever walks upon it is saved, and whoever departs from its foundation falls into misguidance. And in Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt there is a set of guideposts that show us how to reach what pleases Allah, blessed and exalted is He.

Individual Etiquettes and Societal Etiquettes

What is striking about this noble sūra is that it addresses society. We have individual ethics and we have societal ethics, and one etiquette may be individual and societal at the same time. Hear the saying of Allah the Exalted: ﴿إِلَّا مَنْ تَابَ وَآمَنَ وَعَمِلَ عَمَلًا صَالِحًا فَأُولَئِكَ يُبَدِّلُ اللَّهُ سَيِّئَاتِهِمْ حَسَنَاتٍ﴾^[2] (Except for those who repent, believe, and do righteous deeds; for those, Allah will replace their evil deeds with good deeds); here repentance is individual, each one repents between himself and himself of individual errors. Then hear: ﴿وَتُوبُوا إِلَى اللَّهِ جَمِيعًا أَيُّهَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ﴾^[3] (And repent to Allah, all of you, O believers); here we have moved to the collective, to the repentance of a society. There is someone who lies and we say to him: Do not lie, and there is someone who stretches out his hand to what is not his and we say to him: Do not do so. But if the affliction passes to more than one individual and becomes a widespread phenomenon, then we have moved from the individual error to the societal error.

Passivity Is a Societal Disease

And among that is passivity in society. After Fajr I was reading the saying of Allah the Exalted: ﴿إِنَّ الَّذِينَ تَوَفَّاهُمُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ ظَالِمِي أَنْفُسِهِمْ قَالُوا فِيمَ كُنْتُمْ قَالُوا كُنَّا مُسْتَضْعَفِينَ فِي الْأَرْضِ قَالُوا أَلَمْ تَكُنْ أَرْضُ اللَّهِ وَاسِعَةً فَتُهَاجِرُوا فِيهَا﴾^[4] (Indeed, those whom the angels take in death while wronging themselves, the angels say: In what condition were you? They say: We were oppressed in the land. They say: Was not the earth of Allah spacious enough for you to emigrate therein?). The angels came to take them while they were wronging themselves, and asked them: What deceived you in all these sins? They said: We were oppressed; we did that in spite of ourselves. How? We used to take bribes because everyone does so, and we used to look on at indecencies because everyone does so, and we used to smoke because everyone does so. Or they said: We did not dare to speak the truth, and we could not speak of good, and none of us dared to testify to such-and-such. So the angels reply to them: Was not the earth of Allah spacious enough for you to emigrate therein?

The Noble Qur'an taught me in this passage how passivity is to be fought, and that it is a disease that merits punishment; for the Lord of the worlds is severe in punishment upon these people, and their refuge is the Fire, we seek refuge in Allah. What did they do? They were passive. And passivity in itself is that you sit and shut the door on yourself and leave the world to burn; and this is a crime in itself. The Prophet ﷺ urged us to the opposite, for he forbade any of us to be a follower of another, doing good if people do good and doing evil if they do evil, and he commanded us to accustom ourselves; that is, that you yourself have a stance: if you see good and realize it is good you go along with it, and if you realize evil you stop away from it, even if some people do not do so.

The point is that the sūra treats with us a set of societal diseases, and the Lord of the worlds addresses people in it with the language of societal address: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا﴾ (O you who have believed). And it is an address to a believing Ummah, and the principle in a believing Ummah is that it is a civilized Ummah, rising to the heights of perfection and striving to attain it. So when Allah the Exalted warns of a disease and addresses the believers with it, let us know that it is among the things that destroy civilization in societies; it is not merely an evil deed that follows from it, but the structure of society collapses by it.

Between Sūrat al-Fatḥ and Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt

Allah the Exalted said: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تُقَدِّمُوا بَيْنَ يَدَيِ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ﴾^[5] (O you who have believed, do not put yourselves forward before Allah and His Messenger, and fear Allah; indeed, Allah is Hearing and Knowing). We have learned together that in tafsīr we must link the sūra to what precedes it. And what precedes al-Ḥujurāt is Sūrat al-Fatḥ, in whose latter part Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said: ﴿لَقَدْ صَدَقَ اللَّهُ رَسُولَهُ الرُّؤْيَا بِالْحَقِّ لَتَدْخُلُنَّ الْمَسْجِدَ الْحَرَامَ﴾^[6] (Certainly has Allah fulfilled the vision for His Messenger in truth: you will surely enter al-Masjid al-Ḥarām). And in it is an indication that the attainment of goals is in the hand of Allah, and that He, glorified is He, gives what He promised. Has not our Lord promised: ﴿لَأَغْلِبَنَّ أَنَا وَرُسُلِي﴾^[7] (I and My messengers will surely overcome)? He promised that He will support His soldiers, and that the soldiers of Allah are the victors, and He promised that He will support the believers. So the matter of victories is connected to Allah, and nothing is required of you except that you be prepared and ready.

And let me give you an example: The little pupil goes to school; conveying the information to this child is the task of the teacher, not the task of the pupil. But the teacher will not explain to an absent pupil; one who did not attend the class at all, what is he to be taught? Likewise the believer who is absent from the guideposts of progress asks Allah for nothing of these achievements; for Allah, Mighty and Majestic, fulfills His promise for the one in whom readiness is found, and gives what He promised to the one who stretched out his hand to receive. As for those who sat in their homes and held back from active da'wa work, let them not expect from Allah, blessed and exalted is He, the fulfillment of what He promised.

And after this verse Allah, Mighty and Majestic, describes the society as it should be if Allah gives it power: ﴿مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ وَالَّذِينَ مَعَهُ أَشِدَّاءُ عَلَى الْكُفَّارِ رُحَمَاءُ بَيْنَهُمْ تَرَاهُمْ رُكَّعًا سُجَّدًا يَبْتَغُونَ فَضْلًا مِنَ اللَّهِ﴾^[8] (Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allah; and those with him are forceful against the disbelievers, merciful among themselves. You see them bowing and prostrating, seeking bounty from Allah). They are those who follow the Messenger, and their traits: they guard the outer front with utmost dignity, while the inner front is soft and tender, no problems among us; you said a word to me and I am not angry with you, and a stance of yours came about and I overlook it, so what is in your pocket is for me and what is with me is for you, no difference: «رحماء بينهم» ("merciful among themselves"). And you see them arranged in the string of worship, not breaking it, because worship is a helping factor toward more mercy among us. ﴿يَبْتَغُونَ فَضْلًا مِنَ اللَّهِ﴾ (seeking bounty from Allah), they want no one but Him, so their hearts are attached to Allah, and they are regular in worship, and their hearts and minds understand the changing variables of reality and what may newly arise in it. Civilized people, who understand at a very high level.

The First Command: ﴿لَا تُقَدِّمُوا﴾ (Do Not Put Yourselves Forward)

Here Allah, blessed and exalted is He, gives the first command in Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تُقَدِّمُوا بَيْنَ يَدَيِ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ﴾ (O you who have believed, do not put yourselves forward before Allah and His Messenger). And the address continues from before; Allah has promised those of them who believed and did righteous deeds forgiveness and a great reward.^[9] So these believers who have just received the reward, what is required of them? That they not put themselves forward before Allah and His Messenger.

Is there anyone in the Ummah whose faith surpasses the faith of Abū Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him)? No, and it has been reported in that regard that if the faith of the Ummah and the faith of Abū Bakr were weighed, his faith would outweigh. Agreed. Yet one day a situation occurred in which the Prophet ﷺ wanted to send one of his Companions to admonish the people, and Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq said: Send so-and-so, and ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said: No, send so-and-so, and they disputed, if the narration is sound.^[10] And they say that this is the reason for the revelation of these verses: ﴿لَا تُقَدِّمُوا بَيْنَ يَدَيِ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ﴾ (do not put yourselves forward before Allah and His Messenger); so if the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, chooses, no one speaks.

And is the verse specific to this field, if the Prophet ﷺ chooses a person or appoints something? No, rather it concerns the whole matter of following.

The Ladder of the Beloved: From the Colleague to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ

And let me bring the matter closer with an example. If you wanted to do something and a colleague at work asked you to do something else, are you obliged to listen to him? You tell him: No, and that is the end of it. If it is your companion, you think about the matter. If it is your close friend, near to you, do you leave what is in your hand and meet his wish? You do that because there is between you and him a relationship and a connected heart. If it is your father, then there is no more discussion; we have moved to another rank, which is fatherhood, or motherhood. If it is the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and he has a wish that he presented as a way of life, and you have a wish, which of the two do you put first?

We say: Follow the Prophet ﷺ, for he is the model and the example, and this is lovely theoretical talk, but let us imagine the situation with an example closer to the mind. Someone says to you: Come, let us drink coffee, and you say: By Allah I do not want to, and he says: Come with me, so you go with him because he is your companion and you know that he wants it, even though it is not what you desire. If he is your very strong friend, you will prefer what he wants even if you do not like what he wants. And if it is a father or mother? And if it is the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him? And if it is Allah, glorified and exalted is He? Pay attention to this sequence; if we understand it we grasp the meaning of ﴿لَا تُقَدِّمُوا بَيْنَ يَدَيِ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ﴾ (do not put yourselves forward before Allah and His Messenger): there is no command that Allah the Exalted gives or that His Messenger ﷺ gives except that it takes precedence over every command in our lives, even if it is contrary to our personal wishes.

First Example: Congregational Prayer

Let us apply this to congregational prayer. The Prophet ﷺ urged us to pray our prayers in congregation, and promised us that the congregational prayer equals the prayer of the individual by twenty-seven degrees, and in some narrations by lesser numbers than that. And our honored shaykhs say about this variation: Allah grants the servant reward only in proportion to his humility in his prayer; so in proportion to how deeply you enter into the prayer your reward increases, according to that.

Fine, the Prophet ﷺ commands congregational prayer, and I want to pray at home. And you are at home, and your friend calls you: Come, let us go out for tea, or let us go on an errand, or I want to buy something so come with me; and you get up and dress and go out with him. But if the wish of the Prophet ﷺ is that you leave your house now to perform the prayer in the mosque, you say: No, but the prayers are too many! Are they many? Five times every day. By Allah, if you had a person you loved with a great love and he called you a hundred times a day, you would drive after him, and go out with him, and follow his desire, and prefer his wishes over your personal wishes. So what of it if the caller is the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?

And the Companions followed this way with an inconceivable excellence. One of them says: By Allah, none of us would ever stay away from the congregational prayer, so that you would see the sick man being carried, swaying, between two men.^[11] His companion goes out early to pass by him, because he cannot stand on his own, and supports him and the two walk together to the Fajr prayer, until, when he stands in the row, it is as if nothing had been the matter. Allāhu akbar! As if he has moved to another world, he has a feeling for what he is doing. This commitment from a sick, ailing man in whom a breath still moves.

And therefore, since the matter is of such gravity, it has come to us from the Prophet ﷺ that he intended to order a man to lead the people in prayer, then go out to people who had stayed away from the congregational prayer and burn their houses over them. You must go out from a shade you yourself chose to a shade that Allah chose, and from a room whose features you defined to a house in which Allah sent down His blessings, in the mosque, in the house of Allah, blessed and exalted is He, in which prayer is established. And this is merely an example.

Second Example: The Fiancée and the Love of Allah

Let us speak about women. A young woman whom a young man has proposed to, and he said to her: I do not like that your hair is uncovered, for I am protective of you. She says: Yes, and puts on a head covering. Her love for him makes her fall into line with the way he wants for her, without discussion. So if she loves a person to this degree, responding to what he tells her and dictates to her, then what of it if the matter is for Allah? And within the framework of this understanding we imagine the saying of Allah, blessed and exalted is He: ﴿وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَتَّخِذُ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ أَنْدَادًا يُحِبُّونَهُمْ كَحُبِّ اللَّهِ﴾^[12] (And among the people are those who take other than Allah as equals; they love them as they love Allah). She may have a desire to show her adornment to people; but if the matter is for Allah, the stance should be different.

Third Example: Truthfulness in Buying and Selling

And in utmost simplicity in our conceptions of our work: The Prophet ﷺ commands us with the command of Allah, blessed and exalted is He, to truthfulness, but if you lied in buying and selling you would profit more. You say to the buyer: This is the finest kind in the market, while in reality it is worth only a small part of what you asked for it, so you take a large difference by this lie. And if you sold it according to its true kind your profit would be less. A person may achieve a greater material benefit than he achieves by truthfulness. But the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, says to you: Take care, «عليكم بالصدق، فإن الصدق يهدي إلى البرّ، وإن البرّ يهدي إلى الجنة، ولا يزال الرجل يصدُق ويتحرّى الصدق حتى يُكتب عند الله صدّيقًا. وإياكم والكذب، فإن الكذب يهدي إلى الفجور، وإن الفجور يهدي إلى النار»^[13] ("Hold fast to truthfulness, for truthfulness guides to righteousness, and righteousness guides to Paradise, and a man keeps speaking the truth and striving for truthfulness until he is recorded with Allah as a ṣiddīq. And beware of lying, for lying guides to wickedness, and wickedness guides to the Fire"), then he mentioned that a man keeps lying and striving for lying.

Look at this great transition: truthfulness guides to righteousness and you feel that the matter is proceeding naturally, but lying leads to wickedness? This is frightening. And it is so because it begins with a lie we call white at first, we laugh at ourselves, then the egg begins to blacken, and when it has blackened the matter becomes mud on the head of the liar. And one who has grown accustomed to lying does not know how to return easily, because he has plunged into this evil, we seek refuge in Allah. And reflect on the phrase: «يتحرّى الصدق» ("strives for truthfulness"); he searches for truthfulness before he says: Is this right or wrong? And conversely «يتحرّى الكذب» ("strives for lying"); he goes around after lying and runs behind it.

So the way is: I follow what the Prophet ﷺ commands, and that takes precedence for me over everything. This is the meaning of ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تُقَدِّمُوا بَيْنَ يَدَيِ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ﴾ (O you who have believed, do not put yourselves forward before Allah and His Messenger).

The Scale Is in the Heart, Not in the Ruler

We do not walk with a book and a paper and a pen. Engineers tell you: This piece is at this angle and this ruler, and they proceed with the pen and the ruler. As for me, I have a heart attached to Allah, in the watchfulness of Allah, blessed and exalted is He, a heart that weighs matters in their truth and falsehood. For this reason the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said to the man: «استفتِ قلبك» ("Seek a ruling from your heart"), and «الإثم ما حاك في صدرك وكرهتَ أن يطّلع عليه الناس» ("Sin is what stirs in your chest and you dislike that people come to know of it"). The precise scale is in the heart, and you do not have a pen and a ruler. For this reason a matter may be permissible for one man and not for another, and may be forbidden for one person and not forbidden for the second. And this is not in the fixed prohibitions nor in the obligations, but in matters in between, among the permissible.

And we conclude with the example of food, because the time has come. Is it ḥalāl or ḥarām? Both answers are not good; for you imagine that the five rulings apply to food: it may be obligatory, it may be recommended, it may be permissible, it may be disliked, and it may be forbidden. Imagine a morsel that, if a man with a certain illness ate it, would kill him; eating is forbidden for him, because it is deadly to him, even if the food in itself is ḥalāl. And a man afflicted with diabetes, we ask Allah for well-being, whose sugar has risen, and if he were to eat this food he would fall into a coma; you keep it from him and hide it, because eating it is forbidden to him since it will lead to what has no praiseworthy outcome. And conversely, one who cannot stand from hunger, and this hunger affects his life, for him eating is an obligation that he must take at this time. And if it is of his own will without a stronger and weightier cause, then between these are other rulings: one has lunch and eats many loaves, and this in principle is disliked. And another takes a morsel, for whom the food is recommended: if you are a guest of a person and he offers you food that does not harm you, it is recommended that you meet the wish of your Muslim brother and respond to him.

In Sum

And let us summarize what we have said on the matter of ﴿لَا تُقَدِّمُوا بَيْنَ يَدَيِ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ﴾ (do not put yourselves forward before Allah and His Messenger): if the whole society adhered to what Allah commands and His Messenger ﷺ commands, we would find the whole society upright. And today I read a very beautiful phrase by one of the shaykhs,^[14] in which he says: Why did the line of the Muslims become straight? Because each one of them began with himself, so the line became straight. So imagine the straightness of the line when people follow the saying: Be upright, may Allah have mercy on you; be upright in trustworthiness, be upright in truthfulness. Then society becomes upright by following the guidance of the Prophet ﷺ in what the Lord of Might, glorified and exalted is He, commands.

May Allah the Exalted be pleased with you and make you pleased, and may Allah reward you with good, and until a renewed meeting, if the Most Merciful wills, I entrust you to Allah the Exalted, and peace be upon you.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: Āl ʿImrān: 14; the transcript had "and the letter" (wa-l-ḥarf), which is an error of hearing, and the wording of the verse, "and farmland" (wa-l-ḥarth), has been entered. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: al-Furqān: 70. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: al-Nūr: 31. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: al-Nisāʾ: 97. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: al-Ḥujurāt: 1. ^[6]: Editor's documentation: al-Fatḥ: 27. ^[7]: Editor's documentation: al-Mujādila: 21. ^[8]: Editor's documentation: al-Fatḥ: 29; the text was limited to as much of the verse as the speaker said. ^[9]: Editor's documentation: al-Fatḥ: 29; the speaker gave the promise by its meaning, and it is from the remainder of the verse before it. ^[10]: Editor's documentation: The speaker said this with the qualification "if the narration is sound," and the transcript did not specify the two names that the two shaykhs proposed. What is established regarding the occasion of revelation of the verse is what al-Bukhārī recorded of the disagreement of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both) over who should be appointed over the delegation of Banū Tamīm, and not about admonishing the people. As for his statement "if the faith of the Ummah and the faith of Abū Bakr were weighed, his faith would outweigh," it is reported and is not established as a raised (marfūʿ) report in this wording as far as we know, so it has been phrased in the tentative form. ^[11]: Editor's documentation: The speaker transmitted the Companion's statement by meaning and did not specify who said it in the transcript; its origin is from Ibn Masʿūd (may Allah be pleased with him) in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim. ^[12]: Editor's documentation: al-Baqara: 165. ^[13]: Editor's documentation: The ḥadīth is agreed upon from the ḥadīth of Ibn Masʿūd (may Allah be pleased with him); it is transmitted as the speaker gave it, and he cut off his speech at his saying "and strives for lying," so the sentence was not completed. ^[14]: Editor's documentation: The speaker attributed this phrase to one of the shaykhs, and his name was not recorded because the phrase was not verified.