The Calls of Faith: ‹If you obey those who disbelieve, they will turn you back on your heels›

Occasion: Transcription of an evening (ʿishāʾ) khatira delivered on 30 June 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

O Allah, preserve for us our sight and our insight, and make us firm with the firm word in the life of this world and in the Hereafter. Our Lord, do not entrust us to ourselves for the blink of an eye, nor for less than that. Our Lord, do not leave our hearts empty of Your remembrance, nor idle our tongues from Your Qur'an, and grant us good understanding of Your intent, and make us among those who are grateful to You, who turn to You often, who obey Your command, who stop at Your prohibition. Our Lord, do not let our hearts deviate after You have guided us, and grant us from Yourself mercy; indeed, You are the Bestower.

The call and its place in Sūrat Āl ʿImrān

Tonight we are with one of the calls of faith in Sūrat Āl ʿImrān:

﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِن تُطِيعُوا الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا يَرُدُّوكُمْ عَلَىٰ أَعْقَابِكُمْ فَتَنقَلِبُوا خَاسِرِينَ * بَلِ اللَّهُ مَوْلَاكُمْ ۖ وَهُوَ خَيْرُ النَّاصِرِينَ * سَنُلْقِي فِي قُلُوبِ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا الرُّعْبَ بِمَا أَشْرَكُوا بِاللَّهِ مَا لَمْ يُنَزِّلْ بِهِ سُلْطَانًا ۖ وَمَأْوَاهُمُ النَّارُ ۖ وَبِئْسَ مَثْوَى الظَّالِمِينَ﴾ (O you who believe, if you obey those who disbelieve, they will turn you back on your heels, and you will turn about as losers. Rather, Allah is your Protector, and He is the best of helpers. We will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieved, because they associated with Allah that for which He sent down no authority; and their refuge is the Fire, and wretched is the abode of the wrongdoers)^[1]

Then the verses follow one another: ﴿وَلَقَدْ صَدَقَكُمُ اللَّهُ وَعْدَهُ إِذْ تَحُسُّونَهُم بِإِذْنِهِ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا فَشِلْتُمْ وَتَنَازَعْتُمْ فِي الْأَمْرِ وَعَصَيْتُم مِّن بَعْدِ مَا أَرَاكُم مَّا تُحِبُّونَ ۚ مِنكُم مَّن يُرِيدُ الدُّنْيَا وَمِنكُم مَّن يُرِيدُ الْآخِرَةَ﴾ (And Allah had already fulfilled His promise to you when you were killing them by His permission, until you lost courage and disputed about the matter and disobeyed after He had shown you what you love. Among you are some who desire this world, and among you are some who desire the Hereafter).^[2] And we will come to this context shortly. But what is the order of this verse among the calls of faith that the Lord of the worlds, glorified and exalted, has set out for us?

Let us remember once more: Sūrat al-Baqarah is the sūrah of building, and Sūrat Āl ʿImrān is the sūrah of maintenance. The building of the Muslim community has been completed in its stages that we have repeated often in the constants of faith, and we mentioned that the verses that call the believers are the pivotal joints in the structure of the Muslim community. Consider a massive structure, and the engineers tell us about this from experience: you see it huge in one place, and there is a small nail of this size, which if removed, the whole building would fall on you. Small like this, but a pivotal joint in the matter. And we have eleven joints in Sūrat al-Baqarah, and in Sūrat Āl ʿImrān seven.

The chain of calls in Āl ʿImrān

So this call: ﴿إِن تُطِيعُوا الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا يَرُدُّوكُمْ﴾ (If you obey those who disbelieve, they will turn you back) came after which call? It came after ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَأْكُلُوا الرِّبَا أَضْعَافًا مُّضَاعَفَةً﴾ (O you who believe, do not consume usury, doubled and multiplied). And this came after which call? After ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُوا بِطَانَةً مِّن دُونِكُمْ لَا يَأْلُونَكُمْ خَبَالًا﴾ (O you who believe, do not take as intimates those other than yourselves; they will not fall short in corrupting you). And this came after what? After ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ﴾ (O you who believe, fear Allah as He should be feared). And this after ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِن تُطِيعُوا فَرِيقًا مِّنَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ يَرُدُّوكُم بَعْدَ إِيمَانِكُمْ كَافِرِينَ﴾ (O you who believe, if you obey a group of those who were given the Book, they will turn you back, after your belief, as disbelievers), so the warning came.

And if you compare this with the calls of Sūrat al-Baqarah: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ﴾ (O you who believe, fasting has been prescribed for you), ﴿ادْخُلُوا فِي السِّلْمِ كَافَّةً﴾ (enter into Islam completely), ﴿أَنفِقُوا مِمَّا رَزَقْنَاكُمْ﴾ (spend from what We have provided you), ﴿إِذَا تَدَايَنتُم بِدَيْنٍ إِلَىٰ أَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى فَاكْتُبُوهُ﴾ (when you contract a debt for a specified term, write it down), you would feel that the picture as a whole is a set of obligatory commands of building. But in Sūrat Āl ʿImrān all the verses came by way of warning, whether in the direct form of warning or in the form of a condition on which a response depends: if you obey a group of those who were given the Book, the response: they will turn you back. And so on. This is an important point that we go on with.

A warning against obedience, then a command to hold fast

So we have the first command: ﴿إِن تُطِيعُوا فَرِيقًا مِّنَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ يَرُدُّوكُم بَعْدَ إِيمَانِكُمْ كَافِرِينَ * وَكَيْفَ تَكْفُرُونَ وَأَنتُمْ تُتْلَىٰ عَلَيْكُمْ آيَاتُ اللَّهِ﴾ (If you obey a group of those who were given the Book, they will turn you back, after your belief, as disbelievers. And how could you disbelieve while the verses of Allah are being recited to you?). So He warned against obedience, and after warning against obedience He commanded establishing Islam, or preserving the soundness of Islam through holding fast.

And this obedience comes to you from outside; when you listen to someone and obey him, it comes to you from outside and not from inside. And we agreed that obedience is either out of being dazzled by the one obeyed, so you obey a person because you are dazzled by what he has and you listen to his words directly; or you have something that makes you fear him so you obey him out of fear. So either fearful or dazzled. And both, by origin, are not with us; for our motto in all our life is: ﴿وَاللَّهُ غَالِبٌ عَلَىٰ أَمْرِهِ﴾ (And Allah is predominant over His affair), and the matter that Allah, blessed and exalted, does what He wills is a given in the life of the people of faith.

So the Lord of the worlds, glorified, commanded us not to obey what comes to us from outside, and accordingly He commanded us to guard what is in our hands. But there remains the possibility that someone infiltrates and enters from inside, so there comes to you: ﴿لَا تَتَّخِذُوا بِطَانَةً مِّن دُونِكُمْ لَا يَأْلُونَكُمْ خَبَالًا وَدُّوا مَا عَنِتُّمْ قَدْ بَدَتِ الْبَغْضَاءُ مِنْ أَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَمَا تُخْفِي صُدُورُهُمْ أَكْبَرُ﴾ (Do not take as intimates those other than yourselves; they will not fall short in corrupting you; they wish you to suffer; hatred has appeared from their mouths, and what their breasts conceal is greater).^[3] And the connotation of the very words in the text tells that these people are entering from inside; for biṭānah is what shows to you from under the vest, from under the garment. So He warns you against obeying what comes from outside, and against heedlessness of what goes on inside. And among the greatest examples through which the community's trial occurs is the temptation by abundance of money, interests, and benefits, so the warning comes against consuming usury.

Loss: the loss of what you already own

Then we proceed, and the Lord of the worlds returns us to the first round and says: ﴿إِن تُطِيعُوا الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا يَرُدُّوكُمْ عَلَىٰ أَعْقَابِكُمْ فَتَنقَلِبُوا خَاسِرِينَ﴾ (If you obey those who disbelieve, they will turn you back on your heels, and you will turn about as losers). So at the first stage He warned against the great stigma that every Muslim fears, to be a disbeliever. But since some members of the community had other aims from which they wanted great profit and plentiful gain, He told them that the path you are walking is not only a path to disbelief after belief, but a path to loss. And we have never seen anyone of those known for this allegiance and surrender whom Allah made profit by it in his life at all; not in his religious life, and this is a given, nor in his worldly life either. And we ask Allah, the Exalted, for safety and well-being.

Then you see in the context of the verses that this verse came in the midst of the discussion of the Battle of Uḥud, and in the course of the discussion of it came to tell what happened in it, and it is a context close to His saying: ﴿مِنكُم مَّن يُرِيدُ الدُّنْيَا﴾ (among you are some who desire this world). Do you not see a relation between this text and ﴿فَتَنقَلِبُوا خَاسِرِينَ﴾ (and you will turn about as losers)?

Loss is mostly the loss of what you already own. Even the person who loses himself, Allah had given him himself and he lost it. In worldly life no one enters a deal and then says: I lost, when he did not enter a deal at all; he gained nothing and profited nothing in his hand, and has no acquisitions, so if he has nothing he has lost nothing. Rather, the one who lost is the one who gained, who profited, who earned, owned, took, and obtained. So if he obtained something from the path and its way, and profited by it a worldly or otherworldly gain, and whoever profited from something or obtained something, then crookedness tilted him, he lost it in this world before the Hereafter. We agreed on this.

Between "idhā" and "in"

And we have a difference in the Qur'an between "idhā" and "in." When we hear: ﴿إِذَا جَاءَ نَصْرُ اللَّهِ وَالْفَتْحُ * وَرَأَيْتَ النَّاسَ يَدْخُلُونَ فِي دِينِ اللَّهِ أَفْوَاجًا﴾ (When the victory of Allah and the conquest come, and you see the people entering into the religion of Allah in multitudes), ﴿إِذَا وَقَعَتِ الْوَاقِعَةُ﴾ (When the Event occurs), ﴿إِذَا السَّمَاءُ انشَقَّتْ﴾ (When the sky is split open), every "idhā" in the Qur'an comes by way of certainty, not probability, certainty with a single voice. As for "in," it indicates probability. ﴿إِذَا قُمْتُمْ إِلَى الصَّلَاةِ فَاغْسِلُوا﴾ (When you rise for prayer, wash) with a single voice: the believers will rise to prayer, God willing. And here He says: "O you who believe, in," not "idhā"; as if it is a matter not occurring but possible. And it is possible for one who believes that his faith diminishes to the extent that it brings its owner to obey a disbeliever, and we seek refuge in Allah: ﴿إِن تُطِيعُوا الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا يَرُدُّوكُمْ﴾ (If you obey those who disbelieve, they will turn you back).

They will turn you back on your heels

And the word "yaruddūkum" (they will turn you back) carries the meaning of returning to the first starting point. And the verse has another distinctive touch: ﴿عَلَىٰ أَعْقَابِكُمْ﴾ (on your heels). When you tell someone: you do not deserve this place, go back, and he goes back, how does he go back? Does he go back on his back or on his face? He turns around and goes back. But he does not go back on his heels. So imagine that they do not only return you to point zero, but they return you on your heel. So reflect: the one turned back on his heel, is he balanced or has he lost balance? The heel is from below, so you fall; this one has lost balance. So it is as if the task of these people is to make the Muslim community lose its balance, and when you lose your balance you become receptive to anything done to you and in you. And we ask Allah for safety.

The first signs of losing balance

And what are the first signs of losing balance in the Muslim community? That we cannot hold together with one another. Pardon me, bear with me a little. All individual foundation, the individual constructions in the Qur'an for persons, ended in Makkah. And if we go to the Madinan Qur'an we see no individual foundation, but a communal foundation, so you are in the mold of the community. So if we say: they will turn you back on your heels, then the whole community is in a state of shaking and imbalance. Why? Because our hands are not in each other's hands.

Imagine you stumbled while holding someone's hand firmly, would he let you fall? No, it would not be right and it would not do. And even if you came near the ground, there is a hand that is clasped. But now the Muslim hands have been separated from one another; there is no cohesion in the community, and we do not see this harmony, nor cooperation, nor complementarity, nor mutual support, it does not exist. People complain of the psychological gap that has occurred in every Muslim, even with those closest to him. That is, we have moved from the stage of speaking about cooperation and complementarity among Islamic institutions to there being no brotherhood among individuals: no sincere feelings, no truth in love, no word that reveals what is inside, except for those Allah has mercy on, and we ask Allah, blessed and exalted, for safety and well-being.

In sum

We understood that the verse followed in succession with its sisters in the sūrah to confirm the concept of independence of thought, method, and way, and independence of the source in economics and financial dealings. Because a person who can bring his own morsel can express himself and say: yes, and say: no, I agree, I do not agree, because he earns by himself. But the one who is humiliated before another, the subservient follower, owns nothing in his life and cannot.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat Āl ʿImrān, verses 149–151. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat Āl ʿImrān, verse 152; the speaker confined his recitation to what has been recorded. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat Āl ʿImrān, verse 118. What the speaker mentioned in the chain of previous calls, in the order of their occurrence in the sūrah, is (verses 100, 102, 118, and 130) and then this call (149); and he recited them in reverse order.