O You Who Believe, Fulfill Your Contracts

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 22 April 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — [Watch the original video on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8yOsKq1CgA)

In the recitation read to us in the Fajr prayer, hundreds of thoughts leap to mind. Why did Allah the Exalted open Sūrat al-Māʾidah with His words: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَوْفُوا بِالْعُقُودِ﴾ (O you who believe, fulfil the contracts)? The calls that come in this blessed surah tell the people of faith to look where they place their hands, with whom they speak, negotiate and make promises, and of whom they should beware; where their steps are heading, where their striving is going, and how they move upon the earth.^[1]

A contract is a commitment, so from whom do you expect commitment?

The surah opens with the words of the Lord of the worlds: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَوْفُوا بِالْعُقُودِ﴾ (O you who believe, fulfil the contracts), because when a contract is concluded, what is called commitment comes into being. You want to commit, or you expect the other party to commit to you. But from whom? From those who said: ﴿يَدُ اللَّهِ مَغْلُولَةٌ غُلَّتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَلُعِنُوا بِمَا قَالُوا﴾ (The hand of Allah is chained. Chained are their hands, and they are cursed for what they said)? Do you want to commit, or expect commitment, from those who disparaged the Lord of Might, glorified and exalted be He, despite all that He bestowed upon them? So where are you heading?

A scene that halts you hundreds of steps back

The verses describe this scene for us when the Lord of the worlds tells us: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُوا الَّذِينَ اتَّخَذُوا دِينَكُمْ هُزُوًا وَلَعِبًا مِنَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ وَالْكُفَّارَ أَوْلِيَاءَ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ﴾ (O you who believe, do not take as allies those who take your religion in ridicule and amusement among those who were given the Scripture before you, nor the disbelievers; and fear Allah, if you are believers). This scene by itself makes you stand back hundreds of steps before you extend your hand to someone who, at root, takes your religion in ridicule and amusement. He mocks you, does not recognise you as having any religious standing, and denies that you could ever be in the right at all; and if he comes to know that about you, he denies it and holds back from acknowledging it. So where are you heading?

The point of what I am saying: do the people of Islam have no sight? Have they no insight? Do they not learn from history? Do they not look at the reality they are living?

Purity first

As for extending your hand to anyone: first, Allah the Exalted has taught you purity, so do not extend your hand except to a pure hand. If it is not pure at root, it is not a place for your hand to rest. This is a principle from the outset. So how much more when this hand is not only impure, but stained with the blood of your family, your comrades, your companions and your kin, stained with the blood of children and helpless women, a criminal, sinful hand that has transgressed and overstepped all its bounds with the Lord of Might, glorified and exalted be He, before anyone else?

I believe, and Allah the Exalted knows best, that the matter needs not only reconsideration, but a reclaiming of the identity of Sūrat al-Māʾidah.

Why do the rabbis not forbid them?

The surah tells us in many of its verses: ﴿وَإِذَا جَاءُوكُمْ قَالُوا آمَنَّا وَقَدْ دَخَلُوا بِالْكُفْرِ وَهُمْ قَدْ خَرَجُوا بِهِ وَاللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْتُمُونَ﴾ (And when they come to you, they say, "We believe," while they have entered with disbelief and have left with it; and Allah knows best what they were concealing) ﴿وَتَرَىٰ كَثِيرًا مِنْهُمْ يُسَارِعُونَ فِي الْإِثْمِ وَالْعُدْوَانِ وَأَكْلِهِمُ السُّحْتَ لَبِئْسَ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ﴾ (And you see many of them hastening into sin and aggression and the devouring of what is unlawful; how wretched is what they have been doing). Well then, is there no one among them who urges them to reform, who says: this is right and this is wrong? You see the verse saying: ﴿لَوْلَا يَنْهَاهُمُ الرَّبَّانِيُّونَ وَالْأَحْبَارُ عَن قَوْلِهِمُ الْإِثْمَ وَأَكْلِهِمُ السُّحْتَ لَبِئْسَ مَا كَانُوا يَصْنَعُونَ﴾ (Why do the rabbis and the scholars not forbid them from their sinful saying and their devouring of what is unlawful? How wretched is what they have been practising). The basic expectation is that these leaders, who are called religious leaders, are the people of reform, of guidance, of reason and of wisdom.

Between "yaʿmalūn" and "yaṣnaʿūn"

Look at the difference between how the verse comments on what these monks and scholars do and on what the common people do: here ﴿يَعْمَلُونَ﴾ (they do) and there ﴿يَصْنَعُونَ﴾ (they practise as a craft), and the difference between doing and crafting is very great.^[2] Doing is something you carry out for which an intention has been set, or whose possible consequences have come to your mind; as when I take a glass of water from you with a settled intention that I want to drink this water, a simple matter. Crafting, however, is preparation, arrangement, readiness, plans and strategies. It is as though those whose proper role is to guide people to good are the very place where every evil that appears on this earth is arranged. So we ask Allah, blessed and exalted, for well-being.

With whom do we make contracts at all?

The Lord of the worlds begins Sūrat al-Māʾidah with His words: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَوْفُوا بِالْعُقُودِ﴾ (O you who believe, fulfil the contracts), and gives us an example: ﴿أُحِلَّتْ لَكُمْ بَهِيمَةُ الْأَنْعَامِ إِلَّا مَا يُتْلَى عَلَيْكُمْ﴾ (Lawful for you are the grazing livestock, except what is recited to you), so that we then come to look at with whom we fulfil our contracts, and indeed with whom we make contracts at all.

I ask Allah, the Most High, the All-Powerful, to guide the nation of Islam. And I ask Allah the Exalted to make us firm with the firm word in the life of this world and in the Hereafter, that our tongues speak only what our hearts hold, and that He pardon us and overlook our shortcomings in the right of His religion and His call.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The verses cited are from Sūrat al-Māʾidah: 1, then 64, then 57, then 61–63; no text beyond what the speaker uttered has been added. A passing report about a clip circulating on social media was removed from the text because it is ephemeral and its owner is unknown. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: Verses 62 and 63 of Sūrat al-Māʾidah. Al-Zamakhsharī said in al-Kashshāf: "Not every doer is called a craftsman, nor is every deed called a craft until one becomes proficient in it, practised in it, and known by it"; and he made the rabbis and scholars, in their failure to forbid, more sinful than those who commit the wrongs.