Quran aayah clarification
Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,
As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's
Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)
One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:
Bismallah.
Al salaamu alykum wa rahmat-Allaahi wa barakaatuhu dear brother in
Islam.
I have your e-mail address from the discuss islammailing list.
I am trying to be a good muslim, striving to comply with the
commands of Allah /swt/.
I have many friends helping me with the meaning of the verses of
the Holy Quran, and for hadiths, and etc.
What I am eager to know is whether you have the possibility to
assist me with my questions regarding Islam. If you are not in position to do
this I would like to ask for a friend of yours who can help me inshaAllah.
Presently I have several questions related to the following verses
/The Pilgrimage / of the Holy Quran:
1. 22:2
"On that Day you will see every one that suckles shall forsake
her suckling, and every carrier shall miscarry, and you shall see mankind drunk
although they are not drunk; dreadful will be the punishment of Allah."
Q: Which is the day
herewith we are told - The Day of Resurrection or the day everybody will
enter in Hell /
2. 22:33
"In them, you have benefits until an appointed time. After
their place of sacrifice is at the Ancient House."
Q: Appointed time is the expression used for what?
3. 22:55
"The unbelievers will never cease to doubt it until the Hour
overtakes them suddenly or the punishment of the Barren Day comes upon them.
"
Q: What is the meaning of Barren Day here, and when this Day will
come? Is it the Day of Resurrection?
4. 22:78
"Struggle for Allah as is due to Him. He has chosen you and has
not laden a burden upon you in your religion, being the Creed of Abraham your
father. He has named you Muslims before and in this so that the Messenger
(Muhammad) can be a witness for you, and in order that you be witnesses against
mankind.
Therefore, establish the prayer and pay the obligatory charity and
hold fast to Allah. He is your Guardian, the Excellent Guardian, the Excellent
Helper!"
Q: "...being the Creed of Abraham your father..." - what
Allah /swt/ is telling us with the word "father"?
Q: "...the Messenger (Muhammad) can be a witness..." -
witness on the Day of Resurrection, right?
5. The Night Journey verse,
17:4
"And We decreed for the Children of
Q: In this verse we are said that Israelis will corrupt the land
twice.
What will be these times, and when they will take place or took
place?
May Allah be happy with you inshaAllah.
Would appreciate receiving your /your brother'/ response.
Al salaamu alykum wa rahmat-Allaahi wa barakaatuhu
(There
may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum
does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from
our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)
Answer:
Quran
aayah clarification
In the
name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness.
Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray,
none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no
person, no grave, no prophet, no imam,
no dai, nobody!) worthy of
worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad(saws) is His
slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.
Your
Statement: What I am eager to know is whether you have the possibility to
assist me with my questions regarding Islam. If you are not in position to do
this I would like to ask for a friend of yours who can help me inshaAllah.
My
beloved and dear Brother in Islam, the only reason we started this humble forum
is to spread the Truth of the Quran and Sunnah and help our brothers and
sisters clarify any issues they might have in the deen. You may ask any question on the deen on this
forum, and if Allah Wills and Helps us, we will strive to address your queries
in light of the guidance of the Quran and the Sunnah, Insha Allah.
We ask
for no reward or no thanks whatsoever for our humble service, and seek our
reward from none except the Lord of the Worlds.
If our humble and modest efforts have helps even one brother or sister
get closer to Allah and His Deen of Truth, then we would consider ourselves
indeed fortunate to have been given this opportunity by the Lord Most Merciful
to serve in His Cause. We hope, beg,
and pray the Merciful Lord
accepts our humble and weak efforts,
forgives us our shortcomings, and
saves you, us, and all the believers
from the torment of the Hell Fire.
Ameen.
Your
Question-1:
1. 22:2
"On that Day you will see every one that suckles shall forsake
her suckling, and every carrier shall miscarry, and you shall see mankind drunk
although they are not drunk; dreadful will be the punishment of Allah."
Q:
Which is the day herewith we are told -
The Day of Resurrection or the day everybody will enter in Hell /
In light
of the above quoted Aayah of Surah Hajj and the various Aayahs quoted below,
the opinion of the majority of the scholars is that this huge earthquake will
be a prelude to the Day of Resurrection just after the first trumpet is blown.
Thus to
answer your question, these chain of events will take place in the first phase
of the Day of Resurrection; rather than in the last phase where the Judgments
will be declared by the Supreme Lord of the Worlds.
Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 69 Surah Haaqaah verses 13-16:
13 Then when one Blast is sounded on the Trumpet
14 And the earth is moved and its mountains and they are crushed to
powder at one stroke
15 On that Day shall the (Great) Event come to pass
16 And the sky will be rent asunder for it will that Day be flimsy
Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 56 Surah Waqiah verses 4-6:
4 When the earth shall be shaken to its depths
5 And the mountains shall be crumbled to atoms
6 Becoming dust scattered abroad
Your
Question-2:
2. 22:33
"In them, you have benefits until an appointed time. After
their place of sacrifice is at the Ancient House."
Q:
Appointed time is the expression used for what?
The
majority of the commentators have expressed their opinion that the ‘appointed
time’ is until the animals are sacrificed at Mina.
The Aayah
and specifically the phrase ‘In them, you have benefits
until an appointed time’ was revealed to remove the misunderstanding
about getting any benefit from the animals from the time they were dedicated
for sacrifice, until they were actually sacrificed. This was necessitated because the Arabs
believed that it was unlawful to get any benefit from these animals after they
were dedicated for sacrifice. One would
neither ride on them, nor carry any load on them, nor consume their milk, etc.
after the animals were dedicated for sacrifice.
Hadrat Abu Hurairah (r.a.) and Hadrat Anas (r.a.) have reported that the
Prophet (saws) saw a man walking in a miserable condition on foot leading his
camel by the nose-string. When the
Prophet (saws) asked him to ride on it, he replied that the camel was his
sacrificial offering. The Prophet (saws)
then urged him to ride on the camel for it was permissible to benefit from
these sacrificial animals until their ‘appointed time’ of actual sacrifice.
Your
Question-3:
3. 22:55
"The unbelievers will never cease to doubt it until the Hour
overtakes them suddenly or the punishment of the Barren Day comes upon
them. "
Q:
What is the meaning of Barren Day here, and when this Day will come? Is it the
Day of Resurrection?
The
epithet ‘Barren’ has been applied to the ‘Day’ in its metaphorical sense and
not in its literal sense. A ‘Day’ is
barren if all the plans, hopes, and devices remain unproductive in it, or when
the day does not bring forth its night!
For instance, the days on which the people of Prophet Noah (a.s.), the
tribes of Aad and Thamud, the people of Prophet Lut (a.s.), etc. met with their
destruction by the scourge from Allah Subhanah, were ‘barren days’ in this
sense; because those days did not bring forth any ‘tomorrow’ for them.
Because
Allah Subhanah has given two options (as is done in several places in the
Quran), and differentiated the two options by the term ‘or’; thus the ‘Barren
Day’ is separate and distinct from the first option of the Hour or the Day of
Resurrection; but rather the ‘Barren Day’ stated here is the Day of their utter
and thorough worldly destruction and scourge, if it were the Will of Allah
Subhanah.
Your
Question-4:
4. 22:78
"Struggle
for Allah as is due to Him. He has chosen you and has not laden a burden upon
you in your religion, being the Creed of Abraham your father. He has named you
Muslims before and in this so that the Messenger (Muhammad) can be a witness
for you, and in order that you be witnesses against mankind.
Therefore, establish the prayer and pay the obligatory charity and
hold fast to Allah. He is your Guardian, the Excellent Guardian, the Excellent
Helper!"
Q-4A:
"...being the Creed of Abraham your father..." - what Allah /swt/ is
telling us with the word "father"?
Though
Islam may be called the religion of Prophets Adam, and Noah, and Moses, and
Jesus, etc.; yet the Lord time and again emphasizes in His Glorious Quran that
Islam was the deen of Prophet Ibraheem (a.s.), from whom the early addressees
of the Quran, the Quraish and the Children of Israel proudly claimed their
lineage and descendancy.
Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 3 Surah Ale Imraan verse 68: Without doubt among men the nearest of kin to Abraham
are those who follow him as are also this Prophet and those who believe; and
Allah is the Protector of those who have faith.
But Allah
Subhanah clarified their claims, that the ‘nearest of
kin to Abraham’ can only be claimed by those who follow him, such as the
Prophet Mohamed (saws) and the believers.
The term
‘father’ may also be used in the sense for Prophet Ibraheem (a.s.) because of
the chain of Prophets Allah Subhanah sent amongst the descendants of Prophet
Ibraheem (a.s.) and all the surviving monotheistic religions, namely Judaism,
Christianity and Islam claim that Prophet Ibraheem (a.s.) was the father of the
monotheistic religion.
Q-4B:
"...the Messenger (Muhammad) can be a witness..." - witness on the
Day of Resurrection, right?
It is indeed
true that this phrase refers to Prophet Mohamed (saws) being a witness in the
Supreme Court of the Majestic Lord on the Day of Resurrection.
On the
Day of Judgment when the whole of humanity will be gathered together, every
Messenger will be asked to give evidence and witness to prove that he had
imparted to his people, by word and by deeds, the Message of Truth which he had
received from Allah Subhanah. The people
in its turn will be required to give witness that they received the Message of
Allah through the Messengers, and will be required to give evidence to prove
that it exerted its utmost to impart that guidance, by word and by deeds, to
the people of the world just as they had received it from the Messengers.
Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 4 Surah Nisaa verses 41-42:
41 How then if We brought from each people a witness, and We
brought thee (O Mohammed (saws)) as a witness against these people!
42 On that Day those who reject faith and
disobey the Messenger will wish that the earth were made one with them: but
never will they hide a single fact from Allah!
Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 2 Surah Baqarah verse 143: Thus have We made of you (O Muslims) an Ummah justly balanced, that
ye might be witnesses over the nations, and the Messenger a witness over
yourselves.
Your
Question-5:
5. The Night Journey verse,
17:4
"And We decreed for the Children of
Q: In
this verse we are said that Israelis will corrupt the land twice.
What
will be these times, and when they will take place or took place?
Both the
corruptions and their chain of events are related by Allah Subhanah in the past
tense in the corresponding Aayahs of Surah Israa; thus it is safe to conclude
that both these chapters of history had already taken place at the time of the
Revelation of the Quran.
Ref:
The First Corruption of the Bani
Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 17 Surah Israa verses 5-6:
5 When the first of the warnings came to pass We sent
against you Our servants given to terrible warfare: They entered the very
inmost parts of your homes; and it was a warning (completely) fulfilled.
6 Then did We grant you the Return as against them: We gave you
increase in resources and sons and made you the more numerous in manpower.
According
to the best opinion, the first destruction related here was the one done by
King Nebuchadnezzar of
Ref:
The Second Corruption of the Bani
Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 17 Surah Israa verses 5-6:
7 …..so when the second of the warnings came to pass (We
permitted your enemies) to disfigure your faces and to enter your
The
commentators are of the opinion that the second destruction of the Israelites
took place in 70AD, when the Romans under Titus took
After
this total annihilation of the Jews, their influence so disappeared from the
Whatever
written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance,
and whatever of error is of me. Allah
Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.
Your Brother in Islam,
Burhan
Wister