This Ramadan, MuslimMatters is pleased to host the Institute Of Knowledge‘s daily Ramadan series: Heart To Heart. Through this series, each day we will spend time connecting with the Qur’an on a deeper, more spiritual, uplifting level.
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Transcription:
Reflections #10: “Building a Community United Upon Goodness”
In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful. All praise due to Allah (swt), who created us, sustains us, and has blessed us with Islam. All praise due to Allah (swt) who has made us from amongst the ummah of His beloved Prophet Muḥammad (s.a.w.). May Allah (swt) send salutations upon the Prophet (s.a.w.), his companions, his family, and all the prophets before him. And may Allah (swt) protect those of us who choose to tread in their path.
Assalāmu ‘Alaikum Wa Raḥmatullāhi Wa Barakātuh!
In this session, I wanted to discuss verses 71-72 from Sūrah Tawbah where Allah (swt) says “The believers, male and female, are friends to each other. They bid virtue and forbid vice and establish Salāh and pay Zakāh and obey Allah and His Messenger. Those are the ones whom Allah will bless with mercy. Surely, Allah is Powerful, Wise.” Allah has promised to the believers, male and female, gardens beneath which rivers flow, where they shall live forever, and good homes in gardens of eternity. And Allah’s pleasure is above all. That is the supreme success.”
Allah (swt) describes what we can think of as a social contract amongst the believers, that the believers are not isolated creatures. We live in communities, we live in societies, we live in proximity of each other, and we are not just in proximity of those we are related to by blood, but to others as well. And the only thing that may be tying us together is the fact that we all believe in the same message. We believe in Allah (swt) and we believe in the Prophet (s.a.w.). And there are certain norms, certain ethics and values, civilizational values that we can consider to be part and parcel of the ideal community. These are found in the verses of the Qur’an, in the community of the Prophet (s.a.w.). And we see how Allah (swt) has created certain internal mechanisms, systems that allow us to help each other. Because all believers, ideally are headed in the right direction. We are all headed in the same direction, which is pleasing Allah, and we are keeping our eyes on the hereafter. Allah (swt) in verse number 71 says “that the believing men and the believing women are friends of each other.”
They are supporters of each other. How so? “They command the good and they forbid vice, and they establish the prayer, and they give in charity, and they obey Allah (swt) and His Messenger.
Allah (swt) gives us basic rules of thumb that each one of us can make a commitment to do to help each other get our goal, which is Allah (swt). How are we supposed to help each other in our objectives? That yes, at the end of the day, I am responsible for my own actions, I am responsible for my own worship, and you are responsible for your own actions and for your own worship. But how can we mutually create an environment whereby good is encouraged, whereby good is known and the good is defined by Allah (swt) and the good is defined by the Prophet (s.a.w.)? How do we create an environment where believers feel supported, where believers feel that they are not the only ones who are struggling because we are there for each other?
We support each other by reminding each other of what is good, by reminding each other of what is right, by commanding each other of what is right. It is a self-regulating mechanism of the community to command the good and forbid the evil, to advise the good and advise against the wrong because this allows us to promote virtue. This allows us to promote what is good, what is in line with our Fiṭra, what is in line with the will of Allah (swt). And this allows us to not give space for any vice or evil to take root in the hearts of our community. We do not allow space for evil to grow. We do not allow space for vice to be considered as good, for vice to be normalized. We do not give space for sin to be considered normal, that it is okay, that it is not as bad as it should be. No.
The believers are to encourage each other of what is right, and they are to remind each other of what is wrong because we are mirrors of each other, as the Prophet (s.a.w.) said that “the believers are mirrors of each other”. And the purpose and objective of a mirror, when you look in it, is that it tells you what to fix and what to focus on. And we do so because we help each other reach Allah (swt). We are friends of each other in the ideal and the true sense. There is no ulterior motive, ideally, in the relationships between believers because Allah (swt) has created you and I for the same objective. That when you do good, when you remind me of good, Allah (swt) rewards you and Allah (swt) rewards me, that I get nothing but joy and pleasure out of seeing you succeed. And you see nothing but joy and pleasure out of seeing me succeed. We remind each other of our own civilizational values. We remind each other of the things that sets our community apart. We remind each other of the things that make us who we are, because a believer is not a believer without what Allah (swt) has given them.
Allah (swt) says that it is not just lip service that the believers perform for each other, but rather “they establish the prayer”. They are united in their worship of Allah (swt). And this is why the Masjid is important. In this blessed month of Ramadan, every single one of us sees the physical manifestation of the bonds between the believers. Every night we see our Masajid filled, we see so many people coming together to worship Allah (swt) for the same purpose, which is the mercy of Allah (swt). And when a person comes to the Masjid to perform salah, no matter what time of the year, it does not have to be the month of Ramadan, and they pray shoulder to shoulder, standing next to their brothers, standing next to their sisters, and they pray towards Allah (swt), it reminds them of the benefit of a community. It reminds them of who they are supposed to be for each other. “The believers are those who give charity”. The believers are those who are generous. The believers are those who know that what Allah (swt) has given them He can take away from them. Allah (swt) has given us so that we can be perhaps the answer of somebody else’s Du‘ā. Allah (swt) can perhaps be helping someone else through us.
But the believers are those who are ultimately united in obeying Allah (swt) and his Messenger (s.a.w.). We are not a cultural group. We are not an ethnic group. We are not a racial group. We are not a group based on certain morals and values, but rather the entire purpose of our existence is one and the same. We follow Allah (swt) and we are all the ummah of the Prophet (s.a.w.). And this unites us far more than what we consider to be matters of division. This unites us far more than what we consider to be things that divide us, things that take us away from each other, things that we perhaps put more stock into than what we should. At the end of the day, Allah (swt) has created you and I for the same reason, and that the only way we can be united is if we are united on the things that we are working towards. Yes, when it comes to the matters of this world, we might have different goals, we might have different approaches. But when it comes to the hereafter, there is only one path. And Allah (swt) says whoever does this, the believers who do so Allah (swt) will have mercy upon them. Allah is powerful and wise, and Allah will have mercy upon them.
In what way? In verse number 72, Allah (swt) says, “Allah has promised the believing men and the believing women gardens beneath which rivers flow, they will live forever in it, in good homes in gardens of eternity.” But that’s not the biggest reward. Allah always reminds us of Jannah. The biggest reward of the hereafter is the pleasure of Allah. “And the pleasure of Allah is greater.’ That is what you and I are supposed to be working towards and supporting each other on the way. Allah says that whoever achieves that has achieved the ultimate success. “That is the greatest success.”
May Allah (swt) guide us, give us knowledge that benefits us, and give us all the ability to do what is best. May Allah (swt) protect us all. Assalāmu ‘Alaikum Wa Raḥmatullāhi Wa Barakātuh.
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