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From Issue: 440 [Read full issue]

Living the Quran

Surah al-Tawbah (The Repentance)
Chapter 9: Verses 53-54

Fatal Rebellion
Say: "Spend (for the Cause) willingly or unwillingly: not from you will it be accepted: for ye are indeed a people rebellious and wicked. The only reasons why their contributions are not accepted are: that they reject Allah and His Messenger; that they come to prayer without earnestness; and that they offer contributions unwillingly."

The hypocrites, who secretly plotted against Islam, might sometimes (and they did) make a show of making some contribution to the Cause in order to keep their pretence. Their contributions were not acceptable, whether they seemed to give willingly or unwillingly, because rebellion and disobedience were in their hearts.

Three reasons are specifically given for their rejection:

  1. They did not believe;
  2. Their prayers were not earnest, but for mere show; and
  3. In reality their hearts were not behind the contributions which they offered.

Nothing is acceptable to Allah which does not proceed from a pure and sincere heart. But this does not absolve, rather only warns. The obligations of Islam, of whatever nature they be, must be performed, whatever the condition of the heart, and forgiveness sought for deficiencies.

Source:
"The Glorious Quran" - Abdullah Yusuf Ali
“Tafsir Ishraq al-Ma'ani" - Sayyid Iqbal Zaheer, Vol 5, pp. 66, 67
Understanding the Prophet's Life

Sense of Innocence

The Messenger loved children, with their innocence, gentleness, and ability to be present in the moment. Close to God, close to his own heart, he remained attentive to those who primarily understood the heart's language. He kissed them, carried them on his shoulders, and played with them, reaching toward their innocence, which is in its essence the expression of a permanent prayer to God.

Children, like angels, wholly belong to God. They are signs. The Prophet's attitude was a constant reminder of this: thus if his ritual prayer to God was disturbed by a baby crying - the infant, in effect, praying to God by invoking his or her mother - the Messenger would then shorten his adult's prayer as if to respond to the child's prayer. The Messenger, moreover, drew from children his sense of play and innocence; from them he learned to look at people and the world around him with wonder.

From watching children experience beauty he also more fully developed his sense of aesthetics: in front of beauty, he wept, he was moved, he sometimes sobbed, and he was often filled with well-being by the poetic musicality of a phrase or by the spiritual call of a verse offered by the Most Gracious, the Infinitely Beautiful.

Source:
“In The Footsteps of The Prophet” - Tariq Ramadan, pp. 213,214
Blindspot!

Hazards and Perils

Rejoice you must, in the mercy and blessing and generosity of Allah. Seek you must, for the treasures that await your search herein. But the Qur'an opens its doors only to those who knock with a sense of yearning, a sincerity of purpose and an exclusive attention that befit its importance and majesty. And only those are allowed to gather its treasures, while they walk through it, who are prepared to abandon themselves completely to its guidance and do their utmost to absorb it.

It may quite possibly happen therefore that you may read the Qur'an endlessly, turn its pages laboriously, recite its words beautifully, study it most scholarly, and still fail to make an encounter with it that enriches and transforms your whole person. For, all those who read the Qur'an do not profit from it as they should. Some remain unblessed; some are even cursed.

The journey has its own hazards, as it must, just as it has its own precious and limitless rewards. Many never turn to it, though the Book always lies near at hand, and many are turned away from its gates. Many read it often, but come back empty-handed; while many others who read it never really enter its world. Some do not find, but are lost. They fail to hear God even among His own words; instead, they hear their own voices or those other than God's. Still others, though they hear God, fail to find inside themselves the will, the resolve and the courage to respond and live by His call. Some lose even what they had and, instead of collecting priceless gems, they return with back-breaking loads of stones which will hurt them for ever and ever.

What a tragic misfortune it would be if you came to the Qur'an and went away empty-handed - soul untouched, heart unmoved, life unchanged; 'they went out as they came in'.

The Qur'an's blessings are limitless, but the measure of your taking from it depends entirely upon the capacity and the suitability of the receptacle you bring to it. So, at the very outset, make yourself more deeply aware of what the Qur'an means to you and what it demands of you; and make a solemn determination to recite the Qur'an in an appropriate manner.

Source:
“Way to the Quran” - Khurram Murad

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