Friday Nasiha

General

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From Issue: 108 [Read full issue]

QURAN

Translation:

"Well, [O Muhammad] it may be that you will exhaust yourself to death, following after them, with grief that they do not believe in this Message."

[Al-Quran- Sura Al-Kahf 18:6]

Tafseer:

CONSISTENT EFFORT & PASSION OF THE PROPHET IN CONVEYING THE MESSAGE

• The communication of the Divine Message was the most essential characteristic of Allah’s Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him. We are troubled whenever we are hungry or thirsty, or when we have difficulty in breathing; but this unselfish Preacher was troubled if a day passed when he could not find someone to whom he could convey the Divine Message.
• He was so concerned about the guidance of people, and so physically pained by unbelief, that Allah advised him in this verse to be careful of his health.
• The Prophet (peace be upon him) is here consoled, and told that he was not to exhaust himself to death in conveying Allah's Message: he was nobly doing his duty, and, as after-events showed, the seed of Truth was already growing, although this was not visible at the time.

• There was nobody left in Makka whom Allah's Messenger had not invited in public or in private to Allah's path. He had called some, like Abu Jahl who was extremely stubborn, at least fifty times. One of those whom he particularly desired should believe was his beloved uncle Abu Talib, who protected him against the cruelties of the Makkan polytheists. In the eleventh year of his Prophethood, when Abu Talib was on his death-bed, Allah's Messenger again invited him to belief, but the Makkan chiefs surrounded him so as to prevent his embracing Islam.
• The Prophet was so grieved at Abu Talib’s unbelief that he said: "I will ask forgiveness from God for you as long as I am not forbidden to."
• A verse was revealed some time later, forbidding him to do this: "It is not fitting for the Prophet and those who believe that they should invoke (God) for the forgiveness of the polytheists, even though they be near of kin (to them) after it has become clear to them that they are companions of the Fire." (al-Tawba, 9:113)
• Abu Bakr, the closest Companion of the Prophet (peace be upon him) knew how much Allah's Messenger had desired his uncle’s belief. He took his aged father to the Prophet, upon his conversion on the day of the conquest of Makka, and doing so, sobbed bitterly. When Abu Bakr was asked why he was weeping, he explained: "O Allah's Messenger, I desired very much that my father should believe, and now he has believed. But I desired the belief of Abu Talib even more than that because YOU desired it. However, God did not grant him belief. That is why I am weeping."

• This captivating verse makes us really think about our own state of Dawa (effort to convey Allah's message). It makes us realize how little we are concerned about the state of Iman (Faith) of our own close relatives even, unlike the Prophet's passion and love for his uncle's salvation.
• It's surprising that we see so many Muslims and non-Muslims in this society, go through great difficulties in their lives, such as stress, suicides, violence, teenage pregnancies, drug addiction....etc., yet our hearts remain unmoved, our actions unchanged, and our Dawa efforts remain stagnant and inefficient.

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