KHUTAB II - 7. The Bad and the Good

7. The Bad and the Good

(11 July 2003)

Brothers and sisters in Islam,

Allah says in the Qur’ān,

وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يُعْجِبُكَ قَوْلُهُ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَيُشْهِدُ اللَّهَ عَلَى مَا فِي قَلْبِهِ

وَهُوَ أَلَدُّ الْخِصَامِ. وَإِذَا تَوَلَّى سَعَى فِي الْأَرْضِ لِيُفْسِدَ فِيهَا وَيُهْلِكَ الْحَرْثَ وَالنَّسْلَ

وَاللَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ الْفَسَادَ. وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُ اتَّقِ اللَّهَ أَخَذَتْهُ الْعِزَّةُ بِالْإِثْمِ فَحَسْبُهُ جَهَنَّمُ

وَلَبِئْسَ الْمِهَادُ. وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَشْرِي نَفْسَهُ ابْتِغَاءَ مَرْضَاةِ اللَّهِ وَاللَّهُ

رَءُوفٌ بِالْعِبَادِ . (البقرة  :  ٢٠٤-٢٠٧ )

And of mankind there is he whose speech may please

 you [O Muhammad] in this worldly life, and he calls Allah

to witness as to that which is in his heart, yet he is the most quarrelsome of the opponents. And when he turns away [from

 you, O Muhammad], his effort in the land is to make mischief therein and to destroy the crops and the cattle, and Allah likes

 not mischief. And when it is said to him, ‘Fear Allah’, he is led

 by arrogance to (more) crime. So enough for him is Hell, and worst indeed is that place to rest! And of mankind is he who

 would sell himself, seeking the Pleasure of Allah. And

 Allah is full of kindness to (His) slaves (Q. 2:204-7).

In these verses Allah talked to the Prophet about a person who talks nicely, and says that Allah knows that he is telling the truth, whereas in fact is “most contentious of enemies” (a. Yusuf Ali), “most quarrelsome of the opponents” (M. Taqiuddin al-Hilali etal.), “very skilful in argument” (Asad). He is a very good speaker and debater on worldly matters, able to defeat his opponents often with misleading arguments. But when he turns away he makes mischief in the land, destroying the crops and the cattle.

Who was this mischievous person? According to al-Suddī and others, he was Ubayy ibn Sharīq, a handsome and eloquent person, who came to the Prophet to falsely proclaim his faith as a Muslim, swearing by Allah that he was telling the truth, but later on fled away. When he passed the crops and donkeys of the Muslims, he destroyed the crops and slaughtered the donkeys. However, according to other commentators, such as Mujāhid and Qatādah these verses are concerning the hypocrites (munāfiqīn) in general.

The verse mentions the example of mischief, namely, destroying the crops and the cattle. Nowadays, instead of crops and cattle, we have factories, schools, hospitals, oil wells, and many other sources of people’s income where they earn their living.

Here, Allah talked to the Prophet, warning him of the presence of such person in his time. The case does not stop there. It continues to happen. Now, Allah is talking to us and warning us with this verse of the presence of such a person, called a hypocrite.  There is a special chapter in the Qur’ān dealing with the hypocrites, called surah al- Munāfiqūn. 

There are two readings of وَيُشْهِدُ اللَّهَ عَلَى مَا فِي قَلْبِهِ “and he calls Allah to witness as to that which is in his heart”, meaning “Allah knows that I am telling the truth”. This is the reading of the vast majority of scholars. The other reading, namely, of Ibn Muh.ays.in who read وَيَشْهَدُ اللَّهُ عَلَى مَا فِي قَلْبِهِ meaning “Allah bears witness of what is in his heart”, meaning that “Allah knows that he is not telling the truth”. This reading is similar to the reading in surah al- Munāfiqūn وَاللهُ يَشْهَدٌ  instead of وَاللهُ يُشْهِدٌ  .   

The term وَاللَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ الْفَسَادَ “Allah does not like mischief” means that Allah does not like any kind mischief, and that Allah never orders mischief.

The verse وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُ اتَّقِ اللَّهَ أَخَذَتْهُ الْعِزَّةُ بِالْإِثْمِ  means that when you tell this hypocrite to fear Allah, he would tend more towards committing sin. Such a person would say, “mind your own business!” “who are you telling me to fear Allah?” If you tell him to fear Allah he would become proud of his crime and infidelity.  There is an interpretation where the letter ب is in place of  لin   بِالْإِثْمِso that the term means لِلْإِثْمِ and the verse means “he becomes arrogant because of the sin in his heart, namely, the hypocrisy, so that he will not accept the advice to fear Allah.

It is reported that a Jew had a request from the caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd, but the caliph rejected his request. The Jew insisted, and one day he stood at the caliph’s door. When he came out, the Jew confronted him and said: “Fear Allah, O Prince of the Believers!” Hārūn al-Rashīd descended from his riding animal and fell in prostration. Then he asked him what he wanted and he gave it to him.  When the caliph returned home, he was asked: “O Prince of the Believers, did you descend from your riding animal because of the Jew?”. “No,” the caliph said, “but I remembered the verse,   وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُ اتَّقِ اللَّهَ أَخَذَتْهُ الْعِزَّةُ بِالْإِثْمِ فَحَسْبُهُ جَهَنَّمُ وَلَبِئْسَ الْمِهَادُ ‘When it is said to him ‘Fear Allah’ he is led by arrogance to (more) crime. Enough for him is Hell; and evil bed indeed (to lie on)’ (Ali’s translation).

Then Allah told the Prophet about a person of the opposite character: a person who is ready to sell himself for the pleasure of Allah.  It is reported that the verse was revealed in the case of S.uhayb who was on his way to the Prophet and migrating to Madinah. When a group of people among the Quraysh tribe followed him, he descended from his riding animal, took his bow and his arrows from his quiver, saying to them, “You know that I am one of your best arrow shooters; by Allah, I would shoot you until no more arrow left and I would hit you with my sword, and that you may come to me and do whatever you like.”  They said, “We would not let you go away from us as a rich man, when you came to us as destitute man. But tell us the way to Mālik, then we let you go” which he did. In another report, S.uhayb had been tortured in Makkah before he left to Madinah. He told the torturers that it was all the same whether he was with them or not, since he was an old man, and to take all his possessions except his riding animal and provision, and let him go, and they did. At the outskirt of Madinah he was welcomed by people, among them Abū Bakr and ‘Umar. Abū Bakr said to him: “You are getting profit from your trade, O Abu Yah.yā!” “May your trade gain profit, too! What is the matter?” Abū Bakr said, “Allah has revealed (a verse) about you,” and then read the verse above.

The term يَشْتَرِي   originally means “to buy” but also means the opposite, “to sell”, i.e., “to trade”. It is one of the words in Arabic that has an opposite meaning. The Arabic language is called “the language of the opposite meaning” (لُغَةُ اْلأَضْدَاد).

Conclusion: Allah talked to the Prophet and to us directly or indirectly through the Prophet.  Allah often put the believers and non-believers in juxtaposition and side by side.