Al- Nahl 16:37 And those who shun the worst of sins and
indecencies and, when they are angry, forgive,
38 And those who answer the call of their Lord and
establish worship, and whose affairs are decided with Shura, and who spend of
what We have bestowed on them,
39 And those who, when great wrong is done to them,
defend themselves,
In these ayaat, Allah SWT gives us a list of
actions we can affirmatively take that we know are pleasing to Allah.
1.
to
shun the major sins, the kabaa’ir and to shun indecent behavior
2.
to
forgive when we become angry
3.
to
respond to Allah SWT, obey Him and to establish the prayer and worship Him
4.
to
decide our affairs in consultation
5.
to
spend out our wealth, which He has given us
6.
and
when we are oppressed, to defend ourselves
This list contains such a
wealth of wisdom, and it is not easy to mine its depths.
First, none of us are
perfect. We are human and Allah SWT
understands that we can be weak. We can
sometimes sin. But we are humanly capable
of shunning the major sins and of behaving decently. We can avoid things like murder, theft,
shirk, and sexual crimes. Our conscience
and natural inhibitions are capable of inhibiting such behavior, so if we give
it a sincere try, we can avoid these things.
Second, Allah SWT also
understands that we do sometime react and become angry. Fight or flight is a natural reaction to
stress. But we also have reason, so we
can control this reaction and forgive those who we think have offended us.
Third, we are responding to
Allah’s call. We say Labbayyak Allahumma
Labbayyak. We are here Allah. And we can obey Him and worship Him. We have the freedom of intention to do so,
and Allah SWT gave us this ability so that we could worship and respond to
Him. We are capable of a personal
relationship with the one who created us, in a way that only those who can turn
to Allah freely can. What a wonderful
opportunity he has given us!
Fourth, consultation in
governance is an integral part of this deen, in this worship of Allah SWT. As noted by Sayyed Muhammad Baqir
al-Sadr, mankind is the khalif of Allah
and walaiyyat or governance is in the Ummah, all of it. In order to provide the best and most just
governance, the government cannot be oppressive of the governed. It must be government by the Ummah for the
Ummah, and this is achieved through shurah or consensus. This is not ijma, or unanimity, which is
impossible, but consensus governance where the Ummah comes together to craft a
decision with which all can be comfortable.
One important point here is
that even “worldly” affairs, such as governance, politics and social
interaction, are “sacred” in Islam.
There is no separate secular world.
All of our actions must be in conformity with the will of Allah,
including how we govern ourselves.
Fifth, we must recognize that
all we have come from Allah and that He is the source of wealth. We may be fooled into thinking that our
wealth comes from our own efforts, or from our boss. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our wealth comes from only one source – Allah
SWT. And so we should be willing to
spend.
Moreover, spending fuels the
economy. So here Allah reminds us that
not only political matters, but economic matters must be in conformity with the
will of Allah. We should spend and not horde. We should spend in the way of Allah, on
spreading the Deen, on helping the poor, on education, and health care, and all
social needs and causes. We should
understand the evil of hording, of accumulation of capital. Causes by greed and selfishness, this evil
has accumulated most of the world’s wealth in the hands of only a tiny
percentage of people, who are not really consumers. They buy luxury, specialty goods, and
contribute nothing to the overall economy.
On the other hand, those that do consume, the working and middle
classes, have less and less resources with which to contribute to the
economy. And so the capitalist economy
is failing.
Islam has a different
approach. La ribawi or non-riba/zakat
economic system and shura consensus democracy are a viable and Divinely
inspired alternative, we should now be offering the world. Better to do so now, then to wait for the
current system to crash down around us.
Finally, Allah reminds us
that we are commanded to strive against oppression. Oppression is worse than killing because it
kills a whole society. We must strive against
it patiently. Allah reminds us that
maseebah may in fact be oppression, and not of our own doing. Especially when it is happening
to many people, to the whole of society, then it is more likely oppression, and
we are commanded by Allah to oppose it.
When we are afflicted by
maseebah, we need to examine our situation and see if the cause is in
ourselves, or is it system-wide, and therefore, fitnah and dhulm. If it is in ourselves, we need to repent and
be patient, relying soley on Allah and His infinite Mercy. If it is system-wide, we need to strive patiently
to change the situation. But most of
all, we need to ask Allah SWT for forgiveness and guidance.
(Excerpt from Khutbah)
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