56 Passage 1 | The Quran and the Heedless

Lesson 5

Detailed Study of Surah Ya-seen Ustadh Asim Khan

7. Already the word has come into effect upon most of them, so they do not
believe.
Building up to this ayah are the first ayaat. And the first ayaat (1-6) are all speaking about the truth
and the people of truth. Because it begins by Allah taking an oath by the Quran and its wisdom and
authority and its mastery in terms of composition that firstly, this mans message is true. And
secondly, this man himself, Muhammad is on a straight path. He is not crooked, he is not messed
up, rather he is a straight arrow. And where is his message coming from? His message is coming from
none other than Allah , descending down from the heavens. What is his job? It is to warn a
nation i.e. the Quraysh, and by extension everybody else, because their forefathers were not
warned. They only had Ismaeel come many, many years before, and they had become ghaafil,
negligent about their purpose in life and about the fact that Allah deserves to be worshipped and
instead they turned to stone and began to worship stones.
Now, that being said, the next few ayaat are about baatil (falsehood) and the people of falsehood.
So there is a contrast now. Attention is going to focus right now on those people who are rejecting
the Prophet and it will speak about their spiritual state and how messed up they actually are. So
this is how the surah is now unfolding before us.

The Policy of Allah Sunnatul Allah

Allah declares in this ayah, a sunnah, a policy of Allah. And that policy of Allah is that people who
reject Allah and His messenger , Allah will make the punishment of hellfire binding on them,
compulsory on them, even if they are the majority. This is the policy of Allah being
illustrated in this ayah. Allah mentions,

that truly the word has been made binding upon most of them, because they will not believe.
Why is this being said here? The reason this is being said here is because, you can imagine, from the
seerah perspective...

Passage 1 | The Quran and the Heedless

So one of the ways you can do that is, you can ask the
question, when was this surah revealed? What year
exactly? When you find out the rough year, you can go and
start to read the seerah about what was taking place in
that year. And that will help you to really appreciate the
meanings of the ayah and then start to ponder over them.

Context of year 10

People who wish to really

contemplate deeply on the
Quran, unravel its
marvels and wonders, they
have to appreciate the role
of the Seerah in the
meanings of the Quran.

Surat Ya-Seen was revealed 10 years after the Prophet

has been made a prophet. So for 10 years, in Makkah, this
man Muhammad has been preaching. For the first few
years it was private, thereafter it became public, and he has managed to convey the message of
Islam to all of the people of Makkah. Everyone knows about the message of Islam now. Despite that,
most of the people do not believe it. So this ayah is being said in light of that reality. On the ground,
this is what is taking place. People are not only disbelieving in the Prophet , they are mocking
him, they are abusing him, they are making his life a misery, as well as his followers. In that scenario,
Allah mentions that truly the word has been established upon them.

Embedded oath LAAM

The word is used to emphasize what is going to be said. It is used to say truly this is the case. There
is no shadow of doubt about this. They say that the laam here, Ibn Uthaymeen said, the laam is an
embedded oath. How many oaths have been taken so far? This will now be the second oath. First
oath, Allah swears by the Quran. Some scholars said that Ya-Seen is an oath itself. Now, the next
oath is Allah swears that the qawl has been made binding on most of them.

What is this QAWL?

What is the word? What is the qawl here? At-Tabari said wajab al-azaab (the punishment has been
made binding here). That is, the word is the punishment.
Mufassireen have said that if you read the ayah in surah Ghaafir,

Detailed Study of Surah Ya-seen Ustadh Asim Khan

And by the way, just a heads up, people who wish to really
contemplate deeply on the Quran, unravel its marvels and
wonders, they have to appreciate the role of the seerah in
the meanings of the Quran.

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58 Passage 1 | The Quran and the Heedless

And thus has the word of your Lord come into effect upon those who disbelieved that they are
companions of the Fire.26
The same phrase has been used. The word has been established by your Master on those that have
disbelieved that they are the companions of the hellfire. May Allah save us. This ayah is clearly
showing what the qawl is it is that they are in the hellfire. That is the proof that what is being said
here is also the same thing al-qawl.

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So this is the case for whom? Some of them, a few of them, or most of them? What is the ayah
saying? Most of them, the punishment has become binding on them, compulsory. They are going to
the hellfire. Most of them.
Now here, appreciate how this would have been taken by the Prophet . He has been struggling
for 10 years trying to call people to Islam and to appreciate Islam, embrace Islam, but most of them
havent believed in him, they have rejected him. And he sees them walking by, and as he sees them,
he is reflecting on these words, most of them are going to the hellfire. How could he possibly have
reacted to that?
What would go through your mind, what may you think, if your job was to call them to Islam and you
were told most of them will be in hellfire? You might think, whats the point? But the key is, Allah
mentions most of them. Which means, there are still a few of them who will accept your message. So
we shouldnt say, most of them are not going to accept Islam, so whats the point? Rather, we
should say, I am going to search out the few of them that will.

Most people will NOT believe

Here, the present tense verb is used. As if to say, they are not believing, not that they will not be
believers. What is the difference between the two? If they will not be believers, it means they can
never believe, ever. But when it says they are not believing, it could mean right now they are not
believing, but possibly in the future, they might. And the way we understand that is that every single
human being, when his eyes see the angel of death, and his soul is taken from him, he will then see
the unseen. And when he does, then he will believe. So that is perhaps why the present tense is used
because everyone is going to believe one day, but the point is that are you going to believe when it
is the unseen, yuminoona bil ghayb.

26

Ghaafir 40:6

Ustadh searched for any other interpretations of the word

qawl in this ayah. However, there seems to be no other
book that he has come across, maybe he went through 2025 different books. However, he has heard of an
interpretation from a contemporary.
The other interpretation (quoted by a contemporary) is
that qawl means the message of the Prophet . Your
message has become binding on them, meaning, they
know what your message is now. Despite knowing your
message, they are still not going to believe.
Is there a difference between the 2 interpretations?
1. The punishment has become binding.
2. Your message has become binding.
Is there a difference or not? There is a difference. The
message of the Prophet becoming binding may be
true, but it doesnt necessarily mean they will go to hellfire.
So there is a difference.
However, Ustadh Asim hasnt found this second opinion
anywhere. 27
When it comes to differences in tafseer, you have to
appreciate that the differences in tafseer are very few. And
that is because the idea of tafseer is to uncover the
meaning of the Quran or the verses as intended by Allah.
You are asking, not what do these words mean in terms of
the Arabic language, but what did Allah mean by these
Arabic words. There is a big difference.

When it comes to differences

in tafseer, you have to
appreciate that the
differences in tafseer are
very few. And that is
because the idea of tafseer is
to uncover the meaning of
the Quran or the verses as
intended by Allah. You are
asking, not what do these
words mean in terms of the
Arabic language, but what
did Allah mean by these
Arabic words. There is a big
difference.

For example, Ustadh received a letter from his car rental

company. They said, when you return your car, if there are
27

Clarification provided during Q & A session: He read it from a contemporary and checked several
books of tafseer to see if he could find it, but was unable to find this opinion anywhere.
It is possible to try and reconcile, but this figure of speech is used in many other places in Quran such
as Surah Sajdah, Surah Ghaafir. So when you say it means this here, you create a problem, that why
does it mean this here and not there. When you start to move away from classical tafaseer, you can
land yourself in problems from an academic perspective. A person may ask, why does it mean one
thing here and another thing there?

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60 Passage 1 | The Quran and the Heedless

any damages to your car, there will be some charges. And they provided a list. He looked at the list
and was pleasantly surprised that the prices were quite cheap. There was an asterisk at the bottom,
and a footnote that these prices are indicative. He wondered what indicative meant. He wanted to
know what it meant. Does he want to know what the word indicative means in the dictionary, or
does he want to know what the car rental company means by indicative? The car rental company! He
can find out what the word means, but he wants to know what they mean. Thats what is important
here.
So that is the idea of tafseer. The mufassir is going to try and uncover what Allah intended by these
words. And of course, he is going to refer to the Arabic language, but that is not all. He needs to
follow certain principles. And that is why, the differences in tafseer are very few.
Somebody may read some tafseer in the beginning and to an untrained eye, he may see many
differences. Scholars of Tafseer say that differences of opinion in Tafseer are of two types.

Detailed Study of Surah Ya-seen Ustadh Asim Khan

1.

The first we called tanawwa. The same meaning being explained using different words and
examples.
2. The second difference is an actual different meaning. This scenario is very rare. Especially
amongst the early Muslims.
Ibn Taymiyyah mentioned in his muqaddimah fi Usool at-Tafseer that the differences of opinion in
tafseer amongst the companions was rare. So usually what you will find are different words being
used to explain what an ayah means.
For example, if Ustadh asked someone to explain what the word water means. Someone could say
liquid, H2O, or you could say what it is not. Everyone is talking about the same thing using different
words. Someone could say rain, and some spiritual person could say it is life. He is right, isnt he?
Even that person who refers to it as life is talking about the same meaning. Perhaps it is a little
different from others who described it. So this is what the untrained eye sees. He thinks there are
differences, but there arent differences. This is ikhtilaf tanawwa. The same meaning is explained
using different words or different examples.
To make it very clear, an example in tafseer, is an ayah says people are of 3 different types.

And among them is he who wrongs himself, and among them is he who is moderate, and among them is
he who is foremost in good deeds by permission of Allah.28
1. Those who wrong themselves
2. Moderate people
3. The forerunners in doing good deeds.

28

Faatir 35:32

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61

In explaining this, you find that some of the companions, they say the tafseer of this ayah is, the
. May Allah forgive
of his is the one who misses his prayers, he doesnt pray them on time
us for this. As for the moderate, he is the one who prays it in the time, but not in the best time. Take
note that ustadh didnt say the earliest time, because the Isha prayer, the best time is not the
earliest time, it is the time closest to the middle of the night, according to the majority of the
scholars. And then

is the one who will read it in the best time. Somebody might read
another book, and he sees that actually, they are describing it with the example of fasting, or hajj, or
good manners.
Are they speaking about different tafseers? Is this different interpretation? It is the same
interpretation giving different examples. This is Usool at-Tafseer.

For example, there is something in the books of tafseer of the shia, that aqeemu as-salah doesnt
mean to establish the five daily prayers, it means to establish the infallibility of Ali, Faatimah, Hassan,
Hussayn. So they may say, you guys have your own interpretations, someone the other day had an
interpretation and you said it was fine, so what is your beef with our interpretations?
So there are principles which the scholar of tafseer follows in order to arrive at, not what they could
possibly mean, but rather, what Allah intended by it.
To summarize the ayah, Allah is mentioning that most of them will go to the hellfire because they
refused to believe.

Implied meaning [Razi]

Here, Imam Raazi highlighted something quite amazing. He said that there is an implied meaning in
this ayah and it is pointing to the amazing efforts of the Prophet , that despite all the hardship,
he managed to convey the message of Islam to all the people of Makkah. Only then would Allah say
most of them are not going to believe, after they have been told the message of Islam. So the
Prophet , even in these difficult times! At this moment, there are assassination attempts on the
Prophet . This is the extent it has got to. Assassination attempts have been made on the Prophet
.
Seerah is so beautiful. It just gives another dimension to when you read Quran. For example, the
conversion of Hamza . He became Muslim around the 6th year after prophecy. Hamza
was the uncle of the Prophet . What happened is, one day, Abu Jahl saw the Prophet alone
in the Kaabah, and he went up to him and started insulting him. He started to insult him, abuse him

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When it comes to this interpretation, we say that we need to be cautious about these things.
Because once you open the door to new interpretation, people will jump through the door. They will
bring some weird and whacky things.

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verbally, and started to insult him and his family Banu Haashim, and his father, his forefathers, and
there was no man from Banu Haashim around to stop him.
You have to appreciate that for the Arabs, tribal ties were the strongest bond, even stronger than
religion. Therefore, even though many of his family members were not Muslim, the fact that he was
Banu Haashim, and that Banu Haashim was being insulted by Abu Jahl who was from Banu
Makhzoom, was a big deal. And the women of Banu Haashim heard what was going on, and became
extremely offended.

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So what happened was that when Hamza, who was hunting at that time, came back - he used to
have a sunnah, which was a sunnah of many people, as soon as he came back to Makkah, he would
do tawaf around the Kaabah. He comes to the Kaabah, and the women of Banu Haashim came up
to him and said, did you hear what happened today? Your nephew and us in general have been
insulted like weve never been insulted before. It was unbelievable what Abu Jahl was saying. And
where were you? How can someone insult us like this and you were not around?
So he becomes infuriated. And he is not a Muslim. He goes to find Abu Jahl. Abu Jahl is sitting with
some of his comrades. As soon as he sees him, he smacks him with his bow over his face or his head
and Abu Jahl falls to the ground, and there is a cut, and he starts to bleed. He doesnt get back up.
His tribal members get up and he says to them, dont say anything, dont get up, because today I
insulted Muhammad ( )like I never insulted him before.
Then Hamza says, how dare you insult my nephew when I too am one of his followers? Now he said
this out of hamiyyah, pride of his tribe, not out of belief in the Prophet . He didnt accept Islam
there out of anything but a show of chivalry and pride. So what happened is, even when he walks off
he wonders, what did I just say.
And the books of Seerah say that he made a dua to Allah, that O Allah, I am stuck. I cannot go back
on my word, because I would lose face, and Ive said something, I dont know whether it is the truth
or not. So do one of 2 things either show me the truth or take my life. So he is walking around, and
he says, I havent died yet (see his dua), so he goes to the Prophet . And the Prophet knows
something has happened. So before he can speak, he begins to give him dawah, begins to call him to
Islam. Imagine the Prophet giving dawah to someone. And he did it with so much passion, that
Hamza said, I already said that I am one of your followers, and now I will take my shahadah in front
of you. And this was one of the happiest moments in the life of the Prophet .
So this is the kind of things that are happening at the later Makki stage where this surah is being
revealed.

My Reflections

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63

8. Indeed, We have put shackles on their necks, and they are to their chins, so
they are with heads [kept] aloft.
The next ayah will go into more detail about the spiritual state of these people. Why are they not
believing? They have a prophet in their midst and he is the best of all prophets. But they are not
listening to him. Why?
When Allah begins by saying , al-Biqaai says, it is illustrating His power to do something. No one
else could have done this. Only Allah, with His immense power could have done this. What did Allah
do? . We made. So is indeed We, We made.
are shackles. The singular is ghul. And ghul, as As-Sadi says, are iron collars which go around the

The shackles reach all the way to the

which is the meeting point of the jawline. Because of that,
they become . So the head is forced upwards.

What is this all about? Pay attention to the scene. The scene is someone who is a prisoner. And not
only is he just shackled, he is shackled in 3 ways:

The first shackle is his neck.

The second shackle is his hands to his neck.
The third is that the shackle around the neck is protruding up and forcing the neck back.

So the severity is three times in terms of shackling that person. Even if this person wanted to, they
cannot move from side to side, they have no freedom whatsoever. They are completely stuck in that
state.
The word , the qamih refers to the camel. Before going on a journey, the owner tries to get it
to drink as much water as possible so it is stored in the hump. When the camels owner tries to get it
to drink water from the pond or well, he puts his head up and pushes it back to the side. It refuses to
put his head down. And that is almost like a show of pride from the camel.
As an aside, Ustadh mentioned that camels are very intelligent animals. When he was in Egypt, his
friend told him, dont try and double-cross a camel. If an owner tries to breed a camel with another
camel from the same family, he has to trick them. He does this by blindfolding them. But if they find
out, then the male camel will wait for its owner to go to sleep on the floor. When he sees him
sleeping, it will walk over him, sit on him, and kill him.

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neck. Not only do they bind around the neck, they have a place for the hands to be locked into as
well.

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In this ayah, we are told the people behave like that camel who resists drinking water and moves its
head up. And in the use of this word is an indication of the crime that was committed that
resulted in this punishment.
Allah mentions that We did this to these people.
Ibn al-Qayyim says, this is not about a physical illustration, this is about the metaphorical one.
The shackles are on their hearts. And their hearts are deprived from faith and from doing any
goodness.

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Why are their hearts shackled? Why are they spiritually crippled? It is because of their arrogance.
They thought themselves too good to follow the Prophet . And because of their arrogance, Allah
punished them. And one of their punishments is that their spiritual state becomes disfigured, almost.
A person, in the middle of the night, cannot see anything. He cant even see his hand. When you
wear night vision goggles, suddenly you can see things he couldnt see before. This is almost like
looking into the hearts of people. We couldnt see before, and once we view people through the lens
of this ayah, it is like we can see how the arrogant people are inside. And that is a beautiful contrast
because on the outside they pretend to be great people, enjoying life, living it up, but we are told,
look at the inside, the inside is a miserable state. In the inside, they are suffering.
We see this in other places in Quran, for example,

And whoever turns away from My remembrance - indeed, he will have a depressed life29
Whoever turns away from Allahs remembrance will have a miserable life.
Another contrast of this ayah with the previous ayah is that said, look at that man Muhammad he is messed up, bewitched, insane, a fortune-teller, a sorcerer. Allah mentions, he is on the
straight path. As for you, you want to see what your hearts are like? It is a terrible image. This is what
your internal state is like. We have placed this around you because of your arrogance.
To be honest, we have to clarify one thing. Ibn al-Qayyim says, commenting on this ayah and the next
one,
If you reflect on the state of a kaafir who is shown the truth and had it explained to him, only then, to
obnoxiously reject it, and show the worst kind of enmity towards it, then you will find this example
fits him/ her aptly, and Allahs help is sought.
What is Ibn al-Qayyim saying? He says, this is describing, not just any disbeliever, but the disbeliever
who has had Islam communicated to them, explained to them, and then they say, to hell with that, I
am not going to bother, except that, this is their state. And then he says Allahs help is sought
29

Ta Ha 20:124

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65

against anything of that nature. And this helps us to appreciate that this is about that type of
disbeliever.
However, Ustadh added something here. This state doesnt come about overnight. One doesnt go
from zero to this state overnight. Rather, it comes in levels. Perhaps some of us have a share of this
shackle. Because, who can say really and truly there is no shackle in their heart? Who can say really
and truly there is no pride inside of them?

So Allahs help from arrogance should be sought by everyone. And whatever level of arrogance you
have inside of you, you will have a share of this punishment as well. Because the impact of arrogance
is that a person turns away from the truth. Even if he knows that it is true. And this is the most
extreme example.
And this is a hadith of the Prophet as well. He said in
Saheeh Muslim,

Pride is disdaining the truth (out of self-conceit) and

contempt for the people.30
He said, defining it, it is to reject the truth even if you know
it is true, and to look down on people for no good reason.
This is the definition of the pride that is condemned by
Allah, blameworthy.

My Reflections

30

Sahih Muslim

Allahs help from arrogance

should be sought by
everyone. And whatever
level of arrogance you have
inside of you, you will
have a share of this
punishment.

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Sometimes, a person doesnt realize that there is pride inside of him until something happens to him.
For example, somebody ask you a question about your field, and says, do you know this? And you
say, what do you mean do I know this? This is my field! I have a Masters in this! Youre asking me? Do
you know who I am? And you might think, where did that come from? What happened there? There
did that come from? Was that really me? That was really arrogant of me.

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9. And We have put before them a barrier and behind them a barrier and covered
them, so they do not see.
And if that wasnt enough, to talk about them in this state, Allah completes the picture by saying,
and We have made in front of them a barrier, a blockade. And behind them, a barrier. And we have
covered them up from the top. And so they cannot see.

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What can they not see? The truth. They cannot see the truth of the message, they cannot see the
truth of the Quran. They just cant see the truth. They cant see right from wrong anymore. Why?
Because they are full of arrogance.
Arrogance is so telling. If we say that a person who is arrogant, it doesnt matter how intelligent he
may be, he cant see the truth.
Therefore seeing the truth is not dependent on intelligence, or the intelligence that we deem to be
intelligence, like the IQ.
Ustadh Asim said he remembered someone tweeted Richard Dawkins, an outspoken critic of Islam.
May Allah guide him. Somebody asked him, very wittily, Dawkins, have you ever read the Quran?
And he said, not yet. He just exposed himself! He is supposed to be an academic. The words that
come out of his mouth are supposed to be evidence based. And he hasnt even read the book of the
religion that he criticizes and tells people is backward. What does that say about him? It says a lot
about him. It says that perhaps he is not really the academic that he is made out to be.
They are so puffed up with arrogance they cant see the truth. They dont bother to check what is
true and what is not. Rather, what fuels them is hatred, arrogance.
How many barriers are mentioned in this ayah?
In front of them, behind them, and over them (on top). Why do you think 3 barriers are mentioned
here? If this is completing the scene, and the scene is people who are shackled so they have
absolutely no ability to look around, and then you are told, they cant go forward, they cant go
backward, and on top of them is also a barrier. What kind of place do you see them in? It is a prison.
But why 3 barriers? Why not right and left?
Perhaps the reason why is because the Quran usually presents arguments in 3 ways:
1.

The first way in which it presents arguments is by way of a direct address. For example, in the
beginning of the surah, Allah mentions . You are, without a shadow
of a doubt, from those that have been sent, and you are, without a shadow of a doubt, on a

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67

straight path. This is Allah directly mentioning something. Or another example is,

. Whoever is saved from the fire and entered into jannah, he has succeeded
whoever does this and doesnt do this, here is what is going to happen to you. It is a direct
address.

3. And then there is a third way. Allah calls upon the human being to reflect upon nature and
the signs around him. Dont you see the signs around you? The sign of nature, the beauty?

. Ibn Ashur said this is talking about the


nizam, the design and the organization of space, outer space, this world, and the alternating
of the night and day, how we get calendar days, how the concept of time is forged through
the alternation of the night and day. Dont you look at that and realize that there are signs
pointing to the existence of a creator, His Might, His Majesty, His Knowledge and His right to
be worshipped? Dont you see that? It is in nature!
These are the 3 ways the Quran will usually communicate its arguments. That is perhaps why Allah
mentioned 3 types of barriers.
1.

The first barrier is in front of them. They dont look at nature when they wake up every
morning, and say , this is a blessing from Allah. Look at this sunrise. This is a beauty.
What about the beauty of the creator?

2. They dont look behind them. They say these are , old fables of the past. They dont
believe them.
3. And they dont accept the direct revelation that comes down. They say these are the words
of a poet or sorcerer.
So they reject all 3 signs, and that is because there are 3 barriers the one in front, the one behind
and the one above.
Where it gets really interesting is that inside Surat Ya-Seen, there are these 3 avenues approached as
well.
1.

The first is the direct revelation, ayaat 1-6. Allah mentions, this is the truth, you have to
accept it.

2. Then Allah mentions Ashab al-Qaryah, which is the next sign, the historical signs in the story.

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2. There is another way which is to relate what happens in history, a historical accounts, stories
of the past. Just like inside this surah there will be a story about ashab al-Qaryah, a historical
account, a historical account of a story that took place many, many years ago. What is the
point of relating that? Because that is another avenue to make an argument, historically
speaking this is what happened. Dont you see a sign in that?

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3. Then Allah will mention the next sign which are the signs in nature. Dont you look at the sun
and the moon? It is not befitting for the moon to catch up with the sun and to distort the
alternation and its orbit. Dont you look at that? Dont you look at the signs in nature?
They dont look at any of those signs because they have those 3 barriers. This is from the beauty of
Surat Ya-Seen.
So this is perhaps why there are 3 barriers.
There is a sense of irony in this ayah as well. The irony is that these people reject the message of the
Prophet in order to live without restriction. Isnt that why most people reject Islam?

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Ustadh was talking to someone about Islam and they said they werent interested because there are
so many things we have to do and they didnt want to do them.
This ayah shows that the people who are arrogant reject Islam because they want freedom, but the
reality is that being far away from Allah makes you a prisoner, makes you miserable, makes you
someone who is deprived from so many good things in their life. So there is a sense of irony in this
ayah as well.

Fore-knowledge doesnt mean Forcing them [Qurtubi]

There is a statement of Ibn Abbaas. Somebody may ask a question, why is Allah saying that most of
them are going to the hellfire? They havent even died yet. Why is Allah saying their spiritual state is
like this, messed up, in shackles, crippled? Why is Allah making barriers for them? Why? They might
not accept now, but they may accept later. Why is Allah forcing them into a position where they
cannot see the truth? Somebody may ask this question. What is the answer? Why are they having
barriers placed, shackles, damned to the hellfire?
The answer is no, Allah is not forcing them into the hellfire. Allah knows that this is their state and
Allah is declaring that state and He is declaring their state based on His foreknowledge. The
foreknowledge of Allah does not equate to compelling people. There is a difference between the
two.

Lessons
Never be complacent
The first lesson that we learn is, never be complacent. Never be complacent of Allahs punishment.
We hear in the Quran, , somebody may say, how can it be that when you hear most of the
people are going in the hellfire that you dont feel any way about that, it doesnt scare you when you

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69

hear that? Dont you think about myself, like, am I one of those people that might go to the hellfire,
may Allah preserve us, may Allah protect us? Dont you think like that when you hear that in the
Quran? That is how you should think. Even though it is related to those people, the meaning is
eternal. And therefore when a person hears , his heart should shudder. He should
think perhaps I could be one of those people, let me change myself and make tawbah. Let me sort
myself out. I dont want to be of the many that goes to the hellfire.
Umar al-Khattab, even though the Prophet gave him the congratulations of paradise when he
went on Mount Uhud, and he told him that he was from the shuhadah, he still thought that he may
be a munafiq. He still thought that. He still went to Hudhayfah and said, you know the list of the
munafiqoon, tell me, is my name on there? Hudhayfah said I am the secret keeper of the Prophet
, I am not going to tell you anything. He said no you must tell me. He said I am just going to tell
you that you are not on the list, and I cant tell you anything else. , he has been guaranteed
from the lips of the Prophet . But the true believer never becomes complacent. Even if he is
guaranteed, he never becomes complacent. Allah mentions in Surat Araf,

Then did they feel secure from the plan of Allah ? But no one feels secure from the plan of Allah except
the losing people.31
Do those people think that they are safe from the planning of Allah? The only people who think they
are safe from the planning of Allah are the losers. That is the only type of person who would think
that.

Be grateful for eeman

The second lesson that we learn is that we should always be grateful for eemaan. When he hears
that most people are going to go to the hellfire and most people are going to refuse to believe, he
should look at his own Islam has a gift from Allah that he needs to thank Allah for. And there is a
hadith of the Prophet reported by his wife Umm Salamah32, and which Shaykh al-Albaani
reported that it is authentic, that she said, the most frequent supplication he would make is,

O Changer of the hearts, make my heart firm upon Your religion.

O mover of hearts, move my heart and fix it towards Your religion. And if the Prophet is begging
Allah to keep guiding him, then what is the case of us? A man who is forgiven all his sins is begging
Allah please dont let my heart get messed up, keep it firm on the religion.

31
32

Surat al-Araf 7:99

Jami at-Tirmidhi

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70 Passage 1 | The Quran and the Heedless

Sins impair your ability to see right from wrong

The third lesson is that sins impair your ability to see right from wrong. This is a very big lesson. Allah
is telling us in these ayaat that these people are arrogant. As a punishment, they will not be able to
see right from wrong. This is the punishment of Allah on people that have become arrogant.

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And even in our times, we can look at society, what society wants to debate or discuss new issues
such as sexual ethics, such as the definition of marriage. They took a word from a dictionary and
began trying to determine what it means. They dont know what the word means anymore. They
said, what people thought the word marriage meant for hundreds of years, they got it wrong. This is
the new definition. They agreed on a new definition of marriage, they cant see right from wrong.
Anything is up to be redefined and reinterpreted and this is the side effect of being far away from
revelation having arrogance. And we should take heed of this. Our sins impact on our connection
to Allah, our closeness to Allah.
Imam Shafi said that he went to complain to his teacher Waqea and he said I find it difficult to
memorize the books of knowledge. He said to him, my tip to you is to stop sinning. He said I took his
advice. And there came a time when I would open a book and memorize both pages at the same
time so I didnt know which page came first. So I had to put my hand on one page and look at the
one I was memorizing.
This is the impact of sins on our hearts. They impact on us in a big way. May Allah forgive us our sins.

My Reflections
Seeing the truth is not dependent on intelligence, or the intelligence that we deem to be intelligence,
like the IQ. ... this reminds about the ayah in Surah Mulk, how the disbelievers will say

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71

Q and A
Q What was the wisdom behind telling Huthayfah the names of the hypocrites?
A There must be various wisdoms, perhaps to strike fear in the hearts of the hypocrites, that there is
someone else who knows who you are. Your name is on a list.

A As for the wisdom, then the qiraaat are a consequence of the ahruf. The ahruf, as per the hadith33
of Jibreel that the Prophet said that the Quran came down to me in 7 ahruf. What does Ahruf
mean? It means that there are subtle differences between them. But each and every one of them
came down from Allah. Why? It is clear, for tayseer in order to make it easy for the growing Muslim
community from different parts of the peninsula to learn and memorize the Quran. Because they
used to say words slightly differently, and sometimes they couldnt pronounce certain words the
way others did. And that was the basic wisdom behind ahruf. Thereafter, the compilation of the
Quran, especially during the time of Uthman bin Affwan, , the net result of the
compilation was qiraaat, which was 10 different recitals. Was it the same as ahruf or not, Allah
knows best, but it is the same manifestation of the wisdom, except that it was regulated. It wasnt as
open as it was with the ahruf. And the difference between the qiraaat and ahruf, Allah knows best is
that the ahruf were coming down in the life of the Prophet at a time where Islam was spreading
and they could have recourse to the Prophet when and if there were any differences. Like Umar
ibn Khattab comes and says I heard Hakeem recite Surah Furqan differently. So they can go to the
Prophet and clarify. This factor becomes missing after the death of the Prophet . And on top
of that, people do begin to differ on the Quran. It happened during the time of Uthman. Therefore,
he has to take radical action to mitigate this problem and there was a consensus among the
companions about what they should do and what they did was no doubt guided by Allah and it
resulted in the qiraaat. Therefore the qiraaat are a product of the ahruf and they represent the
same wisdom but on a lower level.
As for tafseer and qiraaat, then the mufassir has to consider all the qiraaat in an ayah. No doubt.
Because the different qiraaat may possibly have a different word, though that is very rare, but they
could have a different dhameer and a person would have to consider all of these and then say the
ayah means this. Or say, it means this but it could also mean this as well.
Every ahruf was revealed to the Prophet . It was not the product of human intervention.

33

Sahih Bukhari

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Q What is the wisdom of qiraaat?

72 Passage 1 | The Quran and the Heedless

Class Summary of Verses 7-9

)(

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Verse 8: Surely We, We have placed shackles on their necks, and these reach up to their chins, so
they have their heads raised upright.

This verse contains some very powerful imagery of people mentioned in the previous verse:
those who are too damn stubborn to listen to the Prophet and believe in him.

Ibn Ashur: this depicts the imagery of their spiritual state, and how, as a result of their
arrogance, Allah is punishing them by deforming their spiritual state.

Truly WE- Allah has made this happen- We have made on their necks, aghlal. As Sadi: ahglal
are heavy iron shackles that bind the hands together and can then be fixed on to the neck
area below the chin.

"up to their chins" meaning the shackles grip all around their neck and wrap it reaching up to
the jawbones. This makes these people MUQMAHOON.

al-Asma'i said that the Qaamih - root word of MUQMAHOON - refer to the camel when it
refuses to drink water by raising up it head and looking down at the owner.

They are Muqmahoon- Allah is telling us that these shackles around their necks are forcing
their heads to tilt upwards and making them gaze downwards. It is an image of prisoners,
chained up with no freedom. The irony however is that outwardly you can't see this and they
appear fine & enjoying life. Inwardly the story is very different and their outward pride &
arrogance is inwardly crippling them such that they cannot reach out to the truth.

Their shackles imprisons them and their arrogance prevents them from doing any good in
their life, it becomes an obstacle to guidance

Reflect: People run away from religion to gain freedom, saying Islam has too many laws and
restrictions, but in reality life becomes miserable once you're far from Allah and you become
enslaved to other things that harm you. An example of this enslavement in modern times are
women, who, in their pursuit of freedom and liberation, find themselves having to conform
to the western idea of superficial beauty with brings with it many negative side-effects like
anxiety, low self-esteem and obsession with self-image. A recent study published in the
British Journal of Psychology states that Muslim women who wear the Hijab experience less
anxiety about self-image than those who don't wear it!

Inna jaalna- indeed we did this- some may ask, why is Allah doing this to them? Why is it not
written as, they did this?

Passage 1 | The Quran and the Heedless

Allah takes ownership of this, to show *His* punishment for *their* arrogance. We must
remember, nothing happens but by the will of Allah. Their spiritual state was created by Allah
but with good reason: because they showed arrogance. As a result a punishment awaits
them, this shows us the justice of Allah. The punishment fits the crime. Think about it: the
punishment is preventing these people from guidance & spiritual wellbeing because when it
was brought to them by the Prophet S they scoffed at him and turned away out of pride.
Why should they benefit from guidance when they don't desire it?
N.B! Some scholars said this is an actual punishment on the Day of Judgment.

Beware: We all show arrogance to the truth to different degrees- the "I don't care" "I can't
be asked" attitude. Beware of the punishment in-store. Imagine you looked in the mirror one
day and your image was that of a shackled man with his hands locked tightly to his neck
forcing his head up?! How would you feel?

73

1. Refuse to accept the truth for no good reason

2. To look down on others for no good reason

We should reflect and remove elements of this from our own selves. In our community we
have people looking down on others based on material possession, wealth, job, education,
dialect, geographical location, ethnicity e.g. racism etc

Allah has told us the only basis for being better than others is piety "taqwa"- and the Prophet
told us that Taqwa lives in the heart. Hence, don't be foolish by looking down on
another Believer because of superficial reasons. It says more about you than him/her. The
Salaf would say: Don't look down on the elderly for they have worshipped Allah more than
you. And don't look down on those younger than you for they have committed less sins than
you!

Reconfigure Translation

)(

Surely We, We have made the shackles on their hands fixed on to their necks, reaching up to their
chins, forcing their heads upright.
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Finally, what is pride exactly? Hadeeth of Prophet , definition of kibr (pride)