Blessed Friday jemaah, Praise be to Allah with whose graces good deed are accomplished. We praise Him and ask for his assistance in the bygone and the forthcoming events. We equally bear witness that Muhammad is the Servant and Messenger of Allah; he was sent down by his Lord with guidance and lucid Qur’ānic verses. He who follows the straight path will be saved; he who rejects it will be doomed and done for. May Allah send His Salat and Peace on him, his righteous and immaculate family, his wives –the Mothers of the Faithful– his Companions and all those who follow them in righteousness till the Day of Judgement. On this day that is full of barakah, Let us boost our takwa to Allah, with utmost dedication. Obey all of Allah’s commands and abstain from His prohibitions. Never stop the effort to increase our understanding of the religion. Be sincere in wanting to be a servant of Allah who truly loves Him. Verses that I red before are the first three of surah At-taubah Surat At-Tawbah is a Madinan Surah. It was revealed after Surat Al- Ma' idah. In the order of the Surahs in the Qur’an, it follows Surat Al-Anfal. It consists of 129 Ayahs and is the last full Surah revealed to our beloved Prophet (SAWS) before he passed away. The surah was revealed at a time when the Muslim nation was getting ready to spread the message of Islam outside the borders of the Arabic Peninsula to reach all the peoples of the Earth. This surah was revealed after the last battle fought by Prophet Muhammad (SAWS), the Battle of Tabouk, where 30 thousand Muslims took part in it. As mentioned before, this surah directly follows Surat Al- Anfal which deals with the Battle of Badr; the first battle fought by the Prophet (SAWS) with only 313 Muslims. The reason behind this is so that the reader of the Holy Qur’an can notice the difference between the circumstances, conditions, and rulings of the two battles, as well as the Qur’anic commentary on both. Brothers, Let us consider the historical background of the Surah. The series of events that have been discussed in this Surah took place after the Peace Treaty of Hudaibiyah. By that time, one-third of Arabia had come under the sway of Islam which had established itself as a powerful, well organized and civilized Islamic State. This Treaty afforded further opportunities to Islam to spread its influence in the comparatively peaceful atmosphere created by it. After this Treaty, two events took place, which led to very important results: The first was the Conquest of Arabia. The Holy Prophet was able to send missions among different clans for the propagation of Islam. The result was that during the short period of two years, it became such a great power that it made the old order of ignorance' feel helpless before it. So much so that the zealous elements from among the Quraish were so exasperated that they broke the Treaty in order to encounter Islam in a decisive combat. But the Holy Prophet took prompt action after the breach so as not to allow them any opportunity to gather enough force for this. He made a sudden invasion on Makkah in the month of Ramadan 8 Hijriah and conquered it. Though this conquest broke the backbone of the order of ignorance, it made still another attack on Islam in the battle-field of Hunain, which proved to be its death-knell. The clans of Hawazin Thaqif, Naur, Jushm and others gathered their entire forces in the battle field in order to crush the reformative Revolution, but they utterly failed in their evil designs. The defeat of 'ignorance' at Hunain paved the way for making the whole of Arabia the 'Abode of Islam' (Dar-ul-Islam). The result was that hardly a year had Passed after the Battle of Hunain, when the major portion of Arabia came within the fold of Islam and only a few upholders of the old order remained scattered over some corners of the country. The second event that contributed towards making Islam a formidable power was the Campaign of Tabuk, which was necessitated by the provocative activities of the Christians living within or near the boundaries of the Roman Empire to the north of Arabia. Accordingly, the Holy Prophet, with an army of thirty thousand marched boldly towards the Roman Empire but the Romans evaded the encounter. The result was that the power of the Holy Prophet and Islam increased manifold and deputations from all corners of Arabia began to wait upon him on his return from Tabuk in order to offer their allegiance to Islam and obedience to him. The Holy Quran has described this triumph in Surah An-Nasr: "When the succor of Allah came and victory was attained and you saw people entering the fold of Islam in large numbers... The Campaign to Tabuk was the result of conflict with the Roman Empire, that had started even before the conquest of Makkah. One of the missions sent after the Treaty of Hudaibiyah to different parts of Arabia visited the clans which lived in the northern areas adjacent to Syria. The majority of these people were Christians, who were under the influence of the Roman Empire. Contrary to all the principles of the commonly accepted international law, they killed fifteen members of the delegation near a place known as Zat-u-Talah (or Zat-i-Itlah). Only Ka'ab bin Umair Ghifari, the head of the delegation, succeeded in escaping and reporting the sad incident. Besides this, Shurahbil bin Amr, the Christian governor of Busra, who was directly under the Roman Caesar, had also put to death Haritli bin Umair, the ambassador of the Holy Prophet, who had been sent to him on a similar mision. These events convinced the Holy Prophet that a strong action should be taken in order to make the territory adjacent to the Roman Empire safe and secure for the Muslims. Accordingly, in the month of Jamadi-ul-Ula 8 Hijriyah, he sent an army of three thousand towards the Syrian border. When this army reached near Ma'an, the Muslims learned that Shurahbil was marching with an army of one hundred thousand to fight-with them and that the Caesar, who himself was at Hims, had sent another army consisting of one hundred thousand soldiers under his brother Theodore. But in spite of such fearful news, the brave small band of the Muslims marched on fearlessly and encountered the big army of Shurahbil at M'utah. And the result of the encounter in which the Muslims were fighting against fearful odds (the ratio of the two armies was 1:33), as very favorable, for the enemy utterly failed to defeat them. This proved very helpful for the propagation of Islam. As a result, those who were living in a state of semi independence in Syria and near Syria and the clans of Najd near Iraq turned towards Islam and embraced it in thousands. Above all, Farvah bin 'Amral Juzami, who was the commander of the Arab armies of the Roman Empire, embraced Islam during that time, and underwent the trial of his Faith in a way that filled the whole territory with wonder. When the Caesar came to know that Farvah had embraced Islam, he ordered that he should be arrested and brought to his court. Then the Caesar said to him, "You will have to choose one of the two things. Either give up your Islam and win your liberty and your former rank, or remain a Muslim and face death." He calmly chose Islam and sacrificed his life in the way of the Truth. No wonder that such events as these made the Caesar realize the nature of the danger that was threatening his Empire from Arabia. Accordingly, in 9 Hijriyah he began to make military preparations to avenge the insult he had suffered at M'utah. The Ghassanid and other Arab chiefs also began to muster armies under him. When the Holy Prophet, who always kept himself well-informed even of the minutest things that could affect the Islamic Movement favorably or adversely, came to know of these preparations, he at once under- stood their meaning. Therefore, without the least hesitation he decided to fight against the great power of the Caesar. He knew that the show of the slightest weakness would result in the utter failure of the Movement which was facing three great dangers at that time. First the dying power of 'ignorance' that had almost been crushed in the battle-field of Hunain might revive again. Secondly, the Hypocrites of Al: Madinah, who were always on the look-out for such an opportunity, might make full use of this to do the greatest possible harm to it. For they had already made preparations for this and had, through a monk called Abu Amir, sent secret messages of their evil designs to the Christian king of Ghassan and the Caesar himself. Besides this, they had also built a mosque near Al-Madinah for holding secret meetings for this purpose. The third danger was of an attack by the Caesar himself. It is obvious that if all these three elements had been given an opportunity of taking a concerted action against the Muslims, Islam would have lost the fight it had almost won. That is why in this case the Holy Prophet made an open declaration for making preparations for the Campaign against the Roman Empire, which was one of the two greatest empires of the world of that period. The declaration was made though all the apparent circumstances were against such a decision: for there was famine and the long awaited crops were about to ripen: the burning heat of the scorching summer and there was not enough money and equipment for preparations. But in spite of these handicaps, when the Messenger of Allah realized the urgency of the occasion, he took this step which was to decide whether the Mission of the Truth was going to survive or perish. The very fact that he made an open declaration for making preparations for such a campaign to Syria against the Roman Empire showed how important it was, for this was contrary to his previous practice. Usually he took every precaution not to reveal beforehand the direction to which he was going nor the name of the enemy whom he was going to attack. All the parties in Arabia fully realized the grave consequences of this critical decision. The remnants of the lovers of the old order of 'ignorance' were anxiously waiting for the result of the Campaign, for they had pinned all their hopes on the defeat of Islam by the Romans. The 'hypocrites' also considered it to be their last chance of crushing the power of Islam by internal rebellion, if the Muslims suffered a defeat in Syria. They had, therefore, made full use of the Mosque built by them for hatching plots and had employed all their devices to render the Campaign a failure. On the other side, the true Believers also realized fully that the fate of the Movement for which they had been exerting their utmost for the last 22 years was now hanging in the balance. If they showed courage on that critical occasion, the doors of the whole outer world would be thrown open for the Movement to spread. But if they showed weakness or cowardice, then all the work they had done in Arabia would -end in smoke. That is why these lovers of Islam began to make enthusiastic preparations for the Campaign. Everyone of them tried to surpass the other in making contributions for the provision of equipment for it. Hadrat Uthman and Hadrat Abdur Rehman bin Auf presented large sums of money for this purpose. Hadrat Umar contributed half of the earnings of his life and Hadrat Abu Bakr the entire earnings of his life. The indigent Companions did not lag behind and presented whatever they could earn by the sweat of their labor and the women parted with their ornaments. Thousands of volunteers, who were filled with the desire of sacrificing their lives for Islam, came to the Holy Prophet and requested that arrangements for weapons and conveyance be made for them so that they should join the expedition. Those who could not be provided with these shed tears of sorrow; the scene was so pathetic that it made the Holy Prophet sad because of his inability to arm them. In short, the occasion became the touchstone for discriminating a true believer from a hypocrite. For, to lag behind in the Campaign meant that the very relationship of a person to Islam was doubtful. Accordingly, whenever a person lagged behind during the journey to Tabuk, the Holy Prophet, on being informed, would spontaneously say, "Leave him alone. If there be any good in him, Allah will again join him with you, and if there be no good in him, then thank Allah that He relieved you of his evil company". In short, the Holy Prophet marched out towards Syria in Rajab 9 Hijriyah, with thirty thousand fighters for the cause of Islam. The conditions in which the expedition was undertaken may be judged from the fact that the number of camels with them was so small that many of them were obliged to walk on foot and to wait for their turns for several had to ride at a time on each camel. To add to this, there was the burning heat of the desert and the acute shortage of water. But they were richly rewarded for their firm resolve and sincere adherence to the cause and for their perseverance in the face of those great difficulties and obstacles. When they arrived at Tabuk, they learned that the Caesar and his allies had withdrawn their troops from the frontier and there was no enemy to fight with. Thus they won a moral victory that increased their prestige manifold and, that too, without shedding a drop of blood. In this connection, it is pertinent to point out that the general impression given by the historians of the campaigns of the Holy Prophet about the Campaign of Tabuk is not correct. They relate the event in a way as if the news of the mustering of the Roman armies near the Arabian frontier was itself false. The fact is that the Caesar had begun to muster his armies, but the Holy Prophet forestalled him and arrived on the scene before he could make full preparations for the invasion. Therefore, believing that "discretion is the better part of valor," he withdrew his armies from the frontier. For he had not forgotten that the three thousand fighters for the cause of Islam had rendered helpless his army one hundred thousand strong at M'utah. He could not, therefore, even with an army of two hundred thousand, dare to fight against an army of thirty thousand, and that, too, under the leadership of the Holy Prophet himself. When the Holy Prophet found that the Caesar had withdrawn his forces from the frontier, he considered thee question whether it would be worthwhile to march into the Syrian territory or to halt at Tabuk and turn his moral victory to political and strategical advantage. He decided on the latter course and made a halt for twenty days at Tabuk. During this time, he brought pressure on the small states that lay between the Roman Empire and the Islamic State and were at that time under the influence of the Romans, and subdued and made them the tributaries of the Islamic State. For instance, some Christian chiefs Ukaidir bin Abdul Malik Kindi of Dumatul Jaiidal, Yuhanna bin D'obah of Allah, and the chiefs of Maqna, Jarba' and Azruh also submitted and agreed to pay Jizyah to the Islamic State of Al- Madinah. As a result of this, the boundaries of the Islamic State were extended right up to the Roman Empire, and the majority of the Arab clans, who were being used by the Caesar against Arabia, became the allies of the Muslims against the Romans. Above all, this moral victory of Tabuk afforded a golden opportunity to the Muslims to strengthen their hold on Arabia before entering into a long conflict with the Romans. For it broke the back of those who had still been expecting that the old order of 'ignorance' might revive in the near future, whether they were the open upholders of shirk or the hypocrites who were hiding their shirk under the garb of Islam. The majority of such people were compelled by the force of circumstances to enter into the fold of Islam and, at least, make it possible for their descendants to become true Muslims. After this a mere impotent minority of the upholders of the old order was left in the field, but it could not stand in the way of the Islamic Revolution for the perfection of which Allah had sent His Messenger. This is the end of the first khutbah. Dear Brother Muslims, Surat At-Tawbah is the only surah that does not start with Al-Basmallah (invocation of the name of Allah) in contrast to all of the surahs in the Qur’an. When a Muslim reads the Holy Qur’an and starts by saying, “In the name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful”, he feels from the very beginning that he is crossing a borderline between an old condition and a new one. He feels that he is plunging into a deeper spiritual world, heart and soul, leaving the materialistic world behind as he keeps hearing more of Allah' s words and living with Allah' s most beautiful names, which include the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful. The reason behind the absence of Al-Basmallah at the beginning of the surah, according to some religious scholars, is due to the fact that this is a surah that deals with disbelievers and hypocrites more than any other in the Holy Qur’an. Thus, they are deprived of Al-Basmalah along with all the meanings of compassion and mercy that are presented there. Its first words can be translated as, “An acquittal from Allah and His Messenger to the ones of the associators (Those who associate others with Allah) (with) whom you have covenanted.” Other scholars such as Imam Razi told that this is because the Holy Prophet himself did not dictate it at the beginning of the Surah. Therefore the Companions did not prefix it and their successors followed them., This is a further proof of the fact that utmost care has been taken to keep the Quran intact so that it should remain in its complete and original form. Surat At-Tawbah has other names as well. It is called the Exposer, as it exposed the polytheists by numerating 55 of the hypocritical traits with which they dealt with the Prophet (SAWS). It is also called the Revealer as it reveals the flaws of the disbelievers and the languid that forsake giving support to Islam. It is also called the Sword as it is the most surah that urged Muslims for Jihad (fighting for Allah's cause), encouraging them to fight Allah's enemies, and warning against laziness and languor. It is indeed a stern surah, but why then is it called At-Tawbah (the Repentance) ? Of all the aspects of our relationship with Allah (SWT), repentance is indeed the most tender of all. It means going back to Allah (SWT), resorting to Him, and giving up all sins. What, then, is the relation between repentance and the traits of both polytheists and hypocrites, and the urging for Jihad? This surah is the final call for humanity. It was descended right before the concluding revelation of the Qur’an and the death of the Prophet (SAWS). Although the surah contains severe warnings to the disbelievers and hypocrites, along with a call for Muslims to fight for their religion, it gives everyone a final chance for repentance. In many instances, we notice the recurrence of what can be translated as, “…so, in case they repent, it will be more charitable (i.e., better) for them.” (9:74). If we look for the word Tawbah (repentance) and its derivatives in this surah, we will find that it is repeated 17 times in Surat At-Tawbah, making it the highest number of repetition of this word in the Holy Qur’an. In Surat Al-Baqarah, the longest surah in the Qur’an, the word Tawbah is repeated 13 times only. It is also mentioned 3 times in Surat Al-Imran, 12 times in Surat An-Nisa, 5 times in Surat Al-Ma' idah, 6 times in Surat Hud, and 1 time only in Surat Al-An’am. Thus, we conclude that the highest number of times where the word Tawbah is mentioned is in this surah. What is noteworthy is that the surah does not leave out a sect or a group without including them within the range of Tawbah. The call was for all; disbelievers, polytheists, apostates, those who are hesitant, hypocrites, sinners, pious believers, and even the Prophet (SAWS) and his companions (RA). Whenever the surah mentions one of those groups, it reminds them of repentance. As the surah exposes the hypocrites, it conveys to them a clear message that all of their tricks are revealed to the believers and thus leaves them no other chance but to repent. Hence, such exposure leads them to repent. It is just like when Allah (SWT) inflicts a hardship on someone so that it becomes a reason for his awakening and return to His path. Surat At-Tawbah makes the hypocrites feel that they are besieged as it deprives them of all their lame excuses when Islam is set forth and clarified to everyone. Even Allah's call for the believers to fight is intended to fill the disbelievers’ hearts with despair and to convince them that they will not be able to conquer the believers. Therefore, the surah leaves them with only one way out; the way of repentance. We will elaborate more on the repentance in this surah in the next khutbah, In Syaa Allah. Innaallaah wa malaaikatahuu yushalluuna alan nabiy, yaa ayyuhalladziina aamanuu... Source:
Amr Khalid - Quranic Reflection Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi - Tafhim al-Qur'an - The Meaning of the Quran
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