Day 22/Juz 22:- Whoever desires honour - then to Allah belongs all honour. To Him ascends good speech, and righteous work raises it. But they who plot evil deeds will have a severe punishment, and the plotting of those - it will perish. [Fatir: 10] Fascinating verse. The Arabic word here for honour is izza, and its a type of honour that comes with authority and lofty respect; its the kind that golden nations have, and its the kind that keeps your enemies silent. Many people seek out izza, but it is the hypocrites in particular who chase after izza on earth. This is what makes them side with the Muslims when the Muslims are winning, but when there are trials and defeats, they turn on their feet and side with the enemy. All because theyre seeking worldly izza. Hence Allah says in Surah al-Munafiqun, ...And to Allah belongs [all] honour, and to His Messenger, and to the believers, but the hypocrites do not know. [v. 8] And so you see them running here and there, forever chasing a false image. Then Allah subhanahu wa taala speaks about the good deeds; how they are ascended to Him. Good deeds do not just remain on the earth, they travel to our Lord, and the name of its doer is mentioned. However, speech remains as speech until our actions raise its worth. This reminds me of one of my favourite quotes by Sayyid Qutb where he said: Our words remain dead until we die in their cause. Then they become alive to remain amongst the living. For the hypocrite however, speech is mere speech, nothing more than letters and words, because often there is no sincere action behind it to lift it up, and this is actually a makr (an evil plot) because how often have they deceived people by their speech and misled communities. But as it says towards the end of this Surah, But the evil plot encompasses only him who makes it. [Fatir: 43] and so it perishes along with its makir (plotter). Allah teaches us in this verse that true izza is in good speech followed by righteous actions, and it does not lie in having nifaq, or having a contradiction between your speech and deeds. May Allah protect us from hypocrisy and protect the Ummah from being fooled by the hypocrites. May He grant our Ummah true izza, in particular the mustadhafin (weak ones) amongst us, ameen.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 21:44:01 +0000
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