With Allah

Safar 1445/September 2023

Letter No. 3, Amman, Jordan
Dear Believers: as-Salamu ‘alaykum wa rahmatu Llahi wa barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah Most Merciful and Compassionate: All praise to Allah Most High,
and blessings and peace upon His beloved Prophet Muhammad, who guides to the way of
honor, triumph, and renown without end.
To commence: Allah shows us the path of total success by telling us in verse 33.21 of Surat
al-Ahzab:
َ " ‫َْﻮَم ٱﻟْ َٔـﺎﺧَﺮ َوَذَﻛَﺮ ٱ‬Cْ‫ﺑ َوٱ‬
ً ‫ﺑ َﻛﺜ‬
‫ۭ ا‬K
ُ َ َ َ ْ َ"
َ " ‫ َرُﺳﻮل ٱ"ﺑ أُْﺳَﻮٌة َﺣَﺴﻨٌَﺔۭ ﻟ <َﻤﻦ َ'َن ﻳَْﺮُﺟﻮ ۟ا ٱ‬, ‫ﻜْﻢ‬ ‫ﻟﻘﺪ 'ن ﻟ‬
ِ ِ ِ ِ ِ
Verily you have in the Messenger of Allah
a splendid example
for whoever hopes in Allah and the Last Day
and remembers Allah much.
The word ahzab or ‘leagued forces’ in the name of this sura means the pagan fighting forces
leagued against the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and those who believed
with him in his times, but in a larger sense, as plain from the other contexts in the Quran
where it is mentioned, all the forces of evil leagued against Allah’s messengers and the
believers from the beginning of time to the end, as a test of their faith and an obstacle for
them to triumph over. In this verse Allah is speaking to the entire Umma, though a fortiori
(ay-fortYORee) or ‘especially and with even better right,’ to the munafiqeen or ‘hypocrites’
mentioned just before this verse on the same page, adjuring them to fight with ikhlas or
‘sincerity’ against idolatry and evil with everything they can.
The words of Allah here “Verily you have in the Messenger of Allah a splendid example”
mean in the Prophet’s (Allah bless him and give him peace) sabr or ‘undaunted
steadfastness’; in his thabaat or ‘endurance, certainty, constancy, and perseverance’; and in
his jihaad or ‘striving for Allah with his life, self, and arms’—that in all of these things you
have an uswatun hasanatun or ‘splendid example.’ The root of the word hasanatun, namely
husn or ‘being beautiful to look at,’ we saw in Letter No. 2 last month, but here is translated
as “splendid.” The Arabic uswatun, like the adjective that follows it, is indefinite (like all
words preceded in English by an or a), which in most verses of the Quran does not mean
something un-emphasized (as the indefinite normally means in English), but rather
something unheard-of in some way: here, unheard-of in its incomparable greatness and
benefit to whoever realizes what it is and takes it in his two hands and proceeds to Allah
with it. The verse begins with Laqad kana or ‘Verily,’ the initial lam (letter L) being lam al-
qasam or ‘lam of Allah swearing by His very Self’—as if saying “By Allah!” for stress and
emphasis upon what He is saying; the qad mounting the emphasis higher and obliquely
hinting at the previous behavior of the munafiqeen; and the kana or ‘was’ referring not to
the past, but to tahqiq al-wuqu‘ or ‘the absolute certitude with which it shall take place.’
The root of uswatun is the verb asawa, which means to cure or fix a wound, as is said in
Arabic, Asawa al-jurh, or “He healed the wound.” It is not the same as qudwa or ‘exemplar to
be followed,’ but means the example and praiseworthy quality that really deserves to be
followed and comprises what is good, proper, right, and of greatest benefit to one, just as
one would apply balm or cream to heal a wound. Allah’s words fi rasuli Llahi or “in the
Messenger of Allah” are a figure of speech, as if the medicine were within him (Allah bless
him and give him peace), to emphasize that it includes everything about him: his words,
deeds, and states. The words li man kana yarju Llaha wa al-yawma al-akhira or “for whoever
hopes in Allah and the Last Day” in turn are a badal or ‘conjunctive phrase’ referring back
to lakum or “you have” in the first line, and clarifying that while “you have” refers in
principle to the whole Umma, the ones who will really benefit of them are “whoever hopes
in Allah and the Last Day and remembers Allah much.”
The words kana yarju (hopes) in “whoever hopes in Allah and the Last Day” mean
someone in this world always longing to meet Allah, and for the reward of his spiritual
works in the next world on the Last Day, which is named that because it is unfollowed by
any night, and will last forever and ever. The Arabic word kana preceding a verb in the
imperfect (al-mudari‘), as here, is the usual way in Arabic to describe the customary, usual,
and invariable practice of someone, expressed in the English as “whoever hopes,” meaning
“always.”
Allah’s words wa dhakara Llaha kathiran or “and remembers Allah much” mean great
devotion to Allah through His remembrance. Allah mentions the tremendousness of this
quality in another verse of this sura at 33.35 where He says:
 Verily men and women
utter in their submission to Allah;
And men and women who truly believe;
And men and women devoted in adoration;
And men and women true in word and deed;
And men and women ever steadfast in patience;
And men and women meek with humbled awe;
And men and women who expend in charity;
And men and women who fast;
And men and women who keep their private parts wholly chaste;
And most nobly men and women who remember Allah much:
Allah has prepared for all of them
a mighty forgiveness and incomparable wage.
The ulema of tafsir or ‘scholars of the Quran’s meaning’ tell us that “men and women who
remember Allah much” are mentioned by Allah here after all the rest by way of giving
preeminence to them, as a syntactic or ‘word-order’ superlative or emphatic that is
sometimes used in the Quran, placing the highest in rank last in a list of others; which is
why it has been translated with the words “And most nobly men and women who remember
Allah much.” Imam Nawawi mentions this verse in his Kitab al-Adhkar (Book of Dhikrs) and
that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) has said: “The utterly
devoted have outdone all others [sabaqa al-mufarridun].” They said, “Who are the ‘utterly
devoted,’ O Messenger of Allah?” He said, “Men and women who remember Allah
much” (Muslim, 4.2062 (2676). S). The tafsir imam al-Wahidi (d. 468/1076) reports from Ibn
‘Abbas, who went over the Quran twice with the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him
peace), that “men and women who remember Allah much” means that “after preforming
one’s prayers, in the morning and end of day, when going to sleep and when one wakes up,
and when leaving home or coming back, one remembers Allah Most High.”
Abu ‘Uthman al-Hiyari, one of the greatest of the ulema of Ihsan, said, “Much dhikr (al-
dhikr al-kathir) is that you remember Him in your dhikr of Him: that you did not attain
unto His remembrance save through Him and through His pure generosity”—that is, seeing
Allah as the One graciously creating the words of the dhikr in you, not as if you are the one
creating it. This combines shukr or ‘thanks’ with the dhikr, and in the dhikr, which makes it
a different and better sort of dhikr that cannot be anything but great.
Such dhikr is the key to understanding one of the most important hadiths connected
with the first verse above, about the uswa or ‘splendid example’ of the Prophet (Allah bless
him and give him peace) that is of the greatest benefit in applying to one’s life as if
applying a cream to a wound to heal it, for he said: “Wondrous strange indeed is the
matter of the believer; Verily everything about his matter is best, and that is true of no one
else but the believer: If happiness befalls him, he gives thanks (shakara), and it is best for
him; while if affliction befalls him, he is undauntedly steadfast in patience (sabara), and it
is best for him” (Muslim, 4.2295 (2999). S). Which is to say, that because the believer
remembers Allah always, in good times and in bad times, just as the Prophet (Allah bless
him and give him peace) and the Sahaba did, nothing can harm him or make him dejected,
because he is positive of the mighty reward of Allah for both. When the Canadian war
correspondent Eric Margolis was covering the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, he went to
an emergency Afghani hospital for amputating war-torn arms and legs. The combatants
operated on were young and old, but despite there not being a single bit of anesthetic in
the whole hospital—nothing to kill pain whatsoever—he did not find anyone making a
single sound or shedding a single tear. Each had his own jihad, had Allah, and was a
believer. I grant that this is 180 degrees opposite from the received ideas about ‘therapy’ in
the West today, where everyone is expected to be a sob-sister and moan about their ‘pain,’
but I submit that the way of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) is more
effective, life restoring, peaceful, and closer to the only One who can really help, who is
Allah. And whoever does it is on the road to a better life.
Question of the Month: I have an “inmate store” where I sell food items and other things
to fellow inmates. If they want a candy bar today, they may pay me two candy bars when
they pay me back. Is this a form of riba (usury)?
Answer: This is valid in the Hanafi school and is not considered riba, because for them
riba in sales involves only gold, silver, and foodstuffs that are mawzoon or ‘weighed out,’ as
foodstuffs are, for example, that are sold by weight in bulk or as dry goods to customers. In
your example here, the candy bars are countable individual things, even if sold two for
one, and are not weighed out foodstuffs, so the transaction is halal and legally valid, and
not riba or usury.
Till next letter, Allah willing, greetings of peace and felicity to everyone; was-Salamu
‘alaykum wa rahmatu Llahi wa barakatuh.
mmxxiii © Nuh Ha Mim Keller