Surah Al-Baqarah Ayat 15 to 17 : Beautiful Explanation Nouman Ali Khan

In this blog article, In sha Allah I will try to explain little tafseer and beautiful insights of ayat 15, 16 and 17 of surah Al-baqarah. This article is my understanding based on one of the lecture of brother Nouman Ali Khan.

You can find explanation of previous verses of Surah Al-Baqarah at below link :

Surah Al-Baqarah Ayat 13 and 14 : Beautiful Explanation Nouman Ali Khan

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Now, lets start understanding these beautiful aayaat of Quran Paak.

Surah Al Baqarah Ayah 15 : (Verse 15)

اللَّهُ يَسْتَهْزِئُ بِهِمْ وَيَمُدُّهُمْ فِي طُغْيَانِهِمْ يَعْمَهُونَ

(  "Allah mocks at them and gives them increase in their wrong-doings to wander blindly."  )

There are lots of hints(ishaaraat) in the first part of Ayah. One of them is Allah will humiliate them(hypcrites) on the judgment day. And even now this pathetic attitude is Allah’s way of humiliating them. Munaafiq have no respect, Muslim community does not respect them. Even kuffar does not respect them. In arabic there is word 'Amiya' which means to be blind in the eyes.

Then there is word 'Amiha' which means to be blind in the heart. And here Allah SWT saying he extends them in their rebellion blind in the heart. In other words….Rather than restricting the opportunity in evil deed, Allah opens the door of more wild deed for them to do..go ahead and knock yourself. Go ahead dig your well even deeper if you will. Allah tells us later on in Quran that Hypocrites are in the lowest pit of the hellfire. How do you think they got that low?? They dug it themselves. And Allah says let me dig it deeper for yourselves.(munafiq)

Also Read : Part 3 Surah Al-Fatiha Ayat 3 and 4 Amazing Deep Explanation : Nouman Ali Khan

Surah Al Baqarah Ayah 16 : (Verse 16)

أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ اشْتَرَوُا الضَّلَالَةَ بِالْهُدَىٰ فَمَا رَبِحَتْ تِجَارَتُهُمْ وَمَا كَانُوا مُهْتَدِينَ

( "These are they who have purchased error for guidance, so their commerce was profitless. And they were not guided." )

They had something so beautiful that they had got. Vast majority of humanity doesn't get the gift that these people had. What was that ? It was the the company of Allah’s Messenger SAW. What more could you ask for ? They got to hear kalaam of Allah from the Messenger of Allah himself. And they exchanged it for their misguidance. They traded that away. So their trade did not get them any benefit at all.

In arabic,  word “Muhtad” means someone who makes an effort to be guided. And Allah here saying They never made an effort to commit to guidance. They were never such. Even when they enter Islam, It was casual endeavour. So when you come into something casually you can go casually too. And When you make serious commitment to enter into something then it's very hard for you to come out of it.

But they came into Islam at very ease. Islam was on rise. Madinah was becoming more and more powerful. Muhammad SAW and Sahaba were gaining more and more control. So This seems like easy thing to join. So they joint it. But there were no difficulty for them to join. No commitment was tested. So Allah says they were not committed to guidance at all.

Also Read : Some Beautiful Insights from Surah Ar-Rahman : Nouman Ali Khan

Surah Al Baqarah Ayah 17 : (Verse 17)

مَثَلُهُمْ كَمَثَلِ الَّذِي اسْتَوْقَدَ نَارًا فَلَمَّا أَضَاءَتْ مَا حَوْلَهُ ذَهَبَ اللَّهُ بِنُورِهِمْ وَتَرَكَهُمْ فِي ظُلُمَاتٍ لَا يُبْصِرُونَ
( "Their likeness is as the likeness of one who kindled a fire; then, when it lighted all around him, Allah took away their light and left them in darkness. (So) they could not see." )

Scenario in this ayah is It is pitch black and somebody comes and lit a fire. So black around him started disappearing and now there is light all around him. And here How many people lit a fire ?  Answer is One ( as singular is used for that here ). Then Allah says Allah took their light away. In other word Allah talking about another group of people and it's not the same person who lit the fire. This one person who lit the fire is Muhammad SAW and some ulma also comments this is talking about Moosa A.S because bani Israel is coming later on in the surah. 

He gives the light of guidance to his community who were in darkness so now they can see. But even when they saw right way to go they did not benefit from this light. So what did Allah do ? Allah says...Allah remove their light. So they are no longer able to see light. Noor' here actually means their ability to see. In Arabic one of the meanings of Noor is your eyes. In other word lights is turned on. But you are blind. That is you yourself are incapable of benefiting from light. 

So punishment of Allah was not the Light will be taken away because it would be unfair to others that might come. ALLAH rather saying Their light is taken away, means Their ability to see was taken away. And Allah left them in shade of darkness.( means there are different degrees of hypocrisy as shade indicates different levels,degrees etc ), So they are not able to see. 

In this blog article, I tried to explain very little about what I understand from ayat 15, 16 and 17 of surah Al Baqarah. This was based on my notes taken from one of the lectures of brother Nouman Ali Khan.

Also Read : Surah Al-Baqarah Ayat 18 to 20 : Beautiful Explanation Nouman Ali Khan