In this blog article, In sha Allah I will try to explain little tafseer and beautiful insights of ayat 70 of surah Al-Ahzab. This article is my understanding based on one of the lecture of ustadh Nouman Ali Khan.
Allah just didn't say...
 |
| Quran[33:70] |
Surah Al-Ahzab Ayat 70 (Verse 70):
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا ٱتَّقُوا ٱللَّهَ وَقُولُوا قَوْلًا سَدِيدًا
("O you who have believed, fear Allah and speak words of appropriate justice.")
In Quran, Allah tells us commandments. Like Allah SWT says...“Those of who believed (and then command) I.e Those of you who believed do this... Those of you who believed don't do this...It is common occurrence in Quran. In this ayat commandment is to speak in a good way. But before Allah told us to speak in a good way, he added another commandment. And What is that ?
It is ٱتَّقُوا ٱللَّهَ (fear Allah)
Allah just didn't say...
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا قُولُوا قَوْلًا سَدِيدًا
(O you who have believed, speak words straight to the point )
He said...
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا ٱتَّقُوا ٱللَّهَ وَقُولُوا قَوْلًا سَدِيدًا
(O you who have believed, fear Allah and speak words straight to the point )
So what is the wisdom behind this? So lets try to understand.
It tells us that this commandment has to do with the heart before it has to do with the tongue. Because when we speak that's our tongue but when someone has taqwa of Allah SWT, it is in the heart. If awareness of Allah is missing then this commandment will be impossible to follow. There are some commandment that we can fulfill even if taqwa is not fully there. We can still obey Allah.
For e.g Sometimes when we pray, our mind is somewhere else. But that doesn't mean it will not be counted. Because even if your heart was not their in prayer, you still obeyed Allah and his messenger SAW. But in this commandment to speak upright, it is as though, Allah made it constant prerequisite to have to have taqwa of Allah first. You have to have fear and consciousness of Allah first.
In this verse Allah commanded us to speak قَوْلًا سَدِيدًا. So first we will see below what is not قَوْلًا سَدِيدًا i.e what is not straight forward speech.
It is natural for us that we speak based on with whom we are speaking. We don't speak to our elders, the way we speak with children. But if you are talking to someone and you decide to twist what you are going to say in order to manipulate them, in order to take advantage of them or you want them to think something about you that is not true that is actually opposite of قَوْلًا سَدِيدًا. Because It's not straight forward speech, it's not direct speech, it's not clear speech. It is manipulated speech.
For e.g : There is a child who accidentally breaks some precious stuff in absence of his mother. So when his mother gets to know about broken stuff, she asks him about the matter. Now child is trying to twist the matter and speaking in an unclear way. Then his mother's says by the way, there is camera installed here. Let me show you the video footage. So she already knew what he did. Now that child will not say that I didn't do this. right ? Now He will be afraid of lying as he knows that her mom saw everything. So it's time to be straight forward.
The fact that we are aware of Allah’s presence, the one who knows everything and is witness what we speak. And when you are aware of that, then the way you speak is gonna change. Because you believe in your heart that Allah is watching. Allah is always there but he is not always there in our heart and in our mind. So when one pretend that Allah is not listening or forgets that fact, then he will be able to twist the speech. But when someone is truly afraid of Allah then he will speak straight forward. That's why taqwa(fear) of Allah is first in this verse.
Lot of time we speak keeping in mind what other guy might think of us. We are like If we say this clearly, they might become upset with us which may cause us trouble. In that case we avoid straight forward speech. So fear of Allah become less and fear of Allah’s creation becomes more. And that affects our speech. But we forget that no creation of Allah can harm us when we are afraid of Allah. And when we are afraid of creation of Allah and not afraid of Allah then we loss Allah’s protection.
If someone gets the chance to talk to president or prime minister, he will be very careful to what to say and he may not say truth and will try to make sure he doesn't make that PM upset. For that he also says something which is not true. It happens when for that person fear of creation of Allah is more than the fear of Allah. Moosa a.s had to talk to Firon, a man of authority at that time, the most powerful king in history. But his fear for Allah was much more than anything else.
He did did not walk into his court saying, Oh great king, what an honour, thank you for this opportunity etc etc. No, nothing like that. He just walked in with his brother and said clearly that we are messengers and came here on behalf of Allah. You better let israelites go with us. So no formalities and all. Allah teaches us fearlessness. Allah teaches us that you don't have to be afraid of someone you are talking to. You have to let that go. You only have to be afraid of Allah and say what need to be said. The way you speak needs to be kind, respectful, merciful but the word you say needs to be clear.
Let see some other ways of how people don't speak clear.
1- To tell someone what they want to hear. For e.g sometimes you are not sorry but you still say sorry because the other guy wants to hear that. You are saying just to please other but that's not really how you are from inside. Just remember you can never get to this goal of pleasing people.
2- Second is blaming. Instead of acknowledging what I have done wrong, I shift the blame to someone else. I am like you also did it. It is possible that both of us have done wrong. But It doesn't mean that I can say to you that since you also did that, so what I did is ok. I should accept my mistake and take responsibility for the same. Because your mistake don't erase my mistake and also my mistake don't erase yours.
Sometimes person you are talking to might not show you respect but that doesn't matter because Allah SWT has given you respect because you spoke straight. That should be enough for you. Don't look for respect from people. Because that's when you start losing it from Allah himself. When it is with Allah then people who need to respect you will respect you. There may be people who will never be pleased with you and will not respect you no matter what you do with them. You have to accept that and leave because you are not there to please humanity. So long as Allah is pleased with you, it is good enough for you.
3- Third is giving logical explanation after doing wrong. This is what Iblees did. Instead of asking forgiveness after disobeying Allah, he started giving logical explanation for the same. You might have reasons but at the end of the day a mistake is a mistake. Don't try to justify your mistakes because it will take you away from “qaulan sadeed”(straight/clear speech)
4- Fourth is deflecting. In other word when you are confronted with the truth, you walk away. Your way of dealing with it is not dealing with it. You start pretending like you didn't hear anything. You ignore the truth and you avoid clear communication and clear speech. These are the some of the things which if we do takes us away from “Qaulan sadeed”. But if taqwa(consciousness) of Allah is there in heart, then our speech will come natural and clear.
All of what we saw till now is about interpersonal communication. Communication within a family, communication within business, communication within friends etc. This is not the conversation about humiliating people publicly. That's something else entirely. “Qaulan sadeed” is not about embarrassing someone, it's about speaking upright for yourselves and to have a clear open conversations. Allah didn't just give us theory. He also taught us how this works.
The most wild human being that Quran describes in history is Firon. He claims to be god, he killed babies, he turned entire nation into slave. The list of crime against Allah and against humanity are endless with this character. But Allah told Moosa A.S to speak to him with gentle speech. Moosa A.S did not humiliate him but he spoke straight and clear without fearing him. He just preached the message of Allah. Because our religion is not about embarrassing someone not even Firon, not even Abu Lahab. Allah revealed surah against Abu Lahab. Muhammad SAW did not say a word even for his worst enemy, who cause him so much pain and difficulties.
In this post I tried to explore opposite of “Qaulon sadeed” i.e what is not direct and clear speech. In the next article I will try to explore meanings of the word “Qaulon sadeed”. Here we saw what it is not, next we will see what it is, in sha Allah.
This explanation was based on one of the khutba of Nouman ali khan on ayat 70 of surah Al-Ahzab. Also please like my Facebook page "Explain Me Quran" at below link to get the update on new articles.
Comments
Post a Comment