Background

The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) has passed away for a while now and his companions are missing him. Some people wanted to have things/stories to always remember him by so a companion Ata ibn Abi rajah(RA) went to the messenger's (peace and blessings be upon him) wife Aisha (RA) (behind the barrier) and asked: "Of the things about the messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) tell me what you saw as the most unique of the many states of his life." Aisha replied: "Which state are you talking about? In reality, everything about him was unique."

She told him that she would tell him a very unique event. (It is important to note here that the messenger(peace and blessings be upon him) does not have a private life, everything thing is his life is a source of valuable life lessons. However, we are supposed to keep the private events in our houses guarded.)

One night the messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was lying in bed with her and asked Aisha (RA): Allow me to worship my lord... This shows us the kind of courtesy a man should show his wife when they are in bed together, Qiyam layl is mandatory on the messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), yet he seeks his wife permission before leaving her bed. This is her right.SubhanAllah. Anyway, revelation was coming to him and he wanted to receive it in Salat.

The messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) made wudu and stood up for salah, In his standing position , he wept so much that tears began to wet his beards and trickle down his blessed chest. He went into ruku and kept weeping. He went into sajdah and continued weeping. He continued to weep until fajr came. Bilal (RA) gave the adhan but did not see the messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), He came upon the messenger and found him weeping. Bilal now asked: "My master, why do you weep like that? Isn't it that Allah has forgiven you all your past and future sins?" The Messenger replied .... why should i not shed tears, specially tonight when Allah has revealed these ayat to me. roughly translated:

There truly are signs in the creation of the heavens and earth, and in the alternation of night and day, for those with sound (pure) minds, who remember God standing, sitting, and lying down, who reflect on the creation of the heavens and earth: ‘Our Lord! You have not created all this without purpose– You are far above that!– so protect us from the torment of the Fire. Our Lord! You will truly humiliate those You commit to the Fire. The evildoers have no one to help them. Our Lord! We have heard someone calling us to faith–“ Believe in your Lord”– and we have believed. Our Lord! cover for us our mistakes, bury away from us our bad (ugly & nasty) deeds, and take us among the righteous. Our Lord! Bestow upon us all that You have promised us through Your messengers– do not humiliate us on the Day of Resurrection– You never break Your promise.’

Surah Imran (190-194)


After that the messenger said: "ruined is the person who recited these ayat but failed to deliberate" (Ibn Hibban (sahih), Ibn Asakir (history)

So In sha Allah we will reflect on the ayat.

Ayat 190

Inna fee khalqi alssamawati waal-ardi waikhtilafi allayli waalnnahari laayatin li-olee al-albabi

There truly are signs in the creation of the heavens and earth, and in the alternation of night and day, for those with sound (pure) minds



In Surah baqarah, there is a similar ayah but with more signs: In the creation of the heavens and earth; in the alternation of night and day; in the ships that sail the seas with goods for people; in the water which God sends down from the sky to give life to the earth when it has been barren, scattering all kinds of creatures over it; in the changing of the winds and clouds that run their appointed courses between the sky and earth: there are signs in all these for those are trying to understand. (Surah 2:164)

So this ayah has lesser signs and talks about those with sound (pure) minds. The ayah in baqarah has much more signs for a nation that is trying to understand. Why the difference?

A sound (pure) mind is one that is free from distractions and vanities. A mind that thinks about higher and bigger things. Bigger things regarding life and the whole of creation. Now, this person that has reached that purity of mind does not need a whole bunch of ayat (miraculous signs) to think about, the heavens and earth and night and day are enough for him to be lost in thought.

The person in surah baqarah was given a lot more signs and he is struggling to understand. This ayah talks about a person who has a pure mind.

We all have a lot of junk in our heads, whether it cam from tv shows, entertainment news, small talk, sports information.. We have a lot of useless information in our heads. When you are cluttered with a lot of useless information in your head, when you come across something beneficial, you can not appreciate it anymore. In the midst of all the clutter, when you add something good, it has no value anymore.

EX: If you constantly watch horror movies, you gradually get desensitized to being afraid. If that same person hears of hell fire and punishment, it doesn't move them. you can't decipher.

EX: If you eat junk food all the time and someone throws in some vegetables in mix, it does not make the food healthy. In order for you to eat healthy food, you have to throw out the junk first.

Learning beneficial knowledge is good but when it is mixed with all the movies, tv show and sport addictions, then it becomes one of those things you have taken in but it is not really cleansing you. You need to create a healthier mind inside you, just like the diet.

This ayah speaks about those with pure mind. A mind engaged in higher thought, deeper thinking away from all the junk. These are the kinds of people that will actually look at the sky and think. How many people look at the sky and think? The minds that have become pure.

Now, these ayat are not even talking about muslims. we will see that in a bit.

Allah describes two things that are happening inside them in the next ayah and these are also very deep things

Ayah 191

Allatheena yathkuroona Allaha qiyaman waquAAoodan waAAala junoobihim wayatafakkaroona fee khalqi alssamawati waal-ardi rabbana ma khalaqta hatha batilan subhanaka faqina AAathaba alnnari

who remember God standing, sitting, and lying down, who reflect on the creation of the heavens and earth: ‘Our Lord! You have not created all this without purpose– You are far above that!– so protect us from the torment of the Fire.

They remember Allah whether they are standing, sitting or lying down. For a person , with a pure mind, the recognition of Allah is already there. Whatever position they find themselves, they are engaged in the remembrance of Allah. Dhikr (remembrance) is described in the Quran as an activity of the heart, it is a spiritual exercise. The first activity of these people of sound minds is a spiritual activity, remembrance of Allah.

Like Allah says:

“Only in remembrance of Allah (swt) will your heart find peace.” (Qur’an 13:28)

For the muslims, two ways of remembering Allah all the time (Standing, sitting and lying down) include:

i. Memorize the duas from the sunnah of the messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). There are duas for everything. Every single thing. It becomes a gauge because if you are doing something wrong, you can't make dua. You would only be engaged in things that will help your heart.

ii. Another is to connect the ayat of creation to the ayat of Allah's book. Everything around you becomes an ayah. You cut your finger and you are reminded:

Does man think We shall not put his bones back together? In fact, We can reshape his very fingertips. (surah 75 3-4)

you are raising your voice and you are reminded: On that Day, people will follow the summoner from whom there is no escape; every voice will be hushed for the Lord of Mercy; only whispers will be heard (Surah 20:108)

Kindly review this thread to see what i am talking about: https://www.nairaland.com/1203479/reflecting-miraculous-signs-allah

Back to the ayah: The second action of the people of sound mind is an intellectual one, they reflect upon the creation of the heavens and the earth.

Our religion on one hand calls for a spiritual awakening and on the other hand calls for an intellectual awakening. We are supposed to be people of deep thought, thinkers!. From previous nations (people of the book), we had a nation whose hearts became hard that they lost spirituality. We also had a nation that is so spiritual that they refuse to use their minds for even the most basic things.

We are supposed to be the middle nation, we can not sacrifice one at the expense of the other. Unfortunately, in the muslim ummah we have two extremes, people who are so spiritual but there is no intellectual discourse in their life and people who are so intellectual but there is no remembrance of Allah in their life.

The Quran does not let you break the two, The Quran is the thing that will make everyone cry in salat and it is the same thing that will make a scholar, write and write and write... It combines the spiritual and the intellectual like no other document does. It is a spiritual exercise and an intellectual one at the same time.

Now when we as a nation now becomes distant from the Quran, when the average muslim is not aware of the Quran and does not have a personal relationship with it. One of the consequences is a break between the spiritual and intellectual parts of the deen. If we were people of the Quran, we will have the right balance.

As a result of these two activities, spiritual and intellectual, the heart and the mind come to the same conclusion: ‘Our Lord! You have not created all this without purpose, You are far above that!...

Remember this person is not a muslim, his fitrah, which is a balance between a sound heart and sound mind was able to come to the conclusion that this was not created without purpose. They reached this conclusion themselves.

They say: You are way too perfect for all of these to be without purpose.

This person reaches another conclusion: so protect us from the torment of the Fire.

This person realizes that this can't be the only world, and that Allah is way too perfect to leave an unjust world unpaid. There must be some kind of consequence for the injustices in this world. Just by reflecting on the heavens and the earth, and the night and day. .. SubhanAllah!

Ayah 192

Rabbana innaka man tudkhili alnnara faqad akhzaytahu wama lilththalimeena min ansarin

Our Lord! You will truly humiliate those You commit to the Fire. The evildoers have no one to help them.

This person who comes to tawhid from the depth of their fitrah, realises that all the intermediaries people put before themselves and God to intercede on their behalf while they commit evil, is garbage. This is a refutation of intercession.

The person has arrived at certain conclusions from the depth of his fitrah, a messenger from Allah comes and reaffirms his beliefs. The next ayah says:

Ayah 193

Rabbana innana samiAAna munadiyan yunadee lil-eemani an aminoo birabbikum faamanna rabbana faighfir lana thunoobana wakaffir AAanna sayyi-atina watawaffana maAAa al-abrari

Our Lord! We have heard someone calling (from afar) us to faith–“ Believe in your Lord”– and we have believed. Our Lord! cover for us our mistakes, bury away from us our bad (ugly & nasty) deeds, and take us among the righteous.

The word used for 'call' (Nida) here indicates a call from a long distance which also makes the ayah applicable to us today. As time goes, the farther we are away from the call of the messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) but we still get the message. A call to faith. A migration from a world of ideas to a world of submission.

This caller helped them take that next step after they had reached certain conclusions. Now that they have believed. They now ask Allah to cover their smaller errors and to bury away their really nasty and evil deeds. This is beautiful because when something is covered, you might suspect something is there, but when it is buried , no one even asks the question because it does not exist in their eyes saving them from humiliation. It is wiped out.

and take us among the righteous

Two meanings:

i. You are taken into the company of the righteous when you die

ii It also means give us death when we are around the righteous.

A person reached the conclusion of iman on their own, meaning everybody else didn't reach it. This person hears the call of a lone caller and accepts the call, they were cut off from their own people as a result. They are asking that in the dunya before they die, they are in the company of people that reinforce their faith. And that they meet the righteous in the Akhira too. I.e be with righteous here and in the hereafter.


Ayah 194

Rabbana waatina ma waAAadtana AAala rusulika wala tukhzina yawma alqiyamati innaka la tukhlifu almeeAAada

Our Lord! Bestow upon us all that You have promised us through Your messengers– do not humiliate us on the Day of Resurrection– You never break Your promise.’

This prayer is basically saying: Oh Allah, now that we have believed, help us become beneficiaries of this promise.

SubhanAllah

I feel my day is completed with this, may Allah reward you and guide you from the evil of the day and night.

Ameen.We can only understand the right meaning of the Quran with the tafseer.

A reminder