Surah Al Taubah , 9

Recitation of  Surah Al Taubah by Shaykh Abdul Rahman al-Sudais
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAqRhlvFPWU&feature=related



Commentary, Prof Quraish Shihab, ayat 36 to ayat 48:


1. [  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwDY3nN4Rgw  ]

2. [  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVa4yrdu4bo&list=LLHkoX4alI3oyjKBscbJfOYA&index=2682  ]

3. [  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnZMOZFE7Og   ]

4.  [   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7_3Dl8P-Ro   ]




asma al husna, as salam....kiai muhammad  bhakiet,

[  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkddQySFmnU  ]



Excerpt from " A Thermatic Commentary On The Qur'an "
Shaykh Muhammad Al- Ghazali
[ 1917 - 1996 ]

Abu Bakr, a senior Companion of Muhammad, led the Muslims during the pilgrimage to Makkah in the ninth year AH, 631 AC, in which non-Arab Muslims were also allowed to participate. the pilgrimage organized a year later was led by the Prophet himself and was restricted to Muslims only, since God had declared in the Qur'an that "...The idolaters only are unclean. So let them not come near the Inviolable Place of Worship after this their year. If ye fear poverty (from the loss of their merchandise) Allah shall preserve you of His bounty if He will. Lo! Allah is Knower, Wise." (28) Non- Muslim resistance to Islam in Arabia all but collapsed. All treatise and agreements hitherto in force came to an end, and the Prophet assumed total religious, political, and administrative soverignty over the whole region. Idol worship was wiped out. And as a  result of a series of confrontation with the Muslims, the last one which took place during the sixth year after Hijrah, 628 AC, at which took place in north central Arabia, Jewish power and influence had also been shaken. Certainly Jews continued to live and thrive as farmers and tradesmen in Madinah and various parts of Arabia, although they no longer had any organized presence. Their religious  and personal freedom was nonetheless fully guaranteed and protected. When the Prophet died, a shield of his was found in trust with a Jewish citizen of Madinah.  Christian delegations were arriving at Madinah in droves, as they had done at Makkah previously , from various parts of Arabia and the surrounding regions to learn of the new religion, debate with the Prophet, and compare what they heard with their own beliefs and scriptures. Some of them of course converted to Islam. The Muslims saw no threat in any one of that. The one major threat that was seen of the Byzantine empire who were in control of Syria and Palestine in the north. The Byzantines were growing weary of Islam and began to take measures to curb its spread into their territories.

Here we must highlight the two following important facts:
1. Islam showed a great deal of amicability and warmth towards the Christians. When the Muslims of Makkah first thought of escaping the persecution of the Arabs, Prophet Muhammad instructed them, in 615 AC, to take refuge with the Negus, the Christian king of Abbyssinia, whom he described as a "just and benevolent king."
The Qur'an, in surah entitled ar-Rum, or The Romans, expressed strong sympathy with the Christians in their war against the Persians in 615 AC in Syria and predicted that they would triumph in the following round of fighting.
2. In spite of this amity and sympathy, Islam was very clear in its rejection of the doctrine of the Trinity and divinity of Jesus or the Holy Spirit. The Qur'an, first at Makkah, and later on at Madinah continued to emphasised these views and called upon Christians to review their doctrines and correct their beliefs. The last statement to to be revealed in this connection appears in this surah condemning misguided Jews and Christians for taking:

They have taken as lords beside Allah their rabbis and their monks and the Messiah son of Mary, when they were bidden to worship only One God. There is no god save Him. Be He glorified from all that they ascribe as partner (unto Him)! (31)

In Islam God is one, without ancestry and offspring, supreme in His control over all creations. For religious leaders and clerics to set out laws and enforce religious practices and edicts of their own is nothing but heresy according to the Qur'an. Churches in America and Europe have blessed colonial wars and, more recently, sanctioned depraved practices such as homosexuality, without proper reference to authentic revelation.

The Byzantines had entrenched  their power in regions north of the Arabian peninsula, and were known to resort to the use of force to prevent Islam making inroads into their territory. Byzantine armies began to move southward to enforce Byzantine authorities over the region, clashing with the Muslims twice, at Mu'tah in 629, and at Tabuk in 630 AC.
There is no doubt however that The Muslims wanted  access to the populations of Byzantine territories to introduce them to Islam, a task they perceived to be their right. However, those early Muslims were also mindful of the fact they could not use force or coercion to impose their their religion on others. The Byzantines resisted that effort and appeared determined to advance their version of Christianity and impose it on their subjects. Their emperors had long rejected the Arius doctrine that Jesus was human and not divine. They had barred the eastern churches who differed with them radically over the nature of Christ, detained the Patriarch of Egypt, and killed his brother. However, the Muslims were fighting for religious freedom. They entered Egypt and Syria, offering security and immunity from persecution and guaranteeing freedom of worship.

In anticipation of Byzantine resistance, the Prophet devoted much attention to removing the barriers in the way of Islam in north Arabia. He embarked on the mobilization of Muslim forces to deal with Byzantine intimidation. When the moment of confrontation arrived the Byzantine were the most powerful nation on earth. They had defeated the Persians and become the dominant superpower in the area. No wonder, then, that some faint-hearted Muslims were shaken when war with the Byzantine became imminent. Yet another sinister danger was also in evident-the hypocrites or fifth-columnists working from within the Muslim community. 

Thus the second half of the surah is devoted to exposing these hypocrites and waverers, while at the same time mobilizing loyal , sincere, Muslims and spurring them to action. These are addressed in no uncertain terms:

O ye who believe! What aileth you that when it is said unto you: Go forth in the way of Allah, ye are bowed down to the ground with heaviness. Take ye pleasure in the life of the world rather than in the Hereafter? The comfort of the life of the world is but little in the Hereafter. (38) If ye go not forth He will afflict you with a painful doom, and will choose instead of you a folk other than you. Ye cannot harm Him at all. Allah is Able to do all things. (39) 

The time had come to free the Muslims community and Muslim lands from hypocrites, just as they had been emancipated from idolaters and traitors. The realm of Islam had to be defended and consolidated.

The surah comes as a series of intensive drills, a rich and powerful mixture of instructions and confidence boosters to prepare the Muslims to face the world without the divinely inspired leadership of Prophet Muhammad. The first drill was to be the confrontation with the Byzantines. It was to expose the strength as well as many of the weaknesses of the Muslims on both the individual and collective levels.



Reflection and commentary on Surah Al Taubah by Imam Zia:-
Session 6.1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1-EmfU2v18&feature=relmfu
Session 6.2 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-8JAKY6Nww&feature=relmfu
Session 6.3 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz4ZMl_XM_k&feature=relmfu
Session 7.2 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3m70lo_xfA&NR=1&feature=endscreen
Session 8.1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jh9c0foWxA&feature=relmfu
Session 8.2 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy-1w4UCbps&feature=relmfu
Session 9.1:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA7NZ1fZMLw&feature=relmfu

Surah Al Taubah , 9

Recitation of Surah Al Taubah by Shaykh Abdul Rahman al-Sudais
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAqRhlvFPWU&feature=related

Reflection by Prof Quriash Shihab, ayat 23 to ayat 35

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9mNRSjg67Y&t=847s




Kiyai Muhammad Bhakiet, on asma al husna,.... al malik

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbYjGb3Q0_U

It is not for the idolaters to tend Allah's sanctuaries, bearing witness against themselves of disbelief. As for such, their works are vain and in the Fire they will abide. (17) He only shall tend Allah's sanctuaries who believeth in Allah and the Last Day and observeth proper worship and payeth the poor-due and feareth none save Allah. For such (only) is it possible that they can be of the rightly guided. (18)

God was of course aware that Muhammad's life was drawing to an end. He went on to live only fifteen months after this surah was revealed. It was time to prepare the Muslims for that tumultuous event and the grave consequences that were to follow it. So, although Arabs had been secured for Islam, the Byzantines were still poaing a threat in the north. Some non- Muslims Arabs had fled there,, still harbouring grudges and aggressive designs against the Muslims. The potential for trouble was very real indeed. 

As soon as the news of Muhammad's death in 632 AC spread, rebellion broke out in various places around the fringes of the Arabian peninsula. It was left to the Prophet's first successor and Caliph, Abu' Bakr, to put down the rebellion before Muslim were able to feel completely secure and confident to take on the Byzantines, whose domination of Syria and Palestine represent a real obstacle to the northward spread of Islam.

Muslims are therefore basically opposed to war and are never the ones to start it. By the imperative of their own religion, they are taught not to impose their belief on others by force. Their mission is to impart and communicate Gos'a message, leaving people free to decide whether to believe or reject it. Those who refuse to believe are free to pursue lives in peace as long as they do not pose any obstacle or threat to Islam and the Muslims, who perceive their faith as the strongest and most vital binding relationship between God and humankind and that it is their responsibility to make others aware of it and provide them with the opportunity to understand and appreciate it.

This is the basis of the relationship between Muslims and non- Muslims in an Islamic society. God says elsewhere in the Qur'an:

Except those who seek refuge with a people between whom and you there is a covenant, or (those who) come unto you because their hearts forbid them to make war on you or make war on their own folk. Had Allah willed He could have given them power over you so that assuredly they would have fought you. So, if they hold aloof from you and wage not war against you and offer you peace, Allah alloweth you no way against them. (An Nisa: 90)

Those who take up arms against a Muslims state or parts of it must be met with with force, and if they are overcome, they should be disarmed. Once that is achieved, they are free to lead their own lives and practise their beliefs in peace and security under the protection of the Muslim authorities, in return for which have to pay a levy.

This is the background against which the prescription of the 'jizyah', or exemption tax, came into being. It is not due from those who are neutral and have never taken arms against the Muslim state. The surah gives ample explanation for the reasons behind the establishment of this tax, for it stipulates who should pay for it. They are those,

Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid not that which Allah hath forbidden by His messenger, and follow not the Religion of Truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low. (29)

Those  liable to pay such tax are described further as those who "Fain would they put out the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah disdaineth (aught) save that He shall perfect His light, however much the disbelievers are averse." (32). Some  of their religious leaders are described as greedy and fraudulent people. On a closer look at how this exemption tax or 'jizyah' was implemented, it becomes clear that as a result of the early waves of converts to Islam in countries such as Egypt, Persia, and Asia Minor, funds collected from this type of tax had greatly diminished- doubtless to the delight of Muslims! The aim of Muhammad's mission had never been to amass wealth but to spread God's guidance and mercy.

Excerpt from " A Thermatic Commentary On The Qur'an "
Muhammad al-Ghazali
[ 1917 - 1996 ]



Reflection by Prof Quriash Shihab, ayat 23 to ayat 35
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9mNRSjg67Y&t=847s


Reflection by Imam Zia,
Session 5.1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ulgd7lyx9A&feature=relmfu
Session 5.2 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7NvVpM8m4w&feature=relmfu