Hikmah from Ibadah (Reasons & Sources)
Issue : Preparation for Salah with Khushu’
Surah Al-Mu’minun (23:1-10)
Allah ﷻ tells in this verse that the believers have succeeded even though they have not yet been admitted to paradise. This is because we may think that "success" is after successfully entering heaven. But the believers while in the world are already successful. Only they may not notice. This is a very high fortune.
The word فلح is also found in the call to prayer where we are all invited to success. The word أفلح is also used for farmers when they harvest their crops; which means that these believers are successful after they have tried. As farmers who have worked all year and when the time comes, they will reap the fruits of their labor.
Working as a farmer is of course difficult, as they have to work all year round but the crops can only be harvested once a year. And so is the parable of the Believers, that is, they should be diligent in doing good deeds and take care of themselves and they will get the benefit only at the end. That is in the hereafter.
The word أفلح is also used to give the impression that they are happy in this world and also happy in the hereafter. They never get frustrated and give up while they live in this world until they meet Allah ﷻ in the hereafter.
It also means, successfully getting whatever is wanted and kept away from the disadvantages. But of course while in the world will not get this thing because no one is free from the evils or misfortunes while in the world. So أفلح which means success in the hereafter. But it is not that we do not get فلح at all in this world. There will be success for those who live in the world as well.
But deciding who can have pleasure or not in this world is a decree from God. There are believers including the Prophets themselves who get test after test; and there are people who are very evil and oppressive but they get pleasure in the world as well. This is all in the destiny of Allah.
In this verse, the word المُؤمِنونَ is used while many in other verses, use the sentence الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ. If we look at it from a translation point of view, both are translated as 'believers'. But of course there is a difference, right?
In terms of language, the word المُؤمِنونَ is in the form of isim fa'il (maker noun). While the meaning of الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ (believers) is in the form of verbs and it is not as strong if used in the form of nouns. For example, ‘people who are cooking’ and ‘cooks’ - not the same, right? The cook certainly cooks a lot because that is his job.
Therefore, in this verse, when the word "believers" is used in the form of nouns, it means that their faith has been stable and stable. Therefore when Allah ﷻ praises the believers as used in this surah, Allah ﷻ, uses the noun format المُؤمِنونَ. God bless believers who have established their faith.
As for الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ (believers) is used in the form of verbs, meaning they sometimes their faith rises and sometimes their faith falls because they are still in a state of instability.
Imagine those people being in a turbulent ocean that they sometimes sink into and sometimes they can stare up. But on the other hand, the believers, their condition has stabilized as if they were on a ship that even though the sea was rough, they were safe.
In this surah, the characteristics of a believer will be told later. But the list is not for us to judge whether a person is a hypocrite, a Muslim or a believer, because that is not our job; but by knowing their characteristics, we can judge ourselves, not to judge others.
In fact, we want to compare those characteristics with ourselves.
This is the first feature. Allah ﷻ tells the characteristics of the believer. We must take these criteria from Allah ﷻ himself because this matter can not only be said, but must follow the criteria that Allah Allah has set.
This criterion is not we who make it ourselves, but from God's determination ﷻ. The first is about prayer. Be devout in prayer.
The first and foremost attribute that must be present in a believer is devotion in their prayers. It means tawajjuh (focus) of the heart in prayer to Allah ﷻ for feeling fear and glorifying Allah ﷻ. The feeling of fear is based on a high sense of respect and fear (wonder) and admiration (wonder) to God ﷻ.
This is because they know the nature of Jalaliah and Jamaliah (hard and soft nature) of Allah ﷻ. We fear Allah ﷻ because of the nature of His jalaliah and we glorify Allah ﷻ because of the nature of His jamaliah. There needs to be an understanding of these two types of properties.
So when there are these two feelings in the heart of a servant in his prayers, then his prayers will be devout. Not only is his heart humble, but his body is also devout and does not move to hold here and there.
According to Al-Hakim and Tirmizi, at one time the Prophet ﷺ saw a man sweeping his beard while praying then the Prophet ﷺ said: "If this man's heart is humble, his limbs will calm down."
Being devout in prayer is nothing but what can be done by a person who focuses his heart on his prayer, is more concerned with prayer and preoccupies with it, and forgets everything else. He did not allow his thoughts other than prayer to fill his mind.
Only in this situation can one feel peace and enjoyment in his prayers, as said by the Prophet ﷺ in the hadith narrated by Imam Ahmad and Imam Nasai through the companion of Anas from the Prophet ﷺ who has said:
"حُبِّبَ إليَّ الطِّيب وَالنِّسَاءُ ، وَجُعِلَتْ قُرَّةُ عَيْنِي فِي الصَّلَاةِ"
I am made happy with fragrances, women, and made my heart happy when in prayer.
Therefore, the first characteristic of believers is that they are always devout in their prayers because the word خاشِعونَ used is in the form of nouns that mean "something permanent". This means that not only once in a while can they pray sincerely. They have understood what the prayer is and the will in the prayer, so they can always be devout.
So prayer is a very important thing and therefore Allah ﷻ puts this criterion as the first characteristic of the attributes of a believer. And it is told that their nature is devout in their prayers.
So there is a lot of discussion on how to get devout in this prayer and we need to refer and find the information so that we can achieve devotion in prayer.
First, there must be a sense of love with prayer. Such is the nature of Rasulullah ﷺ and his companions رضي الله عنهم.
قال الإمام أحمد: حدثنا وكيع, حدثنا مسعر, عن عمرو بن مرة, عن سالم بن أبي الجعد, عن رجل من أسلم, أن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم قال: "يا بلال, أرحنا بالصلاة"
Imam Ahmad said, has narrated to us Waki ', has narrated to us Mis'ar from Amr ibn Murrah, from Salim ibn Abul Ja'd, from a man from Bani Aslam, that Rasulullah ﷺ once said: O Bilal, entertain us with prayer.
When you can feel the importance of the prayer, then you will feel the sweetness of the prayer and from that you will be able to be devout in the prayer.
So what does ‘devout’ mean? It means fear that causes the body to become stiff and immobile. Isn't it when we feel so scared, our movements seem to be locked up that we can no longer move?
For example, we are surprised by the arrival of a truck that suddenly wants to hit us. We should have run, right? But being too scared, our steps become stiff, right? This usually happens because the feelings in the heart can be born of our physical actions.
Prayer is a time when we are facing Allah ﷻ, we are complaining about our fate and what we are facing; and at the same time Allah ﷻ is giving us advice and that advice is a very big piece of advice to convey sometimes when it touches our heart, it can cause us to cry.
If you can feel this feeling, then it must be very beautiful, right? That means we have been affected by our prayers.
And the effect of the prayer should be carried until the prayer comes out because we have just received advice from Allah ﷻ and we should keep that advice and practice it. But sometimes after a few hours, we may forget, right? We begin to be impressed with worldly things as well.
Therefore, we must pray again to remind us, and then and again and again throughout the day and every day. Because of that, prayers have been arranged in those five times so that we get reminders throughout the day. All of that is a reminder from God ﷻ to us.
The next feature is that the believer turns away from interfering in things that are neglected. In the previous verse, it has been mentioned about prayer. But, we also know that when in prayer and only after takbir, suddenly a variety of memories of worldly things come into our minds.
So those who are devout in prayer will عرض (turn away) and ignore the disturbing thoughts. This is when we talk about prayer.
Kalimah اللَّغوِ (lagha) is an activity that is not beneficial both in this world and in the hereafter. It is not something that is clearly dangerous, but it is a waste of time. This is usually done by our people where often we will chat and hang out without any purpose and waste time until we do not realize the time has passed.
Furthermore nowadays there are many social media applications that cause people to spend too much time making useless things. When doing things that are lagha, you will be left behind from doing things that are beneficial.
So those who believe are not only do not do things that are اللَّغوِ but they will leave those who they think can cause them to become lagha, so that they are not attracted to the act.
Zakat means ‘tazkiyatun nafs’. That is, they purify their hearts from the bad inner qualities including cleansing themselves from the attributes of shirk.
This verse does not mean to pay zakat as we understand it, but it means to purify oneself internally. If we look at the verses of the Qur’an regarding zakat, the sentence used is وَآتُوا الزَّكاةَ which means ‘payment’ but in this verse used is لِلزَّكوٰةِ فٰعِلونَ which is in the form of treatment. Therefore, the scholars say that what is meant is that the believers are busy in purifying their hearts.
This has the same meaning as what is found in His word:
{قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَنْ زَكَّاهَا. وَقَدْ خَابَ مَنْ دَسَّاهَا}
Blessed is he who purifies the soul, and woe to those who defile it. (Asy-Syams: 9-10)
That is, they try to improve themselves from time to time because they may have problems with attitude and socialization, such as irritability or eating problems, dislike for someone and so on.
Maybe he is a person whose mouth speaks only without thinking, or he can not forget trivial things or keep thinking about things that waste time only (lagha things as mentioned in the previous verse).
He may also be a person who does not respect his parents, or may not appreciate the sacrifices others make for him. Maybe he is a person who only thinks and is selfish or he is a person who likes to watch rude movies.
There are many bad attitudes that damage the heart and the practice of shirk destroys the faith that has always been the enemy of man. So a believer must think about these things by looking into himself while listing the bad attitudes and practices of shirk that should not be in him, and he knows Allah ﷻ also does not like such things so he makes an effort to improve it one by one.
If he has a lot of bad attitudes and shirk practices, then he has to get rid of them one by one. And this thing will indeed take time especially if he has a lot of those problems.
However, he will not be able to be humble as long as he still has a lagha heart. This is because a person needs to purify his heart internally as well as externally while communicating with Allah ﷻ.
When his heart is clean and leaves things lagha, then he already has a close relationship with Allah ﷻ. These three things are closely related.
This is because if he still does lagha things, then he will not see the bad attitude and shirk practices that are in him. And he will not care about the ugliness.
Why do we say this nature is not cruel? Because sodomy and adultery are an injustice. When people commit adultery, it is an injustice because the result of adultery will cause various problems in society.
For example, if the children leave the result of adultery then the children will be left unattended because each mother and father may not claim to be their own child. So the children have been oppressed.
So maybe before this we did not see how the act of adultery can be cruel to others, right? But now we understand.
The criteria this time touching on sins is genital. There are so many sins in this world that human beings commit. But Allah ﷻ always specifically mentions the sins associated with the genitals. This is mentioned in the sentence hoohishah. Why is there anything specifically mentioned about this?
Allah ﷻ mentions specifically because this problem has continued from long ago until any time and because it is difficult to take care of and needs to be given more attention. Because of that, Allah ﷻ mentions it specifically.
It is a very easy thing to do and a thing that is difficult to control because every human being has lust and there are people who can not resist their lust especially young people whose hormones are rising. We may not kill people and not steal other people's property, but when it comes to lust, it is difficult to take care of.
The problem of taking care of this genitals has been difficult for a long time, unfortunately now the problem is raised again because we live in an era where everything is easy to find. Even small children are already exposed to this matter. Take a look at what's in the mass media right now.
The indecent behavior of the artist is easily plastered on the chests of newspapers and television. It is wonderful that our children are influenced by them. When it is already a lot in the mass media, so that society will be lazy with this matter, they will no longer feel guilty if they do it. Even children grow up to see things like this as not a big deal to them. It seems innocent to be a singer and undress in public.
So those who want to be believers must take care of this matter properly because it is indeed something that is very dangerous and difficult to control. We have to try to create an atmosphere of society that keeps these things from spreading. We have to tell them that this is dangerous.
In fact, we can not allow men and women to sit together without any control because that will cause us to no longer feel sensitive when there are foreign women or men around us. This is called ikhtilat. When he is tired, then it is easy for the devil to insert his needle into the hearts of men and women to commit immorality.
Eventually they committed adultery and the child of adultery came out. When an adulterous child comes out, then the child will be oppressed because the couple is ashamed to take care of the child. So Islam has prevented this from happening from the very beginning. Many verses of the Qur’an (such as surah Nisa ’, Nur and Ahzab) and hadith on this matter. Unfortunately, many do not want to know.
We can fulfill the desires of our lusts to our wives. That is through legal marriage. When it is valid, then the child born from the marriage will be recognized and they will be taken care of.
Islam is a practical religion. Indeed, every human being has a desire for male and female relationships. We are not like heretical religions that prevent religious people from getting married like Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism. Those religions have rejected human nature.
It is not appropriate when their religious members such as priests and monks are barred from getting married. Who told? When that happens, then there is indeed a problem. Because of that we always hear cases of pastors sodomizing boys in church and so on. That is what happens when the normal will is restrained.
And Islam is also not like the Shiite religion (because they are not even Muslims) which allows mutaah marriage. This is also dangerous because it is actual adultery and prostitution. So Shiites are the only religion in the world that allows, even encourages adultery.
So we have to explain to the community about this Shiite. Need to understand religion and need to know how misguided they are. Because if you are ignorant of religion, then you are told that the Shiites allow Mutaah Marriage, then many will be attracted. Even though it is an illegal thing to do and involves tyranny to women and children born as a result of the mutaah marriage.
The word ابتَغىٰ means ‘extreme’. That is out of the law of God ﷻ in terms of the relationship between husband and wife. They are indeed trying to find other men and women even though they already have wives and husbands.
They are even willing to look for outside sex when they already have their partner is because they do not judge the beauty of their own marriage. They may also have been fascinated by the pictures and videos in the media. This is related to the lagha thing that we have discussed before (see indecent films). That is the problem for most couples: they already have a husband or wife, but are still distracted by the appearance of others.
This is indeed a big problem and we should not underestimate it because many are doing it and we can see how this news has spread in newspapers and on the internet. We always hear a lot of goodies out there. Pictures and videos containing pornographic elements are too numerous on the internet and easily accessible to humans even children.
This is because they have seen the standard in the media is so high, that what their partner has is not enough - even though it is the same. What their partner has, is the same as what the film actor or artist has (only artists are better at wearing make-up).
They have gone overboard. They have gone beyond the limits of the Shari'ah when doing accursed things such as mutaah marriages, sodomy, relationships with prostitutes and so on.
Therefore, the fourth criterion of believers is to teach us to keep our genitals from doing wrong things. This is very important and if not taken seriously, then society will be damaged.
See how the other features contain only one verse but about keeping this genitals Allah ﷻ mentions up to three verses at once; this shows how important it is and therefore we have to pay more attention to it.
In previous verses it has been mentioned about personal matters and now it already involves relationships with others. Now it is mentioned about trust as well.
The believers will keep the trust that has been given to them and they will fulfill the promise they have made. And their attitude towards that trust and promise is like that of a shepherd. This means that they take care of the sheep just as the shepherd would take care of the goats.
There is a connection between this feature and the previous feature, because when a person can keep his relationship and promise to his partner (by not committing adultery) then only then can he keep his trust and promise to others. Because if they are no longer ashamed to do shameful things, then that means they have no more dignity and they will have no problem breaking trust and breaking promises they have sealed.
Trust is taken from the word ‘peaceful’ because a person feels safe to leave his belongings to another person he trusts. That is why Rasulullah ﷺ was known as Al-Amin before becoming the Prophet again. The people of Mecca are happy (peaceful) to leave their valuables under his care because they see him as a trustworthy person and very trustworthy.
There are many things that can be included in this verse. Because that is the word لِأَمٰنٰتِهِم in the plural form. For example, when parents have sent us to study at a university then we must keep our promise to study; if there is a job given to us by our employer, then we must do it well; if someone gives us goods to take care of, then we should take good care of them; if someone tells us a secret, then we should keep it a secret; if we have been appointed as community leaders, then we have to carry out that trust to the best of our ability; and many more.
When the believer is given trust, he will not betray; he will even fulfill the mandate to his owner. When they promise or make a transaction, then they fulfill it properly. This is contrary to the attitude of the hypocrites said by Rasulullah ﷺ where they have the following special characteristics.
All of us hope to get devout in prayer. And devotion in the prayer can be found by doing a lot of praying. Just as we want to gain skills in something, then we need to always do that thing. For example, athletes will always train, right?
So people who want to be proficient in prayer should always pray - that is, they not only perform the obligatory prayers but they take care of the prayers with the addition of circumcision prayers. This teaches us that obligatory prayers will not be perfect without circumcision prayers. Because of course we make mistakes and shortcomings in our obligatory prayers, right? So the shortcomings in the obligatory prayers are covered by performing the circumcision prayers.
For men, the meaning of 'keeping' the obligatory prayers is by performing congregational prayers. If not praying in congregation then the man is not counted as keeping the obligatory prayers. And this congregational prayer should be done in the mosque, not at home with family or in the office with colleagues.
We have mentioned one by one the nature of the believer. Let's list:
1. Devout in prayer
2. Leaving the lagha thing
3. Doing zakah (tazkiatun nafs)
4. Protect the genitals from illegal things
5. Fulfill the trust
6. Fulfill promises
7. Maintain prayers
If we look at the list above, it starts with ‘prayer’ and ends with ‘prayer’ as well. This signals that if we keep our prayers, those other attributes will also come.
Those who have the characteristics that have been mentioned above are the ones who deserve to be called mukminoon. And they are the ones who will 'inherit'; but inherit what? Allah ﷻ does not mention in this verse and makes it a question. Those who read so far will wonder in his mind: inherit what? This is the effect that arises (wondering to know).
When it is said to 'inherit', it means it will be their right. Will always be able to, as if we can inherit property from our father's legacy - it will be our right. If given the parable of the land, it means the person who inherited it can get a grant, and not just rent. He can do whatever he wants with the goods he has inherited.
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