The Message of Surah
Al-Asr (Part 1)
Allah says:
“By time! Surely the human being is at loss. Except for those who
have faith and do righteous deeds and exhort one another to truth
and exhort one another to patience.” [Sűrah al-`Asr]
Love for the sake of Allah is the concept that dissolves barriers and
binds the hearts of people together. It does not matter how far
apart those people might be, or how much their activities and
concerns lead them down different paths. Let us always raise the
banner of love whenever the tempest of hate and anger begins to
swirl up around us.
The age in which we live is one where oppression, injustice,
killing, and violence are sometimes perpetrated in the name of
freedom, or in the name of democracy, or in the name of peace, or in
the name of Islam. We can only overcome this by raising the banner
of love between us built upon our love for Allah and our love for
His Messenger (SAW).
This type of love is a particular quality of the believers. Allah
says: “O you who believe! If any of you turn
back from his faith, soon will Allah produce a people whom He will
love as they will love Him – having humility among the believers but
mighty in front of those who reject faith, striving in the way of
Allah and never fearing the reproaches of those who scoff. This is
the grace of Allah which He bestows upon whom He pleases. And Allah
encompasses and knows all things.” [Sűrah al-Mâ’idah: 54]
We should realize that the hardships of life are transient, preceded
and followed by times of ease. Allah says:
“Verily with hardship comes ease; verily with hardship comes ease.”
[Sűrah al-Sharh: 5-6] Just like life is filled with
obstacles, it is also filled with opportunities. Indeed, the message
given by Sűrah al-`Asr is one of glad tidings of love, relief, and
ease brought by Allah.
When the Companions of the Prophet (SAW) used to meet
one another, they would not depart until one of them recited Sűrah
al-`Asr to the other and they bid peace upon one another. [Awsat
al-Tabarâni (5124) and Shu`ab al-Îmân (8639)]
The Companions used to remind one another of Sűrah al-`Asr because
of the fundamental issues that this small chapter of the Qur’ân
addresses and that all Muslims should be concerned with. We can
acquire wisdom from the fact that the Qur’ân pays such careful
attention to major and important issues, since we too often focus
our attentions on minor issues that should be very low on our list
of priorities. Our limited energies get distracted from what is
important.
Becoming preoccupied with insignificant matters while forgetting
what is really important is a major pitfall. The Companion Ibn `Umar
once said to the people of Iraq: “How concerned you are with minor
things and how neglectful you are of what is serious! You kill al-Husayn,
the Prophet’s grandson, and then ask about the blood of a mosquito.”
We have another example of such an imbalanced focus in the
executioners who flogged the great scholar Ahmad b. Hanbal. They
used to ask him about the blood that splattered on their clothes and
they used to question his praying seated while his arms and legs
were bound in irons.
We will, in this article, focus on three major topics: time, the
human being, and deeds. These three topics are the key to success in
this world and salvation in the Hereafter. We will discuss these
topics one at a time.
1. Time
We must realize that though time is innocent, people so often
wrongly accused it of all the hardships and wrongs that they
experience. Time is a mere receptacle for these happenings. It is
neutral. This is why the Prophet (SAW) prohibited us
from censuring the course of time. He related that Allah said:
“The son of Adam does me wrong when he curses
the course of time. I am the course of time, for the affair is in My
hands as I turn the day and night over one another.” [Sahîh
al-Bukhârî (4826) and Sahîh Muslim (2246)]
The statement “I am the course of time”
is telling us that what people attribute to time is only by the will
and decree of Allah, the wise and all-knowing. Allah is the Creator
of everything and nothing that happens in His Creation happens in
vain.
In Sűrah al`Asr, Allah swears an oath by time, indicating its
seriousness and importance. Time is the receptacle within which our
deeds are carried out. It is a factor in our success in this world
and the Hereafter. Allah says: “He it is who made the night and the
day to follow each other for such as have the will to remember Him
or to give thanks.” [Sűrah al-Furqân: 62]
Ibn `Abbâs said: “Whoever missed performing any of the deeds of the
night should make them up during the day, and whoever missed
performing any of the deeds of the day should make them up at
night.”
Allah says regarding the unbelievers in Hell:
“Therein they will cry: ‘Our Lord! Bring us out. We shall work
righteousness, not the deeds we used to do.’ Did We not give you
long enough lives so that he who would receive admonition could do
so? Moreover, a warner came to you. So taste what comes to you. For
the wrongdoers there is no helper.” [Sűrah Fâtir: 36-37]
The Prophet (SAW) said: “A man has no excuse if Allah
extends his life until he reaches sixty years of age.” [Sahîh
al-Bukhârî (6419)]
Allah swears an oath by time because, in the course of time, changes
and transformations take place. Summer turns to winter. Cold weather
replaces heat. Strength turns to weakness. Victory turns to defeat.
A person goes from rags to riches. Hardships are replaced by ease.
Sicknesses are cured.
History is a testimony to this changeability. Today, the Muslim
world is weak and divided and subdued by its enemies. Its
intellectual life is superficial. It is wracked with despair and
hopelessness. This can be remedied if the Muslims become forward
thinking and work towards constructive change. We should not assume
that the present circumstances are forever etched in stone.
Allah says: “Did you not swear aforetime that
you would never suffer decline?” [Sűrah Ibrâhîm: 44] I used
to wonder who could possibly believe that they would never suffer
decline. Must not everyone realize that their lives must inevitably
come to an end? Who could possibly swear such an oath?
I got my answer to this question when I read Francis Fukuyama’s book
entitled The End of History. The book was written in celebration of
the fall of Communism. He declared that the West had won and that
Western democracy was the victor. The long-awaited event had
happened that marked an “end point of mankind's ideological
evolution” and the “final form of human government” and deserved to
be called “the end of history.”
Allah says: “Did you not swear aforetime that
you would never suffer decline? And you dwelt in the dwellings of
men who wronged their own souls. You were clearly shown how We dealt
with them and We set many examples before you.” [Sűrah Ibrâhîm:
44-45]
The word for time used in Sűrah al-`Asr is the Arabic word “`Asr”
which refers to the current time or age, as opposed to some more
eternal and abstract notion of time. By swearing an oath by this
aspect of time, Allah is indicating to us the importance of being up
to date, of living in the present, and of understanding the
contingencies of the era in which we live. We need to understand the
age in which we live and actively engage the changes and challenges
that it presents to us.
The epitome of virtue is to respond to these changes and challenges
appropriately while remaining completely within the limits set down
by Allah. We see that the Prophet (SAW) offered the
following supplication to Allah: “O Allah! Lord of Gabriel, Michael,
and Ariel, Creator of the heavens and the Earth, Knower of the
Unseen and the evident! You judge between your servants in what they
differ about. Guide me, by your grace, to the truth in what they
differ. Truly, You guide whom you please to a path that is
straight.”
This is why Allah commands us to say in every unit of prayer that we
perform: “Guide us to the Straight Path”.
This shows us that there will always be new matters for which we
will need guidance. We need to always beseech Allah to guide us in
all matters and never assume that what we presently know is
sufficient for us. We cannot assume that we have arrived at the
final, immutable truth for every matter. We must understand that we
will always need to learn how to respond to changing times and
circumstances without compromising the immutable truths that our
religion teaches us.
Some people are rigid in their adherence to a narrow set of ideas
and opinions, though what they adhere to is not above reproach or
criticism. Such people treat their ideas as if they were immutable,
absolute truths, and sometimes even go so far as to reject an
authentic Sunnah that had previously been unknown to them.
By contrast, there are others who begin to doubt the truly eternal
and immutable teachings of our faith. When we review what is being
said about Islam on the air and on the Internet, we can find people
who call into question the most fundamental teachings of Islam. We
can even find them disputing about Allah, the Qur’ân, revelation,
the Prophet (SAW), and the relationship between
religion and politics. We hear people who advocate secularism and
wholesale Westernization. There are those who wish to wholly adopt
American culture and values.
Faced with these extremes, we must recall Allah’s words:
“Those who, when they spend, are neither extravagant nor niggardly,
but maintain a just balance between those (extremes).” [Sűrah al-Furqân:
67]
The American Muslim, Muhammad Ali, once said: “If I say today at
forty what I said when I was twenty, then I have wasted twenty years
of my life.”
Changing circumstances brings to the surface the true mettle of
people. It shows who has the ability to move forward. There are
those who are held captive by their lusts and desires. Others are
held captive by their rulers or by their follows. A free person is
one who can escape all of that.
Allahs’ Messenger (SAW) said: “The slaves of gold,
silver, and finery are wretched. If they are given what they want,
they are pleased. If not, they become discontent and bitter and sink
into wretchedness. If they come to any harm, they do not recover.” [Sahîh
al-Bukhârî (2887)]
Continued - Part II
III
IV
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