What Really Covers a Person? · Al-A'raf 26–31

What is the clothing that is best?0:00

Benedict: Before we go out, most of us spend a little time on what to wear. The Qur'an calls clothing a gift from Allah, and then it names a better one: “But the clothing of righteousness, that is best.”

Six ayat, recited by Mishary Rashid Alafasy: about eighteen minutes.

We are students, not scholars. If a question needs a ruling, take it to a scholar you trust.

Assalamu alaikum, and welcome to the IMATX halaqa.

Joining the call0:29

Benedict: Assalamu alaikum, everyone.

All: Wa alaikum salam wa rahmatullah.

Benedict: Alhamdulillah, it is good to be together. Let us open with the du'a Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, tells His Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, to say in Surah Ta Ha: my Lord, increase me in knowledge.

Du'a: Ta Ha 20:114 · Mishary Rashid Alafasy.

Wa qul rabbi zidni 'ilma. — And say, “My Lord, increase me in knowledge.”

All: Ameen.

Where we are0:56

Benedict: Surah Al-A'raf is a Makkan surah. The previous passage told how Shaytan whispered to Adam and his wife, they ate from the tree, and their clothing fell away. They said, our Lord, we have wronged ourselves, and they were sent down to the earth.

Now the surah turns to their children. Three times in these six ayat Allah calls out, ya bani Adam, O children of Adam. The first two calls are about clothing: what Allah gave, and what Shaytan took away. The third brings us to the masjid and the table.

Ayah twenty-six - two kinds of clothing1:28

Al-A'raf 7:26 · Recitation: Mishary Rashid Alafasy. Read the verses.

Benedict: Would you start us off, Yu?

Yu: O children of Adam, We have bestowed upon you clothing to conceal your private parts and as adornment. But the clothing of righteousness, that is best. That is from the signs of Allah that perhaps they will remember.

Viraj: Can I ask a basic one first? It calls clothing one of the signs of Allah. I get dressed every morning without thinking about it. How is that a sign?

Benedict: Look at the end of the ayah. It gives the reason itself: that perhaps they will remember. The thing we do every morning without thinking can remind us who gave it. Ibn Kathir names two parts of the gift. Libas, the clothing that covers, which he calls a necessity. And rish, the outer adornment, which he calls something extra.

Salma: And then walibasu t-taqwa. The clothing of taqwa. I never thought of taqwa as something you wear.

Benedict: Lane gives the verb as putting a thing between yourself and another, to preserve yourself. So taqwa is what you put between yourself and harm. The English word, righteousness, gives the result and loses the picture. That is why it can be a clothing. Indonesian keeps it as takwa, and every Jumu'ah khutbah uses it.

Salma: I was reading about it. Al-Qurtubi lists what the early scholars said it is: righteous deeds, fear of Allah, modesty.

Benedict: And he prefers keeping Allah's command and prohibition in mind, which gathers all of them.

Yu: The way I understood it, the ayah isn't against looking good. It calls the adornment a gift before it points to something better.

Benedict: That's right, Yu. Al-Qurtubi rejects the idea that the clothing of taqwa means coarse clothes. People of knowledge wore fine clothing, together with taqwa.

Ayah twenty-seven - what he did to your parents3:40

Benedict: The second call turns from the gift to the one who took the first clothing away.

Al-A'raf 7:27 · Recitation: Mishary Rashid Alafasy. Read the verses.

Benedict: Viraj?

Viraj: O children of Adam, let not Satan tempt you as he removed your parents from Paradise, stripping them of their clothing to show them their private parts. Indeed, he sees you, he and his tribe, from where you do not see them. Indeed, We have made the devils allies to those who do not believe.

Salma: La yaftinannakum. Fitnah. Careful, in Indonesian that word means something else.

Benedict: It does. Lane gives the root's first picture: putting gold or silver into the fire, to separate the good metal from the bad. So a fitnah is a trial that shows what something is really made of. In Indonesian, fitnah means slander, a false accusation. That is only one small part of the Arabic word.

Notice what the warning rests on. Ibn Kathir says Allah points to what Iblis already did. He had Adam put out of the place of ease into the place of hardship, and uncovered what had been hidden. That shows how deep the hatred is.

Victor: For me, it's the word parents. Whatever he did to them, he would do to us. As a father, that is the warning I would want my children to hear first.

Viraj: He sees you from where you do not see them. Does that mean no one can ever see the jinn?

Benedict: Al-Qurtubi reports that the scholars differ. Some took this ayah as proof that the jinn are never seen. Others said they can be seen when Allah wills. He quotes al-Qushayri: Allah has made it the normal pattern that people do not see the devils.

Yu: So the point isn't to go looking for them.

Benedict: No. The point is the warning, and the ayah's last line: the devils are allies of those who do not believe.

Ayah twenty-eight - our fathers did it6:10

Benedict: Now the passage gives people's own defence of a practice they kept at the House, and Allah's answer to it.

Al-A'raf 7:28 · Recitation: Mishary Rashid Alafasy. Read the verses.

Benedict: Victor, would you read it for us?

Victor: And when they commit an immorality, they say, “We found our fathers doing it, and Allah has ordered us to do it.” Say, “Indeed, Allah does not order immorality. Do you say about Allah that which you do not know?”

Benedict: Ibn Kathir explains the practice. Before Islam, Arabs apart from Quraysh would not go around the Kaaba in clothes they had disobeyed Allah in. They borrowed a garment, and whoever could not went around unclothed. He calls it a practice they invented, following their forefathers, and then claimed was Allah's command.

Viraj: Can I be honest? I understand them a little. When I became Muslim, I learned most things by watching people I trusted. If everyone you trust has done something for generations, and calls it worship, wouldn't you assume it came from Allah?

Benedict: That's a fair question, Viraj. Look at what the ayah answers. Not the first thing they said, we found our fathers doing it, though Ibn Kathir counts that as part of what went wrong. It answers the second: Allah has ordered us to do it. That is where the habit got Allah's name on it.

Then it asks them a question. Do you say about Allah that which you do not know?

Salma: And fahishatan. Fahishah. We say it for something shameful, something nobody should do.

Benedict: Its root comes twice in this one ayah. Fahishatan, an immorality, is what they did. Bil-fahsha, immorality, is what Allah does not order. Saheeh International has immorality both times. So the answer uses the same word as the deed. What they did, Allah never orders.

Yu: There's a narration in Sahih al-Bukhari about how it ended. Abu Bakr sent Abu Hurayrah at Hajj to announce that after this year no idolater will make Hajj, and no one will go around the House unclothed.

Benedict: That was the year before the Farewell Hajj, at the House itself.

Ayah twenty-nine - what He does order8:40

Benedict: After what Allah does not order, the next ayah says what He does.

Al-A'raf 7:29 · Recitation: Mishary Rashid Alafasy. Read the verses.

Benedict: Salma, the next one.

Salma: Say, O Muhammad, “My Lord has ordered justice and that you maintain yourselves in worship of Him at every place or time of prostration, and invoke Him, sincere to Him in religion.” Just as He originated you, you will return to life.

Benedict: Ibn Kathir reads it as two conditions for any good deed to be accepted. That it follows the law the messengers brought, and that it is free of shirk. Sincere to Him in religion is the second.

Viraj: And the end: just as He originated you, you will return. Return how?

Benedict: Ibn Kathir reports more than one reading. Mujahid: He will bring you back to life after you die. Al-Hasan al-Basri and Qatadah: as He created you from nothing, He will bring you back. Ibn Jarir preferred Ibn Zayd's: as He created you at first, so at the end.

Victor: Kama bada'akum ta'udun. There's a narration in Sahih al-Bukhari. The Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, said that people will be gathered barefoot, unclothed and uncircumcised.

Benedict: Ibn Jarir supported his reading with it, in the version from Ibn Abbas. In Aishah's version, she asked whether men and women would then look at each other. He answered that the matter will be far too serious for that to concern them.

Yu: The way I see it, the passage begins with the gift of clothing and ends with the day when no cloth will be left.

Benedict: Yes. And on that day only one clothing is left: the one ayah twenty-six called best.

Ayah thirty - they think they are guided10:37

Benedict: The next ayah names two groups, and why one of them went astray.

Al-A'raf 7:30 · Recitation: Mishary Rashid Alafasy. Read the verses.

Benedict: Yu?

Yu: A group of you He guided, and a group deserved to be in error. Indeed, they had taken the devils as allies instead of Allah while they thought that they were guided.

Victor: I think of a narration here. The Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, said that every child is born on the fitrah. It's in Sahih al-Bukhari.

Benedict: Ibn Kathir brings it to these ayat. The fitrah is the natural disposition to know Allah, and this ayah gives the reason one group went astray from it. They took the devils as allies instead of Allah.

Yu: And the last word, muhtadun. They think they are guided. For me, that's the line that stays. I'm sure about a lot of things.

Benedict: Ibn Jarir called this ayah among the clearest against those who say a person is only held to account once the truth reaches him and he refuses it. These people thought they were guided, and Allah still named them astray.

Ayah thirty-one - the masjid and the table12:09

Benedict: And the third call to the children of Adam: back to clothing, and now to the masjid and the table.

Al-A'raf 7:31 · Recitation: Mishary Rashid Alafasy. Read the verses.

Benedict: Viraj, the last one.

Viraj: O children of Adam, take your adornment at every masjid, and eat and drink, but be not excessive. Indeed, He likes not those who commit excess.

Benedict: Sahih Muslim reports from Ibn Abbas that before Islam a woman would go around the House with no clothes on, and then this ayah was revealed: take your adornment at every masjid. Al-Qurtubi says the call, ya bani Adam, is to all people. It covers every masjid and every prayer, because a ruling follows the general wording, not only the event.

Salma: Wa la tusrifu. Israf. We say it about wasting, using too much.

Benedict: The verb is about going past the limit. And the ayah ends on the same root for people: al-musrifin, those who go past it, whom Allah does not love. Ibn Jarir reads it widely: overdoing what is allowed, permitting what is forbidden, or forbidding what is allowed. So it is not only the table. It is losing the balance, either way.

Victor: And al-Bukhari recorded from Ibn Abbas: eat what you wish and wear what you wish, as long as you avoid two things, extravagance and arrogance.

Yu: My wife and I are still learning where that limit is. Especially at an Indonesian wedding.

Salma: Nobody has found it at an Indonesian wedding, Yu.

Benedict: And eat and drink is in the ayah too, so enjoy it. The limit comes in the same breath.

Your questions, and two for the discussion14:02

Benedict: We began with the time we spend on what to wear, and an ayah that calls another clothing best. Three times this passage called out to the children of Adam, and al-Qurtubi says that call is to all people. So it is to us.

The passage has shown what the better clothing is made of. Not immorality, which Allah never orders, but justice, worship that is sincerely His, and staying inside the limit. So we can dress for prayer with care, and give the same care to the clothing of taqwa.

Before we finish, any questions?

Yu: Mine is practical. At work I pray in a small room. There's a printer in there, and people come in for paper. Ayah thirty-one says every masjid. Does the ayah, I mean, does it take in a room like that?

Benedict: The word masjid is the place of prostration, from the root of sujud. In ayat twenty-nine and thirty-one it is every place where we make sujud, not only a building. And al-Qurtubi says the ayah covers every masjid and every prayer.

Yu: So I should probably stop praying in my gym clothes.

Benedict: Take your adornment, the ayah says. Ibn Kathir says the ayah and the Sunnah encourage wearing your best for prayer.

Viraj: Mine is from the very first ayah. In the tafsir I read, We have sent down clothing. I kept thinking about it on the drive home. Clothes don't come down from the sky. So what does it mean?

Benedict: Al-Qurtubi gives several explanations. The rain comes down, grows the cotton and flax, and feeds the animals that give wool and hair. Or that Allah created it, which is how al-Jalalayn reads it: We created for you. Or that He taught us how to make it.

Viraj: So the cotton in this shirt started as rain.

Benedict: In one of his explanations, yes.

Salma, would you give us the first question?

Salma: Ayah twenty-six names two kinds of clothing. We spend real time and money on the first kind. What makes it hard to give the same care to the second, and what helps?

Benedict: And Victor, the second.

Victor: Ayah twenty-eight asks: do you say about Allah what you do not know? Where do we most easily say, Islam says, without having checked, and what would help us pause first?

Benedict: The full questions are in the study notes for your circle.

Yu: That second one will stay with me.

Close16:24

Benedict: Before we close, what are you taking with you?

Salma: The clothing of taqwa. I'll think of it tomorrow when I get dressed.

Victor: For me, ayah twenty-eight. To check before I say, Islam says.

Benedict: Let us end the way the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, ended a gathering. Abu Barza reports he called these words an expiation for what happens in a gathering. Salma, will you?

Salma: Subhanaka Allahumma wa bihamdika, ashhadu an la ilaha illa anta, astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk.

Benedict: Glory is to You, O Allah, and praise. I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except You. I seek Your forgiveness, and I repent to You.

All: Ameen.

Yu: Next time, the passage goes on from ayah thirty-two, which asks who has forbidden the adornment of Allah, in sha Allah.

Viraj: And if you're new to the Qur'an, one ayah is a good place to start. Take it slowly.

Benedict: If you lead a halaqa of your own, the questions and the study notes for this passage are on the halaqa website, for your circle. Jazakumullahu khayran for listening.

Wassalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.