Salaam and welcome to another episode of our weekly series titled “Path towards Enlightenment” which is an endeavour to make you and us familiar with an easy and fluent explanation of God’s Final Scripture to all mankind, the holy Qur’an, which was revealed to the Last and Greatest of all Messengers, Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny).

We start from where we left you last week, and here are Ayahs 33, 34, & 35 of Surah Zukhruf:

وَلَوْلَا أَن يَكُونَ النَّاسُ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً لَّجَعَلْنَا لِمَن يَكْفُرُ بِالرَّحْمَـٰنِ لِبُيُوتِهِمْ سُقُفًا مِّن فِضَّةٍ وَمَعَارِجَ عَلَيْهَا يَظْهَرُونَ

وَلِبُيُوتِهِمْ أَبْوَابًا وَسُرُرًا عَلَيْهَا يَتَّكِئُونَ

وَزُخْرُفًا ۚ وَإِن كُلُّ ذَٰلِكَ لَمَّا مَتَاعُ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا ۚ وَالْآخِرَةُ عِندَ رَبِّكَ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ

“Were it not that mankind would have become one community (of disbelievers), We would have surely made for those who defy the All-Beneficent, silver roofs for their houses and [silver] stairways by which they ascend;”

“And [silver] doors for their houses and [silver] couches on which they recline;”

“And ornaments of gold (or houses embellished with gold); yet all that would be nothing but the wares of the life of this world, and the Hereafter near your Lord is for the Godwary.”

If you remember, in our last Friday’s explanation of the preceding Ayahs of this Surah we said that those of weak of faith or devoid of faith consider wealth, power and social status as the signs of greatness, whereas it is piety and spirituality which are of value in the Sight of God, since it is Divine Mercy that is better than all the worldly wealth and power, and for this reason, mankind is obliged to follow the Prophets instead of spurning their message.

The Ayahs that we recited to you now refer to human frailty in easily becoming deceived by the glitter of wealth, which although a bestowal of Divine Mercy has no value in the sight of God Almighty Who wants mankind to strive for inner purity. As Ayah 33 indicates, were it not for the danger of people turning into a community of disbelievers on the assumption that those who disobey Divine commandments have easy access to wealth, God would have surely granted unimaginable worldly wealth to all unbelievers.

In other words, they would have been provided with embellishments of all kinds and gaudy possessions, such as luxurious multistoried mansions with sliver roofs, doors and couches of the same precious metals. Thus, in Ayah 35, the word “zukhruf” – from which this Surah takes its name – literally means any type of adornments and embellishments with stylized floral motifs, but since gold is the main means of adornment, the word “zukhruf” is also applied to it, although these riches are nothing when compared to self-piety, purity of character, and modesty in behaviour and lifestyle.

Now we better understand the meaning of the word “muzakhraf” – a derivative of “zukhruf” – in our daily speech for idle talk and worthless things.

These ayahs teach us that:

1. We should not be deceived by the glamour and the glitter that most disbelievers ostentatiously display as signs of their wealth and power, without realizing that this is nothing but only an insignificant part of Divine Mercy to test their faith and a trial for the faith of others.
2. Only the weak of faith follow the crooked ways of the disbelievers, when they ought to know that the value of a human being depends on his/her moral virtues, and certainly not on luxurious cars, splendid houses, and Jewelry.
3. As the Prophet of Islam has taught us, the best thing to do is to shatter such baseless standards and replace them with human values of piety, fear of God, purity of intention, knowledge, the spirit of sacrifice, and courage to speak the truth, otherwise none of the so-called reforms in society will be of any avail.
4. The bounties reserved for believers in afterlife for their piety and refrainment from sins and vices, are much than those of the transient world.

Here are Ayahs 36 and 37 of the same Surah:

وَمَن يَعْشُ عَن ذِكْرِ الرَّحْمَـٰنِ نُقَيِّضْ لَهُ شَيْطَانًا فَهُوَ لَهُ قَرِينٌ

وَإِنَّهُمْ لَيَصُدُّونَهُمْ عَنِ السَّبِيلِ وَيَحْسَبُونَ أَنَّهُم مُّهْتَدُونَ

“Whoever turns a blind eye to the remembrance of the All-Beneficent, We assign him a devil who remains his companion.”

“Indeed they (the devils) bar them from the way while they suppose that they are [rightly] guided.”

These Ayahs refer to the outcome of indulgence in materialistic desires and attachment to the world to the extent that such persons become oblivious of the remembrance of God and allow the Satan to dominate them. The devil for such persons could be bad friends, an evil spouse, and wayward children, who block the way towards repentance and reform by embellishing the wrong path. In other words, the one entangled in the blindness and darkness of pleasures and sins will falsely imagine that he/she is doing the right thing, while the pious ones are in error.

From these Ayahs we learn that:

1. Those who allow the remembrance of God and His bounties to slip from their hearts and minds, pave the ground for the dominance and rule of devils, which appear in various forms in the company he or she frequents.
2. Piety and proper cognizance prevent a person from falling victim to sins and disbelief.
3. Worse than committing a sin is to be blind toward the sin by viewing the wrong deeds of others as good and finally succumbing to evil ways.

Now let us listen to Ayahs 38 and 39:

حَتَّىٰ إِذَا جَاءَنَا قَالَ يَا لَيْتَ بَيْنِي وَبَيْنَكَ بُعْدَ الْمَشْرِقَيْنِ فَبِئْسَ الْقَرِينُ

وَلَن يَنفَعَكُمُ الْيَوْمَ إِذ ظَّلَمْتُمْ أَنَّكُمْ فِي الْعَذَابِ مُشْتَرِكُونَ

“When he (the sinner on Resurrection Day) comes to Us, he will say (to his devilish companion), ‘I wish there had been between me and you the distance between east and west! What an evil companion [are you]!’”

“Today that (the desire to keep away from the evil companion) will be of no avail to you; as you did wrong, so will you share in the punishment.”

These Ayahs mean to say that on the Day of Resurrection, sinners would wish they could distance themselves from devils or evil companions in hell, but there is no escape and they will have to meet the same punishment reserved for these satanic elements. In other words, those who had been negligent of God Almighty, His bounties, and His commandments, by opting for the company of evil elements, will regret in vain on the Day of Resurrection, but to no avail since they have lost the ample opportunities and long periods of respite provided by God to them during the transient life of the material world.

These Ayahs teach us the following points:

1. We should be very careful with the company we keep, otherwise evil will be the outcome, both in this world and in afterlife.
2. A believer always strives to enlighten the minds of his friends and family members, in order to firm up their faith and prevent the devils in manipulating them.
3. Turning away from God is wronging our own self because it misleads one of his/her own deeds, and leads to the fires of hell in the Hereafter.

RM/AS/SS