Today we start with a new Surah of Luqman. This Surah has been descended in holy Mecca and has 34 ayahs.

In this Surah, in addition to pointing to His signs in creating the earth and the sky and various creatures, God quotes part of Luqman wise advices to his son and that is why, this Surah has been named Surah Luqman: First we listen to and read ayahs 1 to 3 of Surah Luqman:

بِسْمِ اللَّـهِ الرَّحْمَـٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

الم

تِلْكَ آيَاتُ الْكِتَابِ الْحَكِيمِ

هُدًى وَرَحْمَةً لِّلْمُحْسِنِينَ

In the Name of Allah, the All-Beneficent, the All-Merciful.

“Alif, Lām, Mīm.”

“These are the signs of the Definitive Book,”

“A Guidance and Mercy for the virtuous,”

As we said at the beginning of Surah Baqarah, as well as the Surahs Aal-e Imran, A’raaf, Yunus, Hood, Ibrahim, Shua'ra, Ankabut, Roum, etc, 29 Surahs of the Holy Qur’an start with Horoof Muqatta’at or seemingly unarranged alphabets whose meaning is known only to God and His Prophet, although some exegetes have tried to interpret them. Surah Luqman which we started now is one such Surah, and here God has used the alphabets Alif Lam Mim, at its start, similar to Surah Baqarah. This is among the marvels of the unmatched eloquence of the Holy Qur'an, which bewildered the infidels of the age of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny). Today also, they continue to confound the disbelievers of our own days, who despite the advancement in science and technology, have failed to meet the divine challenge to bring about at least some phrases equal to those of the Holy Qur'an.

The contents of Surah Luqman can be summarized briefly. First the statement of the greatness and importance of the Holy Qur’an concerning the guidance of humankind. Second the division of human beings into the benevolent and the tyrant, and the statement of their fate. Third, the advice and wise teachings of Luqman to his son. Fourth the reasons for the Faith in Origin and Resurrection. Fifth the statement of Allah’s infinite knowledge, such as: the time of every one’s death and the time of the occurrence of Resurrection.

The words of this Surah is clear, and they mean to say that Qur’an is the Final and Universal Scripture for the guidance of all mankind, and not any particular nation. It also says that the Words of God have effect on hearts that are pure and sincere. In other words, the virtuous and those who strive for truth, piety, and faith, heed the voice of reason and are guided.

From these ayahs we learn that:

1. Guidance is based on wisdom and firm reasons; and that is why Holy Qur’an termed has been hailed as the Most Rationalistic Book.
2. Guidance ought to be accompanied with mercy and affection in order to be more effective.

Now we listen to and read ayahs 4 and 5 of Surah Luqman:

الَّذِينَ يُقِيمُونَ الصَّلَاةَ وَيُؤْتُونَ الزَّكَاةَ وَهُم بِالْآخِرَةِ هُمْ يُوقِنُونَ

أُولَـٰئِكَ عَلَىٰ هُدًى مِّن رَّبِّهِمْ ۖ وَأُولَـٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ

“Who maintain the prayer, and pay the zakāt, and are certain of the Hereafter.”

“Those follow their Lord’s guidance, and it is they who are the felicitous.”

These ayahs first describe the characteristics of the virtuous, and mean to say that virtue is made up of ideology and practice. In other words if faith in the heart is ideological, its practical aspects the performance of good deeds and acts of worship as commanded by God, such as performance of the daily ritual prayers and giving of Zakat to the poor and needy. This means felicity belongs to those who establish prayer, give poor-rate, and are certain of the Hereafter.

Unfortunately in the present world, there are many who regularly perform the prayer, but pay no attention to the deprived people. At the same time, there some who do care about the needy and strive to solve their problems, but are negligent in the performing of the ritual prayers. Both these attitudes are wrong, and against the spirit of Islam and the teachings of the holy Qur’an. Thus, only those who are true believers and have faith in the Day of Resurrection and Final Judgement, compliment their faith by practical performance of acts of worship.   

From these ayahs we learn that:

1. In Islamic culture, prayer and zakat are not separate from each other, and are the traits of the true believers.
2. Salvation lies in faith in God and the Day of Resurrection, coupled with the doing of good deeds and fulfilling the acts of worship enjoined, since faith would be incomplete if not practically displayed through observing of the ritual prayers and giving of zakat to the poor.

Now we listen to and read ayah 6 of Surah Luqman:

وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَن يَشْتَرِي لَهْوَ الْحَدِيثِ لِيُضِلَّ عَن سَبِيلِ اللَّـهِ بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍ وَيَتَّخِذَهَا هُزُوًا ۚ أُولَـٰئِكَ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ مُّهِينٌ

“Among the people is he who buys diversionary talk that he may lead [people] astray from Allah’s way without any knowledge, and he takes it in derision. For such there is a humiliating punishment.”

This ayah points to people who use their capitals for vanity and leading others astray by which they buy the wretchedness in this world and the next for themselves. It is surprising that these blind hearted persons bought the false and idle matters for the dearest price, but they used to ignore the Divine Ayahs and wisdom that Allah had given them without money. This ayah means to say those who try in any way to deter people from the path of God and without presenting any reason and logic term the divine ayahs unfounded and worthless or ridicule them, are exposed to humiliating punishment. In other words, whatever God has revealed in the holy Qur’an is the absolute truth, including the accounts of some of the nations of the past, in order to serve as lesson for the coming generation, but if someone equates myths and unfounded folklore with what God has mentioned in the Qur’an, then this is sheer blasphemy, and will only lead to misery in life and lasting punishment in afterlife.

From this ayah we learn that:

1. Any words of entertainment or amusement that deter people from truth and are the cause of mislead, is rejected by Islam.
2. One of the factors of misleading people, especially youths, is listening to false stories, myths promoted as folklore, and songs and music that deprive the minds of truth.
3. For campaign against Islamic ideas and thoughts, the enemy resorts to so-called cultural tools are ill-defined art such as movies, theatres and music; which warrant the believers to be careful. 

AS/ME/SS