What are the qualities of Allah ( SWT)’s obedient servants described in Surah Al-Furqan?
Surah Al-Furqan is the second surah given in the syllabus. It is a Makki surah containing 6 Ruku and 77 verses. But only the last 16 of those are prescribed to study and focus on; verse 63 to 77.
In these verses, Allah Almighty has stated the qualities of the faithful and true Muslims. Through these verses, a Muslim can easily find and grasp the methods and principles of attaining piety and being worthy to receive bounties from Allah.
There are twelve very simple qualities mentioned in the last 16 verses. They are as follows: (I’ve also added some explanation so that it becomes easy to understand)
63) “And the servants of ((Allah)) Most Gracious are those who walk on the earth in humility, and when the ignorant address them, they say, “Peace!”;”
1) The faithful slaves (ibaad-ur-rehman) walk on the earth with modesty, i.e they do not walk with pride.
Explanation: They humbly walk where ever it is they have to go. Along the way they never have the intention of showing off their ego or making issues about their self esteem. They don’t show off. They simply go about virtuously. Their walk is pleasant. Their body posture does not indicate that they want importance or they have some sort of a status. Not being humble would mean restrain from shaking hands with other men. Or keeping a distance from everyone. They give a signal, their body does to let others know that they must keep away from him.
The obedient slaves don’t have an attitude. Their entire personality must be humble from head to toe. They do not walk haughtily and arrogantly. They are not rude to others they pass along in their path.
Walking humbly does not mean walking lazily, slow or weakly as if a sick person. It means having dignity but not stuffing it in everyone’s face to show that they are some sort of an important personality.
One day Caliph `Umar saw a young man walking slowly like a weak, sick person, and asked him, “Are you ill?” When the man replied in the negative, the Caliph raised his whip, rebuked him and told him to walk like a healthy man.
There’s a difference between this attitude and the one with grace. The Prophet himself used to walk with firm steps and in a quick manner. He never had an attitude. He was the messenger of God he could’ve had one but he didn’t.
Like Hazrat Yahya (John the Baptist) was well-known for his modesty. Even the Quran states this characteristic of his.
64) “Those who spend the night in adoration of their Lord prostrate and standing;”
2) When the ignorant communicate with God’s obedient men or try to argue with them or intend to create a fiery argument with them: they, in return do not argue back or reply harshly. They offer their salutations.
Explanation: These men do not fall into petty discussions or hassle with those people. And it also means that if for example a person wants to have a discussion with you and in the middle of it he purposely makes such comments that you lose your temper and say something in return so that you can get blamed for misbehaving. This is natural behaviour between humans.
What God’s men/women (because it says slaves, slaves can be of both gender) do in such a situation, if they are not able to control their anger and tongue they give their salutations and leave peacefully without creating an issue.
65) “Those who say, “Our Lord! avert from us the Wrath of Hell, for its Wrath is indeed an affliction grievous,-”
3) They pray before Allah, they worship Him. They spend part of their nights prostrating and standing before Allah (SWT).
Explanation: Their fear and love for God is tremendous. They pray before Him after they have done their work when they are all alone they pray to God in solitude. They do not gossip or indulge themselves in unnecessary activities. If they have a family they give time to them and after everyone’s asleep they pray before God.
They sacrifice their comfort of sleep a little longer and communicate with God. A perfect explanation of this would be like a normal human shares his worries, his dealing during the day, his problems or his feelings with a friend. In that sense God is the most trust worthy friend in the world. His obedient slaves come to share matters with Him only.
It is a communication time where the person also thanks God for everything. It’s not necessary that he shares his problems only but he also thanks Him for His blessings.
66) “Evil indeed is it as an abode, and as a place to rest in”;
4) The obedient slaves of Allah Almighty pray that He saves them from the doom, the punishment of hell.
Explanation: Off course who wants to end up in hell. The people who obey God also pray that He does not throw them into hell. They fear the fierce fire and the other punishments of hell so they wish to stay away from it as fas as possible in the Day of Judgement.
67) “Those who, when they spend, are not extravagant and not niggardly, but hold a just (balance) between those (extremes);”
5) The true Muslims spend their wealth carefully and do not waste their money by spending on unnecessary things. They spend reasonably according to the command of God.
Explanation: They spend in God’s name. Give whatever is due to everyone. Spend on whom God has commanded. They do not abide in luxury and do not use the power of wealth for themselves. He spends on others. Does not always think of himself. In other words he isn’t selfish and extravagant.
68) “Those who invoke not, with Allah, any other god, nor slay such life as Allah has made sacred except for just cause, nor commit fornication; – and any that does this (not only) meets punishment.”
6) Those who cry to Allah and do not call upon any other except from Him.
Explanation: Simply means no shirk. They do not associate anyone with God. Nor do they pray to anyone else but Him nor ask any other personality for anything. They ask God for His help and nobody else.
7) They do not kill anyone except on the divine order.
Explanation: Means that the killings Allah has allowed. They follow His command and if something is in their benefit but God has forbidden it, they have the will power to let that go for the sake of God because He said so.
Like the incident that occurred with Hazrat Ali and the Jew he defeated. He was on top of the Jew and in return the Jew spit on his face. Ali immediately got off him. The Jew surprised at this and exclaimed,” You were about to kill me, why’d you stop now?”. Ali replied: “Before I was doing it for the sake of God but after you spit on me I became furious and thus if I had killed you at that moment it would’ve been because of my ego. I wouldn’t have done it for God then. “
Unlawful killings include abortions (without any medical proof). Fear of providing sustenance to your own child and then killing it before or after it’s born is an unlawful killing.
There are some more unlawful killings mentioned in the Quran in other surahs.
8) They do not commit adultery.
Explanation: These men do not impregnate a womb that is not lawful for them. Simply means no fornication.
70) “Unless he repents, believes, and works righteous deeds, for Allah will change the evil of such persons into good, and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful”.
9) They ask for God’s repentance if they have done something wrong.
72) Those who witness no falsehood, and, if they pass by futility, they pass by it with honourable (avoidance);
10) They stay away from lewd acts and keep themselves away from the places where such acts are done or performed. If they happen to pass by such a place, they move on unconcernedly.
Explanation: Staying away from unnecessary acts where they are demonstrated.
73) “Those who, when they are admonished with the Signs of their Lord, droop not down at them as if they were deaf or blind;”
11) They ponder over the text of the Holy Quran when they recite it. They do not recite it as if they were dumb and blind. That they can’t see it or can’t understand it. They try to understand the edicts and guidance given.
Explanation: They read it with understanding not just for the sake of reading it.
74) And those who pray, “Our Lord! Grant unto us wives and offspring who will be the comfort of our eyes, and give us (the grace) to lead the righteous.”
12) The last quality is that they ask God to keep themselves and their children on the right path. They ask Him for the divine guidance.
Explanation: They ask God to not let them go astray or their children.
For more detail you can see: http://www.englishtafsir.com/Quran/25/index.html
