From Ibn Masoud (ra) said: The Prophet (saw) told me: “Read the Quran for me”. I told him: ‘Oh Messenger of Allah, I read for you the Quran yet it is for you to whom it was revealed to?’ He (saw) said: “Verily I love to hear it from someone else”. Ibn Masoud said; I read Surah An-Nisaa for him until I reached at this verse:
فَكَيْفَ إِذَا جِئْنَا مِن كُلِّ أُمَّةٍ بِشَهِيدٍ وَجِئْنَا بِكَ عَلَىٰ هَـٰؤُلاۤءِ شَهِيداً
So how [will it be] when We bring from every nation a witness and we bring you, [O Muhammad] against these [people] as a witness? [An-Nisaa: 41]
Here the Prophet (saw) told Ibn Masoud: “Enough”. As I turned to him I saw tears dripping on his face.
Normally he who recites and ponders the Quran, his heart is softened by the full of fear of his Lord. The Prophet’s (saw) act of asking his Sahaba ibn Masoud (ra) to recite the Quran for him, is explained by Islamic scholars as sometimes having a great impact to someone who listens to it from his colleague. We see how the Prophet (saw) could not control his emotions when he heard this verse; a clear indication that the Quran is not just a book to be merely read rather what is required of it is to have an influence and great contemplation every time we recite it. Among the great tribulations that the West have succeeded in attacking the Ummah with is wiping the true understanding of the Quran from her mind. Here are words of a former British minister Disrael saying; ‘The only way to finish Muslims is by deviating their understanding of this book (Quran) in their minds’. Precisely, he was referring to confining the teachings of Quran to a fanciful theory and philosophy inapplicable in daily life. True to his word, this is where we are today, mosques are full of Mas’haf while people conduct tafseer study circles which end up just being boring sermons with no tangible effect.
It is incumbent upon us to comprehend the cry of the Prophet (saw) especially in the meaning of the verse of Surah An-Nisaa. No doubt the verse mentions the great Day of Judgment which among its tough conditions is one mentioned in the verse that followed it which made the Prophet (saw) cry, that is verse 42, where Allah says:
يَوْمَئِذٍ يَوَدُّ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ وَعَصَوُاْ ٱلرَّسُولَ لَوْ تُسَوَّىٰ بِهِمُ ٱلأَرْضُ وَلاَ يَكْتُمُونَ ٱللَّهَ حَدِيثاً
That Day, those who disbelieved and disobeyed the Messenger will wish they could be covered by the earth. And they will not conceal from Allah a [single] statement. [An-Nisaa: 42]
Leave alone the mercy that the Prophet (saw) has to his Ummah, we can say what led him to cry is his testimony in front of Allah (swt) for his Ummah and those preceding her. And this is what was transmitted that on the Day of Judgment every Prophet will come with one person and another one with two people while others will come with more. His people will be called upon him and asked: ‘Did your prophet conveyed the message to you?’ The people will say, ‘No’. Then the prophet will be asked: ‘Did you convey the message to the people?’ The prophet will say; ‘I did’. Then he will be asked, ‘who is your witness?’ He will say, ‘Muhammad and his Ummah’. The Prophet (saw) and his Ummah will then be asked: ‘Did the prophet conveyed the message to his people?’ They will reply: ‘Yes’. She will then be asked; ‘how did you know?’ They will reply: ‘There came to us a Messenger (saw) who informed us that the prophets did covey the message to their people’.
If we are keen, we will find a lot of questions: –
Did the Prophet (saw) truly conveyed Islam as a complete way of life? The quick and certain answer is; yes, now the question is do we Muslims truly take Islam as a complete way of life as a light that he (saw) came to us with or have we adopted another unfounded ideology that has no relevance to the revelation of Allah? The answer is as Muslims today we are not under the light brought by the Prophet (saw). We run all our politics, economics and social systems in accordance with the kufr capitalist ideology. Many of us have been inflicted with fear for blame of those who say Islam is an evil ideology, which is irrelevant in this century! Rather what is more painful is the casting of feeling of despair to the few among us and the ridiculing of all those who face tribulations from the tyrants due to undertaking the honorable work for global revival through establishment of Islam under its state the Khilafah. How will the situation be on that Day if we have currently turned Islam upside down?
Let us realize that as Muslims, there is a task of abiding by Islam ahead of us as was left to us by our Prophet (saw). Let us keep in mind that as our Prophet (saw) will bear witness, likewise we will bear witness over other people. And this is what Allah (swt) said:
وَكَذَلِكَ جَعَلْنَاكُمْ أُمَّةً وَسَطاً لِّتَكُونُواْ شُهَدَآءَ عَلَى ٱلنَّاسِ وَيَكُونَ ٱلرَّسُولُ عَلَيْكُمْ شَهِيداً
And thus we have made you a just community that you will be witnesses over the people and the Messenger will be a witness over you.
[Al-Baqarah: 143]
The verse stipulates that we are the best Ummah because we carry a true and just ideology; that is why we are witnesses over other nations as we are in justice. And as it is known, among the conditions of testimony is justice. Consequently, Allah (swt) has compelled us to convey to people solution to all their problems including political, economic, and social problems. Failure to do that would jeopardize our worldly life and in the Hereafter, the Prophet (saw) will clearly testify on how we abandoned his message and lived contrary to Islam brought by him (saw).
Shabani Mwalimu
Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir in Kenya
From UQAB Magazine Issue 13