1.
PIOUS PEOPLE’S DU‘Ā (SUPPLICATION) IN THE QUR’ĀN (1)
The du‘ā’ of people other than prophets is
divided into a personal one starting with رَبِّ (“My Lord!”), and as a group starting with رَبَّناَ (“Our Lord!”). There are three personal
du‘ā’ mentioned in the Qur’ān as follows:
a. the
du‘ā’ of Āsiyah bint Muzāḥim, the
Pharaoh’s wife, who had adopted the baby
Mūsā (Moses) mentioned in Q. 28:8-9, when she said:
رَبِّ ابْنِ لِي عِندَكَ
بَيْتاً فِي الْجَنَّةِ وَنَجِّنِي مِن فِرْعَوْنَ وَعَمَلِهِ
وَنَجِّنِي مِنَ الْقَوْمِ
الظَّالِمِينَ (التحريم :11)
“My Lord! Build for me a home
with You in Paradise, and
save me from Fir‘awn (Pharaoh)
and his work, and save me
from the people who are wrong-doers.” (Q. 66:11)
The Qur’ān commentator al-Ṭabarī said that when
Āsiah was told that Mūsā and Hārūn prevailed over the magicians, she said: “I
believe in the Lord of Mūsā and Hārūn.” Fir‘awn sent his aids to find out
whether she had really become a believer, otherwise she was still his wife. As
she insisted on keeping her faith the aides were ordered to find a biggest
stone and to throw it to her. When they came to her, she looked up at the sky,
and she was able to see her house in Paradise. When they threw a stone at her, her
soul had been captured, and they were stoning her lifeless body.
Classical Qur’ān
commentators mention stories about of Āsiah bint Muzāḥim. The commentator
Abū’l-‘Āliyah said that Fir’awn came to know that she had become a believer. He
went to his council of elders and asked them what they thought about her. When
they told him that she was a good woman, he told them that she worshiped a Lord
other than him. So, they told him to kill her. Then they tied her hands and
legs. She prayed, “My Lord! Build for me a home with You in Paradise…” and
when she saw it she laughed.
“See how
crazy she was,” said Fir‘awn, “she laughs while we are torturing her.” Then she
passed away.
Another story reported by
‘Uthmān al-Nahdī from Salmān al-Fārisī, is that she was tortured with sunshine,
but the angel Jibrīl (Gabriel) shaded her with his wings.
This is one parable of the pious woman, whereas the
other parable is the story of Maryam (Mary), who guarded her chastity, and whom
Allah breathed into the sleeve of her shirt or her garment through His Rūḥ
(Gabriel)… (Q. 66:12).
b. the du‘ā’ of the wife of ‘Īmrān’s wife, mother of Mary
(Maryam). Her name was Ḥannah bint Fāqūdh ibn Qutayl. Ibn Isḥāq said that she
could not have children. One day she saw a bird feeding its chick, and she
wished she could have children. When she was pregnant she vowed to devote her
child to worship Allah and serving the place of worship Jerusalem as follows:
رَبِّ إِنِّي نَذَرْتُ
لَكَ مَا فِي بَطْنِي مُحَرَّراً فَتَقَبَّلْ مِنِّي
إِنَّكَ أَنتَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ (آل
عمران : 35).
“My
Lord! I have vowed to You what (the child that) is in my womb to be dedicated
for Your services (free from all worldly work; to serve Your place of worship),
so accept this from me. Verily, You are the All-Hearer, the All-Knower.” (Q. 3:35)
She had expected to have a baby boy, but
after the delivery of the baby Maryam, she prayed:
رَبِّ إِنِّي وَضَعْتُهَا
أُنثَى وَاللّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا وَضَعَتْ وَلَيْسَ الذَّكَرُ كَالأُنثَى وَإِنِّي سَمَّيْتُهَا
مَرْيَمَ وِإِنِّي أُعِيذُهَا
بِكَ وَذُرِّيَّتَهَا مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ. )آل عمران : 36(.
“O my Lord! I have given birth a female child” – and
Allah
knew better what she
brought forth – “And the male is not
like
the female, and I have named her Maryam (Mary), and
I seek refuge with You (Allah) for her and for
her
offspring from Satan, the outcast.” (Q. 3: 36).[1]
What
she meant is that a female cannot do the male’s job in remaining in the church
worshiping, cleaning, and keeps its maintenance while, as a female, that
something could happen to her like menstruation, and mix with men.
Allah
accepted her supplication, as Abū Hurayrah said that the Messenger of Allah s.a.w.
said:
“Every
newly born baby is touched by Satan
when it is born, and the baby starts crying because
of this touch, except Maryam and her son.”
(Reported by Bukhari
and Muslim).
This means, that the whole human beings including Prophets were touched
by Satan when they were born, except Mary and her son Jesus. However, this does
not mean that they are safe from Satan’s temptation. For every human being
there is always a qarīn who always accompanies him/her.
c. the prayer of the believer when he attained his full
intellectual and spiritual maturity and reaches the age of forty. Allah said:
وَوَصَّيْنَا الْإِنْسَانَ
بِوَالِدَيْهِ إِحْسَانًا حَمَلَتْهُ أُمُّهُ كُرْهًا وَوَضَعَتْهُ كُرْهًا
وَحَمْلُهُ وَفِصَالُهُ
ثَلَاثُونَ شَهْرًا حَتَّى إِذَا بَلَغَ أَشُدَّهُ وَبَلَغَ أَرْبَعِينَ سَنَةً قَالَ
رَبِّ أَوْزِعْنِي
أَنْ أَشْكُرَ نِعْمَتَكَ الَّتِي أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيَّ وَعَلَى وَالِدَيَّ
وَأَنْ أَعْمَلَ
صَالِحًا تَرْضَاهُ وَأَصْلِحْ لِي فِي ذُرِّيَّتِي إِنِّي
تُبْتُ إِلَيْكَ
وَإِنِّي مِنَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ )الأحقاف : 15(.
And We have enjoined on man to be dutiful
and kind
to his
parents. His mother bears him with hardship. And she
brings him forth with hardship, and the
bearing of him, and
the weaning of him is thirty month, till when
he attains full
strength and reaches forty years, he says: “My
Lord! Grant
me the power and ability that I may be
grateful for Your
Favour which You have bestowed upon me and
upon my
parents, and that I may do righteous good
deeds, such
as please You, and make my offspring good.
Truly,
I have turned to You in repentance, and truly,
I am one of the Muslims (submitting
to Your will).” (Q. 46:15)
This verse states that Allah enjoined upon man to do good towards his
parents, especially his mother who gave him birth and bearing him and his utter
dependence on her took thirty months. This is also stated in another verse, as
follows:
وَوَصَّيْنَا الْإِنْسَانَ بِوَالِدَيْهِ حَمَلَتْهُ
أُمُّهُ وَهْنًا عَلَى وَهْنٍ وَفِصَالُهُ
فِي عَامَيْنِ أَنِ
اشْكُرْ لِي وَلِوَالِدَيْكَ إِلَيَّ الْمَصِيرُ (لقمان:14)
And We have enjoined on man (to be dutiful and
good) to
his parents. His mother bore him in weakness
and
hardship upon weakness and hardness, and his
weaning
in in two years – give thanks to Me
and to
your parents. To Me is the
final
destination. (Q. 31:14)
The Qur’ān
commentator Ibn Kathīr said that when a man reaches forty years his complete
intellect, understanding, and patience reach the level of maturity. At this age
Allah orders him to renew his repentance and to turn to Him with strong
resolution.
People of this age who followed Allah’s instruction to be dutiful to
their parents and said the supplication in the above verse will be among the
dwellers of Paradise, as it continues with the following verse:
أُولَئِكَ الَّذِينَ نَتَقَبَّلُ
عَنْهُمْ أَحْسَنَ مَا عَمِلُوا وَنَتَجَاوَزُ عَنْ سَيِّئَاتِهِمْ فِي
أَصْحَابِ الْجَنَّةِ وَعْدَ
الصِّدْقِ الَّذِي كَانُوا يُوعَدُونَ) الأحقاف : 61 (
Those are the one from whom We shall accept
the best of what they did and overlook their evil
deeds.
(They shall be)
among the dwellers of Paradise. That
is the promise of truth that they
had been
promised (Q. 46:16)
As mentioned earlier the age of full intellectual and spiritual maturity
according to the verse mentioned above is at the age of forty, not the
beginning of maturity as mistakenly understood by Dr. Rashad Khalifah, as the
age of responsibility.[2]
Based on this verse he claimed that
anyone dies before this “Crucial Age of 40” will go to Heaven. He said, “If the
person believed and benefitted from belief by nourishing and developing the
soul (see Appendix 5), he or she goes to the High Heaven. Otherwise, the person
goes to the Lower Heaven.”[3]
This view is contrary to that of the
majority of Muslims, that the age of maturity and responsibility starts when
the boy starts having wet dream and the girl having menstruation, at the
approximate age of 15, and could be earlier or later. It was the time when a
boy and a girl can become parents. Three conditions are required for the boy’s
maturity: (a). wet dream, (b). the grown of hair on the groan, and (c).
reaching the age of fifteen. For the girl’s maturity the same conditions are
applied to her, but with an extra condition, (d). having menstruation. This age
of puberty is the crucial one, where he or she has the full responsibility as a
Muslim. Do no wait until you reach forty.
Two
expressions in the verse in question have to be taken into consideration,
namely, إِذَا بَلَغَ أَشُدَّهُ “when he attains full
strength” and وَبَلَغَ أَرْبَعِينَ سَنَةً “and
he reaches forty years”. Some scholars, such as Ibn ‘Abbās and Qatādah say that
full strength is reached at the age of thirty-three, and Ibn ‘Abbās said
further that man’s strength becomes quite even at the age of forty, and weak at
the age of sixty. (CIVIC,
12 December, 2014)
المراجع:
المكتبة الشاملة
تفسير الطبري (ت. 310 هـ )
تفسير القرطبى (ت. 671 هـ)
تفسير ابن كثير (ت. 774 هـ)
Ali, A.Yusuf. The Meanings of the Holy Qur’ān
Asad, Muhammad. The Message of the Qur’ān
Khalifa,
Rashad. Quran the Final Testament. Tucson: Islamic
Productions
http://islamqa.info/ar/197392
[1] Both verses are located in the Qur’an chapter three
called Āl ‘Imrān, “The House of ‘Imrān.” Muhammad Asad gives us an illustration
of this, and said:
“The House of ‘Imrān comprises Moses and Aaron, whose father was ‘Imrān
(the Amram of the Bible), and Aaron’s descendants, the priestly caste among the
Israelites – thus including John the Baptist, both of whose parents were of the
same descent (cf. the reference, in Luke, i, 5,
to John’s mother Elizabeth as one
‘of the daughters of Aaron’), as well as Jesus, whose mother Mary – a close
relation of John – is spoken of elsewhere in the Qur’an (19:28) as a ‘sister of
Aaron’: in both cases embodying the
ancient Semitic custom of linking a person’s or a people’s name with that of an
illustrious forbear. The reference of the House of ‘Imrān serves as an
introduction to the stories of Zakhariah, John, Mary, and Jesus.” Muhammad Asad, The Message of the Qur’an, note
22 on Q. 3:33, p. 71.
[2] Dr. Rashad Khalifah, an agricultural engineer,
claimed to be “God’s Messenger of the Covenant”. He was the founder of the idea
of denying the validity of the Sunnah of the Prophet. This idea is called Inkār
al-Sunnah. He claimed to have been ascended to heaven and met all the
prophets sent by Allah. He said: “During my Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, and
before sunrise on Tuesday, Zul-Hijjah 3, 1391, December 21, 1971, I, Rashad
Khalifa, the soul, the real person, not the body, was taken to some place in
the universe where I was introduced to all the prophets as God’s Messenger of
the covenant…. What I witnessed, in sharp consciousness, was that I was sitting
still, while the prophets, one by one, came towards me, looked at my face, then
nodded their heads…. Except for Abraham, none of the prophets was identified to
me. I knew that all the prophets were there, including Moses, Jesus, Muhammad,
Aaron, David, Noah and the rest. I believe that the reason for revealing
Abraham’s identity was that I asked about him. I was taken aback by the strong
resemblance he had with my own family – myself, my father, my uncles. It was
the only time I wondered, ‘Who is this prophet who looks like my relatives?’
The answer came: ‘Abraham.’ No language was spoken. All communication was done
mentally.” Rashad Khalifa, Qur’an the Final Testament, Appendix 2, p.
639.
[3] Dr.ashad Khalaifa gives the example of Theodore
Robert Bundy who was executed in 1989, when he was 42 years old. The execution
was delayed 11 years, although many people celebrated his execution for being
“one of the most vicious criminals in history.” Therefore, he did not deserve
Heaven. Had he been executed 5 years earlier, when he was 37 years old, he
would have gone straight to Heaven, but he did not deserve it, as he was a
criminal. This was, Rashad Khalifa claimed, not his personal opinion, but “revelation
(?)” from Allah. He gives another
example for people who would enter Heaven, namely, Martin Luther King and
Malcolm X who were assassinated “just a couple of months before their 40s
birthdays.” Ibid., Appendix 32, p. 703. Then Rashad Khalifa stressed the
importance of observing the religious duties as our means of attaining
certainty, quoting Q. 15:99 (وَاعْبُدْ رَبَّكَ حَتَّى يَأْتِيَكَ الْيَقِينُ
(الحجر:99 which he translates as "Worship your Lord in order to
attain certainty" whereas its translation is “Worship Your Lord until (death)
which is certain has come to you”. When
a companion passed away the Prophet said that al-yaqīn, meaning “what is
certain” had come to him, namely, death.
