Welcome back!

Today’s question is: why are the stories of the Prophets very important in Makkan revelation? To what extent can we extract from them if the shari’ah (social laws) of each Prophet was different than each other?

To answer this in a nutshell, we can say that the path forward is to look back.

Let’s discuss our first point: why are these stories important to us? The Qur’an explains to us in Surah Yusuf, ayah 111: “Certainly in their stories, there is a lesson for people of reason”. The human being is different from the wild animal because we have intellect. We are naturally drawn in to storytelling and Allah ﷻ knows this. He gives us stories and pictures with essential details, not pointless fluff. These stories are not just pretty tales but a means for us to extrapolate from and absorb. It makes sense as to why these stories are purely in the Makkan Qur’an, because it was a means of strengthening the hearts of the earliest believers.

What else can we say about the stories of the Prophets? Despite having varied social laws, we know from our last lesson that the overarching message they all carried were one: “Worship Allah ﷻ Alone and avoid Taghut (the worship of false entities - Surah an-Nahl, verse 36)”. While most of their laws are not applicable to us anymore, we still carry the message and the basic practices of all preceding Prophets, which is what makes Islam superior over all religions in truth. That fact in itself was a huge reassurance for the Prophet ﷺ.

And why? Let’s paint a scene here: the Prophet ﷺ, a man of 40-something years old, once beloved by his community, now a social outcast in the path of Allah ﷻ. His own family members: have mocked him and humiliated him, old friends have abused him and tried to kill him, and the few people that follow him: considered inferior in society and subdued to intense torture, boycott and abuse. The ones who are well-off: have now been reduced to nothing in the eyes of the Makkan society; robbed of their wealth, status and dignity.

Then he receives divine revelation from Allah ﷻ; saying that thousands of men across generations and eras, treaded this path. They carried this same mission for years all while being shamed by the people they lived amongst, disowned by their families, and stripped from their dignity and respect. It was basically a message for our dear Prophet ﷺ: you are not alone and you never will be. Your hardship does not mean Allah ﷻ is angry with you. “And We certainly know that your chest is distressed by what they say” (Surah al-Hijr, 95-97).

And SubhanAllah, how reassuring it is for us as we go through life to know that the Prophets were tested with so much more than us and they are the most beloved to Allah. And that Allah is fully aware of everything happening within and around us.

And in the same surahs (chapters), the Qur’an warns the people who reject the Prophet ﷺ, saying that there were plenty of people who did that to the Messengers before him, and look how Allah ﷻ dealt with them. In the incredible stories of Prophet Ibrahim, Nuh, Lut, Saleh, Musa, Shu’ayb, Hud, Isa and his mother Maryam; we are not only understanding their struggles in the path of Allah, but the severe consequences of the people who disbelieved in them. And there are countless passages in the Qur’an narrating it.

And then there were stories of other Prophets such as Yusuf, Yunus, Adam, Sulayman, Dawud, Luqmaan, Zakariyyah: which taught us about Allah’s ﷻ immense power, perseverance during temptation, repentance, tarbiyyah (nurturing of children) and so much more!

A question for us when we read the Prophetic stories: How does the Quran speak to me through this story?

JazakumAllahu Khayran for reading :)

MA

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Let’s study our first topic together: Tawhid (the Oneness of Allah)

« Full disclaimer: I won’t repeat what is common knowledge, but I will try to discuss what we all might learn for the first time. If you have anything you would like to clarify, please comment or start a chat thread :) »

One question I have for us is: if the Quraysh believed Allah was the Creator of all, why did the Makkan Quran emphasise on the Oneness of Allah so much?

To answer this question, we need to understand the background of Arabia a little bit. The Quraysh were direct descendants of Prophet Isma’eel, and thus; Ibrahim. So naturally, a lot of the Hanifiyyah (monotheistic) practices were passed down from them. With the introduction of paganism from distant lands like Syria, Rome; the simple belief of worshipping one God was wiped away, except for a limited minority of people.

When the Prophet was given Nubawwah (Prophethood), the overarching message was to denounce idol worship and direct it only to Allah. An important thing to note is that monotheism was the message of all Prophets, not just Muhammad, so it wasn’t an entirely new concept. And the Quraysh found this concept inconceivable and refused to do so. Their argument to justify paganism was: “We only worship them so that they may bring us closer to Allah” (Surah Az-Zumar 39:3).

It was ingrained into their ancestral, cultural and even economic identity; so naturally, they fought back. What is even more mind-blowing was that they completely believed in Allah being the only Creator, as proven in the Quran: “If you asked them who created the heavens and the earth, they would surely say: ‘Allah’ (Surah Az-Zumar 39:38)”. They just didn’t believe He was the only worshipped entity out there. Plus, they had other crazy claims like Allah took the angels as daughters. Looking closely at this, we see a pattern of the Quraysh carrying out worship without any solid proof. SubhanAllah.

So, across 13 years of revelation, we had ayaat of the Qur’an continuously denouncing idol worship and showing the disbelievers how logically ridiculous it is; declaring the complete and perfect Uniqueness of Allah, He Who has no partner, son, children or fellow creators; a detailed picture of the Day of Judgement, proving the life after death; character; ethics; faith; accountability and individual and social responsibility.

If we look at the flip side, these 13 years created the absolute pioneers of the Ummah. The most faith-driven and powerful characters of Islamic history were born from these turbulent Makkan years. The social, economic, financial boycott and turmoil became the means of applying the revelation they were receiving and an increase in faith for them. This is the incredible effect of Allah’s revelation upon people who were first embracing this pure ideology. Alhamdulillah ;)

« Something for us to reflect on: How did these 13 years make it easier for the Muslims to receive the detailed laws that commenced in the Madinan period? Let’s discuss in the chat! »

JazakumAllahu Khayran for reading :)

MA

First of all, JazakumAllahu Khayran for taking the time to read my first post, I’m very excited to meet you. Please allow me to introduce myself a little bit.

I am a sister from a city in Australia (I won’t say which one) and as I approach my mid-20’s, I have found a niche amongst us busy Muslims. Many of us have the passion to learn about our deen but we simply don’t have the time to do so. Many of us have families, jobs, crazy busy lives and honestly, that’s totally fair. And for many of us, we cannot afford to compromise our time because we have massive responsibilities in which things may fall apart if not attended to. And the robust library of information on the internet does not really make it easy to determine where we should go to start our journey of Ilm. So, it is my humble intention to make this journey easy for any Muslim who is willing to start somewhere

Every week, I will be sending you a letter of Ilm that will cover basic Islamic knowledge and will be a light read of 5-15 minutes (max). In shaa Allah, as we grow on our journey together, I will add more and more complex topics, so we don’t stay in the same place for too long. I won’t say too much more as I would like for you to find out :)

This is the Ilm letter. Assalamu alaykum :)

MA

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