Surah Baqarah Verses 206-207

And of the people is he whose speech pleases you in worldly life, and he calls Allāh to witness as to what is in his heart, yet he is the fiercest of opponents.

And when he goes away, he strives throughout the land to cause corruption therein and destroy crops and animals. And Allāh does not like corruption.

And when it is said to him, "Fear Allāh," pride in the sin takes hold of him. Sufficient for him is Hellfire, and how wretched is the resting place.

The Quran is full of imagery and these ayahs paint a picture of a person who is extremely selfish, who is hypocritical. It shows us a portrait of a mischief maker, whose mentality is “me myself and I”.

Sometimes when we read such ayahs we read it from a third person perspective, we become desensitized and we think it is not about me, but each and every ayah of the Quran should be read as though it was revealed to you!

The mentality that is conveyed to us today is :“Do whatever you want , you live only once”, but here Allah is reminding us to take account of our actions, for Whatever we do, has a domino effect- it affects ourselves, family, and eventually society as a whole.

Many times we try to impress people with our “Honeyed speech”, our quest in life is Pleasure of people, These ayahs teach us that if a person doesn’t break his ego he increases in sin. Arrogance is a means of increase in sin. It causes a person to be argumentative, condescending , deceptive etc, If a person doesn’t break his ego in this world- his ego will be broken in the hellfire- Al Huthamah- the crusher that will not only break him physically but also break his pride .

These ayahs taught me that I need to take account of my actions NOW before I am taken to account by Allah swt in the Akhira

Verse 207- In this Ayah we see a completely different personality- one who gives up himself to seek the approval of Allah. The Quran is of perfect balance, in the previous ayahs Allah swt tells us whom we shouldn’t be like and in this ayah Allah swt tells us the personality which we should adopt

The First personality is of a hypocrite who hoards all for himself, and the personality that is depicted here is of a person who gives up everything for Allah!

In order to gain Allah’s pleasure we need to give up something that we love. In surah Ale Imran ayah 92 Allah says “You will never attain piety unless you spend from that which you love”

2 different personalities and two different outcomes

“Me My self and I” attitude ========== Jahannam is the resting place- the word mihad – a cradle – is used which shows divine sarcasm

Allah above all – sells oneself for Allah ======= Allah’s Kindness, successful trade, Allah’s pleasure

What is most beloved to a person is his own self!... if you love your child it is because he/she is your child, if you Love your spouse it is because he brings comfort to you, whatever we love is because it brings comfort to us..so we learn that If you sacrifice what you love the most – which is your own self, Allah will be pleased with you, and Allah’s pleasure is the greatest gift for a believer!

Remember Our spiritual condition in this world will be our physical condition in the Akhirah!

Farah Ahamed

Online Student
Taleem Al Quran 2009