Lessons from Surah Baqarah: Part 1

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This Book has no doubt in it - a guidance for the God-fearing, who believe in the Unseen, and are steadfast in Salāh (prayer), and spend out of what We have provided them; (2:2-3)

• The Quran is a guidance for every single being, however it is a means of greater guidance for the pious believers. 

• Firm believers are those who: have firm iman in the unseen, pray salah, give in charity, are abstinent against shirk, kufr and sins

• There are two types of hypocrites mentioned here. The first ones being the munafiq bil iman, who in the time of the prophet ﷺ were those who had accepted Islam in name only, with intentions to harm the muslims 

• They feigned belief because of their greed of the world, which is a lesson to us to protect our hearts from the disease of love of the dunya, which is the root to our motivation behind sin

• The second hypocrites are munafiq bil amar, these are those who don’t practice what they preach; they have knowledge, yet they willingly disobey  

• Being a devoted worshiper entails that a person strives to spend their day and night in obedience, limiting their worldly activities to the limits set by Allah

• Our fitrah is to believe in Allah as our Rabb. It is distorted by our environment and nurturing

• Iman, belief in Allah, needs to be coupled with righteous actions 

• When we study the Quran with an open heart, we find it a treasure, recognizing the truth of revelation. Consequently, if we study it with malice or discord, it will become a source of misguidance for us

• The human soul craves permeance, companionship and beauty, all of which are promised to us by Allah in Jannah

• The fasiqeen, the disobedient ones and the sinful ones are those who: break the pledges, cut off relations, and spread discord

• the pledge here refers to the intrinsic intelligence which every being has to recognize Allah and obey Him as their Rabb. This pledge may also refer to the pledge all souls made before they were sent into the world, when they attested to Allah being their Lord

• cutting off relations refers to one's relationship with Allah, and one's relationship with fellow humans; we are to discharge the rights of people 

• Allah determines the family and circumstances we are born in, our test is how well we perform given what we have. Our test is unique to each one of us, but the answers to which are always in the sunnah

• Spreading discord and corruption refers to stealing the rights of others, inflicting harm on them, rejecting and mocking tawheed. To be unlike such people, we should be mindful about our purpose of creation, and not be a source of bad

• Allah created Adam عليه السلام as a representative on this earth, a viceroy. So we must try to keep this in mind and live our lives in such a manner

• An etiquette of a seeker of knowledge is to express our gratitude to Allah for what He has given us, and express and admit what we don’t know

• The reason Allah commanded the angels to prostrate to Adam عليه السلام was to establish the superiority of man over the angels. The trait that elevates man is the knowledge Allah blessed him with

• The scholars say that a man who seeks a simple life in obedience surpasses the honor of angels, since angels have no free will

• The reason Iblees refused to prostrate to Adam عليه السلام was due to his own arrogance, his insolence

• He had been worshiping Allah for so long, but one moment of arrogance put his years of worship to waste. He went from being a devout servant to an enemy

• Arrogance is a disease that can enter our hearts in many ways, some being in a better position than others in wealth, status, skill or rank. This elevated rank in the dunya can make us full of ourselves, and then manifests in subtle ways, like: showing off our wealth, desire to be the center of attention, body language that demeans others, exaggerating one’s achievements, being habitual in interrupting others, wanting things to be done in their way, having unrealistic expectations from others, being quick to taunt and humiliate others

• We must guard our heart against arrogance, because it can ruin our deen and dunya

• To counter arrogance, we should engage in self reflection; be so focused on improving your own flaws, that you don’t look towards gloating about your strengths, accept and acknowledge your mistakes, be the one to apologize first, make peace with others, be the one to offer Salaam first, and do tasks you would have considered ‘beneath you’