Praise be to God, the Lord of all worlds, and blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad. At the start of Surah Al-Baqarah, the hypocrites are discussed. The Surah begins by describing the qualities of the righteous, followed by two verses about the disbelievers, then it moves on to describe the hypocrites. After highlighting some traits of the hypocrites, God, the Exalted, presents two groups of hypocrites through beautiful parables. This is what we’ll explore today, God willing. Join us as we continue our series on the interpretation of the Qur’an. We began with Surah Al-Baqarah, and we’ve gone over Surah Al-Fatiha several times before. All these lessons are available on our YouTube channel.
If you want to dive deep into interpreting the Quran right from the start and really get to know its core teachings to help you understand, grasp, and apply them in your studies, stay connected by subscribing to our YouTube channel and joining our Telegram group. I also have another channel with short, two-minute lessons about the Quran that I highly recommend you check out. There, we go over Quran recitation and discuss the rules of Tajweed. Today, we’ll start with verse 17, where God compares a group of hypocrites to a man who lights a fire that illuminates everything around him, but as soon as God extinguishes its light…
They’re plunged into complete darkness where they can’t see a thing. Let’s start by looking at the word “hypocrite.” We’ll examine the language God Almighty used to illustrate the example of hypocrites here. You’ll notice a word in red, “misal.” “Misal” is used for making comparisons or similes, and it appears twice here. Also, there’s another word that might look like just a letter, but Arabic often has whole words made up of a single letter—that word is “kaf.” “Kaf” in “kamasal” is also used for making comparisons. So, you see, God Almighty is giving us a metaphor.
Using two words: “misal” and “kaaf.” In Arabic, the most common word for comparing or likening two things is “kaaf.” There are several words for comparison in Arabic, but the most common one is “kaaf.” There’s also “misal.” The word “kaaf” is the most frequently used. It’s used for making a simple comparison between two things. Let’s look at an example. For instance, someone might say, “Khalid is an lion,” or “Khalid is like a lion,” meaning he’s like a lion.
We can call this type of comparison a simple one—there’s something on the right and something on the left, so it’s a comparison between two things on either side. Similarly, the words “مُسَلْن” and “مَسَل” are also used for comparisons when the comparison is really simple. But the word “مَسَل” has a special use. Now we’ll see when the word “مَسَل” is used. Although it’s used for comparisons, it’s used in special cases. What are those? First and foremost, the word “مَسَل” is used to describe an amazing or excellent situation because such a situation…
It’s used as a metaphor. If you have an event, there’s something really special about it that can later be used as a metaphor. It’s possible to use it that way. Whether it’s used as a metaphor or not, there’s something great about it. And because it can be used as a metaphor, it’s called a simile. For example, we used to read a story in our childhood books. It’s about a Scottish king who, after being defeated by England six times, took refuge in a cave. He felt really disappointed when he saw a spider trying to weave its web there, failing six times and falling repeatedly. On the seventh try, the spider climbed up and managed to weave the web. Seeing this, the king got inspired.
Fighting for the seventh time and winning. I think many of us read or heard about this incident somewhere in our childhood or at some point in life. So, what does this amazing event look like? It’s an incident that can be compared to perseverance and patience, which is why such incidents are called “masa’il” (matters) in Arabic. As you can see, the word “masa’il” is used when it’s not just one simple thing, but something complex happening—a series of events, maybe even multiple things. Another use is that “masa’il” refers to rhetorical phrases people use to describe the greatness of an event.
There’s something beautiful, amazing, useful, and inspiring about it. A well-spoken person managed to express it in a sentence or phrase. Because of that, people started using it, and it’s not limited to just that incident—it’s also called a “matter” or “issue.” For example, the nice phrase is “al-mardool wal-mayzahāl.” Like I said, Arabic is all about eloquent expressions. Does the word “al-ma’ad” mean being an enemy to someone you don’t even know? It’s more like a proverb, because in different situations you can use this phrase to highlight the reality of the situation—you can definitely use it.
Whenever you see someone scared of a person, a group, or something else, it’s usually because they don’t know anything about it. What is it? What does it do? What kind of person is that? What’s their goal? What do they think? Yeah, since they don’t know any of that, they might be afraid of it. Let me give you an example. Say I saw an old man in my neighborhood struggling to carry two bags. He was really having a hard time holding them. I stepped up to help and he gave me one of the bags. Maybe he didn’t know me since he was new to the area. Everyone else around there knew me, but since this guy didn’t know me, he…
He’s suspicious of me. I’m afraid this person might run off with my bag. So, what can we do here using the phrase “al-Murr wa al-Mawla”? We can express this situation in a clever and elegant way. These kinds of phrases are called “mishrat.” That’s why the word “mishrat” is used to compare things or events to a set of other things or events. Now, let’s go back to what I said earlier—that the origin of the word “mishrat” comes from comparison. Since this word is used to describe a comprehensive event, the simple comparison we saw just now when Khalid said “kal asad” (like a lion) is an example of the “kaaf” word (like/as) being used.
It’s not commonly used. The word “mishrat” comes up when you’re talking about a sequence of events—like when some things or events happen, and they’re compared to something more complex, involving one or several things and some conditions. “Mishrat” is used to compare these two things: the event and the group of things. The word means “simile” or “comparison.” But since a beautiful description is called a simile even if it’s not used as an example, the letter “kaf” is added to this simile. So, for instance, when describing hypocrites pretending to be perfect, God compares them to someone who’s lit a fire…
After lighting it, everything around lit up, but they saw neither benefit nor harm in its light. God took away its light and left them in darkness, leaving those around unable to see anything. What you’re seeing here is the presence of one or more people. Here there’s fire. Here there’s darkness. Here it’s night. There’s light there. And after the lighting, the darkness returns. Then there’s a sequence of events. It’s not something physical. What can this be compared to? Is it just a metaphor for hypocrites? Isn’t it comparing their state? Why do they make this comparison? First, they embraced Islam, and through Islam they saw right and wrong, halal and haram, the path to paradise and the path to hell, gain and loss. Then they pretended.
They were hypocrites who openly declared their Islam but hid disbelief in their hearts. That’s their situation. It’s a description of a state, not just something physical. Here, when we compare things, we’re looking at a sequence of events. Yeah, there are lots of details in this kind of comparison where a metaphor is used. And if someone asks, “What does the metaphor mean? And why is the letter ‘kaaf’ used?” — it’s because the word “metaphor” is really useful; it’s used to explain any description of an event, whether it’s literally a metaphor or not. That’s why the ‘kaaf’ is there, to emphasize the metaphor. I’ve briefly explained some complex points of Arabic rhetoric, and I did it for you in a nicer way.
In Ibn Ashar’s Tafsir, and you’ll also find some of it in Abi Saud’s Tafsir, plus in other older Tafsirs, these rhetorical topics are explained in more detail. I’ve explained them as much as I could in Bengali. I told you why this kind of simile is used, so even when a simile comes like this, you’ll understand that what’s happening between two very complex things is a comparison, and then they’re being “likened” (like in “likened”). For example, a person like God. “Istiqdam” means lighting a fire, so I put a description of the scene in parentheses, because it’s not just a simple simile, but a description of their situation. How is the stance of that amazing person like the stance of…
Who started the fire? God explains through the example of summoning that summoning may have started the fire. I wrote this in simple Bengali. Their example is like a person who lit the fire, and when it was lit, the one who lit it shone, and the fire lit up everything around it. Let’s look at the meaning of “around it” first. “Around it” means everything surrounding it. “It” refers to the surroundings of the person who lit the fire, which here is explained by the word “what,” meaning everything around him. So, it means “what’s around him.” In Arabic, the word “ma” often repeats in the Quran. But here, we saw many “mas.” We may have also seen a “negative ma.”
The phrase “yes” is used in a negative way. The sentences mean that when the word “source” appears in the form “mata,” we’ve seen that too. These are our chapters. If you look back at the discussions and notes, you might remember them or maybe not. So, usually, we don’t really want to review. On our way to gaining knowledge, as they say, to become memorizers or to master any science. Theology says this, jurisprudence says that, interpretation says this, and hadith says that—the main obstacle is that we don’t really want to review. Usually, reviewing is what helps you retain knowledge. Hallelujah, when that fire lit up everything around it, the word “came,” if you look…
Just a bit—what’s going on is that it’s actually in the past tense with this word “أتى” (“came”), and it’s feminine. Why is the feminine form used here? Because whoever lit it is referenced by “who.” Who’s the subject here? It’s the fire. The word “نار” (fire) is feminine in Arabic. That’s why, and that’s the grammar rule. It’s hard to explain why exactly. Why is the word “fire” feminine? Well, in Arabic, you just have to remember these things using specific patterns. You need to know them, like for example, “شمس” (sun) is feminine, and so on.
“Qamar” is masculine. That means it should’ve been the other way around. “Shams” should be masculine, and “Qamar” feminine. Some might think that. But actually, the language rule is different. Language evolves with how people use it. So here, the word is “and” (meaning “at” or “when”). The verb is “this,” and it’s in the past tense. Yeah. One thing to remember here is that these are all conditional sentences. For example, here “when” means “when the fire lit up everything around it.” We’ll do this later and make the sentence smooth in Bengali. But I wrote it now to make it easier to understand. So, if…
There was a sentence with “when,” and that’s a conditional sentence. When this happens, then if that happens, this will happen. These sentences are called conditional sentences in Arabic. You need to be careful when using conditional sentences because the tense—the time the action happens—doesn’t work exactly the same way. It’s true that the verb here is in the passive form, which usually shows the past, but what does it mean in a conditional sentence? It actually gives a sense of the present. We’ve seen this before with words like “idh” and “ʿindamā,” or “falām,” where they actually refer to the future.
In sentences where two actions happen, the verbs are often in the past tense, but the meaning refers to the present or future. So, that’s why we didn’t write “enlightened” one way, but wrote it this way here. When “enlightened” means what God created around him, it implies that the person who kindled the fire, meaning God, showed mercy and left. Here, it’s “God went,” not “God took,” because there’s a “ba” (a preposition) before “mercy.” There are three words here: this “ba,” which is key, means taking something. When combined with “ba,” the meaning is: who took from God? It’s understood that God took their light—he, they, God took their light.
Here, we noticed your question, and you’ll see that it was singular at first, then became plural again. How’s that? The reason is the word “Allah.” If we go back a bit, the word “Allah”—just like their pronouns—this word “Allah” is literally singular, but in terms of meaning, it’s vast, so it can express a plural idea. So, even though it’s literally said as one, when we say “the door of Allah is between mercy,” using “they” makes it clear that it’s meant as a group. This is how the word “Allah” works.
The word “Allah” is called “Isma’il” in grammar. In Arabic linguistics or terminology, what’s called Isma’il has the characteristic that, although it looks singular, its meaning is broad and includes many. That’s why the mention of their descendants comes later, and the plural form appears here. “Allah took their light” means it’s not referring to just one person, but a group. The words “they left them” mean abandonment—they abandoned them. In this context, injustice comes in varying degrees of darkness, because the word “zulm” (injustice) is the plural of “zulmah” (darkness). “Zulmah” is the singular form.
The word “darkness” comes from the plural “ظلمة”. In varying degrees of darkness, God Almighty abandoned them. The phrase “لا يبرن” is actually one complete phrase, but it clarifies the situation—it shows their condition when He abandoned them. That’s why I put it in parentheses in the context of “لا يبرن”, meaning “they do not see.” Here, the word “يُبْسُرُون” is derived from “أَبْسَرَا” and “فِلما”, both past tense verbs meaning “he saw,” and “إِبْسَرَو”, also meaning “they saw.” When we add “ون” it becomes “يُبْرُون.” So, “إِبْسَرَوُون” means “يُبْرُون.” Therefore, “لا يُبْسُرُون” means “they do not see.” That’s how it works.
The verse came to us complete. They’re compared to someone who lit a fire. As soon as the fire lit up everything around him, God took away the light, leaving him in total darkness so he couldn’t see a thing. Here, we’re talking about a hypocrite who believed at first, then became part of the hypocrites’ group. After believing, he went back to disbelief. He embraced disbelief but didn’t show it because he wanted to enjoy the benefits of living in a Muslim society. In this case, lighting the fire means being enlightened by the light of Islam. God gives us this comparison, and we need to reflect on what kind of comparison He means. God wants us to think deeply about the meanings in the Quran. And here, of course, we figured that out ourselves. It’s not the comparison itself that’s the point, but the hint that’s given here.
The meaning derived from the interpretations of the early scholars and reliable commentaries is that these scholars had already thought about this matter, and our job is to benefit from their insights. In this context, lighting the fire symbolizes being enlightened by the light of Islam. So first, he was able to light the fire, which scattered the darkness around him, allowing him to see his surroundings, understand what is good and evil, and know what is lawful and forbidden. Then the fire goes out—does that mean they return to the darkness of hypocrisy and ignorance? When they chose disbelief, God took away their light, and they were deprived of guidance because of their choice of disbelief, as God says in another verse, Surah Al-Munafiqun, verse 3.
“Because they disbelieved after they had believed, so their hearts were sealed and they do not understand.” This is the situation with some hypocrites. What’s their state? They believed, they embraced Islam, and through its light, they recognized what’s true and what’s false. But then when they turned back to disbelief, what happened? They became wise, ignorant, and uneducated all at once. The word “blind” (summun) originally comes from the plural “asam,” which is used to describe an educated person (bodhi) called “asam” here. Since there are many plurals, forms like “saman” and “bukman” came about, with the singular being “abkam.” And their plural is also “bukman.” Because there are many…
“Umin” means blind, and “Umun” means a group of blind people. “Samman,” “Bukman,” and “Umiyon” mean they are blind and mute. “Fahum” means “Sababia,” which refers to having a connection with someone. So, “fahum la” means no connection. The Yarjoon won’t come back. The word “yarz” comes from “femar,” meaning return. “Yarz” is the future tense. “Yarjoon” means they will come back or return. “Lajun” means they won’t come back. They won’t return because they are blind and mute.
The interpreters said that hypocrites are deaf to the word of guidance, unable to speak the truth and blind to seeing it. Their condition is that they are said to be deaf to guidance. They might hear the recitation of the Quran, but its teachings don’t benefit them because it only enters through their ears. They’re incapable of speaking the truth with their mouths and blind to seeing it, even though God has given them sight. That’s their situation. Now, a new word comes up. “Or” means “or” combined with “and,” generally meaning inclusively. So, what does “or” mean? It means generally. And now another analogy is given to them. The interpreters said some believe this doesn’t describe the same group, but…
It’s said in two ways. Some say this isn’t the case for another group. And that’s actually correct, by God’s will—it really applies to a different group. Because we’ll see this analogy is totally different. God gives all these amazing analogies in the Quran so people will reflect. “All of them except the knowledgeable.” But God says, “Only the wise truly understand.” So, in the past, if some scholars didn’t get an analogy, they’d get annoyed and say, “I didn’t understand.” That meant they couldn’t count themselves among the scholars. Oka Siapin or their state is kind of like disbelief, you know what I mean. We know this. Siap.
Siab means rain in a water stream called Siab. Or that their current situation is like vents. It’s said that the situation of another group is the same. Aren’t they the same group? Yes, Kasibin Musladar is like rain from the sky. “From” means from the sky. The sky means the sky. From sky to sky. Musladar is like rain. There’s something. Yes, there’s something. What does “there’s” mean? In this rain, I mean in this rain. Here means with the rain. Yes, what is there? Two signs. A little while ago, I saw a lot of darkness. Thunder is thunder. The sound made during thunder is called thunder, and the light, which is the lightning, is called lightning. So, rain is from God. The rain falls. Yes.
A dark night. Think about the rain. Pouring rain. Yeah, there are many kinds of darkness. The darkness of night. The darkness of clouds. Then comes the roar of thunder. The sound of thunder and lightning. The flash of lightning. What are they doing now, little ones? They’re putting their fingers in their ears. Why are they scared of the sound? The sound of thunder. And the flashes of lightning. They’re afraid of the flashes. How do you put your fingers? In your ears? “Jala” means to put or placed in the past. “Yazlu yahfaz,” “yazluun” means they keep or they save. What do they keep? Their fingers coming. “Al-Asabi” means fingers. This is “Asab.” What I wrote in parentheses is usually written like this, with an alif after the “sadda.” This is the usual way to write it.
But in the Quran, it’s written with a small straight alif to make it easier for you to understand. That’s why I wrote it like this. When you write in a notebook and learn the language, you’ll write it like that. So, “Asab” is the plural of fingers. Where do they put their fingers? In their ears. “Adhan” means their ears. “Hum” means their “them.” “Baheem.” This meaning has been repeated many times. We must have memorized it for a long time. “Hum.” “Baheem” means “them.” “Adhan” means their ears. The word “Adhan” is plural. “Ozon” means one ear. “Ozon” is the plural of “Adhan.” So, how do they put their fingers in their ears? “Muna.” “S.” This means not from Muna. But this is because it’s understood that “Sawa” means. The singular form of thunder is “Saweik.” Here the same thing is written like this, but…
In the Quran, the letter Alif isn’t written like this; instead, a small Alif is used to represent it. Here, the phrase would be “Sawik minni Sawik.” Because of the thunder, the word “stone” means a warning. “Death” means death. We know that “stone death” means death. So why do they put their fingers in their ears when hearing a warning about death? Simply put, death caused by thunder. They cover their ears out of fear, saying, “No disbeliever will be changed,” but God surrounds the disbelievers. Here, the word “wa’ata” means “to surround” or “to encompass.” The verb “ahta” also means “to surround.” So, the Surrounder…
The word “muhatteen” comes paired with “ahta.” These are the disbelievers. The disbelievers are surrounded by God. This is like a marriage. It means that God has put them, the disbelievers, completely within His power and knowledge. They’re not outside His power or knowledge. No matter what they do, they’re just plugging their ears. The word for being surrounded is “muhta,” as in “God is muhta over the disbelievers.” God surrounds the disbelievers. The word “kafir” (disbeliever) is familiar to us—when someone is called a kafir. The plural can be “kafireen” or “kafiroon.” Sometimes it’s said “kafiroon” with a “oon,” and other times “kafireen” with “een.” That’s it.
It’s a grammar issue, but the meaning is the same, so there won’t be any confusion in understanding. Added to that is “Al-Kafirun” (the disbelievers), saying that God encompasses all disbelievers. Whether they’re hypocrites or not, all kinds of disbelievers are under God’s control. So what’s the full meaning? It’s like heavy rain pouring down from the sky, supported by many things. Here, too, the plural “al-jalumat” appears—referring to the roar of thunder and the flash of lightning. They put their fingers in their ears, afraid of dying from the thunder. God is the one who surrounds the disbelievers. “Yuqaddirun barahum” means the flash of lightning—”barq” is lightning.
We’ve seen this before. “Abhum” means their sight, “bij” means removal, “yuqaddirun” means removal, “bij” means removal, the lightning flash, it almost was removed—not actually removed, but almost removed. First, the word “yakhtafu” comes from “khatafa.” The past form is “khatafa.” “Akhadha yakhtafu.” Here, not “here,” but “Allah, not here, here,” means “bless.” It took the lightning flash. “Khatafa” means to take away. “Yakhtafu” means to take something. “Yakadu” means it almost takes something. When…
When someone says “yakadu,” it means something almost happened but didn’t. For example, if they say “yakadu,” the opposite means it actually happened. It’s pretty interesting. Like, if you say a child is walking, meaning he just learned to walk. It means he’s walking and might fall, but he didn’t fall. Then they say “yakadawi yaskut.” “Yakadawi yaskut” means he was about to fall but didn’t. And if you say “I threw something with a lot of effort,” it means you didn’t want to fall. You could say you were trying to throw a statue on the ground.
The statue that I’m going to smash to the ground. After a lot of effort, when it finally fell, the word “Lakadouyasto” means it almost didn’t fall, but in the end, it did. So, if the word “Yakadou” is there, it means the event actually didn’t happen. If the word “La” is there, it means it did happen. That’s how you should understand it. “Yakadou” means the event didn’t happen but almost did. “Ala” means the event happened but almost didn’t. Like, the lightning flash almost took their sight. But it didn’t. But losing their sight was close. “Basar” means eyesight. The full plural form is “Absar.”
This word is also written like this, usually in writing style. But in the Quran, it’s written with a small alif. So, the pronunciation of “absar” remains the same. What happens in the light of lightning? Their sight is almost like they go blind. “Kalamalahum” when the word “kalam” means “word.” Every time or whenever, it means like this. They are illuminated. That means in the lightning’s light, when the lightning flashes, “mushafin” means in this light, in this. Yeah, I didn’t explain it in detail. “Fi” means in the middle of it, in this light, in this, what do they do in this light?
“They ‘follow the path.’ That means when lightning flashes, what do they do in that light? The path means walking. The word ‘mashaoon’ means ‘he walks’ or ‘he walked.’ If it comes with a ‘waw’ (و), it means ‘they walk.’ ‘Mashaoon’ means ‘they walk.’ Since this is also a conditional sentence, even though it’s in the past tense. ‘Mashaoon’ is a verb in the past tense and refers to more than one person. That’s why ‘mashaoon’ comes with the ‘waw,’ which is called the plural ‘waw.’”
Past tense means they are walking on the road. Why did I say the sentence with “kulama” is a conditional sentence when the road is lit? That’s why the word “filamba” appears here in the past tense, but does that mean present tense? When the road is lit, they walk on it. “Ulamahu” stands when it gets dark. When “Alam Adhar” is a name like “Alaa,” it means “Adharnama.” I just saw “Azlama” a little while ago; “Jalma” means darkness, easy to remember. “Alam” means darkness.
“Azlama” means “they definitely will” when talking about them. They come down, stand, pause, past tense, past tense, past tense with a “waw,” meaning they stood, “waw,” they stood, but since it’s a conditional sentence, that’s why it’s in the present tense. When it’s the active participle of them, “they stand,” and “lawsha Allah la” means “if only” or “if”—this is also a conditional sentence. That’s why with “sha,” it expresses desire in the past tense, but we translated it in the present tense, like saying “God would want,” or “if God willed.” We’ve seen this several times already. “Siham” means their hearing, their ability to hear, their sight, their hearing and sight—hearing and sight. God would go if He willed.
He was going to take their hearing and sight; they wouldn’t have been able to see or hear. This “lamtār” is a conditional phrase. If that’s the case, then it’s like this. It’s for understanding, to connect the two parts. Yeah, in a conditional sentence, there’s a particle called the condition—what we call “al-shart” (the condition). So in a sentence, there’s a condition and a result. What if you said, “I would’ve killed you”? What if you said, “What if I had killed you”? What’s the condition here? What if you said, “What if I had killed you”? The letter “lam” comes in to link the condition to the result, and it doesn’t have an independent meaning by itself. That’s because these two parts are called the “condition” in Arabic grammar.
And the result is the “condition.” To connect these two parts, we use “if not.” So, if the word starts with the letter “L,” like the Arabic “la,” for example, if you say, “I was going to kill you,” what do you say in Arabic? Or “the no-do”? Did you say, “I was going to kill you”? Here, with the original “labtaka,” it’s the same way, “If God had willed,” meaning if God had wanted to take away their sight and hearing. If God had wanted, He would have taken their hearing and sight. Indeed, God is capable of everything. The word “capable” means everything, and “capable”…
“‘Qawi’ means strong, and ‘ala’ means above, so God is capable of everything. This word means that the lightning’s flash almost blinds them. Every time the lightning flashes, they follow its light, but when the thunder strikes, they freeze. If God willed, He could block their hearing and sight. God is able to do all things. This is another example of the hypocrites. What’s the comparison here? It’s a comparison to rain. Interestingly, the previous example was a comparison to fire, but this time it’s rain. This rain is like the Quran that God sent down. The Quran is like beneficial rain coming from the sky that people benefit from, but the hypocrites don’t benefit from this good rain because there’s darkness with it. So, what is this darkness?”
Are those darknesses? And is the darkness one, or are there many darknesses? This refers to disbelief, doubt, confusion, and fear of being exposed in the hypocrite’s heart. The metaphor is like rain falling on a dark night. A traveler in this rain becomes dangerous on the road. Why? Because of the darkness. But in the case of hypocrites, when the Quran is revealed, it doesn’t benefit them. What’s in their hearts? There’s disbelief, doubt—they’re suspicious about the Quran—and they’re mixed up with confusion and fear of being exposed. They’re afraid they might be hypocrites, and they know they’ve hidden their true selves. So when the Quran is revealed and their truth is suddenly uncovered, their identity is exposed. Or an ayah (verse) comes down with a command, and it becomes hard on them. It’s a prohibition.
It’s tough for a hypocrite. Knowing the commands and prohibitions of the Quran is a sign of faith. A believer understands that God commands and forbids things in the Quran, which encourages them and strengthens their faith. This is one of the signs of a true believer. A believer doesn’t read the Quran out of fear that God will see what He commands and forbids and then punish them for not doing or avoiding it. That’s why many say there’s no need to understand the Quran. If you understand it, it’s dangerous; if you don’t, it’s good; and if you don’t understand it, just keep reading. But yes, if you do understand the Quran, you must accept it immediately. If you don’t accept it after understanding it, that’s evidence against you. That’s true. If I don’t accept it after understanding, it goes against me. But if I don’t understand it…
The Quran will never work in my favor. If I don’t try to understand it, it will never be on my side. The mistake lies right here. That’s true. Simply put, a believer’s sign is that when a new Surah is revealed, their faith grows. Wow, I just learned a new verse—how does faith increase? Reading a verse means something in it encourages belief, so they believe more, and their faith grows; or they fear something, so their fear grows, they become more God-conscious, and their faith increases. Or hope and love for God are created, so faith grows. Or when they’re commanded to do something, their faith increases by following it. Or when they’re told not to do something, if they do it first and then stop after hearing the Quranic verses, their faith grows.
Glory be to God. Read the Quran, and a believer’s faith will definitely grow stronger. But what about the hypocrite? Is the hypocrite scared that someone might order them around, tell them what to do, command them to fight, or expose who they really are? That’s their darkness. This rain is like darkness. So, is the rain the Quran? No, the darkness is the state of their heart. Then, the words of the Quran scare the hypocrite like the sound of thunder. That’s why people say there’s darkness in this rain. What else? What does the sound of thunder mean? The sound of the Quran is really frightening for them. Because their hearts are full of fear, they’re afraid an ayah will be revealed about them that exposes who they really are. So, it’s like they want to escape the sound of thunder—can they really escape? No, they can’t even protect themselves from lightning by plugging their ears.
If lightning strikes him, putting his fingers in his ears won’t save him. That’s how hypocrites are. They might avoid listening to the Quran, but they won’t escape God’s punishment. So, what’s their situation because of the light in the Quran? People see the path by that light. What does a believer do in the light of the Quran? It guides them on the right path. But look at the hypocrites. Just like a flash of lightning can blind someone with weak eyesight, people usually see the lightning’s light, especially if their vision is poor, and they can’t look right at it. In the same way, hypocrites catch a glimpse of the way through the light of the Quran. In other words, the Quran’s light isn’t a constant light for them.
Why? Because of their poor eyesight, their problems, and their weak faith. They don’t always see the path clearly through the light of the Quran. Sometimes they might grasp the truth or say something right, but they can’t move from darkness into light by following the Quran. That’s why it’s said that someone walking in the dark on a rainy night has poor vision. When a little rain falls, they might take a step or two and then stop. Do you think they’ll reach their destination that way? They just won’t get it. Similarly, hypocrites can’t move from darkness into the light of guidance through the Quran. They quickly fall back into doubt and suspicion, standing there as if darkness has enveloped them.
If God wills, He could take away their sight and hearing at any moment. We belong to God. And God has power over everything. We ask God, the Exalted, to grant us understanding of the examples in the Holy Quran and benefit from them. Let’s avoid being like the hypocrites. Let’s compare ourselves to these verses to see if our behavior resembles theirs. We claim to be Muslim, but we don’t stick to any part of it. We’re afraid to learn any of its rulings. The Quran and Hadith might mean something to us in part, but we don’t want to know more because we don’t want to accept it. We ask God not to make us like that. We ask God, the Exalted, to help us all bring out every darkness, sin, and evil from the darkness with the light of the Quran and its guidance.
Goodness in this life and the hereafter. Glory to God, praise God, I bear witness to God, I ask God for forgiveness.