SURAH AL-BAQARAH
Ayah 3.
الَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْغَيْبِ وَيُقِيمُونَ الصَّلاةَ وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَاهُمْ يُنفِقُونَ
Who believe in the unseen, establish prayer
and of what We have provided for them, they spent.
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Before we start explaining about this ayah, we’ll take a quick look at the “theme” of these first few ayaat.
The theme of these first few ayaat is regarding = the heart.
Ayah 2 mentions = “No doubt” and “Taqwa” = which are in the heart.
Ayah 3 mentions “the unseen” which is also believing via the heart (not with the eyes, ears, etc ).
At the early stage in the Qur’an, Allah puts our atttention to our own hearts. How pure is your heart before we embark on this journey of understanding His message.
The main theme of this 2nd Surah is “eeman” (believing in your heart). After the brain has processed the logical truth, “eeman” enters the heart.
The main theme of the 3rd Surah is “Islam” (the way of life)
After you have obtained solid faith, then behaving following the way of Islam comes naturally.
"Who believe in the unseen"
“yu’minuuna” = "they believe" (verb: present/future tense)
Those who currently believes and those who have the potential to believe in time to come.
Why mention the “unseen”? People has no problem when physical things are presented to them, but not all people can believe in something that they can’t see.
People of Taqwa who believe in the unseen are convinced that the unseen exists. That is why they are fearful and looking for safety.
Your Creator, the Angels, “Syaithan” the devil, Heaven and Hell are all unseen. However billions of people believe that the world of the “unseen” exists, including the Jews, Christians and other ancient religions, etc.
Therefore to embark on this journey, you must first have no problem in believing that the unseen world exists.
– A religion that is only based on Faith with no Logic is not a religion from Allah.
– A religion that is based only on Logic with no Faith is not a religion from Allah.
Islam is based on “Facts (logic) and Faith”.
Faith in the “revelations”. The revelation is talking about “unseen” things.
People of Taqwa are super-convinced of their Master. Someone who is backbiting another person will stop immediately when he is reminded that the Master is listening. Someone will stop stealing if he remembers that the “Unseen” Master is watching.
"establish the prayer"
Only those who believe in the unseen and having Taqwa will “establish” Solah (prayer). Allah said “establish prayer” not “perform prayer”. When you “perform”, it can be a one time event. When you “establish prayer”, it is a lifelong establishment on your part. The first fruit of “eeman” is the establishment of “Solah”.
Imagine a security guard working 12 hours in the night. He is supposed to be alert all the time or else a robber, etc. will enter. Naturally he will gradually loose his alertness after some time. He needs something to “boost” him back to a state of alertness again. Maybe he drinks coffee or set an alarm clock schedule.
The same goes with “Eeman” and “Taqwa”. You need that scheduled “boost” to remind you. You need the Solah, the scheduled connection to your Master. If you have none, then naturally you will “doze” off, drifting away from being a person of Taqwa towards understanding a deviated concept of the religion.
“Solah” same as “Silah” meaning “connection”.
Our scheduled connection to Allah = 5 times every 24 hours. To be in remembrance of the unseen takes an extra effort as compared to remembrance of the seen world. To take precautions from the dangers of the unseen world is easily overlooked as compared to taking precautions of the seen world. Solah is our daily reminder.
Allah emphasized “Solah” here to show us how important “Solah” is for us in the course of our lives. In “Solah”, we keep repeating “guide us in the straight path”. We need constant guidance in behaving the “right way” against behaving the “wrong way”. Those who truly believe in the unseen, will keep on doing Solah. The “Wrong way” maybe something that you enjoy while the “Right way” maybe something that you despised. Solah will be your daily reminder in this life.
Solah is a constant direct connection to the Almighty God. A best friend is one whom you have constant connection with him. If you only communicate with a friend once every two years, he is not your best friend. Since you maintained continuous communication with your best friend and if a day comes while no one has seen him, you will begin to worry.
The same goes with Solah. If one day goes by without you having any communication with your Lord, you will turn into panic.
Your constant communication (solah) with Allah in whatever circumstances or where ever you are, is a discipline that maintains your Taqwa. A person who never do his Solah will have the danger of Taqwa leaving him.
The act of worshiping is a physical activity which can be “seen” while the connectivity of the slave to the Master is in the “unseen” world. Hence both worlds are in motion during Solah.
The food on your plate exists because of factors occurring in the unseen world. Allah provided you with “rizq” (provisions).
"and what we have provided for them"
Allah has provided for us all the things we need to survive. The word mentioned is in the first person form (not second or third person) meaning He takes the credit Himself for providing you with the salary that you get, the food & water that you eat and drink, your health, a roof over your head, etc.
This ayah is talking about the “unseen” but why is it that “seen” things are mentioned?
Your food, your salary, etc. all these are “seen” things for the people. People of Taqwa understand that out of all those “seen” things, there is an “unseen” force/power that is in control. Allah maintained them for you day in and day out. Allah gave you these “seen” things and He can take them away from you too.
We have heard of successful companies went bankrupt and have to retrench their staff. We have heard of cities who was hit by earth-quake etc.
In this ayah, Allah teaches us a definition out of the many definitions of a God. He is the Provider, He is not being provided by other.
Therefore if there is a humanoid on earth who eats and drinks and people regard this person as a god, then this is not the definition of being a God, as a God is not one who is being “provided for” but He is the Provider.
You bought your food and drinks from the grocery store. Do you think you are the one that provide for yourself? You can’t even guarantee that the same grocery store will be around in the next few years. You have no power to control the chicken supply that came from a farm somewhere. Maybe one day the farm is hit with bird-flu, etc.
Don’t be arrogant, overly confident that the Titanic ship is unsinkable. Don’t be overly impressed that the Nuclear Plant in Japan has been certified that it can withstand any tsunami. Both of the above examples have been destroyed by the same thing that they are arrogant of. Do you accept now that you are being provided by the Master?
"they spent"
Since what we have is actually given to us by Allah, people of taqwa are the ones who will spent some of their “rizq” (what they have) on the path of Allah, eg. Zakat, charity, etc.
A person who has established solah, automatically is a generous person. If he is not, then there are loopholes in his solah.
Therefore, if you never spent anything in the path of Allah, i.e. take a bit of what Allah has given you for Zakat and Charity, helping others, etc. then your “taqwa” is questionable. Remember that you are not losing your money by giving out charity. It is just a transfer of account, from your bank account to your account (rewards) in the hereafter. In fact the reward is hugely more than what you have spent. Since you believe in the unseen, you must have believed in this type of account transfer too. Collect as many “coupons” and redeem all of them in the hereafter.
Actually, it is not your money to begin with. Allah gave you money and let you use it for a while. When He asks a little from that money that He has given you, you will immediately thought that this money is yours and it’s a very heavy burden for you to loose it to “Zakat”.
Another reason might be of a person feeling a burden to give 2.5% of his savings to Zakat is because of a sense of insecurity of his own future. He may have enough now but because of the 2.5% that he is giving away annually, he is worried what if in the future his savings drops and he himself comes under poverty? This is the TRUST that he must adopt towards Allah. He must trust that Allah will take care of his well-being as he aged.
Actually, those money that you given away for charity or helping people are the money that will remain forever with you in the hereafter whereby the money that you consumed indulging in this world will only benefit you temporarily and are gone forever. This is the attitude of people of Taqwa.
Allah giving us sustenance is “unseen” by us. The unseen activity is not usually internalized by people with weak iman.