Salaam all,
This is 4:115
وَمَن يُشَاقِقِ الرَّسُولَ مِن بَعْدِ مَا تَبَيَّنَ لَهُ الْهُدَى وَيَتَّبِعْ غَيْرَ سَبِيلِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ نُوَلِّهِ مَا تَوَلَّى وَنُصْلِهِ جَهَنَّمَ وَسَاءتْ مَصِيرًا
Waman yushaqiqi alrrasoola min baAAdi ma tabayyana lahu alhuda wayattabiAA ghayra sabeeli almumineena nuwallihi ma tawalla wanuslihi jahannama wasaat maseeran
The Aya says:
And whoever pulls apart from the messenger, after the guidance had become clear to him, and follows other than the path of the ones who make themselves safe (in Allah and the message), We will make him protégé of what he made himself follow and make him reach Hell. And she (Hell) is a hated ending.
My personal note:
Here, the Aya points to the importance of being honest with ourselves once we discover the right path. It becomes an obligation to follow it. It also declares that the right path is the path of Allah’s envoy to us Muhammad (pbuh) and those who followed him.
The other important thing is that if we decide to chose other than Allah’s path then we put ourselves under the guardianship of other than God. We become protégés of those entities and that is a sure path to Hell.
Translation of the transliterated words:
Waman: and who
Yushaqiqi: fissures with/ separates from/ breaks away/ pulls apart
Note: the root is SH-Qaf-QAF and it means fissuring in the concrete from and that means the breaking away process. YUSHAQIQ is an action that is being completed or will be completed. It means: the action of separating or breaking away or fissuring with the object (alrrasoola = the messenger/ envoy) is happening or will be happening in an interactive manner.
Alrrasoola: the messenger/ the envoy
Note: ALRRASOOLA is derived from the root R-S-L and it means to envoy someone or a group of people or animals. The concrete word is RASL and it means a group of people or animals that were sent by their owners or senders. ALRRASOOLA means the envoy or the messenger.
Min: from
baAAdi: after
Note: the root is B-Ain-D and it means further in time or space. In space it means farther in distance and in time, it means after. BaAADI here means: after.
Ma: what
Tabayyana: became clear/ made itself clear
Note: the root is B-Y-N and it means in concrete between. The action of the verb is betweening. This betweening can mean clarifying because one can know better the difference between two things. It also can mean distancing because the betweening makes things become apart. TABAYYANA is an action that is completed. It means: the action of becoming clear or of making itself clear happened by the subject (AHUDA= the guidance).
Lahu: to him/ to himself
Note: the HIM here points to the person.
Alhuda: the guidance
Note: The root is H-D-Y and it means gift in all it’s forms and it carries the meaning of guidance since guidance is a gift. ALHUDA is the guidance or the gift of guidance.
wayattabiAA: and he follows/ joins and follows
Note: WA is a letter that links what is before with what is after. This link is through inclusion, either one is included in the other or they are all included in the bigger sentence or bigger picture. WA often corresponds with “and/ addition” but the more encompassing meaning is in inclusion one in another or all in a bigger picture or sentence. YATTABiAA is derived from the root T-B-Ain and it means following footsteps or following behind, or joining and following. YATTABiAA is an action that is being completed or will be completed. It means: the action of making oneself follow the object (Ghayra=other than) is happening or will be happening by the subject (third person singular).
Ghayra: other than
Note: GHAYRA is derived from the root GH-Y-R and it means other or different from. GHAYRA means different or other than.
Sabeeli: path of
Note: the root is S-B-L and it means and it means flowing water from the falling rain from the sky to the flowing water in the river and so forth. This is the concrete and the other uses are related as in path, which allows the flow, to soft flowing hair and so forth. SABEELI is the flowing water or the path of. It takes the meaning of path or even the trip on the path.
Almumineena: the ones who make themselves safe (in Allah and His message)
Note: the root Hamza-M-N and it means safety. ALMUMINEENA means ones who make themselves safe.
Nuwallihi: We make him follow/ we make him protégé of/ we put him under guardianship of
Note: the root is W-L-Y and it means direction or following direction with some guarantee. It comes close to guardianship and protégé relationship. NUWALLI is an action that is being completed or will be completed that is derived from the root. It means: the action of making the object (HI=him) follow or become protégé of another object (MA TAWALLA= what he followed) is happening or will be happening by the subject (first person plural). In this context, it carries the meaning of either following the entity he followed or putting him under the guardianship of that entity and both have a shared meaning.
Ma: what
tawalla: He made himself follow
Note: the root is W-L-Y and it means direction or following direction with some guarantee. It comes close to guardianship. TAWALLA is an action that is completed that is derived from the root. It means: the action of making oneself follow own direction with one’s own guarantee, happened by the subject (third person singular). This is used here to mean directing oneself away from what is offered and the guarantee that is offered. In this context, it carries the meaning of following a different path than the path of the ones who are safe in Allah.
Wanuslihi: and We make him reach
Note: WA is a letter that links what is before with what is after. This link is through inclusion, either one is included in the other or they are all included in the bigger sentence or bigger picture. WA often corresponds with “and/ addition” but the more encompassing meaning is in inclusion one in another or all in a bigger picture or sentence. NUSLIHI is derived from the root W-Sad-L means a connection. Some of the derivatives WOOSOOL mean arrival somewhere (since by arriving, you conceptually connected between two places). NUSLIHI is an action that is being completed or will be completed. It means: the action of making an object (HI=Him) arrive or reach to another object (JAHANNAM=Hell) is happening or will be happening by the subject (first person plural).
Jahannama: Hell
Note: JAHANNAM is one of the Arabic names for Hell. The root J-H-N-M points to a very deep well where if one falls in it, there is no way out or very very difficult to come out. The relationship with Hell is that it is a deep trouble to fall into.
Wasaat: and she is hated/ ugly
Note: WA is a letter that links what is before with what is after. This link is through inclusion, either one is included in the other or they are all included in the bigger sentence or bigger picture. WA often corresponds with “and/ addition” but the more encompassing meaning is in inclusion one in another or all in a bigger picture or sentence. SAAT is derived from the root S-Y-Hamza and it means hated word or deed. It can also mean ugly or vulnerable. All the meanings are linked somehow by one concept. This word then means different things according to the plane of thought that is being talked about. SAAT is an action that is completed. It means: the action of becoming hated or ugly happened by the subject (Jahannam= Hell).
Maseeran: ending/ final outcome
Note: The root is Sad-Y-R and it means in concrete where the water ends. It is used to mean the end of a transformation or the ending of any process. MASEERAN is the place or time of ending or both. It can also mean the ending.
Salaam all and have a great day.
Hussein
4 comments:
Salaam `aleikum brother Hussein.
1. I like your Personal Note about being “honest with ourselves once we discover the right path”, very much. The right path I may have found may not be a complete right path that applies to everyone else. But to me and my situation, it seems right, after many experiments with trying to apply it. I can also see that it is an improvement over other paths that others and I have followed previously.
I have no right to try to impose it on others, but I should try to make the theory and practice of it better. However, all such work has to be grounded in a logically and philosophically sound hypothesis about the nature of the human self.
Trying to be honest with ourselves involves two kinds of study. One is about the nature of honesty. The other is about the nature of the human self. These are both difficult subjects to study. And the Qur`an alone does not have the answer to all modern questions about them. However, it is a very good, and sometimes necessary guide.
Regarding another issue: In the concrete image explanation for “Jahannama” you have said that it refers to a female (principle, entity?) and that it indicates something like a well. I assume that by a well we mean a hole that is made on a surface, like a crater. It can be just a dark crater, i.e. we don’t know what is inside it.
In other explanations, I have read and heard about Hell being a hole like a pit. I.e. it does not carry the water bearing connotations of the word “well”. It is also said that it is an area full of blazing fires. Is the fire imagery not a necessary part of the meaning of jahannama?
Thank you very much
Thank you brother for your deep and thoughtful points.
The aspects about honesty that you shared about oneself are important and true. We may never learn the mechanisms of the self, but it exists and we use it all the time.
Another aspect of that honesty is how we deal with commands or statements (from the Qur'an and elsewhere) that challenge us or challenge what we accept as truth. The honesty with oneself suggests that we consider three possibilites:
1- Either we misunderstood what is actually being told to us.
2- Or that we need to reinvestigate what we accept as truth whether it is really truth or not.
3- the mix of the above two.
So, when a statement of the Qur'an goes against "the norm of the time or of the self", one needs to restudy to see if he or she misunderstood that statement or some aspect of it. The other thing is that he or she will also need to reconsider "the norm of the time or self" is it based on truth? or mere bias that was adopted as truth?
Related to Jahannam, you are probably right that it may not necessarily point to water at the bottom of the well, but it can be present. If we dig too deep in the earth's crust, we will reach great heat at the bottom. However, the other name Hell points to fire, ANNAR= the fire. There are also some hadeeths that point that Hell has areas of extreme cold.
I hope this helps and take care brother.
Hussein
Thanks a lot Hussein. Your reply is very helpful.
What you have said about “We may never learn the mechanisms of the self, but it exists and we use it all the time,” is very true and meaningful.
Insha Allah we will have oportunity to correspond about this more in the future.
In Sha Allah we will. I always enjoy your points brother.
Hussein
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