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Habil (Abel) & Kabil (Cain): Part 2
Listen to this nice
story. There was once a man named Obayd Ibn Omar who was among the righteous,
known for his piety and virtue. There was an extremely beautiful woman who one
day she looked at herself in the mirror and asked herself if any one could
resist her beauty. (We all see girls
who think in the same way). This woman was married and her husband told her
that Obayd Ibn Omar could indeed resist her beauty. She asked her husband to
allow her to try to seduce him and he gave her permission to do so. She went to Obayd and told him that she
wanted to ask him a question; she kept unveiling her face, and he kept looking
away, until she told him frankly that she wanted to get to know him and do so
and so.
He told her, “I will ask you some questions and if your
answer them honestly, I will be at your wish.”
She said,” Ask whatever you want, I will be honest.” He said, “If the angel of death came to take
your soul, would you be glad then that you did this sin with me?” She replied,
“No”. He said, “You speak the truth.
Then, on The Day of Judgment when everyone takes his book, and you take your
book with your left hand for committing this sin, would you be glad?” She said:
“No.” He said, “If the Serrat (the bridge crossing over hell) was set,
and the people passed over it, while you fell because of this sin, would you be
happy, then, that you did it?” She said, “No.”
He asked, “If you stood between Allah’s hands, and he asked you about
this sin, would you be glad that you committed it? She said, “No.” He asked, “Was that enough for you?” She
said: “Yes, by Allah I will repent.” Then she became a worshipper, humble in
front of Allah, and often reciting the Holy Qur’an. From then on her husband
would pray, “May Allah have mercy on Obayd Ibn Omar”.
Here is the question: “Who is responsible for the sin? Kabil
or his sister? Because some books that are full of Israeli narrations (Israeliyat)
say that the main reason for the descent of Adam to earth was Eve. In addition,
they say that the main reason behind the murder of Habil was Kabil’s sister.
This is wrong, as Kabil’s sister was pious. The proof is this: Who did Allah
hold responsible for the crime; was it Kabil and his sister, or Kabil only?
Only Kabil was asked. A woman is responsible when she tempts a man (by being
unveiled, or being covered but in fact so revealing). Listen to Ibn Abbass's saying, “When a woman goes out, Satan
tells her, ‘There is not a single man who will not admire you when you pass by
him.’” Notice what Satan does with a woman, so that she becomes conceited!! She
returns home pleased, and Satan tempts her further, ‘and he will admire you
even more, if you beautify yourself even more’, he says to her. She falls into
the temptation, and she keeps doing so, until she gets used to it. Then she
says to her self, “I don’t wear make-up for the sake of men, but for my own
sake.” She becomes accustomed to this way, which is what Satan really wants.
Let us go back to the verses of the Qur’an, verse 27 in
Surat Al- Mai’dah. The verse can be
translated as, “And tell them the
story of the two sons of Adam truthfully.” (TMQ, 5:27).
What is the meaning of “and” at the beginning of the verse? Is it related
to what precedes it? It means, and tell them as we have told you before
(referring to the previous story in the Surah).
Let us see the previous verses, and then their relation with these verses.
We will go back to verses 20 through 27 in the Surah. These
verses tell the story of the children of Israel, and how Mûsâ “Moses” asked
them to enter the holy land. They disobeyed the order claiming that they were
afraid. What is the relation between the children of Israel, their fear and
rejection to enter the Holy land and between the stories of the two sons of
Adam? Why did Allah (SWT) associate
this story with the story of the two sons of Adam? This is because the children
of Israel were cowards. Cowardice was the main obstacle that made them disobey
Musa. Cowardice came from their fear of being killed in the war if they entered
the Holy Land. On the other hand, Kabil was hasty in killing his brother.
Cowards commit actions that are hasty and rash. It is to us that Allah wants to
show that cowardice is a sin, and murder is a sin as well. Look to the
beautiful Qur'anic correlation! Allah (SWT)
wants to show us that we must be brave and not rash.
Another point that I want to tackle while we are looking at
verse 25, which reflects the relation between the two stories, Look at Musa’s
saying what can be translated as, “O
Allah, I have nothing except my say and my brother.” (TMQ, 5:25). Then look at verse 27 with Kabil’s saying, “I will kill you”. As if Allah wants to
teach and advise every man and his sister, and every man and his brother to
take care of each other (we see nowadays how many siblings have broken
relationships), and to stand by him, even if he or she were not obedient to
Allah. Take care of your relations with your sisters and brothers. For it is
one of Allah's blessings upon us to have brothers and sisters. We should value
this blessing, and we should not imitate Kabil. Look at this nice line of
poetry, “I swear if my right hand is
in yours, life will embrace our hands.” (Meaning that life would treat them
well if they were united).
Back again to verse 27 Surat Al-Ma’idah in what can be
translated as, “Tell them about the
story of the two sons of Adam truthfully. They both sacrificed, and it
was accepted from one and not from the other. He said: “I will kill you.”(TMQ, 5:27). So envy had filled him to the extent that it had
driven him to kill his own brother. Satan was the one who made this sin seem
tempting to him. This fifth story of evil on earth was envy.
Let us count the sins. The first is pride, the second is
Adam’s gluttony, the third is lending Satan an ear, “He swore to them that he is an adviser”(TMQ, 7:21). The forth is
the temptation of women, and the fifth is envy.
Envy and malice are sometimes there in many women, so be
aware of envy and jealousy. For example, if you see one of your friends is about
to marry, your envy may stop this marriage from going through. The same applies
on being envious towards one of your colleagues at work, because he got
promoted to an extent that you may try to harm him. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: “Don’t ever be envious, for
envy eats up your good deeds as the fire eats up logs” (narrated by Ibn
Dawud). “They never gather in one
heart: faith and envy.”
My advice to you is to beware of envy. There are some girls who believe that the
reason behind their being spinsters is envy. The words “the bad eye and envy”
are used a lot these days. It is a fact, that people abuse these terms. I will
sum up some points for you, and show you how you can be cured from envy:
- Read the Ma’uthattain (the two last Surahs
of Qur’an): (“I seek the refuge of the Lord of day
break” (TMQ, 113:1) “I seek the refuge of the lord of
Mankind” (TMQ, 114:1).
- Invocate to Allah in the morning and in the evening
and be regular in this.
- Be pious, and avoid doing bad deeds. Allah (SWT) says what can be translated as, “Any evil that happens to you is from yourself.” (TMQ, 4:79) “Any evil that happens
to you comes from your deeds. Thus, as long as you avoid committing sins,
you will be safe from envy. These are not my words, but the words of the
scholars.
- Among the ways to protect yourself from envy is to
trust in Allah. If Allah made you suffer from harm,
nobody shall ever be able to use you except Allah, and if he wants the
good for you, nobody can take it back.
- Among the remedies of envy is Sadaka “charity”. I swear that the best way to protect
your-self from being envied is by giving large sums of charity.
- Try to be good with the ones who have harmed you or
envied you, for Allah teaches us in the holy Qur’an what can be translated
as, “good deeds are never like bad
deeds. Try to do the better”
(TMQ, 41:34).
Those who fear the bad eye, and envy, should follow the
instructions I have given.
Let’s examine Kabil's words to his brother in what can be
translated as, “I will kill you” (TMQ, 5:27). Habil answered, “Allah
accepts the deeds of the pious”
(TMQ, 5:27). As if he wanted to say, “Why will you kill me; it is not my
problem but yours (Habil had not been pious when he presented his gift to
Allah, so Allah did not accept it), then why do you blame me for something I do
not have a hand in?”
There is a nice gesture here: How can you be from among the
pious and become accepted as Habil has been and to be sure that you will not
face what was done to Kabil? Let us define taqwa
“Piety”. Piety means that Allah
shall find you wherever he has ordered you to be, and shall not find you where
he has forbidden you to be. It is clear now. He has ordered you to pray Al- Fajr “dawn prayer” in the mosque, to
learn Qur’an and to lower your gaze. He also has prohibited you from breaking
your ties with your relatives, from disobeying your parents or being undutiful.
If all are fulfilled, you will be pious.
I want to suggest: Why do we not observe ourselves every day
and ask ourselves, were we pious? Did Allah find us where he has ordered us? At
the end of the day, you start to settle an account with your own self, and see
whether you have been pious and to which extent. This will surely lead to the
aspired goal. You should always remember the verse that can be translated as, “Allah accepts but from the pious.” (TMQ, 5:27) so you rejoice in your
piety. There is another verse, which says what can be translated as, “Allah loves the pious.”(9:4). Renew your piety everyday and
know that Allah is satisfied with you. There was once a tabi'i “follower” (i.e.: those who lived after the death of the
prophet but saw his companions and followed their example) who was dying and he
began to weep. They asked him, “Why are you crying when you have done a lot of
good deeds?” He answered: “I cry because Allah says what can be translated as,
“Allah accepts but from the pious.”
Thus, deeds are related to piety.
Verse 28 in Surat
Al-Ma’idah has the words of Habil to his brother Kabil in what can be
translated as, “if you stretched your hands to kill me, I will not
stretch mine. I fear Allah, the lord of the worlds.” (TMQ, 5:28). Do you see the goodness of Habil? Ibn Abbas and Ibn
Omar (RA) said: “Habil was stronger,
sterner, and more powerful. However, he told his brother that he would not
stretch out his hands to kill him, if Kabil did.”
Is it not allowed for Habil to defend himself? Of Course, as
prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said,
“Whoever dies defending his money is a martyr, and whoever dies defending his
honor is a martyr.” Thus, he who dies defending his money or honor will be a
martyr. However, Habil died and chose not to do so, for the matter is quite
different when it is concerned with relatives. If anyone else wanted to kill
Habil and not his brother, he would have defended himself .This meaning is very
important. As if Habil wanted to say, “I would rather die than cut the
relations with my kin.” That is a great lesson in the relationship with
relatives. How many thousands cut their relationships with their kids? This is
sometimes done for reasons that are so trivial that don't deserve this
alienation. It is as if Allah wants to give us the most difficult situation in
the relation with relatives. Kabil wants to kill Habil, while the latter has a
strong will not to defend himself, then why do we distance ourselves from our
relatives for reasons like: inheritance, money, or because she said so and so
about me. I advice you again to keep good relations with your relatives.
I wish that we would observe two things from this lesson: to
keep up our relations with our relatives, and to be pious. We shall start from
today to observe ourselves daily as we have mentioned before. The same applies
for lowering the gaze. The prophet (PBUH)
said, “the one who observes his relation with his relatives is not he who
returns their visits (i.e. who asks about you, you ask about him, and he who
does not ask about you, you ask about him) but he who keeps in touch with his
relatives when they have cut him off”.
Let us examine this hadith,
“Mercy doesn’t descend over those who have among them a one who is not
in contact with his relatives. Kinship will detach in the serrat on the Day of Judgment and say: O Allah, don’t let him pass
till he gives me my right.”
Do you understand now why Othman (RA) rejected to fight when he had been surrounded inside Al-Madinah
(at the time of his murder)? It was because he didn’t want to be a cause in the
breaking of ties between kinship of Muslims. This may be a reasonable
explanation.
We move on to verse 29 of Surat Al-Maida. The
verse can be translated as, ”I want you
to bear the burden of my sin and yours to be in the hell which is the
punishment for sinners.” (TMQ, 5:29)
Why does the verse contain the words: my sin and your sin? The first means the
sin of Kabil when he kills Habil. The second is Kabil's lack of abidance by
Allah’s law when he refused to marry Habil's sister. Here I want to warn you
that he who wants to commit an offence, in fact, commits two sins and not only
a single one. First, the bad deed it self; second your rejection to Allah’s
Law. Beware of sins and especially the second one, as it is even worse to
reject Allah's Law than to commit the sin itself.
Verse 30, Surat Al- Maida, can be translated as, “Then his soul made it pliable to kill his
brother, he killed him, and was by that among the losers.” (TMQ, 5:30) see the word ‘pliable’ here; it is as
if there was something resisting and it became yielding. We say that we make
the iron pliable. Allah wants us to know that the soul has “virtue” in origin
and that virtue and evil are both inside us. So you would have to persist to
make your soul yielding to bad deeds until it becomes completely pliable, and
evil overcomes virtue. Kabil kept after his soul until it was pliable to evil.
Here I want to draw your attention that nobody starts his life as a sinner, and
nobody is created a sinner. Every baby is born with fitra (moral constitution) but man is the one who moulds himself,
and makes evil overcome virtue. He changes his natural inclination towards
virtue, until he finds offence an easy thing to commit.
We treat our souls in the same way; we make it more and more
yielding to evil until we cannot control our actions after that. Our logic and
mind become one side, and our deeds on the other. The result is like an
infectious disease controlling our bodies with no remedy for it. It happened to
Kabil, who could not vision except killing his brother in order to marry his
own sister.
This happens in our lives. For example, a boy who wants and
wishes to know a girl keeps on feeding the desire, and the girl does the same,
until he or she commits the offence. Then what is the solution?
There is a nice word for Ibn Al-Qayyim, “Know that the
offence starts with a thought. Try to force them away (i.e. as soon as the thought
comes, seek Allah and take refuge in him from Satan), for if you don’t do that,
it turns into lust which you have to fight, because if you do not, lust would
turn into an intention, a willingness, and a resolve which in turn should be combated. If not, it will manifest
itself into an action that you must fight. Otherwise, actions will turn into a
habit which you will find difficult to give up. Thus, fighting from the very
beginning is easier than when it becomes deep-rooted. Whenever a thought comes, and Satan starts to work on you, fight
this. That is why Allah (SWT) says
what can be translated as, “Don’t follow the Satan’s foot steps, he is an
open enemy to you” (TMQ, 2:168)
He starts with a thought and you follow until it becomes a lust, then an intention
and a will. Then a deed until it becomes a habit.
We have said that you can combat by seeking refuge from
Allah, invocation, and by the holy Qur’an. By these means, you strengthen
yourself and force bad thoughts away. Kabil left the thought until it
controlled him, and he kept thinking until it pushed him to kill his brother.
How did he kill his brother? They say that he took a rock, and hit his brother,
or that he choked him in his sleep. However, the Qur’an did not tell us about
the method he used to kill his brother. It is not important to know about the
way, as much as the cause of the murder. Look today at the newspapers, which
are concerned with crimes and accidents, and you will find that they are mainly
concentrating on the way the crime was carried out, and the details of it. This
is far from the Qur’anic approach. Sometimes the details of the crime reveal to
the others ideas of how they would commit the crime. However, let us look at the Qur’anic approach which stressed the
reasons of the crime without concentrating on how the murder was carried out.
Another interesting point is that the story associated the temptation of woman
with murder. A question may be raised that not all the stories we have about
the temptation of woman lead to murder. Then why has Allah associated the trial
of women with murder while it may not be a common occurrence? I tell you that
it does happen.
It already has happened may times, every day, listen to this
report from WHO (World Health Org.) which states: the number of abortion
operations all over the world in 1976, were 25 million of babies or fetuses in one year. The statistics were
repeated in 1984, and they found that cases of abortion had reached 50 millions
in the world. Then, what is the number today? That is why the temptation of
women is associated with murder. Let us see the rest of the verses in what can
be translated as, “and was by that among
the losers.” (TMQ, 5:30). What did Kabil lose? His loss was great. Listen to
Prophet Muhammad’s story, which is narrated by Bukhari, “No one is wrongfully
or unjustly killed, until the Day of Judgment, except that the son of Adam has
a share in his/her blood”. It’s like he
will be punished with a half of the punishment of all Hell's inhabitants. Allah
(SWT) wants to draw our attention to
a crucial point that we will see in the prophet (PBUH) Hadith, “Whoever introduces a bad practice, would have a part
of its misdeed, and of the sinner himself till Dooms day”.
Thus, you should take care not to introduce a bad practice
and not to encourage some one to imitate you. We have the example of the
parents. Other examples are: The first woman who wore a swimming suit will have
a part of the burden of those who imitated her, the first one who smoked
marijuana, and many other examples. If you are a smoker, take care of your
children, for every cigarette your son smokes you will share him in its burden.
Never teach anybody an offence. That is why I advise the
boys who took smoking as a habit from their parents to give it up. The matter
is serious; you must never teach anybody to imitate you in your bad ways.
However, if you repent, Allah will accept you and Allah will relieve you for
sharing the burden (sins) of others.
Let us look at the words of Allah (SWT) in verse 31, in what can be translated as, “Allah sent a raven scratching into the
earth to teach him how to hide the shame of his brother.” (TMQ, 5:31). The raven is obedient to Allah, and he
is one of his soldiers like the ant and the hoopoe (of Solaiman, AS) which are all mentioned the Qur’an, as
all the earth is Allah’s Dominion.
Why was it especially the raven and not any other bird? Look
to the nice Qur’anic symmetry. The raven is black in color, and is ugly.
Moreover, a lot of people are afraid of him. Its name in Arabic is derived from
(strange) to be symmetric with the strangeness and the badness of the dead
Kabil had committed in the right of his brother Habil, As if Allah wants to
show us that the disobedient are very weak, and that the raven is better that him,
and that he is weaker than it. Thus, whoever makes an offence is always the
most afraid, most coward, and the weakest.
Kabil said what can be translated as, “Alas! I was unable to do what the raven had done, and to hide my
brother’s shame.” (TMQ, 5:31). Here
we return back to the word “private part”. Which we have commented on in many
lesson and explained that Allah (SWT)
never calls it “awra” (private parts), but with the word “saw’a”
which has the connotation of “shame”,
as man is ashamed to look at it, and that is to make you dislike it and make
women dislike to reveal it. Then why is this term used here? Kabil will bury
his brother’s corpse or his privates? of course, the corpse as a whole. Then
why did Allah not say “to hide my brothers corpse?” Because, Allah wants to
show us that it is the private part that need to be covered the most. After
that the verse is completed with can be translated as, “He became regretful” (TMQ, 5:31). Kabil repented, but why did Allah not forgive him? Besides, we
have seen the prophet's Hadith that Kabil will be asked for every human soul,
which was murdered after he had introduced the practice of murder. However, you
have once said that if a man repents, Allah forgives him. Then why did Allah
not forgive him? That is because he did not regret his murder out of
repentance. He regretted because he felt helpless. What happened is that the
corpse of his brother began to rot while he was carrying it, as the raven had
not come yet, and the animals started to be drawn to the corpse. He began to
feel anxious. Thus, this was regret of weakness and not of real
repentance. It was because he left his
frailty in front of the raven.
I want here to draw your attention that your regret and
remorse should be for the sake of Allah and not because of a sense of
helplessness, so that Allah may accept it. I will give you an example; a person
spent 150 pounds and he went to a party, but either he did not spend a nice
time there, or the party was not good. He regrets the money, which he spent
without enjoying the party. This is not repentance, and it is not for the sake
of Allah (SWT).
My brothers and sisters, this is an important point, that
you should be remorseful for the regard of Allah. For example, if you married
unlawfully, and you faced some problems, your “wife” may be sad. What is she
regretful of? Regretful of what happened to her? That is not repentance.
However, if she is remorseful for what she had done in the regard of Allah, and
that she has not abode by his orders, it will be real repentance. Of course,
one can be sad for his own self and what happened to him, but the main cause
for the remorse should be Allah.
I want to give you the meaning of the beginning of verse 32 in
Surat Al-Ma'idah, “for that , we wrote in the script if one of
the children of Israel killed a soul without a right, for the corruption of the
earth ; it is as if he killed mankind as a whole.” (TMQ, 5:32) this means that, because of what Kabil has done,
but what's the relation between him and the children of Israel? The beginning
of the story of Kabil and Habil was associated with cowardice and the children
of Israel. Then why did Allah choose them specifically? Why did Allah not say,
for example: “if anyone killed…” That
is because the main reason behind the crime of Kabil is envy and the temptation
of women. Who are the ones who corrupt the earth with these? Of course
they are many of the Jews. That is why Allah addresses them. Because they
are the most envious especially towards Muslims, and they are the keenest in
spreading lusts, the seduction of women and the advocacy of various sins. That
is why the verse was revealed.
This was the story of Kabil and
Habil. Habil died, and Kabil fled.
Where did he go? Did Allah send anybody to reform people after whom? Who
was the first prophet after Adam ( AS)?. Was it Idris (AS) “Enoch”, or was
there another one before him? Then what about the beginning of the story of Nuh
(AS) “Noah”, and what happened on earth where it once had been declaring the
oneness of Allah. When did the worship of idols begin? All these questions, we
are going to tackle in coming session.
We can conclude
from this session that we should take care of women. Moreover, I dedicate my words to the women not to seduce men. In
addition to that, never be envious, and be pious, so that Allah may find you
where he ordered you, and not find you where he prohibited you. Never introduce
an evil practice; Keep in touch with your relatives and repent for the sake of
Allah and not because of the troubles you face.
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