Grounded

A poor non-Muslim once approached a wealthy tabi’een and said: your Prophet lied. He said this world is a prison for the believers — yet you are living like a king and I have nothing. How is this your prison?

The tabi’een replied: because you have not seen what Allah has prepared for me in the akhirah. If you could see it, you would understand that this life — however comfortable — is nothing by comparison. And you think you are suffering now? You have not seen what Allah has prepared for those who go against Him in the next life either.

This is the correct proportion. The best of this world is still a prison compared to Jannah. But whatever Allah has created in this world — the beauty, the good provisions, the adornment — He created it for us to enjoy. Responsibly. Without excess. And with our eyes on something greater.

Grounded is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Innama — These Are the Things

Allah now lists what He has actually made haram. And He opens with a single, precise word: innama.

In Arabic, innama is a word of restriction. It limits what follows to a specific, bounded list. Nothing more. When the Prophet ﷺ said innama bu’ithtu li utammima makarimal akhlaq — I have been sent only to perfect noble character — that innama tells us everything. The entire prophetic mission, all of the Sharia, all of the ibadah, all of the fasting and prayer and dhikr — it all points toward one destination: makarimul akhlaq, noble character.

This is a mirror we should hold up regularly. If our engagement with the religion is making us more arrogant, ruder in how we speak, more dismissive of others — something has gone wrong. The religion of the Prophet ﷺ does not produce that. It produces humility, gentleness, and excellence in character. If we are getting closer to the rituals but further from good akhlaq, we are missing the point of the rituals entirely.

So when Allah uses innama to introduce what He has made haram, He is doing the same thing — drawing a clean, limited boundary. Not an overwhelming list. Not everything that makes life enjoyable. These specific things. That is all.

Note: The first half of tonight’s session wasn’t recorded — it was a revision of Night 10’s discussion on tabdhir and israf. We pick up from where the new material begins.

The Balance Islam Strikes

Some spiritual traditions teach that poverty is the path to God. Monks take oaths of poverty. Monasteries require their residents to own nothing, eat simply, wear rags. Buddhism requires its monks to beg. On the other end of the spectrum, certain strands of modern Christianity preach the opposite — that wealth is a sign of divine favour, that God rewards the faithful with material success.

Islam is neither. It is ummatan wasata — a middle community, a middle path.

Allah commands us to adorn ourselves, dress well, eat from the good things of the earth. But don’t go into excess. Don’t waste. Don’t make wealth the final destination. The balance is precise: enjoy what Allah has provided, be grateful for it, and let it serve something greater than itself.

And critically — Islam does not promote mediocrity. The instruction not to be excessive is not permission to be comfortable doing nothing. Islam actively encourages wealth-building, economic development, and productivity. The criticism is not of wealth. It is of wealth as the be-all and end-all — the pursuit of accumulation for its own sake, while people go hungry and problems go unsolved.

We Are Not Prisoners Here

This ayah carries a profound theological point — one that directly contradicts the biblical narrative.

In Christian theology, humanity is on earth as a consequence of the Fall. Adam and Hawwa sinned, and we are here serving time, suffering the punishment of their disobedience.

The Quran tells a different story entirely.

Before the story of Adam even begins in this surah, Allah says: “We have settled you on earth and made for you in it a good living.” Earth was always the plan. Jannah was an orientation — a glimpse of the destination, so we know what we are working toward and what we are trying to build here.

And this ayah confirms it: “Say — who has declared haram the beauty that Allah has brought forth for His servants, and the good provisions?” Allah created this beautiful world for the believers to enjoy. If we were prisoners here, why would our Warden furnish the cell with gardens, oceans, mountains, good food, and beauty in every direction?

“All of this is for the believers in this life — and exclusively theirs on the Day of Judgement.”

Enjoying the good things of this world does not diminish your akhirah. Wealth is not a sign that Allah is displeased with you, withholding your reward for later. Hardship is not a sign that Allah loves you more. Both are tests. Wealth tests your gratitude and generosity. Hardship tests your patience and trust. Both paths lead to Jannah — if you respond rightly.

And in one sense, wealth carries an extra advantage. The poor Sahabah once came to the Prophet ﷺ and complained: “The wealthy have taken all the reward. They pray like us, they fast like us — but they can give charity and we cannot.”The Prophet ﷺ gave them dhikr as an equivalent. A few days later they returned: “Now the rich are doing the dhikr too. What do we have left?”

The lesson is not that poverty is better. It is that the wealthy have an additional avenue for good deeds that others do not. Sayyidatuna Khadijah funded the early da’wah. Sayyidina Uthman donated so generously to the Battle of Tabuk that the Prophet ﷺ said nothing could harm him after that. And what did the Sahabah do when guaranteed Jannah? They did not relax. They increased. They understood that 80 or 100 years of wealth in this world is a brief window to invest in an eternity in the akhirah.

Halal and Haram — Tread Carefully

From this ayah we also learn something often overlooked: declaring something halal as haram is just as serious a sin as declaring something haram as halal.

Halal and haram are the domain of Allah alone. The Prophet ﷺ told us: the clearly halal is clear, the clearly haram is clear, and between them are grey areas that most people do not fully understand. Scholars who specialise in these areas navigate the grey carefully, and legitimate differences of opinion exist within the framework of the Sharia.

The rule for us: stay away from what is clearly haram. In areas of genuine scholarly difference, choose a position you are comfortable with and respect that others may hold a different but equally valid opinion. And do not rush to declare things haram simply because they are unfamiliar or uncomfortable to you.

To speak about Allah without knowledge — to declare His deen more restrictive or more permissive than He made it — is itself one of the things Allah has made haram, as the next passage makes clear.

What Allah Has Actually Made Haram

So if Allah has not made beauty haram, not made good provisions haram, not made adornment haram — what has He made haram?

Fawahish — shamelessness. Both the external and the internal.

The external is visible: the stripping away of clothing and modesty, the open broadcasting of indecency, the collapse of haya in public life. We have discussed this at length over the past several nights.

The internal is the sin of the heart — and the surah has already named it: arrogance. Kibir. You cannot see arrogance directly. You see its symptoms — the dismissiveness, the contempt, the refusal to accept truth. But the root sits quietly in the heart, growing. A thought that someone is lesser than you. An assumption that your obedience has earned you superiority. Left unchecked, it becomes exactly what Iblis demonstrated: denial of truth and contempt for others.

Both fawahish — the external and the internal — are declared haram. Both unravel the human being from the outside in and the inside out.

And alongside these: shirk, and speaking about Allah without knowledge.

We will continue with this ayah tomorrow insha’Allah.

Following along with the series? Consider a paid subscription to receive a free digital copy of the Surah Al-A’raf Study Guide and Workbook.

One third of Ramadan is behind us.

There is a narration — its grading is discussed among scholars, but widely used as a reminder — that the first ten nights carry the overwhelming mercy of Allah, the second ten His forgiveness, and the final ten His guarantee of salvation from the fire. Though in reality, every single night holds all three. Ramadan does not divide itself neatly into chapters. But the framing is useful: if the first ten was a warm-up, the second ten is time to accelerate.

Do a honest pit stop. How have the first ten days been? Whatever the answer, Ramadan is a marathon, not a sprint. The goal is not to peak on night one. The goal is to be better in the second third than the first, and better in the final third than both.

Grounded is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

The People Who Think They Are Guided

Allah divides humanity into two groups in this passage: those who follow guidance, and those for whom misguidance has become their reality.

Why does misguidance become their reality? Because they have taken Shaitan as their wali — their loyal, protective ally. And Shaitan, as we discussed, is a wali who flatters in good times and abandons at the worst possible moment.

But here is the sobering part: they think they are guided.

This is not about people who know they are doing wrong and do it anyway. This is about people who have followed Shaitan’s logic so completely that it feels like wisdom. The Quraysh doing tawaf naked genuinely believed they were being more pure, more sincere before Allah. The logic made sense to them.

This is the danger of reason untethered from revelation. On an individual level, so many harmful things can seem reasonable. Take riba — interest. Two people agree, both are happy, both see benefit. What is the harm? But apply that same logic across an entire economy and you get 2008. Families losing homes. Businesses collapsing. Lives broken. The short-term individual logic disintegrates when it scales.

Our intellect is a gift. But it needs guidance. The Quran is that guidance. Without it, we are capable of convincing ourselves that almost anything is fine — and feeling guided the entire time.

Dress Nicely for Prayer

Nine nights in. If you’ve been reading one juz a night, you’ve just passed Surah Al-A’raf in your recitation — the very surah we’re studying together. A good reminder of how the Quran works on multiple levels simultaneously.

The Naked Tawaf — Continued

Last night we left off with the Quraysh practice of doing tawaf naked around the Kaaba. Tonight, a detail worth noting: the Quraysh themselves were exempt from this practice. They claimed to be the pure people of Makkah, above sin — so they could do tawaf in clothing. It was only the outsiders, the pilgrims who travelled from afar, who had to choose: strip down, or buy fresh garments from the Quraysh merchants.

A shameless practice, with a profitable business model built into it.

And when challenged, their answer was simple: our ancestors did this, and Allah commanded it.

Allah’s response was immediate: “Allah does not command shameless things. Are you saying about Allah what you do not know?”

This is the danger of reason untethered from revelation. The argument the Quraysh made — that you were born naked and sinless, so the purest worship is naked worship — has an internal logic to it. You can follow it step by step and almost be convinced. But it leads somewhere Allah never intended. Modesty is not a burden placed on human nature. It is human nature. The nafs, the animal side of us, knows no shame. Haya is what lifts us above it. When we strip away modesty, we strip away something uniquely human.

What Allah Actually Commands: Qist

“Say: My Lord commands justice — qist.”

Two Arabic words are both translated as justice in English: adala and qist. But they are not the same.

Adala is doing what is right at a given moment — even if one party walks away unhappy. A judge delivers adala. The winning side praises him. The losing side calls him the worst judge they’ve ever seen. That is the nature of adala — it is correct, but not always mutually satisfying.

Qist is higher. It is the middle path that brings both parties to a place of genuine acceptance. Not just legally correct, but humanly resolved. Adala is passing. Qist is excellent.

Allah commands us toward qist — in our worship, in our dealings, in how we carry ourselves in this world.

The Cure for Shamelessness

Here is what is striking. Allah has just spoken about shamelessness — the Quraysh doing tawaf naked, Shaitan’s mission to strip humanity of modesty. And what is the cure Allah prescribes?

Not a dress code. Not isolation. Not a list of prohibitions.

Prayer.

“Establish your faces at every masjid.”

The word masjid here goes back to its root — sajada, to prostrate. This surah is Makki; the only masjid at the time was Masjid Al-Haram, surrounded by 365 idols. So Allah is not speaking about a building. He is speaking about the act itself. Every time and place of sujud — turn yourself fully toward Allah.

And why wajh, face? Because the face is the most honourable part of a person. In Arabic, the most honourable portion can denote the whole. When you bring your face to the ground in sujud — the most honourable part of you touching the lowest point — that is the full surrender of the entire self.

This is how prayer protects us from shamelessness. Allah says elsewhere in the Quran that prayer prohibits a person from fahsha — from indecency and evil. But how? We all know people who pray and still fall into wrong.

The answer is in the word aqimu — establish. Not just perform. Not just go through the motions. To establish prayer is to be present in it. To actually stand before Allah, to speak to the Lord of the universe, to feel that you are seen.

Think about it this way: if you were called to the principal’s office this morning and firmly reminded of your responsibilities, how would you behave for the rest of the day? Even a difficult student behaves for at least a few hours after that meeting.

Now imagine the meeting is with the Lord of the universe. Every morning before sunrise. Fajr carries you through the morning. Then Dhuhr arrives before you can wander too far. Then Asr. Then Maghrib. Then Isha. If you are truly present in each one — truly establishing, not just performing — there is barely a gap for shaitan to work in.

The prayer, established with presence, is the antidote.

We Began Without Clothes — We Return Without Clothes

Allah closes this passage with a reminder: just as we entered this world, we will return to Allah. Naked. On the plains of Yawmul Qiyamah, everyone resurrected the same way.

Sayyidatuna Aisha asked: won’t we be ashamed — with everyone around us?

The Prophet ﷺ said: the day will be too great. No one will have the capacity to think about anyone else. Even the greatest prophets — Adam, Nuh, Ibrahim, Musa, Isa — when people come to them seeking intercession, they will say: nafsi, nafsi. Myself, myself. I have my own account to answer for.

Only the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ will say: this is what I was created for. And he will intercede.

On that day, the sun will feel as though it is a hand span above our heads. People will be drowning in their own sweat. But some will be shaded — elevated on hills, wearing shining crowns, alongside their spouses. People will look up and wonder who they are, what they did to deserve this.

They will be told: your children memorised the Quran.

If the parents of Quran memorisers are raised to such a station — what of the memorisers themselves?

It Is Never Too Late

The Prophet ﷺ received his first revelation at 40. Abu Bakr accepted Islam at 38. Neither said: I am too old for this.

If memorising the entire Quran feels out of reach, change the target. One ayah a day, understood deeply, revised slowly, carried with you. One juz a year. In thirty years, you have the whole Quran — memorised with comprehension, not just repetition.

And if life takes you before you finish? The Prophet ﷺ said that whoever makes a consistent effort toward something and is prevented from completing it, Allah will complete the reward for them.

Start. Stay consistent. Do not give up.

Anything attached to the Quran becomes elevated in the eyes of Allah.

We stopped here tonight. Tomorrow insha’Allah, we continue.

Following along with the series? Consider a paid subscription to receive a free digital copy of the Surah Al-A’raf Study Guide and Workbook.

Here’s the expanded version:

Tafsir Thursday — Surah Al-Muzammil: Stand Up, Pray, and Let Allah Handle the Rest

8th of Ramadan Reflections

We’re one week into Ramadan. If you started slow — that’s okay. Ramadan is a marathon. You start steady and sprint towards the end. What we don’t want is the opposite: starting strong and slowly fading — attending Taraweeh in the first few nights then drifting away, stopping the extra prayers, and then preparing more for Eid than seeking out the blessings of the last ten nights. The goal is for the last night of Ramadan to be the best night of our Ramadan.

The Prophet ﷺ said that whoever stands up and prays at night in the nights of Ramadan, expecting reward only from Allah — with sincerity, purely for His sake — Allah will forgive all their past sins. So no matter how tired we are, no matter how early Suhoor is or how hot the day gets at 38 or 39 degrees, we should make sure we stand some extra rakat after Isha. Even just two, four, or six — whatever we can manage. Don’t make Ramadan nights just like the nights of other months. This is our worship festival. Make it special.

Grounded is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

The Command to Stand at Night

Surah Al-Muzammil opens with Allah commanding the Prophet ﷺ to stand and pray through most of the night — except for a little. And what was he doing in those long hours of prayer? Reading Quran.

This is the best thing we can do at night: read Quran in our prayers. If we’ve memorised, this is where we test and revise our memorisation. If we haven’t memorised much but can read fluently, it is permitted to read from a mushaf — Sayyidatuna Aisha had one of her servants lead prayer while reading from one. The key is to have everything ready and in place, and to be careful with excessive movement.

But why this command? Because Allah says: We are going to send down upon you heavy ayat. A serious, challenging mission. The Prophet ﷺ was being prepared to change the world. And the preparation wasn’t political strategy — it was night prayer, Quran, and dhikr.

This is the prophetic formula: to face a difficult day, strengthen the ruh the night before.

Dhikr: The Only Command Allah Tells Us to Do Abundantly

Allah then says: Wadhkur isma Rabbik — and make mention of the name of your Lord. SubhanAllah, walhamdulillah, wa la ilaha illAllah, wallahu Akbar.

Dhikr holds a unique place among all the acts of worship in the Quran. Allah commands prayer, and prayer is essential — Aqimi as-salata li dhikri, establish the prayer to remember Me. But when it comes to dhikr, Allah says to remember Him katheeran — abundantly. It is the only act of worship in the Quran that Allah commands us to do in abundance.

And then: Wa tabattal ilayhi tabteela — devote yourself solely for Him. Who is He? Rabbul mashriqi wal maghrib — the Lord of the East and the West.

One week of Ramadan. Already.

Before we move into tonight’s ayat, a reflection from Part 2 that deserves its own moment — because it will run as the undercurrent through everything that follows in this surah.

al-Muzzammil 10 -14

This week we read and dissect the tajweed rules in ayat 10 - 14 of Surah al-Muzzammil. When it comes to learning a new skill, like Quran reading, remember that consistency beats intensity. It is very important that we practice daily even if it is just for 10 - 15 minutes.

The Prophet ﷺ said: every child of Adam is a sinner, and the best of sinners are those who make tawbah. We will slip. The question is never whether we fall — it’s which path we take when we do.

Last night we saw those two paths clearly: the path of Iblis, who blamed Allah and recruited others into his rebellion; and the prophetic path, demonstrated by Adam — take ownership, turn back, ask forgiveness.

The Prophet ﷺ at Ta’if

No one embodied the prophetic path more completely than the Prophet ﷺ himself. After his wife Khadijah and his uncle Abu Talib both died, he travelled to Ta’if seeking support for his mission. The people there not only rejected him — they paid children and slaves to throw rocks at him, chasing him out of the city. He fled until he found refuge in a garden, bleeding, exhausted.

The angels of Ta’if came to him with an offer: say the word, and we will bring the surrounding mountains down upon them.

He said no. Perhaps from their descendants, someone will accept Islam.

And then he made dua — one of the most moving supplications in the seerah. O Allah, I submit to You my weakness, my lack of planning, my low standing among the people. Not a single word blaming the people of Ta’if. He turned the lens entirely on himself. He asked: perhaps it was my weakness. Perhaps my planning was insufficient.

This from the man who could not have done it better. Yet he took responsibility — because blame leads nowhere. The only path forward is to work on what is within our control.

This is the lesson from Adam’s dua and the Prophet’s dua after Ta’if: focus on your circle of control. Protect yourself and your family. Spend your Ramadan nights on what you can actually change. The tariff rate is not within your control. How you spend this blessed month is.

One Tree Among Millions

Before we move forward in the surah, there is a gem worth sitting with from the story of Adam in Jannah.

Jannah — by definition a lush garden of millions of trees — had exactly one prohibition. One tree. Everything else was open.

This is a mirror of how Allah has designed this world. The halal is vast. The haram is specific and limited. When Allah speaks about what is halal in the Quran, He speaks in sweeping terms: “O mankind, eat from what is halal and good on earth.” No list — because the list would be endless. When He speaks about what is haram, He lists it out, one by one, because it is few enough to enumerate.

There is a principle in Islamic jurisprudence: al-aslu fil ashya’ al-ibaha — the original ruling on all things is that they are permissible. You need evidence to declare something haram, not the other way around. We sometimes become more restrictive than the Quran itself, treating everything as forbidden until proven otherwise. That is not Islam. Allah is merciful, and everything He has made haram is genuinely harmful to us — and there is not much of it.

Shaitan’s trick is to make us fixate on the haram, to make us feel hemmed in, to make the life of a Muslim feel like a series of closed doors. But the reality is the opposite. The doors are almost all open. He just wants us staring at the one that isn’t.

Animosity — and the Iblis Agenda

Allah commanded Adam, Hawa, and Iblis to descend from Jannah, and said there would be animosity between them. This animosity runs in multiple directions — not just between humans and Shaitan, but between humans themselves. Between races. Between classes. Between genders.

When we look at gender wars today, Islam has no difficulty affirming the rights and dignity of women. In fact, much of what has historically restricted women came through culture, not religion. The Prophet’s masjid had no barrier between men and women. The Prophet ﷺ gave lessons to mixed gatherings. Women asked questions — including sensitive ones — directly. The Ansar women were specifically praised for their courage in seeking knowledge. When a separate door was created for women in the Prophet’s time, it was at the suggestion of Sayyidina Umar, so that women wouldn’t be pushed and jostled as the community grew — it was for their comfort, not their exclusion. Sayyidina Umar, despite being famously protective of his own wife, allowed her to attend the masjid because the Prophet ﷺ had explicitly said: do not stop the believing women from coming to the masjid.

The problem with certain strands of modern feminism is not the defence of women’s rights — it’s the framing of everything as a gender war. Men and women, from an Islamic perspective, are equal in spiritual standing and in the eyes of Allah, but created with different natures, different inclinations, different responsibilities. Not one above the other. Different — the way a table and a chair are different. Both necessary. Together, complete. If every chair insists on being a table, everyone ends up sitting on the floor.

The same principle applies to class. Islam does not vilify wealth — it channels it. Zakat. Waqf. The oldest universities in the world — Qarawiyyin, Zaytuna, Al-Azhar — were sustained for centuries through endowments from wealthy Muslims who had the akhirah in mind. Al-Azhar offered free education, boarding, and meals for over a thousand years, funded entirely by waqf. Harvard today operates on $53 billion in endowments — the same principle, different name. The Islamic economic vision is not to make everyone equal — it is to ensure that the rich carry the poor, and that no one goes without. When zakat is properly collected and distributed, the mathematics work out. The system is not a class war. It is a covenant of care.

All of this division — gender wars, class wars, race wars — is part of the Iblis agenda. He said there would be animosity. He is working to deepen it. Our job is to see through it.

Tomorrow insha’Allah — Part 3 of Surah Al-A’raf begins. Allah speaks directly to the children of Adam. Ya Bani Adam.Tonight’s video is recorded by Perth Islamic Channel.

Following along with the series? Consider a paid subscription to receive a free digital copy of the Surah Al-A’raf Study Guide and Workbook.

Five nights in. Ramadan has a way of feeling slow at the start and then suddenly you’re in the last ten nights wondering where the month went. Make full use of every day.

The Prophet ﷺ once climbed his mimbar and said “Ameen” three times — once on each step. When the companions asked what the dua was, he told them Jibreel had made three supplications and…

Last night we established the first sin in history: Iblis refusing to bow before Adam out of arrogance. Tonight we go deeper — into what happened next, and what it means for us.