Quran Characteristics of the Believers 9 71

Peace be with you. Welcome to another edition of Let the Quran Speak. My name is Sophia. I'm your host. Sin and salvation. What does it what does the concept of sin mean in Islam? How does it compare to the Judeaic Christian understanding? And how does one seek forgiveness or or repent to God? We'll be looking at all that and more. We begin with verse from the Quran. with me, Brother Shabir Ali from the Islamic Information Center. Brother Shabir, welcome to Let the Quran Speak. My pleasure to be on. The verse we're dealing with is from surah 9. It's verse 71. It speaks about the believers men and women. It describes some of the things that they are known for the characteristics of the believers. Yeah. It says believers, men and women are protectors one of another. Meaning that they help and they support each other. So this verse speaks to the Quranic perception that men and women are complimentary. they're not two opposite sides of dividing wall and that their attitude towards each other should be to help and support each other for the common cause of good. Is that what the people were doing in the prophet's time? Like what was the situation in the prophet's time? Were people helping each other? One one would expect that men and women did in fact follow this Quranic description. otherwise there'd be no point to saying that they was they were the most righteous generation of Muslims. but one can add that there must be some sort of nuance due to the time and place in which the Muslims lived. They obviously had history before them and they are the product of that history. so naturally they will be constrained by the kinds of moors and customs and manners of interaction that were known at the time. One can only look at that and ask okay what were the positive directions that the prophet Muhammad peace be upon him was indicating by his own specific instructions and and what were the directions chocked by the Quranic text itself. Mhm. Now many often in the Quran there's there's use of just the believers and it speaks about in the plural it uses the masculine form which is generally said to refer to both men and women but in this verse it it specifically mentions the feminine form of the ver of of the word as well. Why is that? Yes, mat is definitely feminine and if the termun was mentioned, this is the condition of the Arabic language in that the plural can refer to both males and females altogether. whereas if you wanted to refer other languages are like this too. Yes, languages do have their conventions. but the if if in Arabic you wanted to refer to women particularly there's feminine form of the noun and here the both the masculine form and the feminine form are used. Is there specific reason for this? Well obviously if if it is used when it is not necessary and it's not necessary in the language to use it. It obviously is for the purpose of emphasis and clarity lest anyone should argue that women were not meant. The verse makes it clear that women are indeed men and they have some of the same responsibilities that Muslim men would have in terms of bringing about good in their society. It mentions enjoining good and forbidding evil which seems to suggest that it's societal sort of function. It's not something that woman would have to do you know at home. It seems like it's it's sort of communal obligation. Yes, and which are the two things which are mentioned in the verse generally are considered to be public deeds commanding right and forbidding wrong. Of course, there is certain private realm of or family circle in which one would do that as well. But the terms in the Quran are very general and generally used in the in in Islamic societies in in the most general way. So one who commands the right and forbids the wrong could be even the sultan the head of Muslim state. that is also the responsibility of believers in general and women are not excluded from that responsibility. In fact this verse places on their shoulders that responsibility as well. So this verse sort of indicates spiritual equality as well. You know both of them pray both of them receive the same rewards from God. Yes. In fact, it should never be question in in Islam whether when men and women have spiritual equality. This is very basic to Muslim thinking. It's taken for granted. The discussion only arose elsewhere because common narrative about this says that God breathed into Adam and Adam became living soul and then God took from his rib or or made the woman from his rib. So that that made some people wonder does the woman have soul? But the Quran doesn't have the narrative in this way. The Quran says that God created you from single soul and then made from you made from that soul its mate and then from the two of them scattered many men and women and then in the Quranic narrative Eve isn't seen as downfall of Adam. So there she isn't that sort of influence. Yes. But the the Quran has it that Satan whispered to both of them and caused both of them to slip from the grace in which they they they found themselves. so Eve does not have that sort of blame to be associated with her name and to be passed on to women in in general. So the idea that women are spiritually equal to men is quite clear in the in the Quran and women are not cast in the light of the temptress or the eternal seductor of of men. And going back to that question about men and women being mutual protectors of each other. Is this something that you see being enacted today amongst Muslims say in Canada or in other parts of Europe, North America? It is but much more can be done in this in this area. We have seen that some Muslim countries may have or we can say where Muslims are majority populations they have not shied away from electing women as heads of state. but but this balance between the the way in which communal interests and responsibilities are shared between men and women can be reflected and should be reflected all the way down. for example, our community associations and Islamic centers should be to large extent governed by both men and women because we need both perspectives on how to make the community better. to improve things and women obviously have lot to offer in this respect and often they're not given the opportunity to share with us their talent and knowledge and experience. All right, thank you for that explanation. We'll take break. When we return, sin and salvation.