Commands and Prohibitions in Islam - Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

In this video clip, Shaykh Hamza explains the fourth theme of the Quran, al-Ahkam, as elaborated by Ibnu Juzay al-Kalbi ini his book, “al-Tashil li ‘ulum ul-tanzil”. In the ahkam, you have basically commands and prohibitions. And taqwa, if you look at the very first command in the Quran which is in Surat al-baqarah linearly. The first command in Revelation is “Iqra”. But linearly if you look at how the Quran is laid out, the very first command is to have taqwa, to guard yourself, to protect yourself and to be dutifully aware of God, to be pious, to be dutiful. And that means fulfilling the commandments and prohibitions.

So if you look at the commands and the prohibitions these are called the awamir and an-nawahi. So, Allah Swt. in the Quran has awamir, and then He has nawahy, things that He tells us to do, things that he doesn’t tell you to do. And then the Prophet Saw. said, “He was silent about things as a merci to you. So, things that Allah is silent about, don’t seek them out.” The people that go to delve too deeply and become too obsessed with these things can actually go astray. And so the commands and prohibition go under five categories.

The first is waajib (obligatory) and wajib is basically what you're rewarded for doing and then there's a threat of punishment for not doing it. Allah can forgive people but there's a threat of punishment for not doing it. And the mandub (recommended), which is also there are different words for it. And this is the word that ushooly use for it. The Sunnah is part of the mandoob the nafeela is part of the mandoob. And just as there's gradations of obligation there's also gradations of recommendation. And then you have the moobah, which is a neutral. So the mandoob you're rewarded for doing it you're not punished for not doing it. And then the moobah is what is what is permissible and then the makrooh is what is disliked or discouraged. And then you have gradations. In the Hanafi school they have karaheeya. There's actually a type of prohibition of karaheeya. So you'll have a degree of something that's very makrooh. And then even the Ushooly introduced another term which is called kheelaaful aula (khialful aula), which was used basically for things that you can't really say they're makrooh, but they're better not done. And examples of that would be things like aspects of decorum. Traditionally for instance if you didn't wear a hat publicly as a Muslim, if you did not cover your head, in many places it was considered according to the fuqaha to be musqhitali syahadah, like it would actually remove your testimonial ability in court because you weren't seen as following the decorum of the society in other words you were like not a trustworthy person. Those things, obviously now all that's gone out the window but that how traditional societies were. Like in Arabia, if you didn't wear the goothra, you know as a like a Saudi citizen, if you did not wear the goothra, adult male, it was seen as something that was just not appropriate. It was like you weren't following the decorum of the society. So it was frowned upon. So if you broke that it was a break with decorum it was a breach of the decorum which was not good. And so makrooh is a very interesting area in because it follows very often ‘urf as well. But there are things that the Prophet Saw. clearly told us not to do but they don't have the level of prohibition. And then finally a haram which is if if you if you don't leave it there's a threat of punishment and if you leave it you're rewarded. So there's actually more reward, if you look in this categorization. There's more reward than there is threat. So Allah is generous in that way.

This video clip is taken from "Session 4: Gateway to God's Book with Hamza Yusuf"

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf shares the work on Qur'anic exegesis by the great scholar and martyr Ibn Juzayy al-Kalbi al-Andalusi. The full lecture video can be found at:
   • Session 4: Gateway to God's Book with...  

Subtitles: Fifi Arif

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