Surah Al-A‘raf: Believing, Trusting, and Being Just
21 February 2021
What Do the Accounts Tell Us About Our Lives Today?
The accounts of past communities in the Qur’an are not merely for learning what happened long ago. As we read, we need to turn toward ourselves too: Do the behaviors described have an equivalent in our lives today? The tools people use, the places they live, and the resources they possess may change. But issues such as injustice, arrogance, denial, trust, and submission reappear in different times. That is why, when reading an account, we should consider both what it said to its first audience and what question it directs at us. Watching past people’s mistakes from a distance is easy; the difficult thing is recognizing a similar attitude in our own decisions.
The account of Shu‘ayb in Surah Al-A‘raf is an example that deserves attention in this respect. In the call made to the people of Madyan, worshipping Allah and observing people’s rights are not separated. Giving full measure and weight, not diminishing what belongs to another, and not corrupting an order that has been set right are part of the same call. Here faith is not left as merely something a person says. How they act in trade, relationships, and when power comes into their hands also matters. If we restrict another person’s rights for our own benefit while saying we believe in Allah, we need to recognize this separation between words and behavior.
The Measure Is Not Sought Only in the Scales
Trade is the first thing that comes to mind when keeping the measure right is mentioned. The quantity and quality of the goods sold and the value received for the money paid should correspond. Concealing a product’s defects when handing it over or reducing the materials affects the other person’s rights. But the lesson’s emphasis does not end here. We consider that justice is not a standard used only in a shop; it must also be carried into other areas of life. There are rights and responsibilities in relationships with employees, spouses, children, and neighbors too. Being close to someone neither grants authority to neglect their rights nor makes our own wishes the priority in every situation.
The example given in the discussion through land boundaries is very clear. Someone may move a boundary stake a little farther to enlarge their own field. Although the stake’s movement may seem small, the land taken belongs to someone else. The dispute that follows cannot be explained merely by the size of the land; a person’s rights have been violated. Can we show the same sensitivity toward another person’s loss that we show toward our own? Considering what was done over a few handspans of land insignificant does not diminish the right involved. When approaching what belongs to someone else, our standard should be whether it truly belongs to us, rather than whether we have the power to take it.
The Connection Between Believing and Trusting
When entrusting a responsibility to someone they trust, people believe both in that person’s intention and in their ability to do the task. When entrusting money, they consider honesty; when asking them to care for their family, they consider their ability to help. Expecting a manager to take responsibility at work also rests on a certain trust. The discussion explores the connection between believing and trusting through these everyday examples. We are invited to consider in this way the relationship between saying we believe in Allah and acting with trust in Him. What truly tests our words is less the sentences we say when comfortable than the standard we hold to amid anxiety and pressure.
Sometimes people work hard and strongly desire an outcome, but what they want does not happen. In such a situation, trust does not mean assuming that everything will necessarily turn out as they planned. It means being able to remain on the path they know to be right while acknowledging their limited knowledge. Through the example of financial strain, the tension between seemingly easy ways out and the principles a person believes in is also discussed. The basic question here is: Will we immediately change the standard we believe is right when pressure increases? Difficulty does not eliminate responsibility. While investigating options and seeking solutions, people must consider others’ rights and the values they believe in alongside their own interests.
Making a Mistake and Defending It Are Different
People may show weakness and make a wrong decision. How they act afterward is at least as important as their previous choice. Recognizing their wrong and asking Allah for forgiveness can be the beginning of turning toward what is right again. But if they begin changing every standard to justify what they did, they have entered another path. Everyone behaving in the same way is not proof that the behavior is right. Acknowledging a wrong does not have to diminish a person; the real danger is closing off the possibility of learning and correction by continually justifying themselves. Repentance requires keeping this door open again.
The discussion values people’s ability to recognize their own weakness after a mistake. They can say they struggled and could not act strongly enough; this explanation does not require them to declare what they did right. Likewise, wanting not to do wrong again does not mean they will never struggle from then on. They need to make a renewed effort, seek support from their Lord, and review their choice. Both seeing themselves as completely flawless and considering themselves entirely hopeless may obstruct their recovery. Recognizing the wrong is for determining their direction again, rather than settling into it. That is why honesty is needed first when looking at our own behavior.
Not Waiting to Be Flawless While Learning
Someone newly beginning worship may feel inadequate because of things they have not yet learned. Knowing few surahs, becoming distracted, or struggling to form a habit may become reasons to give up. This part of the lesson emphasizes acknowledging that learning is a process. A child takes their first steps by watching elders; over time, they learn and better understand what they do. The call here is not to regard learning as unnecessary. It is to continue developing what one has begun, rather than never beginning by using shortcomings as an excuse. While recognizing their own limitations, people should try not to turn them continually into reasons to withdraw.
Another danger is considering one’s own worship a source of superiority. Seeing one’s own practice as flawless and another’s as worthless can damage the humility within servitude. While trying to do their best, people should not assign themselves the judgment of acceptance. The common feature of the examples in the discussion is that troubling doubts can sometimes prevent people from beginning and sometimes from continuing. Remedying shortcomings through learning and falling into despair at every shortcoming are different. Effort and continuity are needed for servitude to take root in daily life. Without seeing ourselves as above others, it is important to continue practicing what we learn and learning as we practice. The connection between knowledge and behavior is thus strengthened.
We are also reminded that we need to know how a device works when using it. Especially if we attempt to use an unfamiliar device without learning anything, we may harm both it and ourselves. When considering our behavior in life, we should not underestimate the need for knowledge either. Trying to understand the Qur’an is not merely occupying ourselves with a text to read; it is turning toward learning which behaviors matter and why. Instead of being surprised when we encounter the consequences of a standard we do not know, we need to set aside time to learn. Bringing faith into our lives carries this responsibility to learn with it.
Not Evaluating Blessings Only Through a Difficult Moment
When we experience a difficult event, we may think as though our whole life consists of that event. Yet the life given to us, the opportunities we benefit from, and the kindnesses we have previously received are parts of the same life too. The discussion recalls the sky, nature’s colors, and foods with different tastes and fragrances. Looking at these does not mean disregarding the hardship experienced. It means trying not to allow hardship to obscure our entire view. When we focus only on the wish unfulfilled at that moment, we may make many things we possess invisible. Gratitude is considered as a turning that helps broaden this narrowing perspective again.
When a relationship ends, we may think we will never love anyone again, or that we cannot begin again after a bad experience. The lesson gives examples such as the end of a relationship and returning to driving after a traffic accident. Here the emphasis is on not passing hasty judgment about the whole future. People’s recovery processes differ; nor is the weight of the pain experienced belittled. But we cannot know with certainty that the emotion we feel today will never change in the future. Instead of thinking a past loss has already closed off every new opportunity, we can make room for the possibility of renewed effort and reconnecting with life.
Not Blocking Other People’s Paths
The account of Shu‘ayb also describes people being threatened and kept from Allah’s path. Occupying the entrance to a path is not considered only as blocking a physical passage; preventing a person from turning toward what is right through pressure is also evaluated in this context. The discussion gives examples of people claiming unauthorized rights over parking spaces and groups refusing to allow others into a line of business. The common point is forcibly reserving an opportunity for oneself and restricting another’s rights. The ease that power or numbers provide does not remove the injustice done. While wanting our own path open, we should also consider whether we are blocking someone else’s.
Respecting people’s right to choose is also part of justice. Reminding someone of faith and forcing them into the behavior we want are not the same. Judging another person’s worship and seeing ourselves as an absolute authority over them can lead us to exceed our own limits. Trying to eliminate a person’s will entirely while speaking of faith is a great contradiction. At this point, the lesson asks people to approach others without forgetting their own responsibility. Giving advice, explaining, and setting an example through good behavior are possible; none of this means authority to take away the other person’s rights. Justice should not be conditional on closeness or agreement.
Making the Choice and Leaving the Outcome to Allah
Throughout life we make choices: we pursue a profession, form a relationship, start a task, or set out on a journey. Thinking before choosing and making the necessary effort are our responsibility. But we do not know every outcome beforehand. Our decision may encounter other people’s decisions and circumstances we did not anticipate. Therefore, submission is not avoiding decisions, but remembering our limited knowledge after deciding too. Asking for what is good is not the same as insisting solely on the outcome we want. People pray while working too; while doing what they can, they do not claim to control the result entirely.
The leaders opposing Shu‘ayb try to force him and the believers back into their order, threatening them with expulsion from their land otherwise. This pressure shows that defending the truth will not always be comfortably received. People whose interests are affected may want to silence the truth. In Shu‘ayb’s response, determination not to knowingly abandon the truth he has learned and trust in Allah stand out. The account leads us to reflect on not immediately changing our standard under similar pressures. Leaving the final judgment to Allah is not an excuse for failing to do one’s duty; it means not considering oneself the owner of the ultimate judgment while fulfilling that duty.
The Effects of Our Behavior May Not End with Us
A good or bad deed we do may affect more than the person before us at that moment. Education given to a child, help offered to someone, or a service people benefit from may touch other lives later. Likewise, the wound caused by injustice may continue to have an effect in new relationships. The discussion recalls this thought so that people do not underestimate their own behavior. We cannot calculate every consequence of a choice beforehand; this does not allow us to consider ourselves free of responsibility. Thinking that goodness and evil may leave effects after us too can help us be more careful in our daily decisions.
At the end of the lesson, openness to questions also appears as part of this understanding. Speaking on a subject does not mean we know the answer to every question. It is possible to say we do not know and turn toward investigation. If an expression used has been understood differently, listening to the person who points this out provides clarity. A question someone asks may resolve uncertainty in another person’s mind too. Therefore, learning should not be seen as a process in which only the presenter speaks and everyone else remains silent. When people can review their own expression too, the effort to seek truth becomes separate from a claim to personal superiority; the purpose of conversation becomes approaching what is understandable and right rather than appearing right.
Where this lesson brings us, believing, trusting, and being just are considered together. Trust becomes visible when facing difficulty without violating another person’s rights; faith becomes visible when bringing the standard learned into daily life. People can acknowledge their mistakes, begin again, and investigate what they do not know. While doing so, they neither consider their own power unlimited nor leave their responsibility entirely to someone else. Reading the account of Shu‘ayb is an invitation to such self-examination: Do we respect others’ rights as much as we demand our own? Do we try to remain committed to the values we say we believe in when we struggle as much as when it suits us?