How Should We Prioritize Allah's Will?
Surah Al-Hujurat: Do Not Precede Allah and His Messenger
Summary
In this Ramadan daily Tafseer episode, Sh. Ali Mashhour explains Surah Al-Hujurat, specifically addressing the opening verse commanding believers not to proceed ahead of Allah and His Messenger. The sheikh discusses two interpretations of this command: not to do anything without Allah's permission, and not to give precedence to anyone's words or will over Allah and His Messenger. He emphasizes that obedience to the Prophet is equivalent to obedience to Allah, as the Prophet perfectly reflects Allah's will. The chapter is presented as focusing on five types of etiquette and rights: the rights of Allah, the rights of the Messenger, dealing with sinful Muslims, dealing with dutiful Muslims, and dealing with distant Muslims. The sheikh stresses the importance of seeking permission before engaging in any action, rather than asking for permissibility after becoming involved.
Note: This transcript was generated using YouTube's automatic captioning, with AI-assisted cleanup for readability. It may contain inaccuracies due to background noise, audio quality, or limitations of the transcription software — particularly during Arabic recitation. Listener discretion is advised; please refer to the original video for precise wording.
According to the consensus of all of the scholarship of Islam Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala begins this chapter by saying, oh you who have believed. Do not proceed in front of Allah and his messenger. Wording. There are two different recitations and two meanings. The first meaning is do not precede yourselves ahead of Allah and his messenger And the second is do not put anything or anyone else. And do not give precedence to anyone or anything over Allah and his messenger. Both of these are intended. Meaning, we ourselves are not to proceed to do anything until we know that Allah has allowed us to do this until we know that this is something permissible. We do not proceed to anything until we have permission from Allah and his messenger. Likewise, we do not give precedence to anyone's words, to anyone's will. over the precedence of Allah and his messenger. So, we do not obey anyone over Allah and his messenger. In spite of Allah and his messenger. No, we obey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and his messenger and precedence is always given to Allah and his messenger. The statement here, oh you who have believed, this articulates whenever you see, oh you have believed and then there is a or prohibition after it. What we understand is that the driving force between behind fulfilling this obligation, refraining from this prohibition, the driving force will be faith. Amen. Amen. Will be the driving force. Meaning that if I fulfill this, and the more perfectly and completely I fulfill this, the more faith, the more of faith I am. And the more strong and the more pure my is and vice versa. We notice here how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says do not proceed Allah and his messenger and do not go in front of, do not go on ahead of Allah and his messenger. Allah and his messenger, meaning, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and his messenger the authority of the messenger, is in authority the same as the authority of Allah because the messenger Tells us and relates to us the will of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says Allah whoever obeys the messenger has obeyed Allah. Because what the messenger says to us delivers to us. We are not inherently obey obeying the messenger. He that he has some kind of separate will. Rather what we're saying is that the messenger is a Perfect reflection of the will of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Therefore, we obey the messenger of Allah in our obedience to Allah. If we notice this chapter, this chapter really has a lot to do with etiquette. It has a lot to do with etiquette. How to deal with different how to give presidents to different authorities and so forth. This issue of etiquettes and manners. If we look at this chapter we see that this statement is repeated five times. And each time comes up it is a different etiquette in dealing with a different type of authority. So it comes up five times. And this chapter really revolves around five types of types of rights if you will. The first is the right of Allah, the right of the messenger of Allah, the right of or how to deal with those who are sinful, amongst the Muslims, those who are close, amongst the, dutiful, amongst our Muslim brothers and sisters, and those who are distant and far, amongst Muslim brothers and sisters and each time is repeated, a different one of these is mentioned. So, this first one, the first is the right of Allah that we are not to proceed to anything. We are not to do anything, to say anything unless we know that it is something that at least has been allowed. It is something that does not conflict with what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is prohibited. And so, a lot of times, people will get involved in things, do things, perhaps even get get a job or get so entwined in something and then turn around and say, well, let me ask and see if this is permissible or not, right? It's not the time to ask and see if that is permissible. Time to ask and see if something is permissible is not after you've made the decision to entangle yourself in this thing. It's before you even get involved at all. This is obey Allah and obey his messenger. This is do not proceed before Allah and his messenger. Muhammad.