Al-Kahf 28: Be steadfast with those who pray to their Lord during the day and the evening, asking for Allah’s contentedness. Do not turn your eyes to the (worldly bounties) desiring the ornaments of the worldly life. Do not follow the evil desires of those who are ignorant about remembering Us and do not submit to the transgressors.
Contents
Explanation
Translation
Be steadfast with those who pray to their Lord during the day and the evening, asking for Allah’s contentedness. Do not turn your eyes to the (worldly bounties) desiring the ornaments of the worldly life. Do not follow the evil desires of those who are ignorant about remembering Us and do not submit to the transgressors.
Tafsir
Allah says: "There are such servants of Allah (that neither trade nor commerce will distract them from the remembrance of Allah). If a person accepts Islam, believes in Allah and the Hereafter, believes that the Prophets are true and the Holy Qur'an is true, and remembers Allah, he will be steadfast to Allah. Except when people are created as human beings, i.e. when they are absent-minded, they continue to obey and worship Allah.
The evil one frustrates a person in the way of worshipping Allah. A lifetime of worship will seem like a burden of mountains on a person's back. Just as a person longs for something that he enjoys and always wants to live with that which he enjoys, in such a case, he should be immortal and live with the object of his enjoyment. If a person is not deterred by what his nafs loves and is drawn towards it, and cannot stop himself from going to it or living with it, then he should consider these traits of his nafs in order to be a servant of Allah, the Creator of the Worlds, If he knows that Allah, the Creator of himself and the worlds, will hold his creatures to account on the Day of Reckoning as the absolute power and judge, and if he continues his worship with this realization and understanding, and if he develops a habit of worship, then this person will not compromise on his worship and will persevere in his worship of Allah.
People are deceived by the ornaments of the worldly life. They are lax in their acts of worship towards Allah (swt). They even abandon these acts of worship, incline towards the world created by Allah (swt) and turn their eyes towards worldly goods. They eat and drink without saying halal and haram, collect wealth and enjoy themselves. However, they forget that they are being tested in a lifetime, in a temporary and testing world, in front of the ornaments of the world. Allah (swt) tells people about the Hereafter indirectly through His verses. He reveals to people that the blessings of Paradise in the Hereafter are inexhaustible. It indicates that if there is one place that people will set their eyes on, it will be the blessings of paradise.
Those whose hearts are oblivious to the remembrance of Allah; These people are subject to their nafs desires. They act in the path shown by Satan and their ego. These are people who are disrespectful of people's rights and laws, who are self-indulgent, who value people with material possessions and despise those without material possessions, who boast of the worldly blessings they have against each other, who console themselves with their worldly possessions and forget Allah. The desires and wishes of such people cannot be followed. These people are the ones who live illegitimately and do all kinds of evil deeds in order to acquire worldly wealth. Do not be a sinner by following the desires and wishes of such people and forsaking the honorable life of Allah upon mankind.
And do not bow down to those who are excessive: most of these people are extravagant. They love waste. They are not content with what they have to satisfy their own pleasure and enjoyment. These people run after their nafs (desires) and put the pleasure and enjoyment of the world above their worship of Allah (swt). However, waste is forbidden in our religion. And such people cannot be subjected to their desires and wishes.
What is said in the video
Again, verse twenty-eight – no need to read the wrong one, let us read the correct one. Persevere wholeheartedly together with those who pray to their Lord morning and evening, seeking His pleasure. Do not turn your eyes to them, desiring the adornment of worldly life.
This really is a surah whose wrong version has to be read out, sir. Verse 28, look what it says here.
Together with those who pray to their Lord morning and evening, seeking His pleasure, wholeheartedly persevere. Do not turn your eyes away from them, desiring the adornment of worldly life, it says. Do not turn your eyes away from them, desiring the adornment of worldly life. That is: take from the adornment of worldly life. Take it. Can such a thing be? Whereas: Together with those who pray to their Lord morning and evening, seeking His pleasure, persevere wholeheartedly. Do not turn your eyes to them, desiring the adornment of worldly life. Do not turn your eyes to them. What does it say here?
Do not turn your eyes away from them, desiring the adornment of worldly life. Not "do not turn your eyes away from them", but "do not turn your eyes to them". Yes.
Do not follow the evil desires of those whose hearts are heedless of remembering Us, and do not bow to anyone whose whole business is excess.
Allah Almighty had such servants that neither any buying and selling nor any trade would keep them from the remembrance of Allah, He says. So when a person accepts Islam, believes in Allah and the Hereafter, believes that the prophets are true and that the Quran is true, and remembers Allah, he will have persevered wholeheartedly towards Allah. Apart from people's being created with human attributes, that is, apart from their moments of distraction, they keep up obedience and worship to Allah. The accursed one makes a person weary on the path of worshipping Allah. The worship he is to do over a lifetime appears on a person's back like a load of mountains.
Just as a person longs for something he enjoys and always wants to live together with what he enjoys – in such a case, let the person be immortal and live with this object he enjoys – so a person, feeling no (?) from what his nafs loves, is drawn towards those he loves, and if he cannot keep himself from going to it or from living with it, then, so that a person can be a servant to Allah, who created the worlds, these traits of his nafs come before his eyes, and knowing that Allah, who created him and the worlds, will on that Day of Reckoning, as the absolute power and sovereign of His creatures, call them to account, he continues his worship in this awareness and understanding.
If he makes his acts of worship a habit, this person no longer makes concessions in his worship and continues steadfastly in the worship he does for Allah. People are deceived by the adornments of worldly life. They are lax in the worship they owe Allah Almighty. They even abandon these acts of worship, incline towards the world Allah Almighty created and turn their eyes to worldly goods. They eat and drink without regard for halal or haram, amass wealth and live in pleasure and enjoyment. Yet they forget that these are temporary within a lifetime and that they themselves, in a world of trial, are being tested before the adornments of the world.
Allah Almighty describes the abode of the Hereafter to people (?) through His verses. He lays out before people's eyes that in the Hereafter the blessings of Paradise are never-ending. If there is a place on which people should fix their eyes, it will be the blessings of Paradise; this is what it points to. Now, in short, in this verse it is like this. Allah Almighty commands people to be of their Lord. For example, a person, in pleasure and enjoyment, likes something. And he constantly desires what he likes. And he wants to be constantly with what he desires. So the people of faith desire the Hereafter.
They know there is no other god besides their Lord. And if one is obedient to his Lord, relies on Him and is with Him, then the person in his worship takes pleasure from his worship. In the other way, he is of his nafs. If he (?) his life and, with the burden of sin, sir, in discos, sir, in fornication, in the forbidden, takes pleasure and wants to be with it, then in turn he turns his back on the Hereafter and, through worldly affairs, will have wronged his own nafs. So those whose hearts are heedless of remembering Allah, these people follow their carnal desires. They act on the path shown by Satan and their nafs.
They are people disrespectful of others' rights, self-admiring, who value people with material wealth and despise those without it, (?), who boast to one another of the worldly blessings in their hands and, with the worldly goods in their hands consoling themselves, forget Allah. The desires and wishes of such people are not to be followed; these are people who, living unlawfully, make every kind of evil deed their motto in order to obtain worldly goods. By following the desires and wishes of such people, do not abandon the honourable life Allah set for people and become a sinner. And do not bow to those whose whole business is excess.
Most of these people are wasteful; they love extravagance. To satisfy their own pleasure and enjoyment they are not content with what they have. These people run after the whims of the nafs and hold the pleasure and enjoyment of the world above the worship they are to perform for Allah Almighty. Yet in our religion extravagance is haram. So the desires and wishes of such people are not to be bowed to either.