My Dear Readers,

السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

As-salaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. (May the Peace, Mercy and Blessings of Allah be upon you)

بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

 

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ نَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَسَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلاَ مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلاَ هَادِيَ لَهُ

وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ

(See end note in the first post)

(See Note below)

The Purpose of the Qur’anic Human Being

The Qur’an does not present the human being as a stray biological occurrence, nor as a sovereign appetite abandoned to matter. It presents him as a dignified, tested, and commissioned creature: made for worship, placed upon the earth as khalīfah, and carried through life under the sign of trial. One can therefore say that the Qur’anic human is a free being destined for greatness, but greatness here does not mean self-apotheosis; it means dignified servanthood ripening into trustworthy stewardship, and earthly life becoming a preparation for the final return to Allah.
 

The human being is created for worship, and only then made fit for vicegerency

Q 51:56

وَمَا خَلَقْتُ ٱلْجِنَّ وَٱلْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ

 

Q 2:30

وَإِذْ قَالَ رَبُّكَ لِلْمَلَـٰٓئِكَةِ إِنِّى جَاعِلٌۭ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ خَلِيفَةًۭ

Q 67:2

 ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَ ٱلْمَوْتَ وَٱلْحَيَوٰةَ لِيَبْلُوَكُمْ أَيُّكُمْ أَحْسَنُ عَمَلًۭا

The Qur’an begins by correcting two delusions at once: purposelessness and self-sovereignty. The human being is not created to drift; he is created لِيَعْبُدُونِ. But worship here is not a diminishment of man. It is his ordering. It is the axis that makes the rest of human greatness morally intelligible. In the Qur’anic order, one does not become khalīfah by first enthroning the self; one becomes fit for vicegerency by first becoming servant. Hence the Qur’anic human is not a tyrant over the earth, but a tested steward within it. Greatness, in this grammar, is not inflation of ego; it is beauty of deed under the gaze of Allah.
 

He is honored, but not finished: a being of earth, spirit, and contested proclivity

Q 17:70

وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِىٓ ءَادَمَ

Q 15:29

فَإِذَا سَوَّيْتُهُۥ وَنَفَخْتُ فِيهِ مِن رُّوحِى فَقَعُوا۟ لَهُۥ سَـٰجِدِينَ

Q 12:53

وَمَآ أُبَرِّئُ نَفْسِىٓ ۚ إِنَّ ٱلنَّفْسَ لَأَمَّارَةٌۢ بِٱلسُّوٓءِ إِلَّا مَا رَحِمَ رَبِّىٓ

Q 91:8–10

فَأَلْهَمَهَا فُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَىٰهَا
قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَن زَكَّىٰهَا
وَقَدْ خَابَ مَن دَسَّىٰهَا

The Qur’anic human being is dignified, but not yet complete. He is spiritual because spirit has been breathed into him; he is material because he is fashioned and situated; he is moral because he carries within himself both proclivity and possibility. 

The nafs is capable of descent — لَأَمَّارَةٌ بِالسُّوءِ — yet it is also addressed as a site of purification — قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَن زَكَّىٰهَا. This is one of the Qur’an’s most searching anthropological teachings: the human being is neither angelic by default nor damned by constitution. He is educable, corruptible, purifiable. His dignity is real, but it must be answered by discipline.
 

The Qur’anic human is covenantal, and therefore genuinely free

Q 7:172

وَإِذْ أَخَذَ رَبُّكَ مِنۢ بَنِىٓ ءَادَمَ مِن ظُهُورِهِمْ ذُرِّيَّتَهُمْ وَأَشْهَدَهُمْ عَلَىٰٓ أَنفُسِهِمْ أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ ۖ قَالُوا۟ بَلَىٰ شَهِدْنَآ 

Q 2:40

 وَأَوْفُوا۟ بِعَهْدِىٓ أُوفِ بِعَهْدِكُمْ

Q 16:91

وَأَوْفُواْ بِعَهۡدِ ٱللَّهِ إِذَا عَٰهَدتُّمۡ

Q 76:3

إِنَّا هَدَيْنَـٰهُ ٱلسَّبِيلَ إِمَّا شَاكِرًۭا وَإِمَّا كَفُورًا

The Qur’anic account of the human is covenantal before it is merely legal. 

There is a primordial mithāq — أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ  

and there is lived fidelity — وَأَوْفُوا بِعَهْدِي

and وَأَوْفُوا بِعَهْدِ اللَّهِ 

The human being is therefore not dragged into obedience as an object. He is shown the path, then answerable for how he walks it:  إِمَّا شَاكِرًا وَإِمَّا كَفُورًا  

This is why freedom in the Qur’an is not celebrated as self-invention without Lordship; rather, it is the grave and noble capacity to affirm the covenant willingly, renew it consciously, and embody it faithfully.
 

The prophets are the archetypes of fulfilled humanity, and Muhammad ﷺ is its most complete earthly model

Q 12:111

لَقَدْ كَانَ فِى قَصَصِهِمْ عِبْرَةٌۭ لِّأُو۟لِى ٱلْأَلْبَـٰبِ

Q 6:90

أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ ٱلَّذِينَ هَدَى ٱللَّهُ ۖ فَبِهُدَىٰهُمُ ٱقْتَدِهْ

Q 33:21

لَّقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِى رَسُولِ ٱللَّهِ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌۭ

Q 3:31

قُلْ إِن كُنتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ ٱللَّهَ فَٱتَّبِعُونِى يُحْبِبْكُمُ ٱللَّهُ

The Qur’an does not leave the human being with abstract ideals suspended above history. It narrates lives. The prophets are not decorative figures in a sacred archive; they are the lived grammar of tawḥīd under pressure, patience under trial, gratitude in bounty, and fidelity in loneliness.

Hence: فَبِهُدَىٰهُمُ ٱقْتَدِهْ. Yet within that radiant brotherhood of exemplars, the Messenger Muhammad ﷺ is designated as أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ, and love of Allah is explicitly tied to following him: فَٱتَّبِعُونِى يُحْبِبْكُمُ ٱللَّهُ. In this sense, the sunnah is not an external supplement to a Qur’anic life; it is its most complete terrestrial articulation.
 

The Qur’anic human is imaginal, spiritual, rational, empirical, and material

Q 2:3

ٱلَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱلْغَيْبِ

Q 24:35

ٱللَّهُ نُورُ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ... وَيَضْرِبُ ٱللَّهُ ٱلْأَمْثَـٰلَ لِلنَّاسِ

Q 29:20

قُلْ سِيرُوا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ فَٱنظُرُوا۟ كَيْفَ بَدَأَ ٱلْخَلْقَ

Q 39:18

ٱلَّذِينَ يَسْتَمِعُونَ ٱلْقَوْلَ فَيَتَّبِعُونَ أَحْسَنَهُۥ

If one wished to describe the full architecture of the Qur’anic human being in a single sweep, one could say that he is imaginal without being untethered, spiritual without becoming vaporous, rational without becoming cold, empirical without becoming reductive, and material without becoming imprisoned by matter. He is imaginal because faith begins with what is not reducible to sensory immediacy — 

• يُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱلْغَيْبِ — and because the Qur’an trains the inward eye through image, symbol, and parable  “وَيَضْرِبُٱللَّهُٱلْأَمْثَـٰلَلِلنَّاسِ
• He is spiritual because of that breathed depth already indicated in وَنَفَخْتُفِيهِمِنرُّوحِي 
• He is rational and also empirical because he is commanded to travel, observe, compare, and discern — سِيرُوافِيالْأَرْضِفَانظُرُوا — and to hear the many voices of discourse and follow the best — فَيَتَّبِعُونَأَحْسَنَهُ 

 This is sagacity in the Qur’anic sense: not merely having thoughts, but hearing truth, weighing it, and consenting to the better and the truer.

Q 24:37

رِجَالٌۭ لَّا تُلْهِيهِمْ تِجَـٰرَةٌۭ وَلَا بَيْعٌ عَن ذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ

Q 11:61

هُوَ أَنشَأَكُم مِّنَ ٱلْأَرْضِ وَٱسْتَعْمَرَكُمْ فِيهَا

Q 45:13

وَسَخَّرَ لَكُم مَّا فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ جَمِيعًۭا مِّنْهُ

And he is material and physical without being trapped by the physical. 

The Qur’an neither curses the world nor deifies it. It speaks of human commerce, but insists that commerce must not eclipse remembrance — لَّا تُلْهِيهِمْ تِجَارَةٌ وَلَا بَيْعٌ عَن ذِكْرِ اللَّهِ

It reminds us that humanity was brought forth from the earth and charged to cultivate it — وَٱسْتَعْمَرَكُمْ فِيهَا

It even declares that what is in the heavens and the earth has been made serviceable to man — وَسَخَّرَ لَكُم

So the material order is not an obstacle to meaning. It is the field in which meaning is to be embodied, disciplined, and made answerable.
 

His earthly task includes istiʿmār, movement through the earth, and grateful use of taskhīr

Q 11:61

هُوَ أَنشَأَكُم مِّنَ ٱلْأَرْضِ وَٱسْتَعْمَرَكُمْ فِيهَا

Q 29:20

قُلْ سِيرُوا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ فَٱنظُرُوا۟ كَيْفَ بَدَأَ ٱلْخَلْقَ

Q 9:112

ٱلتَّـٰٓئِبُونَ ٱلْعَـٰبِدُونَ ٱلْحَـٰمِدُونَ ٱلسَّـٰٓئِحُونَ

Q 45:13

وَسَخَّرَ لَكُم مَّا فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ جَمِيعًۭا مِّنْهُ

From this integrated anthropology flow several earthly purposes. 

Istiʿmār fī al-arḍ gives man the mandate of cultivation, settlement, repair, and civilizational responsibility. 

سِيرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ  gives him movement, investigation, and reflective encounter with history and creation. 

The Qur’an even counts among the mature believers ٱلسَّـٰٓئِحُونَ, which keeps before us the image of a life not imprisoned by stagnant heedlessness. 

And taskhīr —  وَسَخَّرَ لَكُم — reminds him that created powers, patterns, materials, and energies may indeed be studied, organized, and benefited from, but always as gifts under God, not trophies of autonomous mastery. 

This is why the Qur’anic human can build, learn, travel, govern, and order the world, yet remain humble, grateful, and morally bounded.
 

Providence is not luck, and what modern speech calls serendipity is not blind accident

Q 65:2–3

وَمَن يَتَّقِ ٱللَّهَ يَجْعَل لَّهُۥ مَخْرَجًۭا
وَيَرْزُقْهُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا يَحْتَسِبُ ... قَدْ جَعَلَ ٱللَّهُ لِكُلِّ شَىْءٍۢ قَدْرًا

If one wants a Qur’anic correction to the modern myth of chance, these verses provide it with luminous precision. What people sometimes call serendipity — a door opening from an unforeseen direction — is not, in the Qur’anic moral imagination, mere accident.

 It is Providence.  وَمَن يَتَّقِ ٱللَّهَ يَجْعَل لَّهُ مَخْرَجًا and وَيَرْزُقْهُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا يَحْتَسِبُ disclose a universe that is not morally opaque to the servant of Allah. Not mechanical, not magical, but providentially ordered. The believer therefore walks the earth neither in superstition nor in nihilism, but in taqwā and tawakkul.

Q 49:10

إِنَّمَا ٱلْمُؤْمِنُونَ إِخْوَةٌۭ

Q 3:103

وَٱعْتَصِمُوا۟ بِحَبْلِ ٱللَّهِ جَمِيعًۭا وَلَا تَفَرَّقُوا۟

Q 3:110

كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِٱلْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ ٱلْمُنكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱللَّهِ

Q 13:28

أَلَا بِذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ ٱلْقُلُوبُ

Nor is the Qur’anic human formed in lonely isolation. He ripens inside a moral brotherhood. Borrowing a modern word, one might say that the Qur’an cultivates a sacred Gemeinschaftsgefühl: a spiritually charged sense of belonging, mutual responsibility, fraternal repair, and shared orientation to Allah.

  إِنَّمَا ٱلْمُؤْمِنُونَ إِخْوَةٌ , and كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِٱلْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ ٱلْمُنكَرِ and  وَٱعْتَصِمُوا بِحَبْلِ اللَّهِ جَمِيعًا indicate that communion is not secondary to faith, but one of its earthly conditions. From this, and from dhikr, comes emotional resilience. 

Qur’anic resilience is not emotional numbness; it is a heart steadied by remembrance, brotherhood, and fidelity to the rope of Allah —  أَلَا بِذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ ٱلْقُلُوبُ 
 

Qur’an and change

Q 13:11

إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يُغَيِّرُ مَا بِقَوْمٍ حَتَّىٰ يُغَيِّرُوا۟ مَا بِأَنفُسِهِمْ

Q 57:16

أَلَمْ يَأْنِ لِلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ أَن تَخْشَعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ لِذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ

Q 91:9–10

قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَن زَكَّىٰهَا  
وَقَدْ خَابَ مَن دَسَّىٰهَا

The Qur’an does not speak in neuroscientific vocabulary but it counters thee fatalism that says the self cannot change.  إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يُغَيِّرُ مَا بِقَوْمٍ  announces that degradation happens due to our own deeds and true inner transformation is staying close to the fitrah that God made us upon.  أَلَمْ يَأْنِ admonishes the heart against hardening and summons it back to reverent softness. قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَن زَكَّىٰهَا affirms that purification is possible, whileوَقَدْ خَابَ مَن دَسَّىٰهَا warns that neglect also reshapes the soul. The Qur’an’s deeper claim is moral-spiritual: habits mark the soul, but they do not imprison it beyond repentance; remembrance, worship, discipline, companionship, and truthful action can re-pattern the interior life.  
 

The final telos is not worldly mastery alone, but the pleasure of Allah, integrated righteousness, and the tranquil return

Q 16:90

إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَأْمُرُ بِٱلْعَدْلِ وَٱلْإِحْسَـٰنِ

Q 2:177

لَّيْسَ ٱلْبِرَّ أَن تُوَلُّوا۟ وُجُوهَكُمْ قِبَلَ ٱلْمَشْرِقِ وَٱلْمَغْرِبِ وَلَـٰكِنَّ ٱلْبِرَّ مَنْ ءَامَنَ بِٱللَّهِ ...

Q 89:27–30

يَـٰٓأَيَّتُهَا ٱلنَّفْسُ ٱلْمُطْمَئِنَّةُ
ٱرْجِعِىٓ إِلَىٰ رَبِّكِ رَاضِيَةًۭ مَّرْضِيَّةًۭ
فَٱدْخُلِى فِى عِبَـٰدِى
وَٱدْخُلِى جَنَّتِى

The culmination of the Qur’anic human project is not worldly success alone, nor spirituality emptied of society, nor knowledge severed from worship. The Qur’an gathers the human vocation into an integrated righteousness: faith, prayer, charity, fidelity to covenant, patience, justice, and iḥsān. In this sense, the human being indeed fulfills his highest terrestrial possibility by becoming the true ʿabd. And when ʿubūdiyyah becomes sincere, khilāfah becomes trustworthy. If one wishes to speak cautiously, one may say that the perfected servant becomes adorned with what Allah commands in the human order — justice, iḥsān, truthfulness, steadfastness, covenantal fidelity — not by ceasing to be creature, but by becoming fully servant.  

So the Qur’anic human being is a free and dignified servant destined for greatness, but greatness rightly understood: not self-deification, but perfected servanthood; not dominion detached from humility, but stewardship under God; not barren ritualism, but a guided and fulfilling life shaped by prophetic exemplars, especially Muhammad ﷺ, and ending in the most tender of all summonses: 

 يَـٰٓأَيَّتُهَا ٱلنَّفْسُ ٱلْمُطْمَئِنَّةُ 

The true success of the human being is that he lives on earth with worship, sagacity, gratitude, and mercy, and returns to Allah رَاضِيَةً مَّرْضِيَّةً, entering among His servants and into His Garden.

May Allah make us people of the covenant, people of tazkiyah, people of sagacity, people of gratitude, people of justice and iḥsān, and may He help us become, in the deepest Qur’anic sense, truly human.

  آمیـــــــــــــن یارب العالمین

May Allah guide us, and help us become the Qur'anic Human Being . آمیـــــــــــــن 

وَٱللَّهُ أَعۡلَم

 Wa Allahu 'Alam (And Allah is the All-Knowing)

Note:

This post starts with the well known opening lines of at least one of Prophet Muhammad's ﷺ  sermon. Al-Nisaa’i (May Allah have mercy on him) reported in his Sunan al-Nisaa’i: Kitaab al-Jumu’ah (Click Here) that ‘Abd-Allah ibn Mas’ud (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ taught us the Khutbah Haajah .

 

Shunning negative character traits

My Dear Readers,

السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

As-salaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. (May the Peace, Mercy and Blessings of Allah be upon you)

بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

 

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ نَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَسَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلاَ مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلاَ هَادِيَ لَهُ

وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ

(See end note in the first post)

(See Note below)

Shunning, abhorring, and erasing negative character traits

 The Qur'an does not only teach us what to become; it also teaches us what to despise in ourselves. It does not appreciate humility without condemning arrogance, nor sincerity without exposing hypocrisy, nor truthfulness without naming lying, slander, distortion, and false witness. It does not recognize generosity without rebuking miserliness, hoarding, and withholding good. And it does not value a sound heart without warning us, in the same breath, about diseased hearts, hardened hearts, rusted hearts, and hearts that turn away from the remembrance of Allah.

To read the Qur'an honestly, then, is to stand before a Revelation that not only guides but diagnoses, identifies, and heals. It is unambiguous and does not lack candor in identifying and expressing what degrades a human being.. It names the foundational corruptions — disbelief, associating partners with Allah, and hypocrisy (الكفر، الشرك، والنفاق — al-kufr, al-shirk, wa al-nifāq). It identifies the inward diseases — arrogance, envy, miserliness, hardness of heart, and following one's desires (الكبر، الحسد، الشح، قسوة القلب، واتباع الهوى — al-kibr, al-ḥasad, al-shuḥḥ, qasawat al-qalb, wa ittibāʿ al-hawā). And it condemns their outward expressions with equal precision: mockery, backbiting, cheating, betrayal, spreading rumors, oppression, hoarding, severing ties, and the making of religion into performance.

This is one of the defining mercies of the Qur'an — the candid, unsparing naming of vice for what it is, before it takes root and becomes manifest.

1) The gravest corruptions begin where the relation to Allah is broken

The deepest moral failure named in the Qur'an is corruption in one's stance before Allah: disbelief, associating partners with Him, hypocrisy, denial, heedlessness, turning away, loving the lower ephemeral life more than the abiding life of the Hereafter. When that axis breaks, the outer life eventually follows suit.
That is why the Qur'an returns again and again to condemn disbelief, associating partners with Allah, denial, turning away, heedlessness, forgetting Allah, and following one's desires (الكفر، الشرك، التكذيب، الإعراض، الغفلة، نسيان الله، واتباع الهوى — al-kufr, al-shirk, al-takdhīb, al-iʿrāḍ, al-ghafla, nisyān Allāh, wa ittibāʿ al-hawā). These are not marginal flaws. They are root disorders seeking to bend perception itself and seeking to distort our worldview.

Q 31:13  

يَا بُنَيَّ لَا تُشْرِكْ بِاللَّهِ ۖ إِنَّ الشِّرْكَ لَظُلْمٌ عَظِيمٌ

“O my son, do not associate partners with Allah. Truly shirk is a tremendous ظلم.”

This verse is an important illustration of a  larger moral principle. Wrongdoing and injustice (الظلم — al-ẓulm) is among the Qur'an's widest umbrella-terms for moral corruption — and associating partners with Allah is presented as its supreme form. The most catastrophic injustice in one's moral architecture is metaphysical: the misplacement of understanding God and His Attributes, and consequently the internalizing of positive character traits within ourselves.

Hence in  Sayyidunā ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (رضي الله عنه), Nahj al-Balāghah, explained in the First Khutbah:

أَوَّلُ الدِّينِ مَعْرِفَتُهُ، وَكَمَالُ مَعْرِفَتِهِ التَّصْدِيقُ بِهِ، وَكَمَالُ التَّصْدِيقِ بِهِ تَوْحِيدُهُ، وَكَمَالُ تَوْحِيدِهِ الْإِخْلَاصُ لَهُ، وَكَمَالُ الْإِخْلَاصِ لَهُ نَفْيُ الصِّفَاتِ عَنْهُ

"The beginning of Deen (religious way of life) is knowledge of Him; the perfection of knowing Him is affirming Him; the perfection of affirming Him is declaring His Oneness; the perfection of declaring His Oneness is sincerity toward Him; and the perfection of sincerity toward Him is negating all attributes that do not befit Him."

And the Qur'an's companion verse on forgetting Allah is equally piercing:

Q 59:19

وَلَا تَكُونُوا كَالَّذِينَ نَسُوا اللَّهَ فَأَنسَاهُمْ أَنفُسَهُمْ

“Do not be like those who forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves.”

This is why the Qur’an also condemns false security from Allah’s judgment and despair of His mercy. Both are distortions. The first makes the soul reckless; the second makes it collapse. The believer is not meant to live in either presumption or hopelessness, but between fear and hope.

Forgetfulness of Allah is not a private spiritual lapse or moral failing without consequence. It disrupts the self and its true purpose. A human on the surface make look smart, articulate, or even accomplished by worldly measures, and yet increasingly become inwardly estranged from his own purpose. The Qur'an also condemns distortions in either have a false sense of security from Allah's judgment and or disproportionate despair of His mercy. The former makes the soul reckless; the latter makes it careless. 

The believer is not meant to dwell in the delusion of impunity or the despair of futility, but in the balance between fear and hope, where both keep the soul accountable, God-conscious, and aware.

2) The Qur’an traces the roots of vice to the heart

One of the Qur'an's most searching teachings is that ugly conduct does not begin at the level of the tongue or the hand. It begins in the unseen interior. The outward act is almost always the final leak of an inward disease that was long allowed to pool undisturbed.

So the Qur'an speaks of disease of the heart (مرض القلب — maraḍ al-qalb), crooked deviation of the heart (زيغ القلب — zaygh al-qalb), hardness of heart (قسوة القلب — qasawat al-qalb), inner blindness of heart (عمى القلب — ʿamā al-qalb), and rust upon the heart (ران القلب — rān al-qalb). This is not ornamental language. It is diagnosis.

Q 83:14

كَلَّا بَلْ ۜ رَانَ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِم مَّا كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ

“No indeed. Rather, what they used to earn has rusted over their hearts.”

Sin, then, is not merely tallied against a person — it acts upon the person at once. Like a virulent disease that does not wait for acknowledgment before it spreads. And it leaves residue. Repeated returns to wrongdoing quietly widen the aperture through which its repercussions seep into the heart and settle, uninvited, upon the soul.This dulls receptivity to a point that truth is no longer met with humility, but with irritation, boredom, or resistance. The Qur'an warns against precisely this:

Q 57:16

أَلَمْ يَأْنِ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَن تَخْشَعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ لِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ ...

“Has the time not come for those who believe that their hearts should humble themselves to the remembrance of Allah...”

The warning in this passage is severe because heartlessness can overtake overtly religious people. A person may continue outward religious association while continuously losing inward tenderness.

The warning in this passage is severe because heartlessness can overtake outwardly religious people. A person may continue the forms of religious association while continuously losing inward tenderness — and not notice, because the forms remain. That is why the Qur'an condemns arrogance, vanity, pride, exultance, self-admiration, haughtiness upon the earth, envy, greed, miserliness, covetousness, anxious panic, haste, and thinking ill of others (الكبر، الاختيال، الفخر، المرح، البطر، العلو في الأرض، الحسد، الشح، البخل، الطمع، الهلع، العجلة، وسوء الظن — al-kibr, al-ikhtiyāl, al-fakhr, al-maraḥ, al-baṭar, al-ʿuluww fi al-arḍ, al-ḥasad, al-shuḥḥ, al-bukhl, al-ṭamaʿ, al-halaʿ, al-ʿajala, wa sūʾ al-ẓann) — all interior distortions before they become social actions.  

 

Q 96:6–7

كَلَّا إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ لَيَطْغَىٰ
أَن رَّآهُ اسْتَغْنَىٰ

“No indeed. Surely the human being transgresses when he sees himself self-sufficient.”

This is a devastating insight. Much rebellion does not grow from real strength but from delusions of grandeur and independence. When the servant forgets his dependence before Allah, transgression and overstepping (الطغيان — al-ṭughyān) becomes easy. And Sūrat al-Maʿārij offers one of the Qur'an's most compact portraits of this unrestrained and untrained ego: 

Q 70:19–21

إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ خُلِقَ هَلُوعًا
إِذَا مَسَّهُ الشَّرُّ جَزُوعًا
وَإِذَا مَسَّهُ الْخَيْرُ مَنُوعًا

“Surely the human being was created anxiously selfish: when hardship touches him, he panics; and when good reaches him, he withholds.”

This is not how the Qur'an leaves the believer — but it is how it exposes the untrained ego to itself. Panic in hardship and stinginess in ease are not merely temperamental quirks. They are moral conditions to be recognized, resisted and repudiated.

3) The Qur’an condemns hollow religiosity

One of the Qur'an's great sustained warnings is that religious form can be worn by an unsound soul. Outward acts do not automatically prove inward truth. That is why hypocrisy and ostentation(النفاق والرياء — al-nifāq wa al-riyāʾ) are so heavily and repeatedly condemned.

The hypocrite is not merely a sinner. He is a dissonant self: outward profession, inward falsity. The one who shows off in prayer or charity or in other good deeds is not merely suffering from a moral failing; he has allowed sincere devotion itself to become toxic theater .

Q 107:4–7 

فَوَيْلٌ لِّلْمُصَلِّينَ
الَّذِينَ هُمْ عَن صَلَاتِهِمْ سَاهُونَ
الَّذِينَ هُمْ يُرَاءُونَ
وَيَمْنَعُونَ الْمَاعُونَ

“So woe to those who pray, those who are heedless of their prayer, those who show off, and those who withhold ordinary acts of help.”

This is among the Qur’an’s sharpest anti-trait passages because it unites false devotion with social callousness. Ritual prayer, here, is not rejected because it is unimportant, but rather, devoid of sincerity and mercy, such a prayer becomes a witness against its performer.

The lesson is clear: worship that does not humble the ego and soften conduct has not yet reached its moral destination. Not even close. The Qur'an therefore condemns ostentation, heedlessness in prayer, laziness in prayer, the refusal of zakāh, hurting people with one's charity, and treating faith as a form of amusement (الرياء، السهو عن الصلاة، الكسل في الصلاة — al-riyāʾ, al-sahw ʿan al-ṣalāh, al-kasal fi al-ṣalāh).  

4) The tongue is one of the soul’s most dangerous frontiers

Many people may mistakenly imagine that character is largely about major public acts — visible wrongs, conspicuous failures. The Qur'an refuses that narrowing with characteristic determination. It devotes intense and repeated attention to speech: lying, fabricating against Allah, speaking without knowledge, false testimony, slander, calumny, accusing the innocent, mockery, taunting, insulting nicknames, backbiting, talebearing, rumor-spreading, and transmitting a report without verification.

This is not incidental. People are often wounded by tongues long before they are wounded by weapons.

Q 49:11–12

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا يَسْخَرْ قَوْمٌ مِّن قَوْمٍ ...
وَلَا تَلْمِزُوا أَنفُسَكُمْ وَلَا تَنَابَزُوا بِالْأَلْقَابِ ...
اجْتَنِبُوا كَثِيرًا مِّنَ الظَّنِّ ...
وَلَا تَجَسَّسُوا وَلَا يَغْتَب بَّعْضُكُم بَعْضًا

“O you who believe, let not one people mock another... and do not taunt one another, nor insult one another with offensive nicknames... avoid much suspicion... do not spy, and do not backbite one another.”

What is striking here is how the Qur'an gathers these vices together. Mockery, taunting, bad suspicion, spying, and backbiting are not random social annoyances. They form a connected moral ecology. Contempt in the heart seeks expression through the tongue, then justification through suspicion, then appetite through gossip. Each feeds the next.

And in the slander passage, the Qur'an rebukes not only the originators of false reports, but those who carelessly passed them along:

 

Q 24:15

إِذْ تَلَقَّوْنَهُ بِأَلْسِنَتِكُمْ ... وَتَقُولُونَ بِأَفْوَاهِكُم مَّا لَيْسَ لَكُم بِهِ عِلْمٌ

“When you were receiving it with your tongues ... and saying with your mouths what you had no knowledge of...”

This is among the Qur'an's most timely warnings. Not every speakable thing is lawful to speak. Not every report deserves transmission. Not every inherited opinion deserves a following. The Qur'an condemns speaking about Allah without knowledge, speaking without verification, and blind following of others (القول على الله بغير علم، القول بلا تحقق، والتقليد الأعمى — al-qawl ʿalā Allāh bighayri ʿilm, al-qawl bilā taḥaqqoq, wa al-taqlīd al-aʿmā) — because truth is never served by noise, no matter how loud. 

5) Social corruption is inward corruption made public

When the heart is diseased and the tongue is unguarded, corruption does not remain private. It enters society. Then vice becomes wrongdoing, moral deviance, shameless rupture, aggression, transgression, and corruption upon the earth (الظلم، الفسق، الفجور، البغي، الاعتداء، والإفساد في الأرض — al-ẓulm, al-fisq, al-fujūr, al-baghy, al-iʿtidāʾ, wa al-ifsād fi al-arḍ) — betrayal, economic exploitation, sexual indecency, bloodshed, the breaking of covenants.

This is why the Qur'an condemns consuming people's wealth unjustly, devouring the wealth of orphans, withholding what is due, cheating in measure and weight, taking usurious increase, hoarding, squandering in waste, failing the poor, repulsing the orphan, and cooperating in sin and aggression. It also condemns severing the bonds of kinship Allah commanded to be maintained, not being dutiful towards parents, unlawful killing, and public or hidden indecencies. 

Q 83:1–3

وَيْلٌ لِّلْمُطَفِّفِينَ
الَّذِينَ إِذَا اكْتَالُوا عَلَى النَّاسِ يَسْتَوْفُونَ
وَإِذَا كَالُوهُمْ أَو وَّزَنُوهُمْ يُخْسِرُونَ

“Woe to those who give less in measure: those who, when they take from people, take in full; but when they give to them by measure or weight, they cause loss.”

Cheating is not a minor market habit in the Qur’an. It is a character issue. It unmasks a soul that revels in toxic success. One-upmanship at the cost of fairness and justice.

In the same vein, Sūrat al-Māʿūn links false religion with heartlessness towards the vulnerable:

Q 107:1–3

أَرَأَيْتَ الَّذِي يُكَذِّبُ بِالدِّينِ
فَذَٰلِكَ الَّذِي يَدُعُّ الْيَتِيمَ
وَلَا يَحُضُّ عَلَىٰ طَعَامِ الْمِسْكِينِ

“Have you seen the one who denies the Recompense? That is the one who repulses the orphan and does not urge the feeding of the poor.”

This is another great Qur’anic principle: social cruelty is not peripheral to creed. It exposes ways in which beliefs or creed have or have not done transformed the heart.

One interpretive note of value here: the Qur'an's vice-vocabulary is not flat. Wrongdoing and injustice (الظلم — al-ẓulm) is the broad umbrella of moral corruption. Stepping outside obedience (الفسق — al-fisq) is breaking from the bounds of right conduct. Shameless moral rupture (الفجور — al-fujūr) is a more violent departure still. Transgressing all limits (الطغيان — al-ṭughyān) is overstepping every boundary. And inward rot masked by outward religious form (النفاق — al-nifāq) is perhaps the most insidious of all. To study these terms carefully is to discover the Qur'an's remarkable moral precision. 

6) Some passages give us compressed portraits of ugly character

At times, the Qur’an does not merely identify isolated vices for us. It draws for us tightly packed anti-character portraits, as if holding up a face before the reader and saying: do not become this.

A significant number can be found in Sūrat al-Qalam, which sketches a figure who is habitually swearing and contemptible (حلّاف مهين — ḥallāf mahīn); a slanderous scorner (هماز — hammāz); a talebearer (مشاء بنميم — mashshāʾ bināmīm); a withholder of good (مناع للخير — mannāʿ lil-khayr); a transgressing sinner (معتد أثيم — muʿtad athīm); coarse and brutal (عتل — ʿutil); and base in character (زنيم — zanīm).

Sūrat al-Humazah offers more:

Q 104:1–3

 وَيْلٌ لِكُلِّ هُمَزَةٍ لُّمَزَةٍ

الَّذِي جَمَعَ مَالًا وَعَدَّدَهُ

يَحْسَبُ أَنَّ مَالَهُ أَخْلَدَهُ

“Woe to every slanderous fault-finder, who gathers wealth and counts it, thinking that his wealth will make him everlasting.”

We should not see it as merely a rebuke of speech and greed. It is a portrait of a soul deformed by contempt and false permanence — one who wounds people with the tongue, clings to wealth, and imagines that accumulation will secure him against mortality. The Qur'an is severe with such portraits because vice is not neutral texture. Left untreated, it dehumanizes the human being . 

7) Shunning vice is not enough; it must be erased

Here one must be careful. The Qur'an's condemnations are not invitations to self-righteousness. They are mirrors before they are magnifying glasses or microscopes. The first question is never, "Who around me is hypocritical, arrogant, miserly, mocking, or treacherous?" The first question is always, "What trace of these lives in me?"

And once a trait is recognized, the believer must learn to abhor it for Allah's sake. Not deny it or accept and admire it as personality. Neither excuse it as temperament. Nor baptize or rebrand it with softer, consumer-friendly names. Arrogance is not dignity. Harshness is not strength. Suspicion is not intelligence. Mockery is not wit. Stinginess is not prudence. Religious performance is not devotion.

Needless to say erasing a vice requires more than abhorrence. It requires treatment — methodical, patient, and rooted in the Qur'an's own moral grammar.

First, one must name the root disease, not only the outward symptom. Backbiting (الغيبة — al-ghība) often starts in envy, contempt, or idle appetite. Showing off (الرياء — al-riyāʾ) grows from recognized or unrecognized desire for praise. Miserliness and greed (البخل والشح — al-bukhl wa al-shuḥḥ) often grow from fear, weakness or lack when it comes to reliance or trust in God, and love of this world. Proud entrenchment in one's wrongdoing (العزة بالإثم — al-ʿizzah bil-ithm) appears when the ego would rather defend itself than be corrected. Hardness of heart (قسوة القلب — qasawat al-qalb) grows through repeated neglect of remembrance of Allah, repeated sin, and prolonged, unwarranted self-justification.

Second, each vice must be paired with its Qur'anic opposite and trained against it: arrogance against humility, miserliness against giving, showing off against sincerity, backbiting against guarding the tongue, breaking promises against faithfulness, hardness against reverence and awe, following desires against following guidance, thinking ill of others against thinking well of them, withholding against preferring others, and harshness against mercy (كبر/تواضع، بخل/إنفاق، رياء/إخلاص، غيبة/حفظ اللسان، نقض العهد/الوفاء، قسوة/خشوع، اتباع الهوى/اتباع الهدى، سوء الظن/حسن الظن، المنع/الإيثار، الفظاظة/الرحمة).

Third, one must take up acts that physically and spiritually contradict the vice. Hidden charity neutralizes greed and ostentation. Seeking forgiveness weakens arrogance. Prayer with full presence and humble awe (حضور وخشوع — ḥuḍūr wa khushūʿ) weakens heedlessness. Fasting weakens appetite and impulsiveness. Guarding the tongue weakens mockery and gossip. Serving parents, honoring trusts, feeding the needy, and returning rights to their people weaken selfishness and wrongdoing.

Fourth, one must accept correction without sinful pride. One of the ugliest traits the Qur'an names is clinging to sin out of wounded pride (العزة بالإثم — al-ʿizzah bil-ithm): when a person is reminded, he clings harder to the fault because his ego cannot bear the descent from its own inflated image. Correction, by contrast, is often one of Allah's mercies arriving in plain garments.

Fifth, the believer must remember that despair is itself condemned. One of Shaytan's most effective tricks is to turn introspection into hopelessness. But the Qur'an forbids despair of Allah's mercy just as it forbids false security from His judgment. So the believer responds to vice with repentance, not by giving up.

Q 39:53 

لَا تَقْنَطُوا مِن رَّحْمَةِ اللَّهِ

“Do not despair of the mercy of Allah.”

Thus the work is hard, but never hopeless. The heart can rust, but it can also be polished. It can harden, but it can also soften. It can turn away, but it can also return, like the proverbial prodigal son. 

8) A practical way to study this in the Qur’an

For those who want to study the Qur’an’s anti-trait map closely, some of the densest passages to read together are: 2:8–20, 4:36–37, 7:33, 17:23–38, 24:11–19, 49:11–12, 68:10–13, 70:19–21, 83:1–14, 104:1–9, and 107:1–7.

Read them not as condemnations of ancient peoples or distant wrongdoers. Read them as a detailed moral scan of the soul. Ask: Which unwanted pattern of behavior do I excuse in myself? Which do I recognize only when it appears in others? Which vice has become so common around me that I have stopped feeling its ugliness? That loss of moral disgust is itself a form of corruption — quiet, gradual, and among the most dangerous of all. 

Closing reflection

The Qur'an's negative character map is not an appendix to religion. It is part of the path. The Book that teaches faith, sincerity, truthfulness, patience, mercy, and justice (الإيمان، الإخلاص، الصدق، الصبر، الرحمة، والعدل — al-īmān, al-ikhlāṣ, al-ṣidq, al-ṣabr, al-raḥmah, wa al-ʿadl) also teaches us to shun arrogance, envy, showing off, backbiting, miserliness, wrongdoing, betrayal, and corruption (الكبر، الحسد، الرياء، الغيبة، البخل، الظلم، الخيانة، والفساد — al-kibr, al-ḥasad, al-riyāʾ, al-ghība, al-bukhl, al-ẓulm, al-khiyānah, wa al-fasād) — every disease that darkens the heart and damages creation.

A believer, then, should not make peace with the traits that Allah condemns. He should learn to recognize them early, hate them inwardly, resist them outwardly, repent whenever they surface, and replace them with their opposite virtues — until the soul is retrained, not merely reminded. This is not a one-time cleansing. It is lifelong moral struggle. It is striving against the lower self (مجاهدة — mujāhadah). It is watchfulness over the heart, the tongue, the hand, the appetite, the ego, and one's dealings with people. And it is impossible without Allah's help.

May Allah protect us from hypocrisy, arrogance, envy, heedlessness, hardness of heart, lying, mockery, betrayal, oppression, greed, and all forms of open and hidden corruption.

May He purify our hearts, guard our tongues, soften our conduct, rectify our intentions, and make us people who flee what He dislikes and love what He loves.

  آمیـــــــــــــن یارب العالمین

May Allah guide us, and help us become the Qur'anic Human Being . آمیـــــــــــــن 

وَٱللَّهُ أَعۡلَم

 Wa Allahu 'Alam (And Allah is the All-Knowing)

Note:

This post starts with the well known opening lines of at least one of Prophet Muhammad's ﷺ  sermon. Al-Nisaa’i (May Allah have mercy on him) reported in his Sunan al-Nisaa’i: Kitaab al-Jumu’ah (Click Here) that ‘Abd-Allah ibn Mas’ud (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ taught us the Khutbah Haajah .

 

 

 My Dear Readers,

السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

As-salaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. (May the Peace, Mercy and Blessings of Allah be upon you)

بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

 

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ نَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَسَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلاَ مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلاَ هَادِيَ لَهُ

وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ

(See end note in the first post)

(See Note below)

Embodying and Actualizing Qur'anic Character

The Qur’an does not present guidance as a collection of abstract virtues hovering above life. It repeatedly sketches a type of human being: one who believes, returns, restrains, reflects, gives, remembers, keeps covenant, lowers the gaze, speaks truth, stands for justice, and walks the earth with humility. Revelation is not only telling us what to affirm; it is shaping what we are to become.

If one wished to catalogue the Qur’an’s aspirational traits, the material is abundant. But it must be read with care. Sometimes the Qur’an praises a virtue by a direct title:    المتقون ,  الصادقون ,  الصابرون , المحسنون . Sometimes it praises a recurring pattern of action: those who reflect ( الذين يتفكرون ), those who ponder deeply ( الذين يتدبرون ), those who repel evil with good ( الذين يدرؤون بالحسنة السيئة ), those who listen well and follow what is best. Both belong to the Qur’an’s moral grammar. The ethical ideal is not made of nouns alone; it is made of habits.

For boundary cases, one should begin with the Qur’an’s own usage, then with the faithful clarifications of the tafsīr tradition—among them Ibn Kathīr, al‑Qurṭubī, al‑Baghawī, al‑Ṭabarī, and  Maʿārif al‑Qur’an . The references are many, but the great virtue-clusters are especially concentrated in passages such as 2:3–5, 2:177, 3:17, 9:112, 23:1–11, 24:37, 33:35, 42:38, and 70:22–35. I am also not foregrounding here result-titles such as  المفلحون  and  الفائزون , though the Qur’an certainly honors them. My concern deals with the earlier parts of the process, which leads to such success, and hence more demanding: what kind of soul, what kind of conduct, what kind of human formation does the Qur’an repeatedly praise?

 1) The Qur’an begins with inward orientation before Allah

The opening descriptions of the muttaqūn in Sūrat al‑Baqarah are already morally dense: they believe in the unseen, establish prayer, spend from what Allah has given them, believe in revelation, and are certain of the Hereafter. Likewise, the opening of Sūrat al‑Mu’minūn does not present believers as a crowd with slogans, but as a formed moral community.

Q 23:1–3

قَدْ أَفْلَحَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ
الَّذِينَ هُمْ فِي صَلَاتِهِمْ خَاشِعُونَ
وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ عَنِ اللَّغْوِ مُعْرِضُونَ

“Successful indeed are the believers: those who are humbly reverent in their prayer, and those who turn away from vain talk.”

This is one of the Qur’an’s quiet but decisive teachings: īmān is not a badge pinned onto an otherwise untamed self. It is a God-facing disposition that reorganizes speech, appetite, money, time, and attention.

And in Q 33:35, the Qur’an makes the matter unequivocal by pairing believing men and women, submitting men and women, truthful men and women, patient men and women, humble men and women, charitable men and women, fasting men and women, chaste men and women, and men and women who remember Allah much. The moral vocation is not the property of a spiritual elite, nor of one gender rather than the other. It is a shared human calling that makes human beings.

This is why the Qur’an so often praises 

 المؤمنون, المسلمون, المتقون, المحسنون, المخلصون, القانتون, الخاشعون, الذاكرون, الشاكرون, التوابون, الأوابون, and المنيبون. 

The believer is not only one who once turned to Allah, but one who keeps turning back. That repeated return is one of the Qur’an’s great ethical secrets. Tawbah is not merely repair after collapse. It is a mode of life.
 

2) Worship in the Qur’an is meant to become character

The Qur’an does not treat devotional acts as isolated rites floating above moral transformation. Rather, ṣalāh, dhikr, ṣawm, istiġfār, tawakkul, and ḥamd are meant to leave a mark on the human being.

Q 24:3

رِجَالٌ لَّا تُلْهِيهِمْ تِجَارَةٌ وَلَا بَيْعٌ عَن ذِكْرِ اللَّهِ

 “Men whom neither trade nor sale distract from the remembrance of Allah...”

This is not a rejection of worldly activity. On the contrary, this verse helps us get our priorities right. Commerce is lawful, work is necessary, responsibility is noble—but none of these may occupy the heart and become a rival axis of the heart.

That is why the Qur’an praises those who establish prayer, guard prayer, bow, prostrate, remember Allah much, seek forgiveness before dawn, hope for His mercy, fear the Hereafter, tremble when Allah is mentioned, and place their reliance upon Him. Even gratitude in the Qur’an is not a passing feeling; الشاكرون are those who receive with recognition, humility, and obedience. Likewise المخبتون suggests an inward softness before Allah: revelation is not merely to inform the mind, but to tenderize the heart.

One boundary term worth looking at appears in Q 9:112: السائحون. Classical tafsīr sometimes glosses this as الصائمون, “those who fast,” though some exegetes also mention devotional travel, striving, or seeking knowledge. The larger point remains stable: Qur’anic character includes disciplines by which desire is trained rather than obeyed.

And Sūrat al Maʿārij makes the integration especially clear. The people who are constant in prayer are also those whose wealth contains a recognized due for the needy, who affirm the Day of Recompense, fear their Lord, guard chastity, keep trusts, honor testimony, and preserve prayer. In the Qur’an, worship that does not become character remains unfinished.

 3) Qur’anic character governs anger, speech, desire, and covenant

One of the clearest signs that a human being is being shaped by revelation is self-mastery. The Qur’an is not impressed by pious language sitting atop a disordered interior. It repeatedly praises those who govern the turbulent parts of the self.

Q 3:134

الْكَاظِمِينَ الْغَيْظَ وَالْعَافِينَ عَنِ النَّاسِ

“Those who restrain anger and pardon (all) people.”

Notice the sequence. Here, it is clear the Qur’an does not stop at merely suppressing outward eruption but rather moves from restraint to pardon, and in verses elsewhere from pardon to repelling evil with good. This, ostensibly higher character, is morally more demanding than self-control alone. The injured self is not only told, “Do not explode.” It is invited upward toward largeness of soul.

The same moral discipline appears in the Qur’an’s praise of the patient, the keepers of covenant, the guardians of trusts, the preservers of chastity, those who lower the gaze, those who do not bear false witness, and those who stand upright in testimony. It also appears in the refusal of اللغو—vain, useless, morally thinning speech. A great deal of human coarsening happens through the tongue long before it appears in the limbs.

Q 25:63

وَعِبَادُ الرَّحْمَـٰنِ الَّذِينَ يَمْشُونَ عَلَى الْأَرْضِ هَوْنًا وَإِذَا خَاطَبَهُمُ الْجَاهِلُونَ قَالُوا سَلَامًا

“And the servants of the All Merciful are those who walk upon the earth gently, and when the ignorant address them, they respond with utterances of Peace.”

This is not weakness. It is disciplined dignity. It is the refusal to be dragged into the moral chaos of the foolish.

 4) The Qur’an refuses a private piety cut off from mercy and justice

One of the gravest mistakes associated with a naive understanding of religion is to imagine that piety is exhausted via inward devotion. The Qur’an does not, and will not permit such narrowing. It insists that the God-facing self must become socially luminous.

Q 2:177

لَّيْسَ ٱلْبِرَّ أَن تُوَلُّوا۟ وُجُوهَكُمْ قِبَلَ ٱلْمَشْرِقِ وَٱلْمَغْرِبِ

 وَلَـٰكِنَّ ٱلْبِرَّ مَنْ ءَامَنَ بِٱللَّهِ

 وَٱلْيَوْمِ ٱلْـَٔاخِرِ وَٱلْمَلَـٰٓئِكَةِ وَٱلْكِتَـٰبِ وَٱلنَّبِيِّـۧنَ

 وَءَاتَى ٱلْمَالَ عَلَىٰ حُبِّهِۦ

 ذَوِى ٱلْقُرْبَىٰ وَٱلْيَتَـٰمَىٰ وَٱلْمَسَـٰكِينَ وَٱبْنَ ٱلسَّبِيلِ

 وَٱلسَّآئِلِينَ وَفِى ٱلرِّقَابِ

 وَأَقَامَ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَءَاتَى ٱلزَّكَوٰةَ

 وَٱلْمُوفُونَ بِعَهْدِهِمْ إِذَا عَـٰهَدُوا۟

 وَٱلصَّـٰبِرِينَ فِى ٱلْبَأْسَآءِ وَٱلضَّرَّآءِ وَحِينَ ٱلْبَأْسِ

 أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ ٱلَّذِينَ صَدَقُوا۟ وَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْمُتَّقُونَ

True piety does not consist in turning your faces towards the east or the west - 

but truly pious is he who believes in God, and the Last Day; and the angels, and revelation, and the prophets; 

and spends his substance - however much he himself may cherish - it - 

upon his near of kin, and the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer, and the beggars, 

and for the freeing of human beings from bondage; 

and is constant in prayer, and renders the purifying dues; 

and [truly pious are] they who keep their promises whenever they promise, 

and are patient in misfortune and hardship and in time of peril: 

it is they that have proved themselves true, and it is they, they who are conscious of God.

This verse takes a bulldozer to ceremonial reductionism: righteousness is neither represented nor fulfilled by turning the face east or west, but all the above instead. That verse alone is a rebuke to any religiosity content with symbols while neglecting substance and obligations towards the fellow human beings.

The righteous in the Qur’an spend from what they love, give charity, recognize a known due in their wealth for the asker and the deprived, fulfill vows, feed the needy, prefer others over themselves, care for kinship bonds, enjoin what is right, forbid what is wrong, reconcile between people, and consult one another in collective affairs. The formed believer is not a sealed chamber of private sanctity; he is a source of benefit.

Q 59:9

وَيُؤْثِرُونَ عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ وَلَوْ كَانَ بِهِمْ خَصَاصَةٌ

“They prefer others over themselves even though they themselves are in need.”

This is one of the Qur’an’s most arresting descriptions of moral beauty. إيثار—preferring others over oneself—is not ordinary generosity. It is generosity par excellence. It is the ability to give over and above our own needs. The Qur’an is teaching that character is most authentic when the hand is open despite our ego having the desire to clench and hold back.

Likewise, the Qur’an appreciates those who are رحماء بينهم—merciful among themselves. It commends المقسطون and القوامون بالقسط: those who are equitable and those who stand firmly for justice. Qur’anic tenderness is not sentimental softness. It includes fairness, moral structure, truthful witness, and public responsibility.

 5) Thinking, listening, and deep reflection are also Qur’anic virtues

Modern people sometimes imagine that religion praises obedience while reason belongs elsewhere. The Qur’an rejects that cleavage. It repeatedly honors people of knowledge, people of deep reason, people of insight, people of sound judgment, and those who listen carefully and follow what is best.

Q 39:18

الَّذِينَ يَسْتَمِعُونَ الْقَوْلَ فَيَتَّبِعُونَ أَحْسَنَهُ

“Those who listen to the speech and follow the best of it.”

The Qur’an’s ideal hearer is neither gullible nor inert. He is attentive, discerning, morally responsive. He does not consume words as verbal ornament. He listens in order to be changed by truth.

This is why the Qur’an considers the following as commendable

  أولو العلم, العلماء, الراسخون في العلم, الربانيون, أهل الذكر, أولو الألباب, أولو الأبصار, and أولو النهى. 

It also repeatedly speaks of those who reason, understand deeply, reflect, remember, infer correctly, and ponder the Qur’an.

Two of these deserve special emphasis: التفكر and التدبر. In the tafsīr tradition, these are not neutral mental acts. They are praiseworthy forms of worshipful intelligence. Tafakkur imbibes the signs of Allah in the world and in the self until they shape the worldview. Tadabbur follows the Qur’an into its consequences, endings, implications, and moral architecture. A community that recites without tafakkur and tadabbur may retain sound in the air while losing light in the conscience.

Q 50:37

إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَذِكْرَىٰ لِمَن كَانَ لَهُ قَلْبٌ أَوْ أَلْقَى السَّمْعَ وَهُوَ شَهِيدٌ

“Indeed in that is a reminder for whoever has a heart, or listens while being fully present.”

The Qur’an sets the standard for "presence". Not just ears, but a heart present within Divine Presence.

 6) Qur’anic character is not passive; it includes sacrifice and costly fidelity

The moral person in the Qur’an is not always described in quiet, interior terms. Conversely this Divine revelation highlights the quintessential call to action: striving, migration, helping, hastening in good, standing firm when comfort would prefer retreat.

Thus it honors المجاهدون, those who strive in Allah’s cause; those who strive with wealth and selves; المهاجرون, those who emigrate for Allah; and الأنصار, those who welcome and support. These are not marginal to the Qur’anic vision of character. They show that fidelity sometimes demands risk, expenditure, uprooting, or sacrifice.

The Qur’an also recognizes السابقون and المسارعون في الخيرات—the ones who take initiative and are foremost in goodness and those who hasten toward good works. This matters because moral knowledge by itself is not yet character. Character appears when the good is not postponed, especially where the delay is ostensibly to the point of inaction.

 7) What all these traits are trying to produce: a sound heart and a soul at peace

If the Qur’an’s virtues are read as a scattered list, one may miss their unity. But they are not scattered. They are converging. They are trying to produce a certain kind of inner human being.

Q 26:89

إِلَّا مَنْ أَتَى اللَّهَ بِقَلْبٍ سَلِيمٍ

“Except the one who comes to Allah with a sound heart.”

The sound heart (قلب سليم) is not naïve innocence. It is a heart cleansed of chronic duplicity, rancor, rebellion, and idolatrous attachment. It is a heart that has been disciplined until it can stand before Allah without inward fracture.

That is why the Qur’an also gives us singular, luminous descriptors: a heart turned back to Allah (قلب منيب), the soul at peace (النفس المطمئنة), a life that is pleasing and well-pleased (راضية مرضية), the حنيف who inclines away from false dieties toward pure tawḥīd, the أمين who is trustworthy, the صادق الوعد who is true to promise, the أواه who is tender and much-supplicating, the حليم who is forbearing, and the one dutiful to parents. These are not decorative spiritual titles. They are the fruit of long obedience.

 8) How, then, do we begin to embody Qur’anic character?

To embody Qur'anic character, it is imperative to stop treating the Qur’an as a book of information, or one that informs discourse or ceremony. It certainly does share lessons from the past, but with the explicit goal of naming moral and character possibilities and then relentlessly making the reader introspect: which one are you choosing to become? At the same time holding virtuous action as both the animating force behind one's choices and the true measure of a life well lived — for the flourishing of all creation.

When we read the Qur’an, we should ask: Which direct title do I, consciously or subconsciously, love to claim, but whose action-pattern do I keep postponing? Where is my weakest frontier—anger, appetite, vanity, money, loose speech, broken promises, heedlessness, or heartlessness? Which act of worship in my life has not yet become character? Which praised quality do I most need to beg Allah for: 

صبر, توبة, إخلاص, خشوع, عفو, شكر, توكل, or صدق؟

And perhaps most searching of all: when the Qur’an praises those who listen and follow the best of it, am I among the listeners only, or also among the followers?
 

Closing reflection

The Qur’an’s picture of the good human being is both majestic and searching. It is not satisfied with correctness of slogan, nor with ritual severed from conduct, nor with intellect emptied of remembrance, nor with charity emptied of sincerity. It wants a human being whose worship becomes humility, whose knowledge becomes awe, whose reflection becomes obedience, whose strength becomes restraint, whose wealth becomes relief for others, whose speech becomes truth, and whose heart keeps returning to Allah.

To embody Qur’anic character, then, is not to collect admirable words about virtue. It is to submit to lifelong formation. It is to let the Book reorder one’s loves, fears, habits, perceptions, and dealings—until taqwā is no longer a concept admired from afar, but a texture of life.

May Allah make us among المؤمنون, المتقون, الصادقون, الصابرون, المخلصون, and المحسنون—the people of iḥsān and beautiful conduct—among those who remember Him much, return to Him often, and meet Him with a sound heart. آمیـــــــــــــن یارب العالمین

May Allah guide us, and help us become the Qur'anic Human Being. آمیـــــــــــــن 

وَٱللَّهُ أَعۡلَم

 Wa Allahu 'Alam (And Allah is the All-Knowing)

Note:

This post starts with the well known opening lines of at least one of Prophet Muhammad's ﷺ  sermon. Al-Nisaa’i (May Allah have mercy on him) reported in his Sunan al-Nisaa’i: Kitaab al-Jumu’ah (Click Here) that ‘Abd-Allah ibn Mas’ud (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ taught us the Khutbah Haajah .

Tafsir, Interpretation, Exegesis and Hermeneutics

 My Dear Readers,

السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

As-salaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. (May the Peace, Mercy and Blessings of Allah be upon you)

بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

 

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ نَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَسَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلاَ مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلاَ هَادِيَ لَهُ

وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ

(See end note in the first post)

(See Note below)

Tafsir

The science of exegesis or tafsir of the Qur'an is exhaustive and with much contribution of great scholars over the centuries. As a student, sometimes it is daunting to decide where to start.  Many of the scholars of tafsir, even to this day, advise this or that tafsir depending on the level of the learner, and their motivations. But there is a general consensus as to the different approaches of tafsir, and the greatest works in the respective approaches. Often scholars in different countries lead with a quote like this:

 وَعُمْدَتُنَا فِيمَا نَرْجِعُ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ كُتُبِ الْأَئِمَّةِ:

١ - تَفْسِيرُ "ابْنِ جَرِيرٍ الطَّبَرِيِّ"  الَّذِي يَمْتَازُ بِالتَّفَاسِيرِ النَّقْلِيَّةِ السَّلَفِيَّةِ، وَبِأُسْلُوبِهِ التَّرَسُّلِيِّ الْبَلِيغِ فِي بَيَانِ مَعْنَى الْآيَاتِ الْقُرْآنِيَّةِ، وَبِتَرْجِيحَاتِهِ لِأَوْلَى الْأَقْوَالِ عِنْدَهُ بِالصَّوَابِ.

٢ - وَتَفْسِيرُ "الْكَشَّافِ"  الَّذِي يَمْتَازُ بِذَوْقِهِ الْبَيَانِيِّ فِي الْأُسْلُوبِ الْقُرْآنِيِّ، وَتَطْبِيقِهِ فُنُونَ الْبَلَاغَةِ عَلَى آيَاتِ الْكِتَابِ، وَالتَّنْظِيرِ لَهَا بِكَلَامِ الْعَرَبِ، وَاسْتِعْمَالِهَا فِي أَفَانِينِ الْكَلَامِ.

٣ - وَتَفْسِيرُ "أَبِي حَيَّانَ الْأَنْدَلُسِيِّ"  الَّذِي يَمْتَازُ بِتَحْقِيقَاتِهِ النَّحْوِيَّةِ وَاللُّغَوِيَّةِ، وَتَوْجِيهِهِ لِلْقِرَاءَاتِ.

٤ - وَتَفْسِيرُ "الرَّازِيِّ"  الَّذِي يَمْتَازُ بِبُحُوثِهِ فِي الْعُلُومِ الْكَوْنِيَّةِ، مِمَّا يَتَعَلَّقُ بِالْجَمَادِ وَالنَّبَاتِ وَالْحَيَوَانِ وَالْإِنْسَانِ، وَفِي الْعُلُومِ الْكَلَامِيَّةِ، وَمَقَالَاتِ الْفِرَقِ، وَالْمُنَاظَرَةِ وَالْحِجَاجِ فِي ذَلِكَ.

إِلَى غَيْرِ هَذَا مِمَّا لَا بُدَّ لَنَا مِنْ مُرَاجَعَتِهِ مِنْ كُتُبِ التَّفْسِيرِ وَالْحَدِيثِ وَالْأَحْكَامِ، وَغَيْرِهَا مِمَّا يَقْتَضِيهِ الْمَقَامُ.

 

 Our principal references—among the works of the leading authorities to which we turn—are:

1. The Tafsīr of Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī , distinguished by its tradition-based (report-driven) exegesis rooted in the understandings of the early Muslim generations (the salaf), by its lucid, unforced eloquence in clarifying the meanings of Qur’anic verses, and by its author’s careful preference for the view he judges closest to what is correct.
2. The Tafsīr al-Kashshāf , distinguished by its keen rhetorical sensitivity to the Qur’anic style, by its application of the disciplines of Arabic eloquence to the verses of the Book, by its illustrating those meanings through parallels from the speech of the Arabs, and by showing how such expressions are employed across the various modes and registers of discourse.
3. The Tafsīr of Abū Ḥayyān al-Andalusī , distinguished by its rigorous grammatical and linguistic investigations, and by its principled analysis and justification of the Qur’anic variant readings (qirāʾāt).
4. The Tafsīr of al-Rāzī , distinguished by its wide-ranging inquiries into the natural (cosmic) sciences—touching on inanimate matter, plants, animals, and the human being—as well as into dialectical theology (kalām), the doctrines of the various sects, and the debates and argumentative methods connected to all of that.

Alongside these, there are other works we must consult as needed—books of tafsīr, ḥadīth, legal rulings, and whatever else the context requires.

The above quote is from the Algerian Maliki reformist scholar Abdel-Hamid ibn Badis (عبد الحميد بن باديس), from his book on Tafsir, but this exact same approach, or similar approach is found in most of the schools in the Muslim world. 

Of course there are other approaches, which are invaluable and I personally find quite useful , such as Tadabbur-i-Qur'an by Farahi and Islahi, which uses the Nazm al Qur'an approach, and so many others.

Why these books got treated as “enough to cover tafsīr”

These four books map onto major “pillars” of tafsīr:
1) al‑Ṭabarī (d. 310H) — the backbone of tafsīr bi’l‑maʾthūr/bi'l riwayah
Collects early interpretive reports, often with isnāds, and practices tarjīḥ (weighing views).
For many later Sunnī exegetes, this is the “archive” of early tafsīr.

2) al‑Zamakhsharī’s al‑Kashshāf (d. 538H) — the powerhouse of Arabic rhetoric (balāghah)
Famous for unpacking iʿjāz-style rhetorical features, syntactic choices, and eloquence.
Many Sunnī scholars used it heavily while also warning about its Muʿtazilī theology.

3) Fakhr al‑Dīn al‑Rāzī’s Mafātīḥ al‑Ghayb (d. 606H) — the encyclopedia of kalām and rational inquiry inside tafsīr
Expansive theological argumentation, philosophical discussions, sectarian debates, and “big questions” that later tafsīr literature often engages.

4) Abū Ḥayyān’s al‑Baḥr al‑Muḥīṭ (d. 745H) — precision in naḥw, lughah, and qirāʾāt
Often treated as the “grammar anchor” among the big classical tafāsīr.

Put simply: narrations + language/rhetoric + theology/rational debate (+ grammar/qirāʾāt) covers a huge portion of what students experience as “the tafsīr tradition.” 

In this blog, we will try to write a bit about each of them إِنْ شَاءَ ٱللَّٰهُ 

وَٱللَّهُ أَعۡلَم

 Wa Allahu 'Alam (And Allah is the All-Knowing)

Note:

This post starts with the well known opening lines of at least one of Prophet Muhammad's ﷺ  sermon. Al-Nisaa’i (May Allah have mercy on him) reported in his Sunan al-Nisaa’i: Kitaab al-Jumu’ah (Click Here) that ‘Abd-Allah ibn Mas’ud (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ taught us the Khutbah Haajah .