Tafseer Surah al-Kawthar - 1

Bismillaah ir Rahmaan ir Raheem
Innaa 'ataynaaka al-Kawthar
Fasallee li-rabbika wa-nhar
Innaa shaani'aka huwal-abtar


In the Name of Allaah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy
Indeed, We have granted you, O Muhammad (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam), al-Kawthar
So turn in Prayer and sacrifice to your Lord (alone)
Certainly the one who bears hatred towards you is the one severed from all good


Al-Imaam, Shaykh al-Islaam, Abul-'Abbas Ahmad ibn 'Abdul-Haleem IBN TAYMIYYAH (d.728 ah) raheemahullaahu, said:

"What a splendid Surah is Surah al-Kawthar! How abundant are its benefits, even though it is short in length. The reality of its meaning is known from its ending, where Allaah, the One free from all imperfections and the Most High, severs (1) the one having hatred for His Messenger from all good.


So Allaah severs and deprives him of his renown, his family and his wealth, such that he loses all of that in the Hereafter.


He also dispossesses him of his life such that he does not benefit from it and does not use it to acquire righteous deeds for his life in the Hereafter. He severs his heart so that it cannot recognise any good, and he does not enable it to come to know Him and to love Him and to truly believe in His Messengers. He severs his deeds such that he does not act in obedience to Allaah.


He deprives him of helpers, such that no helper or anyone to assist him is to be found for him. He deprives him of every means of seeking nearness to Allaah, and of all righteous deeds, so he does not taste them, and does not relish their sweetness even if he outwardly performed them -- his heart is a fugitive, fleeing and averse to them.


All of this is the recompense for one who has hatred for a part of that which the Messenger (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) came with, and so refuses to accept it due to desires, or due to his followers, or his shaikh, or his leader or his elders.


Just as is the case with those who have hatred for the aayahs affirming Allaah's attributes (sifaat) and the ahaadeeth affirming Allaah's attributes: those who interpret them away with ta'weel to something else other than what Allaah and His Messenger meant by them, or those who take them to mean that which agrees with their own position (madhab), and the position held by their
own faction; or those who wish that the aayahs affirming Allaah's Attributes had never been sent down, and that Allaah's Messenger (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) had not uttered the ahaadeeth affirming Allaah's attributes.


So from the strongest signs that a person detests and has hatred for these texts is that when he hears them being used as a proof by the People of the Sunnah for the truth that they indicate - he recoils in horror from that, he contends and he flees from it. This is due to the hatred in his heart for them, and his aversion for them (2).


So what hatred towards the Messenger (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) can be greater than this?!

Likewise those who listen to music and singing, those who dance about upon hearing singing, lyrical poems, the beating of the daff, and the playing of the flute. Yet when they hear the Qur'aan recited and read in their gatherings they find it tiresome and a burden.


So what hatred can be greater than this?!


Then upon this basis you may gauge the rest of the factions in this regard. Likewise those who give preference to the speech and understandings of men over the Qur'aan and the Sunnah. If it had not been the case that they had hatred for that which the Messenger (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) came with, they wouldn't have done this. Their affair reaches the extent that some of them forget the Qur'aan, after having memorised it, and are preoccupied with the saying of so and so, and so and so.


But the most severe in hatred and rejection of it are those who disbelieve in it, deny it wilfully, and declare it to be just stories of the ancients and a form of magic. Such people are worse, and more severely cut off. But everyone who has any hatred or aversion for him (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) will receive their due share of this severance, in accordance with the level of their hatred and aversion to him (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam). So because of the hatred and enmity of those people towards him (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam), Allaah repaid them by causing everything good to be against them and by cutting them off from it.


Whereas He favoured His Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) with the opposite of that, in that He granted Him al-Kawthar - that is the abundant good which Allaah gave to him in this life and in the hereafter.


So from that which He granted him in this life is: guidance, victory, help, coolness of the eyes and the soul, that his breast was expanded for the favourable acceptance of the truth that his heart found such delight in the remembrance of Allaah and in love of Him that no wordly delight could ever resemble it. As for what He grants him in the Hereafter, then it is: the highest place in Paradise (al-Waseelah -3), the praiseworthy position and right to intercede (al-Maqaam al-Mahmood -4), and that He made him the first one for whom, and for whose ummah, the gate of Paradise will be opened, and He will give him the "Banner of Praise" (Liwaa'ul-Hamd -5), and the
tremendous lake (al-Hawd -6) -- and so on at the time of the Resurrection; and He made all the believers as if they are his children, and he a father to them. Contrary to the state of the one who is severed, the one who hates him and hates that which he came with. So his Saying -- "Innaa shaani'aka" -- means "He who has hatred towards you..." and --"al-abtar" -- "severed/cut off.." is the one whose offspring are severed, the one who does not produce any good, nor any righteous action. So nothing good and no righteous deeds proceed from him.


Notes
(1) The verb "batara" - to cut off, sever, amputate; and from it: abtar: one cut off.

(2) See "Usool as-Sunnah" of Imaam Ahmed and its appendices, pp.15-16, 'Abdullaah ibn Ahmad reports in as-Sunnah (no. 535), "I heard Abu Ma'mar al-Hudhalee say, "Whoever claims that Allaah, azza wa jall, does not speak, nor Hear, nor See, nor become Angry, nor br Pleased (and he mentioned some attributes) -- then he is a disbeliever in Allaah, azza wa jall. If you see him standing by a well, throw him into it. This is what I hold as my religion before Allaah, azza wa jall, since those people are disbelievers in Allaah, ta'ala". (see also pp.114-128 and 172-178 of the same book)

(3) al-Bukhaari reports in his Saheeh, in the Book of Adhaan, chapter, The Supplication at the Time of Adhaan (vol.1 no.538). From Jaabir ibn 'Abdullaah (ra) who said, "Allaah's Messenger (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) said, "Whoever after hearing the mu'adhdhin says, "O Allaah! Lord of this perfect call and the prayer that is to be established! Give to Muhammad the highest place in Paradise (al-Waseelah), and the praiseworthy position and right to intercede (al-Maqaam al-Mahmood) which You promised for him on the Day of Resurrection"". And Muslim reports in his Saheeh from 'Abdullaah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'Aas (radhiallahu `anhuma) that he heard the Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) say, "When you hear the mu'adhdhin, then say the same as he says. Then invoke blessings (salaat) upon me -- because whoever invokes a single blessing upon me, then Allaah will bless him ten times because of it. Then ask Allaah to grant me al-Waseelah", because it is a position in Paradise befitting only one of Allaah's servants, and I hope to be that one. So whoever asks that "al-Waseelah" be given to me, then my intercession will be permitted for him."

(4) al-Bukhaari reports in his Saheeh in the Book of Tafseer, Chapter: the Statement of Allah "Your Lord will raise you to a position of praise". From Ibn 'Umar (radhiallahu `anhu) who said, "On the Day of Resurrection, the people will fall upon their knees. Every people will follow their Prophet saying, "O so and so! Intercede!" Until the right to intercede is given to the Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam). So that is the day when Allaah will raise him to the praise worthy position of al-Maqaama al-Mahmood". At-Tabaree said in his tafseer (15/143-4), "Most of the scholars say that it (al-Maqaama al-Mahmood) is the position that he (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) will take on the Day of Resurrection to intercede for the people that their Lord relieves them from the terrible condition they are in on that Day".

(5) at-Tirmidhee reports in his Sunan (no. 3875) from Abu Sa'eed al-Khudri (radhiallahu `anhu) who said, "Allaah's Messenger (saw) said, "I am the noblest of the children of Aadam on the Day of Resurrection - and that is no boast. And in my hand will be the Banner of Praise (Liwaa'ul-Hamd) -- and that is no boast. And there will be no Prophet on that Day, Aadam and everyone besides him, except that they will be under my banner. And I will be the first person for whom the earth will be opened -- and that is no boast."" (saheeh by Sh. al-Albaani, see Saheeh Sunan it-Tirmidhee no.2859)

(6) al-Bukhaari reports in his Saheeh (vol.8, no.58) from 'Abdullaah ibn 'Amr (radhiallahu `anhu) who said, "The Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) said, "My Lake is such that it takes a month's journey to cross it. Its water is whiter than milk. Its smell is better than musk. Its drinking cups are as numerous as the stars of the sky. Whoever drinks from it will be never thirsty".

by Imam Ibn Taymiyyah

translated by Abu Talhah Dawud ibn Ronald Burbank