الآية رقم (100) - قُل لاَّ يَسْتَوِي الْخَبِيثُ وَالطَّيِّبُ وَلَوْ أَعْجَبَكَ كَثْرَةُ الْخَبِيثِ فَاتَّقُواْ اللّهَ يَا أُوْلِي الأَلْبَابِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ

(100) - (Say, "Not equal are the evil and the good, although the abundance of evil might impress you." So fear Allah, O you of understanding, that you may be successful.)

Observe the precision of the conveyance of the Prophet (saws)! Allah (swt) says to His Prophet: {Say (O Prophet) …}, and the Prophet conveys to us: {Say (O Prophet) …} without omitting the word {Say}. And this is of his trustworthiness in conveyance, as Allah has said to him: {The Messenger’s duty is only to deliver}. So, he is to deliver every letter without any addition or diminution.

( قُل لَّا يَسْتَوِي الْخَبِيثُ وَالطَّيِّبُ وَلَوْ أَعْجَبَكَ كَثْرَةُ الْخَبِيثِ ) (Say, “Not equal are the evil and the good, although the abundance of evil might impress you ): What a great verse this is! Of the nature of human beings is that they will acknowledge goodness as goodness and evil as evil. So, when Allah (swt) says: (Although the abundance of bad might impress you), we realize that there is a group of people who would be impressed by the abundance of badness. Among the things containing an abundance of badness which impresses people the most is the abundance of unlawful wealth, be it good or not.

During the time when the Abbasid Empire was under the rule of Abu Ja’far Al-Mansur, there was a Shyeikh who was a famous preacher, named Muqatil Bin Sulaiman. One day, Abu Ja’far Al-Mansur said to him while many people were gathered: “Advise me.” So he said, “O Leader of the Believers, Umar Bin Abdul Aziz passed on and left behind eleven sons. He also left behind eighteen dinars; from which five were used for his shroud, four were used to purchase for him a grave, and the remaining nine were divided amongst his eleven sons.” Then he continued, “O Leader of the Believers, when Hisham Bin Abdul Malik passed away, each of his four wives inherited eighty thousand dinars, in addition to property and palaces. So, the total amount inherited by his wives was three hundred and twenty thousand dinars. By Allah, The One Who there is no God but He, I saw one day with my very own eyes, one of the sons of Umar Bin Abdul Aziz prepare a hundred horses to fight for the cause of Allah, and on the contrary, one of Hisham Bin Abdul Malik’s sons begging in the streets.” Thus, this is an explanation of the words of Allah: (Say (O Prophet), “Not equal are the bad and the good, although the abundance of bad might impress you.), which clearly demonstrates the difference between the bad and the good.

(  اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ يَا أُولِي الْأَلْبَابِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُون ) (…So fear Allah, O you of understanding, that you may be successful.): The phrase used here, “fear Allah”, means that a person should set up a barrier between himself and the wrath of Allah (swt). He should thus not eat the wealth of others wrongfully, not accept bribes, not steal, not monopolize nor transfer good wealth to become bad wealth. This is because, a small amount of the halal (lawful) is better than many vaults filled with the haram (forbidden).

The Arabic word used for successful is derived from the word Filahah, which means cultivation. The real cultivation is when a person plants and cultivates the earth by planting one seed and it produces seven hundred new seeds.