Seerat Shahina
Karachi
Surah Al-Ma’un, Brief Summary.
The name of this surah, which was revealed in the early years of the Prophet's mission is derived from the word Al-Maun occurring in the last verse. Al-Maun, in Arabic meaning Kindnesses, or Acts of Kindness, is the 107th chapter of the Holy Qur`an with 7 verses. The name of the surah, namely Al-Maun, is translated by different commentators differently like Pickthall, Yousuf Ali, and Muhammad Asad have translated as “small kindness,” “the neighbourly assistance” and “assistance” respectively. This Surah is Meccan Surah. The theme of this Surah is to point out what kind of morals a man develops when he refuses to believe in the day of judgement.
Transliteration of Surah Al-Ma`un
Bismillaahir Rahmaanir Raheem
1.Ara aytal laze yukazzibu biddin
2.Fazaalikal lazee yadu'ul-yateem
3. Wa la yahuddu 'alaa ta'aamil miskeen
4. Fa wailul-lil musalleen
5. Allazeena hum 'an salaatihim saahoon
6. Allazeena hum yuraaa'oon
7. Wa yamna'oonal maun
Translation of Surah Al-Ma`un
1.Have you seen the one who denies the Recompense?
2. For that is the one who drives away the orphan
3. And does not encourage the feeding of the poor.
4. So woe to those who pray
5. [But] who are heedless of their prayer -
6. Those who make show [of their deeds]
7. And withhold [simple] assistance
Aayaat 1-3:
The Surah starts as, Have you seen him who denies the Recompense? The term Din stands for religion, faith, the Hereafter, or the final reward. This may mean that if one condemns any of these, he will be regarded as denying the religion. The purpose is to consider as to what kind of character is produced in man when he denies the judgment of the Hereafter, and to urge him to know the kind of the people who belie this creed, so that one tries to understand the moral significance of belief in the Hereafter.
The action of those considers themselves Muslims, but behave otherwise, such people
Deprive orphans of their rights, indulge in false vanity. Such are the(men)who repulse the orphan with harshness, and urge not on the feeding of the needy. Their charitable acts are a display of their false piety, since they do not give for the love of God. A person who ignores orphan is not a really believer (Quran 9:11,4:10, 93:9)
Aayaat 4-7:
This Surah is concerned with three of the core teachings of Islam, how one prays, how one gives and believes in the Hereafter, the condition of the disbelievers, who openly deny the Hereafter
and the state of those hypocrites who apparently are Muslims but do not believe in the Hereafter. Their attitude and conduct cannot develop a strong, stable and pure character in them unless they believe in the Hereafter.
True worship does not consist in the mere form of prayer, without the heart and mind being earnestly applied to seek the realization of the presence of Allah, and to understand the objective behind prayer. It is best to pray for the sake of Allah and He knows our intentions.
It also refers to delay in prayer which means they always delay it until the end of its time, or they usually do so. It may refer to not fulfilling its essentials and conditions, in the required manner. In prayer they rarely remember Allah and pray without any humility and commitment. They are not praying to seek the blessings of Allah; instead, they are praying to show the world that they are religious and righteous and to get praise from their fellow companions. This is very clearly a sign of hypocrisy as such people do not pray for the sake of Allah (SWT) and to seek His mercy. The Quran has descried this state of the hypocrites.
“Verily, the hypocrites seek to deceive Allah, but it is He Who deceives them. And when they stand up with laziness and to be seen of men, and they do not remember Allah but little.” (Quran 4:142, 9:54)
Those who perform good deeds only to show off are hypocrites. But whoever does a deeds, solely for Allah, and the people come to know about it in due or normal course, and Allah is pleased with that, then this is not considered showing off.
Withholding Al-Maun: This means that they do not worship their Lord well, nor do they treat His creation well. They do not even lend anything to others that may benefit them and be helped by, even though the object will remain intact and be returned to them.
Maun in fact is a small, little thing useful to the people. Accordingly, alms tax (zakat) also is Maun, for it is a little amount out of much wealth, which one has to give away in order to help the poor, and the other small items of common use are also Maun as mentioned by Abdullah Ibn Masud and the scholars who share their viewpoint that Maun applies to all those small things which the neighbors usually ask each other. In the similar way, it includes the occasional acts of kindness consisting in helping out one's fellow-men with such items. In its wider sense, it denotes ‘aid’ or “assistance" in any difficulty.