The Hijra of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and the Muslims from Mecca to Madinah marked one of the most important developments in Islamic history, one that had the most profound imprint on the very fabric of the world, for generations to come. After years of persecution, the necessity of finding a safe haven and refuge for the burgeoning message of Islam became of paramount importance. The Migration ushered in a new era for religion in a world that suffered under its own oppressive weight in the aftermath of Jesus and the counter-attack against his teachings. It also put a swift end to the pervasive inquisition that Quraysh set up for the followers of the Prophet ﷺ and brought to a halt efforts by the non-believers to kill the message of Islam in its cradle. As Allah (SWT) said in the Qu’ran:
يُرِيدُونَ أَن يُطْفِـُٔوا۟ نُورَ ٱللَّهِ بِأَفْوَٰهِهِمْ وَيَأْبَى ٱللَّهُ إِلَّآ أَن يُتِمَّ نُورَهُۥ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ ٱلْكَـٰفِرُونَ
“They want to extinguish the light of Allāh with their mouths, but Allāh refuses except to perfect His light, although the disbelievers dislike it.”
None of this could have happened without pushing the believers significantly out of their comfort zones and compelling them to accept a less favorable reality that, if left to their innate devices, would have not been their first choice. The Hijra unapologetically weaved the universal apparatus of the Islamic Civilization, as its teachings and ethical structures were tested by the inevitable tension of living its ideals beyond the Meccan milieu. It forced the believers to draw clear lines in the sand between what is religious and what is cultural. In Tariq Ramadan’s words:
“Hijra was also a trial of intelligence. Spurring the need to distinguish between principles and their cultural manifestations.”
One could go as far as contending that the Hijra provided the world with a stable rational climate that made it possible for the prerequisites of an intellectual revolution to formulate, launching the world into an era of inductive reasoning that made the Renaissance possible.
But there’s something else just as consequential that Hijra marked: the launching of the Madinan Quran. In the first 13 years of Islam, the Quranic revelation followed certain quintessential themes that were necessary for the development of the individual spiritually and conceptually, collectively known as the Meccan Quran. The surahs propounded certain concepts: Teaching the oneness of God, building proper character, developing a system of morals, emphasizing the fruits of the hereafter, enshrining the value of sacrifice, etc. Madinan Quran, on the other hand, focused more on the systems of thought and practice that are indispensable for building a healthy community and society. Its topics ranged from marriage and divorce, inheritance and business, and war and peace, to lawmaking and governance, economic development, and international relations.
Historically, the first Madinan surah to be revealed right after Hijra would set the tone for all Madinan Quran to come and herald a new era for Islam and the world. That Surah, astonishingly, was surat al-Mutafifin, the Deferauders. At first glance, one might be slightly confused as to the significance of this particular surah for divine selection. According to most commentators, al-Mutafifin addresses the tampering with the scales practiced by many merchants in Madinah. In one narration, Abdullah b. Abbas said:
لمَّا قدمَ النَّبيُّ صلَّى اللَّهُ عليهِ وعلى آلِهِ وسلَّمَ المدينةَ كانوا من أخبَثِ النَّاسِ كيلًا فأنزلَ اللَّهُ سبحانَهُ وتعالى وَيْلٌ لِلْمُطَفِّفِينَ فأحسنوا الكيلَ بعدَ ذلِكَ
“When the Messenger of God arrived in Madina (after Hijra) they (the Madinans) were known to be from amongst the worst in their tampering with the scales. Allah then revealed al-Mutafifin and they straightened out their scales afterward.”
If this was strictly the theme of the surah, it would almost feel underwhelming considering that this is the first divine guidance to be revealed in the Madinan period. Tampering with the scales is a social ill, but how grave is it really, considering the host of other challenges that need to be addressed? One would have expected the first surah of the new phase to address something more compelling or global. Perhaps offer guidance on how to build social institutions, improve economic conditions, fight the enemy, or further the universal appeal of Islam. Rather, the first surah in the Madinan period seems to address a particular social ailment, that could have been sufficiently addressed in a single ayah or a hadith, not an entire surah heralding the second phase of Islam. Prophet Shuaib seems to have been sent to his people in order to castigate a similar practice among the people of Madyan, a story that was cited in the Quran multiple times. Yet no Surah in the Quran was dedicated to this or named after him.
A thorough examination of the surah and its theme may be warranted if the perplexity were to be overcome. The word al-Mutafifin المطففين comes from the root word Taffafa طفف which means to decrease. Tafif طفيف means very little. Tatfif تطفيف means causing a transaction to be unfair, by increasing one party’s share and decreasing the other’s in a manner that violates the terms agreed upon at the time the contract was executed. In other words, al-Mutaffifin are the people who give others the short end of the stick! They are the short-changers, the scammers, the crooks, the swindlers, and the cheaters! In every walk of life, these are the viruses that attach themselves to an unsuspecting host, ridding them of energy and life, and leaving them with afflictions and ailments. They are parasites that leach onto others in non-symbiotic relationships. They promise so much but give little to nothing. They want everything and give a negligible amount in return.
A grocery store owner who tampers with the scales to give his customers less than the money they paid, in order to increase the margin of his gain and decrease theirs, is certainly from al-Mutafifin, as the immediate sense of the Surah implies, but...
A contractor who doesn't complete a job they were commissioned to achieve or delivers a result that is below par with the expected quality is also from al-Mutafifn.
An insurance agent who relentlessly goes after a customer in order to get them to pay for coverage, but then finds ways to wiggle out of responsibility and pay back little to nothing when the customer is actually in trouble, is among al-Mutaffifn.
A doctor who gets overpaid for his or her knowledge and service but ultimately gives a meager service to their patient is among al-Mutafififn.
A government official who diligently participates in the process of collecting taxes and fees from citizens but supports policies that give little to nothing back to society is among al-Mutafiffin.
A teacher who gets paid to teach and mentor his or her students but ends up acting incompetently and failing to benefit the students is among al-Mutafififn.
An Imam who regularly asks for donations, and put his community through financial strains, but offers his community neither the vision nor the services they signed up for, is among al-Mutafififn.
A divinely elected nation that was raised in this world to assume its rightful position as the best nation brought to mankind, in order to serve, guide, and lead, making that the core justification of its levitating above the world, but then fails to do precisely what it's destined to do, and loses itself in the very mundane proclivities that it's supposed to repair, indeed belongs to al-Mutafififn!
The list can go on. Every time we receive compensation for a service we fail to deliver, increasing our benefit while decreasing someone else’s, puts us in this category of people who are spiritually removed from God’s mercy when he says: Woe unto the defrauders!
It is intriguing to understand al-Mutafififn in such a light. But the question remains. Of all concepts, why did Allah (SWT) select short-changing people as the central theme of the first surah to be revealed in the Madani period? The answer resides in the following three points:
First, Allah (SWT) wanted to set the tone for the formation of a new society, whose character is based on timeless morals and robust ethics. It doesn’t suffice to be spiritually connected or militarily superior. The founding of a new Ummah needed to be about a lot more than political might and influence. History is littered with those and they didn’t survive. A nation whose members fail to acknowledge the basic rights of its individuals, and the necessity of a predictable, reliable system, in which citizens trust that they won’t be scammed, is of the utmost relevance to the future longevity of that society and the survival of its values beyond space and time. Similarly, a nation that fails to protect the rights of its private citizens will ultimately fail to inspire a world it's supposed to alter!
Second, devout followers of religion often wholeheartedly assume that serving the Creator can come at the expense of serving the creation. Definitions of religiosity, while filled with notions of dedication to the divine, are usually devoid of applying oneself to serving the Creator by serving His creation. Religious people invest most of their stock in the “vertical” rather than the “horizontal”. This status quo needed to be upended, and its erroneous assumptions needed to be overhauled. Serving the Rabb cannot come at the expense of the rights of his Ibaad. Being religious has just as much to do with acts of worship and devotional practices, as they do with spreading harmony and honoring the rights of people. It is even possible to contend that the 13 years in Mecca leading up to the Hijra allowed the Muslims to develop their internal moral compass and anchor themselves within the Islamic worldview. Upon arrival in Madina, the internal reform continued to transpire and the burgeoning community was ready to start making systems-level changes on top of it. And as the community matures, the horizontal and vertical, - morality and law - developed a symbiotic relationship, feeding one another, engendering a balanced individual and a calibrated community.
Third, as God sets the tone for the new era of Islam and the world, He shows the nascent community how seriously He plans to take trespasses. After all, if He intends to punish man’s aggression against fellow human beings with such severity, imagine how tormenting His punishment will be for those who commit aggression against Him! Violators of their brothers and sisters in humanity won’t be allowed to get away with their encroachments, let alone violators of divine boundaries. A community that is setting its internal affairs in order, needed to be exposed to such admonitions. Rights are serious and must be taken with seriousness, whether those rights are owed to the Lord or his creation.
And thus it was. The first Surah in Madani Quran, al-Mutafifin, was revealed at this critical juncture, launching the Quranic theme of the next 10 years, and ushering in a new era, bearing in its miraculous verses the cure to a pervasive social disease, but more incredibly proclaiming the needed preventive medicine to avert the potential of a community that could lose itself if it gave in to basic Cain vs. Abel impulses. al-Mutafifn paved the way for the solidifying of the timeless moral code of the Ummah of Muhammad, which - even when partially suspended from practice- continues to offer the paradigm a Muslim can aspire for as they strive to lead and practice a good life.
Today, our Muslim community would do well upholding the moral paradigms, ethical inunctions, and spiritual admonitions of Surat al-Mutaffifin more than ever.
The struggle of the modern Muslim community that impedes its ability to exercise its due influence is not that of any lack of ideation, absence of will, or dearth of resources. Rather, it's almost entirely a matter of articulating its relevance in a language that a self-absorbed post-modern generation can fathom. Our success in upholding basic rights within our community, and the awareness of this community’s global role in a world that needs its contribution the most, would be a good start.
Footnotes
Qu'ran 9:32
Tariq Ramadan, In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad, Oxford University Press
Sunan an-Nasa’i
Quran 7:85, 26:181
Tafsir Qurtubi الجامع لأحكام القرآن، محمد بن أحمد الأنصاري القرطبي، دار الفكر
Quran 3:110
Quran 83:1