O you who have believed, say not [to Allah ’s Messenger], “Ra'ina” but say, “Unthurna” and listen. And for the disbelievers is a painful punishment.

[Q Al Baqarah 2:104]

ustaz amin : In this ayat has 5 explanations.

1) ra’ina was a word used by the jews to our rasulullah saw. then Allah swt command us to use other word for to use the same word as them is equal to be like them.

nabi muhammad saw in hadith saying that, whoever follow the footstep of a certain group of people/race then he is one of them.

from this explanantion, we are prohibited to follow something that resemblance a certain kafir. if any action is defined that from a certain kafir, then its prohibited to follow or do it.

for example, homosexual is known as wearing an earring - it defined like that. so then it is haram for muslim to wear earring because it follows the footstep of them kafir.

also like wearing cross(christian).

like the 6 stars from jew. the 6 stars is actually from islam, its resemblance a flower. if we go to masjid al aqsa, theres a lot of the 6 stars. it has been used since the time of salaheddin ayyubi ra. but the jews use it only since the last 100 years ago.

if we look at the flag of israel, it has the 6 stars and blue lines. 6 stars to them is their dream which represent as 6 countries as theirs. they wanted to own those countries. palestine, jordan, lubnan, syria, egypt and some part of iraq. the two lines represent nil river and hiraq river(the 6 countries are from the nil river to the hiraq river).

even though the 6 stars was actually a sign of islam, but israel has branded it as theirs. so we cannot use it or wear the sign etc.

2) ra’ina means khilafan, which means, the contradiction. to dispute.

‘you listen to what i say, then i will listen to what you say.’

so then oh the believers, dont use the word, said Allah swt.

Allah swt forbid us to dispute the thing that is clearly the truth.

sayyidina ali ra said,

‘If there are some words, see the words of the speaker, do not see the one who speak the words, because you will dispute it.’

rasulullah saw in hadith saying that,

‘Allah swt will not take back hidayah/guidance from the chest of a person, except from the one who love to dispute.’

so if you want to fight, oppose etc identify it first, the truth is the truth, the wrong is the wrong. especially the thing that comes from Allah and rasulullah saw.

3) ra’ina means we hear but we refuse it.

but say unzurna mean sami’na - we hear and we obey.

Allah swt command us to listen and understand.

4) unzurna means wasma’u - listen. what we need to listen?

ahli tafsir said, listen to the words of rasulullah saw, reflect it, remember it, understand it.

ilm that we gained cannot be saved only in the brain but need to try to put it in the heart as well.

- reflect :

my teacher once said, in our life, we need to have 10 kinds of amal that we istiqamah. we need to search for it and istiqamah.

imam malik ra said, amal is like food. some love durian, but some dont. etc. choose the easiest amal that we can do and istiqamah.

ilm need to be reflected and amal.

- remember : hafal/hafaz/memorize. ilm need to be hafal.

in hadith nabi saw said,

‘ilm disappear because we forget.’

if we unable to hafaz, write it down.

as the saying of ulama,

‘the blurriest writing is equal to the strongest memory.’

- understand :

try to understand. some of ibadat has its own wisdom behind it.

5) And for the disbelievers is a painful punishment.

there are two things. in this dunya and akhirat.

- in this dunya, one suffers the non peace in life, within himself and also towards the believer(doesnt like to see the peace of the believer and also jealous.)

one of the signs that Allah swt punish His slave is He will not give peace in the heart of the slave(the kafir, as in general).

- in akhirat, one will suffer the regretful and punishment.

the kufar will not only suffer with the physical punishment but also the inner punishment, the regretful.

thats why one of the names of ‘akhirat’ is the day of regretful. because everyone will feel regret.

including the believer. for example the believer will say,

‘oh Allah if i know, i will not give one dollar, i will give more than that!’