Allah ﷻ said to the Prophet ﷺ, “They would love for you to compromise, so that they would compromise.” (68:9)
This verse was about the Quraysh’s campaign of getting the Prophet ﷺ to abandon or dilute his message. They were a people of no principles; they lived in a world where the only standard was, “How high is your price?” And so, they threw everything of the Dunya that they could think of at the Prophet ﷺ, aiming to manipulate him with riches and fame and desires. They lived in such a narrow world view that they were sure he would abandon his integrity and come down to their level. Because they didn’t believe in any of the idols they housed in the Ka’ba. They kept them there because of profitability. They loved the power and wealth it brought them. They believed in the symbolism of status it brought them, because they were opportunists, so they falsely projected this quality onto the Prophet ﷺ and aimed to do whatever they could to make him bend in his mission. They tried to manipulate him philosophically, saying that they would worship Allah if he would relent in forsaking the idols that brought them profit, power, and prestige. They tried to buy his sincerity. They tried to bring and lay the world at his feet. And when that didn’t work, they starved his followers who were vulnerable in the ghettos of Mecca, so that when he would walk by their neighborhoods and hear the children crying out of hunger, they could point to him and tell him that they suffered because of him. They tortured his friends in public squares and made him watch. And when that didn’t work, they brought his dying uncle, who was likewise oppressed for protecting him, even though he did not believe in the message. And still he ﷺ said, “If they were to put the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left, I would not renounce this Call.” And so, they exiled him and his people to the desert, leading to the death of his closest intimate friend, his beloved wife. And he still didn’t give up Allah. This was his love, this is what made him the most beloved to Allah. It was his integrity, and his companions all shared this with him. They suffered the most horrendous forms of torture that Quraysh could imagine, and they got creative. And yet they still believed in the Lord of Creation and did not relent. The Quraysh could not fathom how deep this commitment to the truth went for these people.
Fast forward 1400 years later and Malcolm X exemplified this commitment in the face of white supremacy and state oppression against Black communities. Muhammad Ali exemplified this in the face of militarism against exploited nations. Men and women like these people have been upholding and uplifting the truth, empathy, and humanity of the Prophet ﷺ in his footsteps for over a thousand years. And they did not relent in their mission or compromise their integrity.
Shaykh Alaeddin El-Bakri once asked me, “What separated the 300 Muhajjirin from the 10,000 Quraysh?” I reflected for a moment and said, “Integrity.” He shook my hand and said, “Yes! The Qur’an doesn’t distinguish between Muslims & non-Muslims, it distinguishes between those who are truth-seekers & those comfortable with living a lie.”
And this is why Allah revealed the verse first mentioned here: the oppressors would love to bring you down to their level and have you compromise their integrity, so they can continue to be a people without principles who are never challenged in the way they exploit the world for their own desires.
We must be just as sincere in our integrity, to ensure that our private, internal worship of Allah is as vigorous as what we show in Jama’a salah, and to keep steadfast in following the footsteps of the Beloved ﷺ.
Nurudeen Publishing 