Tafseer Ibn Kathir of LUQMAN [16]

16. ”O my son! If it be (anything) equal to the weight of a grain of mustard seed, and though it be in a rock, or in the heavens or on the earth, Allah will bring it forth. Verily, Allah is Subtle, Well-Aware.'' 17. ”O my son! Perform the Salah, enjoin the good, and forbid the evil, and bear with patience whatever befalls you. Verily, these are some of the important commandments.'' 18. ”And turn not your face away from men with pride, nor walk in insolence through the earth. Verily, Allah likes not any arrogant boaster.'' 19. ”And be moderate in your walking, and lower your voice. Verily, the harshest of all voices is the braying of the asses.'' He said:

(O my son! If it be (anything) equal to the weight of a grain of mustard seed, ) means, if a wrong action or a sin be equal to the size of a grain of mustard seed.

(Allah will bring it forth.) means, He will bring it forth on the Day of Resurrection, when it is placed in the Scales of justice and everyone is rewarded or punished for his actions -- if they are good, he will be rewarded and if they are bad he will be punished. This is like the Ayat:

(And We shall set up Balances of justice on the Day of Resurrection, then none will be dealt with unjustly in anything) (21:47).

(So, whosoever does good equal to the weight of a speck of dust shall see it. And whosoever does evil equal to the weight of a speck of dust shall see it.) (99:7-8) Even if this tiny thing were to be hidden inside a solid rock or anywhere in the heavens and the earth, Allah will bring it forth, because nothing is hidden from Him, not even the weight of a speck of dust in the heavens or on the earth. Allah says:

(Verily, Allah is Subtle, Well-Aware.) meaning, His knowledge is subtle, for nothing is hidden from Him, no matter how small, subtle and minute.

(Well-Aware.) even of the footsteps of an ant in the darkest night. Then he (Luqman) said:

(O my son! Perform the Salah,) meaning, offer the prayer properly at the appointed times.

(enjoin the good, and forbid the evil,) meaning, to the best of your ability and strength.

(and bear with patience whatever befalls you.) Luqman knew that whoever enjoins what is good and forbids what is evil, will inevitably encounter harm and annoyance from people, so he told him to be patient.

(Verily, these are some of the important commandments.) means, being patient when people cause harm or annoyance is one of the most important commandments.

(And turn not your face away from men with pride) means, `do not turn your face away from people when you speak to them or they speak to you, looking down on them in an arrogant fashion. Rather be gentle towards them and greet them with a cheerful face,' as it says in the Hadith:

(... even if it is only by greeting your brother with a cheerful countenance. And beware of letting your lower garment trail below your ankles, for this is a kind of boasting, and Allah does not like boasting.)

(nor walk in insolence through the earth.) means, `do not be boastful, arrogant, proud and stubborn. Do not do that, for Allah will hate you.' So he said:

(Verily, Allah likes not any arrogant boaster.) meaning, one who shows off and admires himself, feeling that he is better than others. And Allah says:

(And walk not on the earth with conceit and arrogance. Verily, you can neither rend nor penetrate the earth nor can you attain a stature like the mountains in height.) (17:37). We have already discussed this is detail in the appropriate place.  

(And be moderate in your walking,) means, walk in a moderate manner, neither slow and lazy nor excessively fast, but be moderate, somewhere in between these two extremes.

(and lower your voice.) means, do not exaggerate in your speaking and do not raise your voice unnecessarily. Allah says:

(Verily, the harshest of all voices is the braying of the asses.) Mujahid and others said, ”The most ugly of voices is the voice of the donkey, i.e., when a person raises his voice, the resulting noise is like the voice of a donkey in its loudness. Moreover this is hateful to Allah. Likening a loud voice to that of a donkey implies that it is forbidden and extremely blameworthy, because the Messenger of Allah said:

(It is not befitting us to be an evil parable. The person who takes back his gift, he is like a dog that vomits and then goes back to his vomit.) This is very useful advice, which the Qur'an tells us about Luqman. Many other proverbs and words of advice were also narrated from him, some examples of which we will quote below, as basic principles: Imam Ahmad recorded that Ibn `Umar said, ”The Messenger of Allah said:

(Luqman the Wise used to say: when something is entrusted to the care of Allah, He protects it.) It was narrated that As-Sari bin Yahya said: ”Luqman said to his son: `Wisdom puts the poor in the company of kings.''' It was also narrated that `Awn bin `Abdullah said: ”Luqman said to his son: `O my son! When you come to a gathering of people, greet them with Salam, then sit at the edge of the group, and do not speak until you see that they have finished speaking. Then if they remember Allah, join them, but if they speak of anything else, then leave them and go to another group'.''