Lesson 3 of 6 · Fatrah is inside the sunnah
The second anchor text
The report about Hanzala, and alongside it the verse people quote at the wrong tense. It says the ease comes with the hardship, not at some point after it, once you have earned it.
And the surah before that one, which is the strongest thing in this lesson and the least used. It is read as addressing a pause, and what it says to the pause is not a rebuke and not an instruction to do more. Your Lord has not forsaken you, nor does He hate you. And the future will be better for you than the past. The occasion belongs to the sira rather than to the sound reports, so take it as the sira has it, but the plain sense of the words does the work without it.
Qur’an and Sunnah
The strongest thing here and the least used, shown from its opening oath so the passage is not cut into.
وَٱلضُّحَىٰ
By the morning brightness
Qur’an 93:1
The second half of the oath this surah opens with, and the sentence it is building towards is the next verse.
وَٱلَّيۡلِ إِذَا سَجَىٰ
and by the night when it grows still
Qur’an 93:2
The answer given to a pause, and it is neither a rebuke nor an instruction to do more. It denies the thing the person in the pause is most afraid of.
مَا وَدَّعَكَ رَبُّكَ وَمَا قَلَىٰ
your Lord has not forsaken you [Prophet], nor does He hate you
Qur’an 93:3
The occasion of revelation belongs to the sira rather than to the sound reports, so take it as the sira has it. The plain sense of these words does the work without it.
وَلَلۡأٓخِرَةُ خَيۡرࣱ لَّكَ مِنَ ٱلۡأُولَىٰ
and the future will be better for you than the past
Qur’an 93:4
The verse people quote at the wrong tense. The ease comes with the hardship, not at some point after it once you have earned it.
فَإِنَّ مَعَ ٱلۡعُسۡرِ يُسۡرًا
So truly where there is hardship there is also ease
Qur’an 94:5
With hardship comes ease, said again immediately after. The repetition is in the text, and the tense is the thing to notice: with, not after.
إِنَّ مَعَ ٱلۡعُسۡرِ يُسۡرࣰ ا
truly where there is hardship there is also ease
Qur’an 94:6
The Hanzala report again, in a third collection, because here it sits next to the verses. His fluctuation was taken to the Prophet, peace be upon him, and it was not treated as hypocrisy.
Hanzala Usayyidi, who was amongst the scribes of Allah's Messenger (ﷺ). reported:I met Abu Bakr. He said: Who are you? He (Hanzala) said: Hanzala has turned to be a hypocrite. He (Abu Bakr) said: Hallowed be Allah, what are you saying? Thereupon he said: I say that when we are in the company of Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) we ponder over Hell-Fire and Paradise as if we are seeing them with our very eyes and when we are away from Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) we attend to our wives, our children, our business; most of these things (pertaining to After-life) slip out of our minds. Abu Bakr said: By Allah, I also experience the same. So I and Abu Bakr went to Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) and said to him: Allah's Messenger, Hanzala has turned to be a hypocrite. Thereupon Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said: What has happened to you? I said: Allah's Messenger, when we are in your company, we are reminded of Hell-Fire and Paradise as if we are seeing them with our own eyes, but whenever we go away from you and attend to our wives, children and business, much of these things go out of our minds. Thereupon Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said: By Him in Whose Hand is my life, if your state of mind remains the same as it is in my presence and you are always busy in remembrance (of Allah), the Angels will shake hands with you in your beds and in your paths but, Hanzala, time should be devoted (to the worldly affairs) and time (should be devoted to prayer and meditation). He (the Holy Prophet) said this thrice
Sahih Muslim 2750graded sound, sahihaynthe Arabic and its grading
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.