78
Yā-Barr
The Doer of Good, The
Righteous, The Good
Koran 52, 28 says: ”Inna kunna min qablu nadAAoohu
innahu huwa albarru alrraheemu ” translated in
English: ”Surely we called upon Him before: Surely He is the Benign, the
Merciful”, and in French1 : ”En vérité, c’est Lui, le Bon (barr), le Très-Miséricordieux”. This
verse was also translated as follow: “The One who is
kind to His creatures, who covered them with His
sustenance and specified whoever He willed among them by His support,
protection, and special mercy3.” We find it translated as followed
on Qu’ran-i-kerim site7:”Truly we did call unto Him
from of old. Truly it is He, the Source of All Goodness (Al-Barr).”
Koran 19, 14 says : ”Wabarran
biwalidayhi walam yakun jabbaran Aaasiyyan” translated in
English: “And dutiful to his parents, and he was not insolent,
disobedient1”; and in French « Pour qualifier saint Jean-Baptiste (Yahya) – sur lui
la paix – Allah dit : ”Il était bon (barr) envers ses
deux parents”. »
Koran 19, 32 says : ”Wabarran biwalidatee walam
yajAAalnee jabbaran shaqiyyan”
Translated in English: And
dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me insolent, unblessed1;
and in French ”De Jésus
– sur lui la paix – il dit :
il m’a recommandé
d’être bon (barr) envers ma
mère.”
We saw above that in French Al-Barr is translated as doer of good (bon).
M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen2 translated Al Barr as The Righteous,
The Dutiful and Devoted, The Kind and Benign Benefactor.
According to Ar-Rāzī6, the two words barr
and bārr have the same meaning : al-muhsin, the benevolent, the kind, the One
who acts rightfully. The Kindness (birr) of Allah for His Servants is in His
beautiful Behavior (ihsān)
towards them both in the daily life and in the Religion. In the Religion, this
Kindness is found in the Faith and Obedience or in issuing the reward that is
related to it. In the daily life of this world, this Kindness shows in
providing health and strength, comfort and honor, progeny and alliances, in function
of His good deeds that are known but not limited, like Allah said : “And
He gives you of all that you ask Him; and if you count Allah's favors, you will
not be able to number them; most surely man is very unjust, very ungrateful.1”
(Koran 14, 34) Waatakum min kulli ma
saaltumoohu wa-in taAAuddoo niAAmata Allahi la tuhsooha
inna al-insana lathaloomun
kaffarun.
The servant must keep busy accomplishing action of kindness (birr). Allah named all kind of kindness in the following (Koran 2, 177): “Laysa albirra an tuwalloo wujoohakum qibala almashriqi waalmaghribi walakinna albirra man amana biAllahi waalyawmi al-akhiri waalmala-ikati waalkitabi waalnnabiyyeena waata almala AAala hubbihi thawee alqurba waalyatama waalmasakeena waibna alssabeeli waalssa-ileena wafee alrriqabi waaqama alssalata waata alzzakata waalmoofoona biAAahdihim itha AAahadoo waalssabireena fee alba/sa-i waalddarra-i waheena alba/si ola-ika allatheena sadaqoo waola-ika humu almuttaqoona” translated: “It is not righteousness that you turn your faces towards the East and the West, but righteousness is this that one should believe in Allah and the last day and the angels and the Book and the prophets, and give away wealth out of love for Him to the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and the beggars and for (the emancipation of) the captives, and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate; and the performers of their promise when they make a promise, and the patient in distress and affliction and in time of conflicts -- these are they who are true (to themselves) and these are they who guard (against evil).”
Giving
liberally is best and is one of the conditions of Kindness6 because
Allah said in Koran 3, 92: “By no means shall
you attain to righteousness until you spend benevolently out of what you love; and
whatever thing you spend, Allah surely knows it.” (Lan tanaloo albirra hatta tunfiqoo mimma tuhibboona wama tunfiqoo min shay-in fa-inna Allaha bihi Aaaleemun) or in French “Vous ne
réaliserez pas le bien tant que vous n’aurez pas dépensé ce que vous aimez
(Coran III, 92)”
And
the best Kindness is the one towards the two parents as Allah mentioned about
Jesus and Jean-Baptiste6 –Peace be on them
– (Cf. Koran 19, 14 & 32).
On
page 304 by Gimaret5 we find the following commentary on Barr (or bārr, both terms are called
similar by Qušayrī, Th. 46b 17-18, and Rāzī, law. 334, 9-10) is almost always understood
as synonym to muhsin, mun΄im,
etc…
On
Koran 52, 28 where it is said that God : “innahu huwa l-barru r-rahīmu”, Ibn ΄Abbās said5
al-barr by al-latīf,
that is to said, said Tabarī : al-latīf
bi-΄ibādihi. The most often proposed
equivalency is muhsin
(cf. Th. 46b 18 ; Fs. 69,16 ; Zam. On 52,28 ; Mq. 150,7 ; Law. 334,9-10).
For Hattābī, to say that God is al-barr means
that He is “al-΄atūf
΄alā ΄ibādihi
al-muhsin ilayhim” (Asmā’ 71,6) ; for Halīmī,
that He is “ar-rafīq bi-΄ibādihi”
(ibid. 71,2). Zağğağī, for him,
translate birr5 (the corresponding action name) by in΄ām
and ifdāl
(Išt. 199,11-12).
It
is also understood as not beneficent (Taw. 215,9-10)
but true5 (sādiq), because of the use
done in the verb barra
that means that someone is true to its promise (cf. Tf.
82a 4-5 and 18-23 ; Halimi, Asmā’
72,11-12 ; Tabarsī on 52,28)
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1. The Holy Quor’ān, Arabic Text with English Translation and
Commentary by Maulana Muhammad Ali, New 2002 edition, Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha’at
Islam Lahore Inc. USA, Ohio, USA. Page 3, annotation b.
2. Asma’ul Husna, the 99 Beautiful Names of
Allah, M.R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen
3. http://www.iberr.co.za/albarr.htm
4. Shems Friedlander with al-Hajj Shaikh Muzaffereddin, Ninety nine
names of Allah, Harper San Francisco.
5. See: Les noms divins en Islam, Daniel Gimaret,
exégèse lexicographique et théologique, 1988, Editions du cerf.
6. Ar-Râzî, traité
sur les noms divins, by Maurice Gloton, Editions Al Bouraq. (Page 306)
7. http://www.coran.org.ar/ingles/beauty_names/079al_barr.htm