Sūrat al-Baqarah
Section 21 of 59 · Surah Studies · Mufti Abdul Rahman Mangera
The Verse of Birr
All of this is gathered up in the āyat al-birr, which falls about a quarter of the way through the juzʾ, at verse 177:
۞ لَّيْسَ ٱلْبِرَّ أَن تُوَلُّوا۟ وُجُوهَكُمْ قِبَلَ ٱلْمَشْرِقِ وَٱلْمَغْرِبِ وَلَـٰكِنَّ ٱلْبِرَّ مَنْ ءَامَنَ بِٱللَّهِ وَٱلْيَوْمِ ٱلْـَٔاخِرِ وَٱلْمَلَـٰٓئِكَةِ وَٱلْكِتَـٰبِ وَٱلنَّبِيِّـۧنَ وَءَاتَى ٱلْمَالَ عَلَىٰ حُبِّهِۦ ذَوِى ٱلْقُرْبَىٰ وَٱلْيَتَـٰمَىٰ وَٱلْمَسَـٰكِينَ وَٱبْنَ ٱلسَّبِيلِ وَٱلسَّآئِلِينَ وَفِى ٱلرِّقَابِ وَأَقَامَ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَءَاتَى ٱلزَّكَوٰةَ وَٱلْمُوفُونَ بِعَهْدِهِمْ إِذَا عَـٰهَدُوا۟ ۖ وَٱلصَّـٰبِرِينَ فِى ٱلْبَأْسَآءِ وَٱلضَّرَّآءِ وَحِينَ ٱلْبَأْسِ ۗ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ ٱلَّذِينَ صَدَقُوا۟ ۖ وَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْمُتَّقُونَ
“Righteousness is not (merely) that you turn your faces to the East and the West; but righteousness is that one believes in Allah and the Last Day and the angels and the Book and the Prophets, and gives wealth, despite (his) love for it, to relatives, and to orphans, the helpless,the wayfarer, and to those who ask, and (spends) in (freeing) slaves and observes the Salāh (prayers) and pays Zakah-and (the act of) those who fulfill their covenant when they enter into a covenant, and, of course, those who are patient in hardship and suffering and when in battle! Those are the ones who are truthful, and those are the God - fearing.” (2:177)
After all the discussion that has gone before, Allah (swt) sums the matter up: that true piety and righteousness do not consist merely in turning one's face east or west, but belong to the one who believes in Allah, the Last Day, the angels, the Book and the prophets; who gives of his wealth and spends it where it is due — upon his family, upon the orphans, and so forth. The verse repays reading in full.
Some sixteen distinct rulings are given here — not within that verse alone, but in the cluster of verses that mostly follow it, two of them coming before. Let us go through those sixteen principal rulings gathered around the āyah of birr.
The substance of the matter is that outward ritual, or the display of the symbols of faith, does not suffice. Christians, for instance, put up a Christmas tree at Christmas. It is a symbol merely, and its origin is not even known to those who raise it. Muslims are told not to fix their attention upon symbols alone. Symbols have their importance: they unify, and they furnish a form of representation and identity, which is not in question. But they are not the object. The object — the soul and substance of one's faith — lies deeper: in how one turns one's heart and conduct towards Allah (swt), and in dealing rightly with everyone with whom Allah (swt) would have one deal.
The matter is not confined to what one does in a masjid. The question posed here is how Allah (swt) would have us be at home, in the shops, in the markets, in the streets, in the masjid, in the madrasah, in our studies, in politics — whether as rulers or as subjects — in business, and in our ordinary dealings with one another. All of this Islam teaches, and a great many of those laws are found in the second juzʾ, in this part of Sūrat al-Baqarah. Hence the name of this verse: āyat al-birr, verse 177.
These sixteen or so are termed the abwāb al-birr, the doors of goodness, the doors of piety. What, then, are they? As has been said, two of them are treated before the verse itself.