If you are waiting for people to stick their hand out and say "Can you please give me I haven't eaten or I have a baby in my arms
and we don't have food." Then you waited too long {يَحْسَبُهُمُ الْجَاهِلُ أَغْنِيَاءَ مِنَ التَّعَفُّفِ تَعْرِفُهُمْ بِسِيمَاهُمْ} [02:273]
when people don't beg and we assume they don't need there's a problem the ‏جاهل thinks that they have no need Quran says.
The ignoramus thinks that this person is doing okay because they didn't beg. That's not how we're supposed to be
{تَعْرِفُهُمْ بِسِيمَاهُمْ} [02:273] you recognize them by the marks on their faces. In other words, you are going to look at and say
"You look stressed out, is everything okay?" "Yeah, ‏"الحمد لله
"No let's sit down and talk." And that's how you get to know. This compassion is being talked about.
Why would somebody do that? Why would somebody be so caring about somebody else when they are not lost in themselves?
When the only thing you and I are thinking about is ourselves. When all we are thinking about is {فَأَكْرَمَهُ وَنَعَّمَهُ} or {فَقَدَرَ عَلَيْهِ رِزْقَهُ}
that's all going on in our minds. We are so lost in our own world. How are you ever going to even have time to look at the face
of the person next to you? Well how is that going to happen? And so Allah says
"No you are too lost in yourself. You don't honour the orphan. You don't encourage the food of the ‏مسكين
{وَتَأْكُلُونَ التُّرَاثَ} and forget the strangers that you meet the ‏يتيم and the ‏مسكين maybe from your community but in your own family
when somebody passes away {وَتَأْكُلُونَ التُّرَاثَ} you eat the inheritance.
And the idea of eating Ibn Ashur actually said this is a Quranic invention. This expression of eating inheritance was not used in
Arab literature anywhere. In other words Quran use this expression to describe something.
You know when you eat something there's nothing left. When you eat something it's gone to waste now.
It was consumed entirely by you and it has no other benefit left. That's the idea of eating as opposed to taking.
If you take something you might give it back also. What's Quran is commenting on here is
you people when it comes to the inheritance absorption, the strong among you which was what the Arab جاهل culture was,
the strong among them, the older brothers or the son as opposed to the mother or the sister or whatever.
Whoever was stronger would quickly come take everything and put it away or invest it or use it up.
They would eat it. So you can't even touch it anymore. It's gone now. Or they take the horse and they already sold the horse
and use the money to get something else and it's gone. The money can't be touched anymore.
They lock it up. This is {وَتَأْكُلُونَ التُّرَاثَ} you quickly consume take over the the inherited money {أَكْلًا}
you eat it and this is what's called a ‏مفعول مطلق but what it does is you eat it viciously I mean you just devour what whatever comes
in front of you and if that wasn't enough Allah commented with another pretty scathing criticism word He said لَمًّا {وَتَأْكُلُونَ التُّرَاثَ أَكْلًا لَمًّا}
‏فيه ملحظ من مادية الأكل ومضاق طمعه دون نظر إلى وجهه ومصدره they say this is actually an observation by Allah
that the person is eating they don't care where this money came from, they don't care who else needs it or wants it
they just want it that's it they're done and لَمًّا comes from the word لم in the Arabic language and لم means to quickly gather something
even something small like a lock of hair when you make a ponytail or whatever that's also called لم الشعر
لمة is a small group of people gathering small things together when He says {أَكْلًا لَمًّا} it's like if somebody is so hungry
that they're eating and then there's crumbs And they're like I don't want anybody to touch even a single crumb
and they want to get all of it. This is لَمًّا they don't want to let any of it go. And not even a small thing. Just consume all of it.
This is how greedy you people are {وَتَأْكُلُونَ التُّرَاثَ أَكْلًا لَمًّا} these Ayat are actually well before any revelation about inheritance law was given.
Surah An-Nisa came Surah Al-Baqarah came Talked about what family members are owed
but before you talk about what percentage goes to who? First, you have to deal with the problem of greed.
You see what happens even in Muslim families now when inheritance issues come up we decide to quote the ‏شريعة way later on
but first and foremost what is the first consideration? "What am I going to get? "
And even the interpretation of the law of the ‏شريعة is twisted and turned so that somebody can get more and somebody gets to get less.
Like what happens in many countries nowadays you have brothers, some brothers live in one country, some brothers live
in another country, the parent passes away, there's a house, there's a property, there's a farm, there's whatever else
and now there's a big mess. Who's going to get what? And the ones that are in the home country say
"No. We're the ones that are here. We're going to keep it. You guys doing your thing ‏الحمد لله you're doing okay. You're doing fine."
Or somebody comes from abroad and says "Well we can afford better lawyers or whatever. We're going to take all of it."
Or whatever else. And everybody's involved and their wives are involved and their kids are involved.
Everybody's involved and they're just fighting over it. And then they have the audacity to argue this is Allah's book
or the ‏سنة of the prophet ﷺ {وَتَأْكُلُونَ التُّرَاثَ أَكْلًا لَمًّا} if your consideration all of it is just
to eat, consume, get more. That's the ultimate expression of selfishness. You don't even care about who needs in your family.