AbdelRahman Murphy – Heartwork Reflecting On Reality – Lessons From Surah Qaf #04
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The transcript discusses the challenges faced by a trainer on a video call, including finding a deceased person and buried them in a secret place. The discussion delves into the origins of the concept of the afterlife and the importance of accepting it as a reflection on the afterlife. The success of the quarantine pandemic and the importance of finding a way to express one's success and use it as an example, are also highlighted. The speakers emphasize the importance of finding a way to hold onto to one's success and finding a way to express it using an example, as well as finding a way to express one's success and use it as an example, and remind viewers to take note of the upcoming video.
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Okay, okay salamu
alaikum, salamu alaikum bismillah, bismillah walhamdulillah wa
salatu wa salamu ala rasulullahi wa ala alihi
wa ashabihi it's mine welcome home everybody it's
good to see you it's cold you guys
cold yeah it's okay it'll get warm inshallah
once uh all the uh sounds weird saying
it once all the bodies start heating up
the space um we ask allah ta'ala
to accept from us inshallah our gathering tonight
we're going to be continuing inshallah the uh
discussion of surah qaf um the slido is
open so if you want to go to
slido.com and type in any questions that
you have during the session we can do
that um so far in the surah which
is the 50th chapter in the quran we've
roughly gone through what i would say about
uh five verses and there's a few different
themes that we've covered most recently we spoke
about um the challenge that the quraish were
giving to the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
that those people that were rejecting islam were
providing or presenting as sort of like a
means of uh pushback and that challenge was
based in um like a material a scientific
materialist challenge that was that you know at
the time of course they would bury people
who had passed away and then if they
ever had to which is the custom by
the way they would oftentimes reuse uh graves
later on so what they would do is
they would bury them there'd be a certain
amount of time and then they would cycle
through the graves and they would move the
bones to another place so they were familiar
they were like intimately aware with the fact
that when people passed away and they're buried
there would be nothing left of them so
based on this observation this scientific observation when
the notion of resurrection was taught to them
or was preached to them their challenge was
purely physical and scientific they said how is
it going to be the case that we
will be resurrected when we know that when
we dig up a place where somebody was
buried there is no body there there is
no material there left and so this was
one of their ways of trying to challenge
the prophet now the interesting part about this
challenge is that allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala he
doesn't just outright reject it and say like
oh you don't know what you're talking about
he actually entertains the question and allah responds
by saying that we know exactly what happens
when somebody passes away like there's no contradiction
between what allah is saying and what happens
to the person we know what the earth
takes from people we we know that because
allah ta'ala is the one who created
the systems of science so he understands of
course with perfect wisdom how these things happen
but what is being brought to our attention
is that whenever people want to reject something
they will utilize whatever argument they can in
order to build their argument because they think
that that's going to be what's going to
get them off of the hook and so
allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala he says look scientifically
that's not a shocker to anybody that's not
a surprise to anybody but what will be
a surprise is when you are resurrected when
you do come back on the day of
judgment in whatever form the soul takes you
will see that every single deed that you
did do with your body will still be
present and that's the ultimate that's the ultimate
lesson that the prophet is trying to teach
these people that you live in a world
in a place where you don't believe that
the afterlife is a thing and i'm trying
to get you to understand that in fact
the afterlife is in fact a thing so
allah ta'ala he gives that and then
he says that the problem the core issue
the infection that all these people are struggling
with is not whether or not these things
scientifically make sense and i actually want to
like offer this as a reflection a point
of reflection um there are many many people
right and some of them you know you
could even count yourself amongst them at some
point maybe in your life or even right
now there are many many of us that
when we struggle with accepting something we divert
or deflect the attention onto something else and
in my experience it's been the case that
whenever anybody struggles i guess we just like
one light on whenever any if you bumped
into it you can just turn it back
on and switch inshallah whenever anybody struggles with
the articles of faith what ends up happening
is that they'll end up trying to create
a roundabout discussion a roundabout argument as to
why they struggle with that or why it's
wrong or that and it always goes in
this sort of circular logic very tertiary arguments
right so if i go to somebody and
you know they reject for example something from
islam oftentimes it'll end up being something very
very fringe not even really truly core to
the islamic text maybe like an experience 99
times out of 100 when i've dealt with
somebody that has struggled with belief it has
nothing to the actual text itself and so
allah subhanahu wa ta'ala here is providing
the reason as to why that is he's
saying that whenever a person receives the truth
and they reject it on its face like
i'm not going to investigate i'm not going
to be open-minded i'm just going to
reject it then allah says they will always
be in a confused state nothing will make
sense to them nothing at all this is
the punishment some of the scholars say of
a person that's not willing to listen to
the truth some things will make complete sense
to some and others the same discussion will
make no sense at all you know it's
interesting that the prophet when you look at
his life it's not just those people subhanallah
that rejected him early on that were like
his community members but some of them were
from his closest family members you could argue
that some of them would have had like
just as much knowledge of language of tradition
of this and that as the prophet himself
but when he becomes a messenger of allah
it was the people that were humble that
were given islam immediately that were given islam
first the quraish used to actually make fun
of the prophet by actually saying it's only
the weak and the poor people who follow
you like none of the people who are
high in status high in society none of
them follow you it's only the weak and
the poor this was like an argument that
they made but what they failed to realize
is that their mockery was actually an indictment
against themselves which is that because you put
so much value in this stuff you're not
humble enough to see the truth of it
but those people that had meek you know
humble provision they don't have that arrogance they
don't have that arrogance i was just speaking
today earlier with uh sheikh abdul nasir mufti
kamani about the story of qarun in the
quran i don't know if you guys have
heard of this this name qarun it's a
really interesting story because it's like the evil
villain origin story you know when you when
you hear a story sometimes we talk about
the hero we saw okay how'd they become
the hero but now it's actually like a
new kind of trend that movies will start
to highlight you know the joker you guys
watch the joker yes no it's like for
a lot okay no but you watch it
okay so the origin story of the joker
right the one with joaquin phoenix that's the
origin story and it's people love to find
out like how did this evil person become
this person so we have like for example
we have shaitan's origin story like we know
that right from the quran and there's some
other origin stories in the quran that we
we get why because it helps us understand
the slippery slope qarun is one of them
qarun interestingly enough so musa prophet musa had
somebody on the outside right for down but
qarun was actually somebody on the inside from
his community the quran actually says from the
people of musa meaning that he was from
his community and some mufassirun some explainers of
the quran they say that he was actually
musa islam's cousin they were related and some
even say that he was a scholar of
the text of the religion so he was
a scholar who was a cousin of a
prophet but allah ta'ala tested him with
one thing what did allah give him allah
gave him immense wealth that was his test
and because of that wealth the wealth itself
is not a problem wealth in and of
itself because you had othman bin arfan the
companion of the prophet muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam
you had abdul rahman bin awf you have
khadija the wife of the prophet all of
them had money but what was it is
that the money made feel what that he
was better than others and eventually allowed him
to develop the feeling of rebellion towards allah
subhanahu wa'ta'ala so the quraish what they
are struggling with is their rejection of allah
is not based in any sort of argument
it's just based on what their power and
their status and what they're holding on to
they're not even entertaining it they're not even
engaging with it because why because when they
did actually entertain engage with it their hearts
were won over we went over the story
of omar and how he would go listen
to the quran there's another story i didn't
tell because i forgot about abu jahl you
know omar has like a happy you know
like ending to his story where we feel
good about omar because we know he converted
what about abu jahl abu jahl was the
premier enemy of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
like that was it that was his his
his uh you know arch enemy abu jahl
used to go and listen to the quran
isn't that so weird at night he would
go and he would hide and listen to
the prophet isaah sallallahu alaihi wasallam abu sufian
as well who later became muslim and another
person akhlas bin shuraikh who did not become
muslim so you have two of these guys
who ended up passing away as enemies of
the prophet isaah sallallahu alaihi wasallam and they're
listening to the quran and the interesting thing
about them is none of the three knew
that the other ones were there so this
is like an individual thing they would bump
into each other and this happened like three
nights in a row as they're leaving the
kaaba the prophet isaah sallallahu alaihi wasallam in
the middle of the night he's sitting there
reading quran reviewing the quran and abu jahl
and abu sufian and akhlas they bump into
each other and they kind of in the
beginning they're a little bit startled what are
you doing here and they kind of you
know make up something and then later after
a couple times abu jahl he just admits
it he says we all know why we're
here like we all know because this this
revelation this speech that muhammad peace be upon
him is reciting it's magnetic like it's unlike
anything we've ever heard so then akhlas he
asks he says is he a prophet is
it truly the message of god and abu
jahl responds with the craziest response ever you
know what he says he says of course
it is of course that's not what you
expect no one here reacted maybe you did
expect that i did not when i first
read this narration that was the last thing
i expected him to say because we're so
used to him being the enemy of the
prophet how could somebody who was an enemy
of the prophet so suddenly admit that he's
a prophet makes no sense until you understand
that their rejection of the prophet was not
based off of belief it was based off
of their desire to submit versus their desire
to take care of their own desires like
to please themselves so the quran now is
getting to the base the layers of this
problem which is what you will never be
able to submit if you keep rejecting the
truth this is why as muslims we know
that we're not perfect we're flawed right that's
part of the the nature of who we
are even in the quran allah never expects
perfection from anybody he never does never asks
for perfection the prophet says that there will
always be a sin or sins that a
person struggle with struggles with until they die
maybe the sin changes from year to year
from decade to decade but there will always
be something there will never be a time
in your life when you will be able
to say i did not make a mistake
today just part of who you are it's
a human reality okay but the one thing
that we cannot do as muslims is that
if we struggle with something we cannot make
the guilt from that struggle become the reason
why we would reject it altogether if i
struggle with something i have to own that
i have to own it i have to
say you know what this is something that
allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wants me to
do but i have to get better at
it i have to get better i'm not
going to make excuses i'm not going to
justify and i'm not going to reject it
i'm going to say this is me a
weak person and i hope that allah gives
me the strength to be able to do
that right may allah ta'ala give us
all strength so allah ta'ala says otherwise
you will always be in a state of
confusion all right now allah ta'ala he
calls upon the people who are reading who
are listening who are reflecting and he says
allah subhanahu wa ta'ala brings forth the
call and the imperative and he asks us
we talked about this a little bit last
week he says do they not look at
the sky above them and see how perfectly
constructed it is do they not see that
like when you look at the sky you
don't see any ridges you don't see any
fault and how allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
made it a beautiful perfect construction but not
only that because some things are constructed like
they're functional but they're not beautiful so for
example if you go into like a warehouse
there's a roof over your head and there's
walls that protect you but it's not necessarily
the nicest place right so allah says that
this sky is not only a protective thing
and by the way this is 1400 years
ago they didn't know that the sky had
protective function you understand like we know that
now because if there's for example like you
know whether it's like the the layers the
ozone layer protecting us from the the different
rays that are coming in or whether it's
like a meteor that's heading towards earth and
it's disintegrating because of the protective layers of
the earth they didn't know this in the
time of the prophet they didn't know all
this but the idea was that this thing
is a protection it's something that protects us
and now as time goes on we're learning
more and more about how subhanallah the construction
of the earth is to protect us and
of course we are destroying it great great
work everybody okay so was a yana and
allah made it beautiful as well this is
what we talked about the texas sunset it's
about the only good thing that we got
it's about the only thing that we got
we got to ride that until we can't
anymore okay and allah says and there's no
there's no cracks in it there's no rift
in it it's a beautiful expression of creation
what do we take from a verse like
this number one is that allah asks us
to look at the creation around us and
to reflect about its functionality to think about
how we are the beneficiaries of the creation
and also to think about the beauty of
it and then he continues well he spread
out the earth in a beautiful uh like
flat way and he placed mountains into the
earth you guys know the uh the geographical
reality of mountains do you know how how
much of the mountain are we seeing you
know there's mountain part of the mountain is
what how much you say ten percent i
don't know the answer i'm asking genuinely i
know that there is a ratio i'll take
your word for it ten percent okay they
wouldn't anyone know for certain do we have
like a geologist here hey siri it's ten
percent okay so hey alexa how much of
the mountain is it's ten percent and allah
ta'ala actually describes it allah ta'ala
says that we put mountains on it and
we pegged mountains into the earth again no
way for the prophet and for the companions
and for these people that time to understand
the depth like when you when you hear
the word peg you guys ever put a
tent up of course you haven't right you
just airbnb when you go camping and you
take a tent and you hammer the peg
into the actual loop the fixture that's holding
that tent into the ground you're trying to
create it to be strong to be able
to withstand elements like wind and to be
able to be your shelter for whatever time
you can't put the peg in the ground
by like one inch or whatever the peg
itself is like almost a foot long and
you have to put the entire thing into
the ground so that the tent remains affixed
and firm and strong allah ta'ala is
giving the same example the same idea behind
the structuring of the earth that the earth
has been laid out and the mountains have
been placed onto it now remember though let
me interrupt myself for a second here i
grew up in a place where may allah
reward all of our community's founders sami but
there would be some people on the member
who their field was not islamic studies but
it was like science and so we've all
heard like the scientific miracles in the quran
brothers and sisters i'm going to go over
the millions of miracles in the quran now
look i'm not here to tell you that
there are no miracles or there are what
i am here to tell you is this
the quran is not a science textbook so
i want everyone to get one thing clear
allah ta'ala here is not giving diagrams
there's no illustrations there's no percentages no fractions
none of that the quran is a book
of guidance and what allah does in the
book of guidance is he calls upon different
experiences in your life different faculties to get
you to realize that this is not an
ordinary message and so there might be an
occasional reference to science there might be a
reference to for example spiritual reformation there might
be an example there might be a social
issue that allah ta'ala solves there could
be references to history there are we know
all of them are geared to get the
person to be reflective it's a book of
reflection so allah ta'ala says that the
mountains are there and allah ta'ala caused
every type of beautiful plant to grow from
this earth he continues all of this all
of this creation that you witness every single
day is an example of a reminder of
allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala and is supposed to
bring that servant back to allah ta'ala
to turn back to allah ta'ala allah
continues and we send down rain from the
sky everyone has been aware of the the
fires that have been ravaging california may allah
ta'ala make it easy may allah ta
'ala protect those who are innocent in there
may allah ta'ala give our brothers and
sisters who have lost their homes in the
masjid i don't know if you guys saw
that there was a masjid there that got
burnt down and then like they raised the
funds for it back in like 30 minutes
because everybody was like let's do this and
then they raised what they needed and then
once they finished raising it the masjid committee
was like all right we might be able
to do some nice so they upped the
goal they're like we raised our goal we're
going to raise it and i think they
they hit their goal two more times so
we're about to have a nice masjid i
guess over there inshallah but ajeeb right it's
interesting and it's interesting how in islam we
have this prayer known as the rain prayer
because we realize that there are times and
there are moments when we need rain we're
like at the mercy of rain we need
rain to come down whether it's a drought
whether it's a fire whatever it might be
and allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala brings nature to
the forefront of the conversation to remind you
that although you are a human being who
walks around the earth proudly you need to
realize something that you actually are part of
an ecosystem you're part of an ecosystem and
if one fraction of that ecosystem is removed
your entire life as we know it changes
your entire life as we know it changes
i want you to remember this verse about
water because at the very end of this
surah allah ta'ala references it and i
want to bring it back to that point
but you can imagine subhanallah how the desert
dwelling arabs when they're reading this or when
they're listening to this they're to themselves yeah
rain is the source of life in abundance
allah ta'ala is listing one after another
one after another and allah ta'ala causes
gardens to grow and you're allowed to harvest
the grain from there and the date palm
tree the date palm tree we're talking about
i guess california a lot tonight right the
date palm tree is a unique structure you
guys know what a date palm tree looks
like very very skinny in its trunk generally
but the trunk is actually incredibly tough the
trunk is like a fortress and then you
go all the way to the top and
that's where the actual leaves of the tree
and that's where the bushels of dates come
from so in order to harvest dates somebody
actually has to climb all the way up
i just saw this when i was at
umrah they have a crane and they put
somebody up on top and the person goes
and pulls the bushels and throws them down
it's so interesting subhanallah allah ta'ala every
single creation has a purpose i actually say
this by the way to my kids and
myself whenever we see like a bug and
they're like kill it i'm like allah created
everything with a purpose and they're like what
purpose does this have i'm like i don't
know quite frankly it's annoying but allah created
everything with a purpose and there is a
a a a theme here allah is naming
different forms of creation to remind you all
of them have a purpose and they know
their purpose so then the question is what
why don't you know yours like why don't
you know yours the sky knows its purpose
the mountain knows its purpose the earth fulfills
its purpose the rain fulfills its purpose the
harvest fulfills the trees everything is doing its
job except for the human being may allah
forgive us allah ta'ala does this over
and over again by the way in juz
amman the final section of the quran the
30th section allah describes how the rain and
the clouds and everything is following its own
order and then he says why don't you
follow your order the human being is the
only one that stands up against allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala out of all the creation
and says no may allah ta'ala forgive
us you know it's it's it's subhanallah one
of the greatest moments of humility a person
can have is when they are reminded how
much somebody else does for them you know
when you're younger i think one of the
challenges especially of like our age our generation
is that we grow up and every kid
you know has challenges um i'm laughing because
so my last week i had a really
funny experience so my son i bought him
a kairi irving jersey because kairi is obviously
muslim so it's almost like a muslim so
it's like an american thobe kairi irving i
bought him a long one he can wear
it with a kufi and so i got
him a kairi irving jersey i'm not a
mavs fan may allah ta'ala protect us
all but you got to support your brother
okay so and and as you know jerseys
can be expensive okay so i get him
this jersey and it's one item granted it's
an expensive item but it's one item my
daughter she was she was not feeling well
and so i bought her these she loves
these little mini toys you guys know what
i'm talking about it's like the mini version
of real life things it's the most bizarre
like i don't know okay so it's called
mini brands like literally you open it and
there's like mini croissant mini plate mini lemonade
and she just sits there and she's like
pretending which is fine i'm that's good it's
creative right and so i bought her now
each of these things is like six dollars
seven dollars so and she was sick you
know so i bought her a few of
them i got three of them it's like
20 bucks and i went i brought the
bag in and i'm calling my iman iman
i'm calling my daughter because i want to
like tell her and i told my son
by the way i said hey this is
not for me this is from both of
us right like you know trying to give
him trying to teach him how to be
a big brother you know this is from
you too and he goes oh okay okay
and then he sees that we got her
three and what does he say says you
only got me one thing and he's like
wearing it and he's like you got me
one i could have gotten luca and kairi
and he's naming the players and each jersey
is like ridiculously expensive right and i look
at him and i'm like you know when
can i do the arab dad thing where
i'm just like you know the egyptian mom
thing three fingers right wait till later three
fingers right wait till later i look at
him and again this is like happening in
front of his sister i'm like don't ruin
her moment he's like you didn't get me
and you only got me one so then
finally like i sent her upstairs and i'm
like okay i said each of those was
seven dollars he's old enough to do math
how much is that twenty dollars he goes
21 i said okay your jersey was ninety
dollars bro okay i asked if they had
financing like what is wrong with you and
then i'm like let's do the math how
many times does 20 go into 90 he's
like no papa i get i said no
how many times does 20 go into 90
and we started going and i said you
can't complain right because look we're all like
kids we all have that oh it's unfair
it's unfair it's unfair subhanallah you know we
mentioned qarun earlier one of the things that
people said about him his community was oh
man if only god gave me what he
gave qarun like people looked at qarun and
they were like oh if only i have
what he had it's natural like it's a
human weakness we look at what others have
and and instantly you're just like oh i
wish i had that i wish i had
that it's not from the human disposition behavior
to into like default to be in a
state of gratitude and that's why allah ta
'ala reminds us you know he has to
bring us back bring us back to the
state of gratitude and so allah ta'ala
lists all of these amazing things i mean
think about it we're all at the age
now where like maybe you're focusing on exploring
the world and everybody who meets for marriage
like what do you like travel everyone says
it i haven't met one person who's like
i like to stay in dallas right everyone's
i like to travel why did you move
to dallas nice airport easy to travel right
so we're all the age we're like you
want to get out see the world you
want to go to the mountains you want
to check out the beaches you want to
see the forest you want to see everything
all of allah ta'ala's creation so in
one passage in surah qaf he names basically
everything he lists all of the different beautiful
formations of creation that he gave us and
that when we see these pictures when we
witness them either in front of our eyes
on our screens or in real life in
person we become enamored by the wisdom and
the beauty of allah's creation you know what
he says right after that he says this
is all for you and that it's not
the same way that parents say or like
you know how much i do for you
it's not like that it's like that it's
like that desperate plea of realization this is
all for you you didn't make any of
it by definition that word has the indication
in meaning that you are the recipient of
something sent down to you everything in your
life that you have not just money money
when we say risk if we say just
money it's very short-sighted everything that we
have is a form of the provision that
allah sent that's what risk means provision to
the point where how many of us want
to have inshallah inshallah in our lives a
happy fulfilling marriage raise your hand you want
to have a happy fulfilling marriage okay there's
like okay let's you already have one raise
your hand if you want to continue that
one okay i saw people like looking around
like my wife's over there like okay we
get it this doesn't mean that you don't
have one when the prophet was talking about
his love for khadija his first wife that
passed away he says what i was given
as a provision love like her love basically
like that was a it was risk for
me so the muslim doesn't only see their
provision as financial it's not income based because
allah can increase the blessings of your life
through things like health through things like relationships
you know what do they say it's not
about your net worth it's about the net
worth of the people that you know right
people who are trying to become entrepreneurs relationships
matter people that give you sakina there's a
lot of people that do very well financially
but they're very anxious and they don't have
the circle around them the friends and the
loved ones that can keep them in a
good state may allah give us that so
all of this is risk all of this
and once a person starts to see that
everything allah has given you is a form
of his provision there's no logical response to
that realization except gratitude to allah that's it
there's no other response because every single thing
i have is from his risk is from
his provision allah says all of this that
i just gave you that earth those trees
those plants those rivers the rain all of
it he says all of you know that
every summer after spring comes summer after summer
comes fall after fall comes winter and then
comes spring again and we witness it every
year with our own eyes we see the
fullness of the trees coming in spring we
see the peak of it in the summer
we see the harvest coming in the fall
and we see the death of all of
this in the winter and it restarts every
single year allah says that's exactly how your
death and life will be so the the
first claim of the quraish was what you
think that we're gonna die and be dust
and come back it took allah this beautiful
it didn't take allah but allah spent nine
verses painting this beautiful picture painting this illustration
that you guys know you see it around
you you look outside and all these trees
are barren there's no leaves on any of
these trees and allah says what that is
exactly how you will be brought back to
life just like the land that died we
brought it you will be as well three
verses but they all have a very similar
theme okay another example that allah does and
this is something that i think is very
very important and our generation struggles with this
how many of you at some point or
another either with your fashion with your music
and movie choices or just your personality felt
like you were really unique really different my
dad is so funny my dad is like
a classic you know dad jokes like my
dad is like a classic dad jokes like
classic dad jokes guy and so my dad
would always be like you know everybody wants
to be so different they all end up
looking the same and i was like that's
actually very i was a kid and i'm
like bars you know i'm like seven that's
very profound he goes everybody strives to be
so different in life that they all end
up at some point or other looking exactly
alike right and we strive for this difference
like really hard you know people gatekeep because
they don't want people to like bite off
their style you know like everyone asks me
where i got my clothes from i'll never
tell you you're never gonna find out okay
i'm a muslim first and a hater second
okay so no one is getting my fashion
no no i'm joking but that is that
is a real thing right because our striving
to be different is so profound it's so
deep we really really do believe like a
decade plus of barney telling us you are
special implanted into our psyche that you are
indeed someone unique subhanallah but allah ta'ala
doesn't take that away from us he doesn't
say that you're not unique no allah ta
'ala actually says beautifully right in another surah
allah says that the the son and daughters
of adam were given ikram were given honor
and then they were created in the best
of of molds of fashion allah ta'ala
doesn't he doesn't put you down but one
thing that's very important is when you read
the quran because remember he just talked about
the scientific side of it now he's going
to the historical side of it he says
what he says you know what the people
of noah had the same reaction that you're
having he's talking to the quraish prophet noah
came to his people and they had the
same reaction like you think that your reaction
is so novel so unique you think that
you're so cutting edge that you figured something
out ah we got them no the quran
is filled with story after story after story
different prophet different time different people same experience
this is why when the prophet was going
through the hardest year of his life the
hardest year of his life what did the
what did allah ta'ala send him did
allah ta'ala send him an army he
could have allah ta'ala could have sent
him an army i mean he did it
in badr and the battle of badr angels
came down you know we had angels in
the outfield try angels in the battlefield like
different experience right they came down the angels
came and helped the muslims to the point
where some of the human warriors the muslim
sahaba started falling asleep in battle they were
so at peace because the angels were there
just taking care of business right i gotta
speak in okay anyway so they were doing
it's angels all right so that could have
been a solution allah ta'ala could have
sent allah ta'ala could have sent unending
wealth he could have been given a kingdom
like prophet sulaiman right he could have been
given power he could have been given like
the ability to do all of these different
things but you know what allah sent in
the hardest year of his life the year
that he lost his uncle abu talib and
his uncle did not become muslim the year
that he lost his wife khadijah his greatest
support the one who instantly subhanallah accepted him
and understood you know he described her in
a hadith later they asked why did you
love her so much he said because she
believed in me when no one else did
like loyalty right abu bakr loyalty when he
was describing abu bakr he goes you know
when i when i came with islam and
i talked to all of the people he
goes every single person that i spoke to
about belief in allah and the day of
judgment and the quran he goes they all
i'm not going to use the word hesitated
because that's not accurate but they all took
a moment like a second even he says
except for abu bakr abu bakr was instant
okay so the prophet had these people in
his life but he still had a very
difficult year now imagine khadijah passes away his
uncle passes away the muslims are being harassed
bullied attacked constantly what does allah sends he
sends surah yusuf he reveals to the prophet
the chapter of yusuf why because different prophet
different time same story same experience prophet yusuf
was hurt and was abandoned by his brothers
who is leading the charge against the prophet
isaac salam abu lahab you know who he
is his uncle prophet yusuf was imprisoned prophet
muhammad boycotted a living prison with his community
the the the similarities are endless so every
single prophet that was sent before they have
this fraternity of experience they get each other
so allah ta'ala when he's talking to
quraish he says you know you think you're
so different you think you're so cool he
says he says the people before you the
people of nooh they rejected just like you
did you look the same right and the
people of and the people of ad and
pharaoh and the people of prophet and the
people who dwelled in the forest who are
another nation and the people of they all
rejected their messengers and even though they were
all different different times different places the truth
of the promise still reached them which is
what they all died and in their death
they came to see the angel of death
and when the angel of death came to
them they found what wow the thing that
i rejected forever it is in fact the
truth but at that point when the angel
of death appears to the person on their
deathbed there is going to be no changing
of minds there's going to be no like
give me an extra day give me an
extra moment that is the moment of realization
and the moment of truth and then allah
ta'ala finishes this beautiful uh narrative with
this wonderful question he says he says were
we incapable of creating you the first time
when you look at your own creation you
actually have nothing to do with it your
creation your state being right now was not
the result of your own effort or your
talent or anything no matter how much we
think that we are here because of something
we did allah ta'ala brings us back
to the pre us question what did you
do to get here you didn't do anything
and then if you go even further i
mean you can make this really really complex
like what did you do to deserve being
in the state of comfort that you are
in now what did you do to achieve
all of this allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala not
only did he bring you here but he
brought you here in a state in a
place i mean subhanallah there's a there's a
brother that he's very masha'allah talented he's
a handyman and he comes to my house
and he listens to the podcast so he's
definitely gonna know this story and he's from
syria right may allah ta'ala give them
sabbat inshallah and protect you know so he's
from syria but he hasn't been back in
like 14 years he says and he left
there when he was a young you know
like a boy like a young man and
he came to america and he came through
all this crazy route right which is probably
the case for a lot of us who
have immigrant parents that we're sitting here in
dallas texas which is like you know people
wonder you know after mecca medina and aqsa
do i go to valley ranch masjid like
what's the next well you know what's the
next holy city in in the world we're
sitting here in dallas texas and subhanallah if
you just do a little bit you don't
have to do like a deep dive just
a little like 20 year 30 year history
of muslims in america and the experience and
how they got here most of the muslims
probably landed somewhere in new york right who
came here from from outside the country most
of the muslims who immigrated landed somewhere in
new york maybe somewhere else but there's some
like my brother the syrian brother who's good
mashallah he's a handyman he landed in the
armpit known as ohio may allah ta'ala
protect us okay allah test us all in
different ways so he landed in ohio and
i want you to imagine coming from a
place like dimash like damascus syria which is
ripe with history and culture and i mean
you're literally sitting in the in the in
the place of imam and now we in
the place where imam ghazali was and ibn
taymiyya and all these incredible people and you
land in freaking cincinnati like can you imagine
the letdown you know i remember when i
first went to turkey and i was praying
in the masjid there i looked at the
the sign outside and it said something like
this masjid was constructed in like 1600 or
something you know what the masjid's name is
called literally you want to know what's called
new masjid yeni jami literally it's called new
masjid i'm like this thing is 500 years
old it's older than america how is this
new so i want you to understand and
imagine like when you come from a place
like that and then you come to america
sometimes we forget that there is a deep
historical context there is a deep historical context
and allah ta'ala i was talking to
the the brother's a handyman i don't want
to use his name because i don't want
to embarrass him and he said to me
this is so ajeeb he said you know
i came here as as a young man
from syria with not a lot of education
in terms of like secular education i came
here and i was able to hamdulillah go
to school i was able to get a
job and i'm able to get married and
he said when i was a young man
a young man in syria he goes i
would never have imagined that this would be
my life that i have a car subhanallah
and i have an apartment and i'm married
and i have a job and i have
this he goes i would never imagine that
this would be my life and he was
just so overwhelmed like i could hear it
in his voice because i was asking him
about now that syria has been opened i
said are you gonna go back and he
goes yeah of course i'm gonna go visit
and he goes but i can't imagine that
allah took me from where i was to
where i am now one of the greatest
activities any person can do to come closer
to allah is think about how far you've
come think about how far allah has brought
you in many ways spiritually personally financially in
your family all of these things you think
about subhanallah how has allah been able to
do all of this allah ta'ala he
asks did you see that allah ta'ala
had any difficulty or struggle bringing you to
this position no then allah ta'ala asks
he says no means absolutely not so what
makes you think that the second creation after
you've died after everything has fallen away and
we all become dust he said what makes
you think that he won't be able to
bring you back again now this first 15
verses of the surah is the first is
the opening argument okay this argument uh is
is similar to like if you're playing uh
you know a lot of my references are
sports references so if you're playing like football
or if you're playing like basketball or if
you're watching a match like soccer or something
this opening passage is meant to be like
a touchdown on the first play on kickoff
you know like they kick the ball and
all of a sudden they run it back
for a touchdown or they open you know
the match in soccer and in the first
two minutes there's a goal everyone's kind of
blanking out on me i'm trying to figure
out it's like when vela has a drop
okay and and and within a minute everything's
sold out like how do you feel right
okay all the sisters are like huh okay
or you're like in the first quarter of
a basketball game and the other team makes
like four threes in a row and it's
only been like 30 seconds you're like how
are we to come it's meant to be
just like a punch like a gut punch
allah taala is opening the surah with a
deep realization with a deep thought it's like
an exercise to get the spiritual heart moving
because these people are so far removed so
far away from that reflective state that practice
that they can't get there so allah taala
causes them to think a lot about these
things now allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions
something really really small he switches gears and
instead of him asking you to look at
the outside he asks you to look inside
now so don't look at the earth around
you anymore don't look at the sky above
you how beautiful it is don't look at
the trees and the mountains and all of
those things and don't look at the graves
of people that have come before you and
have passed away which by the way there's
a reason why the prophet muhammad would visit
the graves once a week there's a reason
you know many of us we don't not
only do we not visit the graves but
like we avoid uh even driving by them
and even if you think about like an
american culture like generally speaking like graves are
not in places that are accessible they're kind
of hidden away i remember in chicago i
used to drive to school i was commuting
and there was a grave but they covered
it up with a dunkin donuts like they
covered on the front of the road it
was like dunkin donuts and like baskin robbins
and then in order to get to the
graveyard you had to like drive around that
which to me is like the perfect representation
of capitalism just eat sweets until you die
and then we'll bury you hajji right and
the prophet every friday used to go and
visit the graves why because there's something deeply
profound about going and walking and thinking and
looking and reflecting now in the time of
the prophet there were no tombstones right there
were just rocks or markers to let you
know that this is somebody's burial spot to
respect it we have in some ways in
our own you know in this culture we're
we're given the opportunity to see the names
are one thing but to see the dates
of the person and how long they lived
and one thing that i want to encourage
everyone to do is the next time you
find yourself visiting a grave what maybe it's
visiting a relative who passed away maybe it's
attending a janazah a burial or maybe it's
just you're just deciding you know what i
want to start this practice myself which i
recommend you know when you visit graves you
know what happens number one all of your
problems seem smaller every distraction that you struggle
with every like dunya we pain kind of
it just kind of you lose focus of
that for a second and you're walking through
and the second thing that happened is you're
going to see someone with like a name
that kind of reminds you of yours or
you're going to see a date that you
were born on a person your age you're
going to see 1990 1980 2000 whatever day
you were born and then you'll see the
other side of that which is going to
be potentially the year that you're standing in
right now 2025 2024 and then you're going
to do the math and you're going to
say this person passed away at the same
age that i'm hopes and aspirations
and plans and dreams and thoughts about their
future just like you but when you're standing
there and you're looking one of you is
above the ground and one is under one
of you your soul can still do things
that will be given the forgiveness of allah
ta'ala and the other one has to
rely on their family and friends who are
still alive to pray for them and that's
how to make it easy so the prophet
used to regularly visit the graves once a
week he didn't do any particular practice he
didn't do anything there that was ritualistic the
only thing he would do is make dua
for them he would say salamu alayka right
peace be upon you oh you who have
entered into this abode from the believers he
and then the beautiful phrasing you just went
ahead of us and we are just following
you like you know when you're walking in
a door and there's someone who walks in
in front of you that's the metaphor that
the prophet was putting forth with death and
then when you say the dua we ask
allah for his his forbearance and his grace
his forgiveness and his mercy over those who
have passed away so the prophet would do
that now the thing that has to be
thought about when we go into this state
of reflection allah ta'ala tells us this
is this verse by the way is one
of the most powerful verses in the quran
so we're going to wrap up here but
i want you to really lock in right
now allah ta'ala says we created without
a doubt all of the human beings all
of humanity you look around the room you
see every single person that has existed that
is existing that will exist they're all from
the creation of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
this statement sets the the field at level
allah ta'ala is the one who is
intimately aware with every single thing that we
struggle with that we deal with everything that
we are going through that's why he says
and allah says we know exactly what the
soul of the person is whispering to themselves
one of my philosophy professors told us that
there's three kinds of existences that you have
number one is who you are in public
number two is who you are in private
and number three is who you really are
who you really are in public you behave
a certain way when you're with your friends
you're a little bit you know more uh
let's say real but the realist version of
yourself is the one that nobody really knows
the thoughts that you have the fears that
you have the regrets the hopes this is
why when you hang out with friends people
that you think you're close with best friends
right have you ever learned something new about
somebody you thought you were really close with
you sit there and you learn you're like
well i never knew that you like that
and they're like yeah why didn't you tell
me i don't know i didn't think it
was important i'm kind of embarrassed why because
that person hid the realest part of themselves
for whatever reason right they're like i like
pineapple on pizza you're like yeah keep hiding
that i don't need that to become public
right allah says he is the only one
who knows you at that level your friends
don't know you like that even your mom
and dad don't know you like that your
kids don't know you like that my daughter
said the funniest thing the other day my
wife was on the phone she was going
to target she goes do you want anything
i said yeah can you get uh some
ginger ale i love ginger ale so i
said can you get some ginger ale my
daughter goes i knew it that man loves
fizzy drinks she doesn't understand how speakerphones work
in the car so i go iman i
can hear you she goes oh but she
knows me she knows me like apparently my
wife said that she said when we're going
to target she goes we can get baba
ginger ale like she knows me but even
i was cute i got her you know
three of those things though by the way
so just fyi right a 12 case of
ginger ale seven dollars do the math okay
no i'm joking but subhanallah your kids know
you your parents know your friends know you
you think you know that person but you
actually don't even know like the mountain is
only 10 exposed so are you but allah
knows the deepness and the crevices of your
existence and he knows all of those things
those secrets that you don't want to tell
people he's not asking you to uncover them
by the way there's no place in the
quran where allah says take everything about you
and write it down and go ahead some
of the companions said if if sins had
a smell you couldn't be near me we're
not told to expose anything about ourselves that's
for you and allah to know but what
allah ta'ala is trying to articulate to
the reader here and hopefully that we're receiving
according to of the quran those people explain
it is that the greatest delusion the greatest
fallacy a person can have is that they
have something secret between them and everyone else
and allah doesn't know it no allah ta
'ala knows and this is why the smart
response to that realization is to submit to
the one who knows everything if somebody knows
what it is that you're doing what it
is that you're thinking what it is that
you said there's no point trying to resist
anymore as soon as they say hey we
know we know right if you guys ever
seen like an interrogation they're interrogating a criminal
a movie they're like we have it on
video they're like all right the criminal just
submits they concede they give in they're like
that's it we know exactly what is going
on inside of there we know exactly what's
going on you don't have to pretend with
allah you don't have there's no appearances that
you have to keep up with allah allah
doesn't think that you're more religious or less
religious based on how you pronounce the letter
ayn or kha or what hijab or jilbab
or thawb you wear allah does not his
knowledge of you doesn't change based on the
knowledge of what people know the problem is
that we're so concerned about public appearances that
we forget that there is something much deeper
there now what the quraish learned and what
the prophet was trying to teach was that
if you live your life obsessed with outward
appearances you can only focus so much on
one thing and so you end up becoming
the shiny red apple with the rotten core
and the the sad thing is and the
scary thing is that all the mission of
islam is trying to accomplish with each muslim
is to make your inside as beautiful as
you want your outside to be that's why
when the prophet would stand and see his
reflection you know he would say oh allah
just like you've made my exterior beautiful make
my interior beautiful too the greatest disappointment that
a person will have is when they assume
themselves to be one way but then they
come to a realization that they're not that
way truly when they see that who they
really are this is why we need to
make dua to allah to make us as
good as we are on the outside you
know as beautiful think about this do a
little math experiment before we conclude inshallah with
a little bit q ask yourself how long
you spend getting ready for something that you're
really really really excited for how long do
you spend i took my son to the
basketball game i swear to god he was
ready for like six hours actually that morning
he had his jersey laid out he was
ready he's excited and that's how we are
when you're excited for something you you i
mean many of us are like maybe looking
at different vacations or whatever and you're already
thinking about oh i saw on tiktok this
coffee shop or i saw this restaurant you
know the wedding don't even get me started
on weddings people getting ready for weddings 72
hours in advance right there was a sister
one time that was asking about getting her
nails gelled which would by the way become
very difficult to keep will do okay and
then she was like well how long can
i keep my will do basically is what
she was saying because the hours of duration
of getting ready is so crazy getting the
makeup and everything ready at 10 in the
morning for a 7 p.m wedding i'm
not trying to hate may allah give us
all happy marriages i but now compare that
to how long you take getting ready for
juma or how long we spend praying like
it's so weird right when it's something that
we're really excited for hours are like painful
like oh we can't wait and we will
invest those hours you know people will wake
up at seven for some basketball runs for
pickup and they'll play ball from seven to
ten but they can't wake up for frederick
for five minutes there is a problem there
so allah says look you can hide all
that from other people but the one that
you can't hide that from is me and
that's when he gives this very powerful line
and we are closer to him than his
jugular vein which you may have seen on
tiktok behind some really moody background and some
humming you know and all of those jokes
aside think about this allah says he's closer
to you than the blood vessel that's literally
inside of you and think about what happens
when a person gets nervous or anxious their
heart rate increases their heart starts pumping faster
so allah ta'ala is telling you he
knows every single experience that you have whether
it calms you down whether it scares you
whether it makes you happy whether it makes
you sad whether it stresses you out whether
it calms you whether it gives you tranquility
allah ta'ala is there with you now
when the reader reads this verse they can
experience two emotions number one for the quraish
of course they're going to read this or
for people distant are going to be afraid
and that's okay that's part of the quranic
experience is that it's supposed to bring us
back to allah but for those who are
trying to get close to allah this verse
actually also gives you a lot of consolation
and a lot of comfort because people can
be disappointing people's perceptions or their incorrect perceptions
or their judgments or whatever all of that
can be very disappointing but you know who
will never disappoint you is the one who
is closest to you you don't actually have
to explain anything to allah when you make
dua you don't have to give the background
the context of the story you may draw
to allah and all of the background is
already known everything is already there he's different
than anyone else may allah ta'ala give
us closeness to him may allah ta'ala
give us the ability to always relate to
him this reminder closes off the previous section
and leads us into the next one which
talks about the islamic belief of accountability accountability
taking ownership for your actions and your statements
and realizing how those things affect our everyday
actions we ask allah ta'ala to give
us all of the lessons that we've heard
today and more we ask allah ta'ala
to allow us to become people of quran
that reflect on it that think about it
we ask allah ta'ala to make us
those that do not reject based off our
own weaknesses but we accept and we own
even those flaws that we have we ask
allah to make us those that have firm
conviction of the day of judgment just like
allah ta'ala allows us to witness the
recovery of the life and death of things
every year that allah ta'ala allows us
to realize that one day we will come
from our death back into life and answer
for our deeds we ask allah ta'ala
to make us those that are reflective that
we look around the world we see the
mountains and the trees and the rivers and
the stars in the sky and we remember
him and him alone ameen ameen okay a
couple questions inshallah tonight before we break for
isha it's just in 10 minutes so if
you have to make we'll do it now
is a good time uh but we'll go
a few questions inshallah when something i want
doesn't happen how do i know whether it
was not meant for me or if i
need to have sabr and continue pursuing i
like how you hid the marriage question uh
so i will say this okay uh one
of the important skills in life is being
able to determine the wall okay and most
people would be aware of what that is
uh but in case you're wondering it would
be wise for you to ask people that
care for you that are wiser than you
that can give you guidance on this right
if you have friends who are a little
bit older than you and you can go
to them and say hey this is the
situation i'm in can you give me some
feedback some guidance do you think this is
a no or do you think this is
a wait and see okay and usually getting
some shura asking your friends or family for
that consultation will give you some clarity on
that inshallah but how do you know that
something wasn't meant to happen uh at the
end of it it doesn't happen okay oh
this is an interesting question okay god it
got so many upvotes okay is reading uh
they put in quote spicy novels hot on
i'm guessing that's not a cookbook uh my
wife has read and he wrote 250 this
year it's january 27th we're going on 10
a day okay uh no but all seriousness
and i'm concerned it's negatively impacting her faith
so let me actually say something very uh
um let me let me make this question
a little bit more general okay um so
look allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala in the quran
has prohibited uh human beings from what we
call fawahish or fahisha has been prohibited meaning
this concept of like a a lewd degenerate
behavior okay and this is not medium specific
so this could be like movies music it
could be poetry it could be art it
could be a picture it could be a
painting if it's considered something that generally would
be graded as uh fahisha or from the
fawahish then it's not acceptable for muslims to
engage in that whatever engaging looks like like
watching the movie listening to the song okay
um even listening to like podcasts that are
um built around that genre okay now what
i will say is that allah subhanahu wa'ta
'ala has given you know the human beings
outlets for their desires in the form of
marriage and so if that is a part
of a person's intimacy that's not a problem
as long as it's uh reciprocated on both
sides but engaging in content or literature or
movies or music that is filled with references
whether they be explicit or whether they be
frequent and implicit that is of this nature
allah knows best about the permissibility of it
my teachers the way that we've had conversations
about certain elements of art and of literature
they feel that this would be impermissible i
would also like to beyond the permissibility of
it i would also like to ask everybody
to think about what it is that you
are putting into your body and i mean
that by your spiritual body like what are
you putting into your heart what are you
allowing your mind to adapt as normal and
i think that's a really really important thing
to think about um obviously with things that
are uh explicit content for sure we know
the ruling for that is impermissible but i
would even say what you think is normal
and what you think is um what you
think is normal what you enjoy you have
to be careful to make sure that it's
not morally questionable or reprehensible wallahu ta'ala
adham so but again if this person is
asking i would say you know approach it
in a way that's um approach it in
a way that's wise i wouldn't make like
a huge fight out of it i would
try to i mean 250 this year is
impressive but i would i would uh i
would definitely try to work on that or
at least have a conversation and seek counseling
if you need it okay all right we'll
do one more before inshallah is
it haram for parents to not let their
son marry the person of their choice because
of non-sharia compliant things i.e family
origin place of birth um so the sharia
actually gives the decision of who a man
marries to the man uh meaning that the
son does not need the express permission of
their parents to marry somebody however of course
it's always wise to make sure for barakah
that everybody's on board but in this scenario
that you're referencing where the there is a
um there's a prohibition that's being given a
family restriction that's being given for something that's
not islamic in nature then i would consider
of course dialogue dialogue keep working through it
but if it gets to a point where
it's sort of a um an absurd rejection
for no other reason besides something that's not
really wise or or full of uh hikmah
and again that's not your decision engage in
shura ask people who know ask people who
are older because they might be telling you
know for a reason that you think is
dumb but it actually might be very smart
it actually could be very very intelligent so
it is good to seek uh you know
advice from people who are wiser than you
but if you after seeking shura with scholars
with you know elders in the community that
it comes to the point where you realize
that you know what this is just a
cultural hang-up um you are not bound
to marry or not marry somebody based on
uh that okay and when it for a
woman in this scenario you can be given
uh the ability to marry somebody if a
judge or in this scenario in america if
there is a panel or a committee of
scholars that comes together and rules that the
prohibition is baseless the same thing um is
it can be achieved but generally speaking there's
no doubt that making sure that the family
is on board for the wedding is the
way is the path forward inshallah and i
hope that instead of it being like a
snap call and just like a judgment that's
made that a person can be inshallah patient
and work through it okay um oh man
there's so many what'd you say oh thank
you yeah okay so this inshallah week is
the commemoration of or according to some of
the scholars it is it happens in rajab
others uh held the opinion that it happened
in another time but generally speaking the idea
of most scholars that it was held in
rajab we're having an event inshallah this thursday
be in the lab where shaykh abdul nasir
is going to go over the narrations about
and talk about the lessons that we can
take from that it'll be this thursday after
isha inshallah thank you for reminding me a
faceless voice in the back uh i really
do appreciate it so inshallah we'll go ahead
and conclude with that everybody take care inshallah
and we'll see you next monday for heartwork
it shows in three minutes so i would
encourage everybody to head over there as soon
as you can inshallah okay