Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Qur’anic Reflections A Good Message is Like a Tree . Mangera
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Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. May Allah subhanho wa
Taala bless you all, sha Allah we begin with a verse of the Quran
are all the bill Hamina shaytani Ragini Bismillahi Rahmani Raheem?
Adam Tao okay fel Baramulla who method carry metal by ear but
cache Java to toe ye but in Oskaloosa bit OS Luhan be to
follow half is
to the okular her color Heaney me is in Europe be
wild rainbow love will third in si la la home Yetta the caribou
This is a verse from Surah Ibrahim which is chapter 14 and the verses
24 and 25 of swords Ibrahim, what Allah subhanaw taala says is do
not see how Allah has set forth a parable. Don't you see how Allah
subhanho wa Taala has struck an example has provided an example a
parable. This is the example is a goodly word, method curry mutton
tayyiba a goodly word, a, an excellent formula, an excellent
word, whose which is like a goodly tree. So a good word, which is
like a goodly tree whose root is firmly fixed, and its branches
reach the sky, giving its fruits at all times, by the leave of its
Lord. Allah sets forth parables for mankind in order that they may
remember that they may take heed that they may take a lesson. So,
in summary, what Allah subhanaw taala is saying is that in a
number of places in the Quran, Allah subhanaw taala provides
examples you'll see this in the Quran quite often daarop Allah Who
method and abdomen Luca thorup Allahumma, Theodora Julen.
And then in this case is allantoic, a fedora biller who
methylene Colima Calumet on tayyiba. So Allah strikes a number
of parables, and he tells us that this is a parable. So this parable
is
like, the parable is actually of a goodly word, a word that you say
to somebody, something you tell someone a message that you give a
guidance that you convey, right, a message that you provide somebody,
if it's fulfills a number of characteristics, it becomes like a
tree, what kind of a tree a goodly tree, so a very healthy, not a
barren tree, not a disease tree, but a very, very healthy large
tree whose roots become firmly entrenched in the ground. And its
leaves and branches, its branches and leaves, they go up into the
heavens. So there's a big, tall, amazing, majestic tree. I mean,
think of the redwoods. And in England think of the tall elms
that we have. Think of the the London plane tree, think of number
of I mean, you see these cherry blossoms and they generally tend
to be a bit smaller, but the larger trees in England, the for
example, the oak tree, when you go to America, it's the redwoods, for
example, likewise is the ELMS. There's a number of other trees
like that. There's the large willows that you see that amazing,
right? So it becomes like that which continue to give its fruit
time and time again. Regardless of what's going on, they keep the
olive tree last for 1000s of years, right? For example. And
this is an example that Allah subhanho wa Taala provides so that
you may gain heed. So all of this is that say a good word that will
grow. What this is encouraging, as you can call this dour, you can
call this invitation to Allah invitation to goodness, invitation
to positivity. Basically, this can also be a word that you say to
somebody to comfort them, to calm them down to make them feel good.
They say that coal on my roof on Walmart, rotten, hi, Roman solder
cutting it back to her other if you can't give sadaqa or even if
you do give sadaqa and charity and you follow that up with
you follow that up with harm and reminders and trying to extract
favors from the people that you give charity to. So Allah subhanaw
taala says that just saying a goodly word to somebody and
forgiving somebody that's much better than that kind of sadaqa
and charity that is followed up by harm to somebody. So good word is
always a good thing in Islam. And we can take this as maybe a good
word that you established somewhere and thus people start
doing something good you give a talk somewhere you
Talk to somebody privately and you defuse a matter, you defuse a
situation. Let's just say that there's a couple that you know who
are constantly bickering. There's a, there's a partnership of a
business. There's brothers in a business, they're constantly at
one another, and they have some massive disagreements. So what you
go and do is that with your words, you calm the situation down, you
reconcile between them, you bring them close together again, or you
go and give Dawa and mashallah you make people faithful. You draw
them closer to Allah subhanaw taala. You go out in Tbilisi, you
go out in Dawa, you go and assist somebody to embrace Islam to give
that to share them, share with them, this beautiful way.
Now, what happens is that this will sprout now imagine, just
think about this. The same thing is the case where if I teach
somebody if I teach my child how to read the Quran, now once they
know how to read the Quran, and now for the rest of their life, so
if I helped my children to become harvests of the Quran, now for the
rest of their life, they're going to be reading Quran, they're going
to be using the Quran, they're going to be inspired by the Quran,
they're going to be benefiting from the Quran. And ultimately,
they're going to get an ascent to paradise with the Quran. The Quran
is one of the most beautiful words. So that's like a tree,
which will consist consistently afterwards,
its roots will grow. That's what happens to trees, their roots
grow, they become more firm, and it's very, very difficult to
uproot a tree, the older it is, because their roots become well
grounded and well established in the ground, right in order to
stabilize itself. And then its branches are up in the heavens,
it's giving, it's giving fruit after fruit. And sometimes you
don't need to do anything for it afterwards. There's a lot of
trees, which you have to look after in its growing stages. But
after that, you don't need to look after them. They do their own
part. And that's what's really interesting here that Allah
subhanaw taala gives the example of a goodly tree, right. That's
what's really interesting about this. So, goodness is a
prerequisite of any word that you say for him to have this be
according to this parable.
You need to along with that, we see all of these things. For
example, if you are intelligently convey something, if you
articulate something in a very eloquent way, all of these things
may be side points. The main thing though, is that the content needs
to be good, and it needs to be pure and sincere, then that
becomes a goodly word. There are many people giving Dawa, or there
are many people with Dawa organizations. There are many
people who have claimed throughout history, not just in the Islamic
tradition, who claim to be big movers and shakers in in many
different aspects. But it's the sincerity that's really going to
count in this the goodness, right, that should, that is what should
come about. That's why Allah subhanho wa Taala says, do not see
how Allah sets forth a parable, a goodly word. So the message should
be good. And mere words are not an end to themselves. You see a word
is just a carrier. It's just an articulation. You know, when I say
something to you, I'm just conveying something to you, at the
end of the day, there needs to be something in there. Right? There
needs to be a lot more in there for it to be beneficial. And we
ask Allah subhanho wa Taala to make this beneficial. It's not
just about linguistic competence, for example, on eloquence of the
way you say something that's assisting that does help, but
that's not the main point. You could be very, very eloquent.
Eventually, people will see through you initially they'll
listen to you, they'll they'll they'll admire what you say. But
eventually they'll realize that there's actually nothing there's
no content in there.
So
the Quranic similarly, it could have used so many different words,
but it speaks about the tree, right? He could have spoken about
pearls gems, could have spoken about jewels could have spoken
about gold, because people love gold, they could have said a good
word is like gold because people value gold or silver could have
spoken about it being like a flower in itself or just one of
the fruits. Because I guess we would probably if I said to you
that, you know there's a there is a mango tree. Well, okay, it's a
mango tree. But if I told you here are some mangoes for you, here's a
watermelon for you. Right? That's a lot more closer to home, right?
So that could have been a similar attitude. But know Allah subhanho
wa Taala says, A good tree because tree, a tree has its own life. And
I think that's what's really interesting here. When you say a
good word, it's going to have its own life. It's going to have its
own efficacy, it's going to mashallah effect somebody in the
right way. So even after after they've gone from you and you've
said something to them, they're going to be ruminating over those
words, if they're going to be thinking about it, especially if
it came from heart to and it came from
from a from a sincere heart, and then that will start having its
effect Subhanallah SubhanAllah. This is what happens, we plant the
seeds, and they take and they germinate especially those that
are done with sincerity, they germinate I always try to say good
words to people always try to say comforting words for people, you
will probably notice that those people that who Yuri you really
can relate to are those people who say good words all the time, even
if it's a mundane situation, even if it's just the normal casual
remark, they say good words. And what that does is that that stays
with you, it entrenches itself in your heart. And then after that
the fruits of it come out, right and the fruits is that when you go
by that word, when you act on that word, that's what happens. One of
the biggest examples of this in history is the Kenema La ilaha
illallah, Muhammad Rasool Allah, that is one of the profits or
losses that are starting maca Makarova, that was a word Who
would have expected that this could have become entrenched in
the whole world to buy real horrible, Al Islam or better or
even Islam started in an isolated way, in a loan some way right in
solitude in aloneness, in a few members with difficulty
persecution against all odds against the larger community all
banded together, but slowly slowly this word mashallah it became like
this tree that it took up its roots and then after the its
branches have spread throughout the world. That's why today, masha
Allah, we sit in England, I mean, one of the best example what an
amazing example of this, actually, if we look more recently, is that
the subcontinent, the Indian subcontinent, when the British had
occupied it, from the 1700s, through the East India Company,
and then eventually, they pretty much sculpt most of India. And
they, they basically established themselves throughout India, what
they started doing afterwards, and this is we're talking about the
early 1800s, especially during that time, the late 1700s, the
1800s, early 1900s, as well. So you can say late 1800s, I mean,
halfway through 1800s, what they started doing was when it's when
there was a resistance from the Muslims, the Muslims put up
resistance on the Hindus, they put up a resistance against British
rule. So what they started doing was that they started to do this
mass conversion programs, they tried to destroy the faith, and
this is what happens. Because if you can destroy somebody's faith
and get them kind of onto your faith, then there'll be there'll
be they'll, they'll kind of relate to you much more. So huge amounts
of missionaries came from the UK, you know, came from the came from
England, and Scotland, other places, and then they started to
use various different ways of trying to convert people in Islam
to Christianity. And that's why today you have a minority, you
know, a sizable minority of Christians, down south in other
places, you know, in India, otherwise, there were no
Christians in India before it was just Muslims and, and Hindus and
maybe some Buddhists, but the Christians, that's, that's what
happened. It was a major issue. So of course, the scholars, they put
up a defense and everything like that, but who would have thought
that from the very place that came to dominate that came to conquer
that came to vanquish and that came to overwhelm the communities
of the subcontinent that today in those very, very places, you have
Masha Allah, I mean, this is where we're sitting today. Right? And
this is where many of you are as well and there's people from other
places where the call of Dawa mashallah there are probably more
Muslim seminaries producing scholars than there are for
Christian seminaries in this country. At least effective ones
to the you know, that are there in full force, masha Allah, what an
amazing thing that Allah subhanaw taala has done now we need to
continue to do this. We need to continue to make an effort and
defend ourselves and to remain strong, because that's important
that we remain strong, this goodly word that starts in Arabia, right?
It has spread throughout the world, then where there's
persecution in the Indian subcontinent, you you find that we
have this mashallah, you know, in England in the very home of where
the persecution had started in the subcontinent, you mashallah, there
are, you know, a sizable, huge, growing sizable community of Islam
and of Muslims and Masha Allah of the Kenema La Ilaha illa Allah,
this shows a number of a number of mashallah success stories. I will
give you another story. So, during the Mongols, after they had
destroyed many of the communities and Baghdad and all of these
people are all of these different areas. There was one of the Mongol
leaders his name was to overlook Timor Han to overlook Timor Han.
He's one of the Mongol leaders and he is between 1347 and he died in
1363. That's his reign essentially right now, he was a prince at this
time and he was stationed in a place called
Kashgar right cache car today, as many of you might know, is
actually in the eastern Turkistan province in China, the Xinjiang
region. Right. The Kashgar is one of the big towns down there,
right. That's one of the big cities of the area, along with
Rome key and another one. So
they had devastated. Baghdad had been devastated in 1258 already,
and the Muslim caliphate had been struck a major blow, and the
Khalifa had been killed by them as well. And it just felt like I
mean, if you look, if you read the histories of that time, you know,
it is a very, very, very despondent reading. And most of
the historians are really, really, you know, pained in the in the
details. So what happens now is that you've got this one Mongol,
you know, ruler, right, or you can say a prince, and he is
Subhanallah, you know, he is out hunting one day in that Costco
region, right. And he's hunting for deer or lion or something like
that. And
he's got his hunting lands, and nobody's supposed to venture into
them. Now, what happens at that particular time is that there's a
Persian
religious man, a Persian religious scholar that was never shaken
Jamal has been right. And he unwittingly trespasses into these
lands into this game reserve. And he is caught and is brought in
front of Timor. And total of the more he's brought in front of him,
and that he's very angry. He's very angry because these guys were
very angry. Right? And he's saying to him, that
soon as he sees him, he knows that he's a Persian. So he says,
he says to him, that a dog is worth more than a Persian, like,
you guys are nothing, because they'd been all overcome. And
they'd been, they'd been taken over by the Mongols. So he said,
dogs are better than, you know, the Sheikh is like, what should I
say? He says, yes, you're right. As long as if we don't have true
faith, then you're absolutely right. We would definitely be
worse than dogs. Now to get that kind of a response, the struggle
of Timo was this prince was just totally taken aback. And he says,
What do you mean? So the sheikh then sat before him and told him
about the doctrines of Islam, and he gave it in such a beautiful
way. And it was a goodly word that he gave him right in this
beautiful, sincere way. Right? That time. I mean, he didn't try
to use excuses to get out. He actually literally told him about
Islam at that time. And you know, these mangoes they would just kill
you. Right? So he had no fear of that. He just told him exactly the
way it was. And this effectively melted him, it melted him,
Mashallah. So now what happens is that
the prince, he says, Look, I can't do anything right now. But I feel
that this is really good. Wait until the time that I become the
leader after my father because his father was in what was that was
the ruler of the time. So he says, wait until he wait until I become
the leader. And then after that, come back to me, and then we'll
we'll do something. So, I mean, this is a story that's related by
the Muslim biographers and also by Arnold, right. In his famous
history, the same similar kind of story is mentioned, there is a few
differences in there. But in one, it's in another version, he
actually says that the Sheikh said to him, that if I die in a state
of faith, then I am more worthy, right? Otherwise, the dog is more
worthy than me. Right. So that's the response that he gave. Anyway,
whatever happened is that the Sheikh was waiting for this Timor
to ascend the throne, so that he could go and remind him of the
promise, but he didn't. And the chef passed away. But before the
sheikh passed away, he called his son whose name was Sheikh Rashid,
the dean. And he said that look,
it's not been my honor to be able to get this prince to embrace
Islam, although he's promised, right? Maybe this is destined for
you, you need to watch out with him whenever you see him, whenever
you can get access to him. As soon as he becomes the ruler, the
sovereign, then go and meet him and remind him of this incident.
So now what happens is that his son is waiting. And eventually he
finds out that he has ascended the throne and he's become the leader.
This is total tables become the leader. Now he can't get access to
him. Now, how'd you get into that? I mean, he's a normal kind of
person. How did how does he get access to this? This kings court.
So what he does is that he goes outside his palace close by and he
sets up camp down there, and he starts to stay there. But at every
prayer time, what he does is that he starts to give a van. Now one
of these occasions or Fajr, Time To Live Demo is inside his forte
or his area, whatever it is, and he's encampment, and he hears that
And then he says, What is this noise? You know, who is disturbing
us basically. So they tell him that it's they bring chef. They
bring the shakedown Sheikh Rashid, the dean is bringing down Oh, it's
this person, he's making this event he's calling the prayer very
boldly and so on. So at that time, mashallah Sheikh Rashid, He now
gets his access to the, to the, to the king, and he says, do you
recall once while you're hunting, and there was a Persian man,
right, that you had this conversation with about who's
better whether it's a dog or not, and I'm here I'm his son, I've
come here to remind you of what you had told me to what what you
had told my father to remind you about. So Masha Allah, the ruler
becomes Muslim. And as soon as he becomes Muslim, he is now has to
see if he can get everybody else to follow suit. Now remember, you
have your advisors, you have your army commanders and all of this. I
mean, this is always happens. This is the same issue with hirako when
he challenged Abu Soufiane and Abu Sufyan told him about the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in in Makkah Makara, Rama and Eman seems
to have kind of found a place in Heraclius his heart, but then he
went and asked some of his advisers and they in disguise
basically or in a veiled way, that what do you guys think about this?
And obviously they give a very negative answer, and then he did
not pursue it. Whereas in this case, what happens is Allah
subhanaw taala wanted this word, it was a goodly word done by the
right person in the right way. And Allah subhanho wa Taala wanted to
bring about elevation for the Muslims again after they've been
destroyed, or really, really, really weakened and debilitated
and incapacitated by the Mongols, through the Mongols themselves. So
now what happens is
this, this king, he goes to some of his closest people, and he
tells them in privacy that, you know, he trusted them, he says,
Look, I've embraced Islam, what do you think, And subhanAllah this
person, he asked one of his main core tears, he says, you know, you
just became Muslim today, I didn't want to tell you, but at all, I've
already been a Muslim for a long time, but out of fear for you,
I've not been expressing it. Right. I've not openly declared
it, And subhanAllah like that all of his family and his close people
became Muslim, and that just changed the whole trajectory.
Subhanallah and that's when the Mongols the Golden Horde, and many
of the others, they eventually turned to Islam. Subhanallah
that's why that's why you have them doing a number of good things
afterwards. Otherwise, it was felt like Islam had become so weakened
after the attacks. That's a goodly word methodically Mateen tayyiba,
right, that's a method I can tell you about is like the goodly tree
try to plant trees wherever you go, plant the seeds and make it
such that these seeds will germinate and eventually they will
take up a life of their own. May Allah allow us to leave many
legacies like that. May Allah subhanho wa Taala this discourse
to be a condiment on the Yerba May Allah subhanaw taala allow
sincerity and focus. And may Allah subhanaw taala bless our Ramadan's
May Allah subhanaw taala bless all of you, and may Allah subhanho wa
Taala bless all of our organizations that are doing good
work and allow them to be good leewards While he read that one
annual hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen. Assalamu alaykum
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rahmatullah wa barakato.