Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Qur’anic Reflections Final Words of Phophet Ya’qub to His Sons
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Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Welcome back to our
Ramadan reflections. And as usual we will start with the verse for
today are all the bill humanists shaytani Raji Bismillah AR Rahman
AR Rahim, and go to shahada held on Yahoo Bell mood is called a de
Bernie Hema taboo when I mean birdie, called Luna Budo, Isla
haka, Isla
Ibrahim or Ismar Isla is Ha called Isla how Heda when a hula hoop
musli moon, so this is a verse from Surah Baqarah verse 133 of
swords or Bacara. Allah subhanho wa Taala depicts a particular
scene of somebody very close to death with all of his children,
everybody around him. So this is Jaco Valley. He's a Jacoba. Sam
had gone through so much in his life with his children use Valley
Salaam and his brothers. So Allah subhanho wa Taala tells us were
you present when death appeared before Yaqoob before Jacob, were
you present when death appeared before Yaqoob? Behold, he said to
his sons, what will you worship after me? They said, we should
worship your God, the God of your fathers of Abraham.
Ibrahim Ismail Elan is Hulk, the one true God to him, but we bow
down to him only in Islam meaning only to him, we submit.
So that was a very straightforward question.
And that was a very, very straightforward answer. We ask
Allah subhanho wa taala, that this is something that we can all
experience at our depths as well, in sha Allah. So this is obviously
a part of the Quran. And
the address obviously is to us as believers as the Muslim and the
Muslim community, but it's obviously speaking about Jacobian,
asylums time. And what it's telling us to do is to of course,
we were not there, right? Allah subhanaw taala is saying, I'm
going to shahada if Hadera Yeah, who will melt, like where you
present? When you witness when Jacoba is Salam was overcome by
death, you know, when he was close to dying? Right? So Allah subhanaw
taala is asking us that, were you present? No, we weren't. But since
Allah has told us that through the Quran, it's as good as having been
a witness there. Right. And this is the Quran way of making things
alive, of engaging the readers and of making them think and visualize
these things. So we're told to visualize, imagine Iacobelli Salam
down there, right? And with his children, and then he asks this
question, and now we're going to ask, why did he ask this question?
Okay, that's what we're going to do. Now reading this without any
attention, you're going to miss out, you know, if you just read
this, like this, oh, that was what Jacoba Islam did. And he got that
answer. Very straightforward. If you read it, literally, you're
going to read it and miss out on the legal aspects, the historical
aspects, the cultural aspects and the inner meanings of this. And
Allah subhanaw taala wants us to ponder the Quran for a lot of this
meaning. Okay, so firstly, the universal message that is
mentioned in here the clear, obvious message that's enunciated
in this verse is that everybody is born mortal, everybody dies,
right? Even prophets, they die, they go back to Allah subhanaw
taala. When the life expires, when the time in this world rather,
when it expires, because the life will continue into the hereafter,
but a time in this world has expired.
So this is as a very special feature of the Quran for Allah
subhanaw taala says that where you are witness to this, right, ALLAH
SubhanA wa Taala wants to evoke the full attention of the reader
or he wants us to listen carefully about this. So he asked his son's
use about Jacobian Islam asks his sons that what are you going to
worship after me? Okay. Now, you can remember use of Alison's
story. jacobellis anam story, there's a whole discussion about
that. So I'm not going to repeat all of that, but it's after all of
that. Now, at the time of death, this is a very important time for
a lot of people just imagine people that you know, and if you
had an interaction with them before death, they always thinking
that that's when they become the most serious All right, and they
can they they are very, very concerned about what happens in
the future. Now, do you think a Muslim Today whatever ask this
question that was posed by Yaqoob it his salaam to his children,
right.
Do you think we would ask them that what are you going to believe
off to me?
You know, I probably wouldn't have asked that question that what are
you going to believe after me? And the reason I wouldn't have
probably asked that question, you know, I guess many devout Muslims,
you know, whether they're scholars MASHIAC, spiritual masters,
whatever, we would doubt that they would probably ask this question
in this way. Alright. Because, you know, throughout the life you've
been instructing our children to the fundamentals Islam, the
monotheism, ALLAH SubhanA wa taala, who he is, and that you
must worship Him. We've actually seen our children, praying in the
masjid doing salata at home, teaching Islam even maybe, you
know, memorizing the Quran, studying that, and so on. So
that's why we kind of become complacent, we've taken it for
granted that that is exactly what's going to happen. So even on
a deathbed, right, I doubt most people are going to verify the
faith of their children, unless there's a reason for doubts.
Right. So if there's no reason for doubt, I doubt we would do that.
Right now. Why did Jacoba listen and do that? You think he had
doubts? No. Now, if we were to, if we look at this in a different
way, that you know, mashallah, throughout history, there's been
many, many, many people who've left behind their writings, they
left behind legacies they've left behind wills, right. So if you
were to actually go and take and look for many of the wills that
great people of the past have left, right, you're going to find
quite a large selection. Now for that you can study these wills,
you know, for historical insight, right? They provide a great
historical record, right, of what people used to think in those
days, and what was important to them and what because, you know,
things that you speak about before you die, right, that you leave as
a bequest or leave as a guidance, right, or leave, as, you know,
some kind of instruction at your death, that's going to be probably
the most important thing. So, you know, aside from that, you know,
from a language perspective, there's the literary features,
gives you an understanding of the human psyche, right? So, if you if
you study the wills of the oil amount of the past, and there's
many, like there's whole collections of the Messiah, of you
know, that the Maasai can orlimar of the past religious leaders,
reformers, activists, rulers, officials, right, anybody who you
could say, would stand out, if you were to look at their wills, for
example, even you'll get a fair idea of the relationship between
parents and children. Right, you'll get a good idea of what's a
response, what the relationship was between the parents and the
children, you will get an understanding of the human
feelings, the emotions, the wisdoms, the intellectual
brilliance of these people, right? It gives you an understanding of
the interplay between human intricate human psychology, right
of what they think about during these times. And what you'll see
is that if you look across the board, whether it be Allah ma, or
leaders or whatever it is, right meaning
when you call people with people who have been rulers or whatever,
what you're going to see, is quite
a synchrony and a harmony, in terms of what they said at their
death. There's some really basic points that they all speak about.
And this is the quite identical to be honest, most people are quite
identical, irrespective of the different eras that they lived in
the mental, social, cultural and religious backgrounds that they
came from, they're pretty much saying still the same thing, even
though they're worlds apart and times apart, right generations
apart. Okay, so this is what you'll generally find in a will.
And you'd expect that that's what you would leave as well. They
impart advice of patients, like the patient after me Be patient
after me, right? They'll say that today, near and dear ones, they
will tell their children to be united to stay together and not to
conflict and quarrel with one another, especially over the
inheritance. That is, at least all decent people would say that
because Subhanallah I mean, some people die without doing that. And
they leave behind the fire that rages some will tell people to go
and repay any debt owed by them, okay, that's another thing, then
they'll tell them that go and you know, so and so owes me money, so
they'll leave instruction on who owes them money. And thus, you can
go on, you know, take our loan back. And, you know, it's also
common that you're going to leave your legal papers, you know,
official documents and so on. Right now, if you're very God
conscious and religious, then you will insist that make sure that my
loans are repaid, and my salah, the fifth year is given if there's
anything if I've missed any prayers, and if I've got any
regard or whatever, or maybe even possibility, then I'm going to
give some video and explanation as well. That's the general thrust of
the wills that you will see of the majority of people. All right.
However, in the case under study that we have the children of Allah
subhanaw taala is of Allah's messengers are involved here.
Okay. They are probably much better than us. Yes, they made
mistakes, but they're probably much better in terms of, you know,
they came from a house in which the Wi Fi and Revelation right was
was normal. Okay, they're fine.
or there was a prophet, there brother was a prophet, right?
They've got probably nephews who are prophets, and so on and so
forth. They've got uncles who are prophets, and so on.
They've probably seen their mother turning to Allah subhanaw taala
fervently, in every crisis the Imam is must be great by now.
Right? And these children,
probably, were unaware of any other doctrine besides Islam and
dough, heathen, monotheism and so on. So why did Jacoba Islam have
to say, I mean, if anybody needs it, it's our children. We got a
crisis in faith these days, right? Subhan Allah, there are people
with crisis in faith. And there's many people who don't even know
that their children are losing their faith, there's people who
don't know they're losing their faith Subhanallah but the Prophet
salallahu it the Prophet yah Coolgardie, salaam Radha is seen
in this passage as not taking any chances. Right? And the reason for
that, where'd you get that from, that you get from when somebody is
so particular about something so focused on something when they
consider something to be so significant, right, that you don't
want to leave anything to chance? Right, you don't want to allow any
kind of speculation, you don't want any doubt about it. So that's
why in a in a crisis, like that, one would frankly say what they
have to say that be no embarrassment or anything, right?
For example, you know, if one falls, ill, then one wants to
inform their children about it, right. And they inform their
children about their pains.
And they ask them to call a physician, they're not going to
hide that anymore, because now it's a life and death situation.
Likewise, if somebody is very, very hungry, you know, you're
going to generally relate how hungry you are, so that somebody
feeds you. Okay? So these are the last moments. Also, you don't have
much time left, you don't have too much energy, you've got to focus
on what's to come. But you can tell that Iacobelli Sam was
probably very comfortable about what was to come. Right, the
dough, he had less time and these he was going to be in the throes
of death very soon. Right? He spoke of these as last words to
the family. Right? And they're very different from what other
people would say, right?
You know, generally, again, people who say, look after the look after
your mother, look, after the females of your family, maintain
ties of kinship, don't forget your relatives, help your brother and
sisters out, help the weaker ones, and so on and so forth. He took a
very different, you know,
his focus was the eternal success of his children. His focus was,
how are they going to die, because that's the ticket for eternal
success. Otherwise, it would be a massive and a serious loss for
him. So that's why he asks this question, right? The preservation
of the faith. That's where he asked him a simple question.
Subhanallah simple question. Right? What is going to be your
adherence to faith? So he assembles them, right. Now, I
would assume that because Jacoba is his dying at an older age,
right? You know, he was dying at an older age, he had all of these
children, and they had, you know, they were they were older use of
adults now had become old enough to become the minister of Egypt.
And then, of course, they carried on and the parents passed away
afterwards. So he could have had his grandchildren there, they
would have been nephews there. They may have been other, you
know, other relatives that are gathered there as well. And in
this particular situation, he says, So what are you going to
worship after me? Right, he wanted to ascertain the level of faith
and put his mind at rest and go with this beautiful, you know,
people want to go comfortably from this world, even though they're
leaving and all from behind as though it's going to help them
somehow somehow it's an amazing human feeling. So the Quran or any
other works, when you read about this story, this, there's, it
doesn't refer to any other issues that he may have raised? Like, did
he speak about other things? And has the Quran only mentioned this?
We don't find that information anywhere else. So what Allah Who
item, right? And so he's looking for a very specific
reply, and mashallah they affirm their unwavering faith in the
Oneness of Allah subhanaw taala. The Quran doesn't detail anything
else about this meeting? Right? You know, did the children when
they hear this, did they express the price? That why are you asking
us this question? Don't you trust us? Don't you think we're
believers?
Not at all. You know, you've been telling us, you know, we've been
believing in Allah subhanaw taala. All this time. Why would you have
to ask us at this time? I guess we'd be surprised.
But no, it doesn't mention that you just mentioned they're very
prompt
and reassuring reply, we should worship your God. The God of your
fathers. Ibrahim, is how and that's what they said.
they affirm their allegiance to their forefathers to their
ancestors. Right? And I guess they had been eloquently warned before
of the consequence of polytheism. So that's why there was something
that they were not going to do, they will probably prefer death
over that. Right? And mashallah they reassured Jacoba Lee who
Salam, and they satisfied him on his deathbed. And essentially,
this is the while this verse was just an incident of how Iacobelli
Salam died, and he asked this question, Allah subhanaw taala
does not mention incidents like that for nothing. It is just not a
fact. It's just not a point of history. Right? There's a reason
Allah subhanaw taala has mentioned this to underscore the importance
of monotheism. And over that, that if a prophet can ask his children
these things, and he's concerned about that, at that time, he
didn't do this to show people that Oh, Allah subhanho wa Taala is
going to reveal this in the Quran. So I'm doing this now. No, he did
this because he had a concern about this, because faith was so
important. May Allah subhanaw taala also help us to ensure that
our children also adhere to this as well. And we can ask about
these questions, along with any other important question. But the
first thing is that may Allah subhanaw taala allow us to remain
on the straight path ourself, and to bring us bring up our children
and that's a struggle nowadays, is to bring up our children in a way
that they will become the coolness of our eyes, and they will give us
such a reassuring answer and a response so that we can enjoy our
time in the hereafter.
Every Muslim is supposed to read this and to draw lessons from it.
Right? That's the purpose of the Quran, small, small verses like
this, your understanding from the reflections how you can open these
up and how they provide provide such broad and sweeping bits of
guidance for us. May Allah subhanaw taala accept from us May
Allah grant us the Kalama on our deathbed. May Allah allow us and
our children and our progenies until the Day of Judgment, to
pray, proclaim His Oneness, his oneness and never deviate from
this path. Allah bless you all, please make a dua for us as well
as salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. The point of a lecture
is to encourage people to act to get further an inspiration, and
encouragement, persuasion. The next step is to actually start
learning seriously to read books to take on a subject of Islam and
to understand all the subjects of Islam at least at the basic level,
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And that's why we started Rayyan courses so that you can actually
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as local law here in salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa
barakato.