Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – The Adornment of Quran #02
AI: Summary ©
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AI: Summary ©
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم الحمد لله رب العالمين
والصلاة والسلام على سيد المرسلين وعلى آله وصحبه
وبارك وسلم تسليماً كثيراً إلى يوم الدين أما
بعد This is the second dars for the
tafsir of Surat Ar-Rahman.
We covered approximately 12 to 13 verses.
And today we continue from the 13th verse.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala started this surah
with speaking about some of the fundamental things
that relate to the human being.
For example, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala created
the human.
He taught him how to articulate himself, how
to speak, how to communicate with others in
a very sophisticated way.
Just about say exactly what's in the heart.
Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala speaks about
some of the cosmic realities like the sun
and the moon, how they go according to
a timetable.
They follow a set pattern.
Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala spoke about
the submission of the stars and the trees.
And every object and every created being and
every piece of creation of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala which is everything has its own
way of submission.
Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala speaks about
the heaven in general after speaking about the
sun and the moon.
The heaven in general that that's something Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala raised and it stays
up, it doesn't fall down.
And coming back to the world, to human
life on a social level, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala speaks about one of the most
important things for stability which is the mizan,
the scale, the law, the qanun.
And we spoke about how any people who
deal with proper law where there is accountability,
then that nation will be prosperous and secure.
And any place where that's not the case,
then regardless of what else is there, this
is such a major issue because it will
take the world and everything within the world
out of its equilibrium.
If the sun and the moon did not
go according to a pattern, if they decided
to do things on their own and developed
a mind of their own, went beyond what
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wanted them to
do, clearly Allah hasn't given them that choice.
But imagine that Allah had made them with
free will, endowed them with free will the
way He has us.
And they went out of their equilibrium.
What would happen to the heavens and the
earth?
So in the same way, the only difference
is that we have a choice.
We've been given free will.
We're not forced to follow a particular pattern
that we cannot come out of.
We've been given choice within a certain amount
of jurisdiction.
Now if we're not going to follow the
law that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has
set down, then we have created an imbalance.
Now because we're within that, we probably don't
notice it as much.
But the animals notice it.
And they pray against those who commit oppression
in the world.
And that's why they make dua for those
who study the knowledge.
And there are clear and authenticated narrations that
speak about the angels laying down their wings.
And not just that, but he turned the
fish in the ocean praying for those who
go out to study the knowledge.
And the reason for that is clear.
You'd expect that somebody who studied the knowledge
will follow a line of equilibrium, the balance,
the true way, Sirat Mustaqeem.
So that shows a very important point which
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is reminding us.
أَلَّا تَطَغَوْا فِي الْمِيزَانِ Both when you're buying
and selling, make sure you give the right
measure.
And also in your life, do not go
and transgress the bounds of the law.
May Allah forgive us.
وَأَقِيمُوا الْوَزْنَ بِالْقِسْنِ I mean, this is such
an emphasis.
With everything else, he mentioned it once.
With this, it's a...
وَوَضَعَ الْمِيزَانِ أَلَّا تَطْغَوْا فِي الْمِيزَانِ وَأَقِيمُوا الْوَزْنَ
بِالْقِسْنِ وَلَا تُخْسِرُوا الْمِيزَانِ Three times.
If this was just about giving, you know,
making sure you give the right weight if
you're selling wheat or barley or something, why
such an emphasis?
Because it starts there, but it's about everything.
Because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying,
and He has placed the scale so that
you should not be wrongful in weighing.
Observe the correct weight with fairness and do
not make weighing deficient.
That is a lot of emphasis.
That's a lot of words being used for
one point.
And the word ميزان is coming three times.
And you know that Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala doesn't repeat Himself for nothing.
It's extremely concise, the words of the Quran.
Extremely concise.
So when you've got وَوَضَعَ الْمِيزَانِ Place the
scale.
الْلَا تَتْغَوْا فِي الْمِيزَانِ And then وَلَا تُخْسِرُوا
الْمِيزَانِ Similar, تُخْسِرُوا الْمِيزَانِ لا تَتْغَوْا فِي الْمِيزَانِ
Very similar things.
Do not transgress, do not give short.
وَالْأَرْضَ وَضَعَهَا لِلْأَنَامِ I'm just repeating all of
that just to put us in the picture.
Then coming back to the earth, speaking about
some of the basic things that we have
around us that we need for life to
work, which is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says, as for the earth, He has placed
it for creatures.
فِيهَا فَاكِهَةٌ وَالنَّخْلُ ذَاتُ الْأَكْمَامِ In which there
are fruits and date palms having sheaths.
وَالْحَبُّذُ الْعَصْفِ وَالْرَيْحَانِ And the grain having chaff
and fragrant flowers.
So not only do you benefit from the
plants and the crops and the trees and
so on, by eating them and by gaining
shade from them, and by looking at them,
and it be the coolness and a source
of gladness for the eyes.
But there's also another benefit which is that
the perfumes and the fragrance, things which humans
really like and feel pleased with.
The Prophet ﷺ said that one of the
things that was made beloved to him was
طِيب, which is perfume, which is fragrance.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is mentioning
all of these things because these all have
an impact on us.
Everything has an impact on us.
I mean as far as perfume.
In fact, there are companies out there that
will specially formulate a perfume for the identity
and the look of your company.
So you can pay them thousands of pounds
and they will come in and they'll speak
to you and they'll understand what's your motto
and what are you trying to achieve.
And then they will formulate a perfume for
you that then you will have these special
dispensers that will dispense this perfume.
So when your customers come in, they have
a certain identity.
Subhanallah, there is this.
And I think masajid should do that.
Because perfume is really, it's a great sunnah.
And I think it can enhance the experience
in a masjid seriously.
So I think we really need to formulate
a certain type of where people come in
and actually feel calm, relaxed.
And perfume can do this.
Just the sounds and so on.
And of course you need good imams that
read well as well.
But then you do need some good, you
know, you need good smell.
I think that really helps.
Otherwise, sometimes you're standing next to somebody who's
just come from and he popped into the
kitchen before he came with the same clothes
on.
And now he's brought the samosa smell to
the masjid.
And that's a sad fact.
And somebody just had a cigarette.
And yet there's others who are using perfume
but it's some crazy perfume that you'd rather
not put on.
Right?
It's not even like soap.
But all of these are from the ni'm.
All of these are from the bounties of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانَ So after mentioning these
initial points, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
which of the bounties of your Lord will
you deny?
So from here we continue.
أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ
الرَّحِيمِ خَلَقَ الْإِنسَانَ مِنْ صَلْصَالٍ كَالفَخَّارِ
وَخَلَقَ الْجَانَّ مِنْ مَارِجٍ مِّنْ نَّارِ فَبِأَيِّ
آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانَ رَبُّ الْمَشْرِقَيْنِ وَرَبُّ الْمَغْرِبَيْنِ
فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانَ مَعْجَى الْبَحْرَيْنِ يَلْتَقِيَانَ
Bainahumma barzakhun laa yabaghiyan Fa bi'ayyi alaa
'i rabbikumaa tukadhiban Yakhruj minhuman lu'lu'u
wal marjan Fa bi'ayyi alaa'i rabbikumaa
tukadhiban Walahu aljawari almunsha'atu fil bahri kal
'a'lam Fa bi'ayyi alaa'i rabbikumaa
tukadhiban He has created man from dry clay,
ringing like pottery, and created the jinn, the
father of the jinn, from a smokeless flame
of fire.
So, O mankind and jinn, which of the
bounties of your Lord will you deny?
He is the Lord of both points of
sunrise and both points of sunset.
So, which of the bounties of your Lord
will you deny?
He let forth the two seas to meet
together.
While there is a barrier between them, they
do not encroach upon one another.
So, which of the bounties of your Lord
will you deny?
From both of them come forth the pearl
and the coral.
So, which of the bounties of your Lord
will you deny?
And His are the sailing ships raised up
in the sea like mountains.
So, which of the bounties of your Lord
will you deny?
So, as you can see here, these are
now additional bounties.
And then after every single one, 31 times
in this surah, there is this refrain, this
repeated phrase, which is not just there for
emphasis, but is there to create reflection, to
make people reflect that, okay, if there was
just a list of bounties mentioned all together,
and they were just all mentioned together, one
after the other, then you may focus on
some and you wouldn't focus on the other.
But because they've been mentioned and after each
one there is this refrain and this repeated
phrase, which is that, which of the bounties
of your Lord would you deny?
It makes us think about each one.
We read it a bit fast, it should
be read much more slowly.
But the reason why I read it fast
was just to give us an overview of
the next set of verses.
We'll look at each one in detail.
But this surah should normally be read very
slowly, so that we can actually reflect over
the bounties and then give thanks to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala for that.
Because when the first time that this verse,
فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانَ This is speaking to
two of the infinite number of creatures that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has created in
this world, the human and the jinn.
And Allah will address the two of them
specifically very soon.
يَا مَعْشَرَ الْجِنِّ وَالْإِنسِ Specifically two, because we're
the ones with choice.
Only the human being and the jinn have
choice, free will.
And thus they're told that you're the only
ones who can be ungrateful.
No other creature can be ungrateful.
From the most powerful of the angels to
the most, you can say, inanimate object, they
cannot be ungrateful to Allah.
They have shukr and tasbih written within them.
وَإِن مِّن شَيْءٍ إِلَّا يُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّهِ There
is nothing except that it glorifies the praise
of the Lord.
وَلَكِن لَّا تَفْقَهُونَ تَسْبِيحَهُمْ But you just do
not understand their way of tasbih and their
way of glorification.
But the human beings have a choice.
And this is a major reminder that we've
given you all of these great bounties within
yourself, outside of yourself, around you.
And which of them will you be able
to deny?
So clearly this is speaking to those who
do deny, more so than those who do
not deny.
But it is relevant to those who do
not deny, so that at least they reflect
and give thanks to Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
But then for those who do deny, Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying, how can
you deny?
All of these things are from Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
Now the thing is that they may reject
and deny that one of those things are
from Allah.
They may say that it's from someone else,
because people have intermediaries that they think are
responsible for things.
So they may say, no, this is not
from Allah.
But when you've got hundreds of...
when you've got tens of things that have
been mentioned, this, that, this, this, and then
about you, and then...
I mean, can you deny everything?
It's related from Abdullah ibn Umar r.a
that Rasulullah s.a.w. recited Surah Ar
-Rahman in front of the companions on one
occasion, and they remained silent after it.
They didn't give a response.
I mean, they weren't necessarily...
they would normally say, wallahu a'alam, Allah
and His Rasul, wallahu rasuluhu a'alam.
They would normally say that.
But in this case, they didn't give a
response.
So the Prophet s.a.w. he said,
مَا لِي أَسْمَعُ الْجِنْ أَحْسَنَ جَوَابًا أَسْمَعُ الْجِنْ
أَحْسَنَ جَوَابًا لِرَبِّهَا مِنكُمْ Why is it that
I see that the jinn give a better
response than you do?
When they gave the response, Allah knows best.
They may have been there and there and
he could hear it and they couldn't.
It may have been before, Allah knows best.
But he's saying that, why is it that
I see the jinn giving a better response
than you?
مَا أَتَيْتُ عَلَى قَوْلِ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ
رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ إِلَّا قَالُوا وَلَا بِشَيْءٍ مِّن نِعَمِكَ
رَبَّنَا نُكَذِّبَ And maybe we should say that
once right now.
وَلَا بِشَيْءٍ مِّن نِعَمِكَ رَبَّنَا نُكَذِّبَ فَلَكَ الْحَمْدِ
And what that means is, there is nothing
of your bounties, O our Lord, that we
would deny.
And even the way they said it, the
رَبَّنَا comes in middle.
So, literal translation, there is nothing of your
bounties, O our Lord, do we deny.
And for you is all praise.
That's what the jinn responded with.
Then, after this initial phrase, فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا
تُكَذِّبَانِ which is, you can see what it's
there for.
Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala begins to
speak about the human's origin.
And it provides such revelation.
It provides such insight into why the human
is the way he is, or she is.
It tells us of what we were created
from.
And the properties of what we were created
from have transferred and clearly they have to
transfer into the human being in the way
they now are.
And likewise with the jinn as well.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, خَلَقَ الْإِنسَانَ
مِنْ صَلْصَالٍ كَالْفَخَّارِ So in this case, Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying that He
created the human being from صَلْصَالِ كَالْفَخَّارِ In
this case, as translated here, dry clay, which
rings like pottery.
So the idea here is that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is saying that the clay
we created you from, when it dries out,
it will ring like pottery does.
Like if you rub it together, because it's
hollow and it's hardened, if you knock on
it, it will ring.
There will be a ring to it.
The reason why this is very interesting is
that this is not the only verse in
the Quran that speaks about the origin of
man.
There are other verses and they say something
slightly different.
Let's look at some of those verses.
It says in Suratul Hijr, another place, مِنْ
صَلْصَالٍ مِنْ حَمَئِمْ مَسْنُونَ Again صَلْصَال but مِنْ
حَمَئِمْ مَسْنُونَ So it is again dry clay
or clay, but this one is حَمَئِمْ مَسْنُونَ
which means it is dark and changed.
So it's not in its original state.
It is darkened and it is changed.
Maybe it's in the production of it, it's
at a later stage once you start making
something with it.
Then in Suratul Saffat, after Surah Yasin, it
says, مِنْ طِينٍ لَازِبٍ طِينٍ is just straightforward
clay.
In the others it used صَلْصَال which seems
to be a later stage from طِين.
طِين is just what's in the ground.
Normally you don't hear the word صَلْصَال used
for just pure clay from the ground.
So it seems like the صَلْصَال is referring
to a later stage in the making process.
And طِينٍ لَازِب, this is sticky clay, the
normal state of clay.
This is not necessarily, I mean, I don't
know what you have in your minds when
we say clay.
It doesn't have to be just the black
mud, the nice mud that you can buy
from B&Q, Home Depot, from that kind
of thing.
It's not speaking about the nice fertilizer.
It doesn't have to be speaking about that.
Just pure clay.
Go somewhere out, dig the ground, you see
the pure clay.
Go to the قبرستان, the cemetery in the
winter.
Now, alhamdulillah, our local one, they've built it
up so it's not as bad as it
used to be.
But you come back and...
Getting that stuff off your shoes was so
difficult.
You had to put bags on your feet
so that, you know, otherwise they'd mess your
car up.
It was just so difficult to get it
off.
طِينٍ لَازِب, that's طِين لازِب, where we will
go back to.
Not to the nice fertilizer soil, you know,
but this طِين لازِب.
So it seems like that's what's mentioned in
surah al-Saffat.
Then in another place, surah al-Imran, it
says, كَمَثَلِ آدَمْ خَلَقَهُ مِنْ تُرَابٍ Very simple.
Like Adam a.s. who was created from
soil, from sand, from turab, sand.
I mean, it's all from the ground.
It's different manifestations depending on the composition of
that ground.
But at the end of the day, this
shows a kind of a process.
And there's no contradiction.
Although there seems to be, it's very simple.
You can put them all together, it all
makes sense.
The reason is that when Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala initially created, He formed the body
of Adam.
See, there's a hadith which mentions that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala created Adam in his
form.
خَلَقَ آدَمَ فِي سُورَتِهِ And some try to
take a anthropomorphic, as the Christians do, anthropomorphic
idea from here that Allah created Adam in
God's form, which is blasphemy against Allah.
Right?
It's Allah created Adam in His form in
the sense that unlike all other human beings
later who came through stages, embryonic stage, infancy
and so on, they developed.
Adam a.s. didn't develop like that.
His form was created in its way and
then the soul was, the spirit was blown
into it.
So that's what...
So we don't take the Christian idea of
this.
But the initial formation, and this is a
long story.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, I mean in
some of the narrations they're not necessarily as
strong.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent down the
angel to pick up some soil from the
earth.
And the soil said, you know, what are
you taking from me?
And then it sought refuge in Allah.
I seek refuge from you in Allah.
So the angel went back.
He's seeking refuge in Allah, I can't take
anything from it.
A few angels were sent like that.
The earth said, I seek refuge, so it
went back.
Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, this narration
mentions that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent
the angel of death, Malakul Mawt.
And the earth said the same thing.
He says, I don't care, Allah is the
one who gave me the hukam, I'm gonna
do it.
Angel of death doesn't fear anyone.
So he took it.
And what it mentions there, and this is
from some of the narrations mentioned in the
tafaseer, is that it didn't just pick it
from one place.
It wasn't just from Makkah, or from Madinah,
or from Arabia, or from Indonesia, or wherever
it was.
No, different parts.
Soil was selected from different areas, and that
is what composed Adam a.s. And thus
we come out in different forms, different colors,
different ways.
Another thing is that the human is very
malleable.
The human is very flexible.
It can change.
The majority of human beings are humble, except
those who go beyond their equilibrium and become
boastful and arrogant, and stand on the same
earth they were created from, and exalt themselves.
That's why Allah says, وَلَا تَمْشِي فِي الْأَرْضِ
مَرَاحًا Don't walk in this exalted fashion on
the ground.
As opposed to that, but the majority of
human beings are humble, lowly, perfect for servitude
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The jinn on the other hand, they're created
from fire, and a smokeless fire, from the
flame.
We'll be explaining that soon.
And that is why the nature of the
jinn is a very fiery, very imagining, or
let's put it this way, the problem with
the jinn is that they've got a vivid
imagination.
They've got a fiery imagination.
They think things and turn things around.
That's understood from the hadith.
In the sense that they see something, they
will turn it around and put a lot
of imagination into it.
And it becomes different from what it was.
There's one hadith which is mentioned, it's a
sahih hadith that the jinn used to stand
on top of each other, form a tower
by jumping on the shoulders of one another,
up to the heavens, and then they would
listen out to what the angels were planning
for the coming day or so on.
Then the one at the top who heard
all of this would whisper it, pass this
down to the next one, and that second
one to the third and so on until
it gets down to the bottom.
But by that time it's all changed.
Imagination is very fiery.
That's why the scholars who've actually dealt with
jinn, who have some experience with them, who've
studied the jinn, mentioned that a jinn tells
you something, you can't believe it.
And that's why these practitioners, amirs as you
call them, these practitioners, somebody is not feeling
right, they've got a psychological problem, most of
the time it's a chemical imbalance, it's a
psychiatric issue, but they don't go to their
doctors, and they start going to people who
charge them a lot of money, and say,
yes, you've got an issue.
Now some of these practitioners do have a
relationship with jinn.
And then what they do is, I mean
they do these weird things, like they look
into your thumb, or they get a young
child, look into the thumb, they look into
a bowl of water, all sorts of strange
things they do, wallahu a'alam.
And the ones who really have a jinn,
they tell you, oh, it was so and
so of your family, it was your cousin's
sister, it was that girl that wanted to
marry you, or it was that boy whose
father said, oh, you must marry him.
And then this enmity is created between families.
You can't trust the jinn.
Jinn is not a reliable source.
It has a vivid imagination.
It's made from fire.
Fire has this flame, like it's just jumping,
very volatile.
Because the human being is different.
The human being is created from clay that
can be formed into various different things.
Very flexible.
That's how human beings are.
And anybody who's rigid, they're going against that
nature.
Anybody who's not humble, they're going against that
nature.
But anyway, looking at all of these different
words that have been used for clay in
the different ayat of the Qur'an.
Firstly, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala took the
turab al-ard, the straightforward soil, clay from
the earth.
Then it was mixed with water.
فَعُجِنَ بِالْمَاءِ So initially it was turab.
Then it was mixed with water.
And that's what happens to, as I mentioned,
at the graveyard when there's been rain.
It becomes all sticky.
So initially it's just dry soil.
Then it becomes sticky.
So it was turab, as mentioned in al
-Imran.
Then it becomes teenun lazibun, which in surah
as-Safat, it becomes sticky clay.
And then it was left for a while
until it became fermented in a sense, or
it became matured.
I don't know if there's a particular word
for that in pottery.
And that's when it became black and smelly.
That is where it says, حَمَئِمْ مَسْنُونَ مِنْ
صَلْصَالٍ مِنْ حَمَئِمْ مَسْنُونَ Black and smelly.
Because it's now been slightly changed from its
original nature.
And then it was formed.
So the body was formed from it.
So it was turned into a shape as
such.
And then it was made to become dry.
And then when it became dry, it became
kal-fakhar, like pottery.
So now you could hear a sound.
And there's a narration again mentioned by the
Mufassirin.
When Adam A.S. was first created, jinn,
the Iblis, who was a major jinn, he
came, looked him over, and he mentions he
went, he found it hollow, he said, no
problem, I can deal with this one.
He found it hollow.
He said, this is hollow, this is not
solid.
So he wasn't very scared of the human
being because of that hollowness.
But that is the last part of it,
kal-fakhar.
As mentioned in Surah Ar-Rahman, which is
the final part of it before the ruh
was blown into it.
So when you knock on it, it will
make a sound.
That's what this is referring to.
This is the last of the stages of
the formation of the human being, the origin
of the human being.
وَخَلَقَ الْجَانَ مِمَّارِجٍ مِّن نَّارٍ Specifically mentioning that
the jinn he created from a smokeless flame
of fire.
So not from the smoke, but the smokeless
flame of the fire.
So this one, the jinn is created from
a flame of smokeless fire, right, pure flame.
لَهَبٍ خَالِصٍ Pure flame.
لَا دُخَانَ فِيهِ مِنَ النَّارِ There is no
smoke in that.
Whereas Mujahid says, no, this refers to...
What I said earlier was Ibn Abbas r
.a.'s opinion.
The other Mufassir Mujahid, he says, he's speaking
that this مِمَّارِجٍ مِّن نَّارٍ refers to that
flame which is mixed with the darkness of
the fire.
And there's a hadith just to finalize this.
وَخُلِقَتِ الْمَلَائِكَةُ مِن نُّورٍ And the angels have
been created from a type of light.
Right?
Have been created from a type of light.
وَخُلِقَ الْجَانِ مِمَّارِجٍ مِّن نَّارٍ And the jinn
have been created from this smokeless flame.
وَخُلِقَ آدَمٍ مِّمَّا وُصِفَ لَكُمْ Adam a.s.
was created from what has been described to
you.
Imam Muslim relates this hadith.
And the one I mentioned earlier about the
jinn was from Abdullah ibn Umar r.a.
And that's in Tirmidhi and Hakim.
They've related that narration.
فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانَ So we've told you
about your origin.
This is how we created you.
Look at where you came from, what you
are now.
Would you ever believe that?
You know, somebody denied this.
The story about somebody who denied this.
He said, no, we're not...
How can we be from soil?
Right?
In fact, I think what he denied was
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that the
hellfire, its fuel are human beings and the
jinn.
Jinn is from fire.
How will fire harm fire?
So he just kept asking this question to
this older person.
The older person finally got a bit irritated
and took some soil from the ground, you
know, made it nice and hard.
And he threw it at him.
He said, does that hurt you?
He said, yes, it does hurt me.
He said, you're from soil.
This is from soil.
I mean, if this is harming you, this
is hurting you, then what's your problem?
Allah will...
the fire will burn, you know, this other
fire.
And clearly, I mean, we're not soil anymore.
If you wanted to reduce the human being
to soil again, you'd probably have to put
him into a cremator.
You know, subhanAllah, the bones, you know how
strong our bones are?
That you know when they cremate bodies after
funerals, they put them into a furnace.
And you'd think that that...
it's a very, very powerful furnace, probably, you
know, with some catalyst to really, you know,
intensify the heat.
You'd think that that would turn it into
ash.
It doesn't.
They then have to scrape out the remainder
of the bones.
It's not all made into ash.
Then they grind it.
They grind it into ash, so the fire
doesn't turn into ash.
It's ground into ash, the remaining ash that's
ground into ash.
Clearly, that's haram, as you know.
It's really sad for people in this country
that are buried...
that die without anybody.
That's what they do to them.
Unless you've left money and there's somebody who
say this money will be spent for a
grave and so on, that's what they'll do
to you.
فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانَ So, oh jinn and
human being, which of the bounties of your
Lord will you deny?
Abu Hayyan, he says that one of the
benefits or wisdom behind the repetition of these
phrases, these ayat, initially, one, it has a
multifaceted reasoning.
One is, it's for emphasis, it's for waking
you up and reminding you, making you reflect,
creates a movement in you.
And Ibn Qutaybah says, well, he's mentioning so
many different types of blessings, so he's just
reminding after each one, which one are you
gonna deny?
Which one are you going to deny?
Which one are you going to deny?
So every time he mentions a bounty, he
mentions that ayah.
رَبُّ الْمَشْرِقَيْنِ وَرَبُّ الْمَغْرِبَيْنِ He is the Lord
of both points of sunrise and both points
of sunset.
He's done a very meaningful translation.
Otherwise, really, مَشْرِق means the east, and مَغْرِب
means the west.
Well, literally speaking, مَشْرِق comes from the word
شُرُوك.
شُرُوك means sunrise, and مَشْرِق is the place
of sunrise.
But it says مَشْرِقَيْنِ, the two places of
sunrise, or the two points from where the
sun rises.
And likewise مَغْرِبَيْنِ, a dual, two places where
the sun sets.
So مَغْرِب comes from غُرُوب, sunset.
That's what it means.
And in the different seasons of the year,
the sun, although it rises in the east
in general and the west in general, but
there are different points within the east and
within the west that it rises and sets
different parts of the year.
In general.
So that's why it's made dual.
رَبُّ الْمَشْرِقَيْنِ وَرَبُّ الْمَغْرِبَيْنِ As opposed to رَبُّ
الْمَشْرِقَيْنِ وَالْمَغْرِبَيْنِ In this case is رَبُّ الْمَشْرِقَيْنِ
وَرَبُّ الْمَغْرِبَيْنِ فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ Which of
the bounties of your Lord will you deny?
مَرَجَ الْبَحْرَيْنِ يَلْتَقِيَانِ The next one coming up
from the east and the west.
Now he begins to speak about two oceans,
large expanses of water, two seas.
After mentioning the sun and the moon earlier,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala went beyond that
and said the place where the sun comes,
forget the sun and the moon but the
places from where they come, where they rise
and where they set, that is also Allah
is the Lord of that.
So it's another aspect of it.
Then speaking about a very interesting phenomenon, I
don't know if anybody has experienced this.
Has anybody seen where the confluence of two
oceans or two seas?
Has anybody seen it?
Which one have you seen?
Right, yeah, that's where I've seen Cape Point
which is down south, tip of southern Africa,
in South Africa in Cape Town.
So you go there and it's supposed to
be the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.
One is supposed to be like greenish, one
is supposed to be bluish.
Problem is that you can't always see it
because it has to be seen further out
to sea, depending on how good the day
is and so on.
But it's very interesting that both of these
are coming together and there is nothing that
will mix them up, even though they could
mix.
You do an experiment at home with a
small quantity of water, you know, one colored
with something and the other one, they will
mix.
You just cannot stop them.
You know, even if you put something in
between, they'll still mix unless it's an absolute
separate, you know, separate container or something.
But here you've got these two massive expanses
of water and they do not mix.
That is what's being reminded here.
And this is not just one place in
the world, I mean, we've heard of two
places here, one in Tangier's Tangier, which is
in the northern tip of...
what's that, the Red Sea and the...
Red Sea and the...
the Nile and the Red, okay.
The very famous one is in Cape Point,
South Africa, and so he's saying, بَيْنَهُمَا بَرْزَخٌ
لَا يَبْغِيَانُ That there is between them a
barrier that they do not encroach upon one
another.
It's related about some diver who noticed this.
He felt a sensation on one side that
was different from the other side, in the
water, the experience.
Then he examined and he noticed that this
is where the confluence of two rivers or
whatever it was, I can't know, I don't
recall the exact location.
And the thing is that when he came
back, he started studying this.
Just didn't pass it off, he started studying
this.
And then he discovered that 1400 years ago,
this has been mentioned in the Quran very
clearly.
In these very clear terms, look at the
verse, it says, بَيْنَهُمَا بَرْزَخٌ بَرْزَخٌ is a
wall, a barrier.
لَا يَبْغِيَانُ They do not encroach on one
another.
And that led him to become a Muslim.
That's the way of the Quran, it's got
different things for different people.
That's why in many people they say, I've
got a friend, he's interested in Islam, she's
interested in Islam, what should we give them?
You can't just give them anything.
You can give them the Quran, but other
than that, what's their interest?
Are they philosophical?
Are they scientific?
Are they just very simple people?
Or what are they into?
And by that, but the Quran is the
most wonderful thing you can give to someone.
Because it has everything, and something or the
other.
Because it speaks directly to the heart of
the human being.
بَيْنَهُمَا بَرْزَخٌ لَا يَبْغِيَانُ So, one side is
salty, the other side is sweet.
Sweet meaning pleasant, it's not salty.
This could be an ocean and a river,
a freshwater river and an ocean, and it
doesn't mix.
It retains that barrier.
Which of the bounties of your Lord will
you deny?
يَخْرُجُ And then, okay, these are not just
there for nothing, there are things that come
out of this ocean.
You travel in them, so it's gonna be
mentioning a number of different things here.
One is يَخْرُجُ مِنْهُمَا الْلُؤْلُؤُ وَالْمَرْجَانِ From it,
from both of them come forth the pearl
and the coral.
Different types of precious stones that gladden the
heart of people.
So, you've got لُؤْلُؤْ and مَرْجَان.
لُؤْلُؤْ are the small pearls.
And مَرْجَان are larger versions of the same
kind of thing.
So the origin is similar, but the coral
are just larger formations.
And then you've got the pearls that are
nice and round.
Just like Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala spoke
about the earth, that from the earth comes
all of these different, you know, you've got
dates and you've got palms and you've got
the different forms from the ground.
Likewise, from the ocean, you've got all of
these different things that come out.
There's just two things that is mentioned here.
I mean, there are so many things that
are yet undiscovered.
Ibn Abbas relates from Abdullah ibn Mas'ud.
No, it's related from Ibn Abbas and Ibn
Mas'ud r.a. That مَرْجَان refers to
red coral.
I mean, it doesn't matter what color it
is, it's speaking about the beauty of the
ocean.
And it's speaking about the creation of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala even where you normally
don't see it.
فَسُبْحَانَ الْوَاحِدُ الْمَنَّانِ Glory be to the One
and the Great Bestower of Bounties.
فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ Which of the bounties
of your Lord will you deny?
وَلَهُ الْجَوَارِ الْمُنْشَآتُ فِي الْبَحْرِ كَالْأَعْلَامِ Now you
think this ocean, when you throw something in
there, it sinks.
You cannot guarantee that it will remain afloat.
You put yourself in there, and you will
go down.
However, you've got things which are like mountains,
and literally that is the case.
I mean, look at the things that you
have.
They're even more mountainous than they were probably
ever before.
These big, what do you call them?
Super tankers, and where they...
aircraft carriers, and subhanAllah, I mean, these big
platforms like a little city, you know, a
little town, floating on the ocean.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, after mentioning
that from it comes forth the pearl and
the coral, the next thing He mentions is,
and His are the sailing ships raised up
in the sea like mountains, and they do
not sink.
And the thing is that the human beings
knows that this is something that we've been
given, and they still...
they don't feel secure enough.
They know that this just rides with the
command of...
this is...
this seems totally illogical that this is riding,
but they go with it.
That's why...
Qurtubi says, قَالْ أَعْلَامُ أَعْلَامُ comes from the
word عَلَامُ which means like a big sign,
but here he says that it refers to
mountains, because mountains are major signs as well.
So just like in the oceans, we've got...
on the earth, he says, we've got mountains,
in the oceans, you've got these...
you know, you've got these major ships that
sail there.
And it is the bounty of Allah and
the gift of Allah that they sail unhindered.
And so much benefit.
If you didn't have a way through the
ocean, can you imagine how much longer things
would take to go from one place to
the other?
Our whole trade depends on it.
Things between the continents.
It depends on it.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given
this bounty that He's given you the ability
to build something.
He's inspired you with the understanding that if
you build this thing this way, and every
year, every subsequent generation is inspired in a
way to refine it.
And that's not just in this, in other
things as well.
And sometimes we lose this trade.
So sometimes Allah causes things to be forgotten.
For example, if you go to certain countries,
they make certain tiles that would never fade.
Like in Turkey, in Iznik tiles.
Can anybody make them today?
It's been lost.
Wallahu alam.
Now different things like that, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala sometimes causes them to be refined.
It's just that, you know, we live for
70 years, 80 years maybe, and we see
certain things.
When you look in the history and you
see how people used to do different things.
For example, the pyramids were designed and then
made.
It just baffles the mind of how people,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, but then these
things were to be forgotten.
And then Allah makes you start again or
makes you do it in a different way.
So how things move from one place to
the other, how you earn things this way,
how you find a job through that way,
how you travel from one place to the
other, from one continent to the other.
If you notice that people say that the
origin of everything are four, the four fundamental
elements.
When we speak about that, we're talking about
the earth, the water, the air, and the
fire.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is mentioning
all of these things.
Allah is mentioning all of these things throughout
these verses.
خَلَقَ الْإِنسَانَ مِن سَلْصَالٍ From the soil, Allah
created the human from the earth.
يَخُرْجُ مِنْهُمَا الْلُؤْلُ وَالْمَرْجَانِ From the water comes
this coral and these pearls.
And then, وَلَهُ الْجَوَارِ الْمُنْشَآتُ فِي الْبَحْرِ كَالْأَعْلَامِ
All of these things like mountains, Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala speaks about that.
That's why the God-fearing, people who used
to sail the seas, right?
If you're at sea, and you believe in
God, you're better off than somebody who doesn't
believe in God.
And one of the best places for this
distinction to be made is in the sea.
Because it says that the God-fearing seamen,
sea people, used to say, لَكَ الْفُلْكُ وَلَكَ
الْمُلْكُ For you is the ship, and for
you is the dominion and the sovereignty of
everything.
That we're just going by your grace.
They used to say that.
That is their actual belief.
And that's why, if they ever feared that
they were in a tempest, in a storm,
that they were going to go down, they
would pray to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ الدِّينِ Further specifying and single-mindedly
directing their worship to Him, making their deen
purely for Him.
فَلَمَّا نَجَّاهُمْ إِلَى الْبَرِّ إِذَا هُمْ يُشْرِكُونَ And
the others who just called out to Allah
became believers temporarily.
It says, فَلَمَّا نَجَّاهُمْ إِلَى الْبَرِّ And eventually
when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives them
delivery to the land, إِذَا هُمْ يُشْرِكُونَ They
start to commit shirk again.
فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانَ Which of the bounties
of your Lord will you deny?
And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
a wake-up call.
Okay, these are all things that I'm reminding
you of.
Which are on the earth.
However, كُلُّ مَنْ عَلَيْهَا فَانْ وَيَبْقَى وَجْهُ رَبِّكَ
ذُو الْجَلَالِ وَالْإِكْرَامِ كُلُّ مَنْ عَلَيْهَا فَانْ وَيَبْقَى
وَجْهُ رَبِّكَ ذُو الْجَلَالِ وَالْإِكْرَامِ Everyone who is
on it has to perish.
And your Lord's countenance will remain full of
majesty, full of honor.
So which of the bounties of your Lord
will you deny?
InshaAllah we'll carry on from there next time.
JazakAllah khair.
JazakAllah khair.
The point of the lecture is to encourage
people to act, to get further.
An inspiration, an 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 their basic level
so that we can become more aware of
what our deen wants from us.
And that's why we started Rayyan courses so
that you can actually take organized lectures on
demand whenever you have free time.
Especially for example the Islamic Essentials course that
we have on there, the Islamic Essentials Certificate
which you take 20 short modules.
And at the end of that InshaAllah you
will have gotten the basics of most of
the most important topics in Islam and you'll
feel a lot more confident.
You don't have to leave lectures behind.
You can continue to listen to lectures.
But you need to have this more sustained
study as well.
JazakAllah khair.
Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.