Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – The Heart of the Quran – An Enlightening Commentary Tafsir of Surah Yasin Part 1
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InshaAllah for the next,
6 sessions we'll be doing Surah Yaseen.
So we hope to complete it within 6,
InshaAllah these 6 sessions, these
6 days.
InshaAllah.
The reason why we're doing Surah The Asin
is that
it's a Surah that's beloved to,
Muslims
because the prophet
has encouraged it a great deal.
Just the one narration, if we look at
just the one narration,
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam in a hadithulated
by Mambazar
says,
everything has a heart.
Everything has a nucleus,
a heart
And the heart of the Quran is Yaseen.
And I
would love that
it should be in the
I would love that it would be in
the heart of every believer,
every Muslim
from my Ummah.
Ibn Ajeebah in his tafsir, he's related that
Yaseen is the heart of the Quran.
And then
which many, many of us know because it's
quite famous, it's narrated in a hadith.
But then if you were to look at
the whole of the surah of Surat Yaseen,
which is the Ayah in Surat Yaseen that
is the heart of Surat Yaseen?
Anybody know? So the Ibn 'Ajibah, he relates
that it's Salamun
Khawlan
Mirabir Rahim.
Salamun Khawlan Mirabir Rahim.
Salam
peace,
which is a form
of a welcome
from the Lord that is merciful.
So InshaAllah we'll be covering that verse as
well.
Salaamun Qalamirubirrahim.
Firstly, let's just have a overview of the
Surah.
The virtues,
as I mentioned, are quite
popular, quite famous. And that's why we've taken
this that it's something which many people read
every day. There's a hadith which is slightly
weak,
which is weak but
it's been tried and tested.
Whoever recites Yaseen at the beginning of the
day, the
day's needs are fulfilled.
That gives us an understanding that this surah
provides a lot of barakah,
a lot of blessing
by reading it in the day.
InshaAllah, the day's needs will be fulfilled.
That means our time would be expanded.
Whatever we're doing
for that day,
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala will have it completed.
And
completeness,
completion
doesn't mean just physically complete something.
But when we're saying physically we also mean
spiritually completed.
So InshaAllah it will be a blessed act.
That's the barakah of reciting Yaseen every day.
It's the words of Allah to start with.
It's considered the heart of the Quran. Now
just reading that, just even logically thinking about
it from that perspective.
Just reading it every day should have that
benefit.
So if everybody, if people are reading it
every day or trying to read it every
day and trying to memorize it.
And we read it for years years years
and we don't understand what it means.
But we know the virtue of it and
that's why we read it.
So
we should know what it means. We should
try to learn what it means. At least
get a general idea of the different themes,
the different stories,
the different messages
that are provided in this surah. So that
when we read it, inshaAllah will read it
with more understanding.
That's one of the main reasons.
So you don't have to take a course
in Arabic for it.
The whole purpose of this is so that
we become more enlightened about the surah.
So a few things
about this surah, that speaks about the importance
of it. In terms of other virtues about
it, there are many.
And
many of these are from experience as well
as from some narrations.
Some of the things that I mentioned is
that if somebody's hungry, doesn't have any food,
Yaseen is such a Mubarak
and blessed surah that reciting it InshaAllah
will get you some sustenance.
If you're lost and you recite Surat Yaseen,
that is of great benefit and InshaAllah you'll
find your way.
Of course you have to have the conviction
in Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala you're using the
Yaseen because it's part of the Quran, it's
the words of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and
one of the most blessed.
It's a very powerful surah.
It's encouraging as,
Allamaqurtubi
mentions that when you go into the graveyard,
he relates a hadith where he recites Surah
Yaseen and it benefits
all of those who are in that graveyard.
All of the Muslimen who are in that
graveyard. Yaseen has many, many, many benefits.
We're going to insha Allah focus on the
meaning,
today.
We're going to cover insha Allah the first
several verses. Firstly,
Surah Yaseen
is a Maqki Surah.
That's why you won't find many
juristic rulings in there.
There won't be many commands in there of
pray this way or that way or do
this or do that. It's mostly trying to
establish
the oneness of Allah
It's trying to make people think.
It's trying to tell them to reflect over
some of the
accounts of the past.
How very similarly
people did what people are doing today.
And this was their outcome. So please realize,
wake up,
take heed,
take notice
that this is normally the end of such
a, such an action, such a practice.
So it has messages.
It has stories. It has reflections.
And that's a Maqki surah because there the
Maqk Many of the Maqkan surahs, the whole
purpose of them was to establish Islam.
The understanding
of Iman. Take people away from the worship
of other objects and deities
to focus on Allah
That's
one of the main purposes of this surah.
Firstly, it deals, if you are to look
at the whole surah together
and you look, you are to find the
main, main themes, the absolute primary themes within
the surah. You'll find that there's 3 things.
Firstly, it speaks about iman.
Especially iman
upon resurrection
and the last day, which means that this
world is not the last.
This world is not the final place for
us. It's to establish this
and that that is what makes Islam distinct
from many other religions.
Some other religions also,
also share in this ideology
and in this belief.
But
when Allah
was establishing
Islam in this world,
the kuffar of Makkah, they were idol worshipers.
Though they believed in Allah,
at some level they did not believe in
resurrection.
So you'll see that one of the biggest
things is to not only establish
the hereafter.
Today, when you look among the Jews and
the Christians,
you'll find that they don't all have such
a strong belief in the hereafter.
Both ideologically speaking
and in practice. One is that there's
a belief of the system that you follow,
the Deen, the religion that you follow.
It's a belief within it.
But then there's another one where some sectarians
will say that's not really important to this
world is the only place you'll you'll live.
So you've got that within Christianity
and within some
aspects of Judaism where the hereafter isn't spoken
about.
Where I was quite surprised because they
are supposedly the people of the book
and one of the core messages of any
book of Allah is resurrection.
So we were at a program
for
this
hospice service that provides
end of life care.
And we would have to go from our
different faith backgrounds and go and give a
presentation about what it means to die in
Islam.
And somebody else would come from the Jewish
faith and
you have somebody from the Buddhists
speaking about the book of the dead
and and so on and so forth. So
I was quite surprised to learn from some
some,
some Jewish
sects that
they don't have as strong belief in the
hereafter. That they're not really concerned about it,
about whether they're really going to come back
alive or not.
So what the Quran does not only establishes
as a belief,
as a core belief, but also makes it
very evident, makes it very clear
that look, this is something very important for
you. That's why the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam in numerous places said, mankana yuminu billahi
wa laiwumil akhir.
In short to prove what a believer is.
Whoever believes in Allah and the last day
believes in Allah and the last day. What
about everything in between? That's all included. If
you believe in Allah and the last day,
you will believe in the prophets and everything
else. That's the first and that's the last.
So that's a major theme. Number 2 is,
there's a very specific story that's mentioned.
That is the people of the vicinity of
the area,
specifically
the people of a particular area. And that
area according to pretty much all the Mufassirim
was a place called Antakya in Arabic,
Antioch
in English, which is in southern Turkey right
now
towards the Syrian border,
Antioch.
And this is where this took place
after Isa
time. So this was before Islam.
But according to most Mufassiline,
this is after Isa
time.
So there's a story told about this area
and how they did not,
they did not believe.
Despite the fact that messengers were sent to
them.
And SubhanAllah, it's
a real,
it's a real
story of,
Iman
and success with Iman. So especially focused on
the success of the hereafter. So InshaAllah we'll
be looking at that.
And number 3, it
speaks about some of the proofs to establish
the oneness of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So
the first thing it speaks about, one of
the main themes is the resurrection.
Number 2 is a specific story. And number
3
is the proofs of the oneness of Allah
Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Because as I mentioned before, the Quran focuses
more on establishing the oneness of Allah
as opposed to establishing the existence of Allah.
Because even the kuffar of Makkah believed that
Allah existed. If you ask them who created
the world, they believed in Allah that he
creates it.
They will certainly respond by saying Allah.
But then they had these other
corrupted beliefs beyond that.
The surah begins just to have a quick
overview. The surah begins with a Qasam,
with an oath.
And in that we'll InshaAllah look at the
way Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala uses oaths in
the Quran.
In,
a very eloquent way. You'll see that.
So he takes an oath with the Quran.
Yaasin walquranil
Hakim
And the whole purpose of taking this oath,
you take an oath to prove something, to
establish something.
So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is taking an
oath by the Quran
to prove and establish
that Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wasalam is Allah's Messenger.
Muhammad salallahu alaihi wasalam is Allah's Messenger.
Now you might think to yourself, it's Ajib.
This Muhammad salallahu alaihi wasalam
who
is being established as the messenger sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam by Allah.
Allah is swearing by the Quran that this
messenger brought.
So
what kind of an evidence is that? So
InshaAllah we'll explain that because you're swearing by
something
which to establish
something.
And the thing you're swearing by is brought
by the one who's established, who you're trying
to establish in the first place. So what
kind of reasoning is that?
But that's where I'm saying. That's where the
eloquence
come in. It's so beautiful, which we'll explain
insha'Allah.
Then
it speaks about the kuffar of Quresh. You
see, Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam had come down
among these people And the prophet is now
being told
that in general, this is what you're going
to notice.
This is what you're going to see. You're
going to see that many of these people
will not believe, but some of them will
believe.
He's not necessarily told exactly, wallahu a'alam, exactly
who's believing and who's not. So he's going
to try his best and you'll see how
much the sacrifice, how how much were the
sacrifices that Rasulullah sallallahu a'alam went through to
try to get the faith to as many
people as possible. Then it brings the story.
So that's the first part. After the oath,
it's,
it's about talking about the Quraysh.
Giving a general understanding of their state.
Then it begins to speak about this area
of Antioch
and how they disbelieved in their messenger.
And what then happened and then lessons that
are drawn from there.
And then at the end of that,
one of the people of Antioch whose name
was Habib and Najjar.
Habib the,
what's a najar?
Carpenter.
So it speaks about him and how he
plays a role at the end of this.
And a lot of nasi and councils are
given through that.
Then after that Allah
begins to speak about
the proofs in this world of Allah
power and his oneness.
And
the way this he's created this world.
Speaks about the day and night.
Speaks about the darkness of the night. How
the how the
the sun comes through
and the moon,
the stars.
And
we'll we'll look at that insha'Allah in detail.
Then Allah
begins to speak about the hereafter,
the qiyama
and the states of people on the day
of judgment.
Which means when the trumpet will be blasted
and how people will resurrect from their graves
And then people go to paradise and hellfire.
And the difference that will be made, the
distinguish,
the the distinction that will be made between
the believers and the disbelievers.
And then
it will come back
at the end to discuss
resurrection and reward,
which was one of the main themes of
this surah.
Why is it called Yaseen?
Because
the surah begins with it.
And most of the surahs that begin with
these letters,
they are named normally with that.
Not all of them. Noon wal Qalam is
not named Noon, but Qaf is,
Yaseen
is. Another thing that's very important to understand
is that although people use the name Yaseen
for people,
hence making it a noun.
If you use something as
a name for someone it becomes a noun,
an ism in Arabic.
Noun.
And the prophet said that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala has
called me or addressed me with 7 names
in the Quran.
What are they?
Muhammad and Ahmad,
Right. There's a whole surah of Muhammad.
Maqana Muhammadun Aba Ahadin. Then there's Ahmed.
Right.
Badis Muhu Ahmed.
Talking about a prophet after Isa
who will, his name will be Ahmed.
You got Mudathir
and Musamil,
the cloaked one, the covered one. Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala addressed them, You Iyul Mudathir, You
Iyul Musamil. Another one is Abdullah.
Abdullah,
the servant of Allah.
And then you have
Yaseen and Taha.
So the prophet said
those are his names. So Yaseen and Taha
are the names of Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wasalam.
But
the
Mufasireen,
the tafsir is what we're doing. Tafsir
exegesis of the Quran, explanation of the Quran,
a commentary of the Quran.
And this tafsir that we're doing is going
to be based on classical works on tafsir.
Who have taken it from the Sahaba and
the Taabein and from the hadith of Rasulullah
So we're not going to be
providing tafsir from
our minds
as such. Because that's not the way you
deal with the Quran. The Quran is a
sacred text. So that's called Tafsir,
Qur'anic exegesis.
Mufasir
is the one who,
is known, is qualified to explain the Quran
based on these resources
and Mufasireen is a plural of that. So
the Mufasireen
they say
that when we use Yaseen
in the Quran, according to the majority,
we're not going to take that as a
noun.
It's very important we understand this.
So when Allah
said, Taha and Yaseen
according to the majority, he's not referring necessarily
to the prophet
with that.
You know, we have in the Quran, Aliflamim,
Aliflamim,
Ra'tasin,
Yaseen, Hamim
and Qaaf, noon. You've got many of these
letters.
So this is not a noun.
These are two letters.
When it's coming in the Quran, it says
2 letters. And the reason why you want
to maintain it like that is is because
once it becomes a noun then you know
what the meaning is.
And the
strongest opinion here is that nobody knows the
meaning of Yaseen.
Yes, it's a name of Rasulullah. But what
does it mean in the way it is
in the Quran? What does Taha mean? What
does Noon mean?
So the strongest opinion is that these are
muqatta'a.
These are just harruff muqatta'a.
Meaning separated
letters,
individual letters from the haruva tahajee.
The letters of the Arabic alphabet.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying,
Noon, Qaf,
Yaseen.
Tell me what it means.
Nobody knows.
Because remember the Quran is a miracle.
Just like
magic
and doing something extraordinary
that goes against the norms of things. During
Musa alaihis salam's time was kind of the
vogue.
Everybody, you know, they had magicians that there
was a big time for magicians.
That's why the miracles he was given was
appropriate for that.
Isa 's time, it was about medicine and
curing people. And thus Isa
miracles
were in accordance to that. He could cure
the leper, cure the blind, even raise the
dead.
So that was his miracle. In the time
of the prophet
the one thing that the Arabs stood out
for, which they call themselves Arabs for, was
that they could articulate themselves.
They could speak,
you know, they could move mountains through their
speech in a in a metaphorical sense because
they were very powerful in in the language
was very powerful.
Ajib that it was just such a uncivilized
people,
that the Romans and the Persians would look
down upon them as some violent beasts.
That is group of people you've got
centered in Arabia, in the Arabian Peninsula.
They're just fighting all the time.
And yet these people had such a beautiful
language,
that they they thought
and they call themselves Arab and the rest
Ajam.
So Persians and Romans with their language
were dumb people,
who could not articulate themselves.
Can you imagine how great that language must
be for that naming to be Arab and
Ajam?
You know that that just in itself shows
it because you can't be bold enough to
say something like this unless you've got something.
And thus the response, the the miracle of
the Quran
is
this powerful language which went
beyond
any of the best of the speakers of
that language,
the best of their wordsmiths
and
their composers,
their their poets.
So Yaseen, what does it mean? Nobody could
tell the meaning. On the day of judgment
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will bring it up
and that is a challenge. It's a Marjiza.
Marjiza means a challenge.
So that's why we will leave it as
letters,
Yeah and Seen. And that's why you can't
change the way it sounds as well. You
can't say, You Seen Un,
You Seen,
It's just You Seen, wakf,
with a pause at the end. That's it.
With an abrupt stop. That's the way it
has to be read.
Has to be read that way because they
just let us.
There are other opinions though.
Because
there's another verse in Surat Al Imran,
for that
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has revealed 2 types
of verses. 1 which are very firm and
clear and the others which are ambiguous.
And then it says,
as far as those
who have deviance in their heart,
They go and try to
interpret
and find a meaning for the verses which
are ambiguous,
which are not clear. They're intentionally left like
that.
Right. Allah is saying that within the same
book
that we've intentionally left some verses like that
for wisdom that we know.
But there are people with deviance in their
heart who try to go and try to
find the meaning of these verses.
What does he has seen mean and so
on.
Looking for mischief,
looking for its interpretation.
Now what Allah says,
Nobody
knows its meaning except Allah.
Right? So far so good.
Then it says,
Now there's 2 ways of reading this.
One way you could read it is,
nobody knows its meaning except Allah.
Those who are firmly grounded in knowledge, they
say
we believe in it.
That we're not going to follow and try
Sorry, we're not going to try to pursue
the meaning. We just say we believe in
it as it's come from Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
It's all from Allah
There's a wisdom in why it's left like
that.
But there's another way to read it, which
is a valid reading according to some Mufassreen
and Quranic scholars.
Nobody knows its meaning except Allah and those
who are firmly grounded in knowledge.
Makes sense.
It's not the majority understanding, but it makes
sense.
Hence, you have opinions about what it means.
Now let me tell you what these opinions
are.
Ibn Abbas actually
thought he knew the meaning.
Right. So Ibn Abbas Sadiq Khan claimed that
he knew the meaning and he it's related
from him. Yaseen means You Insan.
According to the lugha of the Tawhid tribe,
the tribe called Tawhid.
Right.
For them the word Yaseen meant, O Insan,
O person.
Hey, you know,
when you address somebody, Yaseen.
And it's also been said
that it's a name of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam. So there there's one opinion
that, oh, this is a name. Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is addressing the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam by name. And this is not
the huroof muqatta'at
because, and then they have something in support.
That
after swearing the oof Allah says, Innaqah,
verily you are
from those who have been sent as messengers.
So Yaseen is his name and then he's
being told you are the messenger. So that's
their support for that.
So these are the different opinions
and another
according to Abu Bakr al Warraq,
he As related by Imam Khour to be
from him, he says that it means,
You Sayyid Al Bashr,
O Master of Mankind,
O leader of mankind.
But as I mentioned, the safest approach in
this is what the majority follow, which is
that only Allah knows this meaning and these
are just letters of the alphabet. It's like
saying
CD,
Right. Not compact disc.
Why did I say CD? Right.
You know,
it's just every possible,
acronym here,
is probably, you know, refers to something and
I have to come up with something really
strange because when you say AB,
I mean, it's just can you imagine? It's
just like CA.
It's California.
It's Swahalla.
It's just Or Canada. Right?
If you come up with with that, who
knows what it means?
Right. Someone say, no, we're, this refers to
this, this refers to it. But Allah It's
just, it's literally,
you know, You
and Seen
and that's it.
And Allah knows best.
So, Yaseen
wal Quranal Hakim inaqalamin al Musaleen. So once
we've passed Yaseen, we're talking about, wal Quranal
Hakim inaqalamin al Musaleen.
Let
me translate the first portion so that it
puts us in the picture.
You seen by the Quran that is full
of wisdom.
You are truly one of the messengers of
Allah
and you are on a straight path.
That is Allah Sirati Mustaqim
Tanzilal Azizir Raheem.
This Quran being a revelation from the Almighty,
the Very Merciful.
And that means, so that you may warn
a people
whose fathers were not warned.
And hence they are unaware.
No prophets came to them because for many
generations about 600 years, no prophet came.
500 and something years, no prophet came from
after Isa alaihis salaam.
So generations
went past when no prophet came to them.
That's why he's saying, Litunthuraqoma
ma'unthuraaba'uhumfa'umfa'umfa'um
kafilun neither you, neither your forefathers
were warned.
Meaning the warning did not come to them.
So because of that, they're heedless.
They're heedless.
They are unaware.
And then,
in,
laqadhaqqalqooduwaalaaqtharihim,
The word has indeed come true about most
of them that they will never believe.
And then, Inna jalnafi a'anaqihim
aglalan fahhiil athkani fahum mukbahhun
Which means we have placed iron collars on
their necks. So they are reaching up to
their chins and their heads are forced to
remain upwards
because of the large collar. The face stays
upwards. They can't even look down properly.
Wajalalamin
Bayni Aidihim Suddhan,
Furthermore,
we have placed a barrier in front of
them
and a barrier behind them and thus they
are encircled by us,
is surrounded
so that they do not see.
And then,
It is all equal for them whether you
warn them or do not warn them, they
will not believe.
Which means
you can usually warn
only the one who follows the advice
and fears the
Rahman, the merciful one, without seeing him.
So give him the good news of forgiveness
and a noble
reward.
That's the first part.
It's
giving him an assessment.
When we say assessment,
it's an assessment
from a human perspective.
Allah knows anyway.
But Allah is only divulging to now look,
most of them are not going to believe.
He's telling him about the people of Makkah.
This is where you've been sent to. You
are definitely a messenger,
but this is what
their state is.
Firstly, wal Quranil Hakim.
What is Allah swearing by? He's swearing by
the Quran.
He calls it Quranal Majeed,
calls it different names. But here Quranal Hakim,
wal Quranal Hakim.
Hakim could mean 2 different things.
The word Hakim could mean 2 different things.
What do you think it can mean?
What are these two meanings?
Right.
One meaning you get is from Hikmah, which
is wisdom.
Another one is to make something mohakam.
Ekam
means to solidify and make something firm.
Right. So Quran Al Hakim. So we've got
both of these possibilities here.
So firstly,
hakeem refers to muhakam, firm,
unchangeable.
This, these words cannot be altered.
They're written so perfectly
with such perfect knowledge that they cannot be
changed. Wal Quranal Hakim
So this is
the
Quran
whose meaning is firm and absolute.
You will never find a discrepancy in there.
You will never find that
something prophesied in there is not going to
be, is not gonna happen, you know, you're
never going to find any kind of discrepancy
like that.
Also, Allama Qurtubi says, it's not just firm
in its meaning and the message, but it's
also firm in the way it's written.
So in its language it's also firm
and you'll not find a mistake in there.
It's just perfect.
That's what Imam Shafi'i,
he says when he was writing his book
the Kitab ul
he changed it so many times. He kept
editing it. He kept going through it and
revising it.
And eventually
he gave up. He said that the only
book that can be perfect is the book
of Allah.
We'll never be able to gain perfection.
And that's why in the publishing industry there's
a
statement,
a saying which goes,
when your book is 100% accurate
and 95%
completed,
then publish it.
Accuracy of information is very important.
But if you try to reach a 100%
level of,
you know, error free
perfect work, there is no, you know, that's
impossible. So as long as it's accurate
there's no errors in there, clear errors in
meaning, then publish it once it's 95% done.
And Muslims, Muslims should stand up to that.
Unfortunately, many of our books are, you know,
in the 50% done they, they put out
there.
And that that's a sad fact, especially many
of them coming out of India and Pakistan,
which they've done a great work for us
by really doing a lot of these books
and putting them out in cheap prices.
But standards needs need standards really need to,
really need to improve.
Right. Abu Sirud, another Mufasir, he says, no
the Hakim here, Quran Al Hakim refers
to hikma.
A book that speaks about wisdom, full of
wisdoms.
And
also
the way it's written and everything just speaks
of complete wisdom that the one who wrote
this was very wise.
So in summary,
the Quran, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is swearing
an oath by the Quran. What do you
normally swear oaths with? If you want to
swear by something, what do you swear by?
You swear by something that
has a place
in the eyes of people,
that people respect and honor.
The thing is that here he's trying to
establish this for the disbelievers.
They don't believe in the Quran,
do they?
They don't believe in the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
And the reason why the oath is sworn,
wallahi, I did not do this.
By Allah,
I did not go there. You know, that's
a state an oath statement.
Here
by the Quran,
which is firm and full of wisdom,
you are certainly the messenger.
The Quran and the messenger related.
You established the the messenger. The Quran came
through the messenger sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
But what this shows
is that if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala can
use the Quran, though they did not believe
it,
deep down in their hearts they would agree
with it. Number 1. Number 2, it's a
bold way of doing this.
I'll swear by the Quran because it's something
that you should believe in.
So in that way, it's even more eloquent.
It's even more effective that I'm swearing by
something that I'm proving to you.
That is something you should believe in,
and I've got everything to back back my
claim with.
Did you understand what I'm what I've just
said?
You normally swear by something that the other
people also agree with to prove something to
them.
But he, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, is swearing
by the Quran, which the others do not
disagree, which the others disagree with.
But then
the whole way it's done is to show
that I'm using the Quran which you reject,
but you should be believing because it's mighty
enough for me to swear an oath from,
swear an oath by.
That creates an impact in their mind itself
because it's everything. It's not just the oath.
It's everything that then they're going to mention,
which eventually will put their, you know, will,
will,
come into their hearts.
In Nakala Min al Musaleen.
Because the whole idea of the Quran is
that it's the language,
the meaning,
the beauty,
the phonetics,
the sound and everything
which they could appreciate even though
we we believe in. But we can't really
appreciate unless you know the language properly.
But they could appreciate. They would love to
listen to the Quran, though they hated what
it said.
They would be mesmerized.
They'd be silenced. Their face will change. It
will have an effect on them, but then
not long enough because they would go and
then
they'll be told, Sabot,
you you've left your deen. What's going on?
How come your face has changed?
So then
they'll force themselves intellectually,
intellectually force themselves to,
to shed off that effect
and to go and start believing in whatever
they continue believing in whatever they believed in
before. But it's,
it's touched their heart.
So
which
means verily you are the messenger or from
the messengers.
Mursal. Mursal means somebody who sent.
You're those who have been sent from Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. That is what the oath
has been taken to prove that he's the
messenger. That's how this surah starts.
To establish that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam is the messenger of Allah sallallahu Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
You see the Quraysh had said, ibn Abbas
radiAllahu relates to the Quraysh had said,
probably on numerous occasions,
As Allah says in the Quran,
You're not a messenger.
As though they knew what a messenger looked
like,
right. Lest the mursalah.
Allah did not send you to us.
So Allah
is swearing by an oath.
Is swearing an oath
to prove this point that Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam is from the messengers.
And not just that you're a messenger
because
some of them might think he's a messenger
but he's not on the right way, he's
not for us.
Because there were probably some among them who
half kind of believed that okay, maybe Allah
did send a messenger. Remember the response the
3 people gave, the 3 leaders of Taif
gave, when the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
went to give dawu to them.
Some really weird answers.
One is that look, if you are a
messenger, then look just go from here because
if you are a messenger and I don't
then believe you, then I'll be punished. So
I just don't even want to listen to
you.
And if you are
not a messenger, then I want to speak
to a liar.
These were the kind of responses that they
weren't sure they could not
say for sure. These were not total disbelievers
in Allah. They had some belief in Allah,
but it was corrupted belief with all of
the idol worship.
So Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala is proving,
Alasirati
Mustaqeem
That
you are on the straight path as well.
So not only are you a messenger but
you're also on the straight path.
And then
after speaking about the messenger sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam,
goes back to talking about the Quran because
that was going to be the main thing
that he was going to use
to convince them. That was the message.
Tanzil means
a revelation,
something revealed, something sent down
from
the Aziz and the Raheem.
Now you know Allah
says, Aziz and
Raheem,
Alakulishain
Qadeer.
He says, Raheem wadud,
He uses all of these verses. You know
what some of these orientalists say?
They say that these are just these extra
flourishes
which are used just haphazardly, you know. Okay.
Put this one here. Put this one here.
Put this one here. These are just to
beautify it.
Where if you look at every every eye
of the Quran,
where
what has been used, what
attribute has been used,
you'll notice that it's totally
appropriate and perfect for that.
I'll give you an example later
about a Bedouin
who somebody
read
wrong,
read the wrong one. The wrong, instead of
reading Aziz and Hakim, he must have read
something else.
That doesn't sound right.
Anyway, went back and checked and he had
read the wrong one because there's no way.
And here it's speaking about, Tanzilul
Aziz I Rahim.
Aziz the mighty one from Azza,
to be mighty and majestic,
powerful.
Right.
And Raheem means the merciful one.
So this has been revealed. This is a
revelation
from the Aziz and the Raheem. From the
mighty one and the merciful one.
The mercy one,
merciful one who's mighty.
The mighty one who's merciful.
To show that's
what Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala wanted to portray
himself as at that point to them.
So Al assirati Mustaqim means a way that
is straight. That doesn't have any crookedness in
it. If you follow it, it will lead
you to eternal success.
It doesn't have any crookedness in it. And
then revelation
from
the mighty and majestic one and the merciful
one.
Meaning this Quran
is number 1,
the illuminating guide.
It's the illuminating
guide that has been revealed from the Lord
of might
and the Lord of mercy.
He's mighty
because
he is the sovereign of the universe.
That's how he's mighty.
The whole universe belongs to Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala. That's why he's the Aziz.
How is Ibrahim then?
He could have created this universe
of
of inanimate bodies,
of just objects, silent dumb objects
if he wanted.
But he created a human being in there.
He created the insan and the jinn,
and he created all of these things for
the disposal, to the disposal of man. And
he said to man, look, I want to
send you to paradise
Because that's where I want, I want, I
want to
manifest
the attribute of my
mercy.
I want to send you to paradise. So
do good. Stay away from bad. Don't be
mischievous
and we'll send you to paradise.
So if he hadn't done that, we would
never have this possibility of entering paradise.
He is merciful on his creation that he
created them. He sustained them, brings them up
from stage to stage, does their tarbia,
rears them, brings them up, sustains them,
and then sends them to paradise if they've
done well. Otherwise punishes them because he's worn
them.
That's He's merciful
and he's mighty and majestic because it's all
within his sovereignty as well.
This is to show the people of the
Makkah when they hear this that, oh, he's
mighty. Everything is to remind them because they
believed Allah created everything. He must be mighty,
but he's mighty and normally you understand from
might tyranny,
anger, violence.
He's not like that. He's the merciful one.
So he'll forgive.
He will forgive.
And you don't have power these days. You
still won't forgive.
You think that people are gonna forgive.
I mean that that's a, that's a, I
mean You think people are gonna forgive Husni
Mubarak?
You'll have to have a very big heart
to do that.
Right.
And then
so many others.
Right. Litunthiraqawmamma
unthiraaba'uhum.
Allah is giving the reason and, SubhanAllah, this
is a big lesson for us.
You stay away from the masjid.
You stay away from reading the Quran.
You stay away from reading anything that gives
us exhortation,
gives us some naseeha.
You will become ghafi.
That's the nature of the world.
The whole purpose of this repetition of the
Quran in salat and our 5 times daily
salat.
Reading the Quran and
everything else and the whole concept of wadhan
nasihah,
counseling and exhortation,
khutba and so on,
is so that we can balance
the effects of the dunya.
Cause look at what the prophet salallahu alayhi
wa sallam
is saying, who's the knower of everything. He
says,
this is the Quran which is revealed from
the almighty and the very merciful one. So
that you may warn a people whose fathers
were not warned
And thus
they became unaware, heedless and negligent.
Their fathers weren't warned, these people were born
in that kind of an environment.
So now some of them are too far
gone.
But there's others that you will be able
to convince.
So we don't want to just look at
this in a historical sense that this is
what the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, this is
what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said to the
people of Makkah.
It gives us a lesson and
you you will agree with me. I've got
I have a brother who was a shafi,
meaning I know a friend who was a
shafi.
And
he tells me one day that, you know
because the Hanafis cannot do jama' bayna salat
in. This is not to diminish any madhab.
This is just a point.
He's just saying giving a personal opinion. Because
even within the shafi'i is, it's superior to
pray salat within its own time.
It's not superior to join them. It's permissible
to join them, if you're traveling.
Within a shafi'i school, it's permissible to join
the salat. Dhuhr and Asr together or Maghrib
and Isha together.
But it's superior even according to them to
read them in their own time because that's
the Asr that is the default state. So
this brother tells me that, you know, I
like what the Hanafis do because I've noticed
that when I'm traveling and I've had to
join my prayers, it has a spiritual impact
on
me. SubhanAllah. I mean, so it's such a
sensitive
From a spiritual perspective we're so sensitive and
subhanAllah if Allah could make us all that
sensitive.
Because you know we can miss fajrs
and not feel any loss. In fact be
happy, subhanAllah, that we've had an extra hour
of sleep and our sleep wasn't disturbed.
Because you know, we have to get up
for fajr especially if it's wind, summertime
and you split your, you know, your night
in half and you've set up late to
start with because you know, you've been wasting
time at night.
And then we get up in the morning
and you know, even the pious among us
so called,
we've missed the salat
by accident.
Too tired, couldn't hear the alarm clock and
somehow you have half feel elated that I
got a good sleep though.
The nadamah that should be felt.
We don't feel that nadamah, we're not sensitive
at all when it's spiritually. We're dead.
That's a sad fact. Wallahi we should weep
about that.
That is a sad fact.
When they say that you should probably if
you had missed the flight and now you're
gonna have to pay £400
to get a new ticket.
How bad would you feel? Only in the
hereafter we'll know that how much we'd have
to pay for that salah to be missed.
Here we have to pay £400, we've missed
an appointment, we've missed. It's just all, you
know, it's just all upside down now.
There we feel it but subhanAllah.
May Allah give us real understanding of this.
So for us when we look at this
verse it's,
It shows us as a direct result of
the fact that they had not been told.
He's not considering their forefathers to be blameworthy.
He's just setting a scene for these people
because now they have a message.
This is not an absolute statement as well
because
obviously
it's not known who of them were so
far gone and who are not.
So that the prophetess who would not listen
to the prophetess salallahu alayhi wasalam.
And what does inhar mean? What does so
that you can warn them. What does it
mean?
Inhar.
There's 2 things. 1 is inhar, which means
to warn.
Warn them of the punishment.
Warn them of the hellfire.
Warn them of the wrath of Allah.
You know, you've got people today.
I remember I was giving a talk in
Canary Wharf,
primarily a probably a business kind of oriented
corporate kind of audience.
But there's a non Muslim guy who comes
around
and,
attends,
talks in different places. And he's got one
mission which I found out later.
So after the talk and everything,
his whole point and this is probably to
influence the others sitting there. He says, your
Quran has all of these beautiful verses about
mercy and rahma
and love and everything.
Why is it that you even quote the
other things?
To kind of isolate the other verses. Just
speak about the merciful aspects. Our deen is
between the 2. The ulama mentioned that the
deen of a believer is like a bird
with 2 wings. One wing is that of
hope.
One wing is of
fear.
If you have too much hope and that
wing is big and the other one has
been clipped, that bird will not be able
to fly smoothly.
That's the way our deen is.
And here the prophet is saying that this
punish, this warning of punishment really helps.
It should not be all pa all warning,
warning, warning. Clearly there has to be some
hope
which is very important. Otherwise a person becomes
despond, depressed.
But here, Fahum Ghafilun,
so because of that
they have absolutely no idea. They are heedless
of guidance of iman.
They're just running around,
stumbling around in their darkness of shirk and,
idol worship to such an extent that the
majority of them are worshiping idols. Even though
you've got some very sensible people among them.
Even though you've got people among them who
are decent,
who who are very good akhlaq characters,
generosity, helping
others, but because of their heedlessness nobody has
worn them. And that's why you've got this,
you've
got this state that they they are just
stumbling around in their kufr.
It's
led to the fact that they've all believed
in idols.
Now think about it.
Imagine if in this country, just like in
Brazil,
just like even next door to us in
France
and Chile and Argentina and all of these
countries where people have been and they've said
that the generation, 75% to 80% of the
generation is gone.
Of the Muslims that came from countries like
Syria,
Palestine
and all of these countries. I've seen people
like that myself.
In Indiana there was a group of Syrians
that had come over a 100 years ago
and they,
2 members of that family were still Muslim,
not anybody else.
And I knew the 2.
1 was an older, older auntie, an old
woman and the other one was a nephew
whose name was Ali.
They were the only 2 Muslims in that
entire,
entire family.
Because when they came there was no masjid,
there was no iindar,
there was no warning, there was no fear,
there was nothing.
It is so far you should, you should
feel yourself, we should feel ourselves extremely fortunate
that there is something going on. And somebody's
warning us, somebody's revealing, reading these verses of
the Quran, these ahadith to
us. You take it for granted
because you've seen it all your life and
you haven't seen anything beyond that. And some
of us, you know, some of us never
attend
because we feel it's there when we need
it. It gets to us somehow, somebody talks
about it to us.
But the power of this is the barakah,
the power. It's a word of Allah at
the end of the day. It's the word
of Allah at the end of the day.
We must thank Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that
we have it so good and may Allah
maintain it and increase it.
Because if we don't make that dua and
we don't do shukr, we take it for
granted.
And you think, you know, you think that
it's all it's all good.
Some of the I'm sorry, the first publishing
house,
the 2 first publishing,
printing printing companies of the Muslims
were
1 was in Russia,
in Kazan, in Tataristan,
which is a capital of Tataristan today, part
of Russia,
right.
And the scholars in the area,
huge amount of scholars,
our scholarship
comes from that area.
But in the last 100 years,
you couldn't say Allah there
until of recent.
And would you think 200 years ago, 300
years ago, anybody there would think
that it would be any different?
Another one is Spain,
Southern Spain Andalusia.
Again you got some big names from there.
Allama Kurtubi, who we're going to be quoting.
A tafsir in you know 20 volumes.
Ibn Khaldun,
Ibn al-'arabi,
Ibn Rushd.
These are big, big names.
You think they would have ever thought that
one day on this land
there will come a time when there's no
Nobody to say Allah.
I remember the first time I went to
I believe we've been there once, to Spain
when we first got there. We drove 9
hours from Portugal,
and we got there. And we stopped somewhere.
It was the first time we stopped,
and I just couldn't help it. I had
to give adhan outside. It was like this
side, we just kind of stopped somewhere inside
and said, SubhanAllah, no. If Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala's name has been taken here before, let's
do it. Alhamdulillah, now there's Muslims and so
on there.
But do not take it for granted. Doesn't
matter how established you are. It doesn't matter
what palaces you've built.
And when you go into that masjid in
Qurtuba.
When you go in that masjid in Qurtuba,
you're not allowed to put a hat on.
Initially they used to let you. They used
to explain to you that you can't, so
you should take it off.
Now they they walk around with you. You're
not allowed to pray in there
because it's now a cathedral.
It's a cathedral now.
And you've got these big, big statues and
altar and everything right in the middle. It's
Allahu Akbar You. I don't know how you
you know, I don't know how to explain
the feeling.
That's the Masjid in Kirtuba.
I don't know if any of you have
been,
but it is seriously a sight.
And still on the walls, La Ghali ba
illallah,
there are all these inscriptions. Even in hamdulillah
that the the Alhambra Palace, the Qasul Hamra,
that's still around
and has all of these titles, but do
not take it for granted. Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala doesn't need any of us.
It doesn't matter what you've built.
It's all about iman at the end of
the day.
So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is now explaining
the nature of these people
to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
and he's saying
that
they they have, they're heedless because even their
fathers were not,
were not warned.
So,
That means
that the adab of Allah,
the decree has been given.
The decree has been made
that on the majority of them
that they will not believe.
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala knows that.
He's not necessarily telling him who exactly, Allah
knows best if he knew or not exactly
who.
But Allah is saying,
The word of Allah,
the decree of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala is
has been issued
on their majority,
aqtharihim.
Fahumla yukminun, so they will not believe.
Why?
Because of their persistence
in sin,
persistence on kufr. It's been for so long
they can't change now. This tells us another
thing,
the longer we stay on the wrong path
the more difficult it becomes to change.
The longer you smoke the more difficult it
will become to it'll be to get rid
of it. If you use a simple example,
the longer we are habituated to something, if
you take an example of a tree,
that when you have a tree
you can uproot it a lot easier in
its 2nd year as opposed to its 5th
year. Because the roots will get deeper and
deeper and it will become more entrenched and
anchored in the ground. Then try to uproot
it, you have to do a lot more.
So what this is telling us here
is that
the reason
is because they've been on Kufr for too
long
and on rejection.
It's become, like, so normal for them.
You take a blackboard of the olden times
and an old blackboard that there's marks on
there which, you know, you can hardly get
rid of.
So the older a person is, you're not
gonna change them. That's why where do these
new ideologies and new movements go? They go
to universities,
to the younger crowd.
They're still malleable. They're still changeable.
They're the people who
lead revolutions.
The young Turks
and the young this and the young that.
And then furthermore,
this doesn't mean that the prophet can't tell
them that, oh, you just have to give
up.
Because they are still responsible.
But the reason why they're not going to
believe is not because Allah said, now you
cannot believe. Meaning Allah never would allow them
to believe. It's just the fact that they
did, they stayed on this kufr for so
long, changed the deen and everything. And now
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has made it that
you see because there are certain actions that
humans do that
make the heart, their heart sealed.
There are certain actions that if we do
them, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala detests them so
much that, taba Allahu'alaqurubim.
He puts a cover on their hearts.
So then it becomes a lot more difficult
to get out of it.
These are some serious actions Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala protect us from.
That we have put on their necks.
These,
as he translates here, we have placed iron
collars on their necks. So they are reaching
up to their chins.
You,
you, you shackle somebody.
Right.
You put iron bracelets on them.
And normally they're tied to the iron collar
around their neck.
So this is to show that their hands
are all tied together at their necks
and it's very big.
So
the face has to always be put high
up.
So it's a very uncomfortable position.
Now, is this saying that we have physically
done this to them
or is it metaphorical?
There are many possibilities here. Because one is
that this will be their state in the
hellfire.
That's a reality,
right? In the hellfire though. That this is
the way their state is going to be.
Another one is that it's metaphorical.
That
this is their state when it comes to,
when you've got a prisoner like this,
he can't move.
I think somebody tied like that, what's he
gonna do to get out of it? How
are you gonna use your feet to do
anything except run away? But if you're tied
like that, faces up, you can't even see
properly.
Right. So this is, when you got somebody
like that, so think of someone in that
kind of a state
in terms of their shirk.
They can't move anywhere out of their shirk.
They've bound themselves so much in their shirk
that they cannot get out of this state.
They're stuck in this state of shirk.
Just like somebody who's stuck and imprisoned this
way, that they cannot escape or move.
So
their held is held, their
head is high. They will never succumb to
the truth of iman. They cannot bow down.
Another meaning of this is that just like
when you got somebody totally,
tied up in this way.
Then
their shakaawah,
means their wretchedness,
being totally,
prevented from the mercy of Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala, is in that similar state.
That they're totally stuck, they will not get
the mercy of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. And
then beyond that we've put in front of
them and behind them another barrier.
Saddhan means a barrier.
A dam is called a sad because
it's a big barrier.
This is just a,
this is just to complete their
totally being entrenched in this kufr and not
being able to change.
That one is this is their state. The
number 1, they've got a wall before them
and wall behind them. So they're not going
to be able to change.
For Al Shaynahum,
for whom la yubseroon.
And that means
they are encircled. They're totally,
they're totally
encircled
by us.
For whom
they cannot even see.
As I said, we don't want to read
this
and
that it's about somebody else.
But I think to finish on this point,
that if that is their state because of
their kufr,
clearly our sins
and anything we do
is going to lead us to this kind
of a state in a proportionate way.
But may Allah protect us and forgive us.
May Allah forgive us. As long as we
keep the iman in our hearts, we're gonna
look at the We're looking at it from
a very,
fear,
a perspective of fear. But let's look at
it from hope,
that Allah
knows our weakness.
He already told the prophet
that you people
of your generation,
the prophet
said, that if you were to just miss
1 tenth of what you had been commanded
to do, then you're destroyed.
These are for the Sahaba. Because everything was
just so evident. There was wahi coming down.
There's no way that they could have gone
against that.
So if you miss it,
all the factors were increasing your imaan were
there.
But then he said that there will come
a time, and this is eventually, that if
you just do 1 tenth of what you
have been commanded, you'd be successful.
So clearly there is that, that's
a hadith of hope.
We're not there yet with 10%. So don't
don't just do don't do 10%. I don't
think we're there at all.
I think we could do a lot more.
You know, at least the outward form of
worship we can do.
You know, to make sure that we've got
the sincerity and focus and everything. That's where
it becomes a bit difficult.
But I think we're still about 70%. I
think I don't know what you guys would
put it at.
But other thing is definitely not 10%. I
don't think we can get away with 10%.
Right. There's still a lot more, a lot
more to come and may Allah,
not let us see that. May Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala protect us and our progeny.
So inshallah, we'll we'll, we'll carry on from
here. We'll move into inshallah the story. But,
may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give us steadfastness.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to
open up our hearts to understand
the warnings when we hear them, the exhortations
when we hear them. And may Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala keep us
among
in an environment where this takes place.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reward our our,
Mufasiddeen
and our scholars who've
allowed this deen to come down to us
because
now we we've noticed,
we've seen how it is when somebody doesn't
have exhortation.
Allah give us the value of them and
of such people
who've
preached to us and who've conveyed this message
to us starting from Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Allahummafilna
Allahummafilna
the point of a 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
Essential Certificate, which you take 20 short modules.
And at the end of that Insha'Allah, you
will have gotten the 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 leave, you know, to listen to
lectures. But you need to have this more
sustained study as well.