Abu Bakr Zoud – Tafseer Surat Al-Mulk – The Kingdom – ayaat 1-4 – Part 2
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Allah
Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala All praise and thanks belongs to
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, and may the peace
and blessing of Allah be upon his servant
and final messenger, Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
As to what follows, my dear respected brothers
and sisters in Islam,
In our last lecture we covered
a brief introduction on Surat Al Mulku.
Tonight, we will begin with the first ayah.
Allah
He says,
A rough translation
for this ayah would be,
most blessed
is the one
only is in his hand is the kingdom,
and he is capable over all things.
So, it begins with a very beautiful and
powerful start,
the word
Tabarakah. Tabarakah, it comes from Baraka.
And Baraka in the Arabic language,
they say
Baraka is the abundant
everlasting goodness
also known in the English language as blessing.
We're going to look into this word just
for you to be aware from the very
beginning.
You see that alif there in Ba raka?
That,
it's
a it's a hyperbolized
form.
In other words, instead of saying blessed, we're
going to say most blessed,
extremely
blessed.
So everything we're going to discuss now about
Al Barakah, you need to amplify it in
your mind. It's greater than what you can
imagine and greater than what we can comprehend
and greater than what I can explain.
Extremely blessed!
Now let's break it down,
Basically
baraka
is 2 things,
number 1, a ziada,
when we say baraka it means ziada that
means increase,
an excess in goodness,
for something to give beyond that which is
expected. For example, Nabi
once
was given a bowl to drink from.
70 companions
drank from it.
Then Abu Horeyya
drank from it, then
Nabi drank from it.
How can a bow
feed 70 people to their full?
The bowl gave more than what was expected.
That is When
something gives a lot more than what you
expect,
there was in that thing.
So is a secret,
but Allah
places in something little,
and it grows
without our knowledge
and without
knowing how it's growing,
that's a secret in the Allah
And He himself
is
meaning he is beyond
what you expect of him.
He's beyond what you can expect
and what you can imagine of Allah
Allah is greater
than what you assume or imagine.
Allah,
when you're trying to think of His mercy,
his kindness, his forgiveness, it's beyond what your
mind is expecting
and what you can imagine.
That's as a part of an attribute of
Allah
And so when we put our hope and
trust in Allah,
it should be a lot more than how
we put hope and trust in mankind.
It should be very high, especially nowadays.
Nowadays there are many people
that have given hope, given up hope in
Allah
given up hope questioning Allah's ability, questioning Allah's
mercy and His presence,
yet the believer, the word
keeps him steadfast in this moment of calamity,
that you're supposed to continue to have hope
in Allah and trust in Allah
because it's going to be be it's beyond
what you can imagine, beyond what you can
expect in your own mind.
And that's why
is from the attributes of Allah
It's an attribute of his, as an imam
ibn al Qayyim
said, And this is why it's forbidden
for someone to name his daughter
that is forbidden, that is an attribute only
for Allah
Some of us, out of ignorance,
we ascribe Baraka to other than Allah, So
some people they say to one another, you're
the Baraka,
the Baraka has entered our house, the Baraka
has left our house,
People say it ignorantly,
and that is forbidden. Sometimes people shake each
other's hand and they start wiping themselves, even
jokingly,
that is forbidden,
because we don't seek Al Baraka from anyone
except Allah
This is for Allah and only Allah
We may say
that
perhaps we ask Allah
that He make you a blessed person, you
can do that. We can say like Allah
said about Isa
So this person is a blessed man, no
problem.
But to say the blessing came, the blessing
went
and then to touch a person believing he's
a blessing of some sort
that would be
we're learning all this with the word
So number 1,
means
to increase
goodness that comes from something beyond what you
and I can expect and imagine.
The second meaning of
and they're beautifully intertwined with each other, we'll
do that, but let's see the second one,
it means
for something to last long, to be permanent
and everlasting.
So for example,
when a camel sits down,
the arabs would say
The camel has sat down. And if the
camel sits down it will not be moving
for a long time it sits
fixed and stable in that position.
Also,
in the Arabic language, we know that a
pond of water
it's called a Birka,
that's a pond, why was it called as
such? Because the water remains in the pond
for a very long time, it's fixed, it's
stable, and it's everlasting
for until
Allah allows, but it's fixed and it's permanent.
So Barakah now is not only something that
increases,
it's also something that is permanent and it's
stable, it's fixed, it's everlasting.
And why is this beautiful?
Because
when something increases,
naturally it becomes unstable.
If I had cubes and I put them
on top of one another,
after 20 cubes, what happens? It starts shaking
left and right, it becomes very unstable.
When you open a business, when your business
was very small, it was managed, it was
controlled as well. When the business grew into
other cities, other states and more employees,
more headaches, a lot more instability,
a lot more problems, and so on. Naturally,
when something grows it becomes unstable.
So
when something is growing
and it's stable,
that means that thing
has barakah in it, there is goodness in
it from every perspective.
He
puts barakah in a seed
and you plant the seed and it grows,
it grows, it grows into a tree and
it continues to give fruit, and it continues,
and it's just consistent for ease and ease
and ease. So it grew, it increased,
and it was very stable until Allah
decides otherwise.
Allah
put barakah in the sun and it gives
light, warmth, and energy,
and it continues to do so,
and it's stable, it's always doing the same
thing. The sun,
Allah put in it. It's stable despite
the huge light it emits. It's stable.
Even the message of an Nabi
is full of barakah.
Look at the message of Rasulullah
and his dua. It grew and grew. It
grew around the world.
It reached where we are right now. Where
did it start? It started in Mecca. Look
where it reached. Look at the barakah. The
followers
of increased and it is also fixed and
it's stable. The Quran that we read today
is the same as the Quran that Nabi
read a 1,400
years ago.
So the matter, the things that increase and
remain stable as it is,
this is what Al Baraka is.
And
the names of Allah
are full of Baraka. Allah
He says,
The name of your Lord is full of
Barakah.
If only his name is full of Barakah,
then that means
He himself is the source of all barakah.
That's why in our salat,
when we stand and we pray, we
say or we say
We remember this name, this attribute of Allah.
Most blessed
is the name of your Lord.
SubhanAllah, as we stand there
praying every single day
we are being reminded of this attribute of
Allah
when
Nari
said,
Baraka, it comes from Allah,
so therefore He's the source of that barakah.
You mentioned the name of Allah, you say
Bismillah, you mentioned the name of Allah on
food and barakah becomes present in that food.
When you mention it upon something small, it
multiplies and it increases.
When you mention his name during fee,
then that fee is converted into peace and
tranquility.
Asmaat bintu Omays
taught her to say words when she is
distressed.
He said to her, Say,
Allah You see how there was Allah in
that zikr?
And that immediately
would bring peace and tranquility to her heart,
despite
still being in that distressful situation.
The name of Allah is full of Barakah.
So when we read the first word of
this blessed Surah
it motivates us and inspires us to ask
Allah for that's
how we connect with this word.
The word
encourages you and I to always turn to
Allah
and see goodness from him. It encourages from
us the worship of You see, we all
have wealth, we all have health,
and we have time, but
for vast majority of mankind,
these things they have, it's missing
It's missing.
So perhaps his wealth increases but it's not
stable.
Perhaps his wealth is not increasing.
Perhaps whatever it is he has is not
increasing, it's not stable.
It's missing.
So therefore, a person is
encouraged just by reading
He reflects over this attribute of Allah. He
knows that it is Allah
who distributes
the way He wants. So from the very
beginning you stop and you ask Allah for
in your life, that's why Nabi
would always ask Allah
You find in a hadith,
When Nabi
would say,
Right? And the mother of, Anas
she came to Nabi
she said,
my son Anas served you, he served Nabi
for 10 years, and then she said, Can
you make a dua for him? So he
made a dua, he said,
in another narration.
Grant him
everything that you have given him. So make
this dua for your children. Very important when
you read,
you reflect over this madam,
encourages you to make a dua for yourself,
for your family, your relatives
Rough translation,
most and extremely blessed is the one who
in His hand is all kingdom.
Means kingdom,
but
includes everything
associated with greatness.
So includes
glory,
power, authority,
respect,
might,
dignity,
legislation,
to do whatever he wants,
greatness and being the supreme, the mighty.
All of these meanings are included in the
word.
He
said
Now this is an abnormal
sentence structure.
Normally normally, in Arabic, in the rules that
we know in Arabic,
and the Arabs, when they're hearing in Nabi
salallahu alaihi wa sallam reciting the Quran,
they are expecting
That's the normal sentence structure.
But something abnormal has happened here.
You see the word
comes before
that's abnormal.
When this happens, it shocks the listener,
especially when the Arabs are fluent and eloquent
in the Arabic language it shocks them.
So it grabs their attention. Now their attention
is being paid.
And when the word or
the word
comes before
it creates something in the Arabic language. There
is an implication here, an added meaning.
It creates exclusivity.
In other words,
means the kingdom is in his hand.
But when I say, like what Allah has
said in the
Now when we translate we need to add
a word. We add the word and we
say,
extremely blessed is He,
the one in who the kingdom is only
in his hand.
Creates exclusivity,
meaning all kingdom is in his hand only
and no one else.
If it was
it would mean kingdom is in his hand,
and someone else shares it with him as
well. Like, let's say in the Arabic language,
if I was to say to you,
that means I ate the apple,
but that doesn't mean I didn't eat anything
afterwards.
If I say I ate the apple, could
also mean I ate something else but I'm
just telling you I ate the apple.
But if I flip that around and I
said
if I
said it's only the apple that I ate,
what does that mean? It means that's the
only thing I ate from the fruit bowl
and nothing else.
So when Allah
is saying
In other words, he's
saying, the one who in his hand alone
is the kingdom and the the dominion of
all things.
You see brothers and sisters in Islam,
everything we own today is temporary ownership.
You know, before we sleep, we're reading Surat
and Mulk, we're reminding ourselves that it's in
His hand. We really don't own anything.
You know, today
our ownership of things is temporary,
never permanent.
When you buy a car,
there's a purchase date in which you purchased
it, and that's when you started owning it.
When you sell it or you dispose of
it,
your ownership of that car has ended,
right?
And also,
when you purchase something, when you own something,
you don't have complete control over it and
you're not allowed to do whatever you want
with it. Let's say you buy a car,
you can't just go down the road and
go 200 kilometers an hour. You're not allowed.
There's consequences for this. So whatever we own
is always
temporary.
We own it, it has a start date
and end date, and at the same time
we cannot control it the way we'd like.
Like in Allah
His ownership is permanent,
permanent. So He
owns everything from the time it existed until
whenever He wishes to destroy it.
He owns it all
And notice, why didn't
Allah here say
He admitted His name.
He said, Number 1,
because it's clear that it can only be
Allah
who has ownership over all things.
So most blessed is He,
the one
who in His hand alone
is the kingdom of all things.
Now brothers and sisters in islam, I want
you to pay close attention to the word
hands.
What's the implication of this word? You know,
the hand
the hand is what manages affairs.
I give with my hand and I take
with my hand.
Even when Allah
spoke about distributing kingdom among His creation, He
said,
Allah gives kingdom to whoever he wishes,
and He takes it, He snatches it away
from whoever He wishes.
And this word
it teaches you what attitude we're supposed to
have concerning our relationship with Allah
The kingdom is in His hand.
Everything
you own in life is a part of
Allah's kingdom, it's in His hand. Let me
tell you what this means now. If I
was to say to you, Brother,
you came to me, you gave me half
your wealth so I can invest it for
you.
So what do I do now if you
ever played up with me? I'll say brother,
your money is in my hand.
What does that mean? It means be careful.
Your money is in my hand.
Anything, any wrong move, I'll destroy it for
you. When you say to someone, your paperwork
is in my hand,
that means you've established authority over him,
and I'll be able to do what I
want with you. So you better give me
that respect that I'm demanding from you. Now
to Allah,
belongs the highest of examples.
But when he
he says,
Everything
we own in life is in the hands
of Allah because if it's part of his
mulk, it's part of his kingdom,
your wealth,
your marriage,
your health,
your guidance,
your home, your business, your relationships
all of that is in the hands of
Allah
So, you better be careful in how you
deal with Allah
because everything you own in life,
it's in His hand, in His control.
And what that also teaches us is that
if you need any fix anything fixed,
if you need anything rectified,
turn to Him and ask Him
You say, O Allah,
My guidance is in Your hand.
Guide me to that which is best in
this life and in the afterlife.
He say, O Allah, my health is in
Your hand. Oh Allah, my marriage, my relationships
are in your hand.
Rectify them for me.
Give me peace and calm within these relationships,
whatever it may be.
So this is what biyadi al muik is
enforcing upon us.
To first and foremost recognize
that you and I own nothing in this
worldly life.
All our affairs are in His hand,
so we acknowledge His authority
and dominance over all of us,
and then we always turn to him
to rectify
our situation
and our affairs.
And that also puts the sleeve
in a position where he remains humble to
Allah.
Don't upset him,
don't displease Allah, don't go against His commands.
Remember,
everything
you have in life is in his hand.
Just like why would you think of this
in a worldly situation?
You know someone has your wealth, you'll say
I'll behave with him. I'll always make sure
I'm polite to him because
if he decides
to go away with my wealth, I'm destroyed,
I'm ruined.
Greater than that.
Don't you ever worry that if you were
to be arrogant
and you rebelled and transgressed against Allah and
His Commandments,
that He has all your affairs in His
hand and that He may destroy you whenever
He wants? And He did that
to previous nations. Where are they now?
The people of of 'Ad, the people of
Thamud
that used to walk arrogantly on earth and
say that we own and belong, everything belongs
to us, where are they now? They were
all ruined and destroyed. And
destroyed them and showed them who the real
Malik and who the real king was.
And he is capable all over each and
every single thing.
Once again,
the normal structure would be
but once again, we realize there's the flip
in arrangement.
It implies
exclusivity.
In other words, and only
He is capable over all things.
Now, the word
my brothers and sisters in Islam,
we want to discuss 3 things about it.
Number 1:
comes from the word
means the ability to do something,
to have power and control over something.
So
is the one who's capable of doing whatever
he wants.
Implies
continuity.
In other words,
he's continuously
capable of doing each and every single thing.
Implies continuity,
meaning he's always able to do whatever he
wants. He doesn't get tired,
he doesn't rest, he doesn't sleep, he doesn't
take a break.
He is always and continuously
doing whatever he wants.
And how does this part of the ayah,
the last part,
beautifully tie in with the beginning of the
ayah? Listen to this very carefully.
At the beginning, we said,
the king, kingdom,
and at the end, capability,
ability to do all things. Today,
if you observe the situation of kings or
anyone who has ownership over anything,
A king,
when his kingdom is small,
he has the ability to manage his own
affairs,
right?
As the kingdom starts getting bigger,
you begin to lose direct control over what
you own.
So now, when the kingdom becomes bigger,
a king is supposed to appoint ministers,
he delegates the tasks, they finish the tasks,
they report back to him. He can no
longer
deal with each and every single thing. He
cannot. The bigger the kingdom, the less and
less direct control he will have.
He'll only have control over wherever he is.
If you owned 1 house, you can manage
its affairs.
If you owned 20 houses,
now you've become less and less directly involved.
You involve others and they look after it,
like in
Allah
Remember what we said? And by the way,
the king, as he gets older and older,
what happens? He also becomes less and less
capable of managing even his own affairs until
he dies. He'll need someone else to look
after him. However, Allah
doesn't only have a kingdom
and authority over all things,
but his kingdom
rather is continuously growing. Right? Because we said
which means to increase.
So Allah's kingdom
is not fixed as it is. It continues
to grow. It's
And Allah
owns all things, and despite owning everything and
his
and his kingdom continues to grow,
he also has direct
capability and ability over every single thing he
has created.
Directly manages it. No one else involved.
So, like, on a macro level, he owns
everything,
and on a micro level,
he directly
micromanages
everything and controls everything.
Even the most subtle and minute of things.
That can never happen for any king on
earth. That's why he said,
which implied that exclusivity.
Only
he is capable over all things at the
same time, no matter how small they are,
no matter how huge his kingdom grew.
He doesn't need to appoint anyone to do
his work.
The second meaning of the word
it comes from the word
in Arabic language, it means limitation,
a restriction.
Like Allah He said,
Allah He expands provision for whoever He wills
and He restricts
a person's provision.
So he's
meaning he sets limits on whatever he wants.
The first half of the ayah spoke about
how limitless Allah
is.
His kingdom is always increasing. Limitless.
The last part of the ayah tells us
that he is capable of putting limits on
things.
But how beautiful is this?
The one who is unlimited
can limit whatever he wants.
So Allah
put a limit on our life, you will
not live forever.
He put a limit on our health.
You will not have 100%
health all your life.
He put a limit on our provision. You
cannot go and seek and take whatever you
want from this worldly life. There's something that
has been written for you. That's the limit
that Allah
has put on you concerning your risk.
How beautiful is this? Look at the control,
the ability of Allah
And the third matter that we can reflect
over when we look at the word qadr
is that
when Allah says He's capable of doing something,
that means what?
That necessitates
that He has
complete knowledge about these things.
When you say
When I say to you:
I can fix your car. What does that
mean? That means I have knowledge of the
problem and I can fix it.
Whoever is capable of doing something
must have knowledge of what he's doing.
So the word qadir
within the word qadir we learn that Allah
is not only able to do what He
wants,
but he has complete and full knowledge over
everything that he does.
And this
is a challenge
to the authority of every tyrant on earth.
This air is saying that he is the
true king.
The kingdom, all of it belongs to him.
It's in his hand
And what you have,
it's also a part of his kingdom. He
gave it too and he is capable over
all things. Meaning what?
Meaning every king on earth, you're capable of
nothing. If he's capable of all things alone,
this means everyone else is incapable
of absolutely
nothing,
unable to do anything. The anger challenges
the arrogant disbeliever
and at the same time it empowers the
believers.
It empowers them that Allah is with them
and He supports them and He aids them.
SubhanAllah.
So these are beautiful three things that we
have passed and came across in this ayah.
That Allah
is the source of all in our life
and around us.
And that He is in total ownership of
everything,
and He's in complete control over all things.
Beautiful introduction to this surah.
It makes you think
that this is the Lord I'm dealing with
and it instills
within the heart the greatness and the majesty
of of Allah
Rough translation.
He is the one who created death and
life
in order to test you which of you
is better in deeds.
And He is the Almighty, the All Forgiving.
Now,
how did we go from the 1st ayah
to the 2nd ayah?
The first ayah ended by Allah speaking about
his ability
and from the from the ability of Allah
is that he created death and life.
That's from His ability.
This is the this death and life is
one of the greatest
manifestations,
one of the greatest displays of his ability.
If you're ever in doubt of Allah's ability,
think.
He's the one who causes death and life.
People
may be able to create
what Allah
created
in the sense that they replicate.
Mankind,
some of them claim that Allah created our
sun, we created a light bulb, Allah creates
a bird, we made from that we were
inspired, and we replicated that, we created an
aircraft, an airplane.
But can anyone ever claim
that he can create death and life or
even replicate it?
That's why
is the most obvious and clear signs of
all His creation
that He is capable over all things.
Mankind, if they all came together, Allah would
say they cannot even create a fly, a
single fly and put life in it.
So the one who causes life and death,
what does that mean? If he created death
and life, meaning he doesn't die. He created
it. He is the first and he is
the last
and that means he will exist
before all His creation and He continues
to remain even after everything is being destroyed.
When the word comes
right after him
saying
it threatens the kingdom of each and every
single one of us every single day.
Death, the idea of death,
threatens our ownership of things and our kingdom
every single day. How weak is the human
being? The day he dies,
all your assets,
all your kingdom and your ownership over whatever
it is has come to an end. It
doesn't belong to you anymore, it's to your
inheritance.
Al Mott is supposed to humble a person.
Therefore
Allah
is the only Lord worthy of being worshipped.
He is the one who gives you life
every second of the day
and he causes your death every day as
well. When we sleep that's a minor death
And when we wake up, we say
We praise Allah that He gave us life
after he had caused our death.
Every single day we are experience this experiencing
this ability of Allah
of
He created death.
You see,
death
is something created.
Some people think death is
the lack of existence.
Some may think that death is abstract. Heck,
it's nothing. Once the soul comes out, a
person has died.
But Allah
is telling us that death is actually something
created,
and life is something created.
And the evidence for this said,
On the day of judgment,
death is brought,
and it's brought in the shape, and the
image of a sheep, a sheep that most
of his fur is black and there's a
bit of white there.
And then the angel will say: O people
of the paradise So they all stretch their
necks out and they look.
He says to them, do you know what
this is? The sheep, do you know what
it is?
They'll say, yes. That is death.
And all of them have seen it because
Allah puts in our hearts that this is
what death looks like.
Then the angel looks at the people of
the fire and he says to: oh people
of the fire So they stretch their necks
out and they look. And he says to
them: do you know what this sheep is?
They said: yes. This is death.
So then,
and they knew this because Allah put that
information in their heart,
then the angel
will slaughter the sheep.
And he'll say to the people of the
paradise, Resign
in the paradise eternally,
you will never experience death ever again because
death that has been created for you has
been killed now.
It's gone. It's finished. It doesn't exist anymore.
And he'll look at the people of the
hellfire,
and he'll say,
Remain therein forever.
You will never die. You can't die anymore
because death itself has died.
The institution, the creation of death has been
destroyed, it no longer exists at that time.
So from this hadith
we learn, it's an evidence that death is
something Allah
created
and He sends upon each and every single
one of us.
Why did Allah mention death before life?
Because
if you monitored
our existence,
then we first existed
or our first existence was death.
That's before we were born. That's our first
existence, we were dead.
Then we came to life. So Allah
said meaning
which is before you existed,
is now when you're living.
And the other interpretation
and the other reason for why
came,
here
in this second interpretation
could actually mean the death that is going
to come to us.
So, you know, Allah
would say
Why?
Because right now we exist in this world
of life. What's the thing that we are
waiting? What are we waiting for? We're waiting
for death. So it was mentioned first because
that's the next stage we're going to after
reading these.
So on this opinion,
would be the death that we are facing,
will be the life after death.
So, on the two interpretations
it covers:
the 2 stages of death and there's 2
stages of life.
The one in which we were before we
existed,
our life now, the death that is coming
and the life after death.
And also in 'ulama'
they mentioned that death was mentioned first
so that we consistently
remember it
and never forget about it. Because when you
remember death,
a person keeps in line and keeps in
check. That's why
said continue to remember the destroyer of pleasures.
The more you remember death, what happens? You
stay in line.
If you veer off and you become misguided
in a street, you remember death, it puts
you back on track.
Every time a person remembers death, he hastens
to do
hastens to do
and when you remember death, you don't become
too attached to this worldly life. As an
imam
mentioned, these are the 3
these are the 3 benefits of always talking
about death and remembering.
This is the benefit of washing the dead,
shrouding them, praying behind them, carrying them to
the cemetery, visiting the cemetery every once in
a while Why do we do this?
Because when you remember death, you rush to
doing deeds, you rush to do a Tawba,
and you're not
inclined to dissolve the life. You're detached. You
take from it whatever you need to prepare
for the afterlife.
So why did Allah create death and life?
Why?
To test you.
This is one of the central messages of
the surah, to test
you. And you know, when I say test,
that means
every test comes with a result.
There has to be a result. Allah
said,
He says: Do you think that you are
created without purpose?
Do you think that you're just going to
live, live, live, live and then you'll die,
and then that's it? It's all over?
How can that
be? If that's the case, what we're seeing
is the oppressor will die and the oppressed
will die,
the criminal will
die and the righteous will die.
And then, if you don't believe in an
afterlife,
you're saying that all of them are equal
because there's no afterlife.
So can that be the case really?
This is foolishness.
This is not befitting to Allah
to create something like this. There must be
an afterlife that exists
in where Allah
justice
would be on display for all to see.
And you know, I give you a small
worldly example that even people won't accept for
their own world. Listen to this, imagine a
committee came together
and they said: we're going to build a
university
and we're going to teach medicine.
So they build the university
and they employ the best of teachers.
They bring the best of curriculum.
They bring the best of advancements and technologies
there is out there
and they spend a lot of money and
resources on this university
so then you're a student you enroll you
come in
There's 30 students that enroll. Let's see
After 4 years
after 4 years,
let's say the teachers decided to say to
the students congratulations.
All of you have graduated.
Would the students find this,
fair or not?
Of course, they were not accepted.
How? How did we all graduate altogether?
Some of us studied more than others.
Some of us were lazy. Really now at
the end of 4 years, I studied so
much. I put so much effort. I'm gonna
walk out of this uni the very same
as this person that sat next to me
and did nothing, no studies, no no nothing.
How can that be fair? If this is
a small, silly, worldly example the mind will
not accept, how can you accept it for
the larger scale of things?
This worldly life that Allah created,
He created it with perfection.
He sent us the best of teachers, they
are the prophets.
The best of books, they are the word
of Allah
And He put everything on this earth for
us, for our service.
Now you want to believe
that you're gonna walk out of this
university that Allah created and we're all going
to be the same at the end? If
you did not accept this for a silly
worldly example, how can we accept it for
the bigger picture?
So no doubt after
the test, there is a deen which will
stand before Allah, and the results will be
announced.
And so brothers and sisters in Islam, imagine
this,
you know in this worldly life
when you are in an exam, imagine with
me,
rewind your days when you are in school.
Masha'Allah, we have young youth as well here,
they're in school and they have their trials
coming up for the university and so on,
year 12s and that.
Go back with me.
When the teacher announced you have an exam
tomorrow,
what happened? How was the
preparation like?
You spent the entire night awake
nervous,
reading,
memorizing,
and this is just a worldly exam.
So imagine how much more preparation should the
believer put for the afterlife.
Because
the exam of this worldly life is the
greatest of all. Why?
Because Allah is the one who informed us
about it
and the results are in his hand.
And after the results are announced, it's either
a paradise or a hellfire.
And after this exam, this worldly life after
this exam,
there is no second chance.
The only one chance you have is now
and that is life on Earth.
So since you're still in the exam, just
like a student which is still sitting on
his table, has his pen and writing his
exam, he can amend,
he can rub things out, liquid paper things,
change things.
You're now still in the exam.
You can liquid paper things, you can amend
things, you can remove things from your life,
you can correct certain things, you can still
do that,
but when you die
you've handed the examination sheet over.
And in this worldly life, once the sheet
is handed and the teacher takes it, you
can no longer receive it afterwards.
Your results are going to be based on
what you put on the paper.
And that's the same
Once
you die,
you've handed over your record of good deeds
and your record of bad deeds.
On the Day of Judgment, you will see
what the result is. So the word
should always be present in the hearts and
the mind.
If you're always conscious of the word
you will always be in a state of
preparation:
being Allah's command, worshiping Allah, remembering Allah, preparing
for the afterlife.
This worldly life will not be a distraction
for the one who continues to remember
He created death and life to test you
all
who among you all will be better in
deeds.
That's the purpose of
life. You see death was mentioned at the
beginning of the ayah
because there's nothing more than death that awakens
the heart and instills within us a sense
of urgency to rush to do to
rush to do good deeds.
And he didn't restrict the amal to anything.
So Allah did not say
He didn't say he's testing you to see
who's better in salat, who's better in doing
Hajj, who's better in doing he didn't even
say who's doing better in worship.
He said, Amal. Amalel
includes all types of deeds,
the actions of the heart, the actions of
the limbs, what you see on your tongue.
It includes a 'amel' that is related to
your worship,
'amel' that is related to your work, your
actual work,
amal that is related to your,
relationship
with your children, that's amal. When you serve
others, that's amal.
The goodness you do for a while, that's
aman as well. Allah is testing to see
who's going to be better in their aman,
in their deeds.
When Nabi
said, indeed Allah loves
that when any one of you does a
deed, you do it with excellence.
Every single time you do any type of
deed that is pleasing to Allah,
you do it with excellence, and remind yourself,
I was only created
so I can
do excellent in what I'm doing right now,
and on the day of judgement,
the result will be based on this I
did.
That's what the result will be. That's the
examination sheet now. This is it. Every single
you do, this is what will be placed
on the scale, and the results are announced
on that basis.
And he said,
did not say
Allah did not say, he is testing who
among you will do the most
deeds.
He said
better deeds.
In other words, Allah
is teaching us that you and I must
prefer
quality over quantity.
Perhaps you read 1 page of the Quran
and you earn a lot more reward than
a person who read the entire Quran.
Maybe he read the entire Quran.
That's quality.
That's quantity. But probably there was no quality
behind it. No sincerity rush that didn't understand
anything.
Perhaps you pray 2 lakat.
That is a lot more rewarding than someone
who prayed 20 lakat at night with no
and no concentration.
Remember,
it's
Every deed you do slow down,
try to perfect it, and put as much
excellence as you can in this worship.
What is
How do how does a person achieve
he was asked, what is?
What's better deeds?
He said,
It's the deed that is done with most
sincerity
and accurate.
Most sincerity
meaning it was done for the sake of
Allah
and accurate, it was in accordance
with the teachings of the Messenger
That's
If a certain worship of yours,
you weren't sincere in it, that is not
And if a certain deed of yours was
an innovation
in where you did not follow the commandment
of Nabi
and his practice, that is not.
So when it comes to matters of worship,
they need to be sincere for the sake
of Allah if you want through His reward
than no one else and also in accordance
to what the Nabi salallahu alaihi wasallam taught
us.
And concerning intentions and other type of aman,
like the work that you do or the
aid and and support that you offer the
poor and the needy.
They said here
that if a person did a good deed
to others
and he did not intend closeness to Allah,
if that wasn't present in his heart at
the time he did the good deed.
But at the same time, he did not
He did not,
Yeah, what are we going to say? He
did not seek the praise of others,
he did not seek the appreciation of others,
appreciation of others. Also at the same time
he did not intend closeness to Allah,
then
he will earn reward for this deed. He
will earn reward for it as long as
he had done it
for the love of doing good,
then he will earn reward for this deed.
As in
Ullama mentioned, the main thing is that when
a person does a good deed of any
sort,
that he does not intend to show off
with that deed. As for the matters of
worship, then you must intend closeness to Allah
and reward from Allah.
Pay attention my brothers and sisters in Islam
here.
He did not say.
He did not say He's testing to see
which among you is best
in deeds.
He said testing you to see who among
you is better
in deeds.
What's the difference?
When I say best
that implies perfection.
When I say better
that implies
improvement.
And I tell you, wallahi, as simple as
this little explanation I gave you, it could
be a lifesaver for many of our youth
today.
One of the biggest problem
most of the youth face today
is that they say since I'm not the
best Muslim,
since I'm not the best Muslim I don't
pray the best,
I don't wear the hijab in the best
way,
therefore what's the point? And they leave the
worship out altogether.
Thinking
that Allah wanted perfection.
Allah did not say
Allah said
better.
Improvement. What Allah wants to see is improvement.
So you have a type of salat that
you've just began with,
and it's not the best,
improve
it. Improve it.
It's not
If I'm not the best, then that's it.
I'm nothing. I will give up on everything.
This is a mindset that destroys the faith
in our hearts.
So we need to encourage our young brothers
and sisters in Islam
that, for example, if a sister was to
wear
a type of dress, a type of hijab
that is not the best
hijab, we say no problems.
Tomorrow, do better. The day after do something
better. A little step slowly, slowly. Allah is
watching for improvement.
Allah wants to see improvement. He's testing improvement.
And don't give up on the deed altogether.
How do you benefit in that case? You
won't benefit in that way, in that regard.
A beautiful ending to this ayah with 2
beautiful names of Allah
Al Aziz,
the mighty,
the all strong. That's Al Aziz.
Al Aziz
means Allah
has authority.
And also the word al Aziz
means that he
has authority that demands respect. You see, not
everyone in an
authority position has respect.
Nakim El Aziz is the one who is
in authority and he has all respect.
He's Al Aziz.
Powerful. Mighty.
Al Ghafoor, the one who forgives.
It comes from the word
is the iron helmet
that the soldier used to put on his
head that protects him from the arrows of
the enemy.
So, Al Ghaffour
is the one who protects you from your
sins and from the consequences of the sins
so long as you continuously asking for forgiveness.
And why is it beautifully
placed where it is at the end of
the ayah? Because look at this,
Al Aziz
is the might of Allah
Aziz came before Ghafoor. Why? Because so far
the surah from the very beginning is speaking
about what? Allah's might and authority.
His authority has been established from the very
beginning of the surah,
so his name Al Aziz came first,
then Al Ghafoor came second. And the other
thing is this.
In the very same ayah, he said
he's testing you.
Those who fail the test,
he will be Aziz upon them.
He'll execute his might and power against them,
punish them in the hellfire.
And those who pass the test,
He'll be
towards them.
He will bestow His mercy and forgiveness upon
them. And once again, what does that teach
you? That if you pass the test,
you are still in need of Allah's forgiveness
because you will meet him with a lot
of shortcomings.
He cannot meet Allah
being the best.
That's impossible.
No one can achieve being the best Muslim
ever.
So even if you pass the test,
you'll be met with the mercy and forgiveness
of Allah. That's why right towards the end
of the surah again we're going to read
SubhanAllah.
And we are now when I first read
the ayah,
These are people that feed their Lord in
the unseen.
You can imagine someone standing the nights praying
and crying.
The first thing Allah promises you, maghfil,
forgiveness.
What did you do
wrong? But the idea is no matter how
good a person
did in his deen,
there is always shortcomings.
And if you don't earn the mercy and
the forgiveness of Allah, you'll be doomed and
destroyed.
And also, Al Aziz instills within our heart
fear of Allah.
And instills within our heart
hope in Allah
And every deed that we do, we're supposed
to fear Allah
and we're supposed to have hope in Allah
So when you pray,
we feel that this salaat may be rejected.
Right?
We don't know the state of this salat.
We don't know the state of in it.
Did Allah accept it or not? Who can
put his hand up and say his and
was accepted? No one would dare to do
this.
So there's always
fear of our deed being rejected,
and at the same time,
there is hope
that,
oh Allah,
out of Your mercy accept the salat of
mine. There is hope that Allah will accept
your deeds, will accept your righteousness, and admit
you into the paradise. That's how the believer
remains in the middle, keeps away from arrogance
that's how he remains in the middle.
Fear and hope:
if you had too much fee, you'll end
up not worshiping Allah. You'll say: 'What's the
point?' If you had too much hope,
what happens?
The same thing, right? So the idea is
a believer must be balanced between
We've come up to the hour,
and,
we really wanted to do 2 more ahead,
but it seems to
be that there's a little bit of fidgeting
happening.
Should we continue to aat?
We'll continue to
we'll move as quick as we can.
Allah
then he said
That's the same
There's still a continuation. It's like we're saying,
This
the one who it's a continuation of this
word
it's still describing who
is. So Allah
says He is the one who created 7
heavens,
one above the other layers.
You will never see any inconsistency,
any imperfection in the creation of the Most
Merciful
So look again. Do you see any flaws?
After He
mentioned the signs that are related to ourself,
He mentioned the sign that is related to
ourself. What's the greatest sign within us?
Death and life.
Now
he will mention the greatest sign in the
universe.
What is the greatest sign in the universe
that
shows us all
and is evidence of the qudra of Allah,
the ability of Allah, the 7 heavens?
So the greatest sign within us
that shows us
is death and life,
and the greatest sign in the universe
that is evidence of
is
that's how we've moved on to this
This huge sky was created by Allah and
if you are in awe of its magnificence,
of its beauty,
then that means we must be in awe
even more about or concerning the creator of
the sky.
Sometimes people look at the sky
Allah he's taken awestruck.
Then that means
that's your attitude and even more towards the
creator
If you're amazed by the sky, how much
more amazed should the person be with his
lord, the creator of that sky
And this is,
He created
7 heavens, layer after layer.
See, the word
it refers to something being covered and sealed.
Like they say
They have a pot, you take the lid,
you close it.
That's the first meaning of The other meaning
of
it refers to strength and intensity.
Like the Arabs, they used to say,
meaning it's an intense and a difficulty
of famine and drought.
So Allah
is saying
He created 7 strong layers,
one after the other.
The 7 skies
that are above us, one after the other.
Every sky its thickness is 500 years, as
Ibn Abbas'all
mentioned.
Between one sky and the next there is
a distance of 500 years.
Above the 7th heaven there is a water.
Above the water, there is the the
footstool of Allah.
And above that is the arsh of Allah,
and Allah
himself is established upon his arsh
He then said
You will not see in the creation of
the Most Merciful any inconsistency.
Masha'Allah. Look at this.
He said
He did not say
He did not say you will not find
in the creation of the heavens
any imperfection.
He widened the scope. He said you will
not find in any of the creation of
the Most Merciful
any imperfection or flaw.
SubhanAllah,
the name of Ar Rahman is mentioned
and it's mentioned in abundance in this Surah.
You all know Surah Al Mulk has a
lot of Ar Rahman in it.
Even though this surah has a tone of
anger in it.
Remember how we said last time that this
is a late Makkan and the late Makkan
and Surah are intense in their language
as opposed to the early
has been 10 years. Quraysh haven't accepted Islam.
They're strong.
So what is the wisdom behind Allah bringing
His name Ar Rahman
in this discussion?
So that you and I can learn
that the mercy of Allah
override his anger.
As Allah
said on Nabi
The mercy of Allah overrides his anger,
and so that you and I can learn
that even though Allah
Allah's kingdom
is built upon His mercy.
That's why when Allah
spoke about
him being established on the arsh, what's the
name he used?
As opposed to Al Aziz
that's what you and I would have expected.
Through might, ability, power,
the name that would have best suited up
would have been Al Aziz.
But Allah
is teaching you and I,
despite Him having complete authority and ownership over
all things,
except that His mercy overrides his anger.
And usually when we think of a king,
we think oppression,
injustice,
evil, harsh
and such a king
is not worth any of our praise and
respect.
However,
Allah repeatedly in the Quran mentions his mercy
alongside
his authority
and alongside his kingdom, Just like in the
Surah. And just like in Surah Al Fatiha.
It's always like that. To teach you an
Ayin.
Don't be afraid
to turn to Allah
Yes, He's a King, the Almighty, the All
Powerful.
But from that position of strength and power,
The Most Merciful, the mercy overrides
his anger
So when the Kafir is listening,
When the kafir hears this,
it is like Allah has invited them to
a Tawba.
The door of Tawba is open.
Despite your arrogance,
despite you turning away from the Messenger and
betraying him and
punishing him and insulting him despite all that,
the door is open.
And it's like he's saying,
How do you how do you still deny
him? How do you still deny him when
that's his name,
SubhanAllah. It's like
I
give you a small example.
When when I come to you and I
say,
your father has requested from you to do
this.
I can now
play with your emotions on that.
Your father
your father requested it.
So that's gonna get you thinking twice. Okay.
I shouldn't reject it. My father requested.
Belongs the highest of example.
You're still turning away? Ar Rahman.
The Most Merciful.
His name on its own, it creates that
panic and that doubt
in anyone that is trying to rebel against
Allah, He's telling him, Come back. How dare,
how dare you come back, the door is
still open.
You will not see in any of the
creation of Allah,
the skies and the rest of His creation,
tafaa, with any inconsistency
you'll only find perfect order and sequence.
Look at the sky.
Look at the sun and the moon.
How perfect are they in order and in
sequence? Nothing comes out before the other and
it's been in harmony and in sync like
this since Allah
created it.
The sky and everything Allah created is perfect,
flawless,
impeccable, precise.
This is not only an address to the
messenger
this is for everyone.
Allah is saying use this sight that Allah
gave you, observe, glance at the sky. The
messenger
used to love looking at the sky.
Look at it with your naked eye, look
at it with the telescope
and zoom in.
Look,
do you see any flaw?
You see brothers and sisters in Islam, we
in Islam
have been encouraged
to reflect
over the creation of Allah and there is
great virtue for pondering and reflecting over the
creation of Allah. Today,
we are occupied with many things on our
phone, distractions, we don't get to see the
creation of Allah
the way it was created and intended.
This is a this is a matter that
Allah
repeatedly encourages for the believers.
Just to reflect and ponder over the creation
of Allah is much better than standing in
salaat for an entire night
because that's going to feed your heart the
greatness of Allah
which is the point of the surah.
Then the other thing here to notice is
watch this, pay attention very carefully.
Before
this ayah, he addressed us in the plural.
He
said
This was an address in the plural. He's
testing you all to see which of you
all is better in action.
Now, he's speaking in the singular.
You alone will not see. Then he'll say
You alone
go back and look at the sky. He'll
say
you alone go back and look at the
sky.
So he was addressing us in the plural.
All of a sudden the next day he's
addressing
in each and every single one of us
individually.
Why?
Because the first day was speaking about death
and life and the test of this life,
and that
is a shared experience.
We will all
share the experience of death and life and
the test in this world of life.
Whereas in this area, he's speaking about reflection.
Reflecting over the skies.
Sitting and reflecting. And reflection
is more of a personal thing. It's not
a connective thing.
Sometimes, you may reflect over the sky
and be amazed by its beauty and someone
else may reflect upon the sky and be
amazed by another aspect of its beauty.
So now he's addressing us in the singular
because reflecting over what Allah created
is a personal job.
That's a personal thing.
Each and every single one of you go
in your own time, in your own space
and reflect over what Allah created.
And what should we reflect upon? When we
look at the sky, what should we reflect
upon?
Look at look how beautiful this is. And
this is going to also teach us
why was death and life mentioned then afterwards
the skies
and 7 skies layer above layer. What's the
relationship between both of them?
That's what we're supposed to reflect upon. Look.
In the Quran,
I found 2 2 places in the Quran
in where Allah mentions the skies
and then mentions,
death and life, the stages of life.
He mentioned the sky. At the end,
Allah took an oath by the redness of
the sky. When the sun is setting and
the sky is red, red.
And then he took an oath by the
night as the darkness spreads, it gets darker
and darker.
Well, and he took an oath by the
moon
as it becomes full and bright.
Then he said,
you will ride
one stage after the other.
You see the word?
He said you will ride from one stage
to another. What does that mean? It means
the first stage you will ride
is
before you were alive, then you entered your
mother's womb, that's a stage, then you came
out of your mother's womb, that's another stage,
then you learned how to walk that's a
stage then you ate then you started going
to school that's one stage then afterwards you
graduate then you get a job that's a
stage then you get married, then you have
children, that's another stage, then you die, then
you're resurrected. Each and every single one of
them is a stage.
You in life will go from stage to
stage to stage, and you'll continue doing so
until
you enter the paradise, and that's the full
life.
So now the ideas even your
listen to this.
Once again,
he mentions life and death and then he
mentions 7 skies.
Because when we sit and reflect over the
sky,
reflect over the fact that it's 7 layers
on top of each other, that reminds us
of our own life. We also went from
stage of mawt, we're going to the stage
of Hayat, then we're going to the stage
of Mawt, then again Hayat.
So Allah
created this sky in layers.
When we look, we reflect our own layers
in life. We're going from one thing to
another.
That's the connection between this ayah and the
one that came after it.
We're coming to the end.
Allah then encourages us again,
Look again, look again to the sky with
a critical eye this time.
So what's assumed now is that you've observed
the sky and you didn't find any flaws.
So Allah is saying: Look again,
try again, try one more
time. See, can you see any flaws, any
faults in what Allah created? Look for the
flaws, look for the imperfections.
Today, people have created technology and they've sent
it everywhere in skies.
They've sent it everywhere in the universe. Up
until this day, no one has said of
anything that is flawed and imperfect.
Means keep looking again and again.
Do you see any
Something
for it to be worn and torn,
broken, ripped.
SubhanAllah. You know, look, today we create something,
we build a building. Look up
in the ceiling, you'll find a tear.
You go home, you'll find a cracked wall.
That's just after what, 10, 15 years today
maybe 2 years, you already see a crack
in the wall.
Even less than that, 6 months maybe, you'll
see a crack in the wall. That's futur.
Allah
created these skies from when he created them
until today, there is not a single tear
in them.
Not a single crack in them.
Then He said, And that's the final ayah
with us.
Look again and again.
He said.
See, he said
the word
it implies to prolong something.
Like, if you say Ahmed entered
Muhammad
meaning Ahmed came in 20:30 minutes later the
other person came in.
Means
So
you've looked,
take a break,
start thinking, start planning, how are you going
to look for a fault,
then
charge up, go look again
towards the heavens, towards the sky.
This is an invitation not only to us
layman general people that have no clue about
what's happening in the universe
but this is also
an invitation from Allah
to the astronomer,
to the scientists,
to those who study
celestial objects
and the space and the universe as a
whole.
Doesn't mean two times.
They use this in all contexts. They say,
You know, the the soldier,
he he launches the attack then he runs
away. Then he launches an attack, then he
hides. Then he launches attack, and he hides.
That in in the military content, it's called
and it just continues, keeps going. Allah
is
saying
keep doing that. Look again and keep looking,
keep look. Try to find something that is
faulty and flawed. He
said,
Your eyesight is in battle with the creation
of Allah. You're trying to look for something,
desperate to look for something that is of
a flaw and imperfection, anything.
The result Allah said, he summarized it. Don't
waste your time.
Don't waste your time and exhaust all the
effort in this battle. He said,
The result will be that your sight, your
eyesight
will come back to you defeated on its
head. That's what the means.
Is to take something and to flip it
and to destroy it.
You know, when you're fighting your opponent
and you slam him to the ground,
you'll say.
That's what's going to happen to the eye
eventually.
Humiliated.
It'll be destroyed in humiliation.
You know this word,
It's said to the people that are in
the fire.
Is said to the dog when you want
to keep him away from you. You'll say
to him,
meaning
when you say to the dog, Keep away.
Get out of here. You're humiliated. You're not
wanted next to me. Go.
And means the eye would be defeated
in the most humiliating manner.
That's the last word.
The eye will be fatigued.
Meaning
to give up. To give up.
Someone
knocked out.
It's fatigued, cannot get up anymore.
The sight will never be able to find
any flaw, any imperfection in the creation of
Allah.
Also comes from the word
means to uncover something,
right, due to its weakness. So the Arabs
they used to say about the soldier who
loses his battle in the field
they'll say
he
had
a shield that was protecting him. He lost
it. He's uncovered now. His weakness is exposed.
He's walking around without a shield. He's very
vulnerable, very weak. He's exposed. He's uncovered.
His weakness has been exposed and he's acknowledged
the strength of his opponent.
You know how sometimes in the boxing ring,
you got the 2 boxers
and then eventually one knocks out the other
and then he just sits there and he
puts his hand up on his head, whatever
it is,
that's Hasir. He's in a state of Hasra.
What does it mean? Meaning his weakness has
been exposed.
And at the same time, he's acknowledged the
strength of his opponent. So
meaning your sight will get knocked onto the
ground in a humiliating manner and it is
weak. It's been exposed.
Meaning
it has finally
acknowledged the greatness of Allah because it was
in battle with the creation of Allah but
now got knocked out.
And now it has realized its weakness
and acknowledged the greatness of Allah
And now finally,
finally, is the last discussion on the matter.
Listen carefully. There is a chance
for your eyesight
to come back to you honoured and full
of joy and excitement.
We said about this eyesight that we were
talking about it came back knocked
out, humiliated,
destroyed. Its weakness was exposed.
But there is a chance
in where you can look at the sky
and your sight comes back
to you honored,
excited,
full of joy.
And that is
when you observe the sky and the creation
of Allah with honor,
pondering and reflecting over the greatness of Allah
and His great names and lofty attributes,
that's the type of observation
that will bring you joy and honor to
the eye and to the inside
the entire body of a person. The iman
will increase with every glance
that is done to the sky and to
the creation of Allah
and subhanAllah,
how many people
have accepted Islam
through their observation and their study of the
sky and what's going on up there in
the universe.
Many, there's plenty
of those who reverted convert to islam and
write books about their journey and what they
discovered.
And not only that but others have embraced
islam
through findings of others of the creation of
Allah
As Allah said:
Such a huge deal it is to ponder
over the creation of Allah. It will end
up in a person's iman
going
really increasing
and for the disbeliever to finally accept the
greatness of Allah
We ask Allah
to inspire us through these ayaat, to guide
us through these ayaat.
We ask him
to make us people of the Quran, people
of the
brothers and sisters in Islam.
We'll continue our next lesson on Sunday
and we're going to be moving so that
we finish the Surah,
within the next three lessons that we have.