Adnan Rajeh – Quranic Reflections 16 Surat Taha 90 – Surat Al-Hajj 57
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The speakers discuss the importance of achieving prosperity and happiness in Islam's journey, including finding fulfillment in pursuing Islam's path and creating a plan. They emphasize the need for flexibility and personal development to achieve a self-serving goal and finding fulfillment in a way that is not just for oneself, but also for others. The importance of testing oneself and actions to see if they can achieve success is emphasized, as well as the need for passionate language and commitment to achieve fulfillment. The journey requires effort and commitment, and the speaker emphasizes the importance of learning from mistakes and lessons learned from walking on a journey.
AI: Summary ©
So this is the first night of the
second half of Ramadan.
I mean, the second half does not, behave
as the first one does.
Second half is quickly on its way out.
5 nights from now,
Saturday
Saturday night,
we will
be starting tahajjud. And then once you start
tahajjud, you don't even know how the nights,
end up
cascading and then we'll we'll be done. So
this is a time for you to take
advantage of the,
of the of the, of the month. And
take advantage of the of the opportunity of
of what it offers you. So make sure
you, you know,
you push yourself and and and, revise your
plan and make sure you're holding yourself to
it and try to increase your acts of
worship.
It'll be something that we all regret,
at the end. Alright.
Today we will, start from
towards the end of Surataha. I feel bad
because I didn't get to say anything about
Surataha yesterday. We had to kinda run through.
It's a long surah. It's over a it's
over half a juzah. But it's a really
beautiful one too. I did explain the basic,
theme of it, but I didn't get to
actually reflect any verses because we just ran
out of time.
I got carried away with the
one that's.
And, today we'll go Surat Paha and we'll
also go through Surat Al Mbiya, and then
we will go through,
up to I 57 of Surat Al Hajj.
Hajj. Again, this cluster from isra to a
namil, it talks about carrying the message,
and it looks at all the aspects of
carrying this message, starting with telling pea telling
the nation of Muslims that they are responsible
for it.
Gives you the tools, the 4 elements that
are required for you to,
prevent fitna and to have a civilization, have
something that is healthy, that is that is
prosperous.
Surah Maryam points out the unit which which
through which this message will spread, which is
the family. And Surataha talks about the fact
that this message is
designed to grant you happiness and prosperity and
success, especially when you're facing oppression and persecution
and difficulty. It's not designed to make you
miserable.
The the the the rules the rules that
it carries and the the laws are not
for you to be
handicapped or disabled in this life as a
Muslim. It's it's it's quite the opposite.
Surah Al Anbiya tells you who your idols
are in terms of doing this. If you're
gonna carry the message,
great. Well, who are you going to emulate?
Who are your role models?
The the
the surah is named after what it's actually
going to be, explaining to us. It shows
us who they are,
what they did, how they did it, what
type of, of, of challenges they had, and
how they continue to to to do their
job to the best of their ability throughout
their lives.
And that's in a nutshell what talks about.
It doesn't really do anything else. It goes
through a number of, of stories of prophets,
not in detail, but quite, Yani. In short,
we just it's highlighting specific points.
There's a lot of explanation on the importance
of, of dedication
and and grit and and sincerity to Allah
as the prophets did. And then it ends
with, praising the prophet as
the ultimate act of compassion
from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala Surah Al Hajj
points out that the carrying this message is
a journey.
A journey that is long and difficult. This
journey will require striving.
It will require grit. It will require
flexibility.
It will require decisiveness,
which is what Hajj is. If you think
about Hajj as a as a, as a
pillar, it's a pilgrimage that requires all of
these things. It's a journey. You take a
journey from wherever you're living and you go
to Al Badri Haram. And throughout that place,
you move from Harafa to to from Mina
to Harafa to Muzdalifa to Mina again to
the Haram to Mina back again to the
Jamarat back to Mina. So you're moving around
as a journey. This journey and Hajj will
require all of the above, will require that
dedication,
the grit, the perseverance, the striving, and the
flexibility, which is what Surah Al Hajj teaches.
That this the carrying the message is not
an accomplishment. It's a journey. It's a journey.
The the quicker you understand this, the better
off you're going to be. That
you're asking to be guided
to a journey, not to a point.
It's a big difference, by the way. It's
a big difference of of, of of perspectives.
Whether you're being guided
to go to a specific place versus you're
going to embark on a journey. That journey
is going to be
to to the end of of your life.
Most of us actually are focused on points.
Like, most of us in our lives where
our dedication is to a specific point. We're
looking at a a goal. You you wanna
graduate,
then you want to maybe get your masters.
You want to get a job. You want
to get married. You want to have enough
money to buy a house. You want to
have a nice car. You want to so
it's points. It's points. Islam tells you it's
not points. It's a journey. It's a journey.
It's different. It's just a path that you're
going to be walking. Make sure that you
learn how to walk it. Here's how to
navigate the landscape of this journey to stay
from from deviating or going right or left
or losing your direction.
And Surah Al Hajj talks about a the
pilgrimage of Al Hajj, which is exactly that,
but it symbolizes
the journey of carrying the message of Islam,
which is which is what exactly it is.
It's a journey that requires
dedication and grit and commitment and flexibility
and that ability to to to persevere in
the face of of obstacles, which is what
Surah Hajj basically teaches us.
And that's the the themes of these, 3
suas.
It it establishes
that this, this message is
is designed to grant you prosperity and happiness
and serenity, not misery.
It allows you to to to stand up
against oppression and find fulfillment in doing that.
So it shows you the people whom you're
going to emulate. It's a beautiful surah because
it's a lot of stories just compounded. These
are the people who you're going to be
like. Here are the arguments that they used.
Here here is the dedication that they showed.
Be like them.
They carried the message, you're going to do
it too. And then so what * explains
how it's a journey that requires a lot
of attributes.
There's there's no there are milestones obviously, but
it's but it's not a point based system.
We're not trying to get somewhere. We're trying
to stay on a path.
Getting there is Allah's is what all is
is Jannah. Is Allah
allowing us to continue that path over the
silat, over jahannam and enter Jannah. That is
the the end point. But until then, it's
just a path that we continue to walk.
Alright.
So those are those 3 surahs in a
nutshell. So let's,
start with ayam number 96 of I'll try
and get the 2 in 22
in 96.
So this is a complicated story in the
Quran that I feel now I'm I'm regretting
choosing it as a, as an as a
verse because I'm not sure if I'm gonna
be able to, you know, do do the
due diligence for it.
The the story of the Sumerian, the Samiri,
it's a very different story that is told
in, in the old testament and in the
bible. Very different. The good Samarian is something
that you hear about. He's not a good
Samarian in our book.
There was nothing good about him. The Samarian
is the one is the one who presented
the the golden calf to to worship.
Hafir Musa alayhi salaam went ahead of them
for to meet you know, I need to
speak to Allah and to receive commandments and
come back. By the time he came back,
he found them already worshiping a calf. Their
feet were still wet from the sea.
They they haven't dried they hadn't dried their
feet from, parting the sea and they were
worshiping a calf, right after it. So Musa
alayhi salam got a really upset. He yelled
at Harun alaihi salam,
and then Harun told him, he said, Samiri,
he did this. I didn't want to divide
me. So I want to wait for you
to come back because this was a big
problem. It's a big fitna. So he's,
hey, what exactly did you why do you
do do this?
So the story is going as follows.
That Jibril alayhi salaam
would
be on earth on a on on on
on back of a horse on on horseback.
And the barakah of his horse, that every
time his horse steps somewhere,
green grass would, would,
would come from the ground.
So he saw that and no one else
saw
it. So he took, some grass from under
the feet of the, of the horse of
Jibril.
Remnants of the of the of the messenger
of god of Jibril alaihis salam.
And there is evidence to support that they
saw Jibril in different forms,
not only Musa and Harun, but, because Jibreel
came to Harun as well. So Musa was
going to speak to Allah, but Jibril still
came to Harun because Harun was a prophet.
He was a nabi. He he had
And it and this was, of course, done,
you know, and he, with the it was
it was a setup,
with with for for
to
her. And he went and he put that,
that blessed,
grass in the inside of a of a
golden calf that he had, melted.
And it started making noise.
And that's why I chose this verse because
that's what he said at the end. He
said that's what my told me to do.
That's what my was pushing me.
You've heard that before
in Yusuf. Right?
So meaning your nafs,
it it, put a plot together.
Is when you you you put together pieces
and you make a plot. You make a
scheme. You make a a plan. A plan
that is that has a lot of a
lot of lies attached to it. It's it's
complex. It's hard to figure out what's true
and what's not.
So that's what my
told me to plot and put together. I
wanted I didn't like the fact I didn't
like
I felt that your command was way too
rigid. I need we needed a way out.
Having a a demigod, having, to to worship
gives this whole thing a little bit more
flexibility for us. So he wanted a way
out. He wanted to ruin that peace for
Bani Israel.
And, of course,
had him see his, Jibril, this was a
setup for him to see what he would
do and how he would behave. And then
for if you put against the test of
whether they would fall for a trick or
fall for a phenomenon that you didn't understand.
Now that there was a white, a golden
cow that was making noise. Yeah.
Make it it it has the it makes
a noise that a would make.
Musa. This is your lord and the lord
of Musa And
and and they forgot their brains
as if they forgot, Yani, what what just
happened.
Do not say that he has no it's
it's it's it's not. How could they believe
this is a god? It has no it
owns nothing in terms of harm or benefits.
But the conversation with his
was based on this,
was based on him witnessing something that was
miraculous
and using it to serve a to to,
to achieve a self serving goal.
Use it to achieve a self serving goal,
something that he wanted. He wanted to be
able to present my Israeli with something shiny.
And he wanted to get people interested so
that people see that there's an and always
needs offerings.
And the offerings are not gonna be taken
by whatever idol is there, it's going to
be taken by the clergy. And now the
clergy gets to offer them different rulings and
we're go we're back to that corruption again.
And that cycle of corruption is is lucrative.
It's lucrative.
People are sold illusions. They're sold lies, and
the clergy make money. And they, yeah, they
hook up nicely with the, with with the
with the sovereign of of the land, with
the with the politicians, and they all make
money. And people are all Yani, but fooled.
And it just stays like that for a
long time until a reformist comes along And,
yeah, he rips out the, these, these illusions
or
these misconceptions as he did
pointing out this is useless. Stop believing this.
This is just a way to keep you
quiet and to turn your brain off and
to make sure that you don't you know,
and you say anything outside of what the
status quo allows.
So Samiri took the advantage that Musa alaihi
was not there. It was a this this
whole story is a multilevel,
test for the Samiri, for the Samarian, for
Harun, for the people of, Bani Israel and
for Musa alayhi sallam. The story is too
complex for me to tell you all in
this in 5 minutes, but the piece that
I want to point out is what he
said at the end.
This is what Mainafs told me to plot.
Are you able to differentiate
that which is beneficial
and good and comes from a place of
sincerity and empathy?
And that which is a plot from your
nafs.
If you don't have the ability to differentiate,
then you're in a lot of trouble.
Then you're right now in a lot of
trouble. If you don't have the ability to
differentiate what your wants, what your soul wants
that is self serving,
that is yeah. I need the
that will be in so many different ways
corrupt just in just by merit of it
being from your
versus that which is sincere, which is beneficial,
which is for the sake of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala, which is of service.
Sometime the nafs is very good at
dressing up its plots in a way that
makes it seem to you that they're good.
The nafs does not come out and tell
you, do this, This self serving,
low, useless, harmful thing. No. The nafs is
too smart to say than to say that.
The nafs will come and say, no. This
is good. This is.
Do it. This but deep down inside, the
point of it is self-service.
Deep down under the underlying
level of it is is just something for
you that is going to dress up as
if it's but it's falsehood.
And this time, he was thinking of doing
something beneficial. He was he claimed he I
I did this for,
and I saw the Barakah of Jibril. I
wanna take the Barakah of Jibril and and
cast it for for to benefit from. No.
He wanted he wanted that corrupt piece. He
wanted to be the person who who brought
life to the calf. So now he would
be similar to Musa alaihis salaam who gave
life to the to the staff.
Right?
Life to a staff or life to a
kah. Right? And then then, Samiri is no
longer the Samarian is not just a person.
Now he's he's somewhere he's ranking up to
Musa. He was.
When Musa alayhi salam came back, if he
was a few days late,
he would have been gone. Would have followed
the Sumerian.
That's why Allah
told him. Right?
Well, you need to go back because your
people have been,
tested after you left and they have been
misled by the Samiri, and you have to
go back quickly because you either will get
there in time or you won't.
Harun alayhis salam was not able to to
control the chaos and Musa alayhis salam alaydu
himself.
And, of course, the satanarian was punished and
removed from from Banu Iswai.
Alright.
Let's do aya 1,
30 from Taha.
So at the end of this Surah, this
is what he says
This is one of many aya's that had
the same basic idea at the end of
Surah
So so show, oh, Muhammad
This is a it was revealed during the
time of persecution. So he's being told what
to do regarding the people of who are
mistreating him.
Show perseverance
regarding what it is that they're saying to
you or saying about
number 1, show perseverance.
That this is the ruling. These are this
is the guidance of the Quran.
This is the guidance of the Quran. It's
that when people are mistreating you and they're,
yeah, misquoting you and they're speaking ill of
you, you persevere.
They speak to you as a Muslim, yeah,
when when when you when you're being persecuted
for your
And exalt your lord through praising him.
Before sunrise and before sunset. And this is
just saying that all throughout your day.
And from the depths of the night,
continue to exalt and praise. So all throughout
the day and then all throughout the night.
Why do we do this
Do this so that you may find satisfaction.
Or a better translation,
fulfillment.
Fulfillment is the right translation or the right
concept that means
Do this so that you may find fulfillment.
Persevere as they say what they say. Ignore
it and continue to do your thing. Show
that grit and commit yourself
and play praise your lord in the meantime.
In the meantime, to continue continue to praise
your lord throughout the day and throughout the
night. And if you do that, then you
just might find fulfillment.
The Quran, this message is not designed for
you to find
upset.
So you find
you find misery. No.
The goal of it all is
so that you find fulfillment,
so you find satisfaction.
That's when you're contempt.
When you're contempt, when you're happy, when you're
when you're okay with things, when you feel
at peace. That's what means. This is what
he's being told You
want to find the rida? True rida where
you're just happy, you're just at peace with
your life and with what where you are
and what you're doing. You're not ongoing
continuously anxious and depressed
and feeling empty on the inside
and feeling that nothing is ever enough. And
no matter what milestone you achieve, you still
feel empty and you you keep and you
just keep on going one after the other
until you're until you're in your grave and
you're still not fine. You wanna find fulfillment
and satisfaction?
Persevere as you carry this message. Per persevere
regardless of what they said regardless of what
they say of you or say to you
or or how they treat you and continue
to exalt exalt you, oh lord. Praise Allah
in the early hours of the day, in
the late hours of the day, in the
depths of the night.
And and maybe then you'll find fulfillment. I
love here.
As if to say, and you've tried everything
else, we'll try this. Maybe maybe maybe doing
this, you'll find satisfaction.
You've tried everything else. Nothing else works. You
know it didn't work didn't work. You know.
Everyone does. Everyone knows that it doesn't work.
That drugs is not the answer. That alcohol
is not the answer. Happiness does not exist
at the at the bottom of bottle. Travel
does not make you happier.
More * doesn't make you happier.
More wealth doesn't make you happier.
But just as miserable as the second as
as the next person.
You've tried everything else. Try this.
Try
this.
Maybe here you'll find satisfaction and fulfillment and
you will.
You will. That's how you'll find yourself fulfilled
and you'll find happiness and you'll find peace
and you'll find meaning to your life and
you'll calm down and your heart will calm
down
and you'll stop that struggle will will lessen
because you feel like there's a reason for
why you're here And there's a higher cause
for why you exist.
And that is what the human being is
designed
to
crave.
That's what the human being deep inside
craves, that he wants. Every human wants that,
but it's hard. It takes a lot of
work. So we prefer something that doesn't require
as much effort. So we look for these
momentary
satisfactions, momentary highs, and other things.
And no matter how many of them you
accumulate,
when you once you have to at some
point, you have to zoom out for a
moment. When you zoom out for a moment,
you're miserable.
But and
you may find you may find that fulfillment
that you're looking for.
Just
some magnificent usage of, of language.
Alright. Let's do, 23
or or 46. Sorry. 46.
There's one extra vote for 46.
Here in this ayam. This is one of
the linguistic,
masterpieces
that we are able to understand. Obviously, the
whole Quran is a linguistic masterpiece. Some of
it is a bit above our heads, so
it's hard for us to understand and figure
out. But some of it, we can actually,
I mean, clearly explain. And this is one
of those masterpieces that was easy for us
to understand.
So Allah minimizes
the effect
of or
or punishment
to all to almost to something that's close
to 0. So he uses all of the
minimizing phrases.
So he says, so here is to emphasize
and
is this is is a conditional,
what's a harf? A,
proposition?
Proposition. Right? Yeah. So it's a it's a
it's a con it's a proposition used for
conditions. So it's like saying if.
And if. But in and both mean in
English if.
To say that it's most likely going to
happen.
To say it's most likely not going to
happen.
That this is how this is how the
usage of the words are.
To emphasize that if with the with the
remote possibility that if
is the
minimal amount of contact,
The minimal amount of contact. That's why what
we call,
what jinn do or do
is called mess
because it's the most minimal
amount of contact. Yeah? It's not a maximal
amount of contact where they go inside your
brain and take the reins and start steering
you in whatever direction they want and you
don't exist there anymore. It's mess it's like
the minimal it's minimal amount of contact which
comes in the form of.
They just confuse you with ideas. Now you
don't know what's right or wrong anymore because
they keep on showing keep on opening for
you catalog,
pages with all those other stuff aside from
what the sheikh said.
The good thing that the sheikh said, and
then she opens like 5 other things. What
about this stuff? It looks cool too, and
now you're confused.
It's it's it's the most minimal amount of
contact. So
so I swear, this is why he's saying
and we swear that with the remote possibility
that the smallest amount of contact
of
is just a breath.
Like, a is when you blow.
Is just the beginning of it.
It's not even it's not even it's not
even a full breath. You're not you're actually
blowing through through purse clips. It's just the
beginning of the breath.
A breath. I mean, I don't have your
oblique.
You
see how how many
so the is to emphasize,
is to minimize the the, the condition or
the option or the possibility.
Almas is to minimize the contact.
Is to minimize the effect.
So the lowest possibility
of the lowest contact, of the lowest effect
of the punishment of your Lord would happen
to you.
Immediately, they will say, oh, what
horrible situation we are in.
What horrible situation we are in.
I mean, indeed, we are always oppressors. We
are the wrong ones. We are the wrong
doers. We are the oppressors
with the smallest amount.
Does that make sense?
He's not talking
about full pledge punishment. No. No. If with
the remote possibility
of the smallest amount of contact, if the
smallest amount of your lord's punishment was to
be afflicted upon you, then immediately the person
will will feel that they're in the worst
situation they've ever been in and they'll say
we are the oppressors. We are the ones
who are wrong. We wanna take it all
back.
Let's do,
let's see here.
I'm not gonna listen to you guys. I'm
gonna do whatever I want.
No one's no one's doing anything.
Alright. Let's take, 69, Abdul Ibrahim. Let's let's
do that. Yeah. Of Nahal.
The story of Ibrahim. The story of Ibrahim.
You can't you can't recite Surat Al Anbiya
and not just take a pause at this
story. Like, you just can't. It's like reading
Surat Youssef and, you know, just talking about
the last page and ignoring the whole story.
You can't you can't go through Surat Youssef
and not just take a pause and and
just look at Surat story of Ibrahim here
because it's so unique in so many ways.
And Ibrahim alaihis salam is a young person
who found his faith. He decided to try
something else. He decided that if he if
he just whacked down these aslam, maybe that
will work. Maybe people will come back. Maybe
they will realize. He he what he didn't
understand is that at that point yet, alayhis
salatu wasalam, obviously, he's our teacher and he's
our father, and he is the one whom
the prophet, alayhis salatu wasalam, emulate and we
emulate him, alayhis salatu wasalam, so he's one
level beyond that.
But at that point, he thought that if
he just ruined if he just whack down
these idols, people would would come to their
senses.
But they didn't.
So They took their heads and put them,
where they sit and put what they sit
where their heads are, and they decided to
say, well, you know that they don't speak,
and and we still worship them anyways. Like,
there's no logic to what we do. We
just do it.
That in order for you to change the
status or situation for people, you have to
help change the way they think.
You have to change the way they think.
Changing the practice won't do anything. You can
modify practices if people are still thinking the
same way. They will end up doing the
same thing
down the line. It won't make a difference.
What we need as an Ummah is a
change of of perspective, is a change of
intel. We have to change the way we
look at things, The way we understand our
deen. The way we we read the Quran.
The way we comprehend our ethics and our
values and our principles and what our priorities
are. That was has to change first. If
that doesn't change, nothing's going to change. No
matter how many people pray in a masjid,
no matter how many
there are for
if if the if the mentality is the
same, it makes no difference. So he came
to speak to people and he and he
made a point that made sense.
But because the the mentality would had had
not changed yet, it didn't make a difference.
Didn't make a difference. All of the Islam
were on the floor. They didn't care. They
built others. And what they did to him
is what happens to a reformist
who does who starts from the wrong end
of the spectrum.
You start from the wrong a wrong end
of the rope, this is what happens to
you. If you're a reformist, you start with
the mind. You have to change the way
people think and then the symptoms will fall.
The prophet alaihis salazar entered the the this
is what ibn Abbas says within the
and you'll find it worded that he entered
and he would point his his staff towards
the and they would fall on their own
as people watched. Because will fall on their
own. It's people's
mindsets that you have to change. They never
knocked down when they lived there for 13
years. For 13 years, the prophet
never knocked down Osama nor him nor not
him nor any of the Sahaba.
Because if you didn't change my people people's
minds, you knocked down this sun and they'll
build another one.
They'll build another one. You haven't changed their
mind yet. What happens to reformers who stops
from the starts from the wrong side of
the rope?
He's thrown into a fire. He's burnt. He's
made the
demon. Yeah? That's what happened to Ibrahim alayhis
salam. It was a big lesson for Ibrahim,
a bigger lesson for the prophet alayhis salam,
the biggest lesson for us.
But Allah The
1 the subduer let me talk about this
morning. The subduer, the compeller, the one
who overcomes everything, the one who controls all
things. And fire is nothing but one of
his creations, and when he commands it, it
will it will submit
and it will follow his command
It burns because Allah
commands the fire to burn as he commands
ice to be cold, as he commands the
sun to everything works because Allah
subdue it to do that. And when he
decides that it won't do it anymore, it
won't.
So as Ibrahim alayhis salam is flying in
the air,
he's on his way.
Jibreel will come and ask him,
do you need anything?
So Ibrahim is like, no. No. I'm I'm
I'm totally fine. I'm
taking a
afternoon flight to well, what do you mean?
Why do I need anything?
As I put a view, I need nothing.
As far as the law, then
I need no one else but him. He
is my trustee, the
best trustee, and all I need is is
Allah
This is a powerful aya.
In my opinion, it's the most powerful verse
in the Quran. Yeah.
Second to it
because it's That's the only reason to me
is a second.
It was
not Here, we said, the royal we. Yeah.
Now, oh oh fire.
He's speaking to a servant of his subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
Oh fire.
Be both
cool and peaceful.
Ibrahim
for Ibrahim when he arrives.
Ibrahim was asked years later, what were the
yeah. And he just as a person as
he on his deathbed.
Tell us about your life. The best days
of your life, the days I spent inside
the fire.
Because Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, told it to
be for
me. So were days where I was cool,
it was nice and chill and and it
was peaceful. So it was peaceful and cool
for days because after Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
told the fire to be for me.
I didn't want it to end. I want
to stay there, but it it ran out
eventually. I had to come out.
We said, oh, fire and the fire will
listen.
So when you look around the world and
you see all this going on, you're wondering
why isn't it stopping? He can do whatever
he wants
The that that was never the question. As
a Muslim at least, that was never that's
never the question. The question is what where
do you fall into this
in the equation? Where are you?
This is not
a quest a test life is not a
test for God. We're not here to test
Allah subhanahu and see if he can stop
problems.
We're not here to test him. We are
here to be tested ourselves. So when there's
a calamity or there's a misfortune or there's
oppression, that's a test for us, not for
Allah see if he can if he can
fill the bellies of the of the starving
people or or or put a smile on
the face of an orphan or save the
life of people who are who are weak.
He can do the question is whether we
will, whether we are going to put enough
effort into doing that because we're being tested,
not him.
I think that's something worthy,
a contemplation where we're running out of. Let's
do,
11 of al Hajj because we have no
more time. 11.
Try to get 2 more
tells us that carrying this message is a
journey. It's not an accomplishment. It's not an
achievement. It's not a point in time. It's
a journey. This journey requires commitment and grit
and flexibility
and striving and perseverance. So at the beginning
of the Surah, he tells us this
there are people amongst
you. They worship Allah
at the edge of a cliff.
At the edge of a cliff, that's how
they worship
Allah If he gets good things from his
worship,
they're satisfied and happy.
And if something goes wrong,
they fall off.
They fall and they hit their face.
They lose their faith altogether.
They lose both.
Aqira.
Indeed, that is the true loss.
You don't worship Allah do not worship Allah
at the edge of a cliff.
Don't be standing just if things work out,
great. I'll stay Muslim. If not, then I'm
I'm done. No. No. You worship Allah
you serve Allah regardless of whether you get
what you want or you don't get what
you want. And if you're only in this
with the condition of things working out for
you, the way you want them to work
out for you, then you are preparing your
you're setting yourself up for failure.
You are setting yourself up for not just
failure, but a lot of disappointment as well.
Because it doesn't work out that way. It
never does. It never does.
Life will always throw you curve balls. And
some of them will be really, really hard.
Like some of them will be very painful.
Some of them will the pain of them
will stay with you till the day you
die, and maybe even beyond that on the
day of judgement.
That's just how life is. So if you're
in this story, if you're a part of
this journey, because that's what teaches us. It's
a journey. It's a pilgrimage. It's a journey.
If on this journey, you're only gonna stay
on this path as long as it's comfortable
and nice. In the moment it isn't, you're
going to fall.
Gonna turn your back and change everything. Lose
your ethics, lose your values, lose all your
principles, lose your faith.
That's the true loss. You'll lose both
doing that. So don't
step back from the cliff, please.
Step back from the cliff. Step back.
Get far away from the cliff. Far away.
Far away from the cliff because the fitna
is coming in your way. Many of them
are. The farther away from the cliff, the
better. The closer you are, the more likely
it is at some point you'll fall down.
No. No. Stay back. He uses this this
this analogy in different places.
You build your iman on a falling piece
a cliff that's falling down, like it's literally
crumbling slowly
to watch it slide down and be destroyed,
or you build it on something that is
stable.
Your iman has to be built on something
stable, not something that is not not in
a edge of a cliff
where it's a conditional. Your iman conditional.
Your principle is conditional. Your faith commitment conditional.
No. Nothing's conditional.
The commitment to this is not conditional.
Allah sets the conditions he wants. We don't
set conditions.
We don't come and say I'll I'll I'll
be a good Muslim, but I expect from
now on. Yeah, I need the red carpet
and roses, butterflies and unicorns, ease and and,
I want to be celebrated every time I
do something good. I want to make dua
and everything be fixed immediately. I want to
put a little bit of effort and everything
just work out.
If that's what you think, the the the
the degree of delusion is beyond what I
can fix fix for you. But this is
the example he gives us to Hajj. Get
back get back from the cliff. Let's use
the last or, 46 of Hajj. 46.
I'll be the last one.
Did they did they not walk upon this
earth?
And then observe the the history
of what occurred on this planet. Did they
not take
did
not did not take advice and
and and not learn anything from walking and
seeing what happened to all of the nations
that came before them, and how life
progresses, and how nations
stand and prosper, and how they fall and
crumble,
and how people succeed and how they fail,
and what leads to all of that.
We are commanded as Muslims in the Quran
at least 7 times
at least 7 times saying
Go walk this earth. Go walk. Learn. See
what happened to people before you. If you're
not if you don't believe what the Quran
is telling, go see what happened. Go
read the stories. Read the stories of history.
Watch how how how it how the graph
works. Watch watch how it goes up when
it comes down.
I'll be talking this Ramadan
starting
on, starting the,
next Sunday.
I do a 7 episode series every week,
every year that no one attends.
You'd think that I would learn by now
not to do it, but I have I've
been doing it for the last 6 years.
Every every year at the end of Ramadan,
last 7 days, I do a 7 episode
series, usually after Asr, and I choose a
topic. I'm gonna talk about reduced concepts. I'm
gonna explain why it is Muslims are where
they are right now because as a civilization
at one time, we were prosperous. And at
that time, our principles were nice and full.
They were full. They were meaningful. And then
as we fell, those principles slowly lost their
essence and became skeletons of something that don't
mean anything anymore. For example, fasting is not
overeating at night. Fasting is something much more
beautiful. Many of you have, you know, throughout
these years have come to appreciate the beauty
of what fasting actually does for you. You
have to take the you have to reclaim
the principles again. You have to reclaim those
principles and those values
again, which is why it's it's important.
So
this
is something that is, in my opinion, very
you have to walk walk walk walk the
earth and see what happened to people before
and learn from their experiences. If you don't,
then what's the point of doing any of
this? You have to learn. So he says
why why have they not walked the earth?
And they would have some consciousness that would
they would allow them to understand and absorb
the the, the the the moral of the
stories.
Ears to hear people as they tell them
what happened so they can learn.
Blindness is not the blindness of the eyes.
But it's the hearts and the chest that
can go blind. It's the lack of insight,
not sight.
You will meet people who have no sight
but have so much insight and people will
see with with no glasses, but they don't
see. They can't see.
Not really.
They don't see what's what's ahead of them,
what's actually occurring, what needs to change, what
how people have to behave, what
what reform is, where the deficit is. What's
the point? You can see with your eyes,
but you can't see with your heart.
This eye is so profound.
I think it's it's not eyes that go
blind.
It's hearts that go blind. The hearts that
you have in your chest, that consciousness, that
subconsciousness,
that the the processor that takes the information
and that goes blind. It loses insight. It
can't learn from anything anymore. It can't benefit.
It whatever it hears, whatever it whatever it
witnesses doesn't learn anymore.
We can't be like that. If we're gonna
walk this journey that teaches
us, we can't we're gonna carry this message.
The journey requires a heart that is that
that has insight, that can see, and an
ear that can hear,
and a and a person that's willing to
learn from the,
from the mistakes of those who came, before
them.