Adnan Rajeh – Quranic Reflections #17 Surat Al-Hajj 58 – Surat Al-Noor 64
AI: Summary ©
The 17th night of Brahth is the day of Badr's birth, and it is a journey that requires flexibility and commitment. It is a combination of the people, spaces, and buildings, and requires investing in individuals and creating a culture that is enlightened and protected from misunderstandings. The importance of community values and accountability and resurrection is emphasized, and the need for examples and examples of individuals with values and principles is emphasized. The conversation also touches on the concept of viliary, the importance of following rules, and the misconceptions of the reassurance of young people.
AI: Summary ©
Well, tonight is 17th night, I believe. Yeah.
17th night of Ramadan.
We are slowly
moving forward. The 17th night 17th day are
a little bit, they have some significance because
that's the day or the
the day of Badr
was the 17th day of Ramadan.
And, I usually always make the 3rd in
Ramadan or second depending on when Friday comes
in Ramadan.
Always addressing that, so we'll talk about that
a little bit
throughout, the Friday this week.
The 17th day is definitely
that of of high significance for us
from a historic perspective.
The 21st is the day of Adhamakkah, so
we'll talk about that as well. So tonight,
we will con conclude Surat Hajj. I think
not much is left of it, maybe 3
pages or so. And then after that Surat
An Nur.
No.
Sorry.
Yeah. Lost my,
for a moment there. And then after Surat
Anur.
So the the this cluster from israelatul namil
is ongoing,
talks about different aspects of carrying the message.
In Suratul Hajj, as I explained yesterday,
it refers to
the the concept of carrying the message as
a journey. That's how it that's what it
refers to it.
And,
it's called Hajj because that's what Hajj is.
Hajj is a pilgrimage. It's a journey in
its own self and it in itself and
it and it's like it's it's drawing drawing
some analogies or between the cons the the
ritual of Hajj and the concept of carrying
the message. When if you understand,
Hajj,
the the the ritual of Hajj picks up
a new dimension for you. Like, if you
understand this parallel just from understanding the purpose
of this Surah,
where Allah subhanahu wa'ala is talking about carrying
the message as a journey that requires a
lot of perseverance and flexibility
and commitment and grit, which is what the
Surah talks about in jihad and striving.
Well, that's what Hajj is, which is why
the Surah is called Hajj. So if you
go to Hajj and you understand that as
another dimension to Hajj, you learn a lot
from it. So Hajj, you're not just knowing
the history behind, Yani, the the human race
history within within that area. The history of
Ibrahim, the history of Muhammad alaihi salatu wa
sallam within the actions that you're doing. But
also Hajj symbolizes the carrying of this message.
It has everything. You're required to have that
flexibility and grit and perseverance and patience and
and commitment to actually get through the, you
know, the 4 or 5 days of Hajji.
It's not it's not easy. It's not simple.
It's surrounded by a lot of people. They're
very tiring.
Not everyone follows the rules properly. Not everyone's
there for the right reason. Not everyone's gonna
act in an appropriate manner. You have to
be the person who's willing to absorb all
of that because the you have a bigger
purpose that you're looking towards. It's it's it's
it's perfect a perfect analogy to what you're
doing when you're carrying this message. So that's
why it's called Hajj. And if you understand
that, then Hajj becomes a little bit more
intriguing and interesting for you and when you
perform your, your.
It
points out that
the the value within this message are are
the people
or the or the people that you have
to invest in them. That you have
people have to have certain attributes
in order for them to be able to
carry this message and those attributes are talked
to him in the Surah, but that the
value itself are the human beings, which is
something that we could afford to to listen
to a little bit more, you know, carefully
as Muslims in this community. And in in
most Muslim communities in the west and in
Yani as minorities and even back home where
there's a Yani and,
a blown out of proportion.
An overrated emphasis on spaces
and on, yeah, any architecture
and on buildings and establishments.
And there is not merely enough, yeah, any
focus on the investment in people, in human
beings, in,
educating and mentoring and empowering
and taking and and focusing on on on
youth and on, you know, their stories and
helping them grow and learn and and and
build their identity and actually take on some
responsibility.
That is a,
is a is a on on its own,
quite a difficult,
thing to get done. I guess not easy.
If the emphasis of the if the if
the emphasis of the community is that, it's
difficult if the community is focused
purely on that. If your community is not
focused on that at all, it's almost impossible.
Like, there's almost no hope of that happening
at all, which is what I find to
be the problem here. I mean, if you
were to ask me what, you know, from
a from an organizational perspective, the problem in
London is that there's no emphasis on the
person.
The emphasis is on the the spaces, the
places, how many of them, where they are,
how big they are, right, how fancy they
are, how many parking spots they're they're going
to be. You know, this the focus, oh,
the imam has a nice voice or not
a nice voice. Who cares? This never mattered,
by the way. You were just asked in
you know, it comes to Quran. You're just
asked to try and make the Quran sound
nice. Like, you try you just try your
best. But the but the for for the
focus to be on the voice is, like,
so superficial that it's not even it's it's
it's it's shameful to talk about altogether. Or
the emphasis is on people,
on the investment in people, not on numbers,
not how many people do you rent, do
you bring in for your jumal?
Or how many people come for taraawiyah?
Opened the Masjid, he would fill it in
for jum'ah and taraawiyah. It it it doesn't
show it doesn't
you're not proving anything that, oh, Jomama is
full. So what?
That doesn't matter. People will go to the
closest message they have when it comes to.
The question is is is there emphasis is
there investment in the person who's actually leading
the work? Is there emphasis in the people
that he that that are being recruited and
the youth that are coming into the mess
yet. Are we taking interest in these human
beings? Are we listening to where they are
in their lives? And are we helping them
find figure out what they're going to do?
And are we allowing helping them
and aiding them on their journey? This is
what Surah Al Mulk talks about, that the
the the the value of our people. And
here are their attributes. Here's what they have
they're supposed to look like. And here are
the arguments that that that stand by that.
That's what Surah Al Mulk explains.
His message
emphasizes
the the value of the of the individual
within the group, the the value of the
individual and investing in in people, especially in
in younger people.
Surat An Nur,
it talks about the fact that
carrying this message requires a pious community.
Carrying this message would properly will lead to
a pious community.
A community that is enlightened. If Sultanul will
talk about the individual, Sultanul talks about the
community.
If Sultanul is focused on the on the
value being the the investing in people. Surat
Anur looks at the community. A community that
has the right
value set will be a community that's enlightened,
has in it versus versus be be which
is what the Surah actually literally talks about.
And it gives examples of of how communities
should behave a bit better and where mistakes
should not be made.
Because if you're gonna carry this message and
the community that's carrying this message is a
community that is not enlightened and is not
protected from the pitfalls
of, of collective behavior. There's a there are
pitfalls of individualistic
behavior,
and there are pitfalls of collective behavior, and
they're not the same problems. They're a little
bit different. Understanding these differences is actually key
to to figuring out what you're going to
do with your life and what to watch
out for as you as you move along.
Sultan Noor talks about the fact that this
message is designed to grant a society
that Noor, but also this message cannot be
carried if the society does not have that
Noor. If the community is not enlightened and
is not
protected from certain behaviors that are problematic
that can that can cause us downfall,
for example,
at the beginning of the Surah and then
later on. If the if the communities are
not protected from that, then they can't carry
this message.
A community that is not, yeah, does not
have the adab, have the akhlaq, have the
enlightened values and principles cannot is not qualified
to carry this message. This message cannot be
carried by those who don't
have these ideals.
Unfortunately, that's just the case. You could argue
that all you need is just a good
a good ideology,
and then people should should adhere to the
faith regardless. But that's not the reality.
That's not the reality. You need you need
examples. You need examples of those who this
faith whom this faith worked for.
You need an example of whom
adopted this faith and benefited from it and
were enlightened because of it, Not individualistically,
but on a group level.
Like, if if just as a person you
are impressive and you're Muslim,
that's not doesn't mean anything. I can show
you a lot of people from different pay
faiths and they're very impressive and very and
very committed to their faith. That's not
but you need a society on the other
hand, a community that's enlightened, that has values
and principles that are protected from, from filth
and protected from corruption. Because of a faith
now that that's something that will, will will
will draw interest.
That will turn heads.
People want to see that. People are willing
to actually change their whole lifestyle for that.
Right?
And that's what Surat Anur talks about. So
the these 2 surahs, minur and Nur, they
just look at the value. The value of
the individual, which is what's with minur, The
investments in people, investments in individuals, which requires
a lot of work. Communities have to be
focused on that. The value you see people
walking into the message, you don't see a
dollar bill. You see a person that you
can you can help empower. Someone that you
can teach, you can educate, you can mentor,
you can bring them in and make sure
that they're the next person in line to
carry this dean. That's what you see. And
then, collectively,
communities have to have have to have these
values in place so that they can actually
carry this message, so that they're enlightened. Because
if they're not, then it's not going to
work. And that's what's what Nuan explains. And
that's basically what these Suras talk about.
And tomorrow, I mean, towards the end of
this cluster, I'll summarize all what Vasu has
kinda talked about and how they covered, Yani,
all the different angles that are required for
carrying this message. And at the end, it'll
actually I'll make a list for you, and
you'll see it's quite interesting. Like, it covers
almost every important aspect of carrying a message.
So let's go to,
let's start tonight and see what,
maybe 6 or 7. I I don't I
I ignore the votes when it's less than
7.
Oh, there's 10 today. Alright. Fine. So let's
do, what we do in 14.
This eye at the beginning of
Where Allah is talking about the creation of
the
Allah
here gives, the people of that age an
era and this age an era, a little
glimpse
of
the preciseness of his knowledge subhanahu wa ta'ala
of creation itself.
By going through these three stages or the
four stages of of the, development of an
embryo,
and a fetus, which is something that took,
you know, many centuries after the prophet alaihi
salatu wasalam's life for people to come to
any degree of understanding of it.
He talked about the, the sperm with the
egg turning into a a small piece of,
of red meat that is that is clinging
on. Is clinging onto something, which is which
is literally what the,
what the what
the fertilized egg does.
It
divides quickly.
2416,
it divides quickly. And then it differentiates
into a group of cells
whose job is going to be to hold
on to the uterus wall
and the others will turn into the fetus,
to the human being. That's that's how this
works. And if and if the, cells
don't cling on properly, that's the a quick
miscarriage that most women don't even notice. It
just it because it's so small, it's not
even it's not even something that's visible.
Means something that is big enough to chew.
Like, it's, it's it's it's big enough. It
it it looks like it's chewed up. Looks
like someone bit on it, which is literally
what the spine of a, of a small
embryo looks like. It looks like someone bit
with their teeth into it when you when
you look when you see how the curvature
of of it actually happens. It's a for
the first thing that happens is that urine
is that neuro
spinal,
differentiation that occurs,
where where cells, for reasons that only Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala knows,
so far will immigrate and cause this,
this indentation in the back of,
of the of the embryo and and start
the the beginning of the spinal cord. And
it looks when they and the the way
that they they move, it looks like someone
has bitten down on it.
And then the the bones start to differentiate.
And then we covered the bones with, with
meat, which is which is pretty much the,
the, the progression of of how
and then it it differentiates into a completely
different creation.
And then that little thing that has just
a little bit of the the beginning of
bones and the being of meat on it
and a little bit of a curvature
and an eye clinging onto the wall, it
starts to grow into something totally
different. It differentiates into what you become later.
The prophet
would recite this verse
in, the presence of the Sahaba
of the
And the narration,
even though it's a Meki Surah. The narration
is that this these verses parts of some
Surahs have
and and and the scholars have seen these
verses,
to some of them to be verses. They
would recite this, alayhis salaat, to sound the
presence of some of the Sahaba. And as
he's listening,
And the verses were were had been recited
before that, but that's what he that's what
his yeah. He threw his, the purity of
his understanding of the language, that was his
conclusion.
Means may the of something increase.
May the that comes to us from Allah
be on the on on the increase.
The best of all creators.
And when he says
that even though he's the only creator, if
we are calling creation,
bringing something from nothingness to
that he's the only creator. And then nothing
but the word creation in in Arabic also
means other stuff,
as it does in English. So when we
say creation, when we zoom out and say
we want the,
the literal meaning of the word, which is,
producing
from nothingness something
or somethingness.
Well, there's a lot of other uses for
the word creation. When you come up with
anything new, or you bring something out that
would did not exist before, even though the
elements of it did is called creation. So
that's what he's using here
the one who creates the best. No one
creates better than him
even though no one truly creates aside from
him
Alright.
Let's, do a
number 36.
So when you go through these first two
stories in Surat, Al Mu'minun,
The first one is the story of Noah.
The second one is generic.
The second story within Surah Al Mu'minun is
not
the the prophet in that story is not
named.
Right?
And there's no way for us to figure
out for sure which one it is. Some
scholars say it's Salih alaihi salam, some say
it. So we don't know because there's no,
like, clear,
piece of of context that that gives it
away. So it's just a generic story of
almost every prophet.
Some scholars say that this is the story
of the prophet
himself. But regardless, I think it just he
put it there
saying all the prophets after were the same
thing. All the stories was to hear the
story of Noah, and then it was pretty
much the same thing. Here's the skeleton, same
story. We send, we we give them, evidence,
we give them proof, we we preach to
them, and then they say no.
And the reason that they say no
is that they find difficult
for for to accept a number of things.
Number 1,
having someone sent to them that is a
human being.
If you're going to follow a human being
that's just like you, then you're you're in
loss
because it's it's human. The second one was
accepting
the rulings,
meaning when there's a lot of laws, a
lot of restrictions or prohibitions or things that
you have to do or things you cannot
do, Human beings don't like that. They don't
like to be told what what to do
and what not to do. And the third
one is resurrection.
The concept of accountability that you're going to
be resurrected from the earth and after you
die and then held accountable for the choices
that you make.
People don't like that. So what they're what
they're telling the prophet in this story, in
this generic story,
But he is promising you that once you
die and you turn into
bones and and and
there's nothing left to you but bones and
you're you're done. You disappear. That you're going
to be somehow brought back from that state
again.
So
they continue and they say
is
an Arabic phrase that means far away, meaning
it's it's not gonna happen.
If you've heard that. If
you come from a,
from a Shami or Palestinian or Lebanese background.
It is not happening. It's way too far
down the line. It's not gonna happen. It's
not gonna be the case here. So that's
the the you the meaning of the word.
So they use it
twice.
Far far away. This, this this idea, the
possibility or the probability of this of this
occurrence
is so far away.
That which you are,
promised of, that which you are told is
going to happen, the probability of it is
very, very low. It's not worth your time
to believe in or to accept altogether.
It's only our life here in Dunia.
We we die and we live.
We'll be never we'll never be resurrected.
And that's the problem with the human being.
You're being promised that you will be resurrected
and you will be held accountable.
The the really sad truth about this is
that,
honestly, if people actually believed in this,
their behaviors would be so much different. Like,
as Muslims,
I know we we claim that we believe
believe in Aqirah.
But
but belief in Aqira is something that has
a direct impact on your daily choices and
your ongoing behavior.
A direct impact is a very powerful one.
When you know that you're going to be
held accountable
and the set of of the standards and
criteria that you're gonna held be held to
is quite rigid. And there's not going to
be any, yeah, any way for you to
bring in your allies or bring in people
who will vouch vouch for you. It's just
you and Allah
If you truly believe that you're going to
be held accountable to everything that you're doing
in this life and that they're going to
read a book that has within it all
of your choices, then you
it's impossible.
People people can't live in certain ways if
they do. Like, you can't you can't waste
your time or your wealth or you just
can't you can't behave in ways that are
that are malicious
and
and harmful.
And you just can't you can't eat haram
because it's impossible because you know that you're
gonna be resurrected. It's the lack of belief
in this concept that allows people to be
the way they are. Like, our failure as
individuals comes from the fact that we kind
of believe in it, but not really. Like,
yeah. I mean, it sounds like it may
happen. I'm trying to do something about it,
but I'm not sure about this. It's
the complex. And it seems so far away.
Seems so unlikely. Seems so unlikely that's going
to happen.
But, but a, which is what the Surah
the Surah is called the are those who
accept this as a fact. We are going
to come out of our graves, and we're
going to be held accountable to the lives
we lived. And then we are going to
be sent into 1 of 2 directions. And
this is the the most simple way to
understand the story that we are living today.
It's to simplify the story, not make it
too complicated. Just that. And that alone see,
when you remove
from the equation, the equation doesn't doesn't hold
anymore.
If you remove the concept of yomulkiyama,
resurrection and accountability,
From the equation of life, nothing works.
None of you should be here. If you
don't fully
if you don't have certainty in yomulkiyama, then
what's the why are you here? And why
would you not eat for 30 days straight?
There's no power on this earth that should
push you to do that. Like, why why
would you? It makes no sense to to
give your life up to anything unless you
have full certainty in it.
And their problem in these stories of the
this generic story is why I chose this
because it's a generic story. It's
It's, you know, far it's farfetched farfetched that
which you are promised.
And because of that, they ended up making
choices they later regretted.
Alright. Let's do
let's do IA number 99.
And then we'll go on
Probably some of the most, beautiful
in the in the most have are starting
from number 99 of until
the end of it. I I just adore
these verses. They're just beautiful.
They just do this breathtaking.
This first aya, it starts
And just as one of them
is receiving death,
death comes to you, you don't go to
it. Sometimes people go to it, but most
of the time, death comes to you. And
even when you do, it's still something that
has to be decreed upon you. Death will
your decreed
death is decreed upon you, so it comes
to you.
Their their first response, the first thing that
comes out of their mouths when when death,
sets its weight upon you and you start
feeling your spirit is slowly being removed from
your body and you don't have control over
things anymore. And your reality is no longer
what it was. And this is what's going
to happen to each and every person sitting
in this room.
Every person here today is going to die.
It's just a matter of time.
Literally, it's a matter of time. There's nothing
aside to it aside from time. And you
are headed towards your death every moment that
passes takes you a, you know, a step
closer to it.
Before the you were 1 hour
farther away from your death, and now you're
an hour closer to it. And by the
end of, you're an hour and a half
closer to your death than you were from
this moment. And that's just how things are.
And there's nothing that we're headed to that
is more certain than our deaths.
You're headed to other stuff inshallah in your
life in terms of your successes and your
accomplishments, your achievements. Inshallah, you have things ahead
of you that you will you will do
that will have higher in them. But what
you are unequivocally
heading towards with no
need or reason for to debate it, there
is no way around it. And there's nothing
that is more certain than it is your
death. We're all we're all headed towards the
end of our lives.
And the first thing that comes out of
the mouth of the person who who head
who's headed toward once once death actually
falls upon them is
is they
say Oh, our Lord, send us back.
That's the word.
Allow me to go back. I wanna go
back.
Maybe I'll do better,
than I did this first time around.
Let me let me go back and try
again.
I have I I it it I have
it I understand now. It makes sense to
me now.
Okay. This is was more than I than
I thought was going to occur. This is
a bit more complicated than I than I
was imagining. Let me go back.
No.
Indeed, it is a word.
That he says
which is you will never go back.
Another
is that it's just a word the person
says. It doesn't go anywhere. They're not gonna
be granted they're not gonna be granted this.
It's just a kalima.
They'll say it. It doesn't matter.
And behind and and what's what's ahead of
them is is that transitional period
till the day that they're
resurrected. Number 26.
Or I think let's be fair. Not 15.
Let's do 15. Person at 26.
So what happened
in the famous story,
when the Syedah Aisha
was was spoken ill of,
She was accused of doing something that she
did not she absolutely did not do.
And the Sahabi, the, the the pure Sahabi
also was accused of doing something he did
not do.
And the rumors
spread within the city. Surat Anur starts by
explaining,
first of all, the of of the act
of fornication and adultery,
and the punishment of doing it publicly. And
then it moves on again. So the saying
here is that you want you want to
spread the message, you must, as a community,
be enlightened. You have to follow these rules,
and it starts out by making very clear
Taheem of Faheisha. But then it moves on
to something different, which is which is the
discussion
that would surround a concept of Faheisha or
a story regarding Fahesha.
And in the story, a lady's
a lady's dignity or integrity
was being
was being questioned by people with with no
evidence of of the thing actually occurring.
Islam values the dignity and integrity of the
human being. And specifically,
the in the the integrity and the dignity
of a woman.
So it had a different name. The word
ghiba and namima
and bhutan are words that are used to
talk about gossip, different levels and different types
of gossip.
But if you if you say something about
the integrity of a woman, it's called.
Yeah. It's called it's called qadf. Qadf is
is something worse. It has its own category.
It has its own
punishment. If I say something about you,
a gentleman sitting here and I and I
start accusing you of something, any bad act,
the worst that can happen is that you
can sue me or that, yeah, I mean,
I have to go ahead and, yeah, I
mean, apologize publicly. But if I say something
about the integrity of a lady, then I
can be lashed publicly in front of people.
I can receive public punishment. I can be
humiliated publicly for doing this.
And that's the value that Islam takes when
it looks at, this
this issue.
And what happened in the the community of
the Madina, of the Madina of the prophet
was that some people did the right thing,
which is they denied,
you deny.
Someone says something about someone else, comes to
a and they don't have evidence to support
it. Like, it's not something that 4 people,
4 witnesses picked up on, 4 witnesses who
were not, spying or peeking. By the way,
if 4 people see the act of Faisha
and they had to look through a curtain
or peek over a window,
it it doesn't count. Their testimony doesn't count.
It has to be something happening in an
open space.
If you had to if you had to
remove a court curtain, open a door, or
look through a window, then you're the one
who is accountable.
That's how this deen works because it's about
public.
What people do in their in the secrecy
of their own is that their problem is
still haram. It's still fully haram, but it's
not something that is going to be publicly
punished. There's a difference. There's a difference in
the eyes of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala than
the eyes of a society. So the Nur
is focused on societies and communities and how
they're going to function and what what is
what is punishable from a societal perspective, what
is not. So some people defend it, and
that's your job as a Muslim. You hear
something, you say, no. That that wouldn't happen.
And that that you you deny it. You
don't need you don't need evidence. Like, you
don't have to have evidence to deny someone
making an accusation of haram towards someone else.
You can do that Yani comfortably without the
required the the need of you don't have
to say, well, I have to look into
this. Nope. Do you the person who's making
the accusation, do you have hard evidence? No.
It didn't happen. And you should be ashamed
of yourself.
And never go back to saying this again
because our we refuse to, exposure of people's
sins. We we look to conceal them.
And some people were quiet,
which was not good either. The Surah point
out that you shouldn't have been quiet. That's
not good enough at all. You should have
but then there's a third point of people
who talked about
it. Like, who talked about the room. They
didn't believe it, but they talked about it.
We're not the 4th group, which you're wondering,
the 4th group got spread the room or
oh, those those are
Those those people are going to yeah. They're
gonna be punished. The hellfire awaits those who
makes up who make up rumors about other
people. That's that's a given. The Surah is
not even interested in talking
to
the
those who perform will actually actually make up
the rumor
that Allah's damnation is upon them and the
and the hellfire is awaiting them. May Allah
protect us from doing something like that. But
the group of people who spread the message
and didn't really believe it, but they talked
about it. Like, hey, you hear?
You didn't hear? Oh,
dull.
They say this is what they're talking about.
I know. It's bizarre. He I never thought
he would do that. Did you? No. But
maybe that's what they're saying. And then you
go find someone else. Are you here?
I don't believe it, but that's what they're
saying.
As you as you take it
through your tongues, meaning your it's an oral
it's an oral transmission.
You're taking it from tongues. Someone is speaking
or taking it through the tongue. You heard
it. And then you say with your mouth
something you don't have the knowledge of
And you think that is simple. You think
that it's no big deal.
I what did I do? I I just
I heard something. I talked about it to
someone else. I don't I didn't I didn't
say he did it. I didn't say they
did this. I just said that that's what
I heard. I'm just I'm just transmitting information.
Just I am a big database of good
inform just information. I I that's what I'm
about. I'm just sharing information.
You think it's simple.
And to Allah
it's a big deal.
To Allah
it's a big it's a it's a huge
issue
that you speak of people.
And you don't need these verses really to
understand that as important and beautiful as these
verses are. Because all you have to think
about is
if someone made up a rumor about you,
how would you want people to, to deal
with it?
You'd be okay with individuals talking about it?
They don't believe it. They're just talking about
it because they heard it. You're okay with
that.
No. You wouldn't be.
You wouldn't be. If someone made up a
rumor about you and someone
spread it
benignly saying, I don't believe it, but that's
what people are talking about. You wouldn't be
okay with that.
Because it's your reputation. It's your life.
And that's what the the Surah was teaching
the Sahaba.
You don't go back.
And these are these in these verses.
Allah grants you this piece of advice to
never go back to doing something like this
ever again. If you are believers, true believers,
you never go back to this again.
And, Yani,
in this era that we live in, Yani,
it's
hard it's hard to,
it's hard to say positive things about social
media. It's hard. Like, I like to. I
want to. I think there's a lot of,
Yani.
There's a lot of potential for benefit from
from from social media. But it's really hard
to say good things about it because of
how much garbage is on it and how
much, yeah, how much
harm there is within it. And sometimes one
act of harm can, you know,
can literally ruin a legacy of goodness, like
a like a full legacy just by one
act of harm. Because the basic law within
Islam, and this is also in medicine and
almost every discipline that deals with human beings.
It's caused no harm. You you cause no
harm. The first thing. And rumors and spreading
rumors and
social media allowed for that. It allowed for
it to spread way quicker. Before when it
was just
just things people heard, it took a while
for a rumor to spread.
Now it doesn't you just post something. And
you go from, yeah, I need the requirement
to speak to 1 to 2 or 10
or 15 people in a setting. Is speaking
to a 1,000 and a 1000000 and a
1000000 people within a couple of minutes.
And now, Yani, mistakes that people make are
are no longer,
deletable.
Yeah. And the younger brothers and sisters, you
just have to understand that. Yeah. I mean,
your parents are giving you phones.
First of all, if you're really young. I
I don't agree with it. I really don't.
You'll see the number of Shabab plummet after
tonight.
Yeah. Yeah. I don't agree with the with
if if you don't need a phone, I
don't agree with you having it. I don't
agree with you having one if you don't
absolutely require it.
Because the risk that it puts you at
is something that I don't think you understand.
If you're young, I don't think you understand
or comprehend the risk that this thing is
putting you at because it's not fair to
you. It's not fair for a 17 year
old, to make a mistake and that mistake
never ever be forgotten.
That's not fair. You're young. You have you
you're going to mistake mistake. You have to
make mistakes and you have to be able
to make mistakes and for them to to
kind of wash off later.
And that not define you for the rest
of your life. And a a post or
a picture or a video or something that
you did not haunt you until the end
of your time, requiring you to move and
change your name and change your context and
change and the effect that has on people's
psyche and people's ability to, you know, to
to grow and and do something. I don't
think you understand. And you're bound to make
mistakes because you're human and you're young. And
if you have this device that can
I don't agree with it?
I think these, you know, these things have
to be better managed. Now maybe the next
generation will be smarter than mine in terms
of using these, devices, but but I ain't
seeing it.
Yeah. No. I'm not seeing it. I'm not
seeing the, the the,
heightened intellect of using these phones. Like, I'm
not I'm not what I'm seeing is actually,
yeah,
I'm I'm I'm more immaturity.
I'm seeing people actually really misusing what they
have. And it's just, people are so close
to harming themselves. It's just it's just
you can't imagine that someone's holding something in
their hand. And all they do is just
they move their fingers wrong for a second,
and they'll be staying for the rest of
their lives.
Like the the this will haunt them till
their to the into their graves.
Like, that's too close. Like, the concept in
Islam is that you stay away from harm
as much as possible. So that when you
make a mistake or do something wrong, you're
still far away from harm.
These phones, it's just so easy.
Well, it's just a few in a coordinated
movements of your thumb.
And then suddenly you're you're you're doomed. You
can never get rid of this.
That's way too close. That's that proximity that
people have with with, Yani.
Eternal harm. And when I say they'll be
using that term, like harm that never goes
without staining harm, that state is is is
just the proximity is too much. It's too
much.
Too much for someone. It's not fair. It's
not fair for you. If you're young, it's
not fair to you. You don't deserve that.
You should be able to live like a
normal human being. Grow up and make mistakes
and say silly things and do stuff that
are wrong and then be corrected and taught
so you can grow and become and become
successful instead of having to live with with
them.
I just think it's something worth thinking about.
Let's do ayah number 26.
For this, I'm just gonna clarify a misconception
regarding this ayah. Because a lot of people
read this verse and think it has to
do with
people. Meaning bad people for bad bad women
will marry bad men. No. It has nothing
to do with men and women. This ayah
is completely not about
good men will marry good women and good
women will marry good men and no.
As in actions. Bad deeds,
bad behaviors
belong to bad people.
Yeah? And bad people will seek out bad
behaviors.
And good deeds
belong to good people, and good people will
seek out good deeds. That's what this ayah
means. So please stop using it as as
if it has something to do with your
marriage
or some other person's marriage. It doesn't. It
has nothing to do with all of that.
It doesn't. It has nothing to do with
it. Just to make your life a little
bit easier, it has nothing to do with
that.
Even though we continue to always advocate that
as someone who insha'Allah is trying to be
al Fayyib, look for al Fayyib. If you're
someone who is trying to be a good
person in their life, look for someone who's
also good, who is pious, who has good
deeds. This has this doesn't take away from
the importance of doing that. It's just that
this verse specifically is not saying that because
this verse has been historically misused.
Misused
to kind of point these certain things out.
And I don't think it's fair to use
a verse incorrectly that later on causes problems.
People who may have passed and they repented
from those past. If people who have passed
and repented and are actually living life better
have no chance to ever marrying someone who
is good, then you're dooming the society to
never accept
your repentance. It's like you're going to have
2 societies. Those who were lucky enough not
to make big mistakes that they're going to
be known for, and those who repented from
their mistakes. And we have 2 groups of
people that don't mix and that's not what
Islam is about.
So this is important to understand, Yani, within
this verse.
Let's do one more. Let's do number 62
or a 40. 40 to 40 because that's
more 40 than 1.
No.
No. Totally off.
Allah gives the examples of his of his
light and the light that he will grant
the communities that follow his teachings and carry
his message in the verses before. And then
he talks about the darkness. And the second
parable he gives for the darkness
or the darkness or similar to the darkness
in a very angry sea or an
angry
ocean. Where there is one
level of waves upon another level of waves.
Upon it a level of dark clouds.
Darknesses levels of darknesses.
1 upon the other.
If the person in that darkness takes his
hand out,
they can't even see their own hand. This
is the example he's giving subhanahu wa ta'ala.
That you can be in a state, a
community and then it could be in the
state of darkness that they can't see that
which is right in front of their faces
anymore,
which is the problem that a lot of
communities have and and and we're not immune
to that. But the beautiful part right at
the end,
And whomever Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala does not
give light to, they will never find light.
The light that we have in our lives
is the light that Allah grants us which
is why you're here. You're here because you're
asking Allah
to grant to grant you that light. Because
if he doesn't grant you that light, there
is no light. And you'll take out your
hand and you won't be able to see.
You'll you'll be in a suggest in a
situation of such darkness that you can't see
in front of you.