Adnan Rajeh – Sunday Tafseer- 67 Part 1 Surat Al-Mulk- 1-2
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The speakers discuss the importance of understanding and being aware of one's rights and responsibilities to achieve success, including practicing the Mahabharata and reciting the Mahabharata every day. They also emphasize the need for individuals to make choices based on their deeds and experiences, and offer a book on personal growth as a tool for growth opportunities. The surah is a tool for personal growth.
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Salli wa sallim wa barak ala nabiyyina wa
habibina muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma
'in wa ba'd Tonight inshallah ta'ala we
begin tafsir of surah al-mulk and we
are opening with this surah a new group
or cluster of surahs within the final mufassal,
so this halaqa that started almost with the
opening of this space this halaqa was designed
or the goal of it was to do
tafsir of what is called in the Qur
'an al-mufassal and al-mufassal is from
qaf to an-nas and they're technically the
last four juz' from the Qur'an and
they're divided into four groups which are the
four ajza' exactly, so from qaf to al
-hadeed, one the first cluster and then from
al-mujadila to al-tahreem the second and
then al-mulk to al-mursalat the third
and then from naba till the end and
each cluster of surahs is talking about something
a little bit different all together the mufassal
summarizes or talks about all of that which
the Qur'an detailed in the first 26
juz' and I still hold the belief and
I'm firm on this that if you're not
someone who is a strong memorizer and you
don't have the capacity to memorize the entirety
of the Qur'an or a lot of
it then know from qaf to an-nas
this is a good amount of Qur'an
to know, it's around four juz' and within
them all of the fundamental Islamic values, principles
and teachings exist within them and if you
understand what they mean then inshallah not only
do you have a good amount of Qur
'an that you're able to recite you also
have a good amount that you're able to
reflect upon and contemplate and learn from which
is why we're doing these halaqat and we've
basically now covered half of what the halaqat
is going to cover it only took us
two and a half years so another two
and a half years inshallah we'll conclude the
rest of the two juz' so mimqaftu al
-hadeed was a full mekki cluster and it
talked about the fundamentals of faith in the
form of comparisons every surah offered you two
choices between living for righteousness and wanting to
go to jannah versus for example living for
falsehood and going to narwish surah al-qaf
and then living with purpose versus living aimlessly
in surah al-dhariyat etc and each surah
offered an option for you or for us
and if you made the right choices then
you had the basics of what your faith
was built of and it was very value
driven the second cluster which we just concluded
last week from al-mujadid al-tahrim it
was a full medani juz' every surah in
it was revealed in medina and most of
them in the late medani period before the
prophet a.s. passed away by a few
years and these surahs were organizational in their
goals meaning every surah came to organize an
aspect of the muslim individual and the muslim
community and each of them kind of covered
a different aspect and we went over them,
i'm not going to repeat them all tonight
but for example the last one that we
did, the last two, surah at-talaq it
was focused on organizing the aspect of marriage
initiating and ending and surah at-tahrim talked
about organizing the household or family which is
what we kind of concluded with last week
now this juz' from al-mulk to al
-mursalat now this is a very well known
one most people have memorized certain like what
we're coming towards are surahs that are famous
and most muslims have memorized them all or
memorized most of them and children, that's kind
of what we start with you get them
to know juz' amma and juz' tabarak and
that's a reasonable thing for them to achieve
this juz' talks about the requirements for proper
representation whether that representation is in carrying islam
for yourself or whether it's in carrying islam
in terms of da'wah what are the
requirements?
what do you need in order for you
to be able to carry islam or represent
islam this is talked about in the quran
over the course of maybe five to six
juz' it's a very long part of the
quran from isra' basically to an-naml all
these surahs talk about this aspect, this topic
and the surahs go into great detail this
juz' summarizes basically what you find in those
surahs with very few words so everything that
you're going to read in juz' tabarak is
going to be extremely, extremely deep it's going
to take us time for us to go
through these surahs adding to that is that
it's like the mirror these surahs are the
mirror of the juz' before it like when
you look at the mujadila, al-hashr and
all these these surahs are late in his
life some of them are very, very late
the mirror of that is this juz' they're
all very, very early surahs three of them
are amongst the first five that were revealed
to the prophet the first five are so
three of them exist in this juz' and
the rest of the surahs around them aren't
that far off they're very close by they're
all revealed within the first maybe two to
three maybe up to four years of his
prophecy on a spanning of 23 years you
have these two juz' one of them, the
surahs were revealed in the last four years
of his prophecy this juz' within the first
four years of his prophecy so there's a
little bit of a distinction in the topics
so all of the surahs we're going to
recite, all of them even surah al-insan
all of them are Meccan none of them
are Madani despite maybe popular belief there's not
a surah in this juz' that is in
Medina all of them are in Mecca all
of them very early Meccan surahs all of
them quoted by the prophet and the early
aspects and they talk about the fundamentals of
what you're going to require and they cover
things in this fashion what do you need?
you need as a Muslim to represent Islam
appropriately you need a bunch of things there's
a requirement in terms of knowledge there's a
requirement in terms of ethics there's a requirement
in terms of emotional connection there's a requirement
in terms of behaviors these are the first
four surahs in this juz' each one is
going to talk about what is it that
you need you have to have a certain
standard of these four in order for you
to be able to carry Islam as an
individual for yourself or even carry it to
others and spread it and perform da'wah
which is how I usually frame the explanation
of this juz' it's like as if Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala is preparing you you
want to become a da'ia okay here's
what you need you need all, you have
to have certain pieces of information this ilm
which is what surah al-tabarak, surah al
-mulk is going to cover you need to
have a certain standard of ethics which surah
al-qalam covers you need to have a
certain degree of spiritual and emotional connection to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala which surah al
-haqqa covers and then you have to have
a certain standard of your behaviors and your
practices which surah al-ma'arij covers and
then it gives us other examples of those
who did it really well and those where
it worked, where it didn't work how are
you going to protect it what the basic
values are this is what the juz' basically
does these surahs are extremely beautiful and if
you have not, for some reason been memorizing
what we've been reading since we started this
halaqah because every time we recite maybe half
a page or so which on a week
basis is not a lot then start now
if you don't have the last two juz'
of the Quran then just entertain what I'm
saying here today and play along with me
and if you just memorize what we do
every week here at home then you come
back you'll live for the next two years
insha'Allah at least have two juz' of
the Quran not only applied to memory but
also understood and comprehended so that you have
things to reflect upon and contemplate later on
within your life so that's kind of a
quick overview of what this 29th juz' of
the Quran is which is the third cluster
within this group called Al-Mufassal from Qaf
to An-Nas and insha'Allah you're going
to find it very very enjoyable I know
that the juz' that we covered from Al
-Mujahidah Al-Tahrim was a little bit more
technical I think our attendance dropped a little
bit in the midst of it for better
or for worse attendance dropped a little bit
because I could tell people are struggling with
the amount of fiqh that was in it
and the technicalities of it and a lot
of it was just practices and do's and
don'ts and how's and how not to this
juz' is different this juz' is very very
spiritual and it's very very value based and
principle driven and it's what the Prophet alayhi
salatu wasalam focused on I want you to
imagine that these are the surahs that the
sahaba listened to in the early years of
their relationship with him alayhi salatu wasalam it's
what he recited in those early prayers in
Mecca it's what he taught in those early
years in Dar Al-Arqam these were the
surahs that they got to listen to now
they're at the end of the Qur'an
appropriately so if you've listened to me talk
about how the Qur'an is put together
every surah in the Qur'an has three
dimensions the first one is when it was
revealed to the Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam the
second one is where it is in the
Mus'haf and the third one is what
it does for you and that piece is
what I'm trying to help you figure out
for yourself the other two are pretty simple
you'll find out pretty easily so the Qur
'an when you start from the beginning Surah
Al-Fatiha has an early surah but Al
-Baqarah isn't Al-Baqarah is 14 years in
it's at least 14-15 years into his
life alayhi salatu wasalam and so is Surah
Al-Imran and so is Surah An-Nisa
they're all later and so is Surah Al
-Ma'idah and then you have so why
is it like that?
because each surah when you have its dimension
of when it was revealed to him and
then where it is in the Qur'an
it gives you a clue of how to
understand it it helps you understand the fact
that they're not in the way it wasn't
supposed to be in the way it was
revealed the sequence of surahs in the Qur
'an is not supposed to be based on
revelation it's supposed to be the way it
is right now and if you understand if
you look at it appropriately then there's a
lot for you to learn from that you
end up understanding more from the surahs by
understanding where it is in the Qur'an
in terms of what surahs are around it
what are these surahs talking about what is
it talking about and then when it was
revealed to the Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam so
you can actually have the context for it
so these early surahs not just in Juz
Tabarak by the way but also in Juz
Ammar because the majority of Juz Ammar also
the surahs that were revealed in the first
5 years of his life alayhi salatu wasalam
they're at the end of the Qur'an
because they came at the beginning to give
small summaries quick 5 minute reads just to
know what to do the details will come
later at the beginning the sahaba were going
to carry what is Islam to people I'm
not going to go into too much detail
for you here, here's what you need to
know know it now because you have so
much ahead of you to do I will
detail for this to you later I will
detail this for you in Surah Al-An
'am and Al-A'raf later you'll read
it ala kayfah tu'as al-bayt, qas
al-shay al-madinah things are okay you
can read, take your time but right now
in Mecca you need quickly you need quickly
to understand all of this so the Qur
'an came in shorter surahs in fewer words
very deep the points were made the clarity
of the concepts were achieved for people who
were listening to them so it was put
at the end of the Qur'an where
the Qur'an is being summarized where after
26 Juz of explanation here's a solid summary
for you that's why I tell you memorize
this if you're not a memorizer if you're
not someone who's strong you don't have a
great memory memorize these wallahi it's good enough
it puts together it summarizes the whole the
whole book for you so these surahs that
were revealed at the beginning of his life
alayhi salam that gave him the basics that
he needed and that the sahaba needed it
makes sense that they're going to be at
the end of the Qur'an where the
summaries exist where all the really heavy stuff
are put together now at the beginning of
the Qur'an it's going into a lot
of detail surah an-nisa and surah al
-an'am is going to explain in long
depth how to understand Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala who Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
and what relationship you need to have with
him it's a 25 page explanation of all
of that how about surah al-mulk and
then in juz al-amr you're going to
get another one juz al-amr you're going
to get even a more summarized version of
this you're going to get qul allahu ahad
here that's all you need just know that
if you're not if you're not an am
memorizer mulk not a mulk qul allahu ahad
just know this just know the basics so
you can function so you can function regardless
of anything so you have the ability to
actually carry yourself as a Muslim appropriately so
that's what these surahs do I love this
I have to be honest this is probably
my favorite part of the Qur'an to
explain and you know this is about the
4th 5th time we've done this in this
city not out of lack of wanting to
explain other surahs but I really do believe
that it's not appropriate for me to go
and start explaining the the mutawwalat like surah
al-tawbah or yunus or going into the
depth of the middle of the Qur'an
if you don't have some of these basics
kind of nailed down and clear and there's
comfort in understanding them and once we do
that inshallah I think we did at some
point we did surah al-kahf right and
we did fatir and yaseen and a bunch
of other stuff about years ago I came
back to this because I felt that starting
this place I think it's worthwhile of going
through this final 4 chapters of the Qur
'an that summarize everything and making them available
to people in a recorded way so that
you can actually keep up with it so
we'll start inshallah with surah al-mulk we'll
recite a few verses and then I'll give
you a background of what the surah when
the surah was revealed and what it's talking
about right surah al
-mulk ayyukum
ahsanu amala wa huwa al-azizul
ghafoor so most scholars place surah al-mulk
within the second or third year of his
prophecy alayhi salatu wasalam a very early surah
it is known it has a number of
names al-munjiya is one of them the
savior the surah that saves and it's one
of the few surahs in the Qur'an
where we have authentic we have a lot
of narrations about the significance of surahs in
the Qur'an we have a lot of
narrations most of them unfortunately lack authenticity which
is why I don't share them very often
in these settings or in these sessions almost
every surah we read there's a narration talking
about some significance regarding it I don't always
share it because I don't have good evidence
or I don't have a proper authentic chain
for me to be comfortable sharing it but
for sure surah al-mulk has that surah
al-mulk has multiple narrations where the prophet
alayhi salatu wasalam says من قرأ سورة تبارك
قبل يومه حاربت عنه يوم القيامة أو كانت
نجاتا له من عذابه في القبر so the
prophet alayhi salatu wasalam would tell us in
different narrations and different hadith all of them
have reasonable degrees of authenticity that the person
who memorizes surah al-mulk the person who
recites surah al-mulk every day or every
night it will be a it will save
him on the day of judgment from or
save him from the punishment of the grave
and some say it will save him from
punishment on the day of judgment similar to
the hadith that we have that describe the
significance of surah al-baqar or al-imran
so you have al-baqar or al-imran
there's a lot of hadith regarding zahrawan and
the significance of these surahs and what they
do for your life and what they do
for yawm al-qiyamah surah al-mulk is
similar it talks about protecting you after you
pass away it's like it's something that shows
up for you when you need it the
most and because of this the sahaba would
put in a special effort in memorizing the
surah explaining it and reciting it quite often
it's something that I would advise everyone to
do at least once a day or if
not once a day at least once a
week you take surah tabarak in the evening
and you recite it with your family you
recite it before you pass away and you
can make it a habit by just adding
it to yawm al-qiyamah the easiest way
to do it is if you pray surah
al-qiyamah at night that you recite surah
al-mulk within them that's for lazy people
like myself that's what I do because I'm
too lazy to do it and do different
so an easy way to do it is
that instead of reciting it on its own
and then having yawm al-qiyam just put
them together so that way you've recited it
that night at once and you've done surah
qas so you've combined two in one especially
if you don't have the energy to do
both it's called surah al-mulk the dominion
or sovereignty it's also called surah tabarak another
name for it and it's called that because
it starts with that word it's not as
famous a name because there's another surah in
the Quran that starts with the word tabarak
surah al-furqan so surah al-mulk is
the more famous name and it's the more
the appropriate name as well this surah talks
about the requirement of knowledge that Muslims need
what is it that you need to know
what do you absolutely need to have in
terms of information or ilm not talking about
ilm al-fiqh these are Meccan surahs they're
not here to talk about the five pillars
of Islam no no no what is it
you need to know regarding Allah and your
relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that's
how Islam began Islam did not begin by
telling by talking about jurisprudence and how and
what you can and can't do or should
and should not do no the early phase
of his prophecy a.s.w. was just
making it very clear what tawheed was and
how you're supposed to comprehend the majesty and
the magnificence of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and all of the surahs that were revealed
in that period that's what they do and
surah tabarak is just your dose of knowledge
here's what you need to know here's what
you absolutely need to know and surah tabarak
covers every aspect of i'tiqad of theology that
you need it covers every aspect of main
or core theology that it is that you
need to know so it's a very rich
surah in terms of its philosophical depth and
I know the word philosophical causes a bunch
of people to be ready to leave but
really what I mean by philosophical is that
it talks about it takes a step back
in terms of understanding Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala you zoom out a little bit and
see things from a distance in terms of
creation and existence it's not here just to
talk about the fact that Allah is the
one and only it's going to talk to
you about how is it that you're going
to actually arrive at the conclusion of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala being the one and
only as the only conclusion that works within
this universe there's no other way that you
can understand the world that allows this is
quoted by I don't think it's by Hawking
I think he used it but I don't
think it's by him it's by someone else
I just can't remember who it was and
a lot of the naturalists if I may
use that term those who don't believe in
a deity or in a creator or in
a supreme power or in a God that
put all of this into motion they don't
they base their arguments on their understanding of
modern science it's on scientific understandings of the
world that they live in and what they
state this is a really cool quote that
science is capable of explaining absolutely everything for
you as long as you're willing to believe
in just one miracle at the beginning if
you're able to just accept one miracle science
is the answer for everything just don't ask
how it all began just don't ask that
question and I can break it all down
for you from the Big Bang moving on
till this moment we can basically map out
everything that's there just don't ask about that
one initial miracle and it's a very voice
on that quote to be interesting they say
it in passing or in I don't want
to say mockery but they say it lightly
but really this is what this is what
the Qur'an talks about the Qur'an
points out that science is not that complicated
for you as a human being it's not
going to be hard you're going to do
some observations you're going to see some patterns
make some trials you'll figure out a bunch
of stuff take plants from the earth you'll
figure out that they have certain substances you'll
be able to isolate them some of them
will fix your headache some of them will
help you lose weight some of them will
get you addicted and some of them will
make you high they'll do different things for
you depending on what you want to do
with your life you'll find all these animals
and they function different ways and they'll offer
you different sources of food and sources of
drink you'll figure things out medicine will improve
and technology will improve and the human being
will continuously find ways to build and to
improve his lifestyle and the more you study
history or anthropology to be more specific you'll
find that we're not the first generation that
was able to actually achieve great degrees of
architecture for example or to make it far
in terms of what people were able to
actually leave on the planet in terms of
that which they can be remembered by yesterday
we're ahead of probably every group in terms
of communication this is where we really figured
it out we figured out wavelengths and we
figured out electromagnetic fields and how they function
that's what we've been able to do but
before us they were able to do a
lot as well they were able to utilize
a lot of the resources that they had
around them and they understood aspects of physics
and I think that we're a little bit
arrogant in this era where we think we
know everything and that people before us they
knew nothing yeah that's because you just really
haven't read much of history you just really
haven't read how empires maybe a thousand or
a thousand and two hundred years ago functioned
and how they were able to service their
cities with water and have a complete sewage
system they had the ability to light their
roads without necessarily using electricity they had knowledge
they had ilm they had science and they
utilized in a way that gave them some
degree of independence in their lives I think
just because we were able to achieve so
much from a technological perspective and medical perspective
I think medicine is really where a lot
of the change occurred because the human life
expectancy for human beings went up significantly with
certain vaccines being discovered and figuring out germs
and viruses and microbes and all that but
there was knowledge before as well the Quran
is not worried about that piece for you
if you perform the concept of what you
cannot learn specifically by just studying any aspects
of creation are certain descriptions of Allah that
have to come to you through revelation you
can conclude certain things about Allah by looking
at what he created for sure you conclude
certain things you can conclude that he is
omnipotent that he is very capable you can
conclude that he is one there is no
potential for a second you can conclude that
he is knowledgeable from just seeing how life
exists and how it functions you can't conclude
other stuff though you can't conclude Allah being
the most generous and being the most compassionate
and being the most loving these are things
the Quran has to come and tell you
about him the Quran as in his word
he has to communicate with you verbally this
is how I am this is what I
want for you this is what I want
from you this is why you are here
but there are things that you can conclude
from elsewhere which is what Surah Al-Mulk
is going to try and cover for us
or what I am going to try sorry
to explain for you from Surah Al-Mulk
that it does cover it explains to us
all that which we need to know regarding
Allah regarding him as a deity as a
supreme power as a god regarding creation and
how to see it regarding our lives and
how to understand them regarding what happens after
our lives and which direction people go how
we understand fate and destiny and how we
look at all of these things Surah Al
-Mulk covering I urge you over the next
couple of weeks to recite this Surah and
contemplate for yourself it's going to take me
maybe five six lessons to go through this
thing so you have time read and contemplate
for yourself these topics and you'll find within
if you have this compass to figure out
what Surah Al-Mulk is talking to you
you're going to pick up a lot for
yourself as well because this is an early
communication from Allah to the people companions who
learned and took to heart and people love
it and I'm happy we'll be able to
recite it together so let's start with the
first ayat the first world of this whole
surah to explain to you in English is
going to be the first one.
The rest are pretty easy.
This one specifically is hard to explain because
I don't think we have a perfect word
in English that translates it.
So in Arabic the word tabarak comes from
the the root of barakah which is blessing.
Which is something having more value than what
comes to eye, what meets the eye.
That's what barakah means.
Barakah means you see something you see it
to be to have a certain value.
Barakah means there's more value than what meets
the eye.
There's more to it.
You just don't see it.
You can't recognize it but it's there.
There's more barakah to it.
There's more value to this than you can
see.
Tabarakah is from the linguistic derivative in Arabic
of tafa'ala.
Something that is going to increase or something
that is going to be associated with something
else for an outcome to occur.
So in chemistry they used the word tafa
'ala for two things to come together and
then have an outcome at the end.
That's kind of how the word, all the
derivatives kind of mean within this word.
So tabarakah meaning Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's
barakah.
Meaning Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's bounty, what
he offers, what he does, is increased in
its value from what you see and the
more you receive it and the more it
comes to you the better the outcome is
going to be.
So that's what tabarakah means.
Tabarakah allathee biyadeen mulk.
The one who sends you blessing.
A blessing that you think has a certain
value but is way more than what you
actually see it.
And when it comes to you and you
actually feel it or you embrace it or
you experience it, it ends up being more
than what you thought it was going to
be to begin with.
And that's how he describes himself subhanahu wa
ta'ala as tabarakah.
As one whose blessings are way more in
value and significance than you could ever even
begin to imagine.
And if you allow them somehow to affect
you the way they were designed to affect
you, you embrace them appropriately, then what they
will do for you is actually more than
you thought they could ever do for you.
And that's how he describes himself subhanahu wa
ta'ala at the beginning of the surah.
Tabarakah.
And he uses a verb.
Why?
Because verbs, in Arabic when you use a
noun-based sentence where, noun-based sentences have
perks.
They indicate something being stable, being very stable,
being a maxim, being a fact.
Verbs, they indicate things happening time and time
again.
Repetitiveness.
Things happening and then happening again.
So it's like a cycle, something's going on
and on.
So for example, if I were to say,
Malik la'ib.
The word la'ib means, it's a noun,
it's a player.
So Malik is a player, it's stability.
He's a soccer player.
That's who he is, it's always how he's
going to be.
It's his definition.
Or Malik hafidh.
He's memorized already.
It's something, I'm describing in a stable manner.
If I said Malik yahfidh, then Malik is
memorizing.
Malik yal'ab, Malik is memorizing.
He does it, then he stops doing it,
then he does it again.
It's an ongoing process.
If you use a noun, then it becomes
a description.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala didn't use
it as a description for himself, even though
you could.
He used it with a verb to indicate
that this happens time and time again.
Because it's not about him doing it a
lot, it's about you receiving it a lot.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is stable.
He does not change.
He does not need to do things time
and time again.
But you're the one who is living within
time, so you have to receive things time
and time again.
So use tabarakah to indicate that his barakah
is coming to you time and time again,
each time.
You are seeing it less than its actual
value.
There's more value to it than you saw
it, and then when you use it, you
will experience that increased value, and then he'll
do it again to you, and then he'll
do it again, and he'll do it again,
and he'll keep on doing it for you
subhanahu wa ta'ala, because he is tabarak.
That's why.
That's why he uses this term, subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
Because he doesn't have to use this term.
He could use the stable noun term to
describe himself as the ongoing source of value,
as the ongoing source of value, which is
underestimated by the one by the recipient.
But tabarakah is more beautiful, because it puts
you in the equation, because now you're a
part of the surah.
If he were to use the concept of
mubarak as the source of barakah, then he
removes you and me from the equation.
We don't matter anymore.
We're not there.
He is the source of ongoing value.
This value is blessed.
It continues to increase in its significance and
its weight.
So I'm removed from this equation.
When he says the word tabarakah, he brings
you and I in.
He brings us into the surah, into the
wording, into the sentence.
Now, I'm the one receiving all of this.
This barakah is coming, which is why, وَإِن
تَعُدُّوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ لَا تُحْصُوهَا If you try
to account for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's
blessing or blessings, you can't enumerate it if
you try to calculate it.
It's not calculable.
How do you calculate this?
In fractions, when you put a number on
top upon zero, what does it turn into?
Infinity, right?
A number upon zero.
It doesn't matter what the number is.
If I put one on zero, it's infinity.
If I put a trillion on zero, it's
infinity.
If I put a fraction, 0.5 on
zero, it's still infinity.
So, this is what barakah is.
I come from nothing.
I have nothing at all.
Never did.
I have no innate right of any sort.
There's no existence for me anywhere.
There's nothing that I can point out that
belongs to me on any level, in any
sense at all.
I'm coming from a background of literally zero.
So, put on top of that, anything Allah
gave me, it's infinite.
My owing is infinite.
The barakah is infinite because I had nothing.
If I had something and you gave me,
I can calculate.
If I have 100 and you gave me
300, I can say, oh, he quadrupled my
money.
That's the barakah.
I can assign a barakah to you.
I can assign a number to you.
You quadrupled it.
You timesed it by four for me.
I went 100 to 400 because you gave
me three.
But if I had nothing and you gave
me anything, how do I make the math?
There are ways, obviously, financial people can do
this, obviously.
But you understand where I'm going with this.
There's no way for me to, how do
I make this?
I can't numerate the barakah because I had
nothing.
I had nothing.
It's not one thing that he gave me,
or two, or three, or four.
Even the number is infinite.
Forget about the barakah being infinite.
Forget about going from zero to something and
that's infinite in its ratio.
The fraction is infinite, but the number of
things he gave me is almost infinite.
There's so many things I can count.
There's so many things I can think about.
Subhanallah.
I'm reminded of this every day.
When you work in healthcare, you're reminded of
that every day.
I run into people who can't eat.
They can't eat.
They have no appetite, they can't eat.
They've shriveled down to a quarter of their
previous weight.
A quarter.
There may be 50 kilos, there were once
40 kilos, there were once 150 kilos.
Shriveled down to nothing.
Because they can't eat.
Now everything functions, they just can't do it.
They can't enjoy a meal.
And if they try to enjoy a meal,
they barf it up, or it does not
get digested, or they can't keep it, or
they have to eat small amounts of food.
This is something that we don't think about.
We don't think about this as a blessing,
but it's a blessing that you're able to
eat, that you can stand up, that you
can walk, that you can think, that you
can go to the bathroom, that you have
a place to sleep, that you're loved.
There's someone in this world who loved you
at some point.
Someone inshallah still loves you now.
That you have someone to love yourself.
That you have friends.
That you live in a place where you're
not scared for your life at all times.
These are all things that are taken for
granted.
These are big deals.
Because you know them when they're taken away.
And that's what he means by tabaraka.
Because it's horizontal and vertical, the baraka.
It's not just in quality, it's also in
quantity.
So tabaraka, the one, it's a verb.
Saying may the blessing from the source of
blessing increase in the amount of bounty he
gives that is underrated by the recipient both
in quality and quantity.
That's what tabaraka means.
This is the sentence, this is the closest
I can get to explaining the word tabaraka
in an English sentence.
Because that's what he's saying.
May that one, may the source of all
these blessings, whose blessings are constantly and continuously
underrated both by quantity and quality, continue to
give.
He, the one, who's in his hand, subhanahu
wa ta'ala, is the dominion.
His mulk, which is the name of the
surah.
It's his kingdom.
It's his sovereignty.
He owns it all, subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Do you understand that as a part of
your relationship with him?
Go to the last surah of the Quran
and he talks about three things.
قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ النَّاسِ مَلِيكِ النَّاسِ إِلَٰهِ النَّاسِ
So you know about rabbi nas, the caregiver
of people.
And ilahi nas, the god, the worthy of
worship, the deity of people.
But then you have malik nas, the king,
the owner.
This is a piece that we have to
comprehend clearly.
There's an issue of ownership here.
You don't own anything here.
None of this is yours.
It never was.
It never will be.
And it even isn't really right now.
You're just handed over for a little bit.
Here, you're here for how many years?
Let's see.
Here, use this for a while.
Give it back please when you're done.
What am I talking about?
Your body.
Just give it back when you're done.
Send it back into the earth so that
it comes from mother earth and you can
go back to her.
You don't own it.
It's not yours.
You never did.
Nothing about you is owned.
Not even your spirit.
Not even your spirit.
فَنَفَخَ فِيهِ مِنْ رُوحِهِ You don't understand what
exactly this means.
It's a phrase in the Qur'an.
And it blew in Adam from his spirit.
That's the literal translation.
Transliteration of every word.
Of every single word into a sentence.
What it means, I don't know.
I don't know.
How?
No idea.
No one knows.
No one knows.
All I know is that the spirit that
exists inside me, through which I reason, through
which I am curious, and through which I
want to learn, and through which I think,
and I wonder, and I imagine, and I
generate plans, and I have compassion, and I
take care of people.
The spirit that allows me to do all
of these functions, and to wonder about wondering,
and think about thinking, and all these metacognitive
abilities, comes from this spirit that is a
part of Allah.
It comes from Allah.
How?
I don't know.
How do you explain this?
The theologians over the last 1400 years are
still arguing of how to actually word this.
How do we word this?
What is acceptable wording?
What's not acceptable wording?
I don't know.
I'm not throwing my hat into that domain.
It's too complicated.
They don't even know exactly what it is.
But what we do know is that the
Ruh itself does not belong to you.
It belongs to Allah.
The body is not yours.
The Ruh is not yours.
The Nafs is just whatever was born from
the body and the spirit coming together.
So once they are disconnected, it's going to
go away altogether.
It's going to cease to exist.
In his hand is the dominion.
He is the owner of me.
He owns me.
He owns everything about me.
I own nothing.
You don't like this phrase because it makes
us think of slavery.
But this is the reality.
I'm a servant.
I'm a slave.
I am owned by Allah.
He owns me.
Technically speaking, I can't even use the word
mistreatment or oppression when describing whatever he does
with me.
I can't.
How do I use that term?
No matter what happens, how could you use
the term Allah mistreated me or oppressed me?
In order for there to be oppression, there
has to be rights.
This is rightfully mine.
If you take it away, then you oppressed
me because we've established that this is my
right.
What are my rights with Allah?
What is it that I own?
What rights do I have?
Aside from what Allah has established for me,
with no pressure and no one to tell
him to do so, for him to on
his own decide that I'm going to give
you the following rights as far as our
relationship goes.
I'm going to allow for you 1, 2,
and 3 with me.
But no one can force him to do
that.
He has no reason to do it.
I can't do anything.
In order for there to be oppression, there
has to be a right.
If I am his property, then what exactly
am I?
It's not that my time is his property
or my wealth.
No, no.
Me, myself.
Me, my consciousness.
You could lose limbs, may Allah grant you
long life with good health.
You could lose a lot of your body,
but you still have a conscience.
You're still someone on the inside.
You may be scarred and traumatized and hurt,
but you're still someone.
See that someone on the inside that you
know yourself to be you?
Yeah, that belongs to Allah.
It's not yours.
It belongs to him.
So what exactly is it that I own?
Exactly.
And if you can take time and understand
this, then you've figured it out.
Then you don't need me to explain things
to you.
If you can really take time and comprehend
that, that I belong to you.
I am your property.
And Tabarakt, you continuously on an ongoing basis
shower me with blessings both in quantity and
quality that I underestimate and underrate and underutilize
and I'm not grateful for.
And I'm owned by you, then your relationship
with Allah starts to change.
You start thinking of things.
Just with these first four words of this
surah.
If you just understand Tabarakalladhee biyadihil mulk, you're
able to start your journey with your relationship
with Allah by understanding these are facts.
This surah is about information.
It's about knowledge.
These are facts.
This is knowledge.
This is the reality of the matter.
Everything that's coming to you in this world,
that is from the barakah of your Lord.
And He is the owner of all of
it.
He owns it all.
You own nothing.
You have nothing in your hand that He
wants and nothing that you want is not
His.
Anything that you want belongs to Him and
nothing that you have does He have any
interest in wanting because He only owns what
you have in your hand.
Not only does He own your hand, He
owns the consciousness that allows you to think
about what it is that you own.
Your understanding of the fact that you own
something, He owns that understanding.
The value that you use when you say
this is honesty.
The word honesty is a value.
He owns the value.
He made that value.
That's not a value external to Him.
When you talk about justice, justice is a
value created by Him.
It's owned by Him.
He is the standard of it.
When you talk about compassion and love, He
created the words and He set the standard
of the value.
It's owned by Him.
Even the values and principles that we live
by are owned by Him.
The emotions you feel are owned by Him.
He created them.
They don't exist externally to Him.
That's what بِيَدِهِ البُلْك means.
In His hand is the sovereignty, the dominion.
He owns it all.
I can't describe Him with anything aside from
what He describes Himself because He created all
of the descriptions.
What is علم?
What is knowledge?
Whatever definition you have, He made that.
The concept of learning, He created and gave
you the ability to do it.
Knowledge as a concept is owned by Allah.
So the standard of what is good and
what is bad and how to do it
and what's worth learning, it's all owned by
Allah.
He is the omniscient.
He knows everything.
Because knowing is owned by Him.
The idea of knowing something is owned by
Allah.
So for you to say, how does He
know?
What are you talking about?
What are you talking about?
How does He know what I'm going to
do?
Think before you speak.
Think.
How does He know?
What are you saying?
Knowing is a concept created by الملك.
What are you saying?
What are you doing?
He created knowing but you somehow...
No.
The idea of knowing something, for that to
exist, that I can know something and not
know something, He made it.
He put it there.
Here.
You can know things and not know things.
Here.
Enjoy.
How do you know?
He created the concept of knowledge.
You're going to ask how it is He
knows something and how He doesn't.
We're very good at arguing garbage.
We're very good at just making garbage arguments
and sticking to them and being clear about
them.
تَبَارَكَ الَّذِي بِيَدِهِ الْمُلْكِ That's what you take
from this beginning.
The One whose dominion, the sovereignty, the ownership
is in His hand.
His blessings continuously and consistently come to you
in an underrated manner, both in quantity and
quality.
That's what He's saying to you at the
beginning.
This is a fact that you have to
live by.
You have to live by understanding this fact.
The second fact.
وَهُمْ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ فَجِيلٍ And He is
capable of all.
He's explained to you so far.
He has told us that all things that
come to us in our lives, He is
the One Source.
We don't value them appropriately.
We significantly underrate them.
The second piece of information.
He is the King.
He is the owner of all.
المُلْكِ This word is used in an open
manner.
There is no association for it.
Ownership of what?
Of everything.
المُلْكِ General مُلْكِ Everything that can be owned,
He owns it.
The third piece of information.
And He is omnipotent.
وَهُمْ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ فَجِيلٍ He is capable
of doing all.
These are the first three pieces of information
you need to know about Allah.
When you speak about Allah, when you teach
about Allah, and when you walk on this
earth dealing with yourself and others, you need
to know these things about Allah because everything
you do is being watched.
تَبَارَكَ الَّذِي بِيَرِهِ مِن مُلْكُهُ وَهُوَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ
شَيْءٍ وَقَدِيرٍ Second ayah.
Forgive me if that took, this rate will
finish maybe when I'm 60.
But no, insha'Allah it won't be this
long.
The second, the third description.
الَّذِي خَلَقَ الْمَوْتَ وَالْحَيَةِ The third description, or
the fourth description, forgive me.
The One who created death and life.
I was just talking to you a moment
ago about how the values, the concepts were
created by Allah.
Another concept created by Allah.
Death and life.
The only way I know I'm alive is
because I'm going to die.
That's the only way I can know exactly
what it means to be alive.
Without death, life as a value would cease
to exist.
If death didn't exist, if everything alive just
lived, then life would be less valuable.
Almost non-valuable.
It would be completely indistinctive of death.
The only way life is a thing is
because there is death.
Because there are things that are not alive.
That's the only way we're able to actually
define life.
This is why we look at viruses and
say, what is this?
Because we can't define it.
Is it alive or is it dead?
With all of the advancements we have in
technology, in medicine, in biology, it's still very
simple.
It's either alive or it's dead.
I don't know what this is.
It's not really behaving in either way.
Obviously there are theories and there are problems.
I'm just saying that they still differ on
this topic and they talk about it a
lot.
So he's saying the One, the Creator.
The fourth description, the One who created.
Created what?
You're probably thinking, he's going to talk about
a bunch of other stuff he created.
But he starts with the simplest of things.
He created the concept of death and the
concept of life.
Because without those two concepts, what is this
going to be beneficial to?
How is this?
Think about this.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is speaking to
creations that are alive, whom he granted life.
But in order for him to grant them
life, he had to also create death.
So there's something to define it by.
There has to be a line to define
it by.
It's opposite.
Things are known by their opposites.
So he created death and created life so
that life could hear these words and learn
from them and appreciate what it means to
be alive.
Because he is the source of life and
he is the living.
He is the truly living, subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
So he created death and created life so
that you and I could be alive for
a while, appreciating the beauty of what it
means to be alive.
Because it's so short.
And if you do appreciate it appropriately and
you behave appropriately, then inshallah you'll be granted
something of an upgrade of it later.
It'll be upgraded, it'll be changed to something
a little bit different.
It's not exactly the same.
When the Prophet ﷺ talks about people in
Jannah, for example, and he explains what they're
like, it's life, but it's not exactly the
same life.
You don't go to the bathroom in Jannah.
You don't get hungry either.
Well, I don't understand that one.
I don't understand that.
The only way I understand life is there's
a biological system that is working.
There's a biological system that is functioning and
that's how life is.
So you're telling me in Jannah that's not
how this works.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, you don't get thirsty, you don't get
hungry, you don't need to go to the
bathroom.
So how you're alive is just a little
bit different.
It's a different thing.
See, he created death and life, so he
knows what life is.
You're just experiencing a fragment of what life
is.
Here's a small example.
Here's a really simple, simple form of life.
Here, you come from the soil of the
earth, you live for a while, you go
back into the soil of the earth.
Isn't that how it is?
If you zoomed out and looked at the
planet and there was like a time lapse
and you times it by like a million,
well, you'll see people coming out and coming
in, coming in and coming out.
Popped out, back in.
Popped out, back in.
People popping in units of other smaller human
beings, they get bigger, then they go back
into the earth again.
They do this, and that's it.
We're just popping in and popping out, popping
in and popping out.
So quickly, sometimes you can't even keep up
with it.
It's very simple.
It's a very simple form of life.
The fourth description that he gives you, the
fourth piece of information, الَّذِي خَلَقَ الْمَوْتَ وَالْحَيَاةِ
The one who created this experience of death
and life.
ليَبْلُوَكُمْ Now, this is a huge phrase within
the Book of Allah.
Huge phrase, very important.
You have to make sure you understand it.
There's a difference between ليَبْتَلِيَكُمْ and ليَبْلُوَكُمْ They're
not the same word.
ليَبْتَلِي is to test you, or to put
you to a test, or to trial you.
That's يَبْتَلِي.
I'm going to...
فَأَمَّا الْإِنسَانُ We're going to talk about this
in a lot of depth later on.
فَأَمَّا الْإِنسَانُ إِذَا مَبْتَلَاهُ رَبُّهُ Twice.
وَأَمَّا إِذَا مَبْتَلَاهُ رَبُّهُ We want to be
tested.
Here's wealth.
Here's a lot of it.
Here's less wealth.
I'm testing you to see what you're going
to do with it.
ليَبْلُوَكُمْ is a little bit different.
The concept of trial is still there, but
it's not really in the essence of I
created you with the intention of testing you,
or the reason is to just test you.
First of all, obviously this is from the
beauty of the linguistics of the Qur'an.
That's not what it means.
And الحمد لله, that's not what it means,
because that doesn't make a lot of sense
anyways.
I'm going to create you from nothing, and
my goal is just to test you.
Why would that be the case?
I was nothing, just leave me nothing.
Bring me out and the first thing, test?
No one wants that.
You go to school, the first thing, here's
a test.
I don't want to come to school.
I don't want this.
Why test?
No, it's ليَبْلُوَكُمْ To put you, لِبْتِلَا is
to test.
بَلَ, which is where this word comes from,
is to put you in situations.
Is to put you in different circumstances.
Is to give you scenarios.
Is to allow you space for you to
do things.
ليَبْلُوَكُمْ To allow you to do things, to
give you space to make decisions.
To come up with plans.
اَيُّكُمْ اَحْسَنُ وَعَمَلَةً He's going to give you
this opportunity, he's going to give you this
space, he's going to give you this ability,
and then you will, based on what you
do, you will rank based on how well
you do.
Like you'll rank yourself, like you'll be ranked
later on.
اَيُّكُمْ اَحْسَنُ وَعَمَلَةً Which of you have their
deeds, or their choices, or their behaviors were
closest to excellence.
Were closest, which is احسن, and I'm going
to talk about that separately, because احسن has
its own understanding.
But here, I need you to understand ليَبْلُوَكُمْ
It's not ليَبْتَلِيَكُمْ And they're different.
And you'll find this all the time.
اِذِ ابْتَلَىٰ اِبْرَاهِيمَ رَبُّهُ بِكَلِيمَاتٍ When your Lord
tested Ibrahim with certain كَلِيمَات, with certain commands.
He told Ibrahim do this, and Ibrahim had
to make a decision.
Ibrahim, your son, Ibrahim, your wife and your
son, Ibrahim do these things, Ibrahim had to
either succeed and pass the test or fail
it.
ليَبْلُوَكُمْ is different.
No.
ليَبْلُوَكُمْ is not to test you.
It's to give you space, where you can
make decisions, where you can choose certain things,
where you have different options in front of
you.
He created this experience of death and life
so that you have the ability to do
things.
Here, you can live.
Take that breath, open your eyes, look around.
Go ahead.
Start making some choices.
Start making decisions.
Do some stuff.
The surah is going to say this specifically.
The surah is going to actually say this
later on.
I'm giving you the introduction for what's exact.
Read it.
Read it just every night for the next
couple of weeks until we finish.
Read.
You will come to the conclusion of what
I'm explaining to you without you needing to
listen to me say it.
You just have to read it.
وَالَّذِي جَعَلَ لَكُمْ الْأَرْضَ ذَلُونًا فَمْشُوا فِي مَلَاكِ
بِهَا The same Surah will tell you.
Walk.
Just go.
Do things.
ليَبْلُوَكُمْ To give you the opportunity, the space,
the chance to do stuff.
And then for you to prove and to
show which of you are going to make
the best choices.
The choices that have the most excellence within
them.
Because you're offered this amazing deal.
You weren't around and He created subhanAllah death
and life.
And now you're alive.
And now that you're alive, you have this
ability.
You can make these choices.
All of these different options.
I can do A or B or C
or D.
I can do these things.
You understand that most creations can't.
Most creations, they can't do that.
Animals, they don't do that.
Their margin of choice is not significant enough
to be called.
Can you say that animals have freedom of
choice?
You can't use that phrase.
You can't.
Even though if I put food here and
there and I put a line in the
middle, it'll choose to eat this one first
or that one first.
But these aren't really choices.
It lives instinctively.
It lives based on its instincts.
You don't blame an animal for harming a
human being.
You don't blame a wild animal if a
child or a person falls into their cage.
You say, how dare you harm this person.
No, it's an animal.
You knew that was going to be the
case.
You're going to blame the security, you're going
to blame the person who was hanging from
the fence.
You're not going to blame the animal because
you know the animal has no choice, really.
It's living instinctively.
The malaika have intellect, don't have choice either.
They can ask questions.
They can pose, why are you doing this?
But they don't have the ability to object.
They can't disobey.
They can't not do what they're told to
do.
They don't have that option.
It's not a part of the option they
can choose from.
But you, no, you're different.
To give you this opportunity, which is what?
You're going to get to choose.
You're going to get to do whatever you
want, basically.
You're going to hear Allah say, do this!
And you're going to be able to say
no.
And that is absolutely terrifying to every living
thing and non-living thing within the universe.
But you can say no.
And you can do basically whatever you want
to do within the capacity of what your
body and the atmosphere and environment gives you.
But you have this margin of choice that's
just much wider.
So He created the fourth description of your
Lord.
He's a creator.
Where did He create?
The first thing that you need to know
that He created is life and death.
And you are now alive.
And He did that لِيَبْلُوَكُمْ to give you
this opportunity so that you can determine what
type of choices you're going to make.
If you think about it, not existing, being
مَيِّت, not being around, and then suddenly being
alive and having the ability to make choices.
The only appropriate conclusion, the only appropriate behavior
that you can have is to say, I
have to make sure I make the best
ones I can.
Because I don't know for how long I'll
have this right.
I don't know for how long I'll have
this opportunity.
And it was granted to me from nothing.
You didn't earn the right to choose as
an individual.
You didn't earn the right to be in
a position where you can choose أَحْسَنْ وَعَمَلَ
or أَسْوَأْ وَعَمَلَ Where you can choose behaving
with excellence versus behaving with the opposite of
it.
It's just لِيَبْلُوَكُمْ Here.
Go ahead.
And then you try.
You try things out.
And it's a beautiful experience.
Life is a beautiful thing.
It's an absolutely mesmerizing experience.
There's nothing that comes close to it.
The worst thing that can happen is death.
Even though there's so many...
There's agony and pain and there's suffering.
But when you're not there anymore.
If the person is still there, even if
they're just half there, at least you can
still say something to them.
You can communicate something.
But when they're not there anymore, خَلَص.
It's gone.
The enemy of the human being has always
been death because the most valuable thing the
human being has is life.
Because you're alive.
And he's telling you, I gave you this
opportunity.
أَيُّكُمْ أَحْسَنْ وَعَمَلَ Go ahead.
Figure something out.
I'm not done talking about this.
سبحان الله We'll continue this topic next week.
I hope that was a benefit to you.
سُبْحَانَ اللَّهُ وَبِحَمْدِكَ لا إِلَىٰ إِلَّا أَنْتَ أَسْتَغْفِرُ
تُوبُ إِلَيْكَ وَصَلَى اللَّهُ وَسَلَّمُ وَبَارَكَ وَعَظَّمَ عَلَى
النَّاسِ