Adnan Rajeh – Sunday Tafseer- 68 Part 1 Surat Al-Qalam- 1-7
AI: Summary ©
The speakers emphasize the importance of writing and memorizing words in building a habit and value. They stress the need for understanding and reciting certain concepts and values to create a habit and values, as well as finding one's values in a specific way for one's success. The transformation of people's courtney and impressions due to the shift from the third bullet to the fourth, including a man achieving great values and earned great fortune, lead to great personal growth and development, and protect one's values and reputation.
AI: Summary ©
From Qaf to An-Nas, and we have
made it as far We've actually completed half
of what we what I've set out to
to do and we're in the Third cluster
of surahs which is from Al-Mulk to
Al-Mursalat.
This is the 29th Juz' of the Quran
or the third group of surahs within the
Mufassal, within the comprehensive surahs, talks about the
requirements of Of carrying Islam.
Carrying it individually and carrying it to others.
It talks about what you need to have
in terms of Personal requirements and then talks
and gives examples in surahs of how to
perform da'wah and what works and what
doesn't work So the Juz' is very much
da'wah oriented But in the fashion of
you understanding as a Muslim that you're a
vehicle to spread Islam.
At the end That's why you're Muslim.
One of the main Reasons of accepting Islam
is so that you can actually be a
vehicle for others to find the guidance that
you have found Aside from you benefiting from
it yourself and practicing this deen and for
this deen to bring you that tranquility serenity
and clarity That people require and need in
their lives But also so that you can
you can help others find that which you
have found.
In order for you to do that There
are certain requirements which is what this Juz'
talks about basically from Al-Mulk to Al
-Mursalat.
And the first four surahs talk about the
The the requirements for the four main Categories
of being Muslim.
What you need in terms of your knowledge
and what you need in terms of ethics
or values what you need in terms of
Of your spirituality and what you need in
terms of your behaviors and that's Mulk, Qalam,
Haqqa and Ma'arij.
That's the four surahs.
So we concluded or completed Surah Al-Mulk
last week and Mulk Is a surah that
explained told us what we need to know.
Surah Al-Mulk is a Knowledge-driven surah
and it explains to us what it tells
us about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Tells
us about his attributes and his names and
what he created and what we're supposed to
do with that creation How we're supposed to
reflect upon it?
How we're supposed to grow from that and
what mentalities and attitudes we're supposed to actually
Develop from it and then the the final
outcome of ilm is hidayah, is guidance Which
is what the surah talks about at the
end of it and then it gives the
examples of how to Comprehend that and that's
what I summarized for you last week Today
or tonight, we're gonna start the second surah
in this juz' Surah Al-Qalam Surah Al
-Qalam talks about the requirements in terms of
ethics or values and it's it's I have
it's one of my favorite surahs for tafsir
It's the easiest one to explain It really
is it just it just flows and even
as I go through it You'll just kind
of see the you'll connect the dots.
You don't need me to really do much
work for it It's very simple in addition
to that.
It is an extremely early surah I told
you as well at the beginning of this
of this third cluster of surahs or this
this juz' from mulk to al-mursalat That
the majority of surahs in this cluster in
this juz' are early makki surahs And when
I say early I mean really early makki
surahs and mulk was an early one But
al-qalam by far is is one of
the earliest ones of all so most Scholars
of alum al-quran of the sciences of
quran will rank or sequence surah al-qalam
as as number two So they will point
out as ikra bismi rabbika alladhi khalaq to
be number one the first surah and al
-qalam to be the second And then after
that they point out al-muzammil al-muddathir
and that's surah al-fatiha And they have
different like different scholars will these five are
pretty much degree pretty much agreed upon amongst
the scholars of alum al-quran But they
sequence them differently the majority see al-qalam
to be right after ikra bismi rabbika alladhi
khalaq noon wa al-qalam yawma yasturoon It's
a very very early surah So some of
the things that we're going to hear within
this surah are things are things that the
that the prophet alayhi salatu wasalam And the
muslims heard for the first time Like they
had never heard these these phrases ever before
so it was their first Time like the
story in surat al-qalam is the first
story they ever heard in This the prophet
that's talked about in surat al-qalam is
the first prophet to be talked about in
the quran So there so everything in surat
al-qalam is very very early within the
experience Uh that the prophet alayhi salatu wasalam
and the muslims had with the quran in
general So it's a very very important surah
to kind of understand and comprehend.
Um And it talks about the uh the
requirements of values and ethics What you're like
you surat al-murid says here's what you
need to know know this Well comprehend it
reflect upon it so that it's clear to
you in terms of the information that you
carry it will define you And then surat
al-qalam says here's here your values here
your ethics.
Here's what you stand for Here's what you
stand for and that's really important obviously to
have and and we have the We have
similar surahs to surat al-qalam in the
quran if you go back to the bigger
ones But surat al-qalam is probably the
one that I find, uh the most Effective
when I when I explain it to people
so it's a very early surah and just
as a um, As as a kind of
a point for for reflection when you look
at what was revealed to him alayhi salatu
wasalam I mean at the beginning The first
six verse the first five verses that were
revealed to him you'll find within them six
times allah subhanahu wa ta'ala References knowledge
one way or the other right?
The first word read So six times
he references knowledge six times twice by the
command of read And read here is not
to recite the written text but read as
in reflect contemplate think Um gather knowledge.
That's what read means in arabic That's what
that's what the word means in arabic, even
though we use it commonly just for you
to recite something That's not what it means
in arabic in the linguistics It's actually much
more much more broad than that and then
he talked he uses the word which is
the tool of knowledge And then he uses
the word which is to learn or to
know And then he uses the word twice
and they use which is to teach so
he uses he references knowledge six times and
then The prophet alayhi salatu wasalam runs down
that mountain and he goes and he meets
uh, you know any uh, someone that khadija
takes him to learn to meet somebody who
was going to uh for the first time
in his in his uh in his prophecy
tell him what he was and who he
was and what his uh, Legacy was going
to be what his journey was going to
be because up to that moment Jibreel didn't
tell him anything.
Jibreel just said hugged him a couple of
times and left him Jibreel did not give
a a full Introduction to what was going
to come yet next so the prophet alayhi
salatu wasalam was very confused And rightfully so
because all he had were these words these
divine words of wisdom that he didn't know
Exactly where they came from what the purpose
of them was and what exactly was who
is it that he met?
And what was that creature?
So he didn't know these things.
He may have had Assumptions in his mind,
but he didn't know for sure.
So when he met someone, you know, which
is khadija's cousin He told him right he
told him all of what he was and
he broke down for him his life This
was going to happen to you over the
next 20 years.
This was going to and he and he
it was spot on What was his name?
Waraka is a paper.
His name was paper.
His literal name was paper.
I can't make this stuff up.
His name was paper, right?
Seventh reference of knowledge within within and then
the second surah is called the pen right
the pen so Yani, is there a message
here being?
Only if you don't want to see it,
right only if only if you're you know
You just don't want to see otherwise allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala Right at the beginning
of his life alayhis salatu was pushing this
concept of you are here to learn And
it's no coincidence that the qalam comes after
the surah that talks about knowledge So it
talks about and then comes right after that
And it starts teaching us about uh about
the ethics and values that we need to
carry and and the concept of the qalam,
you know, which is the pen, um is
is very important because We know the penmanship
by the way is getting is being lost
Penmanship any of you when they study they
have to write things down You have to
you have to write things down to memorize
things.
Yeah, that's that's actually very natural Uh typing
it doesn't help just so you understand like
if you type things in it doesn't stick
typing does not no it's writing things Uh,
any libyan brothers or sisters here in the
group?
Any libyans?
No subhanallah what happened to all the libyans
anyways Usually have a lot of libyans If
you ask if you ask libyan brothers or
somali brothers any somalians here or kenyans?
No, none, but we have to change the
format of this halaqa to to make sure
that they want to come here If you
ask them how they memorize quran in their
in their Countries or cities, uh, it's all
through writing The student goes and they would
write the verses and then you would write
them Right and they have the strongest hifidh
by the way Like amongst if you are
to compare the the strength and quality of
memorization, they just they're just better Memorizers than
all of us, you know, the memorizers from
libya Just they always win all the all
the big prizes Over because they write stuff
writing things down is how you is how
you reinforce them and not only in terms
of memorization No, no, no, which is why
I think this is important.
It's not just about memorizing I know for
sure that's going to be helpful when you
write things down, but in terms of allowing
a concept to sink in For concepts to
sink in you need to write them down
Sometimes multiple times sometimes you need to journal
them and read them a few times and
then write more about it For the concepts
if you want an idea to become a
value Then the qalam is going to be
something you're going to need you're going to
need the qalam You're going to need to
write and I tell people write stuff down
like journal No one listens to me because
everyone's busy, you know staring going through reels
But if you stop the reels for just
a minute and you pick up a pen
and just write down what it is that
you are Experiencing like what is it that
you're feeling?
How you understand something define it Structuring a
good sentence about something is half the work
in terms of building your ethic Like structuring
the sentence like what exactly it is that
you believe what you what exactly do you
stand for?
Well, hey, i'm someone who i'm honest define
that that's just a word It's just an
abstract word that's just floating somewhere in space
that you can't really hold on to because
Honesty is not something I can come and
show you here's here's honesty You can buy
it for no, the honesty is just an
abstract concept How do you make it something
that's meaningful to you?
You have to you have to allow it
to sink in so it becomes a value
It has to really sink in how it's
going to sink in you have to construct
a sentence That you you understand and that
you reflect upon and the qalam is you
write it down Write it down.
The only reason this book is here The
only reason obviously allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
his decree was for it to be uh,
Mahfuz for it to be uh for you
know Protected and and preserved but the reason
that it was protected and preserved like the
the method was that was written It was
written from the day from day one Sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam recited the quran as someone
was sitting there with a pen writing it
down They memorized it word for word the
sahaba There was over a thousand sahabi who
memorized the quran from beginning to end But
the reason that is preserved the way it
is the reason that 1400 years later Not
only do I have the same book, but
I have to I recite it the same
way down to the detail of every Annunciation
like down to where each the articulation point
of every single letter Down to every madden
every gunna i'm doing we're reciting it You
stand in salah after behind an imam and
you're hearing the quran the exact way Every
generation before you back to muhammad sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam listen to it now that to
me is is is miraculous And the miracle
of it is the pen because they wrote
it down at a time where pens were
not You're gonna go buy buy a pen
from a from a convenience store You had
to actually bring a like to have a
doa and hibari did actually get the ink
and they didn't have paper they had to
bring you know, bones and and pieces of
of wood and And thick thickened Palm leaves
and stuff like they had all these weird
things.
It was hard to come by something to
write on today papers Yeah, I mean there's
nothing you can get paper anywhere And of
course, we don't want to you know Cut
down more trees and I i'm not saying
that we should but I mean for you
to have a notebook Honestly is not going
to ruin the amazon forest.
You'll be fine Have it and write things
down and keep and when you write it
down keep on writing write down what it
is that you you you believe in you
so that you can actually structure for yourself
a Value i'm honest.
What does that mean?
That means?
I tell the truth I tell the truth
when it's specifically Uncomfortable to tell the truth.
I tell the truth when the truth is
going to get me in trouble I telling
the truth does not mean that i'm rude
and i'm blunt and that I don't respect
people's feelings and I go and say Something
to someone without really thinking it through and
making sure that it's the right point So
i'm constructing my understanding of of so you
can do that through reflection, but you really
wanted to sink in write it down Write
it down And not just that the the
the symbolism of al-qalam in this surah
is that these values are documented These values
don't change Right al-qalam.
They're written never heard the the prophet alaihissalam
says in his hadith I mean when he
talks about qada and qadar he talks about
his destiny and decree he says Al-qalam
The pens have been have been raised I
mean they've been held no one's writing anymore
And the ink is now dry on the
papers that they were written upon certain things
are set in stone.
They're written They're written we even use that
term it's written I mean it's going to
happen whether we like it or not certain
things are written amongst the things that are
written Are the values of this deen those
days don't those don't change Now not to
become not to uh get too distracted and
then make this the tafseer of this surah
take like three years But I do need
you to to um to understand the difference
between a value and a ruling of fiqh
And a ruling of fiqh.
They're not the same thing rulings of fiqh
are very Dynamic fiqh is a dynamic discipline
in general.
It's a discipline that is very uh, very
active.
It's very alive it it Responds to changes
in time and space it responds to differences
in people's circumstances and their norms and their
And their experiences the fiqh that I offer
someone who's been muslim all their life is
not the fiqh I offered to someone who
just accepted islam yesterday It's gonna be different
fiqh.
What's what's required of them is not what's
required of you.
Just like what?
What's required of you is not what's required
of someone living in a different part of
the world today Just like it's not the
same what was required of someone who was
richer than you sometimes or or Older than
you or more experienced than you or has
more status or control than you fiqh Is
dynamic values aren't values are extremely boring.
They're very they're they're sentence.
They're written.
They're very simple honesty trustworthiness loyalty Kindness empathy
these things they don't change doesn't matter If
I pluck you out of your environment today
and and and and move the time scale
and drop you in some other country a
Thousand years from now in in the past
or a thousand years around the future The
fiqh will be different and if you get
bothered by that Then you don't understand how
islam works Like if you're all bothered by
that then you don't understand how islam functions
What won't be different are the values the
values will be the same You'll still have
to be honest and kind and empathetic and
loyal and trustworthy and all those things will
never change because those are written That's why
that's why this surah is called al-qalam.
It's written.
It's not going to change These things are
set already.
There are details, right?
That's why this whole juzud doesn't have like
an ounce of fiqh in it I'm going
to recite from you for surat al-mulk
Until surat al-mursalat and I am going
to struggle to find like an ounce of
jurisprudence like to share with you a hukum
Like a hukum fiqhi.
There's none on the other hand when we
were reading over the last year in tahreem
It was all fiqh.
I think I spent maybe four weeks just
talking to you about the rulings that I
think are more specific People get upset.
Well, that's how our shaykh told you.
I know where does he live?
Where is he?
You want to listen to him?
Yeah, I want to go live with him
Go live there because that's he's giving you
the fatwa that works for where he's living
like he and that's how fiqh works It's
really not the scholars who have a problem
with fiqh.
It's the it's the receivers.
It's the general public We don't understand that
fiqh Opinions and fiqh are are dynamic based
on on on a lot of circumstances So
a shaykh sitting like i'm sitting here and
i'm talking about a specific fiqh I I
don't expect someone living in kuwait to listen
to me And if they are you should
turn me off don't listen to me go
ask your local scholar about the fiqh Don't
send me a message from from australia.
Oh shaykh.
I have a problem.
I don't care I go talk to the
shaykh there.
I can barely take care of problems in
my own city Don't take your ruling from
me.
I don't live in australia.
I have no idea what the muslim experience
is like there I don't know anything.
You know, there's a lot of sharks there.
I'm sure who's gonna be some some different
because of that Depending on circumstances things will
be different the values won't though You can
listen to any shaykh around the world talking
about the values of islam and you're safe
It's the same thing.
We won't differ.
I won't differ with a shaykh on on
honesty or on trustworthiness Or on then in
fairness and justice we won't differ on those
things We'll differ on whether you can wipe
on your furry socks or not because it's
an issue of fiqh It's just an issue
of jurisprudence Islam is designed to have different
opinions It's designed to have different ways to
interpret evidence evidence and offer rulings that makes
like people's lives easier values don't Values are
consistent They're constant They're not variable And they're
sentenced and they're written It's how they are.
They always be like that and these values
in surat al-qalam are very valuable Like
the values are very powerful uh the ones
that you find right at the beginning of
the surah and then the topics that are
talked about throughout the surah and the teachings
that this to me is one of the
I I I find it very difficult to
say that so I can't say I prefer
a surah over it But if you're not
listening to listen to this and if someone
doesn't Listen to tafseer in general surat al
-qalam if I have to choose one doesn't
do this one There's there's something in here
for everybody and it affects me and just
like it affects it affects it affects the
imam As much as it affects a born
old muslim as much as it affects a
new muslim Young or old or it doesn't
make a difference you all everyone needs to
contemplate and understand what values and principles and
ethics mean Right.
These are extremely important topics that people have
to fully comprehend So that's just a preface
for what surat al-qalam is going to
talk about um, we're going to start reading
it inshallah ta'ala you'll find it to
be a very a fun surah to learn
and there's a lot of a lot of
Reflection points inshallah.
So we'll start with ayatul qalam as page
number 564.
We're using a madani print of the mushaf
Bismillah So
you see the noon there with the little
cowboy hat on top the med it's six
counts All right So this one you make
for six counts and when you continue There's
no ghunnah between the the last the the
sound of noon at the end of it
and the wow, so it's noon So it's
a regular Give a normal noon, but you
count six counts when you're going through it
then and i've talked about these letters at
the beginning of of surahs multiple times in
the past and I'll quickly Uh, the reason
we don't know for sure.
This is this is the reality of the
matter We still don't really know for sure
Why allah subhanahu wa ta'ala put these
letters the way he did why he chose
certain letters and why he put them in
the beginning We don't we have theories and
the scholars have shared them over over time
and the and the most accepted theory or
the most accepted Explanation for them is that
it was a form of challenge It was
a form of challenge to the arab, you
know, is it are these not your letters?
Uh, oh, oh great poets and orators of
the land.
Go ahead make something similar If you can
are these did we bring enough a letter
that you didn't hear of did we change
your language?
We didn't so it was a it was
a form of of challenge to them wallahualam
I see them also as a form of
coding Is at the beginning at the beginning
of the surah all the surahs that begin
with letters have such things a certain thread
in common And i've talked about this in
other lectures Yeah, I mean i've went over
them and i'll do that again inshallah for
you But it's like there's some coding all
the ones that start with alif lam mim
have something in similar all the ones that
start with One letter noon qafsad.
Yeah, something.
So all the how i mean all the
ha memes are one big Lump of surahs
that you know group to have things in
common So it's like a little bit of
coding at the beginning of the surah for
you to it's like giving it another dimension
Just another attaching it to something else just
uh, yes, it exists It's an early surah
has every surah has three dimensions, right?
When it was revealed to the prophet alayhis
salatu was salam like a good early surah
So, you know you have an idea of
what his experience was and then where it
is in the quran Like where is it
in the quran early middle?
What's surrounding it in terms of surahs?
What group of surahs does it belong to
and then the third dimension is what it
does for you?
Like how you how you uh what you
learn from it?
What personal experience you have and then I
always say that these letters are like adding
a fourth And we don't understand what fourth
The fourth dimension is in general in life
and I don't think we figured out that
one yet for the quran Like what exactly
because I think that those letters are attaching
surahs together on a different In a different
way kind of putting them together clumping them
up in a different in a different manner
And that's just my two cents on you
know on the topic Foreign
So It's all with the fathat so be
careful when you're reading it's all Foreign
So that's the first paragraph in the surah,
so let's talk about this so And then
he makes an oath allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala never makes an oath, um uselessly or
without or without purpose or aimlessly we when
we make an oath, we just Swear by
allah subhanahu wa ta'ala by allah and
you can maybe use one of his names
Or as the prophet would do it often.
He would say I swear by the one
who carries my my spirit in his hand
meaning at any moment.
He can take my life, right?
but at the end you're just you're just
uh Making an oath by allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala in the quran allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala takes oaths by many of his
creations and he's He is obviously He does
what he does what he wants and he
speaks as he as he wishes subhanahu wa
ta'ala But he makes oaths and the
things he is swearing by are attached to
the content Because not just uh, you you
can't ignore what he what he took an
oath by no He takes an oath by
something and even in the oaths that he
takes he tells a story And i'll share
this with you very soon because we'll recite
We're gonna have a lot of these examples
coming up and each of them and all
of these examples are very like i'll spend
a full session just talking about the oaths
because he's He's he narrates a story subhanahu
wa ta'ala and he draws a picture
and he shares with you subhanahu wa ta
'ala information Just through the oaths before he
even tells you what the oath is about
And when you make an oath, there has
to be an answer.
I swear if I tell you I swear
it by allah and then I walk away
He's like Something wrong.
Yeah, his upper deck is not functional.
What is it?
I swear you swear about what is it
that you want to say?
In arabic you need the the oath and
then the answer to the author the content
of the oath.
So the quran The oath itself is valuable.
It's it's meaningful and you should take time
and and here the oath is by the
pen He swears I swear by the pen
and I swear by yes What they write
in those lines what they what they write
in straight lines I swear by the tool
Of knowledge and I swear by the knowledge
that is going to be written down.
What people write and you there's like three
or four different ways for you to understand
this and I think the the one that's
the easiest to understand is Is your behaviors
what you do in your life the choices
that you make As you make those choices
as you decide what you stand for and
what you live by and what your values
are When you do that you are writing
it You are but you don't see it
But you are writing it each and every
one of us every single moment of our
lives.
We are writing our books You're writing a
book right now.
You're writing a novel You're writing a novel
and you get out you stand up after
a lot of action you leave You're adding
to that novel what you do when you
go home adding to that novel and that
novel at the end You have to read
You have to stand there and read openly
and allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will listen
to your recitation And if you're unlucky, there'll
be other people listening to it, too If
you're very if allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
remove you sit there then other people will
be standing there beside you listening to you
Read the novel that you wrote so Wallahu
alam this that the oath here allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is swearing by the By
the pen that writes the destinies that writes
the decrees that writes people's choices and people
people's decisions people's lives He swears by what
people are writing Not necessarily but with their
penmanship, but through their their values and ethics
and decisions that they make in their lives
You're writing all that down Every moment you
and I are doing this we are writing.
We are writing our you are shaping your
destiny and you're writing your story So choose
what what what type of story do you
want to read?
Like we all get a movie a free
movie.
It's not going to be a Blockbuster it's
not going to be in hollywood, but you
get a movie in your life And you
and you're going to you're going to act
it out.
You're going to read out your book and
it's going to be acted out It'll be
visualized and heard as you read your story
as you read the novel that you wrote
the What was what you you wrote this
down?
You wrote that all every line is you
no one there You know editors and there
were no people who reviewed the this is
just what you did And then anytime there's
any clarification that is needed it'll be presented
It's for you to watch and you can
see what you did and how you how
you did it and what you were thinking
at The time either the dimensions of it
will be even more Intense than anything you
ever seen before because not just what you
did But why you didn't what you thought
at the time and what you were hoping
to achieve with it.
All that is going to be there So
that's what he's he's taking an oath by
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
I swear by the pen the pen that
not only You are using to write your
own story and it is recording everything that
you're doing everything being recorded also the pen
that was going to be eventually the secret
ingredient for for for human history to change
What changed human history was documentation?
It's documentation When people start to document things
start to write down their knowledge write down
their experiences write down what they did And
they preserved all of that We Started to
grow as a race You realize that we
only have 10 000 years worth of human
history documented And when I say 10 000
years the first yeah, I mean the first
maybe 8 000 were very scarce Like the
documentation of the first 8 000 that we
have.
It's very very scarce The documentation actually is
maybe picked up a little bit The thousand
years after that but then really used the
last thousand years It was the last maybe
1500 years that that the documentation picked up
And once documentation picked up and everything was
being was being recorded the human race was
able to take humongous steps forward in every
discipline because It was easy now to build
upon things you just looked at what the
guy before you wrote you read it Now
you lived someone else you took the zubda
you took the uh, yeah the essence of
someone else's life Not someone else's life, but
maybe a full empire Here here's the experience
of a full civilization how they rose how
they maintained and how they fell In four
hours, you learned that now you don't have
to go and waste for you know for
500 years doing this It's already been done
before Only in the last 1500 years they
started doing this if you want to think
about this a little bit more like go
back And and look things up Tell me
what books do we have from the fifth
century a.d You can you can wikipedia
it like anytime you use what books were
written that we still have today Or the
fourth or bc like we obviously we have
i'm saying we have documented history from last
10 000 years But really the first 9
000 Is very simple stuff.
We don't have a lot because we don't
have a lot of information from those first
A couple of millennia we just don't I
mean the work of socrates and the work
of like these are very simple It was
the last thousand years and it really boomed
and i'm saying this because if you want
to look at this historically The boom of
documentation happened in the islamic in the islamic
era It was the muslims that started to
document stuff like heavily It's the muslims that
went to every library that existed in persia
And in the roman empire and in the
greeks and they took what they wrote and
they translated it and they added to it
And they did shuruhat and they did hawashi
and they did ta'liqat meaning the muslims
they used to call aristo al muallim al
akbar the great teacher muslim used to call
this Yeah You can call him an atheist
I guess aristotle, but he wasn't really an
atheist.
He was more of a naturalist He still
believed in some force behind things.
He just didn't know exactly what it was
They took his work and they translated and
they explained it and they put their own
Work up on top of it and they
and they and they and human human history
and human knowledge and human experience was Was
being preserved and documented instead of muslims going
into a country and burning their legacies They
they held on to it and they learned
from it and they added to it And
that's the qalam.
It's the movement of the penmanship that is
penmanship that changed things as documentation That allowed
muslims to grow and to become what you
know what islam became and and for the
any modern Industrial revolution and technological revolution to
actually occur the way it did and and
if as a muslim if you if you
don't fully understand Then I advise you to
read a little bit more into the history
of it all because it's not that difficult
like it's not like i'm telling you things
where I had i'm I'm, not lying to
you or speaking I'm, not making things up
as I go along.
This is very simple.
Like this is almost undisputed information That they
don't like scholars from any background and scientists
don't really dispute this basic This this basic
piece of information that the muslims in their
In their golden years the first thousand years
of our history was very heavily based on
knowledge spreading and that was used to penmanship
Redocumented that's how the hadith exists We would
have lost the prophet's life if not a
century and a half later.
They decided to start to write stuff down
the quran is Yeah, and he preserved And
he precisely in detail with with not one
with everything being exactly the way it was
because we wrote it from the first day
Hadith we have because it was written 150
years later So we have some discrepancy in
some of the things that we're reading there,
but it's because people wrote stuff down I
mean the the narrators of hadith if they
didn't have their books written They threw their
hadith out like if a narrator lost his
uh, His diaries or lost his his plates
that he wrote stuff on or they got
burnt or something I mean, there's a lot
of examples that their hadith became life Even
though the man is a is a scholar
a great scholar of his time Yeah, but
he lost his uh what he wrote so
he's gonna make mistakes he's gonna forget certain
details and we don't want that We want
things that are precise So anyways allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is making this oath by
the pen And of course, there's a lot
of you know, profoundness and why he would
do that What is the what is the
answer to the oath?
I swear by the pen and I swear
by all that which they are writing man
to be You are not Through the grace
of your lord.
So there's there's again two ways to understand
this verse Is the blessing of or the
bounty of your lord So you you are
not you are not you are not by
the grace and blessing of your lord Be
majnun.
You are not mad Majnun is insane is
insanity.
It's a loss of of Of intellect or
more conscious.
I mean, it's not a lot of consciousness
But but the ability to be to be
there right and to be to be an
intellectual So that's one way of understanding you
are not by the blessing of your lord
be majnun as someone who has lost their
mind You're not that another way of understanding
Which is what I think is a better
way of understanding is he's saying man You
are not as you spread this blessing of
your lord.
So the the the um Propositions in arabic
They have multiple usages and it really depends
on on the context for us understand Why
how they're being used?
So what the better way of understanding this
ayah in my opinion how I understand it
in linguistic in arabic You are not Through
your spreading of this blessing of your lord,
which is the quran be majnun You're not
mad as you do this or because you're
doing this You shouldn't be called mad because
you are spreading this deen or that you're
teaching the quran Even though that's what the
the people of quraish when they heard him
say this called him like the first description
Negative description of the prophet alaihi salatu wasalam
the day The the idea of islam being
a thing of him being a prophet or
having was majnun Was that he was insane
He was mad because they didn't call him
anything.
They didn't dare call him a liar because
they knew him too Well, that wouldn't have
slid that wouldn't have that wouldn't have worked
They called him a liar.
It would do the people will say no.
No, what are you talking about?
You're a liar.
He's never lied.
We all know him, but we know you
Like if someone dared to call him a
liar Then they would just be called a
liar back because no no everyone knows the
number of times you've lied But we we've
known him for 40 years and he has
yet to say a lie And that's hard
by the way, and we're going to talk
about that That's so that's almost like I
don't think people really really fully Appreciate what
that means for you to be 40 and
all those who are close-knit close to
you know, you Yeah, you've never lied and
are actually able to to articulate that.
I mean they're willing to to testify to
it I know you're you're you you don't
lie, you know Because that's a that's a
big deal because most people at some point
if you pinch them hard enough or you
put them in a difficult Situation they will
you know, they'll slide one through They'll they'll
get one by you.
It's just it's just how it happened But
the prophet alayhi salatu wasalam, he just never
did and that requires a certain personality type
and also certain experiences For people to witness
in order for them to be actually to
be able to testify to that.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is denying
for the prophet alayhi salatu wasalam what they
called him Which was be majnoon that you're
insane.
You are not through the grace of your
lord as you spread this blessing Through the
blessing of your lord or as you spread
this blessing that I gave you you are
not insane Indeed You are what is waiting
for you.
Let me what you get or what we
have for you Is indeed a a reward
That you will not be that will never
end And mamnoon, there's two ways again to
understand it actually three ways means that Not
only does it not end but you will
not be continuously reminded of all of your
life You see if you're given if I
give you a gift, but every time I
see you I say hey Remember the gift
I gave you he's still enjoying the gift
After the third time you'll bring the gift
and say it's Take your gift and just
don't give me every ever again.
That's called Don't ruin your By continuously reminding
people of your bounty upon them and then
harming them and by reminding them that they're
poor Like don't do don't remind people of
your bounty upon them or remind them of
their difficult situation So mamnoon is that is
that where you are being reminded allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala anyway, he talks about reward
This is the beautiful beautiful part in the
quran where allah talks about reward he doesn't
just talk about the physical aspect of it
to find out like he doesn't just talk
about the The magnitude of the reward and
the quality of it from a physical perspective
financial perspective and social He talks about it
from a psychological perspective like he he focuses
many times in the quran that psychologically you're
going to be happy I I will give
you this reward and I won't continuously remind
you of it every single day.
Hey, my servants Remember my reward I gave
you maybe no he allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala will make you feel Yeah, he will
make you feel that somehow you deserved your
reward as long as you enter jannah not
feeling that way As long as you enter
jannah with clarity that you did not deserve
this So this was allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala's bounty upon you upon you when you
enter jannah He will continuously convince you that
no, no you did.
Well, that's why you get this you were
good You were very good.
You deserve all of this.
Why just so that the reward is complete?
So not only do you have it, but
you feel like yes, i'm good Like I
I because if you feel like yeah I
if you're given something and then the constant
reminder is that you didn't really deserve this
you're not worthy of this How much do
you really enjoy it?
Like that makes you don't really enjoy it
Yeah, you can drive the car But if
it continues to remind if you if you
achieve a certain degree of success, but people
around you knew you're a cheat Yeah, then
you can't really enjoy it because people won't
really you know Allow you to to enjoy
the fact that you did that and you
keep on reminding you that you cheated to
get there Or you didn't deserve this.
This is not yours.
So maybe you're you're you're taking some perks
of it, but the full Yeah Range of
the reward is not there because there's things
so mamnoon is where you feel that someone
is reminding you of how you don't Deserve
this and how they gave it to you
without full.
Yeah, I mean you didn't fully Earn this
he says Your your reward indeed We will
give you a reward that you will feel
at no point that you didn't deserve it
or that you Yani should have been given
less.
No No, you will feel very you will
feel the the beauty of it the happiness
of it We will give it to you
and you will feel uh that you earned
it Even though you you will know that
you didn't that make sense So that's the
and that's why the word is repeated in
the Quran a couple of times It's a
beautiful thing.
It's a beautiful concept like scholars don't want
so you'll find if you go to a
tafsir As uh, anyone having looking at a
translation right now For that word, how is
it translated?
Anyone have a translation that's looking at translation
right now?
How is it translated?
Most translation will be everlasting or never ending
or something like that Uninterrupted yeah, so so
this is actually it's probably mustafa khatabs, uh,
who did that because he's a smart guy
So sometimes so most most of early translation
will be unending because it's easier and it's
just like one word and people can learn
But really the meaning of it is what
I explained to you is that you are
not subject To being reminded that this was
beyond what you deserved Right, and that's but
that's a sent a full full mouth sentence
and it's a headache So just an ending
it so a lot of the words in
the quran are very precise in what they're
trying to explain and the focus here on
the psychological is on the psychological aspect of
of your joy in jannah that you're going
to Feel that this was something that you
were given and you did a good job
for it And then and then The third
so he so the answer for this one
oath is three things.
Number one.
You are not insane You are not insane
You're not mad through the grace of your
lord through the blessing of your lord and
what you are spreading You are not insane.
Number two.
You will be rewarded for this a reward
that you will never feel Any pain throughout
or or difficulty with or or lack of
joy with and then indeed Indeed and this
is one of the It's a central verse
in the entirety of the quran probably Every
muslim on the planet has heard it before
and thought about it and indeed The linguistics
here are very very precise Means a great
ethic or great character Means ethics Al-akhlaq
or ethics khuluq is an ethic or a
value right values and ethics are pretty much
the same thing Ethics is just the manifestation
of a value, right?
The value is kindness the ethic is me,
uh holding your hand when you fall or
opening the door for you or Patting on
your back when you're in pain, right?
That's the ethic the ethic is the manifestation
of the value how it how the value
presents itself in in real time The value
is just one word it's empathy and then
empathy is gonna be different depending on who
you're dealing with and what their problem Is
and you know what capacity you carry?
So all that will kind of define how
empathy is going to present itself But that
presentation that manifestation is is what we call
ethics that's one way that's one way philosophers
explain this others say that values are for
individuals and ethics are for Communities, that's another
way And honestly, however, you and if you're
a sociologist or a psychologist and you're offended
because I said the one that you didn't
like It's just it's what there are different
ways of understanding this topic, but it comes
down to the same essence at the end
So allah emphasizes by saying and indeed all
muhammad's talking to him You are ala and
use the word ala ala is on right
or upon That's how we translate or translate
the word ala in arabic So if you
if you transliterate this, yeah, or you translate
it even simplistically Indeed, you are upon A
great ethic or great ethics or you're on
And it doesn't really work in english.
It sounds weird because that's not The reason
that he uses ala subhanahu wa ta'ala
here is because The way we the arabs
saw ethics Is as if it's a foundation
they saw ethics and values as being a
foundation that you Used to stand on like
it's as if you were not going to
be able to stand up straight with your
head held high Unless you had a very
solid foundation of ethics So whenever they use
the word ethics they would always use ala
because it's figuratively almost it's drawing a picture
if it's illustrating something for you in your
mind figuratively as if your your values and
your ethics are your Foundation and you are
standing upon them and they're allowing you to
to see farther and to hold your head
high And to be someone who is is
is rooted.
Well, like because you have a strong foundation.
You're not going to fall off You're not
going to fall over.
You're not going to lose your your footstand
because you're upon a great set of ethics
So that's what how allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala described his habib You are you are
standing upon a great foundation of ethics even
before islam Before islam before He became a
prophet.
He had great character.
He had great ethics great values It's because
he had those values allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala chose him for prophecy.
You think allah subhanahu wa ta'ala chooses
Some random hooligan become a prophet.
No, he's going to choose someone who's who
has impeccable ethics impeccable values Because it's not
doesn't work any other way.
Islam only works for you if you have
good ethics if you I mean There's a
hadith in bukhari's collection Where the and it's
in others as well where the prophet says
People Madden are is a is a is
a mineral That's what madden means like iron
and and and and you know, I mean
Aluminum and whatever and copper and stuff like
that.
So when he's saying that people are made
Of certain essences like it's like they're made
of different minerals on the inside, right The
best people the people with the best ethics
in jahiliyya the best people who lived in
jahiliyya Will be the best people as muslims
if they learn the deen Like if they
if they accept islam and learn islam, they'll
be the best If you are the best
before islam, you'll be the best if you
accept islam And if you if you kind
of if the person sucked before islam unless
they Learn islam and then they allow islam
to transform their ethics Meaning you learn from
islam the ethics the values like you take
in the values and that takes time by
the way Then you won't do as well
The person won't do as well because they're
coming to islam.
They learn to pray.
They learn to fast They learn to pay
zakat they learn but if they've always lied
and they've always you know cheated and they've
always stabbed Backstabbed and gossiped and this then
these are values that they will have It's
going to take them longer because they're going
to have to go back and let islam
Reteach them all of their values and most
people don't do that Most people give the
shahada like back in there and then they
just continue their lives and it took a
long time It took a long time for
the prophet.
He saw something to change people's essences But
those who had good ethics at the beginning,
they accept islam immediately.
That's why I said the ankhutab was six
years late It didn't matter Right didn't matter
When you think about it out of 23
years, you're six years late You're more than
25 percent of the time.
Yeah, you more than 25 percent of the
time.
You weren't there.
There's a lot That's that's a significant amount
of time for you not to be there
How did our khattab be six years late
and then?
It transformed that the prophet alaihissalam came and
awabakar and umar were with him He left
and awabakar and umar were with him He
was standing and awabakar and umar were standing
beside him and he's buried right beside him
to the prophet alaihissalam And he's the person
who carried the the legacy and the baton
after awabakar to the point where islam really
didn't Become what it became except during his
time.
So he's one of the central pieces of
of our deen Well, how did he achieve
that he was six years late?
Because he had great values from the to
begin with he just had it He just
had to wrap his head around the theology
like he just had to accept islam Once
he accepted islam, he was already prepared like
he had all the right tools, right?
He had everything all the setup was there
He had all the right values and ethics
once he accepted islam It was just it
was a he had a turbo on he
was going to get ahead of everybody He
did he was way ahead of people and
no one felt weird about it.
No one's like well You came in late
and no no No, everyone like yep.
No, he's he's a special guy And we
are lucky he accepted you understand like when
you go to the books of sirah There
is like a commentary in every book every
single book i'm talking about the older ones
Some newer ones may not have them But
i'm talking about al-waqidi bin ishaq and
ibn hisham and like these people who wrote
the early seerahs They had they would have
like a chapter in year six where they
talk about an incident and the incident is
Hamza accepting islam and umar accepting islam Like
there's so many people accepting islam They don't
have like there's no there's no chapter to
point out islam fulan and islam fulan because
whatever Oh here the rest of the people
accepted islam you find them listed in the
books Like and in this year these people
accepted islam and one two, three, four, five
six I've just names but then for these
two people specifically it's a chapter that they
are this year Two people what's the big
deal?
Oh, it was a big deal.
It's a big deal Because of the values
that hamza and umar had they were people
of great character great character They accepted islam
and that just made them You know, they
became role models and leaders and because they
had great character.
It's your character.
It's your ethics.
It's your values that will Define what type
of muslim you're going to be in your
life And and without those pieces without that
piece.
There's yeah Oh, yeah You you're telling me
you've never run into a muslim who?
lies Who cheats who you know who takes
haram?
But You want to be may allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala protect us and protect everyone
we love inshallah And it is not the
point of this is not to gossip or
say to backstab or say bad things about
people But we've seen it's there right?
Sometimes you accept this time when you pray
Sometimes I see people praying the first uh,
first off I worked with them Like I
I I dealt with them financially and I
would uh, I would not only not do
it again I I tell people don't don't
do it Like and they they pray in
the first line and they have the long
and everything but it doesn't matter If you
don't have the right values then it's not
going to go very far for you That's
why I think this you can see that
this surah is going in that direction, right?
The prophet is being we're established for us
You are standing on a foundation of great
ethics and no one in the quran has
ever been Complimented On their ethics like him
alayhis salatu wasalam like a lot of compliments
other Prophets and sahaba and stuff, but this
is the The highest accolade that anyone can
get where allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Declares
that you have great ethics.
You have great values.
You are of great character Why so he
establishes for us right off the bat learn
from him Watch him and learn Observe and
learn because this is you need a role
model.
There you go.
He has great great ethics and great behaviors
and great values So allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala tells the prophet alayhis salatu wasalam You
will see tobser is to see right basar
is is eyesight You will see and they
will see too.
He's talking about the mushrikeen, right the disbelievers
You will see and they will see Which
of you Is which of you the one
who has been confused by the By the
events or the one that has been tested
and failed their test Al-fitna is a
word in the deen that it means a
heavy trial that can throw you off your
your mark That can that can shake your
foundation.
That's what a fitna is a fitna is
not That's when it's coming from allah when
you cause it that means you caused a
state of confusion That ruined people's lives, but
when you get maftoon when you have a
fitna That means allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
gave you a test that shook your foundation
that shook who you were And we're just
talking about foundation a moment ago So which
of you was trialed and lost their footstand?
Lost who they were or lost their identity
or were not able to hold on to
who they were.
You'll find out the quran is very is
very um The etiquette of the quran here
is and I talked about this a number
of times before not to bore you But
the etiquette of the quran here is very
impressive.
The quran is saying Fine You guys don't
believe him, but no worries.
Don't believe him You will see a muhammad
and and you will see or mushrikeen both
of you will see very soon be a
you can which of you was Trialed and
and failed the trial and which of you
didn't time will show time will prove values
and ethics are Don't worry that that time
will expose that don't worry about that Like
if anyone if anyone hurts you Anyone cheats
you or lies to you or mistreats you
or something.
Don't worry about that too much Don't worry
time will expose them.
That's off I guarantee you before they leave
this earth They will have the reputation that
they deserve People will know about them what
they should need to know about them So
if you're like, oh they did this to
me and everyone thinks they're good and you're
upset.
Don't worry.
Don't worry So You will see and he
will see they'll all see it'll all be
very it'll make a time will take care
of this No one no one will go
through life without life exposing their values your
values will be exposed So that's why this
is so important.
So figure out what they are because the
time because it will it will come out
There's no there's no way there's no way
that you go through life and your your
true colors who you really are what you
stand for does not Come to the surface.
They will for sure time will take care
of that piece That's why I don't worry.
I don't worry about people who harm me.
It doesn't matter Don't worry.
If they're a good person, then they'll continue
to be good.
Then this will be a fluke A mistake
they made allah will forgive them and i'll
be compensated and if they're bad people, I
don't have to worry Goats around comes around
it'll all it'll all come out Patterns can't
you can't hide patterns forever You can't hide
patterns forever At some point you get unlucky
And it'll come out And there's a nice
story that i've always thought was uh was
cool.
Just showed a certain degree of wisdom Where
a man was caught stealing?
Red-handed And was brought to the khalifa
Then he started saying He started to swear
i've never done this before He started to
swear.
This is the first time i've never touched
anything Held him from his shoulder So Allah
would never have exposed you from the first
time Be honest with me I've been stealing
since I was five.
I've this has been No, it doesn't happen
that way You don't make one mistake and
then it all comes out like but again,
don't judge people if they get exposed just
understand i'm not teaching you to See someone
who got exposed for something and then judge
them.
They must have been doing this for a
long time I'm just teaching this for your
own self for your own sake That patterns
cannot be hidden forever If you do something
cyclically, it's always going on.
It's going to come out at some point
if you're always lying You're not going to
get it at some point.
You're going to be exposed if you're always
whatever it is You're doing whatever your values
are Eventually, they're going to be exposed eventually.
They're going to come they're going to come
to the surface and going to be clear
to others That's why the quran says this
Oh muhammad, you will see and they will
see Which of you is the one that
was Trialed and lost themselves in the trial
like which of you was tested and lost
themselves and lost and failed the test And
didn't hold on to their values.
It'll be clear.
Don't worry about it And then this verse
is the verse after it is to is
to solidify this this belief in Indeed your
lord He is more knowledgeable, he's the most
knowledgeable about which of them which of you
Those who went astray from his path He's
the most knowledgeable of those of you who
are guided The quran doesn't want to get
into an argument with the disbelievers.
No.
No, we're not going to claim something We're
saying muhammad has great ethics and great values,
right?
And time will tell You guys do your
thing and he will do his and time
will show which of you was correct Which
of you was was held on to their
values and which of you lost them in
their fitnah?
And indeed your lord is the one who
knows best Which of you was gone astray
and which of you is guided like allah
knows the guided amongst you and the misguided
he knows that But let time show it
that time and time showed it.
Oh did not the time not show it
1400 years later going strong We still we
still Spend All of our lives trying to
learn from him trying to emulate his his
character trying to listen to his Watch him
behave and try to be like him until
this day a millennium and a half later
just trying to why because because true values
Solid ethics those are undeniable.
They're you can't you can't get away from
them and weak ones.
They're they're they're futile They're fall.
They're fragile.
They'll get rid of And they got forgotten
they're just the only reason we know about
them is because they they stood against him
Otherwise, they don't matter They don't mean anything
because they didn't they didn't have that didn't
have that that strong character that he had
And that's why the quran doesn't that's why
values you don't need to argue.
You don't have to explain to me your
values You don't have to explain anything.
Don't worry.
We'll see it It's coming.
You're writing the book.
Well, you're writing your book.
You're writing your novel.
Don't worry You're writing down what your values
are you're It's gonna be very clear at
the end.
It's gonna be very difficult No one remembers
what do what you what possessions you had
at the end of your life or what
you owned or what house you lived In
or what degrees you carried people will remember
other things about you You'll be remembered in
terms of the values that you carry in
the ethics that represented you that's what's going
to stick around That's what people are going
to hold with them And that's what's going
to be used to testify on your behalf
or against you.
I mean, that's it And that's why these
verses that's why the quran always when it
comes to value like no, no, let them
Go ahead.
We'll do our thing you do your thing
Time will tell and time always does and
with that inshallah ta'ala and we'll continue
the next paragraph next week